THE EDUCATIONAL ADVANTAGES OF BURNS.
Many people still speak of Burns as an 'uneducated man.' Although a
farmer, he was in reality a well-educated man. He was not a finished
scholar in the accepted sense of the universities, but both in his poetry
and in his unusually forceful and polished prose he was superior to most
of the university men of his time. He had read many books, the best books
that his intelligent father could buy, or that he could borrow from
friends or from libraries. In addition to school-books, he names the
following among those books read in his youth and young manhood--_The
Spectator_, Pope's Works, Shakespeare, Works on Agriculture, _The
Pantheon_, Locke's _Essay on the Human Understanding_, Stackhouse's
_History of the Bible_, Justice's _British Gardener_, Boyle Lectures,
Allan Ramsay's Works, Doctor Taylor's _Doctrine of Original Sin_, _A
Select Collection of English Songs_, Hervey's _Meditations_, Thomson's
Works, Shenstone's Works, _The Letters by the Wits of Queen Anne's
Reign_, Sterne's _Tristram Shandy_, Mackenzie's _The Man of Feeling_,
Macpherson's _Ossian_, two volumes of _Pamela_, and one novel by Smollett,
_Ferdinand, Count Fathom_. In addition to these he had read some French
and some Latin books, guided by one of the greatest teachers of his time,
John Murdoch, who was so great that when he established a private school
in London his fame spread to France, and some leading young men, notably
Talleyrand, came to receive his training and inspiration.
William Burns read regularly at night to his two sons, Robert and Gilbert,
and after the reading the three fellow-students discussed the matter that
had been read, each from his own individual standpoint. As the boys grew
older they read books during their meals, so earnest were they in their
desire to become acquainted with the best thought of the world's leaders,
so far as it was available. David Sillar has stated that Robert generally
carried a book with him when he was alone, that he might read and think.
When Robert settled at Ellisland he aroused an interest among the people
of the district, and succeeded in establishing a circulating library.
His father, though a labourer, was supremely desirous that his family
should be educated and thoughtful. This desire prompted him to become a
farmer, that he might keep his family at home. He was an independent
thinker himself, and by example and experience he trained his sons to love
reading and to think independently. Robert never thought he was thinking
when he let other people's thoughts run through his mind.
The result of the reading and thinking which their father led Robert and
Gilbert to do was most gratifying. The influence on Robert's mind must be
recognised. He became not only a great writer in prose and in poetry, but
a great orator as well. He stood modestly, but conscious of his power, and
proved his superiority both in conversation and impromptu oratory to the
leading university men of his time in Edinburgh. Gilbert, too, became an
original thinker and a writer of clear and forceful English. In a long
letter to Dr Currie he discussed very profoundly and very independently
some deep psychological ideas in excellent language. Few men of his time
could have written more thoughtfully or more definitely. As illustrations
of Robert's learning, as well as of his independent thought in relating
the books he read to each other and to human life, two instances are worth
recording. First, in a letter to Dr Moore,[1] of London, an author of
some distinction, who had sent him a copy of one of his books, Burns said,
1790: 'You were pleased to express a wish for my opinion of your work,
which so flattered me that nothing less would serve my overweening fancy
than a formal criticism on the book. In fact, I have gravely planned a
comparative view of you, Fielding, Richardson, and Smollett in your
different qualities and merits as novel writers. This, I own, betrays my
ridiculous vanity, and I may probably never bring the business to bear,
but I am fond of the spirit young Elihu shows in the Book of Job--"And I
said, I will also declare my opinion."'
To Mrs Dunlop he wrote, 1788: 'Dryden's _Virgil_ has delighted me. I do
not know whether the critics will agree with me, but the _Georgics_ are to
me by far the best of Virgil. It is indeed a species of writing entirely
new to me, and has filled my head with a thousand fancies of emulation....
I own I am disappointed in the _AEneid_. Faultless correctness may please,
and does highly please, the letter critic; but to that awful character I
have not the most distant pretensions. I do not know whether I do not
hazard my pretensions to be a critic of any kind, when I say that I think
Virgil, in many instances, a servile copier of Homer. If I had the
_Odyssey_ by me, I could parallel many passages where Virgil has evidently
copied, but by no means improved, Homer. Nor can I think there is anything
of this owing to the translators; for from everything I have seen of
Dryden, I think him in genius and fluency of language Pope's Master.'
