plough-tail at a single
stride, manifested in the whole strain of his bearing and conversation a
most thorough conviction that in the society of the most eminent men of
his nation he was exactly where he was entitled to be.' It was a new
world to Burns, yet he walked about as if he were of old familiar with
its ways; he conducted himself in society like one to the manner born.

All who have left written evidence of Burns's visit to Edinburgh are
agreed that he conducted himself with manliness and dignity, and all
have left record of the powerful impression his conversation made on
them. His poems were wonderful; himself was greater than his poems, a
giant in intellect. A ploughman who actually dared to have formed a
distinct conception of the doctrine of _association_ was a miracle
before which schools and scholars were dumb. 'Nothing, perhaps,' Dugald
Stewart wrote, 'was more remarkable among his various attainments than
the fluency, precision, and originality of his language when he spoke in
company; more particularly as he aimed at purity in his turn of
expression, and avoided more successfully than most Scotchmen the
peculiarities of Scottish phraseology.'

And Professor Stewart goes further than this when he speaks of the
soundness and sanity of Burns's nature. 'The attentions he received
during his stay in town from all ranks and descriptions of persons, were
such as would have turned any head but his own. He retained the same
simplicity of manner and appearance which had struck me so forcibly when
I first saw him in the country; nor did he seem to feel any additional
self-importance from the number and rank of his new acquaintance. His
dress was perfectly suited to his station, plain and unpretentious, with
a sufficient attention to neatness.' Principal Robertson has left it on
record, that he had scarcely ever met with any man whose conversation
displayed greater vigour than that of Burns. Walter Scott, a youth of
some sixteen years at the time, met Burns at the house of Dr. Adam
Ferguson, and was particularly struck with his poetic eye, 'which
literally glowed when he spoke with feeling or interest,' and with his
forcible conversation. 'Among the men who were the most learned of their
time and country, he expressed himself with perfect firmness, but
without the least intrusive forwardness; and when he differed in
opinion, he did not hesitate to express it firmly, and at the same time
with modesty.... I never s