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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Letters of Robert Burns, by Robert Burns
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Letters of Robert Burns
+
+Author: Robert Burns
+
+Posting Date: October 29, 2011 [EBook #9863]
+Release Date: February, 2006
+First Posted: October 25, 2003
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LETTERS OF ROBERT BURNS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Charles Franks, Debra Storr and PG Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+BURNS'S LETTERS.
+
+THE LETTERS OF ROBERT BURNS,
+
+SELECTED AND ARRANGED,
+
+WITH AN INTRODUCTION,
+
+BY J. LOGIE ROBERTSON, M.A.
+
+
+
+_"You shall write whatever comes first,--what you see, what you read,
+what you hear, what you admire, what you dislike; trifles, bagatelles,
+nonsense, or, to fill up a corner, e'en put down a laugh at full
+length"_--Burns.
+
+_"My life reminded me of a ruined temple: what strength, what proportion
+in some parts! what unsightly gaps, what prostrate ruin in
+others!"_--Burns.
+
+
+
+GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE
+
+To Ellison or Alison Begbie (?)
+
+To Ellison Begbie
+
+To Ellison Begbie
+
+To Ellison Begbie
+
+To Ellison Begbie
+
+To his Father
+
+To Sir John Whitefoord, Bart., of Ballochmyle
+
+To Mr. John Murdoch, schoolmaster, Staples Inn Buildings, London
+
+To his Cousin, Mr. James Burness, writer, Montrose
+
+To Mr. James Burness, writer, Montrose
+
+To Mr. James Burness, writer, Montrose
+
+To Thomas Orr, Park, Kirkoswald
+
+To Miss Margaret Kennedy
+
+To Miss----, Ayrshire
+
+To Mr. John Richmond, law clerk, Edinburgh
+
+To Mr. James Smith, shopkeeper, Mauchline
+
+To Mr. Robert Muir, wine merchant, Kilmarnock
+
+To Mr. John Ballantine, banker, Ayr
+
+To Mr. M'Whinnie, writer, Ayr
+
+To John Arnot, Esquire, of Dalquatswood
+
+To Mr. David Brice, shoemaker, Glasgow
+
+To Mr. John Richmond, Edinburgh
+
+To Mr. John Richmond
+
+To Mr. John Kennedy
+
+To his Cousin, Mr. James Burness, writer, Montrose
+
+To Mrs. Stewart, of Stair
+
+To Mr. Robert Aikin, writer, Ayr
+
+To Dr. Mackenzie, Mauchline; inclosing him verses on dining with Lord
+Daer
+
+To Mrs. Dunlop, of Dunlop
+
+To Miss Alexander
+
+In the Name of the Nine. _Amen_
+
+To James Dalrymple, Esquire, Orangefield
+
+To Sir. John Whitefoord
+
+To Mr. Gavin Hamilton, Mauchline
+
+To Mr. John Ballantine, banker, at one time Provost of Ayr
+
+To Mr. Robert Muir
+
+To Mr. William Chambers, writer, Ayr
+
+To the Earl of Eglinton
+
+To Mr. John Ballantine
+
+To Mrs. Dunlop
+
+To Dr. Moore
+
+To the Rev. G. Lawrie, Newmilns, near Kilmarnock
+
+To the Earl of Buchan
+
+To Mr. James Candlish, student in physic, Glasgow College
+
+To Mr. Peter Stuart, Editor of "The Star," London
+
+To Mrs. Dunlop
+
+To Mrs. Dunlop
+
+To Dr. Moore
+
+To Mrs. Dunlop
+
+To Mr. William Nicol, classical master, High School, Edinburgh
+
+To Mr. William Nicol
+
+To Mr. Robert Ainslie
+
+To Mr. James Smith, Linlithgow, formerly of Mauchline
+
+To Mr. John Richmond
+
+To Mr. Robert Ainslie
+
+To Dr. Moore
+
+To Mr. Archibald Lawrie
+
+To Mr. Robert Muir, Kilmarnock
+
+To Mr. Gavin Hamilton
+
+To Mr. Walker, Blair of Athole
+
+To his Brother, Mr. Gilbert Burns, Mossgiel
+
+To Mr. Patrick Miller, Dalswinton
+
+To Rev. John Skinner
+
+To Miss Margaret Chalmers, Harvieston
+
+To Mrs. Dunlop of Dunlop House, Stewarton
+
+To Mr. James Hoy, Gordon Castle
+
+To the Earl of Glencairn
+
+To Miss Chalmers
+
+To Miss Chalmers
+
+To Miss Chalmers
+
+To Mr. Richard Brown, Irvine
+
+To Mrs. Dunlop
+
+To Mrs. Dunlop
+
+To the Rev. John Skinner
+
+To Mrs. Rose, of Kilravock
+
+To Richard Brown, Greenock
+
+To Mr. William Cruikshank
+
+To Mr. Robert Ainslie
+
+To Mr. Richard Brown
+
+To Mr. Robert Muir
+
+To Mrs. Dunlop
+
+To Mr. William Nicol (perhaps)
+
+To Miss Chalmers
+
+THE CLARINDA LETTERS
+
+GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE (RESUMED)--
+
+To Mr. Gavin Hamilton
+
+To Mr. William Dunbar, W.S., Edinburgh
+
+To Mrs. Dunlop
+
+To Mr. James Smith, Avon Printfield, Linlithgow
+
+To Professor Dugald Stewart
+
+To Mrs. Dunlop
+
+To Mr. Samuel Brown, Kirkoswald
+
+To Mr. James Johnson, engraver, Edinburgh
+
+To Mr. Robert Ainslie
+
+To Mrs. Dunlop
+
+To Mrs. Dunlop, at Mr. Dunlop's, Haddington
+
+To Mr. Robert Ainslie
+
+To Mr. Robert Ainslie
+
+To Mrs. Dunlop
+
+To Mr. Peter Hill, bookseller, Edinburgh
+
+To Mrs. Dunlop
+
+To Mrs. Dunlop
+
+To Mr. Beugo, engraver, Edinburgh
+
+To Mr. Robert Graham, of Fintry
+
+To his Wife, at Mauchline.
+
+To Miss Chalmers, Edinburgh
+
+To Mr. Morison, wright, Mauchline
+
+To Mrs. Dunlop, of Dunlop
+
+To Mr. Peter Hill
+
+To the Editor of the "Star"
+
+To Mrs. Dunlop, at Moreham Mains
+
+To Dr. Blacklock
+
+To Mrs. Dunlop
+
+To Mr. John Tennant
+
+To Mrs. Dunlop
+
+To Dr. Moore, London
+
+To Mr. Robert Ainslie
+
+To Professor Dugald Stewart
+
+To Mr. Robert Cleghorn, Saughton Mills
+
+To Bishop Geddes, Edinburgh
+
+To Mr. James Burness
+
+To Mrs. Dunlop
+
+To, Mrs. M'Lehose (formerly Clarinda)
+
+To Dr. Moore
+
+To his Brother, Mr. William Burns
+
+To Mr. Hill, bookseller, Edinburgh
+
+To Mrs. M'Murdo, Drumlanrig
+
+To Mr. Cunningham
+
+To Mr. Richard Brown
+
+To Mr. Robert Ainslie
+
+To Mrs. Dunlop
+
+To Miss Helen Maria Williams
+
+To Mr. Robert Graham, of Fintry.
+
+To David Sillar, merchant, Irvine.
+
+To Mr. John Logan, of Knock Shinriock
+
+To Mr. Peter Stuart, editor, London
+
+To his Brother, William Burns, saddler, Newcastle-on-Tyne
+
+To Mrs. Dunlop
+
+To Captain Riddel, Friars Carse
+
+To Mr. Robert Ainslie, W.S.
+
+To Mr. Richard Brown, Port-Glasgow
+
+To Mr. R. Graham, of Fintry
+
+To Mrs. Dunlop
+
+To Lady Winifred M. Constable
+
+To Mr. Charles K. Sharpe, of Hoddam
+
+To his Brother, Gilbert Burns, Mossgiel
+
+To Mr. William Dunbar, W.S.
+
+To Mrs. Dunlop
+
+To Mr. Peter Hill, bookseller, Edinburgh
+
+To Mr. W. Nicol
+
+To Mr. Cunningham, writer, Edinburgh
+
+To Mr. Hill, bookseller, Edinburgh
+
+To Mrs. Dunlop
+
+To Dr. John Moore, London
+
+To Mr. Murdoch, teacher of French, London
+
+To Mr. Cunningham
+
+To Mr. Crauford Tait, W.S., Edinburgh
+
+To Mrs. Dunlop
+
+To Mr. William Dunbar, W.S.
+
+To Mr. Peter Hill
+
+To Dr. Moore
+
+To Mrs. Dunlop
+
+To the Rev. Arch. Alison
+
+To the Rev. G. Haird
+
+To Mr. Cunningharn, writer, Edinburgh
+
+To Mrs. Dunlop
+
+To Mr. Cunningham
+
+To Mr. Thomas Sloan
+
+To Mr. Ainslie
+
+To Miss Davies
+
+To Mrs. Dunlop
+
+To Mr. William Smellie, printer
+
+To Mr. William Nicol
+
+To Mr. Francis Grose, F.S.A
+
+To Mrs. Dunlop
+
+To Mr. Cunningham
+
+To Mrs. Dunlop
+
+To Mrs. Dunlop
+
+To Mrs. Dunlop
+
+To Mr. R. Graham, Fintry
+
+To Mrs. Dunlop
+
+To Mr. Robert Graham, of Fintry
+
+To Mr. Alex. Cunningham, W.S., Edinbiugh
+
+To Mr. Cunningham
+
+To Miss Benson, York, afterwards Mrs. Basil Montagu
+
+To Mr. John Francis Erskine, of Mar
+
+To Miss M'Murdo, Drumlanrig
+
+To John M'Murdo, Esq., Drumlanrig
+
+To Mrs. Riddel
+
+To Mrs. Riddel
+
+To Mrs. Riddel
+
+To Mrs. Riddel
+
+To Mr. Cunningham
+
+To Mrs. Dunlop
+
+To Mr. James Johnson
+
+To Mr. Peter Hill, Jun., of Dalswinton
+
+To Mrs. Riddel
+
+To Mrs. Dunlop
+
+To Mrs. Dunlop, in London
+
+To the Hon. The Provost, etc., of Damfries
+
+To Mrs. Dunlop
+
+To Mr James Johnson
+
+To Mr. Cunningham
+
+To Mr. Gilbert Burns
+
+To Mrs. Burns
+
+To Mrs. Dunlop
+
+To Mr. James Burness, writer, Montrose
+
+To his Father-in-law, James Armour, mason, Mauchline
+
+THE THOMSON LETTERS
+
+
+
+BURNS'S LETTERS.
+
+It is not perhaps generally known that the prose of Burns exceeds in
+quantity his verse. The world remembers him as a poet, and forgets or
+overlooks his letters. His place among the poets has never been
+denied--it is in the first rank; nor is he lowest, though little
+remembered, among letter-writers. His letters gave Jeffrey a higher
+opinion of him as a man than did his poetry, though on both alike the
+critic saw the seal and impress of genius. Dugald Stewart thought his
+letters objects of wonder scarcely less than his poetry. And Robertson,
+comparing his prose with his verse, thought the former the more
+extraordinary of the two. In the popular view of his genius there is,
+however, no denying the fact that his poetry has eclipsed his prose.
+
+His prose consists mostly of letters, but it also includes a noble
+fragment of autobiography; three journals of observations made at
+Mossgiel, Edinburgh, and Ellisland respectively; two itineraries, the
+one of his border tour, the other of his tour in the Highlands; and
+historical notes to two collections of Scottish songs. A full
+enumeration of his prose productions would take account also of his
+masonic minutes, his inscriptions, a rather curious business paper drawn
+up by the poet-exciseman in prosecution of a smuggler, and of course his
+various prefaces, notably the dedication of his poems to the members of
+the Caledonian Hunt.
+
+His letters, however, far exceed the sum of his other-prose writings.
+Close upon five hundred and forty have already been published. These are
+not all the letters he ever wrote. Where, for example, is the literary
+correspondence in which he engaged so enthusiastically with his
+Kirkoswald schoolfellows? "Though I had not three farthings' worth of
+business in the world, yet every post brought me as many letters as if I
+had been a broad-plodding son of daybook and ledger." Where are the
+letters which brought to the ploughman at Lochlie such a constant and
+copious stream of replies? The circumstances of his position will
+explain why they perished: he was then "a youth and all unknown to
+fame." It is even doubtful if the five hundred and forty published
+letters include all the letters of Burns that now exist. Scarcely a year
+passes but some epistolary scrap in the well-known handwriting is
+unearthed and ceremoniously added to the previous sum total, And yet,
+notwithstanding losses past or within recall, it is probable that we
+have long had the whole of Burns's most characteristic letters. It was
+inevitable that these should be preserved and published. His fame was so
+rooted in the popular regard in his lifetime, that a characteristic
+letter from his hand was sure to be received as something singularly
+precious. It must not be forgotten, however, that Burns's personality
+was so intense as to colour the smallest fragment of his correspondence,
+and it is on this account desirable that every note he penned that yet
+remains unpublished should be produced. It might give no new feature to
+our conception of his character; but it would help the shading--which,
+in the portraiture of any person, must chiefly be furnished by the minor
+and more commonplace actions of his everyday life.
+
+The correspondence of Burns, as we have it, commences, presumably, near
+the close of his twenty-second year, and extends to all but exactly the
+middle of his thirty-eighth. The dates are a day somewhere at the end of
+1780, and Monday, 18th July 1796. Between these limits lies the printed
+correspondence of sixteen years. The sum total of this correspondence
+allows about thirty-four letters to each year, but the actual
+distribution is very unequal, ranging from the minimum, in 1782, of one,
+a masonic letter addressed to Sir John Whitefoord of Ballochmyle, to the
+maximum number of ninety-two, in 1788, the great year of the Clarinda
+episode. It is in 1786, the year of the publication of his first volume
+at Kilmarnock, the year of his literary birth, that his correspondence
+first becomes heavy. It rises at a leap from two letters in the
+preceding year to as many as forty-four. The phenomenal increase is
+partly explained by the success of his poems. He became a man that was
+worth the knowing, whose correspondence was worth preserving. The six
+years of his published correspondence previous to the discovery of his
+genius in 1786 are represented by only fourteen letters in all. But in
+those years his letters, though both numerous and prized above the
+common, were not considered as likely to be of future interest, and were
+therefore suffered to live or die as chance might determine. They mostly
+perished, the recipients thinking it hardly worth their while to be sae
+nice wi' Robin as to preserve them.
+
+After the recognition of his power in 1786, the record of his preserved
+letters shews, for the ten years of his literary life, several
+fluctuations which admit of easy explanation. Commencing with 1787, the
+numbers are:--78, 92, 54, 33, 44, 31, 66, 30, 27, 24. The first of these
+years was totally severed from rural occupations, or business of any
+kind, if we except the publication of the first Edinburgh edition of his
+poems. It was a complete holiday year to him. He was either resident in
+Edinburgh, studying men and manners, or touring about the country,
+visiting those places which history, song, or scenery had made famous.
+Wherever he was, his fame brought him the acquaintance of a great many
+new people. His leisure and the novelty of his situation afforded him
+both opportunity and subject for an extensive correspondence. For a
+large part of the next year, 1788, he was similarly circumstanced, and
+the number of his letters was exceptionally increased by his
+entanglement with Mrs. M'Lehose. To her alone, in less than three months
+of this year, he wrote at least thirty-six letters,--considerably over
+one-third of the entire epistolary produce of the year. In 1789 we find
+the number of his letters fall to fifty-four. This was, perhaps, the
+happiest year of his life. He was now comfortably established as a
+farmer in a home of his own, busied with healthy rural work, and finding
+in the happy fireside clime which he was making for wife and weans "the
+true pathos and sublime" of human duty. He has still, however, time and
+inclination to write on the average one letter a week. For each of the
+next three years the average number is thirty-six. In 1793 the number
+suddenly goes up to sixty-six: the increase is due to the heartiness
+with which he took up the scheme of George Thomson to popularise and
+perpetuate the best old Scottish airs by fitting them with words worthy
+of their merits. He wrote, in this year, twenty-six letters in support
+of the scheme.
+
+There is a sad falling off in Burns's ordinary correspondence in the
+last three years of his life. The amount of it scarcely touches twenty
+letters per year. Even the correspondence with Thomson, though on a
+subject so dear to the heart of Burns, rousing at once both his
+patriotism and his poetry, sinks to about ten letters per year, and is
+irregular at that. Burns was losing hope and health, and caring less and
+less for the world's favour and the world's friendships. He had lost
+largely in self-respect as well as in the respect of friends. The loss
+gave him little heart to write.
+
+Burns's correspondents, as far as we know them, numbered over a hundred
+and fifty persons. The number is large and significant. Neither Gray,
+nor Cowper, nor Byron commanded so wide a circle. They had not the
+far-reaching sympathies of Burns. They were all more or less fastidious
+in their choice of correspondents. Burns, on the contrary, was as
+catholic, or as careless, in his friendships as his own _Caesar_--who
+
+  "Wad spend an hour caressin'
+   Ev'n wi' a tinkler gipsy's messan."
+
+He moved freely up and down the whole social scale, blind to the
+imaginary distinctions of blood and title and the extrinsic differences
+of wealth, seeing true superiority in an honest manly heart, and bearing
+himself wherever he found it as an equal and a brother. His
+correspondents were of every social grade--peers and peasants; of every
+intellectual attainment--philosophers like Dugald Stewart, and simple
+swains like Thomas Orr; and of almost every variety of calling, from
+professional men of recognised eminence to obscure shopkeepers, cottars,
+and tradesmen. They include servant-girls, gentlewomen, and ladies of
+titled rank; country schoolmasters and college professors; men of law of
+all degrees, from poor John Richmond, a plain law-clerk with a lodging
+in the Lawnmarket, to the Honourable Henry Erskine, Dean of the Faculty;
+farmers, small and large; lairds, large and small; shoemakers and
+shopkeepers; ministers, bankers, and doctors; printers, booksellers,
+editors; knights, earls--nay, a duke; factors and wine-merchants; army
+officers, and officers of Excise. His female correspondents were women
+of superior intelligence and accomplishments. They can lay claim to a
+large proportion of his letters. Mrs. McLehose takes forty-eight; Mrs.
+Dunlop, forty-two; Maria Riddell, eighteen; Peggy Chalmers, eleven.
+These four ladies received among them rather more than one-fourth of the
+whole of his published correspondence. No four of his male
+correspondents can be accredited with so many, even though George
+Thomson for his individual share claims fifty-six.
+
+It is rather remarkable that so few of the letters are addressed to his
+own relatives. His cousin, James Burness of Montrose, and his own
+younger brother William receive, indeed, ten and eight respectively; but
+to his other brother Gilbert, with whom he was on the most affectionate
+and confidential terms, there fall but three; to his wife only two; one
+to his father; and none to either his sisters or his mother. A maternal
+uncle, Samuel Brown, is favoured with one--if, indeed, the old man was
+not scandalised with it--and there are two to James Armour, mason in
+Mauchline, his somewhat stony-hearted father-in-law.
+
+Burns's letters exhibit quite as much variety of mood--seldom, of
+course, so picturesquely conveyed--as his poems. He is, in promiscuous
+alternation, refined, gross, sentimental, serious, humorous, indignant,
+repentant, dignified, vulgar, tender, manly, sceptical, reverential,
+rakish, pathetic, sympathetic, satirical, playful, pitiably self-abased,
+mysteriously self-exalted. His letters are confessions and revelations.
+They are as sincerely and spontaneously autobiographical of his inner
+life as the sacred lyrics of David the Hebrew. They were indited with as
+much free fearless abandonment. The advice he gave to young Andrew to
+keep something to himsel', not to be told even to a bosom crony, was a
+maxim of worldly prudence which he himself did not practice. He did not
+"reck his own rede." And, though that habit of unguarded expression
+brought upon him the wrath and revenge of the Philistines, and kept him
+in material poverty all his days, yet, prompted as it always was by
+sincerity, and nearly always by absolute truth, it has made the manhood
+of to-day richer, stronger, and nobler. The world to-day has all the
+more the courage of its opinions that Burns exercised as a right the
+freedom of sincere and enlightened speech--and suffered for his bravery.
+
+The subjects of his letters are numerous, and, to a pretty large extent,
+of much the same sort as the subjects of his poems. Often, indeed, you
+have the anticipation of an image or a sentiment which his poetry has
+made familiar. You have a glimpse of green buds which afterwards unfold
+into fragrance and colour. This is an interesting connection, of which
+one or two examples may be given. So early as 1781 he wrote to Alison
+Begbie--"Once you are convinced I am sincere, I am perfectly certain you
+have too much goodness and humanity to allow an honest man to languish
+in suspense only because he loves you too well." Alison Begbie becomes
+Mary Morison, and the sentiment, so elegantly turned in prose for her,
+is thus melodiously transmuted for the lady-loves of all
+languishing lovers--
+
+  "O Mary, canst thou wreck his peace
+    Wha for thy sake would gladly dee,
+  Or canst thou break that heart of his
+    Wha's only faut is loving thee?
+
+  If love for love thou wiltna gie,
+    At least be pity on me shown:
+  A thocht ungentle canna be
+    The thocht o' Mary Morison!"
+
+Again, in the first month of 1783 he writes to Murdoch, the
+schoolmaster--"I am quite indolent about those great concerns that set
+the bustling busy sons of care agog; and if I have wherewith to answer
+for the present hour, I am very easy with regard to anything further.
+Even the last worst shift of the unfortunate and wretched does not
+greatly terrify me." Just one year later this sentiment was sent current
+in the well-known stanza concluding--
+
+  "But, Davie lad, ne'er fash your head
+    Though we hae little gear;
+  We're fit to win our daily bread
+    As lang's we're hale an' fier;
+      Mair speer na, nor fear na;
+        Auld age ne'er mind a fig,
+      The last o't, the warst o't,
+        Is only for to beg!"
+
+Again, in the letter last referred to occurs the passage--"I am a strict
+economist, not indeed for the sake of the money, but one of the
+principal parts in my composition is a kind of pride, and I scorn to
+fear the face of any man living. Above everything I abhor as hell the
+idea of sneaking into a corner to avoid a dun." This is metrically
+rendered, in May 1786, in the following lines:--
+
+  "To catch dame Fortune's golden smile,
+    Assiduous wait upon her,
+  And gather gear by every wile
+    That's justified by honour:--
+  Not for to hide it in a hedge,
+    Nor for a train attendant,
+  But for the glorious privilege
+    Of being independent."
+
+It would be easy to multiply examples: he is jostled in his letters by
+market-men before he is "hog-shouthered and jundied" by them in his
+verse; and the legends of Alloway Kirk are narrated in a letter to Grose
+before the immortal tale of Tam o'Shanter is woven for _The Antiquities
+of Scotland_.
+
+There is nothing morbid or narrow in Burns's letters. They are frank and
+healthy. You can spend a day over them, and feel at the end of it as if
+you had been wandering at large through the freedom of nature. They seem
+to have been written in the open air. The first condition necessary to
+an appreciative understanding of them is to concern yourself with the
+sentiment. And, indeed, the strength and sincerity of the sentiment
+by-and-by draw you away to oblivion of the style, however much it may at
+first strike you as redundant and affected. They are not the letters of
+a literary man. They have nothing suggestive of the studious chamber and
+the midnight lamp. There is often a narrowness of idea in the merely
+literary man which limits his auditory to men of his peculiar pattern.
+To this narrowness Burns, with all his faults of style, was a stranger.
+His letters are the utterances of a man who refused to be imprisoned in
+any single department of human thought. He was no specialist, pinned to
+one standpoint, and making the width of the world commensurate with the
+narrowness of his own horizon. He moved about, he looked abroad; he had
+no pet subject, no restricted field of study; nature and human nature in
+their multitudinous phases and many retreats were his range, and he
+expressed his views as freely and vigorously as he took them.
+
+The general tone of the letters is high. The subject is not seldom of
+supreme interest. Questions are discussed which are rarely discussed in
+ordinary correspondence. The writer rises above creeds and formularies
+and arbitrarily established rule. He speculates on a theology beyond the
+bounds of Calvinism, on a philosophy of the soul above the dialectics of
+the schoolmen, on a morality at variance with conventional law. He
+interrogates the intuitions of the mind and the intimations of nature in
+order that, if possible, he may learn something of the soul's origin,
+destiny, and supremest duty. But let us hear himself:--
+
+   _(a)_ "I have ever looked on mankind in the lump to be nothing better
+   than a foolish, head-strong, credulous, unthinking mob; and their
+   universal belief has ever had extremely little weight with me.... I
+   am drawn by conviction like a Man, not by a halter like an Ass."
+
+   _(b)_ "_'On Earth Discord! A gloomy Heaven above opening its jealous
+   gates to the nineteen-thousandth part of the tithe of mankind! And
+   below an inexorable Hell expanding its leviathan jaws for the vast
+   residue of mortals!'_ O doctrine comfortable and healing to the weary
+   wounded soul of man! Ye sons and daughters of affliction, to whom day
+   brings no pleasure and night yields no rest, be comforted! 'Tis one
+   to but nineteen hundred thousand that your situation will mend in
+   this world, and 'tis nineteen hundred thousand to one, by the dogmas
+   of theology, that you will be damned eternally in the world to come."
+
+   _(c)_ "A pillar that bears us up amid the wreck of misfortune and
+   misery is to be found in those feelings and sentiments which, however
+   the sceptic may deny or the enthusiast disfigure them, are yet, I am
+   convinced, original and component parts of the human soul; those
+   _senses of the mind_, if I may be allowed the expression, which link
+   us to the awful obscure realities of an all-powerful and equally
+   beneficent God and a world-to-come beyond death and the grave."
+
+   _(d)_ "Can it be possible that when I resign this frail, feverish
+   being I shall still find myself in conscious existence?... Shall I
+   yet be warm in life, seeing and seen, enjoying and enjoyed? Ye
+   venerable Sages and holy Flamens, is there probability in your
+   conjectures, truth in your stories, of another world beyond death, or
+   are they all alike baseless visions and fabricated fables? If there
+   is another life, it must only be for the just, the benevolent, the
+   amiable, and the humane; what a flattering idea then is a world to
+   come! Would to God I as firmly believed it as I ardently wish it!...
+   Jesus Christ, thou amiablest of characters! I trust thou art no
+   impostor.... I trust that in Thee shall all the families of the earth
+   be blessed."
+
+   _(e)_ "From the seeming nature of the human mind, as well as from the
+   evident imperfections in the administration of affairs, in both the
+   natural and moral worlds, there must be a retributive scene of
+   existence beyond the grave."
+
+   _(f)_ "I never hear the loud solitary whistle of the curlew in a
+   summer's noon, or the wild mixing cadence of a troop of grey plover
+   in an autumn morning, without feeling an elevation of soul like the
+   enthusiasm of Devotion or Poetry. Tell me, my dear friend, to what
+   can this be owing? Are we a piece of machinery, that, like the AEolian
+   harp, passive, takes the impression of the passing accident? Or do
+   these workings argue something within us above the trodden clod?"
+
+   _(g)_ "Gracious Heaven! why this disparity between our wishes and our
+   powers? Why is the most generous wish to make others blest, impotent
+   and ineffectual?... Out upon the world! say I, that its affairs are
+   administered so ill."
+
+   _(h)_ "At first glance, several of your propositions startled me as
+   paradoxical. That the martial clangour of a trumpet had something in
+   it vastly more grand, heroic, and sublime than the twingle-twangle of
+   a jew's-harp; that the delicate flexure of a rose-twig, when the
+   half-blown flower is heavy with the tears of the dawn, was infinitely
+   more beautiful and elegant than the upright stub of a burdock; and
+   that, from something innate and independent of all associations of
+   ideas--these I had set down as irrefragable orthodox
+   truths."[a]
+
+   _(i)_ "O, I could curse circumstances, and the coarse tie of human
+   laws which keeps fast what common-sense would loose, and which bars
+   that happiness it cannot give--happiness which otherwise love and
+   honour would warrant!"
+
+   _(j)_ "If there is no man on earth to whom your heart and affections
+   are justly due, it may savour of imprudence, but never of
+   criminality, to bestow that heart and those affections where you
+   please. The God of love meant and made those delicious attachments to
+   be bestowed on somebody."
+
+The inequalities of fortune, the pleasures of friendship, the miseries
+of poverty, the glories of independence, the privileges of wealth allied
+to generosity, the sin of ingratitude, and similar topics, are
+continually recurring to prove the elevation at which his spirit usually
+soared and surveyed mankind. It has been charged against him[b] that
+these subjects were not the food of his daily contemplation, but were
+lugged into his letters for the sake of effect, and that their clumsy
+introduction was frequently apologised for by the complaint that the
+writer had nothing else to write about. The frequent apologies here
+spoken of will be hard to find, and the critic's only reason for
+advancing the charge, for which he would fain find support in the
+fancied apologies of Burns, is that many of the letters "relate neither
+to facts nor feelings peculiarly connected with the author or his
+correspondent." This only means that a very large proportion of Burns's
+letters are not like the letters of ordinary men, and therefore do not
+satisfy the critic's idea or definition of a letter. They treat of
+themes that are not specially _a propos_ of passing events, and
+therefore they are forced and affected. Few are likely to be imposed
+upon by such shallow reasoning. Another critic[c] avers that "while
+Burns says nothing of difficulties at all, he yet leaves an admirable
+letter, out of nothing, in your hands!" We may pit the one critic
+against the other, and so leave them, while we peruse the letters, and
+form an opinion for ourselves.
+
+While both the verse and the prose of Burns are revelations, his letters
+reveal more than his poems the failings and frailties of the man. His
+poems, taken altogether, shew him at his best, as we wish to--and as we
+mainly do--remember him; a man to be loved, admired, even envied, and by
+no means pitied, for his soul, though often vexed with the irritations
+incidental to an obscure and toiling lot, has a strength and buoyancy
+which readily raise it to divine altitudes, where it might well be
+content to see and smile at the petty class distinctions and the paltry
+social tyranny from which those irritations chiefly spring. His letters,
+on the other hand, present him to us less frequently on those commanding
+altitudes. He is oftener careful and concerned about many things,
+groping occasionally in the world's ways for the world's gifts, and
+handicapped in the struggle for them by a contemptuous and half-hearted
+adoption of the world's methods of winning them.
+
+The same personality that stands forth in the poems is everywhere
+present in all essential features in the letters. We have in the latter
+the same view of life, present and future; the same fierce contentment
+with honest poverty; the same aggressive independency of manhood; the
+same patriotism, susceptibility to female loveliness, love of sociality,
+undaunted likes and dislikes. The humour is the same, though often too
+elaborately expressed.[d] In one important respect, however, his letters
+fail to reflect that image of him which his poetry presents. It is
+remarkable that his descriptions of rural nature, and one might add of
+rustic life, so full and plentiful in his verse, are so few and slight
+in his letters. He seems to have reserved these descriptions for
+his verse.
+
+The best, because the most genuine, biography of Burns is furnished by
+his own writings. His letters will, if carefully studied, disprove many
+of the positions taken up so confidently by would-be interpreters of his
+history. It is not the purpose of this discursive paper to take up the
+details of the Clarinda episode; but philandering is scarcely the word
+by which to describe the mutual relations of the lovers. As for Mrs.
+M'Lehose, the severest thing that can with justice be said against her
+is that, if she maintained her virtue, she endangered her reputation.
+One remarkable position taken up by a recent writer[e] on the subject of
+Burns's amours is, that he never really loved any woman, and least of
+all Jean Armour. The letters would rather warrant the converse of his
+statement. They go to prove that while Burns's affections were more than
+oriental in their strength and liberality, they were especially centred
+upon Jean. He felt "a miserable blank in his heart with want of her;" "a
+rooted attachment for her;" "had no reason on her part to rue his
+marriage with her;" and "never saw where he could have made it better."
