during his stay here are all
characteristic of the man. We see a young man looking out on a world
that is new to him; moving in a society to which he had hitherto been a
stranger. His eyes are opened not only to the knowledge of mankind, but
to a better knowledge of himself. Thirsting for information and power,
we find him walking with Willie Niven, his companion from Maybole, away
from the village to where they might have peace and quiet, and converse
on subjects calculated to improve their minds. They sharpen their wits
in debate, taking sides on speculative questions, and arguing the matter
to their own satisfaction. No doubt in these conversations and debates
he was developing that gift of clear reasoning and lucid expression
which afterwards so confounded the literary and legal luminaries of
Edinburgh. They had made a study of logic, but here was a man from the
plough who held his own with them, discussing questions which in their
opinion demanded a special training. For an uncouth country ploughman
gifted with song they were prepared, but they did not expect one who
could meet them in conversation with the fence and foil of a skilled
logician. We may see also his burning desire for distinction in that
scene in school when he led the self-confident schoolmaster into debate
and left him humiliated in the eyes of the pupils. Even in his contests
with John Niven there was the same eagerness to excel. When he could not
beat him in wrestling or putting the stone, he was fain to content
himself with a display of his superiority in mental calisthenics. The
very fact that a charming _fillette_ overset his trigonometry, and set
him off at a tangent, is a characteristic ending to this summer of
study. Peggy Thomson in her kail-yard was too much for the fiery
imagination of a poet: 'it was in vain to think of doing more good at
school.'

Too much stress is not to be laid on Burns's own mention of 'scenes of
swaggering riot and dissipation' at Kirkoswald. Such things were new to
him, and made a lasting impression on his mind. We know that he returned
home very considerably improved. His reading was enlarged with the very
important addition of Thomson's and Shenstone's works. He had seen human
nature in a new phasis, and now he engaged in literary correspondence
with several of his schoolfellows.

It was not long after his return from Kirkoswald that the Bachelor's
Club was founded, and here could Burns again exercise his deba