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LETTER LXXVI.

TO THE SAME.

BUT the concluding evening scene was, without doubt, by far the most impressive of the whole. I have told you that a tent had been erected at the foot of the church-yard, and that from it different ministers preached to the inaltitude which overflowed after the church itself was filled, during the whole of the day but now, after the sacrament had been dispensed to all who were admitted to that privilege, the kirk was shut up, and the whole of the thousands who had assembled, were summoned to hear one parting sermon at the tent together. The minister's wife and I came down the hill from the Manse just as this part of the service was about to commence, and ere we had come within sight of the place, the sounds of the preparatory psalm they were all singing together, came to us wafted over the intervening bean-fields on a gale of perfume, and softened into the balmiest melody by the space over which they travelled, in the rich stillness of the evening air.

There could not be a finer sight than that which presented itself to us when we came to the brink of the ravine which overhung, on the one side, the rustic amphitheatre now filled by this mighty congregation. All up the face of the opposite hill, which swept in a gentle curve before us-the little brook I have mentioned flowing brightly between in the gleam of sunset-the soft turf of those simple sepulchres, rising row above row, and the little flat tomb-stones scattered more sparingly among them, were covered with one massy cluster of the listening peasantry. Near to the tent on one side were drawn up some of the carriages of the neighbouring gentry, in which, the horses being taken away, the ancient ladies were seen sitting protected from the dews of the twilight-while the younger ones occupied places on the turf immediately below them. Close in front of the preacher the very oldest of the people seemed to be arranged together, most of them sitting on stools brought for them by their children from the village-yet fresh and unwearied after all the fatigues of the day, and determined not to go away while any part of its services remained to be performed. The exact numbers of those assembled I cannot guess, but I am sure they must have amounted to very many thousands. Neither you nor I, I am confident, ever beheld a congregation of the fourth of the extent engaged together in the worship of their Maker.

The number was enough of itself to render the scene a very interesting one; but the more nearly I examined their countenances, the more deeply was I impressed with a sense of respectful sympathy for the feelings of those who composed the multitude. A solemn devotion was imprinted on every downcast eyelid and trembling lip around me-their attitudes were as solemn as their countenances-each having his arms folded in his shepherd's cloak-or leaning in pensive repose upon one of those grassy swells, beneath which,

Each in his narrow tomb for ever laid,
The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep.

Here and there I could perceive some hoary patriarch of the valley sitting in such a posture as this, with the old partner of his life beside him, and below and around him two or three generations of his descendants, all arranged according to their age and propinquity-the ancient saint contemplating the groupe ever and anon with a sad serenity-thinking, I suppose, how unlikely it was he should live long enough to find himself again surrounded with them all on another recurrence of the same solemnity of the Midsummer. Near them might be seen, perhaps, a pair of rural lovers, yet unwedded, sitting hand in hand together upon the same plaid in the shadow of some tall tomb-stone, their silent unbreathed Vows gathering power more great than words could have given them from the eternal sanctities of the surrounding scene. The innocent feelings of filial affection and simple love cannot disturb the feelings of devotion, but mingle well in the same bosom with its higher flames, and blend all together into one softened and reposing confidence, alike favourable to the happiness of earth and beaven. There was a sober sublimity of calmness in the whole atmosphere around-the sky was pure and unclouded over bead; and in the west, only a few small fleecy clouds floated in richest hues of gold and crimson, caught from the slow farewell radiance of the broad declining sun. The shadows of the little church and its tombstones lay far and long projected over the multitude, and taming here and there the glowing colours of their garments into a more mellow beauty. All was lonely and silent around the skirts of the assemblage--unless where some wandering heifer might be seen gazing for a moment upon the unwonted multitude, and then bounding away light and buoyant across the daisied herbage into some more sequestered browsingplace.

In surveying these pious groups, I could not help turning my reflections once again upon the intellectual energies of the nation to which they belong, and of whose peculiar spirit such a speaking example lay before me. It is in rustic assemblages like these that the true characteristics of every race of men are most palpably and conspicuously displayed, and it is there that we can best see, in multiplied instances, the natural germs of that which, under the influence of culture, assumes a prouder character, and blossoms into the animating soul and spirit of a national literature. The more I see of the internal life and peculiar manners of this people, the more am I sorry that there should not be a greater number of persons in Scotland sufficiently educated to enter into the true feeling of literary works--so as to influence, by their modes of thinking, the tone of the compositions produced among them--so, by furnishing responses according to their united impressions, to keep men of genius true to the task of expressing the mind and intellect of their nation, and of recording all its noble dictates of more peculiar sentiment.