But a small percentage of university graduates of his time could have
written independent criticisms, wise or otherwise, of Homer and Virgil, or
even of English writers, as clearly as Burns did. They could have told
what the opinions of other people were in regard to Homer and Virgil; they
could have told what they had been told. Burns had been trained to think
by his father, and to express his own thoughts about the books he read;
they had merely been informed. The advantage in real education was greatly
in favour of Burns. Their memories had been stored with opinions of
others; his mind had been trained to read carefully, to relate the
thoughts of others to life, to decide as to their wisdom, and to think
independently himself. His education from books was somewhat limited, but
the development of his mind that came from discussions of the value of the
matter read was vital, and helped him to relate himself to men, to nature
around him, to the universe, and to God.
In schools Burns had not a very extended experience. When six years old he
was sent to a small school beside the mill on the Doon at Alloway. His
teacher gave up the school soon after Burns began to attend it. Mr Burns
secured the co-operation of several of his neighbours, and they engaged a
young man named Murdoch to teach their children, agreeing to take him in
turn as their guest, and to pay him a small salary. The fact that John
Murdoch formed a high estimate of Mr Burns is a proof of the ability and
sincerity of the father of the poet.
When Burns was seven years old his father removed to Mount Oliphant farm,
but Robert continued to attend the school of Mr Murdoch, about two miles
away, in Alloway. The books used were a spelling-book, the New Testament,
the Bible, Mason's _Collection of Prose and Verse_, and Fisher's _English
Grammar_.
Mr Murdoch gave up his Alloway school when Burns was nine years old. After
that time the teacher of his sons was their father. He taught them
arithmetic, and bought them Salmon's _Geographical Grammar_, Derham's
_Physico- and Astro-Theology_, Hay's _Wisdom of God in the Creation_, and
the _History of the Reigns of James I. and Charles I. of England_. Robert,
when eleven years old, showed a deep interest in the study of grammar and
language, and 'excelled as a critic in substantives, verbs, and
participles.' In his twelfth year he was kindled in his patriotic spirit
by the _Life of Sir William Wallace_. Wallace remained a hero to him
throughout his life. In his thirty-fifth year he wrote the grandest call
to the defence of liberty ever written, beginning:
Scots, wha hae wi' Wallace bled.
In his eleventh year, which seemed to be a kindling epoch in his mind, his
mother's brother gave him a collection of _Letters by the Wits of Queen
Anne's Reign_. He read them over and over again, greatly delighted by both
their contents and their literary style. They had a distinct influence in
forming his own prose style, as during his twelfth year he conducted an
imaginary correspondence of quite an extensive character and in a stately
style.
When he was thirteen the greatest kindler of his early powers, John
Murdoch, became teacher of English in the Ayr High School. Robert was
sent to board with him to study grammar and composition. He received
instruction from Murdoch in French and in Latin. He continued the study of
French in the evenings at home, as he had obtained a French dictionary and
a French grammar.
His formal education, so far as it became an element in the cultivation of
his mind and the development of his supreme powers, ended with the few
weeks spent with John Murdoch in Ayr. They were epoch weeks to Burns;
transforming weeks, because of the increased range of his learning, but
made infinitely more richly transforming by the revelation of new visions
of life, and by the culture gained by association with a man of rare
ability and supreme kindling power, such as John Murdoch undoubtedly
possessed. A genius like Burns, living with a great teacher like Murdoch,
could in a month get many of the new revelations, the new visions, and the
strong impulses that should come into a growing soul as the result of a
university course.
Burns, in his seventeenth year, was sent to Kirkoswald to study
mensuration and surveying. He intended to become a surveyor. Peggy Thomson
lived next door to the school he attended. He met Peggy, loved her madly,
and found it impossible to study longer. He afterwards wrote two beautiful
poems to her. His school life for a brief period in Kirkoswald had little
influence in the development of his power, except for the organisation of
a debating society composed of a companion, William Niven, and himself.
They met weekly to hold debates, and these debates were greatly enjoyed by
Burns. His practice in debating societies afterwards organised by him in
Tarbolton and in Mauchline not only developed in him his unusual
oratorical ability, but at the same time gave him mental training of vital
importance. Impromptu speaking surpasses any other known educational
process in developing the human mind. However, Burns could neither study
for Hugh Rodger nor debate with William Niven after he fell in love with
Peggy Thomson, so, after a sleepless week, he went home.
