Robert Burns As A Freemason.

gatherings which he must have rendered glorious and unforgettable to all who were happy enough to be present , and , " Get a blad o' Johnie ' s morals , And taste a swatch o' Mansen's barrels , I' the way of our Profession ? "

What of his writings , his marvellous poems and songs ? Were they to any extent inspired by Masonry ; did they owe anything to its inlluence ? He held that the amount of this inspiration , the extent of this inlluence had been , if not

ROBERT BURNS . ignored , then certainly underestimated . To appreciate and form an unbiased opinion on the point , he asked them to turn their thoughts back to his early years—to the stern

upbringing , the hard surroundings , and to his apprenticeship to the plough , the reaping hook , and the thresher ' s weary flinging tree , at an age when boys were usually at school and play—and then the } ' would realize that his entry into a Masonic lodge was a passage from dark to light .

Accustomed hitherto to meet only the young of his own working life , to the very limited society of the farm towns , with one glimpse of broader things in Kirkoswald , with his appetite whetted by the little bachelor's club he instituted on coming to Tarbolton , he was for the first time introduced to the

society of older and more experienced men , of varied positions and attainments ; introduced on the level , free from all class distinctions ; and , before all , introduced to pure religion , broad , world-wide , untainted by cant , hypocrisy , or sectarianism . These influences were soon at work , and whereas up to July , 1781 , he had written little of note , only such pieces as

" Winter , " " John Barleycorn , " " Poor Mailie , " and songs such as " Corn Rigs " and " Behind yon hills where Stinchar flows "—thenceforward his poems and songs were produced with amazing speed and power , and throughout them the inlluence of Masonry shows strong and stronger . His

emancipation from Calvinism , his satires on the Kirk's abuses , were hastened , and to some extent took their origin from his entry into Masonry . In the short space between his elevation to the Depute Master ' s chair in July , 1784 , and the publication of the Kilmarnock edition in August , 17 S 6 , he was

busy as a Mason , busiest as a poet , producing not only " The Twa Herds " and " The Holy Fair , " but such masterpieces as " The Cottar ' s Saturday Night , " " Hallowe ' en" and " The Jolly Beggars , " in all of which Masonic influences play a large part , as he who read with a discerning eye might

plainly see . The benevolent side of Masonry must have been akin to his nature , as he showed very early in his letter to Sir John Whitefoord , his R . W . M . : — " We look on our Mason lodge to be a serious matter , both with respect to the character

of Masonry itself , and likewise as a charitable Societ } - . . . . . To us , Sir , who are of the lower orders of mankind , to have a fund in view , on which we may with certainty depend , is a matter of high importance . " And he proceeded to express his concern for the continued existence of Lodge St . James , Tarbolton , to which he had seceded after a few months spent with his mother Lodge of St . David . That

mercy should temper Masonic justice , he proves in his letter from Edinburgh to the lodge : — " Men and brethren , I suppose those who owe us monies will appear—I mean those we summoned . If you please I wish you would delay prosecuting offenders till I come home . Those who confess debt and crave days , I think we should spare them , "— prose

expression of his poetic ideal , and one that , no doubt , would often cause his scanty purse to be lightened to the needs or to the wheedling tale of the wandering brother both at Ellisland and Dumfries . And , when trouble upon trouble accumulated , when he was proscribed and well-nigh hunted ;

when his sun , after struggling with April fitfulness , seemed about to sink and to shine no more on his native and adored country , to whom was it he turned in his distress ; of whom did he take his heart warm fond adieu ; what were the choicest scenes his memory must recall ?

" Dear brethren of the mystic tie ! Ye favored , ye enlightened few , Companions of my social joy ; With melting heart and brimful eye I'll mind you still tho' far awa . "

When " Fortune ' s Sliddery Ba' " came to his feet for a brief while , when " Edina , social , kind , with open arms the stranger hailed , " is not this meeting , and the sister one of St . Andrew ' s Lodge , a living testimony to his continued love of Craft and Craftsmen in Scotia ' s darling seat ? When Ellisland with its brief and broken hopes of comfort and

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