+If Burns was never really in love, it is more than probable that the
+whole world has been mistaking some other passion for it. It is this
+same writer who in one breath speaks of Burns philandering with
+Clarinda, and yet declaring his attachment to her in the best songs he
+ever wrote. Another error which the letters should correct is the belief
+expressed in some quarters that Burns was no longer capable of producing
+poetry after his fatal residence in Edinburgh. It was, as a matter of
+fact, subsequent to his residence in Edinburgh that he wrote the poems
+for which he is now, and for which he will be longest, famous--namely,
+his songs. The writer already referred to compares the composition of
+these songs to the carving of cherry-stones. They were, he says in
+effect, the amusement of a man who could do nothing better in
+literature! The world has agreed that they are the best things Burns has
+done; and rates him for their sake in the highest rank of its poets. The
+truth is that Burns came to Ellisland with numerous schemes of future
+poetical work, vigorous hopes of carrying some of them, and an
+inspiration and faculty of utterance unimpaired. It was in Dumfriesshire
+that he composed the most tenderly and melodiously seraphic of his
+lyrics--"To Mary in Heaven" and "Highland Mary;" the most powerful and
+popular of his narrative poems--"Tam O' Shanter;" the first of all
+patriotic odes--"Bruce's Address to his Army"; and the noblest manifesto
+of the rights and hopes of manhood--"A Man's a Man for a' that."
+
+With one word on his style as a prose-writer this short paper must
+close. The most diverse opinions have been uttered on the subject. The
+critics trip up each other with charming independency. To Jeffrey they
+seemed to be "all composed as exercises and for display." Carlyle
+declared that they were written "for the most part with singular force
+and even gracefulness," and that when Burns wrote "to trusted friends on
+real interests, his style became simple, vigorous, expressive, sometimes
+even beautiful." Dr. Waddell prefers him to Cowper and Byron as a
+letter-writer. Scott, while allowing passages of great eloquence, found
+in the letters "strong marks of affectation, with a tincture of
+pedantry." Taine thinks "Burns brought ridicule on himself by imitating
+the men of the academy and the court." Lockhart thought, with Walker,
+that "he accommodated his style to the tastes" of his correspondents.
+And so on.
+
+It is worth while to learn from Burns himself what he thought of his
+talent for prose-composition. And in the first place it is to be noted
+that he practised prose-composition before he took to poetry. At sixteen
+he was carrying on an extensive literary correspondence, which was
+virtually a competition in essay-writing. He kept copies of the letters
+he liked best, and was flattered to find that he was superior to his
+correspondents. He studied the essayists of Queen Anne's time, and
+formed his style upon theirs, and that of their most distinguished
+followers. Steele, Addison, Swift, Sterne, and Mackenzie were his
+models. He liked their rounded sentences, and caught their conventional
+phrases. He found delight in imitating them. He volunteered his services
+with the pen on behalf of his fellow-swains. He became the "Complete
+Letter-Writer" of his parish, and was proud of his function and his
+faculty. He was aware of his "abilities at a billet-doux." To the very
+last he had a high opinion of himself as a writer of letters. He speaks
+of one letter being in his "very best manner;" and of waiting for an
+hour of inspiration to write another that should be as good. He retained
+copies of about thirty of his longer letters, and had them bound for
+preservation.
+
+The most serious, almost the only charge brought against the prose style
+of Burns is the charge of affectation more or less occasional. All the
+earlier critics make it or imply it, and with such an apparent show of
+proof that it has generally been believed. Later critics, while unable
+to deny the feature of his style which so looks like affectation, have
+explained it to such good effect as to make it appear a beauty; they
+have asked us to regard it as the happy result of a sympathetic mind
+adapting itself to the object of its address. This looks very like
+blaming Burns's correspondents for the badness of his style. There is
+some truth in the explanation, putting it even so extremely. But when
+this allowance is made, there still remains a wide and well-marked
+difference between his use of English prose and his mastery of Scottish
+verse. The latter is complete--it is the mastery of an originator of
+style. The former, on the other hand, is the attainment of a clever
+pupil when the sentiment is commonplace; when it is deep and vehement,
+it is often, in the language of Carlyle, "the effort of a man to express
+something which he has no organ fit for expressing." Common people, to
+whom niceties of style are unknown, and who read primarily or
+exclusively for the sake of the matter, perceive nothing of this
+affectation, and think scarcely less highly of Burns's letters than they
+do of his poetry.
+
+J. LOGIE ROBERTSON.
+
+7 LOCKHARTON TERRACE,
+SLATEFORD, EDINBURGH.
+
+
+[Footnote a: This is really the exposure of an absurdity.]
+
+[Footnote b: By Jeffrey.]
+
+[Footnote c: Dr. Hately Waddell.]
+
+[Footnote d: See, for example, the _Cheese_ Letter to Peter Hill, or the
+_Snail's-horns_ Letter to Mrs. Dunlop.]
+
+[Footnote e: Mr. R. L. Stevenson.]
+
+
+
+
+GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE.
+
+
+LETTERS
+
+
+I.--To ELLISON OR ALISON BEGBIE (?) [1]
+
+What you may think of this letter when you see the name that subscribes
+it I cannot know; and perhaps I ought to make a long preface of
+apologies for the freedom I am going to take; but as my heart means no
+offence, but, on the contrary, is rather too warmly interested in your
+favour,--for that reason I hope you will forgive me when I tell you that
+I most sincerely and affectionately love you. I am a stranger in these
+matters, A---, as I assure you that you are the first woman to whom I
+ever made such a declaration; so I declare I am at a loss how
+to proceed.
+
+I have more than once come into your company with a resolution to say
+what I have just now told you; but my resolution always failed me, and
+even now my heart trembles for the consequence of what I have said. I
+hope, my dear A----, you will not despise me because I am ignorant of
+the flattering arts of courtship: I hope my inexperience of the work
+will plead for me. I can only say I sincerely love you, and there is
+nothing on earth I so ardently wish for, or that could possibly give me
+so much happiness, as one day to see you mine.
+
+I think you cannot doubt my sincerity, as I am sure that whenever I see
+you my very looks betray me: and when once you are convinced I am
+sincere, I am perfectly certain you have too much goodness and humanity
+to allow an honest man to languish in suspense only because he loves you
+too well. And I am certain that in such a state of anxiety as I myself
+at present feel, an absolute denial would be a much preferable state.
+
+   [Footnote 1: The original MS. of the foregoing letter is the property
+   of John Adam, Esquire, Greenock, and the letter was first published
+   in 1878. If it is a genuine love-letter, and not a mere exercise in
+   love-letter writing, it was probably the first of the short series to
+   Alison Begbie, who is supposed to have been the daughter of a small
+   farmer, and who has been identified with the Mary Morison of the
+   well-known lyric. The sentiment of the last paragraph of the letter
+   agrees with the sentiment of the last stanza of the song.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+II.-To ELLISON BEGBIE.
+
+[LOCHLIE, 1780.]
+
+MY DEAR E.,--I do not remember, in the course of your acquaintance and
+mine, ever to have heard your opinion on the ordinary way of falling in
+love, amongst people in our station in life; I do not mean the persons
+who proceed in the way of bargain, but those whose affection is really
+placed on the person.
+
+Though I be, as you know very well, but a very awkward lover myself,
+yet, as I have some opportunities of observing the conduct of others who
+are much better skilled in the affair of courtship than I am, I often
+think it is owing to lucky chance, more than to good management, that
+there are not more unhappy marriages than usually are.
+
+It is natural for a young fellow to like the acquaintance of the
+females, and customary for him to keep them company when occasion
+serves; some one of them is more agreeable to him than the rest; there
+is something, he knows not what, pleases him, he knows not how, in her
+company. This I take to be what is called love with the greater part of
+us; and I must own, my dear E., it is a hard game such a one as you have
+to play when you meet with such a lover. You cannot refuse but he is
+sincere, and yet though you use him ever so favourably, perhaps in a few
+months, or at farthest in a year or two, the same unaccountable fancy
+may make him as distractedly fond of another, whilst you are quite
+forgot. I am aware that perhaps the next time I have the pleasure of
+seeing you, you may bid me take my own lesson home, and tell me that the
+passion I have professed for you is perhaps one of those transient
+flashes I have been describing; but I hope, my dear E., you will do me
+the justice to believe me, when I assure you that the love I have for
+you is founded on the sacred principles of virtue and honour, and by
+consequence so long as you continue possessed of those amiable qualities
+which first inspired my passion for you, so long must I continue to love
+you. Believe me, my dear, it is love like this alone which can render
+the marriage state happy. People may talk of flames and raptures as long
+as they please, and a warm fancy, with a flow of youthful spirits, may
+make them feel something like what they describe; but sure I am the
+nobler faculties of the mind with kindred feelings of the heart can only
+be the foundation of friendship, and it has always been my opinion that
+the married life was only friendship in a more exalted degree.
+
+If you will be so good as to grant my wishes, and it should please
+Providence to spare us to the latest periods of life, I can look forward
+and see that, even then, though bent down with wrinkled age--even then,
+when all other worldly circumstances will be indifferent to me, I will
+regard my E. with the tenderest affection, and for this plain reason,
+because she is still possessed of those noble qualities, improved to a
+much higher degree, which first inspired my affection for her.
+
+  O! happy state, when souls each other draw,
+  Where love is liberty, and nature law.
+
+I know, were I to speak in such a style to many a girl, who thinks
+herself possessed of no small share of sense, she would think it
+ridiculous--but the language of the heart is, my dear E., the only
+courtship I shall ever use to you.
+
+When I look over what I have written, I am sensible it is vastly
+different from the ordinary style of courtship--but I shall make no
+apology--I know your good nature will excuse what your good sense may
+see amiss.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+III.--TO ELLISON BEGBIE.
+
+[LOCHLIE, 1780.]
+
+I verily believe, my dear E., that the pure genuine feelings of love are
+as rare in the world as the pure genuine principles of virtue and piety.
+This, I hope, will account for the uncommon style of all my letters to
+you. By uncommon, I mean their being written in such a serious manner,
+which, to tell you the truth, has made me often afraid lest you should
+take me for some zealous bigot, who conversed with his mistress as he
+would converse with his minister. I don't know how it is, my dear; for
+though, except your company, there is nothing on earth gives me so much
+pleasure as writing to you, yet it never gives me those giddy raptures
+so much talked of among lovers. I have often thought, that if a
+well-grounded affection be not really a part of virtue, 'tis something
+extremely akin to it. Whenever the thought of my E. warms my heart,
+every feeling of humanity, every principle of generosity, kindles in my
+breast. It extinguishes every dirty spark of malice and envy, which are
+but too apt to infest me. I grasp every creature in the arms of
+universal benevolence, and equally participate in the pleasures of the
+happy, and sympathise with the miseries of the unfortunate. I assure
+you, my dear, I often look up to the Divine disposer of events with an
+eye of gratitude for the blessing which I hope He intends to bestow on
+me, in bestowing you. I sincerely wish that He may bless my endeavours
+to make your life as comfortable and happy as possible, both in
+sweetening the rougher parts of my natural temper, and bettering the
+unkindly circumstances of my fortune. This, my dear, is a passion, at
+least in my view, worthy of a man, and, I will add, worthy of a
+Christian. The sordid earth-worm may profess love to a woman's person,
+whilst, in reality, his affection is centred in her pocket; and the
+slavish drudge may go a-wooing as he goes to the horse-market, to choose
+one who is stout and firm, and as we say of an old horse, one who will
+be a good drudge and draw kindly. I disdain their dirty, puny ideas. I
+would be heartily out of humour with myself, if I thought I were capable
+of having so poor a notion of the sex, which were designed to crown the
+pleasures of society. Poor devils! I don't envy them their happiness who
+have such notions. For my part, I propose quite other pleasures with my
+dear partner.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+IV.--TO ELLISON BEGBIE.
+
+[LOCHLIE, 178l.]
+
+MY DEAR E.,--I have often thought it a peculiarly unlucky circumstance
+in love, that though, in every other situation in life, telling the
+truth is not only the safest, but actually by far the easiest way of
+proceeding, a lover is never under greater difficulty in acting, or more
+puzzled for expression, than when his passion is sincere, and his
+intentions are honourable. I do not think that it is very difficult for
+a person of ordinary capacity to talk of love and fondness which are not
+felt, and to make vows of constancy and fidelity which are never
+intended to be performed, if he be villain enough to practice such
+detestable conduct; but to a man whose heart glows with the principles
+of integrity and truth, and who sincerely loves a woman of amiable
+person, uncommon refinement of sentiment, and purity of manners--to such
+a one, in such circumstances, I can assure you, my dear, from my own
+feelings at this present moment, courtship is a task indeed. There is
+such a number of foreboding fears and distrustful anxieties crowd into
+my mind when I am in your company, or when I sit down to write to you,
+that what to speak or what to write, I am altogether at a loss.
+
+There is one rule which I have hitherto practised, and which I shall
+invariably keep with you, and that is, honestly to tell you the plain
+truth. There is something so mean and unmanly in the arts of
+dissimulation and falsehood, that I am surprised they can be used by any
+one in so noble, so generous a passion as virtuous love. No, my dear E.,
+I shall never endeavour to gain your favour by such detestable
+practices. If you will be so good and so generous as to admit me for
+your partner, your companion, your bosom friend through life, there is
+nothing on this side of eternity shall give me greater transport; but I
+shall never think of purchasing your hand by any arts unworthy of a man,
+and, I will add, of a Christian. There is one thing, my dear, which I
+earnestly request of you, and it is this: that you would soon either put
+an end to my hopes by a peremptory refusal, or cure me of my fears by a
+generous consent.
+
+It would oblige me much if you would send me a line or two when
+convenient. I shall only add, further, that if behaviour, regulated
+(though perhaps but very imperfectly) by the rules of honour and virtue,
+if a heart devoted to love and esteem you, and an earnest endeavour to
+promote your happiness; if these are qualities you would wish in a
+friend, in a husband, I hope you shall ever find them in your real
+friend and sincere lover.
+
+      *       *        *       *        *
+
+V.-To ELLISON BEGBOE.
+
+[LOCHLIE, 1781.]
+
+I ought, in good manners, to have acknowledged the receipt of your
+letter before this time, but my heart was so shocked with the contents
+of it, that I can scarcely yet collect my thoughts so as to write you on
+the subject. I will not attempt to describe what I felt on receiving
+your letter. I read it over and over, again and again, and though it was
+in the politest language of refusal, still it was peremptory; "you were
+sorry you could not make me a return, but you wish me" what, without
+you, I never can obtain, "you wish me all kind of happiness." It would
+be weak and unmanly to say that without you I never can be happy; but
+sure I am, that sharing life with you would have given it a relish,
+that, wanting you, I can never taste.
+
+Your uncommon personal advantages, and your superior good sense, do not
+so much strike me; these, possibly, in a few instances may be met with
+in others; but that amiable goodness, that tender feminine softness,
+that endearing sweetness of disposition, with all the charming offspring
+of a warm feeling heart--these I never again expect to meet with, in
+such a degree, in this world. All these charming qualities, heightened
+by an education much beyond anything I have ever met in any woman I ever
+dared to approach, have made an impression on my heart that I do not
+think the world can ever efface. My imagination has fondly flattered
+myself with a wish, I dare not say it ever reached a hope, that possibly
+I might one day call you mine. I had formed the most delightful images,
+and my fancy fondly brooded over them; but now I am wretched for the
+loss of what I really had no right to expect. I must now think no more
+of you as a mistress; still I presume to ask to be admitted as a friend.
+As such I wish to be allowed to wait on you, and as I expect to remove
+in a few days a little further off, and you, I suppose, will soon leave
+this place, I wish to see or hear from you soon; and if an expression
+should perhaps escape me, rather too warm for friendship, I hope you
+will pardon it in, my dear Miss--, (pardon me the dear expression for
+once) R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+VI.--TO HIS FATHER.
+
+IRVINE, _December 27,_ 1781.
+
+HONOURED SIR,--I have purposely delayed writing in the hope that I
+should have the pleasure of seeing you on New Year's day; but work comes
+so hard upon us that I do not choose to be absent on that account, as
+well as for some other little reasons which I shall tell you at meeting.
+My health is nearly the same as when you were here, only my sleep is a
+little sounder, and on the whole I am rather better than otherwise,
+though I mend by very slow degrees. The weakness of my nerves has so
+debilitated my mind that I dare neither review my past wants nor look
+forward into futurity; for the least anxiety or perturbation in my
+breast produces most unhappy effects on my whole frame. Sometimes,
+indeed, when for an hour or two my spirits are a little lightened, I
+glimmer a little into futurity; but my principal, and indeed my only
+pleasurable, employment, is looking backwards and forwards in a moral
+and religious way; I am quite transported at the thought, that ere long,
+perhaps very soon, I shall bid an eternal adieu to all the pains, and
+uneasiness, and disquietudes of this weary life; for I assure you I am
+heartily tired of it; and, if I do not very much deceive myself, I could
+contentedly and gladly resign it.
+
+  The soul, uneasy, and confin'd at home,
+  Rests and expatiates in a life to come.
+
+It is for this reason I am more pleased with the 15th, 16th, and 17th
+verses of the 7th chapter of Revelation[2] than with any ten times as
+many verses in the whole Bible, and would not exchange the whole noble
+enthusiasm with which they inspire me, for all that this world has to
+offer. As for this world, I despair of ever making a figure in it I am
+not formed for the bustle of the busy, nor the flutter of the gay. I
+shall never again be capable of entering into such scenes. Indeed, I am
+altogether unconcerned at the thoughts of this life. I foresee that
+poverty and obscurity probably await me, and I am in some measure
+prepared, and daily preparing, to meet them. I have but just time and
+paper to return you my grateful thanks for the lessons of virtue and
+piety you have given me, which were too much neglected at the time of
+giving them, but which I hope have been remembered ere it is yet too
+late. Present my dutiful respects to my mother, and my compliments to
+Mr. and Mrs. Muir; and with wishing you a merry New-year's day, I shall
+conclude.--I am, honoured Sir, your dutiful son,
+
+ROBERT BURNESS.
+
+P. S.--My meal is nearly out, but I am going to borrow till I get more.
+
+   [Footnote 2: "Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve
+   him day and night in his temple; and he that sitteth on the throne
+   shall dwell among them.
+
+   They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the
+   sun light on them, nor any heat.
+
+   For the Lamb, which is in the midst of the throne, shall feed them,
+   and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters; and God shall
+   wipe away all tears from their eyes."]
+
+      *       *        *       *        *
+
+VII.--To SIR JOHN WHITEFOORD, BART., OF BALLOCHMYLE.[3]
+
+SIR,--We who subscribe this are both members of St. James's Lodge,
+Tarbolton, and one of us in the office of warden, and as we have the
+honour of having you for master of our lodge we hope you will excuse
+this freedom, as you are the proper person to whom we ought to apply. We
+look on our Mason Lodge to be a serious matter, both with respect to the
+character of masonry itself, and likewise as it is a charitable society.
+This last, indeed, does not interest you further than a benevolent heart
+is interested in the welfare of its fellow-creatures; but to us, sir,
+who are of the lower order of mankind, to have a fund in view on which
+we may with certainty depend to be kept from want, should we be in
+circumstances of distress, or old age--this is a matter of high
+importance.
+
+We are sorry to observe that our lodge's affairs with respect to its
+finances have for a good while been in a wretched situation. We have
+considerable sums in bills which lie by without being paid, or put in
+execution, and many of our members never mind their yearly dues, or
+anything else belonging to the lodge. And since the separation[4] from
+St. David's we are not sure even of our existence as a lodge. There has
+been a dispute before the Grand Lodge, but how decided, or if decided at
+all, we know not.
+
+For these and other reasons we humbly beg the favour of you, as soon as
+convenient, to call a meeting, and let us consider on some means to
+retrieve our wretched affairs.--We are, etc.
+
+   [Footnote 3: The MS. of the foregoing joint letter in Burns's
+   handwriting belongs to John Adam, Esquire, Greenock, and the letter
+   was first published in 1878. Burns was first admitted in St. David's
+   (Tarbolton) Lodge in July, 1781. At the separation preferred to he
+   became a member of the new lodge, St. James's, of which, two years
+   afterwards, he was depute-master.]
+
+   [Footnote 4: It was in June, 1782.]
+
+     *     *     *     *     *
+
+VIII.--To MR. JOHN MURDOCH, SCHOOL-MASTER, STAPLES INN BUILDINGS,
+LONDON.
+
+LOCHLIE, _15th January_, 1783.
+
+DEAR SIR,--As I have an opportunity of sending you a letter without
+putting you to that expense which any production of mine would but ill
+repay, I embrace it with pleasure, to tell you that I have not
+forgotten, or ever will forget, the many obligations I lie under to your
+kindness and friendship.
+
+I do not doubt, Sir, but you will wish to know what has been the result
+of all the pains of an indulgent father, and a masterly teacher; and I
+wish I could gratify your curiosity with such a recital as you would be
+pleased with;--but that is what I am afraid will not be the case. I
+have, indeed, kept pretty clear of vicious habits; and in this respect,
+I hope, my conduct will not disgrace the education I have gotten; but as
+a man of the world, I am most miserably deficient. One would have
+thought that, bred as I have been, under a father who has figured pretty
+well as _un homme des affaires_, I might have been what the world calls
+a pushing active fellow; but to tell you the truth, Sir, there is hardly
+anything more my reverse. I seem to be one sent into the world to see
+and observe; and I very easily compound with the knave who tricks me of
+my money, if there be anything original about him which shows me human
+nature in a different light from anything I have seen before. In short,
+the joy of my heart is to "study men, their manners, and their ways;"
+and for this darling subject, I cheerfully sacrifice every other
+consideration. I am quite indolent about those great concerns that set
+the bustling, busy sons of care agog; and if I have to answer for the
+present hour, I am very easy with regard to anything further. Even the
+last, worst shift of the unfortunate and the wretched[5] does not much
+terrify me: I know that even then my talent for what countryfolks call
+"a sensible crack," when once it is sanctified by a hoary head, would
+procure me so much esteem that even then--I would learn to be happy.
+However, I am under no apprehensions about that; for though indolent,
+yet so far as an extremely delicate constitution permits, I am not lazy;
+and in many things, especially in tavern matters, I am a strict
+economist; not, indeed, for the sake of the money; but one of the
+principal parts in my composition is a kind of pride of stomach; and I
+scorn to fear the face of any man living: above every thing, I abhor as
+hell the idea of sneaking in a corner to avoid a dun--possibly some
+pitiful sordid wretch, whom in my heart I despise and detest. 'Tis this,
+and this alone, that endears economy to me.[6]
+
+In the matter of books, indeed, I am very profuse. My favourite authors
+are of the sentimental kind, such as Shenstone, particularly his
+_Elegies;_ Thomson; _Man of Feeling,_--a book I prize next to the Bible;
+_Man of the World_; Sterne, especially his _Sentimental Journey_;
+Macpherson's _Ossian_, etc.;--these are the glorious models after which
+I endeavour to form my conduct, and 'tis incongruous--'tis absurd to
+suppose that the man whose mind glows with sentiments lighted up at
+their sacred flame--the man whose heart distends with benevolence to all
+the human race--he "who can soar above this little scene of things"--can
+he descend to mind the paltry concerns about which the terrae-filial
+race fret, and fume, and vex themselves! O, how the glorious triumph
+swells my heart! I forget that I am a poor insignificant devil,
+unnoticed and unknown, stalking up and down fairs and markets, when I
+happen to be in them reading a page or two of mankind, and "catching the
+manners living as they rise," whilst the men of business jostle me on
+every side as an idle incumbrance in their way. But, I daresay, I have
+by this time tired your patience; so I shall conclude with begging you
+to give Mrs. Murdoch--not my compliments, for that is a mere commonplace
+story; but my warmest, kindest wishes for her welfare; and accept the
+same for yourself, from,--Dear Sir, yours, etc.
+
+   [Footnote 5:
+
+     "The last o't, the warst o't,
+       Is only for to beg."
+    --_First Epistle to Davie._]
+
+   [Footnote 6:
+     "For the glorious privilege
+       Of being independent."
+   --_Epistle to a Young Friend. _]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+IX.--To HIS COUSIN, MR. JAMES BURNESS, WRITER, MONTROSE.
+
+LOCHLIE, _21st June, 1783._
+
+DEAR SIR,--My father received your favour of the both current, and as he
+has been for some months very poorly in health, and is in his own
+opinion (and, indeed, in almost every body's else) in a dying condition,
+he has only, with great difficulty, written a few farewell lines to each
+of his brothers-in-law. For this melancholy reason, I now hold the pen
+for him to thank you for your kind letter, and to assure you, Sir, that
+it shall not be my fault if my father's correspondence in the north die
+with him. My brother writes to John Caird,[6] and to him I must refer
+you for the news of our family.
+
+I shall only trouble you with a few particulars relative to the wretched
+state of this country. Our markets are exceedingly high; oatmeal 17d.
+and 18d. per peck, and not to be got even at that price. We have indeed
+been pretty well supplied with quantities of white peas from England and
+elsewhere, but that resource is likely to fail us, and what will become
+of us then, particularly the very poorest sort, Heaven only knows. This
+country, till of late, was flourishing incredibly in the manufacture of
+silk, lawn, and carpet-weaving; and we are still carrying on a good deal
+in that way, but much reduced from what it was. We had also a fine trade
+in the shoe way, but now entirely ruined, and hundreds driven to a
+starving condition on account of it. Farming is also at a very low ebb
+with us. Our lands, generally speaking, are mountainous and barren; and
+our land-holders, full of ideas of farming gathered from the English and
+the Lothians, and other rich soils in Scotland, make no allowance for
+the odds of the quality of land, and consequently stretch us much beyond
+what in the event we will be found able to pay. We are also much at a
+loss for want of proper methods in our improvements of farming.
+Necessity compels us to leave our old schemes, and few of us have
+opportunities of being well informed in new ones. In short, my dear Sir,
+since the unfortunate beginning of this American war, and its as
+unfortunate conclusion, this country has been, and still is, decaying
+very fast. Even in higher life, a couple of Ayrshire noblemen, and the
+major part of our knights and squires, are all insolvent. A miserable
+job of a Douglas, Heron & Co.'s bank, which no doubt you have heard of,
+has undone numbers of them; and imitating English and French, and other
+foreign luxuries and fopperies, has ruined as many more. There is a
+great trade of smuggling carried on along our coasts, which, however
+destructive to the interests of the kingdom at large, certainly enriches
+this corner of it, but too often at the expense of our morals. However,
+it enables individuals to make, at least for a time, a splendid
+appearance; but Fortune, as is usual with her when she is uncommonly
+lavish of her favours, is generally even with them at last; and happy
+were it for numbers of them if she would leave them no worse than when
+she found them.
+
+My mother sends you a small present of a cheese; 'tis but a very little
+one, as our last year's stock is sold off; but if you could fix on any
+correspondent in Edinburgh or Glasgow, we would send you a proper one in
+the season. Mrs. Black promises to take the cheese under her care so
+far, and then to send it to you by the Stirling carrier.
+
+I shall conclude this long letter with assuring you that I shall be very
+happy to hear from you, or any of our friends in your country, when
+opportunity serves.
+
+My father sends you, probably for the last time in this world, his
+warmest wishes for your welfare and happiness; and my mother and the
+rest of the family desire to inclose their kind compliments to you, Mrs.
+Burness, and the rest of your family, along with those of, dear Sir,
+your affectionate cousin,
+
+   [Footnote 6: The writer's uncle.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+X.-To MR. JAMES BURNESS, WRITER, MONTROSE.
+
+LOCHLIE, 17th Feb. 1784.
+
+DEAR COUSIN,--I would have returned you my thanks for your kind favour
+of the 13th of December sooner, had it not been that I waited to give
+you an account of that melancholy event, which, for some time past, we
+have from day to day expected.
+
+On the 13th current I lost the best of fathers. Though, to be sure, we
+have had long warning of the impending stroke, still the feelings of
+nature claim their part, and I cannot recollect the tender endearments
+and parental lessons of the best of friends and ablest of instructors,
+without feeling what perhaps the calmer dictates of reason would
+partly condemn.
+
+I hope my father's friends in your country will not let their connection
+in this place die with him. For my part I shall ever with pleasure--with
+pride, acknowledge my connection with those who were allied by the ties
+of blood and friendship to a man whose memory I shall ever honour
+and revere.
+
+I expect, therefore, my dear Sir, you will not neglect any opportunity
+of letting me hear from you, which will very much oblige,--My dear
+Cousin, yours sincerely,
+
+ROBERT BURNESS.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+XI.--To MR. JAMES BURNESS, WRITER, MONTROSE.
+
+MOSSGIEL, _3rd August_ 1784.
+
+MY DEAR SIR,--I ought in gratitude to have acknowledged the receipt of
+your last kind letter before this time, but, without troubling you with
+any apology, I shall proceed to inform you that our family are all in
+good health at present, and we were very happy with the unexpected
+favour of John Caird's[6a] company for nearly two weeks, and I must say
+it of him that he is one of the most agreeable, facetious, warm-hearted
+lads I was ever acquainted with.
+
+We have been surprised with one of the most extraordinary phenomena in
+the moral world, which, I dare say, has happened in the course of this
+half century. We have had a party of Presbytery relief, as they call
+themselves, for some time in this country. A pretty thriving society of
+them has been in the burgh of Irvine for some years past, till about two
+years ago a Mrs. Buchan from Glasgow came among them, and began to
+spread some fanatical notions of religion among them, and in a short
+time made many converts; and among others their preacher, Mr. Whyte,
+who, upon that account, has been suspended and formally deposed by his
+brethren. He continued, however, to preach in private to his party, and
+was supported, both he, and their spiritual mother, as they affect to
+call old Buchan, by the contributions of the rest, several of whom were
+in good circumstances; till, in spring last, the populace rose and
+mobbed Mrs. Buchan, and put her out of the town; on which all her
+followers voluntarily quitted the place likewise, and with such
+precipitation that many of them never shut their doors behind them; one
+left a washing on the green, another a cow bellowing at the crib without
+food or anybody to mind her, and after several stages they are fixed at
+present in the neighbourhood of Dumfries. Their tenets are a strange
+jumble of enthusiastic jargon; among others, she pretends to give them
+the Holy Ghost by breathing on them, which she does with postures and
+practices that are scandalously indecent; they have likewise disposed of
+all their effects, and hold a community of goods, and live nearly an
+idle life, carrying on a great farce of pretended devotion in barns and
+woods, where they lodge and lie all together, and hold likewise a
+community of women, as it is another of their tenets that they can
+commit no moral sin. I am personally acquainted with most of them, and I
+can assure you the above mentioned are facts.
+
+This, my dear Sir, is one of the many instances of the folly of leaving
+the guidance of sound reason and common sense in matters of religion.
+
+Whenever we neglect or despise these sacred monitors, the whimsical
+notions of a perturbated brain are taken for the immediate influences of
+the Deity, and the wildest fanaticism, and the most inconsistent
+absurdities, will meet with abetters and converts. Nay, I have often
+thought, that the more out-of-the-way and ridiculous the fancies are, if
+once they are sanctified under the sacred name of religion, the unhappy
+mistaken votaries are the more firmly glued to them.
+
+I expect to hear from you soon, and I beg you will remember me to all
+friends, and believe me to be, my dear Sir, your affectionate cousin,
+
+ROBERT BURNESS.
+
+P.S.--Direct to me at Mossgiel, parish of Mauchline, near Kilmarnock.
+
+   [Footnote 6a: Probably John Caird, junior, as the father would be
+   over sixty if he was about his wife's age, and she, Elspat Burnes,
+   was born, we know, in 1725.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+XII.--TO THOMAS ORR, PARK, KIRKOSWALD.
+
+DEAR THOMAS,--I am much obliged to you for your last letter, though I
+assure you the contents of it gave me no manner of concern. I am
+presently so cursedly taken in with an affair of gallantry that I am
+very glad Peggy[7] is off my hand, as I am at present embarrassed
+enough[7a] without her. I don't choose to enter into particulars in
+writing, but never was a poor rakish rascal in a more pitiful taking. I
+should be glad to see you to tell you the affair.--Meanwhile I am your
+friend, ROBERT BURNESS.
+
+MOSSGAVIL, 11_th Nov_. 1784.
+
+   [Footnote 7: Peggy Thomson.]
+
+   [Footnote 7a: Birth of his illegitimate child by Elizabeth Paton,
+   once a servant with his father at Lochlie.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+XIII.-TO MISS MARGARET KENNEDY.[8]
+
+[_A young lady of seventeen, when this letter was addressed to her, and
+on a visit to Mrs. Gavin Hamilton at Mauchline._]
+
+[_Probably Autumn_, 1785.]
+
+MADAM,--Permit me to present you with the enclosed song as a small
+though grateful tribute for the honour of your acquaintance. I have in
+these verses attempted some faint sketch of your portrait in the
+unembellished simple manner of descriptive truth. Flattery I leave to
+your lovers whose exaggerating fancies may make them imagine you are
+still nearer perfection than you really are.