Some may wonder, when they learn that for a time Burns took more interest
in studying Euclid's _Elements of Geometry_ than in any other department
of study in his home under his father's guidance. When the Rev. Archibald
Alison sent him his book, _Essays on the Principles of Taste_, Burns
thanked him, and in his letter said: 'In short, sir, except Euclid's
_Elements of Geometry_, which I made a shift to unravel by my father's
fireside in the winter evenings of the first season I held the plough, I
never read a book which gave me such a quantum of information, and added
so much to my stock of ideas, as your _Essays on the Principles of
Taste_.'
Burns evidently studied geometry at the time his mind was ripe for new
development by that special study. All children and young people would be
fortunate if they could be guided to the special study capable of arousing
their deepest interest, and therefore capable of promoting their highest
development, at the special period of their mental growth when that
particular study will awaken their deepest and most productive interest.
Robert's mind appears to have had a splendid power of adaptation to the
books and studies which his father secured for his sons. Gilbert says:
'Robert read all these with an avidity and industry scarcely to be
equalled; and no book was so voluminous as to slacken his industry, or so
antiquated as to damp his researches.' Dr Moore wrote to Burns in 1787: 'I
know very well you have a mind capable of attaining knowledge by a shorter
process than is commonly used, and I am certain you are capable of making
better use of it, when attained, than is generally done.'
This makes it easier to understand why Burns had a mind so well stored
with so many kinds of knowledge; and knowledge classified by himself, and
related to life, so well that he could use it readily when he required to
do so. The university men in Edinburgh marvelled more at the vastness of
his stores of different kinds of knowledge, when he met them with
dignified calmness, than they did because of his wonderful gifts of poetic
genius. Douglas says of Burns in Edinburgh: 'Burns did not fail to mix by
times with the eminent men of letters and philosophy, who then shed lustre
on the name of Scotland.'
Lockhart wrote: 'Burns's poetry might have procured him access to these
circles; but it was the extraordinary resources he displayed in
conversation, the strong sagacity of his observations on life and manners,
the splendour of his wit, and the glowing energy of his eloquence, that
made him the serious object of admiration among these practised masters of
the arts of talk. Even the stateliest of these philosophers had enough to
do to maintain the attitude of equality when brought into contact with
Burns's gigantic understanding; and every one of them whose impressions
on the subject have been recorded agrees in pronouncing his conversation
to have been the most remarkable thing about him.'
Speaking of this, Chambers properly says: 'We are thus left to understand
that the best of Burns has not been, and was not of a nature to be,
transmitted to posterity.' Why was Burns, though a ploughman, able to meet
a galaxy of leaders in different spheres of learning, and culture, and
philosophy, and outshine any of them in his own special department? The
answer is simple. He had two great teachers to kindle him and guide him in
the development of his remarkable natural powers: his father, William
Burns, and his teacher and friend, John Murdoch.
His father made it certain that he would possess a wide range of knowledge
of the best available books on religious, ethical, and philosophical
subjects--philosophy of science and philosophy of the mind; and, better
than that, he trained him definitely by nightly practice to digest, and
expound, and relate, and even dare to disbelieve, the opinions expressed
in the books he read. In nightly discussions with his father and Gilbert
his mind became keen and broad, and he became self-reliant. He had not
merely stored knowledge in his mind, he had wrought the knowledge into his
being, as an element of his growing power. Like great players of chess who
sometimes meet several opposing players of eminence at the same time and
vanquish them all at one period of play, Burns could meet the leaders of
many departments of progress, culture, and philosophy at the same time,
and stand calm and serene in glory with each leader on the crest of his
own special mountain of knowledge.
From John Murdoch he received the inspiration of a vital comradeship, a
fine training in English language--grammar, and a good introduction to
literature--and visions of higher relationships to his fellow-men and to
God.
However, great as Murdoch was as a kindler and a teacher, the education of
Robert Burns was mainly due to his remarkable father. Alexander Smith, in
his memoir of Burns, which Douglas claimed to be 'the finest biography of
its extent ever written,' speaking of William Burns, says: 'In his whole
mental build and training he was superior to the people by whom he was
surrounded. He had forefathers he could look back to; he had family
traditions which he kept sacred. Hard-headed, industrious, religious,
somewhat austere, he ruled his house with a despotism which affection and
respect on the part of the ruled made light and easy. To the blood of the
Burnses a love of knowledge was native, as valour in the old times was
native to the blood of the Douglases.'
