The tranquil, affectionate, and contented spirit that shines out in the "Attempts" is in keeping with the tone of this letter; and if Burns was right when he told Dugald Stewart that no man could understand the pleasure he felt in seeing the smoke curling up from a cottage chimney, who had not been born and bred, like himself, in such abodes, and therefore knew how much worth and happiness they contain; and if the works of that great poet have, in spite of many licentious passages, been found, on the whole, productive of a wholesome effect in society, through their aim and power to awaken sympathy and respect between classes whom fortune has placed asunder, surely this old man's verses ought to meet with no cold reception among those who appreciate the value of kindly relations between masters and dependents. In them they will trace the natural influence of that old system of manners which was once general throughout England; under which the young domestic was looked after, by his master and mistress, with a sort of parental solicitude—admonished kindly for petty faults, commended for good conduct, advised, and encouraged—and which held out to him, who should spend a series of years honestly and dutifully in one household, the sure hope of being considered and treated in old age as a humble friend. Persons who breathe habitually the air of a crowded city, where the habits of life are such that the man often knows little more of his master than that master does of his next-door neighbour, will gather instruction as well as pleasure from the glimpses which John Jones's history and lucubrations afford of the interior machinery of life in a yet unsophisticated region of the country. His little complimentary stanzas on the birthdays, and such other festivals of the family—his inscriptions to their neighbour Mrs. Laurence, of Studley Park, and the like, are equally honourable to himself and his benevolent superiors; and the simple purity of his verses of love or gallantry, inspired by village beauties of his own station, may kindle a blush on the cheeks of most of those whose effusions are now warbled over fashionable piano-fortes.

The stanzas which first claimed and won the favourable consideration of the poet laureate were these 'To a Robin Red-breast:'

"Sweet social bird, with breast of red, How prone's my heart to favour thee! Thy look oblique, thy prying head, Thy gentle affability; "Thy cheerful song in winter's cold, And, when no other lay is heard, Thy visits paid to young and old, Where fear appals each other bird; "Thy friendly heart, thy nature mild, Thy meekness and docility, Creep to the love of man and child, And win thine own felicity. "The gleanings of the sumptuous board, Convey'd by some indulgent fair, Are in a nook of safety stored, And not dispensed till thou art there. "In stately hall and rustic dome, The gaily robed and homely poor Will watch the hour when thou shall come, And bid thee welcome to the door. "The Herdsman on the upland hill, The Ploughman in the hamlet near, Are prone thy little paunch to fill, And pleased thy little psalm to hear. "The Woodman seated on a log His meal divides atween the three, And now himself, and now his dog, And now he casts a crumb to thee. "For thee a feast the Schoolboy strews At noontide, when the form's forsook; A worm to thee the Delver throws, And Angler when he baits his hook. "At tents where tawny Gipsies dwell, In woods where Hunters chase the hind, And at the Hermit's lonely cell, Dost thou some crumbs of comfort find. "Nor are thy little wants forgot In Beggar's hut or Crispin's stall; The Miser only feeds thee not, Who suffers ne'er a crumb to fall. "The Youth who strays, with dark design, To make each well-stored nest a prey, If dusky hues denote them thine, Will draw his pilfering hand away. "The Finch a spangled robe may wear, The Nightingale delightful sing, The Lark ascend most high in air, The Swallow fly most swift on wing, "The Peacock's plumes in pride may swell, The Parrot prate eternally, But yet no bird man loves so well, As thou with thy simplicity."

Among many affectionate tributes to the kind family in whose service he has spent so many years, not the worst are some lines occasioned by the death of Miss Sadlier Bruere, written a few months afterwards (December 1826) at Tours:

"Thou wert miss'd in the group when the eye look'd around, And miss'd by the ear was thy voice in the sound; Thy chamber was darksome, thy bell was unrung, Thy footstep unheard, and thy lyre unstrung: A stillness prevail'd at the mournful repast; In tears was the eye on thy vacant seat cast. Each scene wearing gloom, and each brow bearing care, Too plainly denoted that death had been there. To earth we consign'd thee, and made an advance, The thought to beguile, to the vineyards of France. But 'twould not be cheated; of all that was rare, Fond Nature kept whispering a wish thou could'st share: No air softly swelling, no chord struck with glee, But awoke in the bosom remembrance of thee. Even now, as the cold winds adown the leaves bring, We sigh that our flow'ret was blighted in spring."

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The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 17, No. 475, February 5, 1831

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