Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume III.djvu/479

BURNS BURNS AND SCALDS 473 rals, "The Cotter's Saturday Night;" besides innumerable love songs, some of them the finest in the language, none of which, he says, related to imaginary heroines. His want of success on the farm suggested to him the pro- ject of going to Jamaica, and to enable him to do this he proposed to publish a collection of his writings. Another motive was probably his liaison with Jean Armour. She had borne him twins, and he had given her a written ac- knowledgment of marriage, good in Scotch law ; but, being unable to support a family, he had been prosecuted by her relatives. Accordingly, in the autumn of 1786, he issued 600 copies of his poems at Kilmarnock, from which he de- rived 20, enough to enable him to procure a passage in a ship about to sail from the Clyde. His chest was on the road to Greenock, and he- had written " The gloomy night is gather- ing fast," as a kind of farewell to Scotland, when a letter from Dr. Blacklock to a friend of his arrested the execution of his purpose. This letter recommended a visit to Edinburgh, with a view to receive the applause which his poems had excited, and to arrange for the issue of a new edition. Burns went to the metrop- olis, and for more than a year was admired, feted, and flattered by persons of all ranks. He returned home with 500, the profits of the publication ; of this he gave 200 to his bro- ther, and with the remainder stocked a farm at Ellisland, in Dumfriesshire, where he took up his residence in 1788, and married Jean Ar- mour. He was also appointed a collector of excise with a salary of 50, which was after- ward raised to 70 ; but the duties of the place, together with his convivial habits, in- terfered so much with the labors of the farm, that the latter yielded him little or nothing, and he was compelled to surrender it to the landlord. Toward the close of 1791 he retired to a small house in the town of Dumfries, where he supported himself and his family on his official stipend, and by random contribu- tions to Johnson's " Museum " and Thomson's " Collection of Original Scottish Airs." But intemperance, exposure, and the disappoint- ment of his hopes of promotion undermined his constitution, and he died in his 37th year. During his last illness his dwelling was thronged by persons of every rank, and his funeral was attended by a great multitude. In 1813 a monument was erected to his memory at Dumfries. The centenary of his birthday, in 1859, was celebrated in almost every village of Scotland, in England, the United States, the British colonies, and India; the anniversary of his birth is commemorated by Scotsmen all over the world. He left four sons, of whom two entered the service of the East India com- pany. Of these, ROBEET, who was an accom- plished Gaelic scholar, and not without poetical ability, born in 1786, died at Dumfries, May 14, 1857 ; and WILLIAM, born in 1790, died at Cheltenham, England, in 1872. The latter, who rose to the rank of colonel in the service, purchased the house in which his father died, and where his mother resided until her death in 1834. He also executed a deed leaving the house, garden, and a building to be used as a school room, to the Dumfries education society, upon condition of the payment of an annuity to the nieces and grand-nephew of the poet during their lifetime, and that the house should thereafter be kept in repair. The poetry of Burns appeals to the deepest and purest emo- tions of the human heart. It is so fraught with passion, so instinct with melody, so true to nature, so artless in grace, that every one must be touched either by its pathos, its beauty, or its mirth. He had " an inspiration for every fancy, a music for every mood." In the simple, the naive, the sweet, he is scarcely more distinguished than he is in the grotesque, the wild, and even the terrible. His " Tarn o' Shanter " displays narrative ability of the first order, while his "Jolly Beggars " is filled with dramatic power. But his peculiar strength was lyrical. Of the poems of Burns, a third edition was published in 1793, a fourth in 1798. Dr. Currie of Liverpool published a collected edition of his poems and letters for the bene- fit of his family (4 vols., London, 1800) ; and Allan Cunningham edited a more complete edition (8 vols., London, 1834). His biog- raphy has been written by Lockhart (Edin- burgh, 1828). In the "Life and Works of Burns," by Robert Chambers (2 vols., Edin- burgh, 1851-'2), the poems are incorporated and arranged in chronological order. II! KS AND SCALDS. Burns are produced by heated solids, or by the flames of some com- bustible substance, solid, liquid, or gaseous ; scalds are produced by heated steam or liquid. The worst burns which occur commonly arise from the explosion of gunpowder or inflamma- ble gases, or from the dresses of children or of females catching fire ; the worst scalds, from accidents in breweries, manufactories, labora- tories, and steamboats. The severity of the accident depends mainly on the intensity of the heat of the burning body, together with the extent of surface and the vitality of the parts involved in the injury. The immediate effect of scalds is generally less violent than that of burns. Fluids, not being capable of acquiring so high a degree of temperature as some solids, cannot act with the same violence on a given point; but, flowing about with great facility, their effects often become more serious by ex- tending to a very large surface of the body. A burn which utterly and instantaneously de- stroys the part it touches may be free from dangerous complications if the injured part be circumscribed within a small compass ; while o. scald apparently much less severe in its imme diate effects, being more or less diffused, is al- ways attended with different degrees of injury in different parts of its course, and may be very serious in its results, although apparently less violent in its first effects on any given part. The extent of the surface involved, the depth