DSS Adress on Burns 1944

ADDRESS ON BURNS: FOUND AMONGST DAVID SIME STIVEN’S PAPERS IN 2007 (No date or location on heading but January 1944 is in the text.)
I have taken the liberty of placing I Esdras Chapter 3 as a preamble. It was not part of the original document. (Bob Stiven, Comox 2007)


1 Esdras Chapter 3

The Debate of the Three Bodyguards
3 Now King Darius gave a great banquet for all that were under him, all that were born in his house, and all the nobles of Media and Persia, 2and all the satraps and generals and governors that were under him in the hundred twenty-seven satrapies from India to Ethiopia. 3They ate and drank, and when they were satisfied they went away, and King Darius went to his bedroom; he went to sleep, but woke up again.
  4 Then the three young men of the bodyguard, who kept guard over the person of the king, said to one another, 5"Let each of us state what one thing is strongest; and to the one whose statement seems wisest, King Darius will give rich gifts and great honors of victory. 6He shall be clothed in purple, and drink from gold cups, and sleep on a gold bed,a and have a chariot with gold bridles, and a turban of fine linen, and a necklace around his neck; 7and because of his wisdom he shall sit next to Darius and shall be called Kinsman of Darius."
  8 Then each wrote his own statement, and they sealed them and put them under the pillow of King Darius, 9and said, "When the king wakes, they will give him the writing; and to the one whose statement the king and the three nobles of Persia judge to be wisest the victory shall be given according to what is written." 10The first wrote, "Wine is strongest." 11The second wrote, "The king is strongest." 12The third wrote, "Women are strongest, but above all things truth is victor."b
  13 When the king awoke, they took the writing and gave it to him, and he read it. 14Then he sent and summoned all the nobles of Persia and Media and the satraps and generals and governors and prefects, 15and he took his seat in the council chamber, and the writing was read in their presence. 16He said, "Call the young men, and they shall explain their statements." So they were summoned, and came in. 17They said to them, "Explain to us what you have written."

The Speech about Wine
  Then the first, who had spoken of the strength of wine, began and said: 18"Gentlemen, how is wine the strongest? It leads astray the minds of all who drink it. 19It makes equal the mind of the king and the orphan, of the slave and the free, of the poor and the rich. 20It turns every thought to feasting and mirth, and forgets all sorrow and debt. 21It makes all hearts feel rich, forgets kings and satraps, and makes everyone talk in millions.c 22When people drink they forget to be friendly with friends and kindred, and before long they draw their swords. 23And when they recover from the wine, they do not remember what they have done. 24Gentlemen, is not wine the strongest, since it forces people to do these things?" When he had said this, he stopped speaking.

The Speech about the King
4 Then the second, who had spoken of the strength of the king, began to speak: 2"Gentlemen, are not men strongest, who rule over land and sea and all that is in them? 3But the king is stronger; he is their lord and master, and whatever he says to them they obey. 4If he tells them to make war on one another, they do it; and if he sends them out against the enemy, they go, and conquer mountains, walls, and towers. 5They kill and are killed, and do not disobey the king's command; if they win the victory, they bring everything to the king--whatever spoil they take and everything else. 6Likewise those who do not serve in the army or make war but till the soil; whenever they sow and reap, they bring some to the king; and they compel one another to pay taxes to the king. 7And yet he is only one man! If he tells them to kill, they kill; if he tells them to release, they release; 8if he tells them to attack, they attack; if he tells them to lay waste, they lay waste; if he tells them to build, they build; 9if he tells them to cut down, they cut down; if he tells them to plant, they plant. 10All his people and his armies obey him. Furthermore, he reclines, he eats and drinks and sleeps, 11but they keep watch around him, and no one may go away to attend to his own affairs, nor do they disobey him. 12Gentlemen, why is not the king the strongest, since he is to be obeyed in this fashion?" And he stopped speaking.

The Speech about Women
  13 Then the third, who had spoken of women and truth (and this was Zerubbabel), began to speak: 14"Gentlemen, is not the king great, and are not men many, and is not wine strong? Who is it, then, that rules them, or has the mastery over them? Is it not women? 15Women gave birth to the king and to every people that rules over sea and land. 16From women they came; and women brought up the very men who plant the vineyards from which comes wine. 17Women make men's clothes; they bring men glory; men cannot exist without women. 18If men gather gold and silver or any other beautiful thing, and then see a woman lovely in appearance and beauty, 19they let all those things go, and gape at her, and with open mouths stare at her, and all prefer her to gold or silver or any other beautiful thing. 20A man leaves his own father, who brought him up, and his own country, and clings to his wife. 21With his wife he ends his days, with no thought of his father or his mother or his country. 22Therefore you must realize that women rule over you!
  "Do you not labor and toil, and bring everything and give it to women? 23A man takes his sword, and goes out to travel and rob and steal and to sail the sea and rivers; 24he faces lions, and he walks in darkness, and when he steals and robs and plunders, he brings it back to the woman he loves. 25A man loves his wife more than his father or his mother. 26Many men have lost their minds because of women, and have become slaves because of them. 27Many have perished, or stumbled, or sinned because of women. 28And now do you not believe me?
  "Is not the king great in his power? Do not all lands fear to touch him? 29Yet I have seen him with Apame, the king's concubine, the daughter of the illustrious Bartacus; she would sit at the king's right hand 30and take the crown from the king's head and put it on her own, and slap the king with her left hand. 31At this the king would gaze at her with mouth agape. If she smiles at him, he laughs; if she loses her temper with him, he flatters her, so that she may be reconciled to him. 32Gentlemen, why are not women strong, since they do such things?"