+
+Poets, Madam, of all mankind, feel most forcibly the powers of
+beauty,--as, if they are really poets of nature's making, their feelings
+must be finer and their taste more delicate than most of the world. In
+the cheerful bloom of spring, or the pensive mildness of autumn, the
+grandeur of summer, or the hoary majesty of winter, the poet feels a
+charm unknown to the most of his species. Even the sight of a fine
+flower, or the company of a fine woman (by far the finest part of God's
+works below), has sensations for the poetic heart that the herd of men
+are strangers to. On this last account, Madam, I am, as in many other
+things, indebted to Mr. Hamilton's kindness in introducing me to you.
+Your lovers may view you with a wish--I look on you with pleasure; their
+hearts in your presence may glow with desire--mine rises with
+admiration.
+
+That the arrows of misfortune, however they should, as incident to
+humanity, glance a slight wound, may never reach your heart; that the
+snares of villainy may never beset you in the road of life; that
+innocence may hand you by the path of honour to the dwelling of
+peace--is the sincere wish of him who has the honour to be, etc. R. B.
+
+   [Footnote 8: Niece of Sir Andrew Cathcait, of Carleton. A melancholy
+   interest attaches to her subsequent history. Burns's prayers for her
+   happiness were unavailing.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+XIV.--TO MISS ----, AYRSHIRE.[9]
+
+[1785.]
+
+MY DEAR COUNTRYWOMAN,--I am so impatient to show you that I am once more
+at peace with you, that I send you the book I mentioned, directly,
+rather than wait the uncertain time of my seeing you. I am afraid I have
+mislaid or lost Collins's Poems, which I promised to Miss Irvin. If I
+can find them I will forward them by you; if not, you must apologise
+for me.
+
+I know you will laugh at it when I tell you that your piano and you
+together have played the deuce somehow about my heart. My breast has
+been widowed these many months, and I thought myself proof against the
+fascinating witchcraft; but I am afraid you will "feelingly convince me
+what I am.". I say, I am afraid, because I am not sure what is the
+matter with me. I have one miserable bad symptom,--when you whisper, or
+look kindly to another, it gives me a draught of damnation. I have a
+kind of wayward wish to be with you ten minutes by yourself, though what
+I would say, Heaven above knows, for I am sure I know not. I have no
+formed design in all this; but just, in the nakedness of my heart, write
+you down a mere matter-of-fact story. You may perhaps give yourself airs
+of distance on this, and that will completely cure me; but I wish you
+would not; just let us meet, if you please, in the old beaten way of
+friendship.
+
+I will not subscribe myself your humble servant, for that is a phrase, I
+think, at least fifty miles off from the heart; but I will conclude with
+sincerely wishing that the Great Protector of innocence may shield you
+from the barbed dart of calumny, and hand you by the covert snare of
+deceit. R. B.
+
+   [Footnote 9: Lady unidentified.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+XV.--TO MR. JOHN RICHMOND, LAW CLERK, EDINBURGH.[10]
+
+MOSSGIEL, _Feb. 17th_, 1786.
+
+MY DEAR SIR,--I have not time at present to upbraid you for your silence
+and neglect; I shall only say I received yours with great pleasure. I
+have enclosed you a piece of rhyming ware for your perusal. I have been
+very busy with the muses since I saw you, and have composed, among
+several others, "The Ordination," a poem on Mr. M'Kinlay's being called
+to Kilmarnock; "Scotch Drink," a poem; "The Cottar's Saturday Night;"
+"An Address to the Devil," etc. I have likewise completed my poem on the
+"Dogs," but have not shown it to the world. My chief patron now is Mr.
+Aikin, in Ayr, who is pleased to express great approbation of my works.
+Be so good as send me Fergusson[11], by Connell, and I will remit you
+the money. I have no news to acquaint you with about Mauchline, they are
+just going on in the old way. I have some very important news with
+respect to myself, not the most agreeable--news that I am sure you
+cannot guess, but I shall give you the particulars another time. I am
+extremely happy with Smith;[11a] he is the only friend I have now in
+Mauchline. I can scarcely forgive your long neglect of me, and I beg you
+will let me hear from you regularly by Connell. If you would act your
+part as a friend, I am sure neither good nor bad fortune should estrange
+or alter me. Excuse haste, as I got yours but yesterday.--I am, my dear
+Sir, yours, ROBERT BURNESS.
+
+   [Footnote 10: Three months before this letter was written Richmond
+   was a clerk in the office of Mr. Gavin Hamilton, writer, Mauchline.]
+
+   [Footnote 11: Fergusson's _Poems_.]
+
+   [Footnote 11a: Keeper of a haberdashery store in Mauchline.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+XVI.-TO MR. JAMES SMITH[12], SHOPKEEPER, MAUCHLINE.
+
+[_Spring of _1786.]
+
+... Against two things I am fixed as fate,--staying at home, and owning
+her conjugally. The first, by Heaven, I will not do!--the last, by Hell,
+I will never do! A good God bless you, and make you happy up to the
+warmest weeping wish of parting friendship! ... If you see Jean tell her
+I will meet her, so help me God in my hour of need! R. B.
+
+   [Footnote 12: The confidant of his amour with Jean Armour, daughter
+   of James Armour, mason, Mauchline. Notwithstanding the blustering
+   threat--for which Smith was probably more than half
+   responsible--Burns was afterwards content to "own bonny Jean
+   conjugally."]
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+XVII.--TO MR. ROBERT MUIR, WINE MERCHANT, KILMARNOCK.
+
+MOSSGIEL, 20_th March_, 1786.
+
+DEAR SIR,--I am heartily sorry I had not the pleasure of seeing you as
+you returned through Mauchline; but as I was engaged, I could not be in
+town before the evening.
+
+I here inclose you my "Scotch Drink," and "may the deil follow with a
+blessing for your edification." I hope, sometime before we hear the
+gowk, to have the pleasure of seeing you at Kilmarnock, when I intend we
+shall have a gill between us, in a mutchkin-stoup; which will be a great
+comfort and consolation to, dear Sir, your humble servant,
+ROBERT BURNESS.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+XVIII.--To MR. JOHN BALLANTINE, BANKER, AYR. (?)
+
+[_April_ 1786.]
+
+HONOURED SIR,--My proposals[12a] came to hand last night, and, knowing
+that you would wish to have it in your power to do me a service as early
+as any body, I enclose you half a sheet of them. I must consult you,
+first opportunity, on the propriety of sending my _quondam_ friend, Mr.
+Aiken,[12b] a copy. If he is now reconciled to my character as an honest
+man, I would do it with all my soul; but I would not be beholden to the
+noblest being ever God created if he imagined me to be a rascal.
+_Apropos_, old Mr. Armour prevailed with him to mutilate that unlucky
+paper[12c] yesterday. Would you believe it? though I had not a hope, nor
+even a wish to make her mine after her conduct, yet when he told me the
+names were cut out of the paper, my heart died within me, and he cut my
+veins with the news. Perdition seize her falsehood! ROBERT BURNS.
+
+   [Footnote 12a: Proposals for publishing his Scottish Poems by
+   subscription.]
+
+   [Footnote 12b: Writer in Ayr.]
+
+   [Footnote 12c: The written acknowledgment of his marriage which Burns
+   gave to Jean. She, influenced by her father, consented to
+   destroy it.]
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+XIX.--TO MR. M'WHINNIE, WRITER, AYR.
+
+[MOSSGIEL, 17_th April_ 1786.]
+
+IT is injuring some hearts, those hearts that elegantly bear the
+impression of the good Creator, to say to them you give them the trouble
+of obliging a friend; for this reason, I only tell you that I gratify my
+own feelings in requesting your friendly offices with respect to the
+enclosed, because I know it will gratify yours to assist me in it to the
+utmost of your power.
+
+I have sent you four copies, as I have no less than eight dozen, which
+is a great deal more than I shall ever need.
+
+Be sure to remember a poor poet militant in your prayers He looks
+forward with fear[13] and trembling to that, to him, important moment
+which stamps the die with--with--with, perhaps, the eternal disgrace of,
+my dear Sir, your humble, afflicted, tormented, ROBERT BURNS.
+
+   [Footnote 13: Cp. "Something cries _Hoolie! I rede ye, honest man,
+   tak tent, ye'll show your folly!_"]
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+XX.--TO JOHN ARNOT, ESQUIRE, OF DALQUATSWOOD.
+
+[_April_ 1786.]
+
+SIR,--I have long wished for some kind of claim to the honour of your
+acquaintance, and since it is out of my power to make that claim by the
+least service of mine to you, I shall do it by asking a friendly office
+of you to me.--I should be much hurt, Sir, if any one should view my
+poor Parnassian Pegasus in the light of a spur-galled Hack, and think
+that I wish to make a shilling or two by him. I spurn the thought.
+
+  It may do, maun do, Sir, wi' them who
+  Maun please the great-folk for a wame-fou;
+  For me, sae laigh I needna boo
+  For, Lord be thankit! I can ploo;
+  And, when I downa yoke a naig,
+  Then, Lord be thankit! I can beg.
+
+You will then, I hope, Sir, forgive my troubling you with the
+enclosed,[14] and spare a poor heart-crushed devil a world of
+apologies--a business he is very unfit for at any time, but at present,
+widowed as he is of every woman-giving comfort, he is utterly incapable
+of. Sad and grievous of late, Sir, has been my tribulation, and many and
+piercing my sorrows; and, had it not been for the loss the world would
+have sustained in losing so great a poet, I had ere now done as a much
+wiser man, the famous Achitophel of long-headed memory, did before me,
+when he "went home and set his house in order." I have lost, Sir, that
+dearest earthly treasure, that greatest blessing here below, that last,
+best gift which completed Adam's happiness in the garden of bliss; I
+have lost, I have lost--my trembling hand refuses its office, the
+frighted ink recoils up the quill,--I have lost a, a, a wife.
+
+  Fairest of God's creation, last and best,
+  Now art thou lost!
+
+You have doubtless, Sir, heard my story, heard it with all its
+exaggerations; but as my actions, and my motives for action, are
+peculiarly like myself and that is peculiarly like nobody else, I shall
+just beg a leisure moment and a spare tear of you until I tell my own
+story my own way.
+
+I have been all my life, Sir, one of the rueful-looking, long-visaged
+sons of disappointment. A damned star has always kept my zenith, and
+shed its hateful influence in the emphatic curse of the prophet--"And
+behold whatsoever he doth, it shall not prosper!" I rarely hit where I
+aim, and if I want anything, I am almost sure never to find it where I
+seek it. For instance, if my penknife is needed, I pull out twenty
+things--a plough-wedge, a horse nail, an old letter, or a tattered
+rhyme, in short, everything but my penknife; and that, at last, after a
+painful, fruitless search, will be found in the unsuspected corner of an
+unsuspected pocket, as if on purpose thrust out of the way. Still, Sir,
+I long had a wishing eye to that inestimable blessing, a wife.
+
+... A young fellow, after a few idle commonplace stories from a
+gentleman in black ... no one durst say black was his eye; while I ...
+only wanting that ceremony, am made a Sunday's laughing-stock, and
+abused like a pickpocket. I was well aware, though, that if my
+ill-starred fortune got the least hint of my connubial wish, my scheme
+would go to nothing. To prevent this I determined to take my measures
+with such thought and fore-thought, such cautions and precautions, that
+all the malignant planets in the hemisphere should be unable to blight
+my designs .... Heaven and Earth! must I remember? my damned star
+wheeled about to the zenith, by whose baleful rays Fortune took the
+alarm.[15a] ... In short, Pharaoh at the Red Sea, Darius at Arbela,
+Pompey at Pharsalia, Edward at Bannockburn, Charles at Pultoway,
+Burgoyne at Saratoga--no prince, potentate, or commander of ancient or
+modern unfortunate memory ever got a more shameful or more total defeat.
+How I bore this can only be conceived. All powers of recital labour far,
+far behind. There is a pretty large portion of Bedlam in the composition
+of a poet at any time; but on this occasion I was nine parts and nine
+tenths, out of ten, stark staring mad. At first I was fixed in
+stuporific insensibility, silent, sullen, staring like Lot's wife
+besaltified in the plains of Gomorrha. But my second paroxysm chiefly
+beggars description. The rifted northern ocean, when returning suns
+dissolve the chains of winter, and loosening precipices of
+long-accumulated ice tempest with hideous crash the foaming
+deep,--images like these may give some faint shadow of what was the
+situation of my bosom. My chained faculties broke loose; my maddening
+passions, roused to tenfold fury, bore over their banks with impetuous,
+resistless force, carrying every check and principle before them.
+Counsel was an unheeded call to the passing hurricane; Reason a
+screaming elk in the vortex of Malstrom; and Religion a
+feebly-struggling beaver down the roarings of Niagara. I reprobated the
+first moment of my existence; execrated Adam's folly-infatuated wish for
+that goodly-looking but poison-breathing gift which had ruined him and
+undone me; and called on the womb of uncreated night to close over me
+and all my sorrows.
+
+A storm naturally overblows itself. My spent passions gradually sunk
+into a lurid calm; and by degrees I have subsided into the time-settled
+sorrow of the sable-widower, who, wiping away the decent tear, lifts up
+his grief-worn eye to look-for another wife.
+
+  Such is the state of man; to-day he buds
+  His tender leaves of hope; to-morrow blossoms
+  And bears his blushing honours thick upon him;
+  The third day comes a frost, a killing frost,
+  And nips his root, and then he falls as I do.[15]
+
+Such, Sir, has been the fatal era of my life. And it came to pass that
+when I looked for sweet, behold bitter; and for light, behold darkness.
+
+But this is not all: already the holy beagles begin to snuff the scent,
+and I expect every moment to see them cast off, and hear them after me
+in full cry; but as I am an old fox, I shall give them dodging and
+doubling for it, and by and by I intend to earth among the mountains
+of Jamaica.
+
+I am so struck, on a review, with the impertinent length of this letter,
+that I shall not increase it with one single word of apology, but
+abruptly conclude with assuring you that I am, Sir, yours and misery's
+most humble servant.
+
+  ROBERT BURNS.
+
+   [Footnote 14: Proposals for publishing.]
+
+   [Footnote 15: Misquoted from Shakspeare's _Henry VIII_.]
+
+   [Footnote 15a: Reference to the rejection of his acknowledgment of
+   marriage.]
+
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+XXI.--To MR. DAVID BRICE, SHOEMAKER, GLASGOW.
+
+MOSSGIEL, _June_ 12_th_, 1786.
+
+DEAR BRICE,--I received your message by G. Paterson, and as I am not
+very _throng_ at present, I just write to let you know that there is
+such a worthless, rhyming reprobate as your humble servant still in the
+land of the living, though I can scarcely say in the place of hope. I
+have no news to tell you that will give me any pleasure to mention, or
+you to hear.
+
+Poor, ill-advised, ungrateful Armour came home on Friday last. You have
+heard all the particulars of that affair, and a black affair it is. What
+she thinks of her conduct now I don't know; one thing I do know--she has
+made me completely miserable. Never man loved, or rather adored a woman
+more than I did her; and, to confess a truth between you and me, I do
+still love her to distraction after all, though I won't tell her so if I
+were to see her, which I don't want to do. My poor dear unfortunate
+Jean! how happy have I been in thy arms! It is not the losing her that
+makes me so unhappy, but for her sake I feel most severely: I foresee
+she is in the road to, I am afraid, eternal ruin.
+
+May Almighty God forgive her ingratitude and perjury to me, as I from my
+very soul forgive her; and may His grace be with her and bless her in
+all her future life! I can have no nearer idea of the place of eternal
+punishment than what I have felt in my own breast on her account. I have
+tried often to forget her; I have run into all kinds of dissipation and
+riots, mason-meetings, drinking-matches, and other mischief, to drive
+her out of my head, but all in vain. And now for a grand cure; the ship
+is on her way home that is to take me out to Jamaica; and then,
+farewell, dear old Scotland! and farewell, dear ungrateful Jean! for
+never, never will I see you more.
+
+You will have heard that I am going to commence poet in print; and
+to-morrow my work goes to the press. I expect it will be a volume of
+about two hundred pages--it is just the last foolish action I intend to
+do, and then turn a wise man as fast as possible.--Believe me to be,
+dear Brice, your friend and well-wisher. R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+XXII.--To MR. JOHN RICHMOND, EDINBURGH.
+
+MOSSGIEL, 9_th July_ 1786.
+
+With the sincerest grief I read your letter. You are truly a son of
+misfortune. I shall be extremely anxious to hear from you how your
+health goes on; if it is in any way re-establishing, or if Leith
+promises well; in short, how you feel in the inner man.
+
+No news worth anything; only godly Bryan was in the inquisition
+yesterday, and half the countryside as witnesses against him. He still
+stands out steady and denying; but proof was led yesternight of
+circumstances highly suspicious, almost _de facto_; one of the servant
+girls made oath that she upon a time rashly entered into the house, to
+speak in your cant, "in the hour of cause."
+
+I have waited on Armour since her return home; not from the least view
+of reconciliation, but merely to ask for her health, and to you I will
+confess it, from a foolish hankering fondness, very ill placed indeed.
+The mother forbade me the house, nor did Jean show that penitence that
+might have been expected. However, the priest,[15a] I am informed, will
+give me a certificate as a single man, if I comply with the rules of the
+church, which for that very reason I intend to do.[16]
+
+I am going to put on sackcloth and ashes this day. I am indulged so far
+as to appear in my own seat. _Peccavi, pater, miserere mei_. My book
+will be ready in a fortnight. If you have any subscribers, return them
+by Connell. The Lord stand with the righteous; amen, amen. R. B.
+
+   [Footnote 15a: Rev. Mr. Auld--Daddie Auld.]
+
+   [Footnote 16: This accordingly he did.]
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+XXIII--To MR. JOHN RICHMOND.
+
+OLD ROME FOREST,[17] 30_th July_ 1786.
+
+MY DEAR RICHMOND,--My hour is now come--you and I will never meet in
+Britain more. I have orders, within three weeks at farthest, to repair
+aboard the _Nancy_, Captain Smith, from Clyde to Jamaica, and to call at
+Antigua. This, except to our friend Smith, whom God long preserve, is a
+secret about Mauchline. Would you believe it? Armour has got a warrant
+to throw me in jail till I find security for an enormous sum. This they
+keep an entire secret, but I got it by a channel they little dream of;
+and I am wandering from one friend's house to another, and, like a true
+son of the Gospel, "have nowhere to lay my head." I know you will pour
+an execration on her head, but spare the poor, ill-advised girl, for my
+sake; though may all the furies that rend the injured, enraged lover's
+bosom await her mother until her latest hour! I write in a moment of
+rage, reflecting on my miserable situation--exiled, abandoned, forlorn.
+I can write no more--let me hear from you by the return of the coach. I
+will write you ere I go.--I am, dear Sir, yours, here and hereafter,
+R. B.
+
+   [Footnote 17: In the neighbourhood of Kilmarnock. Here he had
+   deposited his travelling chest in the house of a relative.]
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+XXIV.-To MR. JOHN KENNEDY.
+
+KILMARNOCK, _August_ 1786.
+
+MY DEAR SIR--Your truly facetious epistle of the 3rd instant gave me
+much entertainment. I was only sorry I had not the pleasure of seeing
+you as I passed your way; but we shall bring up all our lee way on
+Wednesday, the 16th current, when I hope to have it in my power to call
+on you, and take a kind, very probably a last adieu, before I go for
+Jamaica; and I expect orders to repair to Greenock every day. I have at
+last made my public appearance, and am solemnly inaugurated into the
+numerous class.[18] Could I have got a carrier, you should have got a
+score of vouchers for my authorship; but, now you have them, let them
+speak for themselves.--
+
+  Farewell, dear friend! may guid luck hit you,
+  And 'mang her favourites admit you,
+  If e'er Detraction shore to smit you,
+      May nane believe him,
+  And ony Deil that thinks to get you,
+      Good LORD, deceive him,
+
+R.B.
+
+   [Footnote 18: The Kilmarnock Edition of his poems was published on
+   3ist July.]
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+XXV.--To HIS COUSIN, MR. JAMES BURNESS, WRITER, MONTROSE.
+
+MOSSGIEL, _Tuesday Noon_, 26_th Sept._ 1786.
+
+MY DEAR SIR,--I this moment receive yours--receive it with the honest
+hospitable warmth of a friend's welcome. Whatever comes from you always
+wakens up the better blood about my heart, which your kind little
+recollections of my parental friend carries as far as it will go. 'Tis
+there that man is blest! 'Tis there, my friend, man feels a
+consciousness of something within him above the trodden clod! The
+grateful reverence to the hoary earthly authors of his being, the
+burning glow when he clasps the woman of his soul to his bosom, the
+tender yearnings of heart for the little angels to whom he has given
+existence--these Nature has poured in milky streams about the human
+heart; and the man who never rouses them to action by the inspiring
+influences of their proper objects loses by far the most pleasurable
+part of his existence.
+
+My departure is uncertain, but I do not think it will be till after
+harvest. I will be on very short allowance of time indeed, if I do not
+comply with your friendly invitation. When it will be I don't know, but
+if I can make my wish good I will endeavour to drop you a line some time
+before. My best compliments to Mrs. Burness; I should be equally
+mortified should I drop in when she is abroad, but of that, I suppose,
+there is little chance. What I have wrote, heaven knows. I have not time
+to review it, so accept of it in the beaten way of friendship. With the
+ordinary phrase, and perhaps rather more than the ordinary sincerity, I
+am, dear Sir, ever yours, R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+XXVI.-To MRS. STEWART, OF STAIR.[19]
+
+[_Oct_. 1786.?]
+
+MADAM,--The hurry of my preparations for going abroad has hindered me
+from performing my promise so soon as I intended. I have here sent you a
+parcel of songs, etc., which never made their appearance, except to a
+friend or two at most. Perhaps some of them may be no great
+entertainment to you, but of that I am far from being an adequate judge.
+The song to the time of "Ettrick Banks"[20] you will easily see the
+impropriety of exposing much even in manuscript. I think, myself, it has
+some merit, both as a tolerable description of one of nature's sweetest
+scenes, a July evening, and as one of the finest pieces of nature's
+workmanship, the finest indeed we know anything of, an amiable,
+beautiful young woman; but I have no common friend to procure me that
+permission, without which I would not dare to spread the copy.
+
+I am quite aware, Madam, what task the world would assign me in this
+letter. The obscure bard, when any of the great condescend to take
+notice of him, should heap the altar with the incense of flattery. Their
+high ancestry, their own great and godlike qualities and actions, should
+be recounted with the most exaggerated description. This, Madam, is a
+task for which I am altogether unfit. Besides a certain disqualifying
+pride of heart, I know nothing of your connections in life, and have no
+access to where your real character is to be found--the company of your
+compeers: and more, I am afraid that even the most refined adulation is
+by no means the road to your good opinion.
+
+One feature of your character I shall ever with grateful pleasure
+remember--the reception I got when I had the honour of waiting on you at
+Stair. I am little acquainted with politeness, but I know a good deal of
+benevolence of temper and goodness of heart. Surely did those in exalted
+stations know how happy they could make some classes of their inferiors
+by condescension and affability, they would never stand so high,
+measuring out with every look the height of their elevation, but
+condescend as sweetly as did Mrs. Stewart of Stair. R. B.
+
+   [Footnote 19: Mrs. Stewart, of Stair, was the first person of note to
+   discover in the Ayrshire ploughman a genius of the first order.]
+
+   [Footnote 20: The Bonnie Lass of Ballochmyle]
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+XXVII.--TO MR. ROBERT AIKIN, WRITER, AYR.
+
+[_Oct_. 1786.?]
+
+SIR,--I was with Wilson, my printer, t'other day, and settled all our
+by-gone matters between us. After I had paid him all demands, I made him
+the offer of the second edition, on the hazard of being paid out of the
+first and readiest, which he declines. By his account, the paper of a
+thousand copies would cost about twenty-seven pounds, and the printing
+about fifteen or sixteen: he offers to agree to this for the printing,
+if I will advance for the paper, but this, you know, is out of my power;
+so farewell hopes of a second edition 'till I grow richer! an epocha
+which, I think, will arrive at the payment of the British national debt.
+
+There is scarcely anything hurts me so much in being disappointed of my
+second edition, as not having it in my power to show my gratitude to Mr.
+Ballantine, by publishing my poem of "The Brigs of Ayr." I would detest
+myself as a wretch, if I thought I were capable in a very long life of
+forgetting the honest, warm, and tender delicacy with which he enters
+into my interests. I am sometimes pleased with myself in my grateful
+sensations; but I believe, on the whole, I have very little merit in it,
+as my gratitude is not a virtue, the consequence of reflection, but
+sheerly the instinctive emotion of my heart, too inattentive to allow
+worldly maxims and views to settle into selfish habits.
+
+I have been feeling all the various rotations and movements within,
+respecting the Excise. There are many things plead strongly against it;
+the uncertainty of getting soon into business; the consequences of my
+follies, which may perhaps make it impracticable for me to stay at home;
+and, besides, I have for some time been pining under secret
+wretchedness, from causes which you pretty well know--the pang of
+disappointment, the sting of pride, with some wandering stabs of
+remorse, which never fail to settle on my vitals like vultures, when
+attention is not called away by the calls of society, or the vagaries of
+the muse. Even in the hour of social mirth, my gaiety is the madness of
+an intoxicated criminal under the hands of the executioner. All these
+reasons urge me to go abroad, and to all these reasons I have only one
+answer--the feelings of a father. This, in the present mood I am in,
+overbalances everything that can be laid in the scale against it.
+
+You may perhaps think it an extravagant fancy, but it is a sentiment
+which strikes home to my very soul: though sceptical in some points of
+our current belief, yet, I think, I have every evidence for the reality
+of a life beyond the stinted bourne of our present existence; if so,
+then, how should I, in the presence of that tremendous Being, the Author
+of existence, how should I meet the reproaches of those who stand to me
+in the dear relation of children, whom I deserted in the smiling
+innocency of helpless infancy? O, thou great unknown Power!--thou
+Almighty God! who has lighted up reason in my breast, and blessed me
+with immortality!--I have frequently wandered from that order and
+regularity necessary for the perfection of Thy works, yet Thou hast
+never left me nor forsaken me!
+
+Since I wrote the foregoing sheet, I have seen something of the storm of
+mischief thickening over my folly-devoted head. Should you, my friends,
+my benefactors, be successful in your applications for me, perhaps it
+may not be in my power, in that way, to reap the fruit of your friendly
+efforts. What I have written in the preceding pages, is the settled
+tenor of my present resolution; but should inimical circumstances forbid
+me closing with your kind offer, or enjoying it only threaten to entail
+farther misery---
+
+To tell the truth, I have little reason for this last complaint; as the
+world, in general, has been kind to me fully up to my deserts. I was,
+for some time past, fast getting into the pining, distrustful snarl of
+the misanthrope. I saw myself alone, unfit for the struggle of life,
+shrinking at every rising cloud in the chance-directed atmosphere of
+fortune, while, all defenceless, I looked about in vain for a cover. It
+never occurred to me, at least never with the force it deserved, that
+this world is a busy scene, and man, a creature destined for a
+progressive struggle; and that, however I might possess a warm heart and
+inoffensive manners (which last, by the by, was rather more than I could
+well boast) still, more than these passive qualities, there was
+something to be done. When all my school-fellows and youthful compeers
+(those misguided few excepted who joined, to use a Gentoo phrase, the
+"hallachores" of the human race) were striking off with eager hope and
+earnest intent, in some one or other of the many paths of busy life, I
+was "standing idle in the market-place," or only left the chase of the
+butterfly from flower to flower, to hunt fancy from whim to whim.
+
+You see, Sir, that if to know one's errors were a probability of
+mending them, I stand a fair chance: but, according to the reverend
+Westminster divines, though conviction must precede conversion, it is
+very far from always implying it.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+XXVIII.--TO DR. MACKENZIE, MAUCHLINE; INCLOSING HIM VERSES ON DINING
+WITH LORD DAER.
+
+_Wednesday Morning_ [1_st Nov_. 1786].
+
+DEAR SIR,--I never spent an afternoon among great folks with half that
+pleasure as when, in company with you, I had the honour of paying my
+devoirs to that plain, honest, worthy man, the professor[21] I would be
+delighted to see him perform acts of kindness and friendship, though I
+were not the object; he does it with such a grace. I think his
+character, divided into ten parts, stands thus,--four parts
+Socrates--four parts Nathaniel--and two parts Shakespeare's Brutus.
+
+The following verses were really extempore, but a little corrected
+since. They may entertain you a little with the help of that partiality
+with which you are so good as to favour the performances of, dear Sir,
+your very humble servant, R. B.
+
+   [Footnote 21: Dugald Stewart, Professor of Moral Philosophy in the
+   University of Edinburgh.]
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+XXIX.--TO MRS. DUNLOP, OF DUNLOP.
+
+_Nov_. 1786.
+
+MADAM,--I am truly sorry I was not at home yesterday, when I was so much
+honoured with your order for my copies, and incomparably more by the
+handsome compliments you are pleased to pay my poetic abilities. I am
+fully persuaded that there is not any class of mankind so feelingly
+alive to the titillations of applause as the sons of Parnassus; nor is
+it easy to conceive how the heart of the poor bard dances with rapture,
+when those, whose character in life gives them a right to be polite
+judges, honour him with their approbation. Had you been thoroughly
+acquainted with me, Madam, you could not have touched my darling
+heart-chord more sweetly, than by noticing my attempts to celebrate your
+illustrious ancestor, the saviour of his country.
+
+  Great patriot hero! ill-requited chief!
+
+The first book I met with in my early years which I perused with
+pleasure was _The Life of Hannibal_; the next was _The History of Sir
+William Wallace_: for several of my early years I had few other authors;
+and many a solitary hour have I stole out, after the laborious vocations
+of the day, to shed a tear over their glorious, but unfortunate stories.
+In those boyish days I remember, in particular, being struck with that
+part of Wallace's story, where these lines occur--
+
+  "Syne to the Leglen wood, when it was late,
+  To make a silent and a safe retreat."
+
+I chose a fine summer Sunday, the only day my line of life allowed, and
+walked half-a-dozen of miles to pay my respects to the Leglen wood, with
+as much devout enthusiasm as ever pilgrim did to Loretto; and as I
+explored every den and dell where I could suppose my heroic countryman
+to have lodged, I recollect (for even then I was a rhymer) that my heart
+glowed with a wish to be able to make a song on him in some measure
+equal to his merits. R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+XXX.--TO MISS ALEXANDER.
+
+MOSSGIEL, 18_th Nov_. 1786.
+
+MADAM,--Poets are such _outre_ beings, so much the children of wayward
+fancy and capricious whim, that I believe the world generally allows
+them a larger latitude in the laws of propriety than the sober sons of
+judgment and prudence. I mention this as an apology for the liberties
+that a nameless stranger has taken with you in the inclosed poem, which
+he begs leave to present you with. Whether it has poetical merit any way
+worthy of the theme, I am not the proper judge: but it is the best my
+abilities can produce; and what to a good heart will, perhaps, be a
+superior grace, it is equally sincere as fervent.
+
+The scenery was nearly taken from real life, though I dare say, Madam,
+you do not recollect it, as I believe you scarcely noticed the poetic
+_reveur_ as he wandered by you. I had roved out as chance directed, in
+the favourite haunts of my muse, on the banks of the Ayr, to view nature
+in all the gaiety of the vernal year. The evening sun was flaming over
+the distant western hills; not a breath stirred the crimson opening
+blossom, or the verdant-spreading leaf. It was a golden moment for a
+poetic heart. I listened to the feathered warblers, pouring their
+harmony on every hand, with a congenial kindred regard, and frequently
+turned out of my path, lest I should disturb their little songs, or
+frighten them to another station. Surely, said I to myself, he must be a
+wretch indeed, who, regardless of your harmonious endeavour to please
+him, can eye your elusive flights to discover your secret recesses, and
+to rob you of all the property nature gives you--your dearest comforts,
+your helpless nestlings. Even the hoary hawthorn twig that shot across
+the way, what heart at such a time but must have been interested in its
+welfare, and wished it preserved from the rudely-browsing cattle, or the
+withering eastern blast? Such was the scene, and such the hour, when, in
+a corner of my prospect, I spied one of the fairest pieces of nature's
+workmanship that ever crowned a poetic landscape, or met a poet's eye,
+those visionary bards excepted, who hold commerce with aerial beings!
+Had Calumny and Villainy taken my walk, they had at that moment sworn
+eternal peace with such an object.
+
+What an hour of inspiration for a poet! It would have raised plain dull
+historic prose into metaphor and measure.
+
+The inclosed song was the work of my return; and perhaps it but poorly
+answers what might have been expected from such a scene.--I have the
+honour to be, Madam, your most obedient and very humble servant,
+
+R. B.
