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STORIES OF
studied the best models, and particularly did he follow in the footsteps of Goldsmith. Burns drew his inspiration from both English and Scottish literary sources, and he had a singular aptitude for seeing possibilities in bald and badly expressed conceptions. Burns was de-cidedly inventive in a large degree, but his gift of expression was far greater than his power of original thought. However, it is not of Burns's genius that I wish to write—that has long been acknowledged—but of " Auld Lang Syne" and his connection therewith. Naturally the phrase is of the heather born, and even the quaint lexicographer, old Jamieson, could not help growing sentimental over the soothing words, in his " Scottish Dictionary": " T o a native of the country," he says, " it conveys a soothing idea to the mind, as recalling the memory of joys that are past." It " compresses into small and euphonious measure much of the tender recollection of one's youth which, even to mid-dle-aged men, seems to be brought from a very distant but very dear past." " Auld Lang Syne," be it remembered, was a phrase in use in very early times, and it can be traced to the days of Elizabeth, in connection with the social feelings and the social gatherings of the Scot; as a con-vivial and friendly song it existed in broadsides
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