The Real Robert Burns Part 9

So the poem proceeds, till he appeals to King Alfred, and finally to Caledonia:

Alfred! on thy starry throne, Surrounded by the tuneful choir, The bards that erst have struck the patriotic lyre, And rous'd the freeborn Briton's soul of fire, No more thy England own!

Dare injured nations form the great design, To make detested tyrants bleed?

Thy England execrates the glorious deed!

Beneath her hostile banners waving, Every pang of honour braving, England, in thunder calls, 'The tyrant's cause is mine!'

That hour accurst how did the fiends rejoice, And h.e.l.l, through all her confines, raise the exulting voice!

That hour which saw the generous English name Linkt with such d.a.m.ned deeds of everlasting shame!

Thee, Caledonia! thy wild heaths among, Fam'd for the martial deed, the heaven-taught song, To thee I turn with swimming eyes; Where is that soul of Freedom fled?

Immingled with the mighty dead, Beneath that hallow'd turf where Wallace lies!

Hear it not, Wallace! in thy bed of death.

Ye babbling winds! in silence sweep, Disturb not ye the hero's sleep, Nor give the coward secret breath.

Is this the ancient Caledonian form, Firm as the rock, resistless as the storm?

He loved to stir the liberty-loving spirit of his beloved Caledonia, so to her sons he makes the final appeal in his great ode. He wrote in a similar strain in the Prologue written for his friend Woods, the actor:

O Thou dread Power! whose empire-giving hand Has oft been stretched to shield the honoured land!

Strong may she glow with all her ancient fire!

May every son be worthy of his sire!

Firm may she rise with generous disdain At Tyranny's, or direr Pleasure's, chain; Still self-dependent in her native sh.o.r.e, Bold may she brave grim Danger's loudest roar, Till fate the curtain drop on worlds to be no more.

He reached the highest degree of patriotic fervour, and his clearest call, not only to Scotsmen, but to all true men, to be ready to do their duty for justice and liberty, in 'Bruce's Address at Bannockburn.'

In a letter to the Earl of Buchan, 1794, enclosing a copy of this poem, he wrote: 'Independent of my enthusiasm as a Scotsman, I have rarely met with anything in history which interests my feelings as a man equal with the story of Bannockburn. On the one hand a cruel, but able, usurper, leading on the finest army in Europe, to extinguish the last spark of freedom among a greatly daring and greatly injured people; on the other hand, the desperate relics of a gallant nation, devoting themselves to rescue their bleeding country or perish with her. Liberty! thou art a prize truly and indeed invaluable, for never canst thou be too dearly bought.'

Scots, wha hae wi' Wallace bled, Scots, wham Bruce has aften led, Welcome to your gory bed, Or to Victorie!

Now's the day and now's the hour; See the front o' battle lour!

See approach proud Edward's power-- Chains and slaverie!

Wha will be a traitor knave?

Wha can fill a coward's grave?

Wha sae base as be a slave?

Let him turn and flee!

Wha for Scotland's King and Law, Freedom's sword will strongly draw, Free-Man stand, or Free-Man fa'?

Let him follow me!

By Oppression's woes and pains!

By your Sons in servile chains!

We will drain our dearest veins, But they _shall_ be free!

Lay the proud Usurpers low!

Tyrants fall in every foe!

Liberty's in every blow!

Let us Do--or Die.

'So may G.o.d ever defend the cause of Truth and Liberty as he did that day.

'ROBERT BURNS.'

Because he was so outspoken in regard to democracy, some men a.s.sumed he was not a loyal man. The truth is, that he always loved his country, but he ardently desired to improve the conditions of the great body of his countrymen. Complaints were made about his disloyalty to the Excise commissioners under whom he worked. These complaints were investigated, and Burns was found to be a loyal man.

When the call came from the Government for volunteers, Burns joined the Dumfries Volunteers. In his great song composed for these volunteers he strongly expresses his loyalty, both to his country and to his king, in the following quotations:

We'll ne'er permit a foreign foe On British ground to rally.