+
+P.S.--Well, Mr. Burns, and _did_ the lady give you the desired
+permission? No; she was too fine a lady to _notice_ so plain a
+compliment. As to her great brothers, whom I have since met in life on
+more equal terms[22] of respectability--why should I quarrel with their
+want of attention to me? When fate swore that their purses should be
+full, nature was equally positive that their heads should be empty. Men
+of their fashion were surely incapable of being unpolite? Ye canna mak a
+silk-purse o' a sow's lug.
+
+R. B., 1792.
+
+   [Footnote 22: As Depute Master of St. James's Lodge, Burns admitted
+   Claude Alexander, Esq., of Ballochmyle, an honorary member, in
+   July 1789.]
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+XXXI.--IN THE NAME OF THE NINE. _Amen_.
+
+WE, Robert Burns, by virtue of a warrant from Nature, bearing date the
+twenty-fifth day of January, Anno Domini one thousand seven hundred and
+fifty-nine,[23] Poet Laureat, and Bard-in-Chief, in and over the
+districts and countries of Kyle, Cunningham, and Carrick, of old
+extent,--To our trusty and well-beloved William Chalmers and John
+M'Adam, students and practitioners in the ancient and mysterious science
+of confounding right and wrong.
+
+RIGHT TRUSTY,--Be it known unto you, That whereas in the course of our
+care and watchings over the order and police of all and sundry the
+manufacturers, retainers, and vendors of poesy; bards, poets,
+poetasters, rhymers, jinglers, songsters, ballad-singers, etc., etc.,
+etc., etc., male and female--We have discovered a certain nefarious,
+abominable, and wicked song or ballad, a copy whereof we have here
+inclosed; Our Will therefore is, that Ye pitch upon and appoint the most
+execrable individual of that most execrable species known by the
+appellation, phrase, and nickname of The Deil's Yell Nowte,[24] and
+after having caused him to kindle a fire at the Cross of Ayr, ye shall,
+at noontide of the day, put into the said wretch's merciless hands the
+said copy of the said nefarious and wicked song, to be consumed by fire
+in presence of all beholders, in abhorrence of, and terrorem to, all
+such compositions and composers. And this in no wise leave ye undone,
+but have it executed in every point as this our mandate bears, before
+the twenty-fourth current, when in person We hope to applaud your
+faithfulness and zeal.
+
+Given at Mauchline this twentieth day of November, Anno Domini one
+thousand seven hundred and eighty-six. God save the Bard!
+
+   [Footnote 23: His birthday.]
+
+   [Footnote 24: Old bachelors]
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+XXXII.--TO JAMES DALRYMPLE, ESQ., ORANGEFIELD.
+
+[30_th Nov_. 1786.]
+
+DEAR SIR,--I suppose the devil is so elated with his success with you,
+that he is determined by a _coup de main_ to complete his purposes on
+you all at once, in making you a poet. I broke open the letter you sent
+me; hummed over the rhymes; and as I saw they were extempore, said to
+myself, they were very well; but when I saw at the bottom a name that I
+shall ever value with grateful respect, "I gapit wide, but naething
+spak." I was nearly as much struck as the friends of Job, of
+affliction-bearing memory, when they sat down with him seven days and
+seven nights, and spake not a word.
+
+I am naturally of a superstitious cast, and as soon as my wonder-scared
+imagination regained its consciousness, and resumed its functions, I
+cast about what this mania of yours might portend. My foreboding ideas
+had the wide stretch of possibility; and several events, great in their
+magnitude, and important in their consequences, occurred to my fancy.
+The downfall of the conclave, or the crushing of the Cork rumps; a ducal
+coronet to Lord George Gordon, and the protestant interest; or St
+Peter's keys to .....
+
+You want to know how I come on. I am just in _statu quo_, or, not to
+insult a gentleman with my Latin, in "auld use and wont." The noble Earl
+of Glencairn took me by the hand to-day, and interested himself in my
+concerns, with a goodness like that benevolent Being whose image he so
+richly bears. He is a stronger proof of the immortality of the soul than
+any that philosophy ever produced. A mind like his can never die. Let
+the worshipful squire H. L., or the reverend Mass J. M. go into their
+primitive nothing. At best, they are but ill-digested lumps of chaos,
+only one of them strongly tinged with bituminous particles and
+sulphureous effluvia. But my noble patron, eternal as the heroic swell
+of magnanimity, and the generous throb of benevolence, shall look on
+with princely eye at "the war of elements, the wreck of matter, and the
+crash of worlds." R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+XXXIII.-To SIR JOHN WHITEFOORD.
+
+EDINBURGH, 1_st Dec_. 1786.
+
+SIR,--Mr. McKenzie in Mauchline, my very warm and worthy friend, has
+informed me how much you are pleased to interest yourself in my fate as
+a man, and--what to me is incomparably dearer-my fame as a poet. I have,
+Sir, in one or two instances, been patronised by those of your character
+in life, when I was introduced to their notice by social friends to
+them, and honoured acquaintances to me; but you are the first gentleman
+in the country whose benevolence and goodness of heart has interested
+him for me, unsolicited and unknown. I am not master enough of the
+etiquette of these matters to know, nor did I stay to inquire, whether
+formal duty bade or cold propriety disallowed my thanking you in this
+manner, as I am convinced, from the light in which you kindly view me,
+that you will do me the justice to believe this letter is not the
+manoeuvre of the needy sharping author, fastening on those in upper life
+who honour him with a little notice of him or his works. Indeed, the
+situation of poets is generally such, to a proverb, as may, in some
+measure, palliate that prostitution of heart and talents they have at
+times been guilty of. I do not think that prodigality is, by any means,
+a necessary concomitant of a poetic turn, but I believe a careless,
+indolent inattention to economy is almost inseparable from it; then
+there must be in the heart of every bard of nature's making a certain
+modest sensibility, mixed with a kind of pride, which will ever keep him
+out of the way of those windfalls of fortune, which frequently light on
+hardy impudence and foot-licking servility. It is not easy to imagine a
+more helpless state than his whose poetic fancy unfits him for the
+world, and whose character as a scholar gives him some pretensions to
+the _politesse_ of life, yet is as poor as I am. For my part, I thank
+heaven my star has been kinder: learning never elevated my ideas above
+the peasant's shed, and I have an independent fortune at the
+plough-tail.
+
+I was surprised to hear[25] that any one who pretended in the least to
+the manners of the gentleman should be so foolish, or worse, as to stoop
+to traduce the morals of such a one as I am, and so inhumanly cruel,
+too, as to meddle with that late most unfortunate, unhappy part of my
+story. With a tear of gratitude I thank you, Sir, for the warmth with
+which you interposd in behalf of my conduct. I am, I acknowledge, too
+frequently the sport of whim, caprice, and passion; but reverence to
+God, and integrity to my fellow-creatures, I hope I shall ever preserve.
+I have no return, Sir, to make you for your goodness, but one--a return
+which I am persuaded will not be unacceptable--the honest warm wishes of
+a grateful heart for your happiness, and every one of that lovely flock
+who stand to you in a filial relation. If ever Calumny aims the poisoned
+shaft at them, may friendship be by to ward the blow! R. B.
+
+   [Footnote 25: From Dr. Mackenzie, Burns's friend, and medical
+   attendant of the family of Sir John.]
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+XXXIV.--To MR, GAVIN HAMILTON, MAUCHLINE.
+
+EDINBURGH, _Dec_. 7_th_, 1786,
+
+HONOURED SIR,--I have paid every attention to your commands, but can
+only say what perhaps you will have heard before this reach you, that
+Muirkirklands were bought by a John Gordon, W.S., but for whom I know
+not; Mauchlands, Haugh Miln, etc., by a Frederick Fotheringham, supposed
+to be for Ballochmyle Laird, and Adam-hill and Shawood were bought for
+Oswald's folks. This is so imperfect an account, and will be so late ere
+it reach you, that were it not to discharge my conscience I would not
+trouble you with it; but after all my diligence I could make it no
+sooner nor better.
+
+For my own affairs, I am in a fair way of becoming as eminent as Thomas
+a Kempis or John Bunyan; and you may expect henceforth to see my
+birthday inserted among the wonderful events in the poor Robin's and
+Aberdeen Almanacks, along with the black Monday and the battle of
+Bothwell Bridge. My Lord Glencairn and the Dean of Faculty, Mr. H.
+Erskine, have taken me under their wing; and by all probability I shall
+soon be the tenth worthy, and the eighth wise man of the world. Through
+my lord's influence, it is inserted in the records of the Caledonian
+Hunt, that they universally, one and all, subscribe for the second
+edition. My subscription bills come out to-morrow, and you shall have
+some of them next post. I have met in Mr. Dalrymple, of Orangefield,
+what Solomon emphatically calls, "a friend that sticketh closer than a
+brother." The warmth with which he interests himself in my affairs is of
+the same enthusiastic kind which you, Mr. Aikin, and the few patrons
+that took notice of my earlier poetic days, showed for the poor unlucky
+devil of a poet.
+
+I always remember Mrs. Hamilton and Miss Kennedy in my poetic prayers,
+but you both in prose and verse.
+
+  May cauld ne'er catch you, but a hap,
+  Nor hunger but in plenty's lap!
+    Amen!
+
+R. B.
+
+       *       *        *       *        *
+
+XXXV.--To MR. JOHN BALLANTINE, BANKER, AT ONE TIME PROVOST OF AYR.
+
+EDINBURGH, 13_th December_ 1786.
+
+MY HONOURED FRIEND,--I would not write you till I could have it in my
+power to give you some account of myself and my matters, which, by the
+by, is often no easy task. I arrived here on Tuesday was se'nnight[26],
+and have suffered ever since I came to town with a miserable headache
+and stomach complaint, but am now a good deal better. I have found a
+worthy warm friend in Mr. Dalrymple, of Orangefield, who introduced me
+to Lord Glencairn, a man whose worth and brotherly kindness to me I
+shall remember when time shall be no more. By his interest it is passed
+in the "Caledonian Hunt," and entered in their books, that they are to
+take each a copy of the second edition, for which they are to pay one
+guinea. I have been introduced to a good many of the _noblesse_, but my
+avowed patrons and patrones es are, the Duchess of Gordon--the Countess
+of Glencairn, with my Lord and Lady Betty[27]--the Dean of Faculty--Sir
+John Whitefoord. I have likewise warm friends among the literati;
+Professors Stewart, Blair, and Mr. Mackenzie--the Man of Feeling. An
+unknown hand left ten guineas for the Ayrshire bard with Mr. Sibbald,
+which I got. I since have discovered my generous unknown friend to be
+Patrick Miller, Esq., brother to the Justice Clerk; and drank a glass of
+claret with him, by invitation, at his own house yesternight. I am
+nearly agreed with Creech to print my book, and I suppose I will begin
+on Monday. I will send a subscription bill or two, next post; when I
+intend writing my first kind patron, Mr. Aikin. I saw his son to-day,
+and he is very well.
+
+Dugald Stewart, and some of my learned friends, put me in the periodical
+paper called the _Lounger_,[28] a copy of which I here enclose you. I
+was, Sir, when I was first honoured with your notice, too obscure; now I
+tremble lest I should be ruined by being dragged too suddenly into the
+glare of polite and learned observation.
+
+I shall certainly, my ever honoured patron, write you an account of my
+every step; and better health and more spirits may enable me to make it
+something better than this stupid matter-of-fact epistle.--I have the
+honour to be, good Sir, your ever grateful humble servant, R. B.
+
+If any of my friends write me, my direction is care of Mr. Creech,
+Bookseller.
+
+   [Footnote 26: A mistake for "a fortnight."]
+
+   [Footnote 27: Cunningham]
+
+   [Footnote 28: The paper here alluded to was written by Mackenzie, the
+   celebrated author of _The Man of Feeling_.]
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+XXXVI.--TO MR. ROBERT MUIR.
+
+EDINBURGH, _Dec_. 20_th_, 1786.
+
+MY DEAR FRIEND,--I have just time for the carrier, to tell you that I
+received your letter, of which I shall say no more but what a lass of my
+acquaintance said of her bastard wean; she said she "didna ken wha was
+the father exactly, but she suspected it was some o' thae bonny
+blackguard smugglers, for it was like them." So I only say, your
+obliging epistle was like you. I enclose you a parcel of subscription
+bills. Your affair of sixty copies is also like you; but it would not be
+like me to comply.
+
+Your friend's notion of my life has put a crotchet in my head of
+sketching it in some future epistle to you. My compliments to Charles
+and Mr. Parker. R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+XXXVII.--TO MR. WILLIAM CHALMERS, WRITER, AYR.
+
+EDINBURGH, _Dec_. 27_th_, 1786.
+
+MY DEAR FRIEND,--I confess I have sinned the sin for which there is
+hardly any forgiveness--ingratitude to friendship, in not writing you
+sooner; but of all men living, I had intended to have sent you an
+entertaining letter; and by all the plodding, stupid powers, that in
+nodding conceited majesty preside over the dull routine of business--a
+heavily-solemn oath this!--I am and have been, ever since I came to
+Edinburgh, as unfit to write a letter of humour, as to write a
+commentary on the Revelation of St. John the Divine, who was banished to
+the Isle of Patmos by the cruel and bloody Domitian, son to Vespasian
+and brother to Titus, both emperors of Rome, and who was himself an
+emperor, and raised the second or third persecution, I forget which,
+against the Christians, and after throwing the said apostle John,
+brother to the apostle James, commonly called James the Greater, to
+distinguish him from another James, who was on some account or other
+known by the name of James the Less--after throwing him into a cauldron
+of boiling oil from which he was miraculously preserved, he banished the
+poor son of Zebedee to a desert island in the Archipelago where he was
+gifted with the second sight, and saw as many wild beasts as I have seen
+since I came to Edinburgh; which, a circumstance not uncommon in
+story-telling, brings me back to where I set out.
+
+To make you some amends for what, before you reach this paragraph, you
+will have suffered, I enclose you two poems I have carded and spun since
+I passed Glenbuck.
+
+One blank in the address to Edinburgh--"Fair B----," is heavenly Miss
+Burnet, daughter to Lord Monboddo, at whose house I have had the honour
+to be more than once. There has not been anything nearly like her in all
+the combinations of beauty, grace, and goodness the great Creator has
+formed, since Milton's Eve on the first day of her existence.
+
+My direction is--care of Andrew Bruce, merchant, Bridge Street. R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+XXXVIII.--To THE EARL OF EGLINGTON.
+
+EDINBURGH, _January_ 1787.
+
+MY LORD,--As I have but slender pretensions to philosophy, I cannot rise
+to the exalted ideas of a citizen of the world, but have all those
+national prejudices, which I believe glow peculiarly strong in the
+breast of a Scotchman. There is scarcely anything to which I am so fully
+alive as the honour and welfare of my country; and as a poet, I have no
+higher enjoyment than singing her sons and daughters. Fate had cast my
+station in the veriest shades of life; but never did a heart pant more
+ardently than mine to be distinguished; though till very lately I looked
+in vain on every side for a ray of light. It is easy then to guess how
+much I was gratified with the countenance and approbation of one of my
+country's most illustrious sons, when Mr. Wauchope called on me
+yesterday on the part of your lordship. Your munificence, my lord,
+certainly deserves my very grateful acknowledgments; but your patronage
+is a bounty peculiarly suited to my feelings. I am not master enough of
+the etiquette of life to know, whether there be not some impropriety in
+troubling your lordship with my thanks, but my heart whispered me to do
+it. From the emotions of my inmost soul I do it. Selfish ingratitude I
+hope I am incapable of; and mercenary servility, I trust, I shall ever
+have so much honest pride as to detest. R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+XXXIX.--TO MR. JOHN BALLANTINE.
+
+EDINBURGH, _Jan_. 14_th_ 1787.
+
+MY HONOURED FRIEND,--It gives me a secret comfort to observe in myself
+that I am not yet so far gone as Willie Gaw's Skate, "past redemption;"
+for I have still this favourable symptom of grace, that when my
+conscience, as in the case of this letter, tells me I am leaving
+something undone that I ought to do, it teases me eternally till I
+do it.
+
+I am still "dark as was Chaos" in respect to futurity. My generous
+friend, Mr. Patrick Miller, has been talking with me about a lease of
+some farm or other in an estate called Dalswinton, which he has lately
+bought near Dumfries. Some life-rented embittering recollections whisper
+me that I will be happier anywhere than in my old neighbourhood, but Mr.
+Miller is no judge of land; and though I daresay he means to favour me,
+yet he may give me, in his opinion, an advantageous bargain that may
+ruin me. I am to take a tour by Dumfries as I return, and have promised
+to meet Mr. Miller on his lands some time in May.
+
+I went to a mason-lodge yesternight, where the Most Worshipful Grand
+Master Chartres, and all the Grand Lodge of Scotland visited. The
+meeting was numerous and elegant; all the different lodges about town
+were present, in all their pomp. The Grand Master, who presided with
+great solemnity and honour to himself as a gentleman and mason, among
+other general toasts gave "Caledonia, and Caledonia's Bard, Brother
+Burns," which rung through the whole assembly with multiplied honours
+and repeated acclamations. As I had no idea such a thing would happen, I
+was downright thunderstruck, and, trembling in every nerve, made the
+best return in my power. Just as I had finished, some of the grand
+officers said so loud that I could hear with a most comforting accent,
+"Very well, indeed!" which set me something to rights again.
+
+I have just now had a visit from my landlady,[29] who is a staid, sober,
+piously-disposed, vice-abhorring widow, coming on her climacteric; she
+is at present in great tribulation respecting some daughters of Belial
+who are on the floor immediately above. My landlady, who, as I have
+said, is a flesh-disciplining godly matron, firmly believes her husband
+is in heaven; and, having been very happy with him on earth, she
+vigorously and perseveringly practises such of the most distinguished
+Christian virtues as attending church, railing against vice, etc., that
+she may be qualified to meet him in that happy place where the ungodly
+shall never enter. This, no doubt, requires some strong exertions of
+self-denial in a hale, well-kept widow of forty-five; and as our floors
+are low and ill-plastered, we can easily distinguish our
+laughter-loving, night-rejoicing neighbours when they are eating,
+drinking, singing, etc. My worthy landlady tosses sleepless and unquiet,
+"looking for rest and finding none," the whole night. Just now she told
+me--though by-the-by she is sometimes dubious that I am, in her own
+phrase, "but a rough an' roun' Christian,"--that "we should not be
+uneasy or envious because the wicked enjoy the good things of this life,
+for the jades would one day lie in hell," etc., etc.
+
+I have to-day corrected my 152nd page. My best good wishes to Mr.
+Aikin.--I am ever, dear Sir, your much indebted humble servant, R. B.
+
+   [Footnote 29: Mrs. Carfrae, Baxter's Close, Lawnmarket, Edinburgh,
+   according to John Richmond, law clerk.]
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+XL.--TO MRS. DUNLOP.
+
+EDINBURGH, 15_th January_ 1787.
+
+MADAM,--Yours of the 9th current, which I am this moment honoured with,
+is a deep reproach to me for ungrateful neglect. I will tell you the
+real truth, for I am miserably awkward at a fib--I wished to have
+written to Dr. Moore before I wrote to you; but, though every day since
+I received yours of December 30th, the idea, the wish to write to him
+has constantly pressed on my thoughts, yet I could not for my soul set
+about it. I know his fame and character, and I am one of "the sons of
+little men." To write him a mere matter-of-fact affair, like a
+merchant's order, would be disgracing the little character I have; and
+to write the author of _The View of Society and Manners_ a letter of
+sentiment--I declare every artery runs cold at the thought. I shall try,
+however, to write to him to-morrow or next day. His kind interposition
+on my behalf I have already experienced, as a gentleman waited on me the
+other day, on the part of Lord Eglinton, with ten guineas, by way of
+subscription, for two copies of my next edition.
+
+The word you object to in the mention I have made of my glorious
+countryman and your immortal ancestor, is indeed borrowed from Thomson;
+but it does not strike me as an improper epithet. I distrusted my own
+judgment on your finding fault with it, and applied for the opinion of
+some of the literati here, who honour me with their critical strictures,
+and they all allowed it to be proper. The song you ask I cannot
+recollect, and I have not a copy of it. I have not composed anything on
+the great Wallace, except what you have seen in print; and the inclosed,
+which I will print in this edition.[30] You will see I have mentioned
+some others of the name. When I composed my "Vision," long ago, I had
+attempted a description of Kyle, of which the additional stanzas are a
+part as it originally stood. My heart glows with a wish to be able to do
+justice to the merits of the "saviour of his country," which sooner or
+later I shall at least attempt.
+
+
+You are afraid I shall grow intoxicated with my prosperity as a poet;
+alas! Madam, I know myself and the world too well. I do not mean any
+airs of affected modesty; I am willing to believe that my abilities
+deserve some notice; but in a most enlightened, informed age and nation,
+when poetry is and has been the study of men of the first natural
+genius, aided with all the powers of polite learning, polite books, and
+polite company--to be dragged forth to the full glare of learned and
+polite observation, with all my imperfections of awkward rusticity and
+crude unpolished ideas on my head--I assure you, Madam, I do not
+dissemble when I tell you I tremble for the consequences. The novelty of
+a poet in my obscure situation, without any of those advantages which
+are reckoned necessary for that character, at least at this time of day,
+has raised a partial tide of public notice which has borne me to a
+height, where I am absolutely, feelingly certain, my abilities are
+inadequate to support me; and too surely do I see that time when the
+same tide will leave me, and recede, perhaps, as far below the mark of
+truth. I do not say this in the ridiculous affectation of self-abasement
+and modesty. I have studied myself, and know what ground I occupy; and
+however a friend or the world may differ from me in that particular, I
+stand for my own opinion, in silent resolve, with all the tenaciousness
+of property. I mention this to you once for all to disburthen my mind,
+and I do not wish to hear or say more about it. But
+
+  When proud fortune's ebbing tide recedes,
+
+you will bear me witness, that when my bubble of fame was at the highest
+I stood unintoxicated, with the inebriating cup in my hand, looking
+forward with rueful resolve to the hastening time, when the blow of
+Calumny should dash it to the ground, with all the eagerness of
+vengeful triumph.
+
+Your patronising me and interesting yourself in my fame and character as
+a poet, I rejoice in; it exalts me in my own idea; and whether you can
+or cannot aid me in my subscription is a trifle. Has a paltry
+subscription-bill any charms to the heart of a bard, compared with the
+patronage of the descendant of the immortal Wallace? R. B.
+
+   [Footnote 30: Stanza in the "Vision," beginning, "By stately tower or
+   palace fair," and ending with the first Duan.]
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+XLI--TO DR. MOORE.[31]
+
+EDINBURGH, _Jan._ 1787.
+
+SIR,--Mrs. Dunlop has been so kind as to send me extracts of letters she
+has had from you, where you do the rustic bard the honour of noticing
+him and his works. Those who have felt the anxieties and solicitudes of
+authorship, can only know what pleasure it gives to be noticed in such a
+manner, by judges of the first character. Your criticisms, Sir, I
+receive with reverence: only I am sorry they mostly came too late: a
+peccant passage or two that I would certainly have altered, were gone to
+the press.
+
+The hope to be admired for ages is, in by far the greater part of those
+even who are authors of repute, an unsubstantial dream. For my part, my
+first ambition was, and still my strongest wish is, to please my
+compeers, the inmates of the hamlet, while ever-changing language and
+manners shall allow me to be relished and understood. I am very willing
+to admit that I have some poetical abilities; and as few, if any,
+writers, either moral or poetical, are intimately acquainted with the
+classes of mankind among whom I have chiefly mingled, I may have seen
+men and manners in a different phasis from what is common, which may
+assist originality of thought. Still I know very well the novelty of my
+character has by far the greatest share in the learned and polite notice
+I have lately had; and in a language where Pope and Churchill have
+raised the laugh, and Shenstone and Gray drawn the tear; where Thomson
+and Beattie have painted the landscape, and Lyttelton and Collins
+described the heart, I am not vain enough to hope for distinguished
+poetic fame. R. B.
+
+   [Footnote 31: Father of the hero of Coruna, and author of _Zeluco_,
+   etc.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+XLII.--To THE REV. G. LAWRIE, NEWMILNS, NEAR KILMARNOCK.
+
+EDINBURGH, _Feb_. 5_th_, 1787.
+
+REVEREND AND DEAR SIR,--When I look at the date of your kind letter, my
+heart reproaches me severely with ingratitude in neglecting so long to
+answer it. I will not trouble you with any account, by way of apology,
+of my hurried life and distracted attention: do me the justice to
+believe that my delay by no means proceeded from want of respect. I
+feel, and ever shall feel for you, the mingled sentiments of esteem for
+a friend and reverence for a father.
+
+I thank you, Sir, with all my soul, for your friendly hints, though I do
+not need them so much as my friends are apt to imagine. You are dazzled
+with newspaper accounts and distant reports; but, in reality, I have no
+great temptation to be intoxicated with the cup of prosperity. Novelty
+may attract the attention of mankind awhile; to it I owe my present
+_eclat_; but I see the time not far distant when the popular tide which
+has borne me to a height of which I am, perhaps, unworthy, shall recede
+with silent celerity, and leave me a barren waste of sand, to descend at
+my leisure to my former station. I do not say this in the affectation of
+modesty; I see the consequence is unavoidable, and am prepared for it. I
+had been at a good deal of pains to form a just, impartial estimate of
+my intellectual powers before I came here: I have not added, since I
+came to Edinburgh, anything to the account; and I trust I shall take
+every atom of it back to my shades, the coverts of my unnoticed
+early years.
+
+In Dr. Blacklock, whom I see very often, I have found what I would have
+expected in our friend, a clear head and an excellent heart.
+
+By far the most agreeable hours I spend in Edinburgh must be placed to
+the account of Miss Lawrie and her pianoforte. I cannot help repeating
+to you and Mrs. Lawrie a compliment that Mr. Mackenzie, the celebrated
+"Man of Feeling," paid to Miss Lawrie, the other night, at the concert.
+I had come in at the interlude, and sat down by him till I saw Miss
+Lawrie in a seat not very far distant, and went up to pay my respects to
+her. On my return to Mr. Mackenzie he asked me who she was; I told him
+'twas the daughter of a reverend friend of mine in the west country. He
+returned, there were something very striking, to his idea, in her
+appearance. On my desiring to know what it was, he was pleased to say,
+"She has a great deal of the elegance of a well-bred lady about her,
+with all the sweet simplicity of a country girl."
+
+My compliments to all the happy inmates of St. Margaret's.--I am, my
+dear Sir, yours, most gratefully,
+
+ROBERT BURNS.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+XLIII.-To THE EARL OF BUCHAN.[32]
+
+MY LORD,--The honour your lordship has done me, by
+your notice and advice in yours of the 1st instant, I shall
+ever gratefully remember:--
+
+  Praise from thy lips 'tis mine with joy to boast,
+  They best can give it who deserve it most.
+
+Your lordship touches the darling chord of my heart, when you advise me
+to fire my muse at Scottish story and Scottish scenes. I wish for
+nothing more than to make a leisurely pilgrimage through my native
+country; to sit and muse on those once hard-contended fields, where
+Caledonia, rejoicing, saw her bloody lion borne through broken ranks to
+victory and fame; and, catching the inspiration, to pour the deathless
+names in song. But, my lord, in the midst of these enthusiastic
+reveries, a long-visaged, dry moral-looking phantom strides across my
+imagination, and pronounces these emphatic words:--
+
+   "I, Wisdom, dwell with Prudence. Friend, I do not come to open the
+   ill-closed wounds of your follies and misfortunes, merely to give you
+   pain: I wish through these wounds to imprint a lasting lesson on your
+   heart. I will not mention how many of my salutary advices you have
+   despised: I have given you line upon line and precept upon precept;
+   and while I was chalking out to you the straight way to wealth and
+   character, with audacious effrontery you have zigzagged across the
+   path, contemning me to my face; you know the consequences. It is not
+   yet three months since home was so hot for you, that you were on the
+   wing for the western shore of the Atlantic, not to make a fortune,
+   but to hide your misfortune.
+
+   "Now that your dear-loved Scotia puts it in your power to return to
+   the situation of your forefathers, will you follow these will-o'-wisp
+   meteors of fancy and whim, till they bring you once more to the brink
+   of ruin? I grant that the utmost ground you can occupy is but half a
+   step from the veriest poverty; but still it is half a step from it.
+   If all that I can urge be ineffectual, let her who seldom calls to
+   you in vain, let the call of pride prevail with you. You know how you
+   feel at the iron gripe of ruthless oppression: you know how you bear
+   the galling sneer of contumelious greatness. I hold you out the
+   conveniences, the comforts of life, independence and character, on
+   the one hand; I tender you servility, dependence, and wretchedness on
+   the other. I will not insult your understanding by bidding you make
+   a choice."
+
+This, my lord, is unanswerable. I must return to my humble station, and
+woo my rustic muse in my wonted way at the plough-tail. Still, my lord,
+while the drops of life warm my heart, gratitude to that dear-loved
+country in which I boast my birth, and gratitude to those her
+distinguished sons, who have honoured me so much with their patronage
+and approbation, shall, while stealing through my humble shades, ever
+distend my bosom, and at times, as now, draw forth the swelling tear.
+
+R. B.
+
+   [Footnote 32: The Earl of Buchan was the very pink of parsimonious
+   patrons.--MOTHERWELL.]
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+XLIV.--TO MR. JAMES CANDLISH,[33] STUDENT IN PHYSIC, GLASGOW COLLEGE.
+
+EDINBURGH, _March_ 21_st_, 1787.
+
+MY EVER DEAR OLD ACQUAINTANCE,--I was equally surprised and pleased at
+your letter, though I dare say you will think, by my delaying so long to
+write to you, that I am so drowned in the intovirarion of good fortune
+as to be indifferent to old, and once dear connections. The truth is, I
+was determined to write a good letter, full of argument, amplification,
+erudition, and, as Bayes says, _all that_. I thought of it, and thought
+of it, and, by my soul, I could not; and, lest you should mistake the
+cause of my silence, I just sit down to tell you so. Don't give yourself
+credit, though, that the strength of your logic scares me; the truth is,
+I never mean to meet you on that ground at all. You have shown me one
+thing which was to be demonstrated: that strong pride of reasoning, with
+a little affectation of singularity, may mislead the best of hearts. I
+likewise, since you and I were first acquainted, in the pride of
+despising old women's stories, ventured in "the daring path Spinosa
+trod;" but experience of the weakness, not the strength of human powers,
+made me glad to grasp at revealed religion.
+
+I am still, in the Apostle Paul's phrase, "the old man with his deeds,"
+as when we were sporting about the "Lady Thorn." I shall be four weeks
+here yet at least: and so I shall expect to hear from you; welcome
+sense, welcome nonsense.--I am, with the warmest sincerity, R. B.
+
+   [Footnote 33: Mr. Candlish married Miss Smith, one of the six
+   _belles_ of Mauchline. Their son was the Rev. Dr. Candlish, of Free
+   St. George's Church, Edinburgh.]
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+XLV.--TO MR. PETER STUART, EDITOR OF "THE STAR," LONDON.
+
+EDINBURGH, 1787.
+
+MY DEAR SIR,--You may think, and too justly, that I am a selfish,
+ungrateful fellow, having received so many repeated instances of
+kindness from you, and yet never putting pen to paper to say thank you;
+but if you knew what a devil of a life my conscience has led me on that
+account, your good heart would think yourself too much avenged. By the
+by, there is nothing in the whole frame of man which seems to be so
+unaccountable as that thing called conscience. Had the troublesome
+yelping cur powers efficient to prevent a mischief, he might be of use;
+out at the beginning of the business, his feeble efforts are, to the
+workings of passion, as the infant frosts of an autumnal morning to the
+unclouded fervour of the rising sun; and no sooner are the tumultuous
+doings of the wicked deed over, than amidst the bitter native
+consequences of folly in the very vortex of our horrors, up starts
+conscience, and harrows us with the feelings of the damned.
+
+I have inclosed you, by way of expiation, some verse and prose, that, if
+they merit a place in your truly entertaining miscellany, you are
+welcome to. The prose extract is literally as Mr. Sprott sent it me.
+
+The inscription on the stone is as follows:--
+
+  "HERE LIES ROBERT FERGUSSON, POET,
+  Born, September 5th, 1751--Died, 16th October 1774.
+
+  No sculptured marble here, nor pompous lay,
+    'No storied urn nor animated bust;'
+  This simple stone directs pale Scotia's way
+    To pour her sorrows o'er her poet's dust."
+
+On the other side of the stone is as follows:--
+
+   "By special grant of the managers to Robert Burns, who erected this
+   stone, this burial place is to remain for ever sacred to the memory
+   of Robert Fergusson."
