"Till the mortal stroke shall lay me low, I'm thine, my Highland lassie, O.

Farewell the glen sae bushy, O!
Farewell the plain sae rushy, O!
To other lands I now must go,
To sing my Highland lassie, O.

A PRAYER FOR MARY.

The following song, which was found amongst the poet's manuscripts after his death, answers perfectly to the circumstances and feelings which have been represented.

POWERS celestial! whose protection,
Ever guards the virtuous fair,
While in distant climes I wander,

Let my Mary be your care:
Let her form sae fair and faultless,
Fair and faultless as your own,

Let my Mary's kindred spirit

Draw your choicest influence down.

Make the gales you waft around her
Soft and peaceful as her breast;
Breathing in the breeze that fans her,
Soothe her bosom into rest:

Guardian angels! oh, protect her
When in distant lands I roam;
To realms unknown while fate exiles me,
Make her bosom still my home.

WILL YE GO TO THE INDIES, MY
MARY?

Burns told Mr. Thomson in 1792: "In my very early years, when I was thinking of going to the West Indies, I took the following farewell of a dear girl.*

WILL ye go to the Indies, my Mary,

And leave auld Scotia's shore?
Will ye go to the Indies, my Mary,
Across the Atlantic's roar? 1

1 The first verse is not to be read as expressing a desire of the poet that Mary should accompany him to the West Indies; the rest of the poem makes the idea of a parting and farewell quite clear. The verse is to be accepted simply as a variation of the song whose air was adopted - Will ye go to the Exce-buchts, Marion? But for the phrases, "very early life," and "my very early years," there could be no difficulty in assigning My Highland Lassie and Will ye go to the Indies, my Mary? which is evidently another expression of the same passion, to the date 1786; but Mr. Douglas argues, that either Burns felt as if the lapse of six years had brought him out of youth into middle life, or he wished to maintain a mystery regarding the story of Mary.

Oh sweet grow the lime and the orange.

And the apple on the pine;

But a' the charms o' the Indies
Can never equal thine.

I hae sworn by the Heavens to my Mary,
I hae sworn by the Heavens to be true;
And sae may the Heavens forget me
When I forget my vow!

Oh plight me your faith, my Mary,
And plight me your lily-white hand;
Oh plight me your faith, my Mary,
Before I leave Scotia's strand.

We hae plighted our troth, my Mary,
In mutual affection to join;

And curst be the cause that shall part us,
The hour and the moment o' time!

ELIZA.

TUNE- Gilderoy.

It is to be feared that Burns was not a man for whom his admirers can safely claim steadiness of affection, any more than they can arrogate for him a romantic or platonic delicacy. It appears as if there was still another maiden high in his book of passion

during this agitating period. Of her he takes leave in terms nearly resembling those employed in the Highland Lassie, and which involve the same allusions regarding his own approaching exile from his native land.

FROM thee, Eliza, I must go,

And from my native shore:
The cruel fates between us throw
A boundless ocean's roar;
But boundless oceans, roaring wide
Between my love and me,
They never, never can divide
My heart and soul from thee.

Farewell, farewell, Eliza dear,
The maid that I adore!
A boding voice is in my ear,
We part to meet no more!
But the last throb that leaves my heart,
While death stands victor by,

That throb, Eliza, is thy part,

And thine that latest sigh!

THOUGH CRUEL FATE.

TUNE- The Northern Lass.

It serves to add to the strange confusion of the loveaffairs of Burns, that there is a canzonet in which the same ideas which we have already seen brought forward regarding an eternal constancy to Mary and Eliza are wrought up in favor of Jean. (See p. 51.)

THOUGH cruel fate should bid us part,
Far as the pole and line;

Her dear idea round my heart

Should tenderly entwine.

Though mountains rise and deserts howl,

And oceans roar between,

Yet dearer than my deathless soul,
I still would love my Jean.

ADDRESS OF BEELZEBUB.

"On Tuesday [May 23] there was a meeting of the Highland Society at London for the encouragement of the fisheries in the Highlands, etc. Three thou sand pounds were immediately subscribed by eleven gentlemen present for this particular purpose. The