Of the republic of uzbekistan andizhan state university faculty of foreign languages department of grammar and practical course of the english language

2:Depiction of social views about religion in the poems of R.Burns
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Burns's letters and poems have been quoted in support of nearly every variant of religious belief practiced in this country since the eighteenth century. He has also been accused of perpetrating fearful sins, notably by the Reverend Dr William Peebles of Newton-on-Ayr — Burns called him 'Peebles frae the water-fitt' in 'The Holy Fair' — in a work called Burnomania published in 1811 Peebles alleged that in Burns's life and in his poetry, 'sinfulness, gross immoralities and irreligion' were 'celebrated, extenuated, vindicated: the worst of passions indulged and gratified: the sacred truths of religion treated with levity, and made the song of the drunkard Poet Willie; Ye only stood by where he sh-."
The feelings behind Dr Peebles's revengeful nonsense can thus easily be understood. Later claimants on Burns's religious allegiance are scarcely less disingenuous. Thus J. R. Campbell, in Burns the Democrat (1945), states that 'on one thing Burns never wavered — the existence of a good, benevolent God', while A. B. Jamieson, in Burns and Religion (1931), makes the extraordinary claim that Burns was more of a Calvinist than he knew, and that 'Holy Willie's Prayer' was, in fact, 'the ridicule of his own sincerest feelings and profoundest experiences'.
In an age when Christian beliefs no longer hold sway over the majority, it becomes easier to assess what Burns's attitude may have been from his own writings, theand the abandoned profligate'.
Authority, however intolerant and absurd its behavior, does not like to be flouted or ridiculed. Peebles, who fancied himself something of a poet, had in 1788, written verses on the Centenary of the Revolution, containing the line: 'And bound in Liberty's endearing chain'. So, in 'The Kirk's Alarm, Burns castigated him:
"Poet Willie. Poet Willie, gie the Doctor a volley,
Wi' your 'liberty's chain' and your wit;
O'er Pegasus' side ye ne'er laid a stride,
Ye only stood by where he sh -
only source of evidence that is of any value.
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True, William Burnes was a Calvinist of sorts, but one tinged with the new liberalism which was then in the air. This is reflected in the work to which the young Burns was exposed, the Manual of Religious Belief in the Form of a Dialogue between Father and Son, compiled, in all probability, by Burns himself or by Burns's teacher Murdoch at Burnes's behest. According to the autobiographical letter to Dr Moore, Burns was a deeply religious boy, for he described his beliefs at this time as 'enthusiastic, idiot piety'.
Quite early on, Burns seems seriously to have begun to question the very foundations of religious belief, for on 21st March 1787, he told his boyhood friend James Candlish: 'I likewise, since you and I were first acquainted, in the pride of despising old women's stories, ventured in 'the daring path Spinzoa trod' — a quotation from John Brown's Essay on Satire — 'but experience of the weakness, not the strength, of human powers, made me glad to grasp at revealed religion.'
From this, and from other letters, it seems clear that at this time Burns had doubts about religion but wanted to believe in it, though not necessarily in any of the forms purveyed in his day; a point made again in a letter to Clarinda dated 8th January 1788: 'A mind pervaded, actuated, and governed by purity, truth and charity, though it does not merit heaven, yet is an absolutely necessary prerequisite, without which heaven can neither be obtained nor enjoyed; and, by Divine promise, such a mind shall never fail to attain 'everlasting life:' hence the impure, the deceiving, and the uncharitable exclude themselves from eternal bliss, by their unfitness for enjoying it.... [Christ] will bring us all, through various ways, and by various means, to bliss at last.' Burns added, more specifically: 'My creed is pretty nearly expressed in the last clause of Jamie Deans's grace, an honest weaver in Ayrshire: 'Lord, grant that we may lead a gude life; for a gude life makes a gude end; at least, it helps weel!'
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In his poems, Burns shows us that the laboring class were brave and optimistic, and found a degree or happiness and contentent with the bare necessities of life. He impresses us with the thought that the Scottish peasant wrestled all his life with poverty and misfortune, but that he endured his troubles witn patience and died in peace, because he had learned the secret of victory over self. The general view of the land cape served as an explanation of many drawbacks that Burns' peasants had to face in their struggle for a living. Scottish landscape presented a bleak and deplorable condition, except where the natural woods survived in the sheltered valleys. The Twa Dogs gives us a picture of the two sides of Scottish country life. It rests on the distinction between a privileged gentry and an unprivileged peasantry. Burns has shown us that the homely relations that had existed in former days between the richer and the poorer classes were growing less because of the prosperity of the gentry. In the Cotter's Saturday Night and Hallowe'en we have pictures of the same rural life, into which the disturbing influences of class distribution does not enter. There the peasant forgets there is such a thing as social unequality and describes the peasantry in the quiet dignity and devotion of their homes, and in the innocent mirth of their rustic festivals. The first important aspect of domestic life of the peasants is found, undoubtedly, in the strength of their domestic attachments. This striking characteristic of family relations is revealed by Burns in his intimate scenes pictures in the Cotter's Saturday Night. Here we find scenes that are typical of the home life of the majority of the peasants of his day. From this poem we can conclude that the peasants were naturally grave, hospitable, friendly, and had a peculiar attachment for their own country and families. The attitude of the peasant was one of contentment with the simple necessities of life and independence which caused him the sacrifice himself to any extent for the welfare of his family. "Contented wi' little, but cantie wi' mair" is a typical attitude of the peasant toward his simple existence. The subject of religion enters to a vital extent into the body of Burns' writings.
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He pictures the simple faith and practices of the Scottish peasantry, the official religion of the kirk, and his own personal expressions of religious thoughts and feelings. The Scottish peasant realized the value of simple faith in the upbuilding of character. The Cotter's Saturday Night gives a faithful and loving portrayal of the devout side of rustic life. The other side of Scottish religion was that represented in the kirk theology. Burns' sympathies were aroused against the intolerance, hypocrisy and uncharitableness fostered by the old orthodoxy. His sense of humor and power of sarcasm are revealed in The Twa Herds, and Holy Willies Prayer. The peasants living in the rural country of Scotland were of a superstitious nature, believing in witches, ghosts, fairies, and devils. The poems Hallowe'en and Tam O' Shanter reveal to us many of their superstitious beliefs. From Burns' poems we have a glimpse of Scotch peasant life that makes us almost reverence these heroic men and women, who kept their faith and their self-respect in the face of poverty, and whose hearts, under their rough exteriors, were tender and true as steel How totally he rejected Calvinism is made plain in his letter to Mrs Dunlop of 2nd August 1788:
'I am in perpetual warfare with that doctrine of our Reverend Priesthood, that 'we are born into this world bond slaves of iniquity and heirs of perdition; wholly inclined to that which is evil and wholly disinclined to that which is good until by a kind of Spiritual Filtration or rectifying process Called effectual Calling & etc.-' The whole business is reversed, and our connections above and below completely change place. I believe in my conscience that the case is just quite contrary. We came into this world with a heart and disposition to do good for it, until by dashing a large mixture of base Alloy called Prudence alias Selfishness, the too precious Metal of the Soul is brought down to