But lest you think I am uncivil,

To plague you with this draunting drivel,
Abjuring a' intentions evil,

I quat my pen :

The Lord preserve us frae the devil!

Amen! amen!

Arentz de Peyster, Colonel of the Gentleman Volunteers of Dumfries, was a rigid disciplinarian: he had distinguished himself during the colonial war in America, and defended Detroit against the united efforts of the Indians and Republicans. He was regarded by many as a person harsh and stern: but this belonged rather to his manners than to his heart. Save that he wrote indifferent rhymes, he was in every respect a soldier. He thought the science of war the noblest of all sciences; a parade day the most glorious of all days, save that of victory: and a soldier, in the words of Prior,

"No godhead but the first of men."

His voice was rough and commanding; his eye brightened up whenever he looked along the glittering ranks which he ruled; he forgot that he was eighty years old, and

"Bold, soldier-featured, undismayed,
He strode along."

This good old soldier befriended the Poet as far as the Poet would permit; for Burns was not without friends in his last moments. His cousin, James Burness of Montrose, not only sent by return of post ten pounds, the loan of which the dying Bard requested, but sent more

after his death, and offered to take his eldest son into his house and educate him like one of his own children. This should have been told in the Life, but the author was ignorant till lately of a fact which he would have had much pleasure in relating. The letters will be given in the proper place.

EPITAPHS, EPIGRAMS,

ETC. ETC.

THE epigrams of Burns are numerous: they are sharp and personal, and partake of the character of the natural rather than the artificial man. They abound in no polished inferences, elegant implications, or courteous insinuations. He differs from other wits of his time; and, because he does so, his invective has been pronounced harsh and acrimonious, and his sarcasms coarse and savage. He is not indeed one of those who

"Hint a fault and hesitate dislike."

He grapples at once with his enemy and prostrates him, not so much by science as by robust strength. In polished life it has been said that hostility is delicate and generous: that courtesy forbids us to strike the defenceless or to mangle the slain, and that when tried by this standard the epigrams and lam

poons of Burns will appear offensive from their extreme coarseness and violence, and contemptible from their want of wit and brilliancy. It might have been objected with more propriety that his wit sometimes inclines to the profane, and that his humour deals too much in scriptural allusions.

I.

ON THE AUTHOR'S FATHER.

O YE whose cheek the tear of pity stains,
Draw near with pious rev'rence and attend!
Here lie the loving husband's dear remains,

The tender father and the gen'rous friend.
The pitying heart that felt for human woe;

The dauntless heart that feared no human pride; The friend of man, to vice alone a foe;

"For ev'n his failings lean'd to virtue's side."

William Burness merited his eminent son's eulogiums; early suffering made him somewhat austere, and a consciousness of declining strength and sinking fortunes hindered him from mixing much in the world's mirth; but he set his children an example of piety, patience and fortitude, and deserves to be named whenever humble worth is remembered.