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+XLVI--TO MRS. DUNLOP.
+
+EDINBURGH, _March_ 22_nd_, 1787.
+
+MADAM,--I read your letter with watery eyes. A little, very little while
+ago, I had scarce a friend but the stubborn pride of my own bosom; now I
+am distinguished, patronised, befriended by you. Your friendly
+advices--I will not give them the cold name of criticisms--I receive
+with reverence. I have made some small alterations in what I before had
+printed. I have the advice of some very judicious friends among the
+literati here, but with them I sometimes find it necessary to claim the
+privilege of thinking for myself. The noble Earl of Glencairn, to whom I
+owe more than to any man, does me the honour of giving me his
+strictures; his hints, with respect to impropriety or indelicacy, I
+follow implicitly.
+
+You kindly interest yourself in my future views and prospects; there I
+can give you no light. It is all
+
+  Dark as was Chaos ere the infant sun
+  Was roll'd together, or had tried his beams
+  Athwart the gloom profound.
+
+The appellation of a Scottish bard is by far my highest pride; to
+continue to deserve it is my most exalted ambition. Scottish scenes and
+Scottish story are the themes I could wish to sing. I have no dearer aim
+than to have it in my power, unplagued with the routine of business, for
+which Heaven knows I am unfit enough, to make leisurely pilgrimages
+through Caledonia; to sit on the fields of her battles; to wander on the
+romantic banks of her rivers; and to muse by the stately towers or
+venerable ruins, once the honoured abodes of her heroes.
+
+But these are all Utopian thoughts: I have dallied long enough with
+life; 'tis time to be in earnest. I have a fond, an aged mother to care
+for: and some other bosom ties perhaps equally tender. Where the
+individual only suffers by the consequences of his own thoughtlessness,
+indolence, or folly, he may be excusable; nay, shining abilities, and
+some of the nobler virtues, may half sanctify a heedless character; but
+where God and nature have intrusted the welfare of others to his care;
+where the trust is sacred, and the ties are dear, that man must be far
+gone in selfishness, or strangely lost to reflection, whom these
+connections will not rouse to exertion.
+
+I guess that I shall clear between two and three hundred pounds by my
+authorship;[34] with that sum I intend, so far as I may be said to have
+any intention, to return to my old acquaintance, the plough; and, if I
+can meet with a lease by which I can live, to commence farmer. I do not
+intend to give up poetry; being bred to labour, secures me independence,
+and the muses are my chief, sometimes have been my only enjoyment. If my
+practice second my resolution, I shall have principally at heart the
+serious business of life; but while following my plough, or building up
+my shocks, I shall cast a leisure glance to that dear, that only feature
+of my character, which gave me the notice of my country, and the
+patronage of a Wallace.
+
+Thus, honoured Madam, I have given you the bard, his situation, and his
+views, native as they are in his own bosom. R. B.
+
+   [Footnote 34: The proceeds amounted to more--some L500 or so.]
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+XLVII--TO MRS. DUNLOP.
+
+EDINBURGH, 15_th April_ 1787.
+
+MADAM,--There is an affectation of gratitude which I dislike. The
+periods of Johnson and the pauses of Sterne may hide a selfish heart.
+For my part, Madam, I trust I have too much pride for servility, and too
+little prudence for selfishness. I have this moment broken open your
+letter, but
+
+  Rude am I in speech,
+  And therefore little can I grace my cause
+  In speaking for myself--
+
+so I shall not trouble you with any fine speeches and hunted figures. I
+shall just lay my hand on my heart and say, I hope I shall ever have the
+truest, the warmest sense of your goodness.
+
+I come abroad, in print, for certain on Wednesday. Your orders I shall
+punctually attend to; only, by the way, I must tell you that I was paid
+before for Dr. Moore's and Miss Williams's copies, through the medium of
+Commissioner Cochrane in this place, but that we can settle when I have
+the honour of waiting on you.
+
+Dr. Smith[35] was just gone to London the morning before I received your
+letter to him. R. B.
+
+   [Footnote 35: Adam Smith, the celebrated author of _The Wealth of
+   Nations_.]
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+XLVIII.--TO DR. MOORE.
+
+EDINBURGH, 23_rd April_ 1787.
+
+I received the books, and sent the one you mentioned to Mrs. Dunlop. I
+am ill skilled in beating the coverts of imagination for metaphors of
+gratitude. I thank you, Sir, for the honour you have done me and to my
+latest hour will warmly remember it. To be highly pleased with your
+book, is what I have in common with the world; but to regard these
+volumes as a mark of the author's friendly esteem, is a still more
+supreme gratification.
+
+I leave Edinburgh in the course of ten days or a fortnight, and after a
+few pilgrimages over some of the classic ground of Caledonia, Cowden
+Knowes, Banks of Yarrow, Tweed, etc., I shall return to my rural shades,
+in all likelihood never more to quit them. I have formed many intimacies
+and friendships here, but I am afraid they are all of too tender a
+construction to bear carriage a hundred and fifty miles. To the rich,
+the great, the fashionable, the polite, I have no equivalent to offer;
+and I am afraid my meteor appearance will by no means entitle me to a
+settled correspondence with any of you, who are the permanent lights of
+genius and literature.
+
+My most respectful compliments to Miss Williams. If once this tangent
+flight of mine were over, and I were returned to my wonted leisurely
+motion in my old circle, I may probably endeavour to return her poetic
+compliment in kind. R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+XLIX.--TO MRS. DUNLOP.
+
+EDINBURGH, 30_th April_ 1787.
+
+--Your criticisms, Madam, I understand very well, and could have wished
+to have pleased you better. You are right in your guess that I am not
+very amenable to counsel. Poets, much my superiors, have so flattered
+those who possessed the adventitious qualities of wealth and power, that
+I am determined to flatter no created being, either in prose or verse.
+
+I set as little by princes, lords, clergy, critics, etc., as, all these
+respective gentry do by my bardship. I know what I may expect from the
+world, by-and-bye--illiberal abuse, and perhaps contemptuous neglect.
+
+I am happy, Madam, that some of my own favourite pieces are
+distinguished by your particular approbation. For my "dream,"[36] which
+has unfortunately incurred your loyal displeasure, I hope, in four
+weeks, or less, to have the honour of appearing, at Dunlop, in its
+defence in person. R. B.
+
+   [Footnote 36: The well-known poem, beginning, "Guid morning to your
+   Majesty." Mrs. Dunlop had recommended its omission, in the second
+   edition, on the score of prudence.]
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+L--To MR. WILLIAM NICOL, CLASSICAL MASTER, HIGH SCHOOL, EDINBURGH.
+
+CARLISLE, _June_ 1, 1787.
+
+KIND, HONEST-HEARTED WILLIE.--I'm sitten down here, after
+seven-and-forty miles' ridin', e'en as forjesket and forniaw'd as a
+forfoughten cock, to gie ye some notion o' my land lowper-like
+stravaguin sin the sorrowfu' hour that I sheuk hands and parted wi'
+auld Reekie.
+
+My auld, ga'd gleyde o' a meere has huchyall'd up hill and down brae, in
+Scotland and England, as teugh and birnie as a very deil wi' me. It's
+true, she's as poor's a sang-maker and as hard's a kirk, and
+tipper-taipers when she taks the gate, first like a lady's gentlewoman
+in a minuwae, or a hen on a het girdle; but she's a yauld, poutherie
+Girran for a' that, and has a stomack like Willie Stalker's meere that
+wad hae disgeested tumbler-wheels, for she'll whip me aff her five
+stimparts o' the best aits at a down-sittin and ne'er fash her thumb.
+When ance her ring-banes and spavies, her crucks and cramps, are fairly
+soupl'd, she beets to, beets to, and aye the hindmost hour the tightest.
+I could wager her price to a thretty pennies, that for twa or three
+wooks ridin' at fifty miles a day, the deil-stickit a five gallopers
+acqueesh Clyde and Whithorn could cast saut on her tail.
+
+I hae dander'd owre a' the kintra frae Dunbar to Selcraig, and hae
+forgather'd wi' mony a guid fallow, and mony a weelfar'd hizzie. I met
+wi' twa dink quines in particlar, ane o' them a sonsie, fine, fodgel
+lass, baith braw and bonnie; the tither was a clean-shankit, straught,
+tight, weel-far'd winch, as blythe's a lintwhite on a flowerie thorn,
+and as sweet and modest's a new blawn plumrose in a hazle shaw. They
+were baith bred to mainers by the beuk, and onie ane o' them had as
+muckle smeddum and rumblegumtion as the half o' some presbyteries that
+you and I baith ken.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I was gaun to write ye a lang pystle, but, Gude forgie me, I gat mysel
+sae notouriously fou the day after kail-time that I can hardly stoiter
+but and ben.
+
+My best respecks to the guidwife and a' our common friens, especiall Mr.
+and Mrs. Cruikshank, and the honest guidman o' Jock's Lodge.[37]
+
+I'll be in Dumfries the morn gif the beast be to the fore, and the
+branks bide hale.
+
+Gude be wi' you, Willie! Amen!
+
+R. B.
+
+   [Footnote 37: Louis Cauvin, teacher of French.]
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+LI.-To MR. WILLIAM NICOL.
+
+MAUCHLINE, _June_ l8, 1787.
+
+My dear friend,--I am now arrived safe in my native country, after a
+very agreeable jaunt, and have the pleasure to find all my friends well.
+I breakfasted with your greyheaded, reverend friend, Mr. Smith; and was
+highly pleased, both with the cordial welcome he gave me, and his most
+excellent appearance and sterling good sense.
+
+I have been with Mr. Miller at Dalswinton, and am to meet him again in
+August. From my view of the lands, and his reception of my bardship, my
+hopes in that business are rather mended; but still they are
+but slender.
+
+I am quite charmed with Dumfries folks--Mr. Burnside, the clergyman, in
+particular, is a man whom I shall ever gratefully remember; and his
+wife, Gude forgie me! I had almost broke the tenth commandment on her
+account. Simplicity, elegance, good sense, sweetness of disposition,
+good humour, kind hospitality, are the constituents of her manner and
+heart; in short--but if I say one word more about her, I shall be
+directly in love with her.
+
+I never, my friend, thought mankind very capable of anything generous;
+but the stateliness of the patricians in Edinburgh, and the servility of
+my plebeian brethren (who, perhaps, formerly eyed me askance) since I
+returned home, have nearly put me out of conceit altogether with my
+species. I have bought a pocket Milton which I carry perpetually about
+with me, in order to study the sentiments--the dauntless magnanimity,
+the intrepid, unyielding independence, the desperate daring, and noble
+defiance of hardship in that great personage, SATAN. 'Tis true, I have
+just now a little cash; but I am afraid the star that hitherto has shed
+its malignant, purpose-blasting rays full in my zenith; that noxious
+planet, so baneful in its influence to the rhyming tribe--I much dread
+it is not yet beneath my horizon. Misfortune dodges the path of human
+life; the poetic mind finds itself miserably deranged in, and unfit for
+the walks of business; add to all, that thoughtless follies and
+hare-brained whims, like so many _ignes fatui_, eternally diverging from
+the right line of sober discretion, sparkle with step-bewitching blaze
+in the idly-gazing eyes of the poor heedless Bard, till, pop, "he falls
+like Lucifer, never to hope again." God grant this may be an unreal
+picture with respect to me! but should it not, I have very little
+dependence on mankind. I will close my letter with this tribute my heart
+bids me pay you--the many ties of acquaintance and friendship which I
+have, or think I have in life, I have felt along the lines, and damn
+them, they are almost all of them of such frail contexture, that I am
+sure they would not stand the breath of the least adverse breeze of
+fortune; but from you, my ever dear Sir, I look with confidence for the
+Apostolic love that shall wait on me "through good report and bad
+report"--the love which Solomon emphatically says "is strong as death."
+My compliments to Mrs. Nicol and all the circle of our common friends.
+
+P.S.--I shall be in Edinburgh about the latter end of July.
+
+R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+LII.-To MR. ROBERT AINSLIE.[38]
+
+ARROCHAR, 28_th June_ 1787.
+
+My dear sir,--I write this on my tour through a country where savage
+streams tumble over savage mountains, thinly overspread with savage
+flocks, which sparingly support as savage inhabitants. My last stage was
+Inverary--to-morrow night's stage Dumbarton. I ought sooner to have
+answered your kind letter, but you know I am a man of many sins. R. B.
+
+   [Footnote 38: A young writer in Edinburgh.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+LIII.--TO MR. JAMES SMITH, LINLITHGOW, FORMERLY OF MAUCHLINE.
+
+_June 30th_, 1787.
+
+MY DEAR FRIEND,--On our return, at a Highland gentleman's hospitable
+mansion, we fell in with a merry party, and danced till the ladies left
+us, at three in the morning. Our dancing was none of the French or
+English insipid formal movements; the ladies sung Scotch songs like
+angels, at intervals; then we flew at _Bab at the Bowster_,
+_Tullochgorum_, _Loch Erroch Side_,[39] etc., like midges sporting in
+the mottie sun, or craws prognosticating a storm in a hairst day. When
+the dear lasses left us, we ranged round the bowl till the good-fellow
+hour of six; except a few minutes that we went out to pay our devotions
+to the glorious lamp of day peering over the towering top of Benlomond.
+We all kneeled; our worthy landlord's son held the bowl; each man a full
+glass in his hand; and I, as priest, repeated some rhyming nonsense,
+like Thomas-a-Rhymer's prophecies, I suppose. After a small refreshment
+of the gifts of Somnus, we proceeded to spend the day on Lochlomond, and
+reached Dumbarton in the evening. We dined at another good fellow's
+house, and, consequently, pushed the bottle; when we went out to mount
+our horses we found ourselves "No vera fou but gaylie yet." My two
+friends and I rode soberly down the Loch side, till by came a
+Highlandman at the gallop, on a tolerably good horse, but which had
+never known the ornaments of iron or leather. We scorned to be
+out-galloped by a Highlandman, so off we started, whip and spur. My
+companions, though seemingly gaily mounted, fell sadly astern; but my
+old mare, Jenny Geddes, one of the Rosinante family, she strained past
+the Highlandman in spite of all his efforts with the hair halter: just
+as I was passing him, Donald wheeled his horse, as if to cross before me
+to mar my progress, when down came his horse, and threw his rider's
+breekless a---- in a clipt hedge; and down came Jenny Geddes over all, and
+my hardship between her and the Highlandman's horse. Jenny Geddes trode
+over me with such cautious reverence, that matters were not so bad as
+might well have been expected; so I came off with a few cuts and
+bruises, and a thorough resolution to be a pattern of sobriety for
+the future.
+
+I have yet fixed on nothing with respect to the serious business of
+life. I am, just as usual, a rhyming, mason-making, raking, aimless,
+idle fellow. However, I shall somewhere have a farm soon. I was going to
+say, a wife too; but that must never be my blessed lot. I am but a
+younger son of the house of Parnassus, and like other younger sons of
+great families, I may intrigue, if I choose to run all risks, but must
+not marry.
+
+I am afraid I have almost ruined one source, the principal one indeed,
+of my former happiness; that eternal propensity I always had to fall in
+love. My heart no more glows with feverish rapture. I have no
+paradisiacal evening interviews, stolen from the restless cares and
+prying inhabitants of this weary world. I have only ----. This last is
+one of your distant acquaintances, has a fine figure, and elegant
+manners; and in the train of some great folks whom you know, has seen
+the politest quarters in Europe. I do like her a deal; but what piques
+me is her conduct at the commencement of our acquaintance. I frequently
+visited her when I was in ----, and after passing regularly the
+intermediate degrees between the distant formal bow and the familiar
+grasp round the waist, I ventured, in my careless way, to talk of
+friendship in rather ambiguous terms; and after her return to ----, I
+wrote to her in the same style. Miss, construing my words farther, I
+suppose, than even I intended, flew off in a tangent of female dignity
+and reserve, like a mounting lark in an April morning; and wrote me an
+answer which measured me out very completely what an immense way I had
+to travel before I could reach the climate of her favour. But I am an
+old hawk at the sport, and wrote her such a cool, deliberate, prudent
+reply, as brought my bird from her aerial towerings, pop down at my
+foot, like Corporal Trim's hat.
+
+As for the rest of my acts, and my wars, and all my wise sayings, and
+why my mare was called Jenny Geddes, they shall be recorded in a few
+weeks hence at Linlithgow, in the chronicles of your memory, by
+
+R. B.
+
+   [Footnote 39: Scotch tunes.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+LIV.-To MR. JOHN RICHMOND.
+
+MOSSGIEL, 7th _July_ 1787.
+
+MY DEAR RICHMOND,-I am all impatience to hear of your fate since the old
+confounder of right and wrong has turned you out of place, by his
+journey to answer his indictment at the bar of the other world. He will
+find the practice of the court so different from the practice in which
+he has for so many years been thoroughly hackneyed, that his friends, if
+he had any connections truly of that kind, which I rather doubt, may
+well tremble for his sake. His chicane, his left-handed wisdom, which
+stood so firmly by him, to such good purpose, here, like other
+accomplices in robbery and plunder, will, now the piratical business is
+blown, in all probability turn king's evidences, and then the devil's
+bagpiper will touch him off "Bundle and go!"
+
+If he has left you any legacy, I beg your pardon for all this; if not, I
+know you will swear to every word I said about him.
+
+I have lately been rambling over by Dumbarton and Inverary, and running
+a drunken race on the side of Loch Lomond with a wild Highlandman; his
+horse, which had never known the ornaments of iron or leather,
+zig-zagged across before my old spavin'd hunter, whose name is Jenny
+Geddes, and down came the Highlandman, horse and all, and down came
+Jenny and my bardship; so I have got such a skinful of bruises and
+wounds, that I shall be at least four weeks before I dare venture on my
+journey to Edinburgh.
+
+Not one new thing under the sun has happened in Mauchline since you left
+it. I hope this will find you as comfortably situated as formerly, or,
+if heaven pleases, more so; but, at all events, I trust you will let me
+know of course how matters stand with you, well or ill. 'Tis but poor
+consolation to tell the world when matters go wrong; but you know very
+well your connection and mine stands on a different footing.--I am ever,
+my dear friend, yours,
+
+R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+LV.--TO MR. ROBERT AINSLIE.
+
+MAUCHLINE, _23rd July_ 1787.
+
+MY DEAR AINSLIE,-There is one thing for which I set great store by you
+as a friend, and it is this, that I have not a friend upon earth,
+besides yourself, to whom I can talk nonsense without forfeiting some
+degree of his esteem. Now, to one like me, who never cares for speaking
+anything else but nonsense, such a friend as you is an invaluable
+treasure. I was never a rogue, but have been a fool all my life; and, in
+spite of all my endeavours, I see now plainly that I shall never be
+wise. Now it rejoices my heart to have met with such a fellow as you,
+who, though you are not just such a hopeless fool as I, yet I trust you
+will never listen so much to temptation as to grow so very wise that you
+will in the least disrespect an honest fellow because he is a fool. In
+short, I have set you down as the staff of my old age, when the whole
+list of my friends will, after a decent share of pity, have forgot me.
+
+  Though in the morn comes sturt and strife,
+  Yet joy may come at noon;
+  And I hope to live a merry, merry life
+  When a' thir days are done.
+
+Write me soon, were it but a few lines, just to tell me how that good,
+sagacious man your father is,--that kind, dainty body your mother,--
+that strapping chiel your brother Douglas-and my friend Rachel, who is
+as far before Rachel of old, as she was before her blear-eyed
+sister Leah.
+
+R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+LVI-To DR. MOORE.
+
+MAUCHLINE, 2nd August 1787.
+
+SIR,-For some months past I have been rambling over the country, but I
+am now confined with some lingering complaints, originating, as I take
+it, in the stomach. To divert my spirits a little in this miserable fog
+of ennui, I have taken a whim to give you a history of myself. My name
+has made some little noise in this country; you have done me the honour
+to interest yourself very warmly in my behalf; and I think a faithful
+account of what character of a man I am, and how I came by that
+character, may perhaps amuse you in an idle moment. I will give you an
+honest narrative, though I know it will be often at my own expense; for
+I assure you, Sir, I have, like Solomon, whose character, excepting in
+the trifling affair of wisdom, I sometimes think I resemble,--I have, I
+say, like him, turned my eyes to behold madness and folly, and like him,
+too, frequently shaken hands with their intoxicating friendship. After
+you have perused these pages, should you think them trifling and
+impertinent, I only beg leave to tell you, that the poor author wrote
+them under some twitching qualms of conscience, arising from a suspicion
+that he was doing what he ought not to do: a predicament he has more
+than once been in before.
+
+I have not the most distant pretensions to assume that character which
+the pye-coated guardians of escutcheons call a gentleman. When at
+Edinburgh last winter, I got acquainted in the herald's office; and,
+looking through that granary of honours, I there found almost every name
+in the kingdom; but for me,
+
+  My ancient but ignoble blood
+  Has crept thro' scoundrels ever since the flood.
+
+Gules, purpure, argent, etc., quite disowned me.
+
+My father was in the north of Scotland the son of a farmer, and was
+thrown by early misfortunes on the world at large, where, afier many
+years' wanderings and sojournings, he picked up a pretty large quantity
+of observation and experience, to which I am indebted for most of my
+little pretensions to wisdom. I have met with few who understood men,
+their manners, and their ways, equal to him; but stubborn, ungainly
+integrity, and headlong, ungovernable irascibility are disqualifying
+circumstances; consequently, I was born a very poor man's son. For the
+first six or seven years of my life, my father was gardener to a worthy
+gentleman of small estate in the neighbourhood of Ayr. Had he continued
+in that station, I must have marched off to be one of the little
+underlings about a farm house; but it was his dearest wish and prayer to
+have it in his power to keep his children under his own eye, till they
+could discern between good and evil; so, with the assistance of his
+generous master, my father ventured on a small farm on his estate. At
+those years, I was by no means a favourite with anybody. I was a good
+deal noted for a retentive memory, a stubborn sturdy something in my
+disposition, and an enthusiastic idiot piety. I say idiot piety, because
+I was then but a child. Though it cost the schoolmaster some thrashings,
+I made an excellent English scholar; and by the time I was ten or eleven
+years of age, I was a critic in substantives, verbs, and particles. In
+my infant and boyish days, too, I owed much to an old woman who resided
+in the family, remarkable for her ignorance, credulity, and
+superstition. She had, I suppose, the largest collection in the country
+of tales and songs concerning devils, ghosts, fairies, brownies,
+witches, warlocks, spunkies, kelpies, elf-candles, dead-lights, wraiths,
+apparitions, cantraips, giants, enchanted towers, dragons, and other
+trumpery. This cultivated the latent seeds of poetry, but had so strong
+an effect on my imagination, that to this hour, in my nocturnal rambles,
+I sometimes keep a sharp look out in suspicious places; and though
+nobody can be more sceptical than I am in such matters, yet it often
+takes an effort of philosophy to shake off these idle terrors. The
+earliest composition that I recollect taking pleasure in was "The Vision
+of Mirza," and a hymn of Addison's, beginning, "How are thy servants
+blest, O Lord!" I particularly remember one half-stanza which was music
+to my boyish ear--
+
+  "For though on dreadful whirls we hung
+     High on the broken wave--"
+
+I met with these pieces in Manson's English Collection, one of my
+school-books. The first two books I ever read in private, and which gave
+me more pleasure than any two books I ever read since, were the _Life of
+Hannibal_, and the _History of Sir William Wallace_. Hannibal gave my
+young ideas such a turn, that I used to strut in rapture up and down
+after the recruiting drum and bag-pipe, and wish myself tall enough to
+be a soldier; while the story of Wallace poured a Scottish prejudice
+into my veins which will boil along there, till the flood-gates of life
+shut in eternal rest.
+
+Polemical divinity about this time was putting the country half mad, and
+I, ambitious of shining in conversation parties on Sundays, between
+sermons, at funerals, etc., used a few years afterwards to puzzle
+Calvinism with so much heat and indiscretion, that I raised a hue and
+cry of heresy against me, which has not ceased to this hour.
+
+My vicinity to Ayr was of some advantage to me. My social disposition,
+when not checked by some modifications of spirited pride, was like our
+catechism definition of infinitude, without bounds or limits. I formed
+several connections with other younkers, who possessed superior
+advantages; the youngling actors who were busy in the rehearsal of
+parts, in which they were shortly to appear on the stage of life, where,
+alas! I was destined to drudge behind the scenes. It is not commonly at
+this green stage that our young gentry have a just sense of the immense
+distance between them and their ragged play-fellows. It takes a few
+dashes into the world, to give the young great man that proper, decent,
+unnoticing disregard for the poor, insignificant, stupid devils, the
+mechanics and peasantry around him, who were, perhaps, born in the same
+village. My young superiors never insulted the clouterly appearance of
+my plough-boy carcase, the two extremes of which were often exposed to
+all the inclemencies of all the seasons. They would give me stray
+volumes of books; among them, even then, I could pick up some
+observations; and one, whose heart, I am sure, not even the "Munny
+Begum" scenes have tainted, helped me to a little French. Parting with
+these my young friends and benefactors, as they occasionally went off
+for the East or West Indies, was often to me a sore affliction; but I
+was soon called to more serious evils. My father's generous master died;
+the farm proved a ruinous bargain; and to clench the misfortune, we fell
+into the hands of a factor, who sat for the picture I have drawn of one
+in my tale of "Twa Dogs." My father was advanced in life when he
+married; I was the eldest of seven children, and he, worn out by early
+hardships, was unfit for labour. My father's spirit was soon irritated,
+but not easily broken. There was a freedom in his lease in two years
+more, and to weather these two years, we retrenched our expenses. We
+lived very poorly: I was a dexterous ploughman for my age; and the next
+eldest to me was a brother (Gilbert), who could drive a plough very
+well, and help me to thrash the corn. A novel-writer might, perhaps,
+have viewed these scenes with some satisfaction, but so did not I; my
+indignation yet boils at the recollection of the scoundrel factor's
+insolent threatening letters, which used to set us all in tears.
+
+This kind of life--the cheerless gloom of a hermit with the unceasing
+moil of a galley-slave, brought me to my sixteenth year; a little before
+which period I first committed the sin of rhyme. You know our country
+custom of coupling a man and woman together as partners in the labours
+of harvest. In my fifteenth autumn, my partner was a bewitching
+creature, a year younger than myself. My scarcity of English denies me
+the power of doing her justice in that language, but you know the
+Scottish idiom: she was a "bonnie, sweet, sonsie lass." In short, she,
+altogether unwittingly to herself, initiated me in that delicious
+passion, which, in spite of acid disappointment, gin-horse prudence, and
+book-worm philosophy, I hold to be the first of human joys, our dearest
+blessing here below! How she caught the contagion I cannot tell; you
+medical people talk much of infection from breathing the same air, the
+touch, etc.; but I never expressly said I loved her. Indeed, I did not
+know myself why I liked so much to loiter behind with her, when
+returning in the evening from our labours; why the tones of her voice
+made my heart-strings thrill like an Aeolian harp; and particularly why
+my pulse beat such a furious ratan, when I looked and fingered over her
+little hand to pick out the cruel nettle-stings and thistles. Among her
+other love-inspiring qualities, she sung sweetly; and it was her
+favourite reel to which I attempted giving an embodied vehicle in rhyme.
+I was not so presumptuous as to imagine that I could make verses like
+printed ones, composed by men who had Greek and Latin; but my girl sung
+a song which was said to be composed by a small country laird's son, on
+one of his father's maids, with whom he was in love; and I saw no reason
+why I might not rhyme as well as he; for, excepting that he could smear
+sheep, and cast peats, his father living in the moorlands, he had no
+more scholar-craft than myself.
+
+Thus with me began love and poetry; which at times have been my only,
+and till within the last twelve months, have been my highest enjoyment.
+My father struggled on till he reached the freedom in his lease, when he
+entered on a larger farm, about ten miles farther in the country. The
+nature of the bargain he made was such as to throw a little ready money
+into his hands at the commencement of his lease, otherwise the affair
+would have been impracticable. For four years we lived comfortably here,
+but a difference commencing between him and his landlord as to terms,
+after three years tossing and whirling in the vortex of litigation, my
+father was just saved from the horrors of a jail, by a consumption,
+which, after two years' promises, kindly stepped in, and carried him
+away, to where the wicked cease from troubling, and where the weary
+are at rest!
+
+It is during the time that we lived on this farm that my little story is
+most eventful. I was, at the beginning of this period, perhaps the most
+ungainly awkward boy in the parish--no _solitaire_ was less acquainted
+with the ways of the world. What I knew of ancient story was gathered
+from Salmon's and Guthrie's Geographical Grammars; and the ideas I had
+formed of modern manners, of literature, and criticism, I got from the
+_Spectator_. These, with Pope's Works, some Plays of Shakespeare, Tull
+and Dickson on Agriculture, _The Pantheon_, Locke's _Essay on the Human
+Understanding_, Stackhouse's _History of the Bible_, Justice's _British
+Gardener's Directory_, Boyle's _Lectures_, Allan Ramsays's Works,
+Taylor's _Scripture Doctrine of Original Sin_, _A Select Collection of
+English Songs_, and Hervey's _Meditations_, had formed the whole of my
+reading. The collection of songs was my _vade mecum_. I pored over them,
+driving my cart, or walking to labour, song by song, verse by verse;
+carefully noting the true tender, or sublime, from affectation and
+fustian. I am convinced I owe to this practice much of my critic-craft,
+such as it is.
+
+In my seventeenth year, to give my manners a brush, I went to a country
+dancing-school. My father had an unaccountable antipathy against these
+meetings, and my going was, what to this moment I repent, in opposition
+to his wishes. My father, as I said before, was subject to strong
+passions; from that instance of disobedience in me, he took a sort of
+dislike to me, which, I believe, was one cause of the dissipation which
+marked my succeeding years. I say dissipation, comparatively with the
+strictness, and sobriety, and regularity of presbyterian country life;
+for though the will-o'-wisp meteors of thoughtless whim were almost the
+sole lights of my path, yet early ingrained piety and virtue kept me for
+several years afterwards within the line of innocence. The great
+misfortune of my life was to want an aim. I had felt early some
+stirrings of ambition, but they were the blind gropings of Homer's
+Cyclops round the walls of his cave. I saw my father's situation
+entailed on me perpetual labour. The only two openings by which I could
+enter the temple of fortune were the gate of niggardly economy, or the
+path of little chicaning bargain-making. The first is so contracted an
+aperture I never could squeeze myself into it--the last I always
+hated--there was contamination in the very entrance! Thus abandoned of
+aim or view in life, with a strong appetite for sociability, as well
+from native hilarity as from a pride of observation and remark; a
+constitutional melancholy or hypochondriasm that made me fly solitude;
+add to these incentives to social life, my reputation for bookish
+knowledge, a certain wild logical talent, and a strength of thought
+something like the rudiments of good sense; and it will not seem
+surprising that I was generally a welcome guest where I visited, or any
+great wonder that always, where two or three met together, there was I
+among them. But far beyond all other impulses of my heart, was _un
+penchant a l'adorable moitie du genre humain_. My heart was completely
+tinder, and was eternally lighted up by some goddess or other; and, as
+in every other warfare in this world, my fortune was various; sometimes
+I was received with favour, and sometimes I was mortified with a
+repulse. At the plough, scythe, or reap-hook, I feared no competitor,
+and thus I set absolute want at defiance; and as I never cared further
+for my labours than while I was in actual exercise, I spent the evenings
+in the way after my own heart. A country lad seldom carries on a love
+adventure without an assisting confidant. I possessed a curiosity, zeal,
+and intrepid dexterity that recommended me as a proper second on these
+occasions; and I dare say I felt as much pleasure in being in the secret
+of half the loves of the parish of Tarbolton, as ever did statesman in
+knowing the intrigues of half the courts of Europe. The very
+goose-feather in my hand seems to know instinctively the well-worn path
+of my imagination, the favourite theme of my song, and is with
+difficulty restrained from giving you a couple of paragraphs on the
+love-adventures of my compeers, the humble inmates of the farm-house and
+cottage; but the grave sons of science, ambition, or avarice, baptise
+these things by the name of follies. To the sons and daughters of labour
+and poverty they are matters of the most serious nature: to them the
+ardent hope, the stolen interview, the tender farewell, are the greatest
+and most delicious parts of their enjoyments.
