-
Articles/Ads
Article REVIEWS OF NEW BOOKS. ← Page 4 of 6 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Reviews Of New Books.
ancient story was gathered from Salmon ' s and Guthrie ' s ^ Geographical G-rarn mars ; " and the ideas I formed of modern manners ^ Hterature ^ and criticism , I got from the "Spectator . " These , with Pope ' s Works , some Plays of Shakspeare , Tall and Dickson on " Agriculture / ' the " Pantheon , "Locke " On the Human Understanding , " Stackhouse ' s '' History of the Bible // Justice ' s " British Gardener ' s
Directory , " Bayle ' s Lectures , Allan Bamsay ' s Works , Taylor ' s " Scripture Doctrine of Original Sin , " a Select Collection of English Songs , and Hervey ' s " Meditations , " had formed the whole of my reading . The Collection of Songs was my vade-mecum . I pored over them driving my cart , or walking to labour , song by song , verse by verse—carefully noting the true , tender , and sublime , from affectation and fustian . I am convinced I owe to this practice much of tny critic craft , such as it is . '
" Burns ' s father was a man of uncommon intelligence for his station in life , and was anxious that his children should have the best education which their circumstances admitted of . Bobert was , therefore , sent in his sixth year to- a little school at Alio way Mill , about a mile from their cottage : not long after , his father took a lead in establishing a young teacher , hamed John Murdoch , in a humble temple of learning nearer hand , and there Robert and his younger brother , Gilbert , attended for some time , ' ¦ With him / says Gilbert , ' we learned to read
English tolerably well , and to write a little . He taught us , too , the English Grammar . I was too young to profit much from his lessons in grammar , but Bobert made some proficiency in it ; a circumstance of considerable weight in the unfolding of his genius and character , as he soon became remarkable for the fluency and correctness of his expression , and read the few books that came in his way with much pleasure and improvement ; for even then he was a reader when he could get a book . Gilbert next mentions that 'The Life of Wallace , ' which Bobert Burns refers to , ' he borrowed from the blacksmith who shod our horses . '
" The poet was about seven years of age when ( 1766 ) his father left the clay bigging at Alloway , and settled in the small upland farm at Mount Oliphant , about two miles distant . He and his younger brother contined to attend Mr . Murdoch ' s school for two years longer , when it was broken up . Murdoch took his leave of the boys , and brought , as a present and memorial , a small compendium of English Grammar , and the tragedy of Titus Andronicus ; he began to read the play aloud , but so shocked was the party at some of its incidents , that Bobert declared if the play were left , he would burn it ; and Murdoch left the comedy of the ' School for Love ' in its place .
" The father now instructed his two sons , and other children ; there were no boys of their own age in the neighbourhood , and their father was almost their only companion . He conversed with them as though they were men ; he taught them from Salmon ' s ' Geographical Grammar' the situation and history of the different countries of the world ; and from a book-society in Ayr he procured Derham ' s 'Physico and Astro-Theology / and Bay ' s ' Wisdom of God in the Creation / to give his sons some idea of astronomy and natural history , Bobert read all these books with an avidity and industry scarcely to be equalled . From
Stackhouse ' s ' History of the Bible / then lately published in Kilmarnock , Bobert collected a competent knowledge of ancient history ; ' for / says his brother , ' no book was so voluminous as to slacken his industry , or so antiquated as to damp his researches . ' About this time , a relative inquired at a bookseller ' s shop in Ayr for a book to teach Bobert to write letters , when , instead of the Complete Letter Writer , he got by mistake a small collection of letters by the most eminent writers , with a few sensible directions for attaining an easy epistolary style , which book proved to Burns of the greatest consequence .
