Page:Life of Robert Burns, the Ayrshire Bard.pdf/16

16 something in man, known by the names of courage, fortitude, magnanimity. The is made up of those feelings and sentiments, which, however the sceptic may deny, or the enthusiast disfigure them, are yet, I am convinced, original and component parts of the human soul; those senses of the mind, if I may be allowed the expression, which connect us with, and link us to those awful obscure realities―an all powerful and equally beneficent God―and a world to come, beyond death and the grave. The first gives the nerve of combat, while a ray of hope beams on the field;―the last pours the balm of comfort into the wounds which time can never cure.

"I do not remember, my dear Cunningham, that you and I ever talked on the subject of religion at all. I know some who laugh at it, as the trick of the crafty, to lead the undiscerning ; or at most as an uncertain obscurity, which mankind can never know anything of, and with which they are fools if they give themselves much to do. Nor would I quarrel with a man for his irreligion, any more than I would for his want of a musical ear. I would regret that he was shut out from what, to me and to others, were such superlative sources of enjoyment. It is in this point of view, and for this reason I will deeply imbue the mind of