+
+Another circumstance in my life which made some alteration in my mind
+and manners, was, that I spent my nineteenth summer on a smuggling
+coast, a good distance from home, at a noted school, to learn
+mensuration, surveying, dialling, etc., in which I made a pretty good
+progress. But I made a greater progress in the knowledge of mankind. The
+contraband trade was at that time very successful, and it sometimes
+happened to me to fall in with those who carried it on. Scenes of
+swaggering riot and roaring dissipation were, till this time, new to me:
+but I was no enemy to social life. Here, though I learned to fill my
+glass, and to mix without fear in a drunken squabble, yet I went on with
+a high hand with my geometry, till the sun entered Virgo, a month which
+is always a carnival in my bosom, when a charming fillette, who lived
+next door to the school, overset my trigonometry, and set me off at a
+tangent from the spheres of my studies. I, however, struggled on with my
+sines and cosines for a few days more; but stepping into the garden one
+charming noon, to take the sun's altitude, there I met my angel,
+
+       Like Proserpine gathering flowers,
+   Herself a fairer flower.
+
+It was in vain to think of doing any more good at school.
+
+The remaining week I staid I did nothing but craze the faculties of my
+soul about her, or steal out to meet her; and the two last nights of my
+stay in the country, had sleep been a mortal sin, the image of this
+modest and innocent girl had kept me guiltless.
+
+I returned home very considerably improved. My reading was enlarged with
+the very important edition of Thomson's and Shenstone's Works; I had
+seen human nature in a new phasis; and I engaged several of my
+schoolfellows to keep up a literary correspondence with me. This
+improved me in composition. I had met with a collection of letters by
+the wits of Queen Anne's reign, and I pored over them most devoutly. I
+kept copies of any of my own letters that pleased me, and a comparison
+between them and the composition of most of my correspondents flattered
+my vanity. I carried this whim so far, that though I had not
+three-farthings' worth of business in the world, yet almost every post
+brought me as many letters as if I had been a broad plodding son of
+day-book and ledger.
+
+My life flowed on much in the same course till my twenty-third year.
+_Vive l'amour, et vive la bagatelle_, were my sole principles of action.
+The addition of two more authors to my library gave me great pleasure;
+Sterne and Mackenzie--_Tristram Shandy_ and the _Man of Feeling_ were my
+bosom favourites. Poesy was still a darling walk for my mind, but it was
+only indulged in according to the humour of the hour. I had usually
+half-a-dozen or more pieces on hand: I took up one or other, as it
+suited the momentary tone of the mind, and dismissed the work as it
+bordered on fatigue. My passions, when once lighted up, raged like so
+many devils, till they got vent in rhyme; and then the conning over my
+verses, like a spell, soothed all into quiet! None of the rhymes of
+those days are in print, except "Winter, a Dirge," the eldest of my
+printed pieces; "The Death of Poor Maillie," "John Barleycorn," and
+songs first, second, and third. Song second was the ebullition of that
+passion which ended the forementioned school business.
+
+My twenty-third year was to me an important era. Partly through whim,
+and partly that I wished to set about doing something in life, I joined
+a flax-dresser in a neighbouring town (Irvine), to learn his trade. This
+was an unlucky affair. My partner was a scoundrel of the first water;
+and to finish the whole, as we were giving a welcome carousal to the New
+Year, the shop took fire and burnt to ashes, and I was left, like a true
+poet, not worth a sixpence.
+
+I was obliged to give up this scheme; the clouds of misfortune were
+gathering thick round my father's head; and, what was worst of all, he
+was visibly far gone in a consumption; and, to crown my distresses, a
+_belle fille_, whom I adored, and who had pledged her soul to meet me in
+the field of matrimony, jilted me, with peculiar circumstances of
+mortification. The finishing evil that brought up the rear of this
+infernal file, was my constitutional melancholy being increased to such
+a degree that for three months I was in a state of mind scarcely to be
+envied by the hopeless wretches who have got their mittimus--"Depart
+from me, ye cursed."
+
+From this adventure I learned something of a town life; but the
+principal thing which gave my mind a turn was a friendship I formed with
+a young fellow, a very noble character, but a hapless son of
+misfortune.[40] He was the son of a simple mechanic; but a great man in
+the neighbourhood taking him under his patronage, gave him a genteel
+education, with a view of bettering his situation in life. The patron
+dying just as he was ready to launch out into the world, the poor
+fellow, in despair, went to sea; where, after a variety of good and ill
+fortune, a little before I was acquainted with him he had been sent on
+shore by an American privateer, on the wild coast of Connaught, stripped
+of everything. I cannot quit this poor fellow's story without adding,
+that he is at this time master of a large West-India-man belonging to
+the Thames.
+
+His mind was fraught with independence, magnanimity, and every manly
+virtue. I loved and admired him to a degree of enthusiasm, and of course
+strove to imitate him.
+
+In some measure I succeeded; I had pride before, but he taught it to
+flow in proper channels. His knowledge of the world was vastly superior
+to mine, and I was all attention to learn. He was the only man I ever
+saw who was a greater fool than myself where woman was the presiding
+star; but he spoke of illicit love with the levity of a sailor, which
+hitherto I had regarded with horror. Here his friendship did me a
+mischief, and the consequence was, that soon after I resumed the plough,
+I wrote the "Poet's Welcome." My reading only increased while in this
+town by two stray volumes of _Pamela_, and one of _Ferdinand Count
+Fathom_, which gave me some idea of novels. Rhyme, except some religious
+pieces that are in print, I had given up; but meeting with Fergusson's
+Scottish Poems, I strung anew my wildly-sounding lyre with emulating
+vigour. When my father died, his all went among the hell-hounds that
+prowl in the kennel of justice; but we made a shift to collect a little
+money in the family amongst us, with which, to keep us together, my
+brother and I took a neighbouring farm. My brother wanted my
+hair-brained imagination, as well as my social and amorous madness; but
+in good sense, and every sober qualification, he was far my superior.
+
+I entered on this farm with a full resolution, "Come, go to, I will be
+wise!" I read farming books; I calculated crops; I attended markets;
+and, in short, in spite of the devil, and the world, and the flesh, I
+believe I should have been a wise man; but the first year, from
+unfortunately buying bad seed, the second from a late harvest, we lost
+half our crops. This overset all my wisdom, and I returned "like the dog
+to his vomit, and the sow that was washed, to her wallowing in
+the mire."
+
+I now began to be known in the neighbourhood as a maker of rhymes. The
+first of my poetic offspring that saw the light was a burlesque
+lamentation on a quarrel between two reverend Calvinists, both of them
+_dramatis personae_ in my "Holy Fair". I had a notion myself that the
+piece had some merit; but, to prevent the worst, I gave a copy of it to
+a friend, who was very fond of such things, and told him that I could
+not guess who was the author of it, but that I thought it pretty clever.
+With a certain description of the clergy, as well as laity, it met with
+a roar of applause. "Holy Willie's Prayer" next made its appearance, and
+alarmed the kirk-session so much, that they held several meetings to
+look over their spiritual artillery, if haply any of it might be pointed
+against profane rhymers. Unluckily for me, my wanderings led me on
+another side, within point-blank shot of their heaviest metal. This is
+the unfortunate story that gave rise to my printed poem, "The Lament."
+This was a most melancholy affair, which I cannot yet bear to reflect
+on, and had very nearly given me one or two of the principal
+qualifications for a place among those who have lost the chart, and
+mistaken the reckoning of rationality. I gave up my part of the farm to
+my brother; in truth it was only nominally mine; and made what little
+preparation was in my power for Jamaica. But before leaving my native
+country for ever, I resolved to publish my poems. I weighed my
+productions as impartially as was in my power; I thought they had merit;
+and it was a delicious idea that I should be called a clever fellow,
+even though it should never reach my ears--a poor negro-driver--or
+perhaps a victim to that inhospitable clime, and gone to the world of
+spirits! I can truly say, that, _pauvre inconnu_ as I then was, I had
+pretty nearly as high an idea of myself and of my works as I have at
+this moment, when the public has decided in their favour. It ever was my
+opinion that the mistakes and blunders, both in a rational and religious
+point of view, of which we see thousands daily guilty, are owing to
+their ignorance of themselves. To know myself, had been all along my
+constant study. I weighed myself alone; I balanced myself with others; I
+watched every means of information, to see how much ground I occupied as
+a man, and as a poet; I studied assiduously Nature's design in my
+formation--where the lights and shades in my character were intended. I
+was pretty confident my poems would meet with some applause; but at the
+worst, the roar of the Atlantic would deafen the voice of censure, and
+the novelty of West Indian scenes make me forget neglect. I threw off
+six hundred copies, of which I had got subscriptions for about three
+hundred and fifty. My vanity was highly gratified by the reception I met
+with from the public; and besides, I pocketed, all expenses deducted,
+nearly twenty pounds. This sum came very seasonably, as I was thinking
+of indenting myself, for want of money to procure my passage. As soon as
+I was master of nine guineas, the price of wafting me to the torrid
+zone, I took a steerage passage in the first ship that was to sail from
+the Clyde, for
+
+  Hungry ruin had me in the wind.
+
+I had been for some days skulking from covert to covert, under all the
+terrors of a jail; as some ill-advised people had uncoupled the
+merciless pack of the law at my heels. I had taken the last farewell of
+my few friends; my chest was on the road to Greenock; I had composed the
+last song I should ever measure in Caledonia--"The gloomy night is
+gathering fast," when a letter from Dr. Blacklock to a friend of mine
+overthrew all my schemes, by opening new prospects to my poetic
+ambition. The doctor belonged to a set of critics, for whose applause I
+had not dared to hope. His opinion, that I would meet with encouragement
+in Edinburgh for a second edition, fired me so much, that away I posted
+for that city, without a single acquaintance or a single letter of
+introduction. The baneful star that had so long shed its blasting
+influence in my zenith, for once made a revolution to the nadir; and a
+kind Providence placed me under the patronage of one of the noblest of
+men, the Earl of Glencairn. _Oubliez moi, grand Dieu, si jamais je
+l'oublie_!
+
+I need relate no farther. At Edinburgh I was in a new world; I mingled
+among many classes of men, but all of them new to me, and I was all
+attention to "catch" the characters, and "the manners living as
+they rise."
+
+You can now, Sir, form a pretty near guess of what sort of a wight he is
+whom for some time you have honoured with your correspondence. That whim
+and fancy, keen sensibility and riotous passions, may still make him
+zigzag in his future path of life is very probable; but come what will,
+I shall answer for him the most determinate integrity and honour. And
+though his evil star should again blaze in his meridian with tenfold
+more direful influence, he may reluctantly tax friendship with pity, but
+with no more.
+
+My most respectful compliments to Miss Williams.[41] The very elegant
+and friendly letter she honoured me with a few days ago I cannot answer
+at present, as my presence is required at Edinburgh for a week or so,
+and I set off to-morrow.
+
+I enclose you _Holy Willie_ for the sake of giving you a little further
+information of the affair than Mr. Creech[42] could do. An elegy I
+composed the other day on Sir James H. Blair, if time allow, I will
+transcribe. The merit is just mediocre.
+
+If you will oblige me so highly, and do me so much honour as now and
+then to drop me a line, please direct to me at Mauchline. With the most
+grateful respect, I have the honour to be, Sir, your very humble
+servant, ROBERT BURNS.[43]
+
+   [Footnote 40: Richard Brown.]
+
+   [Footnote 41: A young poetical lady, though not a poetess.]
+
+   [Footnote 42: His Edinburgh publisher; a bookseller, afterwards Lord
+   Provost of the city.]
+
+   [Footnote 43: The foregoing biographical letter brings us down to
+   Burns's 29th year.]
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+LVIL.--To MR. ARCHIBALD LAWRIE.[44]
+
+EDINBURGH, 14_th August_ 1787.
+
+MY DEAR SIR,--Here am I. That is all I can tell you of that
+unaccountable being, myself. What I am doing no mortal can tell; what I
+am thinking, I myself cannot tell; what I am usually saying is not worth
+telling. The clock is just striking--one, two, three, four...twelve,
+forenoon; and here I sit in the attic storey, the garret, with a friend
+on the right hand of my standish, a friend whose kindness I shall
+largely experience at the close of this line--there, thank you!--a
+friend, my dear Lawrie, whose kindness often makes me blush--a friend
+who has more of the milk of human kindness than all the human race put
+together, and what is highly to his honour, peculiarly a friend to the
+friendless as often as they come his way; in short, Sir, he is wthout
+the least alloy a universal philanthropist, and his much-beloved name is
+a bottle of good old Port!
+
+In a week, if whim and weather serve, I set out for the north, a tour to
+the Highlands.
+
+I ate some Newhaven broth--in other words, boiled mussels--with Mr.
+Farquharson's family t'other day. Now I see you prick up your ears. They
+are all well, and mademoiselle is particularly well. She begs her
+respects to you all--along with which please present those of your
+humble servant. I can no more. I have so high a veneration, or rather
+idolatrization, for the clerical character, that even a little _futurum
+esse_ priestling, with his _penna pennae_, throws an awe over my mind in
+his presence, and shortens my sentences into single ideas.
+
+Farewell, and believe me to be ever, my dear Sir, yours,
+
+ROBERT BURNS.
+
+   [Footnote 44: Son, and successor, to the minister of Loudon.]
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+LVIII.--To MR. ROBERT MUIR, KILMARNOCK.
+
+STIRLING, 26_th August_ 1787.
+
+MY DEAR SIR,--I intended to have written you from Edinburgh, and now
+write you from Stirling to make an excuse. Here am I, on my way to
+Inverness, with a truly original, but very worthy man, a Mr. Nicol, one
+of the masters of the High-school in Edinburgh. I left Auld Reekie
+yesterday morning, and have passed, besides by-excursions, Linlithgow,
+Borrowstounness, Falkirk, and here am I undoubtedly. This morning I
+knelt at the tomb of Sir John the Graham, the gallant friend of the
+immortal Wallace; and two hours ago I said a fervent prayer for old
+Caledonia over the hole in a blue whinstone, where Robert de Bruce fixed
+his royal standard on the banks of Bannockburn and just now, from
+Stirling Castle, I have seen by the setting sun the glorious prospect of
+the windings of Forth through the rich carse of Stirling, and skirting
+the equally rich carse of Falkirk. The crops are very strong, but so
+very late that there is no harvest except a ridge or two perhaps in ten
+miles, all the way I have travelled from Edinburgh.
+
+I left Andrew Bruce[45] and family all well. I will be at least three
+weeks in making my tour, as I shall return by the coast, and have many
+people to call for.
+
+My best compliments to Charles, our dear kinsman and fellow-saint; and
+Messrs. W. and H. Parkers. I hope Hughoc[46] is going on and prospering
+with God and Miss M'Causlin.
+
+If I could think on anything sprightly, I should let you hear every
+other post; but a dull, matter-of-fact business like this scrawl, the
+less and seldomer one writes the better.
+
+Among other matters-of-fact I shall add this, that I am and ever shall
+be, my dear Sir, your obliged,
+
+ROBERT BURNS.
+
+   [Footnote 45: A shopkeeper on the North Bridge, Edinburgh.]
+
+   [Footnote 46: The wee Hughoc mentioned in "Poor Maillie."]
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+LIX.--TO MR. GAVIN HAMILTON.
+
+STIRLING, _28th August_ 1787.
+
+MY DEAR SIR,--Here am I on my way to Inverness. I have rambled over the
+rich, fertile carses of Falkirk and Stirling, and am delighted with
+their appearance: richly waving crops of wheat, barley, etc., but no
+harvest at all yet, except, in one or two places, an old-wife's ridge.
+Yesterday morning I rode from this town up the meandering Devon's banks,
+to pay my respects to some Ayrshire folks at Harvieston. After
+breakfast, we made a party to go and see the famous Caudron-linn, a
+remarkable cascade in the Devon, about five miles above Harvieston; and
+after spending one of the most pleasant days I ever had in my life, I
+returned to Stirling in the evening. They are a family, Sir, though I
+had not had any prior tie, though they had not been the brother and
+sisters of a certain generous friend of mine, I would never forget them.
+I am told you have not seen them these several years, so you can have
+very little idea of what these young folks are now. Your brother[47] is
+as tall as you are, but slender rather than otherwise; and I have the
+satisfaction to inform you that he is getting the better of those
+consumptive symptoms which I suppose you know were threatening him. His
+make, and particularly his manner, resemble you, but he will have a
+still finer face. (I put in the word still, to please Mrs. Hamilton.)
+Good sense, modesty, and at the same time a just idea of that respect
+that man owes to man, and has a right in his turn to exact, are striking
+features in his character; and, what with me is the Alpha and the Omega,
+he has a heart that might adorn the breast of a poet! Grace has a good
+figure, and the look of health and cheerfulness, but nothing else
+remarkable in her person. I scarcely ever saw so striking a likeness as
+is between her and your little Beenie; the mouth and chin particularly.
+She is reserved at first; but as we grew better acquainted, I was
+delighted with the native frankness of her manner, and the sterling
+sense of her observation. Of Charlotte I cannot speak in common terms of
+admiration: she is not only beautiful but lovely. Her form is elegant;
+her features not regular, but they have the smile of sweetness, and the
+settled complacency of good nature in the highest degree; and her
+complexion, now that she has happily recovered her wonted health, is
+equal to Miss Burnet's. After the exercises of our riding to the Falls,
+Charlotte was exactly Dr. Donne's mistress:--
+
+    Her pure and eloquent blood
+  Spoke in her cheeks, and so distinctly wrought,
+  That one would almost say her body thought.
+
+Her eyes are fascinating; at once expressive of good sense, tenderness,
+and a noble mind.
+
+I do not give you all this account, my good Sir, to flatter you. I mean
+it to reproach you. Such relations the first peer in the realm might own
+with pride; then why do you not keep up more correspondence with these
+so amiable young folks? I had a thousand questions to answer about you.
+I had to describe the little ones with the minuteness of anatomy. They
+were highly delighted when I told them that John[48] was so good a boy,
+and so fine a scholar, and that Willie was going on still very pretty;
+but I have it in commission to tell her from them, that beauty is a poor
+silly bauble without she be good. Miss Chalmers I had left in Edinburgh,
+but I had the pleasure of meeting with Mrs. Chalmers, only Lady
+Mackenzie being rather a little alarmingly ill of a sore throat somewhat
+marred our enjoyment.
+
+I shall not be in Ayrshire for four weeks. My most respectful
+compliments to Mrs. Hamilton, Miss Kennedy, and Doctor Mackenzie. I
+shall probably write him from some stage or other.--I am ever; Sir,
+yours most gratefully,
+
+ROBT. BURNS.
+
+   [Footnote 47: Step-brother, more correctly.]
+
+   [Footnote 48: This is the "Wee Curlie Johnnie" mentioned in Burns's
+   _Dedication to Gavin Hamilton, Esq._]
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+LX.--To MR. WALKER, BLAIR OF ATHOLE.[49]
+
+INVERNESS, _5th September_ 1787.
+
+MY DEAR SIR,--I have just time to write the foregoing,[50] and to tell
+you that it was (at least most part of it) the effusion of an half-hour
+I spent at Bruar. I do not mean it was extempore, for I have endeavoured
+to brush it up as well as Mr. Nicol's chat, and the jogging of the
+chaise, would allow. It eases my heart a good deal, as rhyme is the coin
+with which a poet pays his debts of honour or gratitude. What I owe to
+the noble family of Athole, of the first kind, I shall ever proudly
+boast; what I owe of the last, so help me God in my hour of need! I
+shall never forget.
+
+The "little angel-band!" I declare I prayed for them very sincerely
+today at the Fall of Fyers. I shall never forget the fine family-piece I
+saw at Blair; the amiable, the truly noble duchess, with her smiling
+little seraph in her lap, at the head of the table; the lovely "olive
+plants," as the Hebrew bard finely says, round the happy mother; the
+beautiful Mrs. G---; the lovely, sweet Miss C., etc. I wish I had the
+powers of Guido to do them justice! My Lord Duke's kind
+hospitality--markedly kind indeed; Mr. Graham of Fintry's charms of
+conversation; Sir W. Murray's friendship. In short, the recollection of
+all that polite, agreeable company raises an honest glow in my bosom.
+
+R. B.
+
+   [Footnote 49: Mr. Walker was tutor to the children of the Duke of
+   Athole. He afterwards became Professor of Humanity in the University
+   of Glasgow.]
+
+   [Footnote 50: The Humble Petition of Bruar Water.]
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+LXI.--To His BROTHER, MR. GILBERT BURNS, MOSSGIEL.
+
+EDINBERG, 17_th September_ 1787.
+
+My Dear Sir,--I arrived here safe yesterday evening after a tour of
+twenty-two days, and travelling near six hundred miles, windings
+included. My farthest stretch was about ten miles beyond Inverness. I
+went through the heart of the Highlands by Crieff, Taymouth, the famous
+seat of Lord Breadalbane, down the Tay, among cascades and druidical
+circles of stones, to Dunkeld, a seat of the Duke of Athole; thence
+across Tay, and up one of his tributary streams to Blair of Athole,
+another of the duke's seats, where I had the honour of spending nearly
+two days with his grace and family; thence many miles through a wild
+country among cliffs grey with eternal snows, and gloomy savage glens,
+till I crossed Spey and went down the stream through Strathspey, so
+famous in Scottish music; Badenoch, etc., till I reached Grant Castle,
+where I spent half a day with Sir James Grant and family; and then
+crossed the country for Fort George, but called by the way at Cawdor,
+the ancient seat of Macbeth; there I saw the identical bed in which
+tradition says king Duncan was murdered: lastly, from Fort George to
+Inverness.
+
+I returned by the coast through Nairn, Forres, and so on, to Aberdeen,
+thence to Stonehive, where James Burness, from Montrose, met me by
+appointment. I spent two days among our relations, and found our aunts,
+Jean and Isabel, still alive, and hale old women. John Cairn, though
+born the same year with our father, walks as vigorously as I can: they
+have had several letters from his son in New York. William Brand is
+likewise a stout old fellow; but further particulars I delay till I see
+you, which will be in two or three weeks. The rest of my stages are not
+worth rehearsing; warm as I was for Ossian's country, where I had seen
+his very grave, what cared I for fishing-towns or fertile carses? I
+slept at the famous Brodie of Brodie's one night, and dined at Gordon
+Castle next day, with the Duke, Duchess, and family. I am thinking to
+cause my old mare to meet me, by means of John Ronald, at Glasgow; but
+you shall hear farther from me before I leave Edinburgh. My duty and
+many compliments from the north to my mother; and my brotherly
+compliments to the rest. I have been trying for a berth for William,[51]
+but am not likely to be successful. Farewell. R. B.
+
+   [Footnote 51: Their youngest brother, afterwards a journeyman
+   saddler.]
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+LXII.--TO MR. PATRICK MILLER,[52] DALSWINTON.
+
+EDINBURGH, 20_th Oct_., 1787.
+
+SIR,--I was spending a few days at Sir William Murray's, Ochtertyre, and
+did not get your obliging letter till to-day I came to town. I was still
+more unlucky in catching a miserable cold, for which the medical
+gentlemen have ordered me into close confinement under pain of death--
+the severest of penalties. In two or three days, if I get better, and if
+I hear at your lodgings that you are still at Dalswinton, I will take a
+ride to Dumfries directly. From something in your last, I would wish to
+explain my idea of being your tenant. I want to be a farmer in a small
+farm, about a plough-gang, in a pleasant country, under the auspices of
+a good landlord. I have no foolish notion of being a tenant on easier
+terms than another. To find a farm where one can live at all is not
+easy--I only mean living soberly, like an old-style farmer, and joining
+personal industry. The banks of the Nith are as sweet poetic ground as
+any I ever saw; and besides, Sir, 'tis but justice to the feelings of my
+own heart and the opinion of my best friends, to say that I would wish
+to call you landlord sooner than any landed gentleman I know. These are
+my views and wishes; and in whatever way you think best to lay out your
+farms I shall be happy to rent one of them. I shall certainly be able to
+ride to Dalswinton about the middle of next week, if I hear that you are
+not gone.--I have the honour to be, Sir, your obliged humble servant,
+
+ROBERT BURNS.
+
+   [Footnote 52: His future landlord, at Ellisland.]
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+LXIII.-To REV. JOHN SKINNER.
+
+Edinburgh, _October_ 25_th_, 1787.
+
+Reverend and Venerable Sir,--Accept, in plain, dull prose, my most
+sincere thanks for the best poetical compliment I ever received. I
+assure you, Sir, as a poet, you have conjured up an airy demon of vanity
+in my fancy, which the best abilities in your other capacity would be
+ill able to lay. I regret, and while I live I shall regret, that when I
+was in the north I had not the pleasure of paying a younger brother's
+dutiful respect to the author of the best Scotch song ever Scotland
+saw--"Tullochgorum's my delight!" The world may think slightingly of the
+craft of song-making if they please; but, as Job says--"O that mine
+adversary had written a book!"--let them try. There is a certain
+something in the old Scotch songs, a wild happiness of thought and
+expression, which peculiarly marks them, not only from English songs,
+but also from the modern efforts of song-wrights, in our native manner
+and language. The only remains of this enchantment, these spells of the
+imagination, rest with you. Our true brother, Ross of Lochlee, was
+likewise "owre cannie"--a "wild warlock"--but now he sings among the
+"sons of the morning."
+
+I have often wished, and will certainly endeavour, to form a kind of
+common acquaintance among all the genuine sons of Caledonian song. The
+world, busy in low prosaic pursuits, may overlook most of us; but
+"reverence thyself." The world is not our _peers_ so we challenge the
+jury. We can lash that world, and find ourselves a very great source of
+amusement and happiness independent of that world.
+
+There is a work[53] going on in Edinburgh, just now, which claims your
+best assistance. An engraver in this town has set about collecting and
+publishing all the Scotch songs, with the music, that can be found.
+Songs in the English language, if by Scotchmen, are admitted, but the
+music must all be Scotch. Drs. Beattie and Blacklock are lending a hand,
+and the first musician in town presides over that department. I have
+been absolutely crazed about it, collecting old stanzas, and every
+information remaining respecting their origin, authors, etc., etc. This
+last is but a very fragment business; but at the end of his second
+number--the first is already published--a small account will be given
+of the authors, particularly to preserve those of latter times. Your
+three songs, "Tullochgorum," "John of Badenyon," and "Ewie wi' the
+crookit Horn," go in this second number. I was determined, before I got
+your letter, to write you, begging that you would let me know where the
+editions of these pieces may be found as you would wish them to continue
+in future times: and if you would be so kind to this undertaking as send
+any songs, of your own or others, that you would think proper to
+publish, your name will be inserted among the other authors. "Nill ye,
+will ye," one-half of Scotland already give your songs to other authors.
+Paper is done. I beg to hear from you; the sooner the better, as I leave
+Edinburgh in a fortnight or three weeks.--I am, with the warmest
+sincerity, Sir, your obliged humble Servant, R. B.
+
+   [Footnote 53: Johnson's _Musical Museum_.]
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+LXIV.--To Miss MARGARET CHALMERS, HARVIESTON.
+(AFTERWARDS MRS. HAY, OF EDINBURGH.)
+
+_Oct_. 26, 1787.
+
+I send Charlotte the first number of the songs; I would not wait for the
+second number; I hate delays in little marks of friendship, as I hate
+dissimulation in the language of the heart. I am determined to pay
+Charlotte a poetic compliment, if I could hit on some glorious old
+Scotch air, in number second.[54] You will see a small attempt on a
+shred of paper in the book; but though Dr. Blacklock commended it very
+highly, I am not just satisfied with it myself. I intend to make it a
+description of some kind: the whining cant of love, except in real
+passion, and by a masterly hand, is to me as insufferable as the
+preaching cant of old Father Smeaton, whig-minister at Kilmaurs. Darts,
+flames, cupids, loves, graces, and all that farrago, are just a
+Mauchline--a senseless rabble.
+
+I got an excellent poetic epistle yesternight from the old, venerable
+author of "Tullochgorum," "John of Badenyon," etc. I suppose you know he
+is a clergyman. It is by far the finest poetic compliment I ever got. I
+will send you a copy of it.
+
+I go on Thursday or Friday to Dumfries, to wait on Mr. Miller about his
+farms. Do tell that to Lady Mackenzie, that she may give me credit for a
+little wisdom. "I, Wisdom, dwell with Prudence." What a blessed
+fireside! How happy should I be to pass a winter evening under their
+venerable roof! and smoke a pipe of tobacco, or drink water-gruel with
+them! What solemn, lengthened, laughter-quashing gravity of phiz! What
+sage remarks on the good-for-nothing sons and daughters of indiscretion
+and folly! And what frugal lessons, as we straitened the fireside
+circle, on the uses of the poker and tongs!
+
+Miss N. is very well, and begs to be remembered in the old way to you. I
+used all my eloquence, all the persuasive flourishes of the hand, and
+heart-melting modulation of periods in my power, to urge her out to
+Harvieston, but all in vain. My rhetoric seems quite to have lost its
+effect on the lovely half of mankind. I have seen the day--but this is
+"a tale of other years." In my conscience I believe that my heart has
+been so oft on fire that it is absolutely vitrified. I look on the sex
+with something like the admiration with which I regard the starry sky in
+a frosty December night. I admire the beauty of the Creator's
+workmanship; I am charmed with the wild but graceful eccentricity of
+their motions, and--wish them good-night. I mean this with respect to a
+certain passion _dont j'at eu l'honneur d'etre un miserable esclave_. As
+for friendship, you and Charlotte have given me pleasure, permanent
+pleasure, "which the world cannot give, nor take away," I hope, and
+which will outlast the heavens and the earth.
+
+R. B.
+
+[Footnote 54: Of the Scots _Musical Museum_.]
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+LXV.--To MRS. DUNLOP OF DUNLOP HOUSE, STEWARTON.
+
+Edin., 4_th Nov_. 1787.
+
+Madam,--... When you talk of correspondence and friendship to me, you
+do me too much honour; but, as I shall soon be at my wonted leisure and
+rural occupation, if any remark on what I have read or seen, or any new
+rhyme that I may twist, be worth the while ... you shall have it with
+all my heart and soul. It requires no common exertion of good sense and
+philosophy in persons of elevated rank to keep a friendship properly
+alive with one much their inferior. Externals, things wholly extraneous
+of the man, steal upon the hearts and judgments of almost, if not
+altogether, all mankind; nor do I know more than one instance of a man
+who fully regards all the world as a stage and all the men and women
+merely players, and who (the dancing-school bow excepted) only values
+these players, the _dramatis personae_ who build cities and who rear
+hedges, who govern provinces or superintend flocks, _merely as they act
+their parts_. For the honour of Ayrshire this man is Professor Dugald
+Stewart of Catrine. To him I might perhaps add another instance, a
+Popish bishop, Geddes of Edinburgh.... I ever could ill endure those ...
+beasts of prey who foul the hallowed ground of religion with their
+nocturnal prowlings; and if the prosecution against my worthy friend,
+Dr. McGill, goes on, I shall keep no measure with the savages, but fly
+at them with the _faucons_ of ridicule, or run them down with the
+bloodhounds of satire as lawful game wherever I start them.
+
+I expect to leave Edinburgh in eight or ten days, and shall certainly do
+myself the honour of calling at Dunlop House as I return to Ayrshire.--I
+have the honour to be, Madam, your obliged humble Servant,
+
+ROBERT BURNS.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+LXVI.--To MR. JAMES HOY,[55] GORDON CASTLE.
+
+Edinburg, 6_th November_ 1787.
+
+Dear Sir,--I would have wrote you immediately on receipt of your kind
+letter, but a mixed impulse of gratitude and esteem whispered to me that
+I ought to send you something by way of return. When a poet owes
+anything, particularly when he is indebted for good offices, the payment
+that usually recurs to him--the only coin, indeed, in which he is
+probably conversant--is rhyme. Johnson sends the books by the fly, as
+directed, and begs me to inclose his most grateful thanks: my return I
+intended should have been one or two poetic bagatelles which the world
+have not seen, or, perhaps, for obvious seasons, cannot see. These I
+shall send you before I leave Edinburgh. They may make you laugh a
+little, which, on the whole, is no bad way of spending one's precious
+hours and still more precious breath. At any rate, they will be, though
+a small, yet a very sincere mark of my respectful esteem for a gentleman
+whose farther acquaintance I should look upon as a peculiar obligation.
+
+The Duke's song, independent totally of his dukeship, charms me. There
+is I know not what of wild happiness of thought and expression
+peculiarly beautiful in the old Scottish song style, of which his Grace,
+old venerable Skinner, the author of "Tullochgorum," etc., and the late
+Ross, at Lochlee, of true Scottish poetic memory, are the only modern
+instances that I recollect, since Ramsay, with his contemporaries, and
+poor Bob Fergusson, went to the world of deathless existence and truly
+immortal song. The mob of mankind, that many-headed beast, would laugh
+at so serious a speech about an old song; but, as Job says, "O that mine
+adversary had written a book!" Those who think that composing a Scotch
+song is a trifling business--let them try.