" Burns was about thirteen or fourteen , when his father , regretting that he and his brother wrote so ill , to remedy this defect sent them to the parish school of Dalrymple , between two and three miles distant , the nearest to them . Murdoch , the boys' former master , now settled in Ayr , as a teacher of the English language ; he sent them Pope ' s Works , and some other poetry , the first they had an opportunity of reading , except that in the English Collection , and in the 'Edinburgh Magazine' for 1772 . Bobert was now sent to Ayr , 'to revise his English grammar with his former teacher / but he was shortly obliged to return to assist
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Reviews Of New Books.
ancient story was gathered from Salmon ' s and Guthrie ' s ^ Geographical G-rarn mars ; " and the ideas I formed of modern manners ^ Hterature ^ and criticism , I got from the "Spectator . " These , with Pope ' s Works , some Plays of Shakspeare , Tall and Dickson on " Agriculture / ' the " Pantheon , "Locke " On the Human Understanding , " Stackhouse ' s '' History of the Bible // Justice ' s " British Gardener ' s
Directory , " Bayle ' s Lectures , Allan Bamsay ' s Works , Taylor ' s " Scripture Doctrine of Original Sin , " a Select Collection of English Songs , and Hervey ' s " Meditations , " had formed the whole of my reading . The Collection of Songs was my vade-mecum . I pored over them driving my cart , or walking to labour , song by song , verse by verse—carefully noting the true , tender , and sublime , from affectation and fustian . I am convinced I owe to this practice much of tny critic craft , such as it is . '
" Burns ' s father was a man of uncommon intelligence for his station in life , and was anxious that his children should have the best education which their circumstances admitted of . Bobert was , therefore , sent in his sixth year to- a little school at Alio way Mill , about a mile from their cottage : not long after , his father took a lead in establishing a young teacher , hamed John Murdoch , in a humble temple of learning nearer hand , and there Robert and his younger brother , Gilbert , attended for some time , ' ¦ With him / says Gilbert , ' we learned to read
English tolerably well , and to write a little . He taught us , too , the English Grammar . I was too young to profit much from his lessons in grammar , but Bobert made some proficiency in it ; a circumstance of considerable weight in the unfolding of his genius and character , as he soon became remarkable for the fluency and correctness of his expression , and read the few books that came in his way with much pleasure and improvement ; for even then he was a reader when he could get a book . Gilbert next mentions that 'The Life of Wallace , ' which Bobert Burns refers to , ' he borrowed from the blacksmith who shod our horses . '
" The poet was about seven years of age when ( 1766 ) his father left the clay bigging at Alloway , and settled in the small upland farm at Mount Oliphant , about two miles distant . He and his younger brother contined to attend Mr . Murdoch ' s school for two years longer , when it was broken up . Murdoch took his leave of the boys , and brought , as a present and memorial , a small compendium of English Grammar , and the tragedy of Titus Andronicus ; he began to read the play aloud , but so shocked was the party at some of its incidents , that Bobert declared if the play were left , he would burn it ; and Murdoch left the comedy of the ' School for Love ' in its place .
" The father now instructed his two sons , and other children ; there were no boys of their own age in the neighbourhood , and their father was almost their only companion . He conversed with them as though they were men ; he taught them from Salmon ' s ' Geographical Grammar' the situation and history of the different countries of the world ; and from a book-society in Ayr he procured Derham ' s 'Physico and Astro-Theology / and Bay ' s ' Wisdom of God in the Creation / to give his sons some idea of astronomy and natural history , Bobert read all these books with an avidity and industry scarcely to be equalled . From
Stackhouse ' s ' History of the Bible / then lately published in Kilmarnock , Bobert collected a competent knowledge of ancient history ; ' for / says his brother , ' no book was so voluminous as to slacken his industry , or so antiquated as to damp his researches . ' About this time , a relative inquired at a bookseller ' s shop in Ayr for a book to teach Bobert to write letters , when , instead of the Complete Letter Writer , he got by mistake a small collection of letters by the most eminent writers , with a few sensible directions for attaining an easy epistolary style , which book proved to Burns of the greatest consequence .
" Burns was about thirteen or fourteen , when his father , regretting that he and his brother wrote so ill , to remedy this defect sent them to the parish school of Dalrymple , between two and three miles distant , the nearest to them . Murdoch , the boys' former master , now settled in Ayr , as a teacher of the English language ; he sent them Pope ' s Works , and some other poetry , the first they had an opportunity of reading , except that in the English Collection , and in the 'Edinburgh Magazine' for 1772 . Bobert was now sent to Ayr , 'to revise his English grammar with his former teacher / but he was shortly obliged to return to assist