The Speech about Truth
  33 Then the king and the nobles looked at one another; and Zerubbabel began to speak about truth: 34"Gentlemen, are not women strong? The earth is vast, and heaven is high, and the sun is swift in its course, for it makes the circuit of the heavens and returns to its place in one day. 35Is not the one who does these things great? But truth is great, and stronger than all things. 36The whole earth calls upon truth, and heaven blesses it. All God's worksa quake and tremble, and with him there is nothing unrighteous. 37Wine is unrighteous, the king is unrighteous, women are unrighteous, all human beings are unrighteous, all their works are unrighteous, and all such things. There is no truth in them and in their unrighteousness they will perish. 38But truth endures and is strong forever, and lives and prevails forever and ever. 39With it there is no partiality or preference, but it does what is righteous instead of anything that is unrighteous or wicked. Everyone approves its deeds, 40and there is nothing unrighteous in its judgment. To it belongs the strength and the kingship and the power and the majesty of all the ages. Blessed be the God of truth!" 41When he stopped speaking, all the people shouted and said, "Great is truth, and strongest of all!"

Address on Burns

The year in which Robert Burns was born [1759] was the year celebrated in one of the most celebrated songs in our language - Hearts of Oak. [The English words were written by the famous actor David Garrick (1716-1779) in 1759.]

It was a year in which great things were being done in India. It was the year of Quebec and Quiberon Bay [One of the finest victories in the annals of the Royal Navy was won in Quiberon Bay on France's Biscay coast near St. Nazaire on a stormy 29th of November day in 1759] So when Burns named the year of his birth as our Monarch’s hindmost year but one [George 111 died in 1760], I think he knew that men would see something kenspeckle [easily recognized] in the dating and was harking back to the opening lines of Garrick’s song to which I’ve just referred.
Come cheer up, my lads! 'tis to glory we steer,
To add something more to this wonderful year;
To honour we call you, not press you like slaves,
For who are so free as the sons of the waves?
Chorus
Heart of oak are our ships, heart of oak are our men;
We always are ready, steady, boys, steady!
We'll fight and we'll conquer again and again.]

However that may be, for us there’s no gainsaying the fact that something far more wonderful than even the achievements of Clive and Wolfe and Hawke was accomplished by Mrs. William Burness nee Agnes Brown on the 25th day of that wonderful year. So, on this Januar’ nicht of 1944, a year which looks like being even more wonderful than 1759, we meet to remember what happened then in the auld clay biggin. And, remembering may we reverently hope that before this auspicious year is out, somewhere in Scotland, be it in ancient hall our outby homestead or in a modern housing scheme, whether in blast or blitz, there may be born into a Scottish home a child who will add like lustre to our country’s fame.

You have asked me, a Minister of the Gospel, to propose an Immortal Memory tonight. Perhaps therefore you will not be surprised or take it amiss or find it out of keeping with my character as a Minister and Mason, that when thinking of Robert Burns my thoughts should also have been led to the story of a young page of Darius, King of the Persians. The name of that young page was Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel. Zerubbabel was on guard duty one night with two other pages, when time hanging heavy on their hands, they proposed a contest. The contest was this. Each was to write down what he thought was the strongest. Then on the morrow each would defend his selection by argument before the king and his court; and him who won, the king would call his cousin. (In Zerubbabel, we see, Burns had worthy precedent for his Tarbolton Club: but that’s by the way.)
[On 11 November 1780, Robert Burns and some friends formed a debating society which they named The Bachelors' Club. Their aims were to 'forget their cares and labour in mirth and diversion', to promote friendship and to improve their minds with meaningful debate. The club met regularly.]

The really important parallel is what came next. When the writings were read before the king the first said wine is the strongest, the second said the King is the strongest: the third which was Zerubbabel’s said women are strongest; but above all things Truth beareth away the victory.
It is unnecessary now to rehearse the arguments. Suffice to say that after Zerubbabel had finished all the people shouted and said “Great is the Truth and strong above all things”.

To one and one only of these powers was Robert Burns a slave and that one power was the Truth. With all the other three he had acquaintance and at one time or another felt uneasily in their sway. To none but Truth did he utterly yield and he yielded to it wholeheartedly. It is just by the complete allegiance which he bore ever to his master, Truth, that we are enabled so clearly to discern the pressure of the other three powers upon him. This thralldom to Truth it is which constitutes what is glibly called the Tragedy of Burns. And that tragedy is our tragedy. We are not so completely given over to truth as Burns was. He who prays;
“O wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!”
[last verse of To a Louse... Ha! whar ye gaun ye crowlin ferlie?”] actually was able to see himself much more clearly than others saw him. He was his own severest critic and sternest judge.

