Burns is full of the noble, genuine democracy which seeks not to destroy royalty, but to make all men kings, as he himself was, in nature and in action.

They belong to the same world; they are pillars of the same church, though they uphold its starry roof from opposite sides.

Burns was much the rarer man; precisely because he had most of common nature on a grand scale; his humor, his passion, his sweetness, are all his own; they need no picturesque or romantic accessories to give them due relief: looked at by all lights they are the same.

Since Adam, there has been none that approached nearer fitness to stand up before God and angels in the naked majesty of manhood than Robert Burns;--but there was a serpent in his field also! Yet but for his fault we could never have seen brought out the brave and patriotic modesty with which he owned it.

Shame on him who could bear to think of fault in this rich jewel, unless reminded by such confession.
We passed Abbotsford without stopping, intending to go there on our return.