THEIR AUTHORS AND ORIGIN. 243
expression to his own pensive feelings in his inimitable pathetic " Elegy on Spring," especially in verse sixteen :
" Now spring returns ; but not to me returns
The vernal joy my better years have known ; Dim in my breast life s dying taper burns,
And all the joys of life with health are flown."
He had purposed publishing his poems during his life, but finding his strength waning, he obtained a volume of paper, and daily occupied himself in transcribing his " Ode to the Cuckoo," "Hymns," and " Paraphrases," and "Elegy on Spring," and whatever he thought worthy of preservation. During the latter part of his illness he was confined to his bed. His constant com panion was his little pocket Bible, from which he used to commit passages to memory, and repeat and comment upon them to visitors. After maintaining his Christian cheerfulness to the end, he was found dead on the morning of the 5th of July, 1767, having passed peacefully away in his sleep.
The manuscript volume he had prepared in his last illness was obtained from the poet s parents by Logan, that he might publish it for their benefit. But after waiting for its appearance for some time in vain, the family received no advantage, and the manuscript was not restored. In 1770, Logan published a small volume, entitled "Poems on Several Occasions," by Michael Bruce. In the preface, Logan professes to have added several poems to make up a miscellany. He says that these are by other authors, and that only seven of the seventeen poems are by Bruce. The omission from this book of the " Ode to the Cuckoo," and the well-known " Gospel Sonnets," excited the surprise and indigna tion of Bruce s former companions. His father went to Edin burgh to remonstrate with Logan, but could obtain no satisfaction. These " sonnets," as the villagers called them, had been pre pared by Bruce to be used at a singing-class to which he belonged. Buchan, the leader of the class, had asked Bruce to prepare them in place of some unsuitable pieces they were using. The poet s successful hymns were well-known, because some of
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