+
+I wish my Lord Duke would pay a proper attention to the Christian
+admonition, "Hide not your candle under a bushel," but "let your light
+shine before men." I could name half-a-dozen Dukes that I guess are a
+deal worse employed; nay, I question if there are half-a-dozen better:
+perhaps there are not half that scanty number whom Heaven has favoured
+with the tuneful, happy, and, I will say, glorious gift.--I am, dear
+Sir, your obliged humble servant, R. B.
+
+   [Footnote 55: Librarian to the Duke of Gordon.]
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+LXVII.-To THE EARL OF GLENCAIRN.
+
+Edinburg, (_End of_ 1787.)
+
+My Lord,--I know your lordship will disapprove of my ideas in a request
+I am going to make to you; but I have weighed, long and seriously
+weighed, my situation, my hopes, and turn of mind, and am fully fixed to
+my scheme, if I can possibly effectuate it. I wish to get into the
+Excise: I am told that your lordship's interest will easily procure me
+the grant from the commissioners; and your lordship's patronage and
+goodness, which have already rescued me from obscurity, wretchedness,
+and exile, embolden me to ask that interest. You have likewise put it in
+my power to save the little tie of home that sheltered an aged mother,
+two brothers, and three sisters from destruction. There, my lord, you
+have bound me over to the highest gratitude.
+
+My brother's farm is but a wretched lease, but I think he will probably
+weather out the remaining seven years of it; and after the assistance
+which I have given, and will give him, to keep the family together, I
+think, by my guess, I shall have rather better than two hundred pounds,
+and instead of seeking, what is almost impossible at present to find, a
+farm that I can certainly live by, with so small a stock, I shall lodge
+this sum in a banking-house, a sacred deposit, excepting only the calls
+of uncommon distress or necessitous old age.
+
+These, my lord, are my views: I have resolved from the maturest
+deliberation; and now I am fixed, I shall leave no stone unturned to
+carry my resolve into execution. Your lordship's patronage is the
+strength of my hopes; nor have I yet applied to anybody else. Indeed my
+heart sinks within me at the idea of applying to any other of the great
+who have honoured me with their countenance. I am ill-qualified to dog
+the heels of greatness with the impertinence of solicitation, and
+tremble nearly as much at the thought of the cold promise as the cold
+denial; but to your lordship I have not only the honour, the comfort,
+but the pleasure of being your lordship's much obliged and deeply
+indebted humble servant,
+
+R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+LXVIII--To Miss CHALMERS.
+
+Edinburgh, _Nov_. 21, 1787.
+
+I have one vexatious fault to the kindly, welcome, well-filled sheet
+which I owe to your and Charlotte's goodness--it contains too much
+sense, sentiment, and good spelling. It is impossible that even you two,
+whom, I declare to my God, I will give credit for any degree of
+excellence the sex are capable of attaining-it is impossible you can go
+on to correspond at that rate; so, like those who, Shenstone says,
+retire because they have made a good speech, I shall, after a few
+letters, hear no more of you. I insist that you shall write whatever
+comes first--what you see, what you read, what you hear, what you
+admire, what you dislike, trifles, bagatelles, nonsense; or, to fill up
+a corner, e'en put down a laugh at full length. Now, none of your polite
+hints about flattery; I leave that to your lovers, if you have or shall
+have any; though, thank heaven, I have found at last two girls who can
+be luxuriantly happy in their own minds and with one another, without
+that commonly necessary appendage to female bliss--A LOVER.
+
+Charlotte and you are just two favourite resting-places for my soul in
+her wanderings through the weary, thorny wilderness of this world. God
+knows, I am ill-fitted for the struggle: I glory in being a poet, and I
+want to be thought a wise man--I would fondly be generous, and I wish to
+be rich. After all, I am afraid I am a lost subject. "Some folk hae a
+hantle o' faults, and I'm but a ne'er-do-well".
+
+_Afternoon_.--To close the melancholy reflections at the end of last
+sheet, I shall just add a piece of devotion, commonly known in Carrick
+by the title of the "Wabster's grace":--
+
+  Some say we're thieves, and e'en sae are we,
+  Some say we lie, and e'en sae do we!
+  Gude forgie us, and I hope sae will he!
+  Up and to your looms, lads.
+
+R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+LXIX.--TO MISS CHALMERS.
+
+Edinburgh, _Dec_. 12, 1787.
+
+I am here under the care of a surgeon, with a bruised limb extended on a
+cushion, and the tints of my mind vieing with the livid horror preceding
+a midnight thunderstorm. A drunken coachman was the cause of the first,
+and incomparably the lightest evil; misfortune, bodily constitution,
+hell, and myself have formed a "quadruple alliance" to guarantee the
+other. I got my fall on Saturday, and am getting slowly better.
+
+I have taken tooth and nail to the Bible, and am got through the five
+books of Moses, and half way in Joshua. It is really a glorious book. I
+sent for my bookbinder today, and ordered him to get me an octavo Bible
+in sheets, the best paper and print in town, and bind it with all the
+elegance of his craft.
+
+I would give my best song to my worst enemy--I mean the merit of making
+it--to have you and Charlotte by me. You are angelic creatures, and
+would pour oil and wine into my wounded spirit.
+
+I inclose you a proof copy of the "Banks of the Devon", which present
+with my best wishes to Charlotte. The "Ochil Hills"[56] you shall
+probably have next week for yourself. None of your fine speeches!
+
+R. B.
+
+   [Footnote 56: The song in honour of Miss Chalmers, beginning, "Where,
+   braving angry winter's storms".]
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+LXX.--TO MISS CHALMERS.
+
+Edinburgh, 19_th Dec_. 1787.
+
+I begin this letter in answer to yours of the 17th current, which is not
+yet cold since I read it. The atmosphere of my soul is vastly clearer
+than when I wrote you last. For the first time, yesterday I crossed the
+room on crutches. It would do your heart good to see my hardship, not on
+my poetic, but on my oaken stilts; throwing my best leg with an air! and
+with as much hilarity in my gait and countenance, as a May frog leaping
+across the newly-harrowed ridge, enjoying the fragrance of the refreshed
+earth, after the long-expected shower!
+
+I can't say I am altogether at my ease when I see anywhere in my path
+that meagre, squalid, famine-faced spectre, poverty; attended as he
+always is, by iron-fisted oppression, and leering contempt; but I have
+sturdily withstood his buffetings many a hard-laboured day already, and
+still my motto is--I DARE! My worst enemy is _moi meme_. I lie so
+miserably open to the inroads and incursions of a mischievous,
+light-armed, well-mounted banditti, under the banners of imagination,
+whim, caprice, and passion; and the heavy-armed veteran regulars of
+wisdom, prudence, and forethought move so very, very slow, that I am
+almost in a state of perpetual warfare, and, alas! frequent defeat.
+There are just two creatures I would envy, a horse in his wild state
+traversing the forests of Asia, or an oyster on some of the desert
+shores of Europe. The one has not a wish without enjoyment, the other
+has neither wish nor fear.
+
+R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+LXXI.--TO MR. RICHARD BROWN, IRVINE.
+
+Edinburgh, 30_th Dec_. 1787.
+
+My Dear Sir,--I have met with few things in life which have given me
+more pleasure, than Fortune's kindness to you since those days in which
+we met in the vale of misery; as I can honestly say, that I never knew a
+man who more truly deserved it, or to whom my heart more truly wished
+it. I have been much indebted, since that time, to your story and
+sentiments for steeling my mind against evils, of which I have had a
+pretty decent share. My will-o'-wisp fate you know: do you recollect a
+Sunday we spent together in Eglinton woods? You told me, on my repeating
+some verses to you, that you wondered I could resist the temptation of
+sending verses of such merit to a magazine. It was from this remark I
+derived that idea of my own pieces, which encouraged me to endeavour at
+the character of a poet. I am happy to hear that you will be two or
+three months at home. As soon as a bruised limb will permit me I shall
+return to Ayrshire, and we shall meet; "and faith, I hope we'll not sit
+dumb, nor yet cast out!"
+
+I have much to tell you "of men, their manners, and their ways," perhaps
+a little of the other sex. Apropos, I beg to be remembered to Mrs.
+Brown. There, I doubt not, my dear friend, but you have found
+substantial happiness. I expect to find you something of an altered but
+not a different man; the wild, bold, generous young fellow composed into
+the steady affectionate husband, and the fond careful parent. For me, I
+am just the same will-o'-wisp being I used to be. About the first and
+fourth quarters of the moon, I generally set in for the trade wind of
+wisdom; but about the full and change, I am the luckless victim of mad
+tornadoes, which blow me into chaos. Almighty love still reigns and
+revels in my bosom; and I am at this moment ready to hang myself for a
+young Edinburgh widow,[57]who has wit and wisdom more murderously fatal
+than the assassinating stiletto of the Sicilian bandit, or the poisoned
+arrow of the savage African. My Highland dirk, that used to hang beside
+my crutches, I have gravely removed into a neighbouring closet, the key
+of which I cannot command, in case of spring-tide paroxysms. My best
+compliments to our friend Allan. Adieu!
+
+R. B.
+
+   [Footnote 57: The earliest allusion to Clarinda (Mrs. M'Lehose). Her
+   husband was alive, in the West Indies.]
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+LXXII--TO MRS. DUNLOP.
+
+Edinburg, _January_ 21, 1788.
+
+After six weeks' confinement, I am beginning to walk across the room.
+They have been six horrible weeks; anguish and low spirits made me unfit
+to read, write, or think.
+
+I have a hundred times wished that one could resign life as an officer
+resigns a commission; for I would not take in any poor, ignorant wretch
+by selling out. Lately I was a sixpenny private, and, God knows, a
+miserable soldier enough; now I march to the campaign, a starving cadet;
+a little more conspicuously wretched.
+
+I am ashamed of all this; for though I do want bravery for the warfare
+of life, I could wish, like some other soldiers, to have as much
+fortitude or cunning as to dissemble or conceal my cowardice.
+
+As soon as I can bear the journey, which will be, I suppose, about the
+middle of next week, I leave Edinburgh; and soon after I shall pay my
+grateful duty at Dunlop House. R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+LXXIII.--TO MRS. DUNLOP.
+
+EDINBURGH, _February_ 12, 1788.
+
+Some things in your late letters hurt me--not that _you say them_, but
+that _you mistake me_. Religion, my honoured Madam, has not only been
+all my life my chief dependance, but my dearest enjoyment. I have,
+indeed, been the luckless victim of wayward follies; but, alas! I have
+ever been "more fool than knave." A mathematician without religion is a
+probable character; an irreligious poet is a monster.
+
+R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+LXXIV.--TO THE REV. JOHN SKINNER.
+
+EDINBURGH, 14_th February_ 1788.
+
+Reverend and Dear Sir,--I have been a cripple now near three months,
+though I am getting vastly better, and have been very much hurried
+beside, or else I would have wrote you sooner. I must beg your pardon
+for the epistle you sent me appearing in the Magazine. I had given a
+copy or two to some of my intimate friends, but did not know of the
+printing of it till the publication of the Magazine. However, as it does
+great honour to us both, you will forgive it.
+
+The second volume of the songs I mentioned to you in my last is
+published to-day. I send you a copy, which I beg you will accept as a
+mark of the veneration I have long had, and shall ever have, for your
+character, and of the claim I make to your continued acquaintance. Your
+songs appear in the third volume, with your name in the index; as I
+assure you, Sir, I have heard your "Tullochgorum," particularly among
+our west-country folks, given to many different names, and most commonly
+to the immortal author of "The Minstrel," who, indeed, never wrote any
+thing superior to "Gie's a sang, Montgomery cried." Your brother[58] has
+promised me your verses to the Marquis of Huntley's reel, which
+certainly deserve a place in the collection. My kind host, Mr.
+Cruikshank, of the High School here, and said to be one of the best
+Latins in this age, begs me to make you his grateful acknowledgments for
+the entertainment he has got in a Latin publication of yours, that I
+borrowed for him from your acquaintance and much-respected friend in
+this place, the Rev. Dr. Webster. Mr. Cruikshank maintains that you
+write the best Latin since Buchanan. I leave Edinburgh to-morrow, but
+shall return in three weeks. Your song you mentioned in your last, to
+the tune of "Dumbarton Drums," and the other, which you say was done by
+a brother in trade of mine, a ploughman, I shall thank you for a copy of
+each. I am ever, Reverend Sir, with the most respectful esteem and
+sincere veneration, yours, R. B.
+
+   [Footnote 58: Half-brother, James, a writer to the Signet.]
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+LXXV.--TO MRS. ROSE, OF KILRAVOCK.
+
+EDINBURGH, _February_ 17_th_, 1788.
+
+MADAM,--You are much indebted to some indispensable business I have had
+on my hands, otherwise my gratitude threatened such a return for your
+obliging favour, as would have tired your patience. It but poorly
+expresses my feelings to say, that I am sensible of your kindness: it
+may be said of hearts such as yours is, and such, I hope, mine is, much
+more justly than Addison applies it,--
+
+  Some souls by instinct to each other turn.
+
+There was something in my reception at Kilravock so different from the
+cold, obsequious, dancing-school bow of politeness, that it almost got
+into my head that friendship had occupied her ground without the
+intermediate march of acquaintance. I wish I could transcribe, or rather
+transfuse into language, the glow of my heart when I read your letter.
+My ready fancy, with colours more mellow than life itself, painted the
+beautifully wild scenery of Kilravock--the venerable grandeur of the
+castle--the spreading woods--the winding river, gladly leaving his
+unsightly, heathy source, and lingering with apparent delight as he
+passes the fairy walk at the bottom of the garden;--your late
+distressful anxieties--your present enjoyments--your dear little angel,
+the pride of your hopes;--my aged friend, venerable in worth and years,
+whose loyalty and other virtues will strongly entitle her to the support
+of the Almighty Spirit here, and His peculiar favour in a happier state
+of existence. You cannot imagine, Madam, how much such feelings delight
+me; they are my dearest proofs of my own immortality. Should I never
+revisit the north, as probably I never will, nor again see your
+hospitable mansion, were I, some twenty years hence, to see your little
+fellow's name making a proper figure in a newspaper paragraph, my heart
+would bound with pleasure.
+
+I am assisting a friend in a collection of Scottish songs, set to their
+proper tunes; every air worth preserving is to be included; among others
+I have given "Morag," and some few Highland airs which pleased me most,
+a dress which will be more generally known, though far, far inferior in
+real merit. As a small mark of my grateful esteem, I beg leave to
+present you with a copy of the work, as far as it is printed; the Man of
+Feeling, that first of men, has promised to transmit it by the first
+opportunity.
+
+I beg to be remembered most respectfully to my venerable friend, and to
+your little Highland chieftain. When you see the "two fair spirits of
+the hill," at Kildrummie, tell them that I have done myself the honour
+of setting myself down as one of their admirers for at least twenty
+years to come, consequently they must look upon me as an acquaintance
+for the same period; but, as the Apostle Paul says, "this I ask of grace,
+not of debt."--I have the honour to be, Madam, etc., ROBERT BURNS.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+LXXVI-To RICHARD BROWN, GREENOCK.
+
+MOSSGIEL, 24_th February_ 1788.
+
+MY DEAR SIR,--I cannot get the proper direction for my friend in
+Jamaica, but the following will do:--To Mr, Jo. Hutchinson, at Jo.
+Brownrigg's, Esq., care of Mr. Benjamin Henriquez, merchant, Orange
+Street, Kingston. I arrived here, at my brother's, only yesterday, after
+fighting my way through Paisley and Kilmarnock, against those old
+powerful foes of mine, the devil, the world, and the flesh--so terrible
+in the fields of dissipation. I have met with few incidents in my life
+which gave me so much pleasure as meeting you in Glasgow. There is a
+time of life beyond which we cannot form a tie worth the name of
+friendship, "O youth! enchanting stage, profusely blest." Life is a
+fairy scene: almost all that deserves the name of enjoyment or pleasure
+is only a charming delusion; and in comes repining age, in all the
+gravity of hoary wisdom, and wretchedly chases away the bewitching
+phantom. When I think of life, I resolve to keep a strict look-out in
+the course of economy, for the sake of worldly convenience and
+independence of mind; to cultivate intimacy with a few of the companions
+of youth, that they may be the friends of age; never to refuse my
+liquorish humour a handful of the sweetmeats of life, when they come not
+too dear; and, for futurity,--
+
+  The present moment is our ain,
+  The neist we never saw!
+
+How like you my philosophy? Give my best compliments to Mrs. B., and
+believe me to be, my dear Sir, yours most truly, ROBERT BURNS.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+LXXVII.--To MR. WILLIAM CRUIKSHANK.[59]
+
+MAUCHLINE, _March_ 3_rd_, 1788.
+
+My dear Sir,--Apologies for not writing are frequently like apologies
+for not singing--the apology better than the song. I have fought my way
+severely through the savage hospitality of this country, the object of
+all hosts being to send every guest drunk to bed if they can.
+
+I executed your commission in Glasgow, and I hope the cocoa came safe.
+'Twas the same price and the very same kind as your former parcel, for
+the gentleman recollected your buying there perfectly well.
+
+I Should return my thanks for your hospitality (I leave a blank for the
+epithet, as I know none can do it justice) to a poor, wayfaring bard,
+who was spent and almost overpowered fighting with prosaic wickedness in
+high places; but I am afraid lest you should burn the letter whenever
+you come to the passage, so I pass over it in silence. I am just
+returned from visiting Mr. Miller's farm. The friend whom I told you I
+would take with me was highly pleased with the farm; and as he is,
+without exception, the most intelligent farmer in the country, he has
+staggered me a good deal. I have the two plans of life before me; I
+shall balance them to the best of my judgment; and fix on the most
+eligible. I have written Mr. Miller, and shall wait on him when I come
+to town, which shall be the beginning or middle of next week: I would be
+in sooner, but my unlucky knee is rather worse, and I fear for some time
+will scarcely stand the fatigue of my Excise instructions. I only
+mention these ideas to you, and, indeed, except Mr. Ainslie, whom I
+intend writing to tomorrow, I will not write at all to Edinburgh till I
+return to it. I would send my compliments to Mr. Nicol, but he would be
+hurt if he knew I wrote to anybody and not to him; so I shall only beg
+my best, kindest, kindest compliments to my worthy hostess, and the
+sweet little rose-bud.
+
+So soon as I am settled in the routine of life, either as an
+Excise-officer, or as a farmer, I propose myself great pleasure from a
+regular correspondence with the only man almost I ever saw, who joined
+the most attentive prudence with the warmest generosity.
+
+I am much interested for that best of men, Mr. Wood; I hope he is in
+better health and spirits than when I saw him last.--I am ever, my
+dearest friend, your obliged, humble servant, R. B.
+
+   [Footnote 59: One of the masters of the High School of Edinburgh.]
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+LXXVIII.--To MR. ROBERT AINSLIE.
+
+MAUCHLINE, 3_rd March_ 1788.
+
+MY DEAR FRIEND,--I am just returned from Mr. Miller's farm. My old
+friend whom I took with me was highly pleased with the bargain, and
+advised me to accept of it. He is the most intelligent sensible farmer
+in the county, and his advice has staggered me a good deal. I have the
+two plans before me; I shall endeavour to balance them to the best of my
+judgment, and fix on the most eligible. On the whole, if I find Mr.
+Miller in the same favourable disposition as when I saw him last, I
+shall, in all probability, turn farmer.
+
+I have been through sore tribulation and under much buffetting of the
+wicked one, since I came to this country. Jean I found banished,
+forlorn, destitute, and friendless; I have reconciled her to her fate,
+and I have reconciled her to her mother.... I swore her privately and
+solemnly never to attempt any claim on me as a husband, even though
+anybody should persuade her she had such a claim....
+
+I shall be in Edinburgh middle of next week. My farming ideas I shall
+keep private till I see. I got a letter from Clarinda yesterday, and she
+tells me she has got no letter of mine but one. Tell her that I wrote to
+her from Glasgow, from Kilmarnock, from Mauchline, and yesterday from
+Cumnock as I returned from Dumfries. Indeed she is the only person in
+Edinburgh I have written to till this day. How are your soul and body
+putting up?--a little like man and wife I suppose.--Your
+faithful friend,
+
+ROBERT BURNS.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+LXXIX.--To MR. RICHARD BROWN.
+
+MAUCHLINE, 7_th March_ 1788.
+
+I have been out of the country, my dear friend, and have not had an
+opportunity of writing till now, when, I am afraid, you will be gone out
+of the country too. I have been looking at farms, and, after all,
+perhaps I may settle in the character of a farmer. I have got so vicious
+a bent to idleness, and have ever been so little a man of business, that
+it will take no ordinary effort to bring my mind properly into the
+routine: but you will say a "great effort is worthy of you." I say so
+myself; and butter up my vanity with all the stimulating compliments I
+can think of. Men of grave, geometrical minds, the sons of "which was to
+be demonstrated," may cry up reason as much as they please; but I have
+always found an honest passion, or native instinct, the truest auxiliary
+in the warfare of this world. Reason almost always comes to me like an
+unlucky wife to a poor devil of a husband, just in sufficient time to
+add her reproaches to his other grievances.
+
+I am gratified with your kind inquiries after Jean; as, after all, I may
+say with Othello--
+
+  Excellent wretch!
+  Perdition catch my soul, but I do love thee!
+
+I go for Edinburgh on Monday.--Yours,
+
+ROBERT BURNS.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+LXXX.--TO MR. ROBERT MUIR.
+
+MOSSGIEL, 7_th March_ 1788.
+
+DEAR SIR,--I have partly changed my ideas, my dear friend, since I saw
+you. I took old Glenconner with me to Mr. Miller's farm, and he was so
+pleased with it, that I have wrote an offer to Mr. Miller, which, if he
+accepts, I shall sit down a plain farmer, the happiest of lives when a
+man can live by it. In this case I shall not stay in Edinburgh above a
+week. I set out on Monday, and would have come by Kilmarnock; but there
+are several small sums owing me for my first edition about Galston and
+Newmilns, and I shall set off so early as to despatch my business and
+reach Glasgow by night. When I return, I shall devote a forenoon or two
+to make some kind of acknowledgment for all the kindness I owe your
+friendship. Now that I hope to settle with some credit and comfort at
+home, there was not any friendship or friendly correspondence that
+promised me more pleasure than yours; I hope I will not be disappointed.
+I trust the spring will renew your shattered frame, and make your
+friends happy. You and I have often agreed that life is no great
+blessing on the whole. The close of life, indeed, to a reasoning age, is
+
+  Dark as was chaos, ere the infant sun
+  Was roll'd together, or had tried his beams
+  Athwart the gloom profound.
+
+But an honest man has nothing to fear. If we lie down in the grave, the
+whole man a piece of broken machinery, to moulder with the clods of the
+valley, be it so; at least there is an end of pain, care, woes, and
+wants. If that part of us called mind does survive the apparent
+destruction of the man--away with old-wife prejudices and tales. Every
+age and every nation has had a different set of stories; and as the many
+are always weak, of consequence they have often, perhaps always, been
+deceived. A man conscious of having acted an honest part among his
+fellow-creatures--even granting that he may have been the sport at times
+of passions and instincts--he goes to a great unknown Being, who could
+have no other end in giving him existence but to make him happy, who
+gave him those passions and instincts, and well knows their force.
+
+These, my worthy friend, are my ideas; and I know they are not far
+different from yours. It becomes a man of sense to think for himself,
+particularly in a case where all men are equally interested, and where,
+indeed, all men are equally in the dark.
+
+Adieu, my dear Sir; God send us a cheerful meeting!
+
+R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+LXXXI--To MRS. DUNLOP.
+
+MOSSGIEL, 7_th March_ 1788.
+
+MADAM,--The last paragraph in yours of the 30th February affected me
+most; so I shall begin my answer where you ended your letter. That I am
+often a sinner with any little wit I have, I do confess; but I have
+taxed my recollection to no purpose to find out when it was employed
+against you. I hate an ungenerous sarcasm a great deal worse than I do
+the devil--at least as Milton describes him; and though I may be
+rascally enough to be sometimes guilty of it myself, I cannot endure it
+in others. You, my honoured friend, who cannot appear in any light but
+you are sure of being respectable--you can afford to pass by an occasion
+to display your wit, because you may depend for fame on your sense; or,
+if you choose to be silent, you know you can rely on the gratitude of
+many, and the esteem of all; but, God help us, who are wits or witlings
+by profession, if we stand not for fame there, we sink unsupported!
+
+I am highly flattered by the news you tell me of Coila. I may say to the
+fair painter[60] who does me so much honour, as Dr. Beattie says to
+Ross, the poet of his muse Scota, from which, by the by, I took the idea
+of Coila: ('tis a poem of Beattie's in the Scottish dialect, which,
+perhaps, you have never seen):--
+
+  Ye shak your head, but o' my fegs,
+  Ye've set auld Scota on her legs;
+  Lang had she lien wi' beffs and flegs,
+               Bumbaz'd and dizzie,
+  Her fiddle wanted strings and pegs,
+               Wae's me, poor hizzie.
+
+R.B.
+
+   [Footnote 60: One of Mrs. Dunlop's daughters was painting a sketch
+   from the "Coila of the Vision".]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+LXXXII--TO MR. WM. NICOL (PERHAPS).
+
+MAUCHLINE, 7_th March_ 1788.
+
+MY DEAR SIR,--My life, since I saw you last, has been one continued
+hurry; that savage hospitality which knocks a man down with strong
+liquors, is the devil. I have a sore warfare in this world; the devil,
+the world, and the flesh, are three formidable foes. The first I
+generally try to fly from; the second, alas! generally flies from me;
+but the third is my plague, worse than the ten plagues of Egypt.
+
+I have been looking over several farms in this country; one in
+particular, in Nithsdale, pleased me so well, that if my offer to the
+proprietor is accepted, I shall commence farmer at Whit-Sunday. If
+farming do not appear eligible, I shall have recourse to any other
+shift; but this to a friend.
+
+I set out for Edinburgh on Monday morning; how long I stay there is
+uncertain, but you will know so soon as I can inform you myself. However
+I determine, poesy must be laid aside for some time; my mind has been
+vitiated with idleness, and it will take a good deal of effort to
+habituate it to the routine of business.--I am, my dear Sir, yours
+sincerely, R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+LXXXIII.--To Miss Chalmers.
+
+EDINBURGH, _March_ 14_th_, 1788.
+
+I know, my ever dear friend, that you will be pleased with the news when
+I tell you I have at last taken a lease of a farm. Yesternight I
+completed a bargain with Mr. Miller, of Dalswinton, for the farm of
+Ellisland, on the banks of the Nith, between five and six miles above
+Dumfries. I begin at Whit-Sunday to build a house, drive lime, etc., and
+Heaven be my help! for it will take a strong effort to bring my mind
+into the routine of business. I have discharged all the army of my
+former pursuits, fancies, and pleasures--a motley host! and have
+literally and strictly retained only the ideas of a few friends, which I
+have incorporated into a life-guard. I trust in Dr. Johnson's
+observation, "Where much is attempted, something is done." Firmness,
+both in sufferance and exertion, is a character I would wish to be
+thought to possess: and have always despised the whining yelp of
+complaint, and the cowardly, feeble resolve.
+
+Poor Miss K.[61] is ailing a good deal this winter, and begged me to
+remember her to you the first time I wrote to you. Surely woman, amiable
+woman, is often made in vain. Too delicately formed for the rougher
+pursuits of ambition; too noble for the dirt of avarice, and even too
+gentle for the rage of pleasure; formed, indeed, for, and highly
+susceptible of enjoyment and rapture; but that enjoyment, alas! almost
+wholly at the mercy of the caprice, malevolence, stupidity, or
+wickedness of an animal at all times comparatively unfeeling, and often
+brutal. R.B.
+
+   [Footnote 61: Miss Kennedy, sister of Gavin Hamilton. She lived
+   nearly half a century after this.]
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+
+THE CLARINDA LETTERS.
+
+
+NOTE PREFATORY TO THE LETTERS TO CLARINDA.
+
+We have now arrived, in the history of Burns, as his general
+correspondence reveals it, at the middle of March 1788. Before the end
+of the month he had broken off from Clarinda, and shortly afterwards he
+married Jean Armour. The correspondence with Clarinda began in the last
+month of 1787, and ran its course in three months. It is now necessary
+to go back to the commencement of this correspondence, and to follow it
+down to its first conclusion at the point to which his general
+correspondence has brought us. It has been thought preferable to take it
+by itself.
+
+Clarinda's maiden name was Agnes Craig. She was the daughter of Mr.
+Andrew Craig, who had been a surgeon in Glasgow. Lord Craig of the Court
+of Session was her cousin. She was born in the same year as Burns, but
+three months later. At the age of seventeen she was married to Mr. James
+M'Lehose, a law agent in Glasgow. Incompatibility of temper resulted in
+a separation of the unhappy pair five years after their marriage. The
+lady went home to her father, and on his death in 1782 removed to
+Edinburgh, where she lived independently on a small annuity. Her two
+sons lived with her. Her husband meanwhile went out to the West Indies
+to push his fortune.
+
+
+
+
+LETTERS TO CLARINDA.
+
+I.
+
+_Thursday Evening_ [_Dec_. 6_th_, 1787].
+
+MADAM,--I had set no small store by my tea-drinking tonight, and have
+not often been so disappointed. Saturday evening I shall embrace the
+opportunity with the greatest pleasure. I leave this town this day
+se'ennight, and, probably, for a couple of twelvemonths; but must ever
+regret that I so lately got an acquaintance I shall ever highly esteem,
+and in whose welfare I shall ever be warmly interested.
+
+Our worthy common friend, in her usual pleasant way, rallied me a good
+deal on my new acquaintance, and in the humour of her ideas I wrote some
+lines, which I inclose you, as I think they have a good deal of poetic
+merit: and Miss Nimmo tells me you are not only a critic, but a poetess.
+Fiction, you know, is the native region of poetry; and I hope you will
+pardon my vanity in sending you the bagatelle as a tolerably off-hand
+_jeu-d'esprit_. I have several poetic trifles, which I shall gladly
+leave with Miss Nimmo, or you, if they were worth house room; as there
+are scarcely two people on earth by whom it would mortify me more to be
+forgotten, though at the distance of ninescore miles.--I am, Madam, with
+the highest respect, your very humble servant,
+
+ROBERT BURNS.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+II.
+
+_Saturday Evening, Dec_. 8_th_, 1787.
+
+I can say with truth, Madam, that I never met with a person in my life
+whom I more anxiously wished to meet again than yourself. To-night I was
+to have had that very great pleasure; I was intoxicated with the idea,
+but an unlucky fall from a coach has so bruised one of my knees, that I
+can't stir my leg; so if I don't see you again, I shall not rest in my
+grave for chagrin. I was vexed to the soul I had not seen you sooner; I
+determined to cultivate your friendship with the enthusiasm of religion;
+but thus has Fortune ever served me. I cannot bear the idea of leaving
+Edinburgh without seeing you. I know not how to account for it--I am
+strangely taken with some people, nor am I often mistaken. You are a
+stranger to me; but I am an odd being: some yet unnamed feelings,
+things, not principles, but better than whims, carry me farther than
+boasted reason ever did a philosopher. Farewell! every happiness be
+yours! ROBERT BURNS.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+III.
+
+_Dec_. 12, 1787.
+
+I stretch a point indeed, my dearest Madam, when I answer your card on
+the rack of my present agony. Your friendship, Madam! By heavens, I was
+never proud before. Your lines, I maintain it, are poetry, and good
+poetry; mine were indeed partly fiction and partly a friendship, which,
+had I been so blest as to have met with you in time, might have led
+me--god of love only knows where. Time is too short for ceremonies. I
+swear solemnly, in all the tenor of my former oath, to remember you in
+all the pride and warmth of friendship until I cease to be! To-morrow,
+and every day till I see you, you shall hear from me. Farewell! May you
+enjoy a better night's repose than I am likely to have. R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+IV.
+
+_Thursday, Dec_. 20, 1787.
+
+Your last, my dear Madam, had the effect on me that Job's situation had
+on his friends when they sat down seven days and seven nights astonished
+and spake not a word. "Pay my addresses to a married woman!" I started
+as if I had seen the ghost of him I had injured. I recollected my
+expressions; some of them were indeed in the law phrase "habit and
+repute," which is being half guilty. I cannot possibly say, Madam,
+whether my heart might not have gone astray a little; but I can declare
+upon the honour of a poet that the vagrant has wandered unknown to me. I
+have a pretty handsome troop of follies of my own, and, like some other
+people's, they are but undisciplined blackguards; but the luckless
+rascals have something like honour in them--they would not do a
+dishonest thing.
