[[17]] See To a Mountain Daisy and To a Mouse. Cranreuch=hoar frost.
[[18]] This passage is suggested by a prose entry in Burns's Common-Place Book (April, 1784), which serves as introduction to the poem Winter. The words in italics are from Psalm 104.
[[19]] The figure is a favorite one with Burns; see, for example, the passage quoted below, page 30. The present quotation may be from Richter (compare p. 81), in whom, according to Mr. Boynton, the figure is also frequent.
[[20]] "Ut ridentibus arrident, ita flentibus adflent
Humani voltus; si vis me flere, dolendum est
Primum ipsi tibi."
—Ars Poetica, 101-103.
"As men's faces laugh with those that laugh, so they weep with those that weep; if thou wouldst have me weep, thou must first feel grief thyself."
[[21]] Sincerity is the test by which Carlyle judges all men; praise of it is one of the keynotes of his writings. Unfortunately he often confounds it with mere brute force of character and fixity of purpose.
[[22]] "How perpetually he [Burns] was alive to the dread of being looked down on as a man, even by those who most zealously applauded the works of his genius, might perhaps be traced through the whole sequence of his letters. When writing to men of high station, at least, he preserves, in every instance, the attitude of self-defence."—Lockhart, chap. v.
[[23]] Scott, Byron, Moore, Southey, and Cooper are the most obvious objects of this attack; but they had a host of imitators. Carlyle, because of his intense moral earnestness, had no sympathy with literature written only to give amusement, regardless of truth to life. As usual, his view, though stimulating, is one-sided. Many of the most justly famous books, notably the Arabian Nights, are great by the pure charm of incident and invention.
[[24]] "A printing-house in London, which was noted in the eighteenth century for the publication of trashy sentimental novels."—Century Dictionary of Names.
[[25]] A famous gaming club-house in London.