FIRST PAPER. I. 1. In this respect Burns, though not perhaps absolutely a great poet, better manifests his capability, better proves the truth of his genius, than if he had, by his own strength, kept the whole Minerva Press going to the end of his literary course. He shows himself at least a poet of Nature's own making; and Nature, after all, is still the grand agent in making poets. We often hear of this and the other external condition being requisite for the existence of a poet. Sometimes it is a certain sort of training; he must have studied certain things-studied, for instance, "the elder dramatists"-and so learned a poetic language; as if poetry lay in the tongue, not in the heart. At other times we are told he must be bred in a certain rank, and must be on a confidential footing with the higher classes; because, above all other things, he must see the world. As to seeing the world, we apprehend this will cause him little difficulty, if he have but an eye to see it with. Without eyes, indeed, the task might be hard. But happily every poet is born in the world, and sees it, with or against his will, every day and every hour he lives. The mysterious workmanship of man's heart, the true light and the inscrutable darkness of man's destiny, reveal themselves not only in capital cities and crowded saloons, but in every hut and hamlet where men have their abode. Nay, do not the elements of all human virtues and all human vices-the passions at once of a Borgia and of a Luther-lie written, in stronger or fainter lines, in the con sciousness of every individual bosom that has practiced honest self-examination? Truly, this same world may be seen in Mossgiel and Tarbolton, if we look well, as clearly as it ever came to light in Crockford's, or the Tuileries itself. (a) "Not perhaps absolutely a great poet." Make the meaning of this distinction clear by comparing the work of Burns with the work of any great poet. (b) "A Poet of Nature's own making." Illustrate the meaning and implied contrast here. (c) Who are the "elder dramatists," and what special benefit is here supposed to be derived from the study of them? (d) "He must see the world." In what sense might it |