No person, whó considers circumstances with an attentive eye, can suppose that the Scots have already run their literary career. The intellectual power of the nation has never yet been strongly bent upon exploring what is peculiar to itself; and, until the time of Walter Scott, almost all its men of talent, who had education, expended their powers in modes of composition which were never meant to have any relationship with the native tastes of their country. If Burns had formed his mind among them, he would perhaps have left all his native thoughts behind him, and gone to write tragedies for a London theatre, in imitation of Otway and Rowe-in which case, I think it more than probable we should never have beard much about the divine genius of the Ploughman. The Scottish talent for ratiocination, has already been splendidly displayed; but mere reason. like mathematics or chemistry, is, in all countries, the same-there is no peculiar triumph in its possession or its results. David Hume spent a great proportion of his earlier years in France, and carried on all his studies there just as successfully as he could have done at home. But poetry, imagination, fancy, sentiment, art, philosophical belief, whatever comes from the soul-these are things in which every nation displays a character of its own, and which it consequently requires a separate and peculiar literature to express and embody; but these are things in which Scotland has not yet formed any school of its own-which, in other words, it

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has not yet cultivated upon principles sufficiently profound, or with enthusiasm sufficiently concentrated. If the national attention were more systematically directed toward these things, men of talent would have a definite object to aim at-they would seldom be led to exercise their powers in mistaken or unprofitable directions, and be seldom exposed to suffering the chagrin of failing to excite the interest of a public, which, in the very midst of its indifference, admits their ability. Neither, were such the case, would the peculiar veins of national thought be any longer left to be embodied in compositions written, like those of Burns, in the dialect of the lower classes. The bare circumstance of these compositions being so written, implies that they must be confined to a limited range of thought; but, had the sentiments they express, such treatment as they deserve, they might be invested in the very highest and purest of forms, and applied, I nothing question, to adorn and enrich the most varied and boundless fields of conception.

You will laugh, my dear friend, when I tell you what one of my chief thoughts was while surveying these crowds of listeners. I looked over them, and scanned every individual attentively, to see if I could trace any countenance resembling that of Burns. The assembly around me might be considered as the very audience he addressed; and I understood every trait in his writings ten times better, from the consciousness of being among them. I felt from the bottom of my soul the sweet throes of tenderness with which he spake to them of all that filled up their existence, and produced the chequered spectacle of its hopes and fears; and I recollected, with a new delight, the exquisite touches of humour and fancy by which he took hold of and sported with their imaginations. I said to myself No dull and hopeless clods of earth are here, but men, who, in the midst of the toils and hardships of the life of husbandmen and shepherds, are continually experiencing all that variety of mental impressions which is to be found in the poetry of Ramsay and Burns. The sprightly rustic flute of old Allan utters only melodies similar to those which the real every-day life of these good folks copiously supplies--while the soiled and tattered leaves of the grand, the tender, the inimitable bard of Coila, placed on some shelf in every cottage, perhaps beside a bit of looking-glass, reflect, like it, trge though broken snatches of the common scenes and transactions of the interior. The deep-toned Mantuan, when he wishes to draw out the moral interest of a rural life, was obliged to contrast its serene and peaceable enjoyments with the more

venturous occupations, and the perpetual anxieties of Rome. He probably did not think that the lives of Italian husbandmen had sufficient character, or peculiar meaning, to make them much worthy of being pryed into.

Quos rami fructus, quos ipsa volentia rura
Sponte tulere sua, carpsit; nec ferrea jura,
Insanumque forum, aut populi tabularia vidit,
"Sollicitant alii remis freta cæca, ruuntque

In ferrum, penetrant aulas et limina Regum, &c,

But Robert Burns has shown, that within the limits and ideas of the rustic life of his country, he could find an exhibition of the moral interests of human nature, sufficiently varied to serve as the broad and sure foundation of an excellent superstructure of poetry. I would there were more to choose their sites with equal wisdom, and lay their foundations equally deep; but I am half afraid you may be inclined to turn the leaf, and to compare my harangue with that of Don Quixote over the Acorns and the Golden Age.

You will admit, however, that my theme is a noble one, and that the scene which suggested it was eminently noble. I wish, from the bottom of my soul, you had come this tour with me, and so spared me the trouble of sending you these written accounts of things which it would have given you so much. greater delight to see with your own eyes for yourself. I wish, above all, my dear Williams, you had been present with me at this closing scene of the Scottish Sacrament-Sabbath, the only great festival of their religious year. You would then have seen what a fine substitute these Presbyterians have found in the stirring up of their own simple spirits, by such simple stimulants, for all the feasts, fasts, and holidays yes, and for all the pompous rites and observances with which these are celebrated of the Church from which they have chosen so widely to separate themselves. You would have seen, (for who that has eyes to see, and heart to feel, could have been blind to it?) that the austerities of the peculiar doctrinal system to which they adhere, have had no power to chill or counteract the ardours of that religious sentiment which they share with all that belong to the wide-spread family of Christians. You would have seen how compatible are all that we usually speak of as their faults, with every thing that we could wish to see numbered among the virtues of a Christian people. You would have seen it in the orderly and solemn guise of their behaviour -you would have heard it in the deep, and thrilling harmony

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