John Murdoch wrote of William Burns: 'Although I cannot do justice to the
character of this worthy man, yet you will perceive from what I have
written _what kind of person had the principal part in the education of
the poet_. He spoke the English language with more propriety, both with
respect to diction and pronunciation, than any man I ever knew with no
greater advantages; this had a very good effect on the boys, who talk and
reason like men much sooner than their neighbours.'
These two quotations help us to understand William Burns as a great
teacher of his sons, and his daughters, too, although he did not deem it
quite so important to educate his daughters as his sons. It is perfectly
clear that the paternal despotism spoken of by Mr Smith, which indeed was
supposed to be necessary one hundred and fifty years ago, was not the
reason why his boys so early talked and reasoned like men. William Burns
was the elderly friend of his sons, not a despot, when he trained them to
love reading, and much better to speak freely their individual opinions
about what they read. This naturally led his sons to speak like men early
and fearlessly. Despotism on the part of the father would have had
directly the opposite effect.
Gilbert Burns sums up his father's estimate of early education and good
training when he says: 'My father laboured hard, and lived with the most
rigid economy, that he might be able to keep his children at home, thereby
having an opportunity of watching the progress of our young minds and
forming in them early habits of piety and virtue; and from this motive
alone did he engage in farming, the source of all his difficulties and
distresses.'
Robert, after his father's death, wrote to his cousin, and said his father
was 'the best of friends, and the ablest of instructors.'
In the sketch of his life sent to Dr Moore, of London, he wrote: 'My
father, after many years of wanderings and sojournings, picked up a pretty
large quantity of observation and experience, to which I am indebted for
most of my pretensions to wisdom.'
An important element in the education of Burns was his love of Nature.
His mind was specially susceptible to development by Nature in any of its
forms of beauty or of majesty. A friend who was his guide through the
grounds of Athole House, when he was making his tour through the
Highlands, in a letter to Mr Alex. Cunningham, wrote: 'I had often, like
others, experienced the pleasures which arise from the sublime or elegant
landscape, but I never saw those feelings so intense as in Burns.'
Burns was born and spent his early life and young manhood in a district
whose beauty has few equals anywhere. Its rivers--Ayr, Doon, Afton, Lugar,
Fail, and Cessnock; all, except Afton, within easy walking distance of his
homes in Ayrshire--with their beautifully wooded banks, were, in a very
definite way, transforming agencies in the growth of his mind, and
therefore most important elements in his highest education. The 'winding
Nith,' which flowed within a few yards of the home he built on Ellisland
farm, around the promontory on which stand the ruins of Lincluden Abbey,
and on through Dumfries, continued during the last few years of his life
the educational work of the rivers of his native Ayrshire.
The mind of Burns was brought into unity with spiritual ideals through
the influence of Nature more productively than by any other agency. He
walked in the gloaming, according to his own statement, by the riverside
or in woodland paths when he was composing his poems. While residing in
Dumfries he had a favourite walk up the Nith to Lincluden Abbey, amid
whose ruins he sat in the gloaming, and on moonlight nights often till
midnight, recording the visions that came to him in that sacred
environment of wooded river and linn (waterfall).
There was much similarity between the most vital educational development
of Burns and of Mrs Browning. In _Aurora Leigh_, the record of her own
growth, she describes her true education, although not her actual life's
history. Aurora loses her mother in her fifth year, and lives with her
father for nine great years near Florence; she says:
So nine full years our days were hid with God
Among His mountains. I was just thirteen,
Still growing like a plant from unseen roots
In tongue-tied springs; and suddenly awoke
To full life, and life's needs and agonies,
With an intense, strong, struggling heart beside
A stone-dead father. Life struck sharp on death
Makes awful lightning.
Her years till thirteen are spent mainly in her father's fine library
reading what she most loved of the treasuries of the world. Her own
statement of her father's educational guidance is:
My father taught me what he had learnt the best
Before he died, and left me--grief and love;
And seeing we had books among the hills,
Strong words of counselling souls, confederate
With vocal pines and waters, out of books
He taught me all the ignorance of men,
And how God laughs in heaven when any man
Says, 'Here I'm learned; this I understand;
In that I'm never caught at fault or doubt.'
Like Burns she reads good books with joyous interest; like Burns she has a
father deeply interested in her education who teaches her vital things;
and like Burns she loves to learn from the 'vocal pines and waters,' and
finds her richest revelations for her mind 'with God among His mountains.'
The hills of Ayrshire, the rivers, and the river-glens, whose sides are
covered with beautiful trees, were to Burns kindlers of high ideals, and
revealers of God.