Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 2.djvu/147

Rh and present to the reader, not only an uncommonly clear view of the life and character of Burns, but also a specimen of the animated and nervous, though somewhat turgid, style of Heron, whose literary history is scarcely less remarkable than that of the Ayrshire bard. The reader will find the text occasionally corrected and illustrated by notes, as also a short poetical relique of Burns, which first appeared in the original edition of this work.

Robert Burns was a native of Ayrshire, one of the western counties of Scotland. He was the son of humble parents; and his father passed through life in the condition of a hired labourer, or of a small farmer. Even in this situation, however, it was not hard for him to send his children to the parish school, to receive the ordinary instructions in reading, writing, arithmetic, and the principles of religion. By this course of education, young Robert profited to a degree that might have encouraged his friends to destine him to one of the liberal professions, had not his father's poverty made it necessary to remove him from school, as soon as he had grown up, to earn for himself the means of support, as a hired plough-boy, or shepherd.

The establishment of parish schools, but for which, perhaps, the infant energies of this young genius might never have received that first impulse, by which alone they were to be excited into action, is one of the most beneficial that have ever been instituted in this country; and one which, I believe, is no where so firmly fixed, or extended so completely throughout a whole kingdom, as in Scotland. Here, every parish has a schoolmaster, almost as invariably as it has a clergyman. For a sum, rarely exceeding twenty pounds, in salary and fees, this person instructs the children of the parish in reading, writing, arithmetic, bookkeeping, Latin, and Greek. The schoolmasters are generally students in philosophy or theology ; and hence, the establishment of the parish schools, besides its direct utilities, possesses also the accidental advantage of furnishing an excellent school of future candidates for the office of parochial clergymen. So small are the fees for teaching, that no parents, however poor, can want the means to give their children, at least, such education at school as young Burns received. From the spring labours of a plough-boy, from the summer employment of a