text:  I must remind you that while the fact of Burns having raised himself from the rank of a Scottish ploughman by the innate force of heaven-born genius to the level of the greatest and most original poets of any age or country is the noblest feature of his history the peasantry of Scotland in their turn may be entitled to feel pride even in the presence of the proudest nobles of their land when they remember that from them and not from the privileged orders of society our greatest national genius was destined to arise