Something of his education has already been indicated. His schooling left him with a good grammatical knowledge of English and a read ing knowledge of French. His father's care and his own eagerness gave him no slight knowledge of literature; and among other authors we know that he read, of older liter ature, the Bible, Shakespeare, Spenser, Johnson, Bunyan, Dryden, Locke, Moliere, Wycherley; of his own century, Addison, Steele and Pope; Ramsay, Fergusson, Thomson and Beattie; Fielding, Smollett, Sterne and Mackenzie; Shen stone, Gray, and Goldsmith; Hume, Rob ertson and Adam Smith, and a number of philosophical and theological works. This list is by no means complete, but it is sufficient to correct the impression that Burns's was an "untutored Muse.* • The literarrinfluences apparent in the work of Burns are of two main classes: English and Scottish. So far as he fell under the former of these he was an inferior poet of the school of Pope, an ardent admirer and imitator of such a minor master as Shenstone. In this field his critical judgment was never more than com monplace, and his imitations never first-rate. Almost all of his greatest work was done in his native dialect; and here he is the heir, as well as the last great representative, of an ancient national tradition. Previous to the 17th century there existed a Scottish literature of consider ible variety and distinction, produced in part under the patronage of the court. But the Ref ormation and the union of the crowns of Eng land and Scotland resulted in the disuse of the vernacular for dignified and courtly writing, and it rapidly lost social prestige, until as a literary medium it survived only in the songs of the peasantry and in an occasional piece of satire. The 18th century, however, saw a revival of interest in purely Scottish letters, and the publication of such compilations as Watson's 'Choice Collection of Comic and Serious Scots Poems' (170(-09-11), and Allan Ramsay's 4 Evergreen' (1724) and Tea-Table Miscellany' (1724-27) was the result of an impulse that showed itself also in renewed attempts to com pose in dialect. Among the most important leaders in this movement were William Hamil ton of Gilbertfield (who modernized the 15th century poem on Wallace), Allin Ramsay and Robert Fergusson; and each of these had a share in inspiring Burns to work in that field in which he achieved his greatest triumphi. Their influence was both general and particular. They showed him by their own success what could be done in the native idiorn; and they gave him models.of which, he was not slow to avail himself. Many of Burns's best known poems are all but imitations of productions, usually inferior, by Ramsay and Fergusson, and to them and their poetical ancestors he was indebted not only for suggestions as to theme and method of treatment, but also for his most characteristic verse-forms. This readiness on the part of Burns to accept from his prede cessors all that they had to give, and to seek to maintain loyally a national tradition rather than to strive after mere novelty, has much to do with his success in carrying that tradition to its highest pitch, and in becoming, in a sense almost unique, the poet of his people.
The first kind of poetry which Burns thor oughly mastered was satire; and the most im portant of his successful efforts in this form, 'The Twa Herds, or the Holy Tulzie,' 'Holy Willie's Prayer,' The 'Address to the Unco Guid,' 'The Holy Fair,' and the 'Address to the Deil," were all written within less than a year (1785-86). Whatever Burns's feelings may have been about what he suffered in his own Orson from the discipline of the Kirk, it is clear that the irlipulse that gave these poems their fire and their influence was something much larger than mere personal grudge.
Against the narrow dogma and tyrannical con duct of the so-called'"Auld Licht" party in the Scottish Church, there had sprung up the °New Lichts," demanding some relaxation .of Calvin istic bonds and preaching charity and tolerance. Though not a member of this or any ecclesias tical faction, Burns sympathized strongly with their protest; and the shafts of his satire were directed against both the doctrines of the ortho dox party and their local leaders. For some time after the Reformation the Scottish people seem to have submitted willingly to the rig orous domination of the Presbyterian ministers; but, after the struggle against Rome and the persecutions of the Covenanting times had alike become matters of history, there began to ap pear a more critical attitude toward their spiritual leaders. The revolt against authority that spread throughout Europe in the latter part of the 18th century manifested itself in Scot land in a growing disposition to demand greater individual liberty in matters of conduct and belief. It was this disposition that Burns voiced in his satires, the local conditions determining the precise direction of his attack. The sub stantial justice of his causy, the sharpness of his wit, the vigor of his invective, and the im aginative fervor of his verse, all combined to bring the matter home to his countrymen; and he is here to be reckoned a great liberating force.
Several of the satires were published in the Kilmarnock volume, and along with them a va riety of other kinds of poetry. In the words of his preface, °he sings the sentiments and man ners he felt and saw in himself and his rustic compeers around him?' Some of these arc de scriptive of sides of humble Scottish life with which he himself was.in the closest contact. 'The Twa Dogs' gives a 'democratic peasant's views of the lives of lairds and farmers; and the sketch of the factor in this poem has been taken as a reminiscence of whit his father had to endure from the arrogance of such an agent. 'The Cotter's Saturday Night' describes with affectionate reverence the order of his father's house; 'Puir Mailie,' 'The Auld Mare Mag gie,'