We see him at best with bleared eyes. Were that not so they’d blaze with something of that living truth which mastered him as he wrote these lines to his friend. J. Lapraik [An Old Scottish Bard, on April 1, 1785. Verse 13 of While briers an’ woodbines budding green.”]
“Gie me ae spark o' Nature's fire,
That's a' the learnin’ I desire;
Then, tho' I drudge thro' dub an' mire
At pleugh or cart,
My Muse, tho' hamely in attire,
May touch the heart.”

So he shows us himself to us warstlin thro’ the difficulties and temptations the joys and sins of life struggling with all those three powers - the cup, the king and the Lassies.

The cup, if report be true, while’s played him a shavie. But I fancy his description of it has oftener played a trick on us. [Verses 3&4 from Death and Dr Hornbook, spring 1785 “Some books are lies frae end to end.”]
“The Clachan yill [ale] had made me canty,
I was na fou, but just had plenty;
I stacher'd whyles, but yet took tent ay
To free the ditches;
An' hillocks, stanes, and bushes, kenn'd ay
Frae ghaists an' witches.

The rising moon began to glow'r
The distant Cumnock hills out-owre:
To count her horns with a' my pow'r,
I set mysel;
But whether she had three or four,
I could na tell.”

What a piece of rich humbug is here, descibing a purely imaginary state of mind into which with amazing success he tries to befuddle the reader himself before he springs his great joke upon him.

The King he reverenced but reverenced with much of the frank and honest mind of Zerubbable. For all the Mumbo Jumbo of statecraft he had no respect whatever. Who amongst us, for instance, even if he were able, would make his Income Tax return in pawky verse? [The Inventory: first line, “Sir, as your mandate did request”] And few there are with gift enough to remind a monarch in a Birthday Ode that “Facts are cheils that winna ding.”[A Dream: Guid-Mornin’ to your Majesty.”]

What we know of his relationships with women we know almost entirely from himself: and here his truthfulness shines resplendent. Here too only the eye of truth and the heart of truth, as it can (like him) condemn, so also it can praise and delight itself in that which is beautiful and tender gentle and good. Women attracted him, sometimes to error and shame, often to sublimity of sentiment and rapture of song, never to his ruin.

That which mastered him and subdued him and afterwards raised him, for all his faults and errors, high above us all was Truth. Truth it is which is the fountainhead of his magnanimity, magnanimity towards history toward life and toward people. Truth it is which enables him to see in History, even in contemporary history, something noble and grand. Hear this: It was written when men were fulsomely celebrating the centenary of the Glorious Revolution of 1688 [William of Orange arrived in England]. “Man is a strange weak insecure being: who would believe that in this our Augustan age of liberality and refinement, while we seem so justly sensible and jealous of our rights and liberties, and animated with such indignation against the very memory of those who would have subverted them, - that a certain people under our national protection should complain, not against a monarch and a few favourite advisers, but against our Whole Legislative Body , for similar oppression, and almost in the very same terms as our fathers did on the House of Stuart!! I will not, I cannot enter into the merits of the case: but I dare say the American Congress in 1776 will be allowed to be as able and as enlightened as the English Convention was in 1688; and that their posterity will will celebrate the centenary of their deliverance from us as duly and sincerely as we do ours from the wrong-headed House of Stuart.”

Truth it was also which made him see with overmastering clarity the needs of others and which compelled him to fulfill, to more than the letter, his obligations towards them - to father and mother by labour courtesy and care, to his brother with whom though sorely needing all himself he went half and half in the profits of his Kilmarnock and Edinburgh Editions, to his little Bess, to his wife and weans and most of all to his native land enriching her treasury with nearly 300 songs of his own and I know not how many more rescued from oblivion, for no recompense but the present of a shawl for his wife and 5 pounds as he lay a-dying [Burns died 21July1796 aged 37]. Truth kept him true to his Muse and to Scotia. To do them all the honour he could Truth bound him to ask for no reward.

With what unswerving singleness of purpose does the bard hold fast through years of adversity to that truth so early discovered.
“But deep this truth impress’d my mind
Thro’ all His works abroad,
The heart benevolent and kind
The most resembles God.”
[A Winter Night :1786 “When biting Boreas, fell and dour” Last stanza.]

To the eye of truth and the heart of sympathy his whole life is an unfolding of this truth of Masonry thus beautifully and concisely expressed by him in the same poem:
“Afflictions sons are brother’s in distress
A brother to relieve how exquisite the bliss.”

And now to conclude. At the one Lodge meeting of which he give any account, a meeting held in Edinburgh on 13 Jan 1787 the Grand Master himself presided and gave the toast, “Caledonia and Caledonia’s Bard Brother Burns”. We add one more echo to that toast tonight - “ R.W. M. W.W. and Brothers - The Immortal Memory of Caledonia’s Bard Brother Burns”.