Be Britain still to Britain true, Amang oursels united; For never but by British hands Maun British wrangs be righted. must

Who will not sing 'G.o.d save the King,'

Shall hang as high's the steeple!

But while we sing 'G.o.d save the King,'

We'll ne'er forget the people.

To Robert Graham of Fintry, 1792, he wrote: 'To the British Const.i.tution on revolution principles, next after my G.o.d, I am most devoutly attached.'

Again, a month later, he wrote to Mr Graham: 'I never uttered any invectives against the King. His private worth it is altogether impossible that such a man as I can appreciate; but in his public capacity I always revered, and always will, with the soundest loyalty, revere the Monarch of Great Britain as (to speak in Masonic) the sacred Keystone of our Royal Arch Const.i.tution. As to reform principles, I look upon the British Const.i.tution, as settled at the Revolution, to be the most glorious Const.i.tution on earth, or that perhaps the wit of man can frame.

'I never dictated to, corresponded with, or had the least connection with, any political a.s.sociation whatever--except that when the magistrates and princ.i.p.al inhabitants of Dumfries met to declare their attachment to the Const.i.tution, and their abhorrence of riot.'

He had strong desires to effect many reforms in public life, but he was an intelligent believer in the British Const.i.tution, and had no faith in any method of achieving reforms in the Empire except by const.i.tutional measures. He was a radical reformer with a grand mental balance-wheel; and such reformers make the best type of citizens, ardent reformers with cool heads and unselfish hearts.

Carlyle strangely misunderstood the spirit of democracy in Burns, although he justly wrote, long after the poet's death: 'He appears not only as a true British poet, but as one of the most considerable British men of the eighteenth century.'

What were the achievements, in addition to his poetic power, that made Burns 'one of the most considerable men of the eighteenth century?' Mainly the work he did to develop in the souls of men a consciousness of fundamental principles of democracy, and higher ideals of vital religion; yet Carlyle does not approve of his efforts to reform either social or religious conditions. As the centuries pa.s.s, the work of Burns for Religion, Democracy, and Brotherhood will be recognised as his greatest work for humanity.

Carlyle's belief was that Burns wrote about the wrongs of the oppressed because he could not become rich. In that belief he was clearly in error.

The love of freedom, justice, and independence was a basic pa.s.sion in the character of Burns. The anxiety of Burns regarding money was not for himself, but for his family in case he should die. Several times he referred to this in letters to his most intimate friends.

CHAPTER VI.

BURNS AND BROTHERHOOD.

In the third letter Burns wrote Alison Begbie, the first woman he asked to marry him, he said: 'I grasp every creature in the arms of Universal Benevolence, and equally partic.i.p.ate in the pleasures of the happy, and sympathise with the miseries of the unfortunate.'

This statement of one of the fundamental principles which guided him during his whole life is a profound interpretation of the teachings of Christ in regard to the att.i.tude that each individual should have, must have, in order that brotherhood may be established on the earth. He taught universal benevolence and vital sympathy _with_--not _for_--humanity; not merely when sorrows and afflictions bring dark clouds to hearts, but in times of happiness and rejoicing; affectionate sympathy, unostentatious sympathy, co-operative sympathy that stimulates helpfulness and hopefulness; sympathy that produces activity of the divine in the human heart and mind, and leads to brotherhood.

The amazing fact is, not that Burns wrote such fundamental Christian philosophy in a love-letter, but that a youth of twenty-one could think it and express it so perfectly.

To Clarinda he wrote, 1787: 'Lord! why was I born to see misery which I cannot relieve?'

Again, in 1788, he wrote to her: 'Give me to feel "another's woe," and continue with me that dear-loved friend that feels with mine.'

To Mrs Walter Riddell he wrote, 1793: 'Of all the qualities we a.s.sign to the Author and Director of Nature, by far the most enviable is to be able "to wipe away all tears from all eyes." O what insignificant, sordid wretches are they, however chance may have loaded them with wealth, who go to their graves, to their magnificent mausoleums, with hardly the consciousness of having made one poor, honest heart happy.'