verses of Burns with Samuel Daniel's "Epistle to the Countess of
Cumberland," and you will find a higher manner altogether--

"He that of such a height hath built his mind,
And reared the dwelling of his thoughts so strong,
As neither fear nor hope can shake the frame
Of his resolved powers; nor all the wind
Of vanity and malice pierce to wrong
His settled peace, or to disturb the same;
What a fair seat hath he, from whence he may
The boundless wastes and wilds of men survey?

"And with how free an eye doth he look down
Upon these lower regions of turmoil?" ...

As a piece of thought, "A man's a man for a' that" unites the two
defects of obviousness and inaccuracy. As for the deep feeling, I
hardly see where it comes in--unless it be a feeling of wounded and
blatant but militant self-esteem. As for the _poetry_--well, "J.B."
had rather have written it than have written one-third of Scott's
novels. Let us take him at less than his word: he would rather have
written "A man's a man for a' that" than "Ivanhoe," "Redgauntlet," and
"The Heart of Midlothian."

_Ma sonties!_




CHARLES READE