+
+To meet with an unfortunate woman, amiable and young, deserted and
+widowed by those who were bound by every tie of duty, nature, and
+gratitude to protect, comfort and cherish her; add to all, when she is
+perhaps one of the first of lovely forms and noble minds--the mind, too,
+that hits one's taste as the joys of Heaven do a saint--should a faint
+idea, the natural child of imagination, thoughtfully peep over the
+fence--were you, my friend, to sit in judgment, and the poor, airy
+straggler brought before you, trembling, self-condemned, with artless
+eyes, brimful of contrition, looking wistfully on its judge--you could
+not, my dear Madam, condemn the hapless wretch to death without benefit
+of clergy? I won't tell you what reply my heart made to your raillery of
+seven years, but I will give you what a brother of my trade says on the
+same allusion:--
+
+  The patriarch to gain a wife,
+  Chaste, beautiful, and young,
+  Served fourteen years a painful life,
+  And never thought it long.
+
+  O were you to reward such cares,
+    And life so long would stay,
+  Not fourteen but four hundred years
+    Would seem but as a day.[62]
+
+I have written you this scrawl because I have nothing else to do, and
+you may sit down and find fault with it, if you have no better way of
+consuming your time. But finding fault with the vagaries of a poet's
+fancy is much such another business as Xerxes chastising the waves of
+Hellespont.
+
+My limb now allows me to sit in some peace: to walk I have yet no
+prospect of, as I can't mark it to the ground.
+
+I have just now looked over what I have written, and it is such a chaos
+of nonsense that I daresay you will throw it into the fire and call me
+an idle, stupid fellow; but, whatever you may think of my brains,
+believe me to be, with the most sacred respect and heart-felt esteem, my
+dear Madam, your humble Servant, ROBT. BURNS.
+
+   [Footnote 62: Tom D'Urfey's Songs.]
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+V.
+
+_Friday Evening_, 28_th December_ 1787.
+
+I beg your pardon, my dear "Clarinda," for the fragment scrawl I sent
+you yesterday. I really do not know what I wrote. A gentleman, for whose
+character, abilities, and critical knowledge I have the highest
+veneration, called in just as I had begun the second sentence, and I
+would not make the porter wait. I read to my much-respected friend
+several of my own bagatelles, and, among others, your lines, which I had
+copied out. He began some criticisms on them as on the other pieces,
+when I informed him they were the work of a young lady in this town,
+which, I assure you, made him stare. My learned friend seriously
+protested that he did not believe any young woman in Edinburgh was
+capable of such lines; and if you know anything of Professor Gregory,
+you will neither doubt of his abilities nor his sincerity. I do love
+you, if possible, still better for having so fine a taste and turn for
+poesy. I have again gone wrong in my usual unguarded way, but you may
+erase the word, and put esteem, respect, or any other tame Dutch
+expression you please in its place. I believe there is no holding
+converse, or carrying on correspondence, with an amiable woman, much
+less a _gloriously amiable fine woman_, without some mixture of that
+delicious passion, whose most devoted slave I have more than once had
+the honour of being. But why be hurt or offended on that account? Can no
+honest man have a prepossession for a fine woman, but he must run his
+head against an intrigue? Take a little of the tender witchcraft of
+love, and add to it the generous, the honourable sentiments of manly
+friendship, and I know but _one_ more delightful morsel, which few, few
+in any rank ever taste. Such a composition is like adding cream to
+strawberries; it not only gives the fruit a more elegant richness, but
+has a deliciousness of its own.
+
+I inclose you a few lines I composed on a late melancholy occasion. I
+will not give above five or six copies of it in all, and I should be
+hurt if any friend should give any copies without my consent.
+
+You cannot imagine, Clarinda (I like the idea of Arcadian names in a
+commerce of this kind), how much store I have set by the hopes of your
+future friendship. I do not know if you have a just idea of my
+character, but I wish you to see me as _I am_. I am, as most people of
+my trade are, a strange Will-o'-Wisp being: the victim, too frequently,
+of much imprudence and many follies. My great constituent elements are
+_pride_ and _passion_. The first I have endeavoured to humanise into
+integrity and honour; the last makes me a devotee to the warmest degree
+of enthusiasm, in love, religion, or friendship--either of them, or all
+together, as I happen to be inspired. 'Tis true, I never saw you but
+once; but how much acquaintance did I form with you in that once? Do not
+think I flatter you, or have a design upon you, Clarinda; I have too
+much pride for the one, and too little cold contrivance for the other;
+but of all God's creatures I ever could approach in the beaten way of my
+acquaintance, you struck me with the deepest, the strongest, the most
+permanent impression. I say the most permanent, because I know myself
+well, and how far I can promise either on my prepossessions or powers.
+Why are you unhappy? And why are so many of our fellow-creatures,
+unworthy to belong to the same species with you, blest with all they can
+wish? You have a hand all benevolent to give-why were you denied the
+pleasure? You have a heart formed--gloriously formed--for all the most
+refined luxuries of love:-why was that heart ever wrung? O Clarinda!
+shall we not meet in a state, some yet unknown state of being, where the
+lavish hand of plenty shall minister to the highest wish of benevolence;
+and where the chill north-wind of prudence shall never blow over the
+flowery fields of enjoyment? If we do not, man was made in vain! I
+deserved most of the unhappy hours that have lingered over my head; they
+were the wages of my labour: but what unprovoked demon, malignant as
+hell, stole upon the confidence of unmistrusting busy Fate, and dashed
+your cup of life with undeserved sorrow?
+
+Let me know how long your stay will be out of town; I shall count the
+hours till you inform me of your return. Cursed _etiquette_ forbids your
+seeing me just now; and so soon as I can walk I must bid Edinburgh
+adieu. Lord! why was I born to see misery which I cannot relieve, and to
+meet with friends whom I cannot enjoy? I look back with the pang of
+unavailing avarice on my loss in not knowing you sooner: all last
+winter, these three months past, what luxury of intercourse have I not
+lost! Perhaps, though,'twas better for my peace. You see I am either
+above, or incapable of dissimulation. I believe it is want of that
+particular genius. I despise design, because I want either coolness or
+wisdom to be capable of it. I am interrupted. Adieu! my dear Clarinda!
+
+SYLVANDER.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+VI.
+
+_Thursday, Jan_. 3, 1788.
+
+You are right, my dear Clarinda: a friendly correspondence goes for
+nothing, except one writes his or her undisguised sentiments. Yours
+please me for their instrinsic merit, as well as because they are
+_yours_, which I assure you, is to me a high recommendation. Your
+religious sentiments, Madam, I revere. If you have, on some suspicious
+evidence, from some lying oracle, learned that I despise or ridicule so
+sacredly important a matter as real religion, you have, my Clarinda,
+much misconstrued your friend. "I am not mad, most noble Festus!" Have
+you ever met a perfect character? Do we not sometimes rather exchange
+faults, than get rid of them? For instance, I am perhaps tired with, and
+shocked at a life too much the prey of giddy inconsistencies and
+thoughtless follies; by degrees I grow sober, prudent, and statedly
+pious--I say statedly, because the most unaffected devotion is not at
+all inconsistent with my first character--I join the world in
+congratulating myself on the happy change. But let me pry more narrowly
+into this affair. Have I, at bottom, any thing of a sacred pride in
+these endowments and emendations? Have I nothing of a presbyterian
+sourness, an hypocritical severity, when I survey my less regular
+neighbours? In a word, have I missed all those nameless and numberless
+modifications of indistinct selfishness, which are so near our own eyes,
+that we can scarcely bring them within the sphere of our vision, and
+which the known spotless cambric of our character hides from the
+ordinary observer?
+
+My definition of worth is short; truth and humanity respecting our
+fellow-creatures; reverence and humility in the presence of that Being,
+my Creator and Preserver, and who, I have every reason to believe, will
+one day be my Judge. The first part of my definition is the creature of
+unbiassed instinct; the last is the child of after reflection. Where I
+found these two essentials I would gently note and slightly mention any
+attendant flaws--flaws, the marks, the consequences of human nature.
+
+I can easily enter into the sublime pleasures that your strong
+imagination and keen sensibility must derive from religion, particularly
+if a little in the shade of misfortune; but I own I cannot, without a
+marked grudge, see Heaven totally engross so amiable, so charming a
+woman, as my friend Clarinda; and should be very well pleased at _a
+circumstance_ that would put it in the power of somebody (happy
+somebody!) to divide her attention, with all the delicacy and tenderness
+of an earthly attachment.
+
+You will not easily persuade me that you have not a grammatical
+knowledge of the English language. So far from being inaccurate, you are
+elegant beyond any woman of my acquaintance, except one,--whom I
+wish you knew.
+
+Your last verses to me have so delighted me, that I have got an
+excellent old Scots air that suits the measure, and you shall see them
+in print in the Scots _Musical Museum_, a work publishing by a friend of
+mine in this town. I want four stanzas, you gave me but three, and one
+of them alluded to an expression in my former letter; so I have taken
+your two first verses, with a slight alteration in the second, and have
+added a third, but you must help me to a fourth. Here they are; the
+latter half of the first stanza would have been worthy of Sappho; I am
+in raptures with it.
+
+  Talk not of Love, it gives me pain,
+    For Love has been my foe:
+  He bound me with an iron chain,
+    And sunk me deep in woe.
+
+  But Friendship's pure and lasting joys
+    My heart was formed to prove:
+  There welcome, win and wear the prize,
+    But never talk of Love.
+
+  Your friendship much can make me blest,
+    O why that bliss destroy!
+               [only]
+  Why urge the odious one request,
+               [will]
+    You know I must deny.
+
+The alteration in the second stanza is no improvement, but there was a
+slight inaccuracy in your rhyme. The third I only offer to your choice,
+and have left two words for your determination. The air is "The banks of
+Spey," and is most beautiful.
+
+To-morrow evening I intend taking a chair, and paying a visit at Park
+Place to a much-valued old friend.[63] If I could be sure of finding you
+at home (and I will send one of the chairmen to call), I would spend
+from five to six o'clock with you, as I go past. I cannot do more at
+this time, as I have something on my hand that hurries me much. I
+propose giving you the first call, my old friend the second, and Miss
+Nimmo as I return home. Do not break any engagement for me, as I will
+spend another evening with you at any rate before I leave town.
+
+Do not tell me that you are pleased, when your friends inform you of
+your faults. I am ignorant what they are; but I am sure they must be
+such evanescent trifles, compared with your personal and mental
+accomplishments, that I would despise the ungenerous narrow soul, who
+would notice any shadow of imperfections you may seem to have, any other
+way than in the most delicate agreeable raillery. Coarse minds are not
+aware how much they injure the keenly feeling tie of bosom friendship,
+when, in their foolish officiousness, they mention what nobody cares for
+recollecting. People of nice sensibility, and generous minds, have a
+certain intrinsic dignity, that fires at being trifled with, or lowered,
+or even too nearly approached.
+
+You need make no apology for long letters; I am even with you. Many
+happy new years to you, charming Clarinda! I can't dissemble, were it to
+shun perdition. He who sees you as I have done, and does not love you,
+deserves to be damn'd for his stupidity! He who loves you, and would
+injure you, deserves to be doubly damn'd for his villany! Adieu.
+
+SYLVANDER.
+
+P.S. What would you think of this for a fourth stanza?
+
+  Your thought, if love must harbour there,
+    Conceal it in that thought,
+  Nor cause me from my bosom tear
+    The very friend I sought.
+
+   [Footnote 63: Probably Mr. Nicol, who lived in Buccleuch Pend, a
+   short distance from Clarinda's residence.]
+
+       *        *       *       *       *
+
+VII.
+
+_Saturday Noon_ [_5th January_].
+
+Some days, some nights, nay, some _hours_, like the "ten righteous
+persons in Sodom," save the rest of the vapid, tiresome, miserable
+months and years of life. One of these hours my dear Clarinda blest me
+with yesternight.
+
+  One well-spent hour,
+  In such a tender circumstance for friends,
+  Is better than an age of common time!
+
+THOMSON.
+
+My favourite feature in Milton's Satan is his manly fortitude in
+supporting what cannot be remedied--in short, the wild broken fragments
+of a noble exalted mind in ruins. I meant no more by saying he was a
+favourite hero of mine.
+
+I mentioned to you my letter to Dr. Moore, giving an account of my life:
+it is truth, every word of it; and will give you a just idea of the man
+whom you have honoured with your friendship. I am afraid you will hardly
+be able to make sense of so torn a piece. Your verses I shall muse on,
+deliciously, as I gaze on your image in my mind's eye, in my heart's
+core: they will be in time enough for a week to come. I am truly happy
+your headache is better. O, how can pain or evil be so daringly
+unfeeling, cruelly savage, as to wound so noble a mind, so lovely
+a form!
+
+My little fellow is all my namesake. Write me soon. My every, strongest
+good wishes attend you, Clarinda!
+
+SYLVANDER.
+
+I know not what I have written--I am pestered with people around me.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+VIII.
+
+_Jan. 8, 1788, Tuesday Night._
+
+I am delighted, charming Clarinda, with your honest enthusiasm for
+religion. Those of either sex, but particularly the female, who are
+lukewarm in that most important of all things, "O my soul, come not thou
+into their secrets!" I feel myself deeply interested in your good
+opinion, and will lay before you the outlines of my belief. He who is
+our Author and Preserver, and will one day be our Judge, must be (not
+for his sake in the way of duty, but from the native impulse of our
+hearts), the object of our reverential awe and grateful adoration: He is
+Almighty and all-bounteous, we are weak and dependent; hence prayer and
+every other sort of devotion. "He is not willing that any should perish,
+but that all should come to everlasting life;" consequently it must be
+in every one's power to embrace his offer of "everlasting life;"
+otherwise he could not, in justice, condemn those who did not. A mind
+pervaded, actuated, and governed by purity, truth, and charity, though
+it does not merit heaven, yet is an absolute necessary prerequisite,
+without which heaven can neither be obtained nor enjoyed; and, by divine
+promise, such a mind shall never fail of attaining "everlasting life;"
+hence the impure, the deceiving, and the uncharitable extrude themselves
+from eternal bliss, by their unfitness for enjoying it. The Supreme
+Being has put the immediate administration of all this, for wise and
+good ends known to himself, into the hands of Jesus Christ, a great
+personage, whose relation to him we cannot comprehend, but whose
+relation to us is a guide and Saviour; and who, except for our own
+obstinacy and misconduct, will bring us all, through various ways, and
+by various means, to bliss at last.
+
+These are my tenets, my lovely friend; and which I think cannot well be
+disputed. My creed is pretty nearly expressed in the last clause of
+Jamie Dean's grace, an honest weaver in Ayrshire,--"Lord, grant that we
+may lead a gude life; for a gude life maks a gude end, at least it
+helps weel!"
+
+I am flattered by the entertainment you tell me you have found in my
+packet. You see me as I have been, you know me as I am, and may guess at
+what I am likely to be. I too may say, "Talk not of love," etc., for
+indeed he has "plunged me deep in woe!" Not that I ever saw a woman who
+pleased unexceptionably, as my Clarinda elegantly says, "in the
+companion, the friend, and the mistress." _One_ indeed I could
+except--_One_, before passion threw its mists over my discernment, I
+knew--_the_ first of women! Her name is indelibly written in my heart's
+core--but I dare not look in on it--a degree of agony would be the
+consequence. Oh! thou perfidious, cruel, mischief-making demon, who
+presidest over that frantic passion--thou mayest, thou dost poison my
+peace, but thou shalt not taint my honour. I would not, for a single
+moment, give an asylum to the most distant imagination, that would
+shadow the faintest outline of a selfish gratification, at the expense
+of her whose happiness is twisted with the threads of my existence.--May
+she be as happy as she deserves! and if my tenderest, faithfullest
+friendship, can add to her bliss, I shall at least have one solid mine
+of enjoyment in my bosom! _Don't guess at these ravings_!
+
+I watched at our front window to-day, but was disappointed. It has been
+a day of disappointments. I am just risen from a two hours' bout after
+supper, with silly or sordid souls, who could relish nothing in common
+with me but the Port.--_One!_--Tis now "witching time of night;" and
+whatever is out of joint in the foregoing scrawl, impute it to
+enchantments and spells; for I can't look over it, but will seal it up
+directly, as I don't care for to-morrow's criticisms on it.
+
+You are by this time fast asleep, Clarinda; may good angels attend and
+guard you as constantly and faithfully as my good wishes do.
+
+  Beauty, which, whether waking or asleep,
+  Shot forth peculiar graces.
+
+John Milton, I wish thy soul better rest than I expect on my own pillow
+to-night! O for a little of the cart-horse part of human nature! Good
+night, my dearest Clarinda!
+
+SYLVANDER.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+IX
+
+_Thursday Noon_, 10_th January_ 1788.
+
+I am certain I saw you, Clarinda; but you don't look to the proper
+storey for a poet's lodging--
+
+  Where speculation roosted near the sky.
+
+I could almost have thrown myself over for vexation. Why didn't you look
+higher? It has spoiled my peace for this day. To be so near my charming
+Clarinda; to miss her look while it was searching for me--I am sure the
+soul is capable of disease, for mine has convulsed itself into an
+inflammatory fever.
+
+You have converted me, Clarinda. (I shall love that name while I live:
+there is heavenly music in it.) Booth and Amelia I know well.[64] Your
+sentiments on that subject, as they are on every subject, are just and
+noble. "To be feelingly alive to kindness, and to unkindness," is a
+charming female character.
+
+What I said in my last letter, the powers of fuddling sociality only
+know for me. By yours, I understand my good star has been partly in my
+horizon, when I got wild in my reveries. Had that evil planet, which has
+almost all my life shed its baleful rays on my devoted head, been, as
+usual, in my zenith, I had certainly blabbed something that would have
+pointed out to you the dear object of my tenderest friendship, and, in
+spite of me, something more. Had that fatal information escaped me, and
+it was merely chance, or kind stars, that it did not, I had been undone!
+
+You would never have written me, except perhaps _once_ more! O, I could
+curse circumstances, and the coarse tie of human laws, which keeps fast
+what common sense would loose, and which bars that happiness itself
+cannot give--happiness which otherwise Love and Honour would warrant!
+But hold--I shall make no more "hair-breadth 'scapes."
+
+My friendship, Clarinda, is a life-rent business. My likings are both
+strong and eternal. I told you I had but one male friend: I have but two
+female. I should have a third, but she is surrounded by the
+blandishments of flattery and courtship. The name I register in my
+heart's core is _Peggy Chalmers_. Miss Nimmo can tell you how divine she
+is. She is worthy of a place in the same bosom with my Clarinda. That is
+the highest compliment I can pay her.
+
+Farewell, Clarinda! Remember
+
+SYLVANDER.
+
+   [Footnote 64: See Fielding's _Amelia_.]
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+X.
+
+_Saturday Morning_, 12_th January_.
+
+Your thoughts on religion, Clarinda, shall be welcome. You may perhaps
+distrust me, when I say 'tis also my favourite topic; but mine is the
+religion of the bosom. I hate the very idea of a controversial divinity;
+as I firmly believe, that every honest upright man, of whatever sect,
+will be accepted of the Deity. If your verses, as you seem to hint,
+contain censure, except you want an occasion to break with me, don't
+send them. I have a little infirmity in my disposition, that where I
+fondly love, or highly esteem, I cannot bear reproach.
+
+"Reverence thyself" is a sacred maxim, and I wish to cherish it. I think
+I told you Lord Bolingbroke's saying to Swift--"Adieu, dear Swift, with
+all thy faults I love thee entirely; make an effort to love me with all
+mine." A glorious sentiment, and without which there can be no
+friendship! I do highly, very highly, esteem you indeed, Clarinda--you
+merit it all! Perhaps, too, I scorn dissimulation! I could fondly love
+you: judge then what a maddening sting your reproach would be. "O! I
+have sins to _Heaven_ but none to _you!_" With what pleasure would I
+meet you to-day, but I cannot walk to meet the fly. I hope to be able to
+see you on _foot_ about the middle of next week.
+
+I am interrupted--perhaps you are not sorry for it, you will tell
+me--but I won't anticipate blame. O Clarinda! did you know how dear to
+me is your look of kindness, your smile of approbation! you would not,
+either in prose or verse, risk a censorious remark.
+
+  Curst be the verse, how well soe'er it flow,
+  That tends to make one worthy man my foe!
+
+SYLVANDER.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+XI.
+
+_Saturday_, _Jan_. 12, 1788.
+
+You talk of weeping, Clarinda! Some involuntary drops wet your lines as
+I read them. _Offend me_, my dearest angel! You cannot offend me, you
+never offended me! If you had ever given me the least shadow of offence
+so pardon me, God, as I forgive Clarinda! I have read yours again; it
+has blotted my paper. Though I find your letter has agitated me into a
+violent headache, I shall take a chair and be with you about eight. A
+friend is to be with us to tea on my account, which hinders me from
+coming sooner. Forgive, my dearest Clarinda, my unguarded expressions.
+For Heaven's sake, forgive me, or I shall never be able to bear my own
+mind. Your unhappy Sylvander.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+XII.
+
+_Monday Evening_, 11 _o'clock_, 14_th January_.
+
+Why have I not heard from you, Clarinda? To-day I expected it; and
+before supper when a letter to me was announced, my heart danced with
+rapture: but behold, 'twas some fool, who had taken it into his head to
+turn poet, and made me an offering of the first-fruits of his nonsense.
+"It is not poetry, but prose run mad." Did I ever repeat to you an
+epigram I made on a Mr. Elphinstone,[65] who has given a translation of
+Martial, a famous Latin poet? The poetry of Elphinstone can only equal
+his prose notes. I was sitting in a merchant's shop of my acquaintance,
+waiting somebody; he put Elphinstone into my hand, and asked my opinion
+of it; I begged leave to write it on a blank leaf, which I did,--
+
+  TO MR. ELPHINSTONE.
+
+  O thou, whom poesy abhors!
+  Whom prose has turned out of doors!
+  Heardst thou yon groan? proceed no further!
+  'Twas laurel'd Martial calling murther!
+
+I am determined to see you, if at all possible, on Saturday evening.
+Next week I must sing--
+
+  The night is my departing night,
+    The morn's the day I maun awa;
+  There's neither friend nor foe o' mine
+    But wishes that I were awa!
+  What I hae done for lack o' wit,
+    I never, never can reca';
+  I hope ye're a' my friends as yet,
+    Gude night, and joy be wi' you a'!
+
+If I could see you sooner, I would be so much the happier; but I would
+not purchase the _dearest gratification_ on earth, if it must be at your
+expense in worldly censure, far less inward peace!
+
+I shall certainly be ashamed of thus scrawling whole sheets of
+incoherence. The only _unity_ (a sad word with poets and critics!) in my
+ideas, is CLARINDA. There my heart "reigns and revels."
+
+  What art thou, Love? whence are those charms,
+   That thus thou bear'st an universal rule?
+  For thee the soldier quits his arms,
+   The king turns slave, the wise man fool.
+  In vain we chase thee from the field,
+   And with cool thoughts resist thy yoke:
+  Next tide of blood, alas! we yield;
+   And all those high resolves are broke!
+
+I like to have quotations for every occasion They give one's ideas so
+pat, and save one the trouble of finding expression adequate to one's
+feelings. I think it is one of the greatest pleasures attending a poetic
+genius, that we can give our woes, cares, joys, loves, etc., an embodied
+form in verse, which, to me, is ever immediate ease. Goldsmith says
+finely of his Muse--
+
+  Thou source of all my bliss and all my woe;
+  Thou foundst me poor at first, and keep'st me so.
+
+My limb has been so well to-day, that I have gone up and down stairs
+often without my staff. To-morrow I hope to walk once again on my own
+legs to dinner. It is only next street.--Adieu. Sylvander.
+
+   [Footnote 65: A native of Edinburgh, and a schoolmaster in London. He
+   was a friend of Samuel Johnson]
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+XIII.
+
+_Tuesday Evening_, _Jan_. 15.
+
+That you have faults, my Clarinda, I never doubted; but I knew not where
+they existed, and Saturday night made me more in the dark than ever. O
+Clarinda! why will you wound my soul, by hinting that last night must
+have lessened my opinion of you? True, I was "behind the scenes with
+you;" but what did I see? A bosom glowing with honour and benevolence; a
+mind ennobled by genius, informed and refined by education and
+reflection, and exalted by native religion, genuine as in the climes of
+heaven: a heart formed for all the glorious meltings of friendship,
+love, and pity. These I saw--I saw the noblest immortal soul creation
+ever showed me.
+
+I looked long, my dear Clarinda, for your letter; and am vexed that you
+are complaining. I have not caught you so far wrong as in your idea,
+that the commerce you have with _one_ friend hurts you, if you cannot
+tell every tittle of it to _another_. Why have so injurious a suspicion
+of a good God, Clarinda, as to think that Friendship and Love, on the
+sacred inviolate principles of Truth, Honour, and Religion! can be
+anything else than an object of His divine approbation.
+
+I have mentioned in some of my former scrawls, Saturday evening next. Do
+allow me to wait on you that evening. Oh, my angel! how soon must we
+part! and when can we meet again! I look forward on the horrid interval
+with tearful eyes! What have I lost by not knowing you sooner. I fear, I
+fear my acquaintance with you is too short, to make that _lasting_
+impression on your heart I could wish.
+
+SYLVANDER.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+XIV.
+
+_Saturday Morning_, 19_th Jan_
+
+There is no time, my Clarinda, when the conscious thrilling chords of
+Love and Friendship give such delight, as in the pensive hours of what
+our favourite Thomson calls, "philosophic melancholy." The sportive
+insects, who bask in the sunshine of prosperity; or the worms that
+luxuriantly crawl amid their ample wealth of earth, they need no
+Clarinda: they would despise Sylvander--if they durst. The family of
+Misfortune, a numerous group of brothers and sisters! they need a
+resting place to their souls: unnoticed, often condemned by the
+world--in some degree, perhaps, condemned by themselves, they feel the
+full enjoyment of ardent love, delicate tender endearments, mutual
+esteem and mutual reliance.
+
+In this light I have often admired religion. In proportion as we are
+wrung with grief, or distracted with anxiety, the ideas of a
+compassionate Deity, an Almighty Protector, are doubly dear.
+
+  '_Tis this_, my friend, that streaks our morning bright;
+  '_Tis this_ that gilds the horrors of our night.'
+
+I have been this morning taking a peep through, as Young finely says,
+"the dark postern of time long elaps'd;" and, you will easily
+guess,'twas a rueful prospect. What a tissue of thoughtlessness,
+weakness, and folly! My life reminded me of a ruined temple; what
+strength, what proportion in some parts! what unsightly gaps, what
+prostrate ruin in others! I kneeled down before the Father of mercies,
+and said, "Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and
+am no more worthy to be called thy son!" I rose, eased and strengthened.
+I despise the superstition of a fanatic, but I love the religion of a
+man. "The future," said I to myself, "is still before me;" there let me
+
+        on reason build resolve,
+  That column of true majesty in man!
+
+"I have difficulties many to encounter," said I; "but they are not
+absolutely insuperable; and where is firmness of mind shown but in
+exertion? mere declamation is bombast rant." Besides, wherever I am, or
+in whatever situation I may be--
+
+             'Tis nought to me:
+  Since God is ever present, ever felt,
+  In the void waste as in the city full;
+  And where He vital breathes, there must be joy!
+
+
+_Saturday night--half after Ten_.
+
+What luxury of bliss I was enjoying this time yesternight! My ever
+dearest Clarinda, you have stolen away my soul; but you have refined,
+you have exalted it; you have given it a stronger sense for virtue, and
+a stronger relish for piety. Clarinda, first of your sex, if ever I am
+the veriest wretch on earth to forget you, if ever your lovely image is
+effaced from my soul,
+
+  May I be lost, no eye to weep my end;
+  And find no earth that's base enough to bury me!
+
+What trifling silliness is the childish fondness of the every-day
+children of the world! 'tis the unmeaning toying of the younglings of
+the fields and forests; but where Sentiment and Fancy unite their
+sweets, where Taste and Delicacy refine, where Wit adds the flavour, and
+Good Sense gives strength and spirit to all, what a delicious draught is
+the hour of tender endearment! Beauty and Grace, in the arms of Truth
+and Honour, in all the luxury of mutual love.
+
+Clarinda, have you ever seen the picture realised? Not in all its very
+richest colouring.
+
+Last night, Clarinda, but for one slight shade, was the glorious
+picture.
+
+                        Innocence
+  Look'd gaily smiling on; while rosy Pleasure
+  Hid young Desire amid her flowery wreath,
+  And pour'd her cup luxuriant; mantling high,
+  The sparkling heavenly vintage, Love and Bliss!
+
+Clarinda, when a poet and poetess of Nature's making, two of Nature's
+noblest productions! when they drink together of the same cup of Love
+and Bliss--attempt not, ye coarser stuff of human nature, profanely to
+measure enjoyment ye never can know! Good night, my dear Clarinda!
+
+SYLVANDER.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+XV
+
+_Sunday Night_, 20_th January_.
+
+The impertinence of fools has joined with a return of an old
+indisposition, to make me good for nothing to-day. The paper has lain
+before me all this evening, to write to my dear Clarinda, but--
+
+  Fools rush'd on fools, as waves succeed to waves.
+
+I cursed them in my soul; they sacrilegiously disturbed my meditations
+on her who holds my heart. What a creature is man! A little alarm last
+night and to-day, that I am mortal, has made such a revolution on my
+spirits! There is no philosophy, no divinity, comes half so home to the
+mind. I have no idea of courage that braves heaven. 'Tis the wild
+ravings of an imaginary hero in bedlam. I can no more, Clarinda; I can
+scarcely hold up my head; but I am happy you do not know it, you would
+be so uneasy.
+
+SYLVANDER.
+
+
+_Monday Morning_.
+
+I am, my lovely friend, much better this morning on the whole; but I
+have a horrid languor on my spirits.
+
+  Sick of the world, and all its joys,
+    My soul in pining sadness mourns;
+  Dark scenes of woe my mind employs,
+    The past and present in their turns.
+
+Have you ever met with a saying of the great, and like wise good Mr.
+Locke, author of the famous _Essay on the Human Understanding_? He wrote
+a letter to a friend, directing it, "not to be delivered till after my
+decease;" it ended thus--"I know you loved me when living, and will
+preserve my memory now I am dead. All the use to be made of it is, that
+this life affords no solid satisfaction, but in the consciousness of
+having done well, and the hopes of another life. Adieu! I leave my best
+wishes with you. J. LOCKE."
+
+Clarinda, may I reckon on your friendship for life? I think I may. Thou
+Almighty Preserver of men! thy friendship, which hitherto I have too
+much neglected, to secure it shall, all the future days and nights of my
+life, be my steady care! The idea of my Clarinda follows--
+
+  Hide it, my heart, within that close disguise,
+  Where, mix'd with God's, her lov'd idea lies.
+
+But I fear that inconstancy, the consequent imperfection of human
+weakness. Shall I meet with a friendship that defies years of absence,
+and the chances and changes of fortune? Perhaps "such things are;" _one
+honest_ man[65a] I have great hopes from that way: but who, except a
+romance writer, would think on a _love_ that could promise for life, in
+spite of distance, absence, chance, and change; and that, too, with
+slender hopes of fruition? For my own part, I can say to myself in both
+requisitions, "Thou art the man!" I dare, in cool resolve I dare,
+declare myself that friend, and that lover. If womankind is capable of
+such things, Clarinda is. I trust that she is; and I feel I shall be
+miserable if she is not. There is not one virtue which gives worth, or
+one sentiment which does honour to the sex, that she does not possess
+superior to any woman I ever saw; her exalted mind, aided a little
+perhaps by her situation, is, I think, capable of that nobly-romantic
+love-enthusiasm.
+
+May I see you on Wednesday evening, my dear angel? The next Wednesday
+again will, I conjecture, be a hated day to us both. I tremble for
+censorious remark, for your sake, but, in extraordinary cases, may not
+usual and useful precaution be a little dispensed with? Three evenings,
+three swift-winged evenings, with pinions of down, are all the past; I
+dare not calculate the future. I shall call at Miss Nimmo's to-morrow
+evening;'twill be a farewell call.
+
+I have wrote out my last sheet of paper, so I am reduced to my last
+half-sheet. What a strange mysterious faculty is that thing called
+imagination! We have no ideas almost at all of another world; but I have
+often amused myself with visionary schemes of what happiness might be
+enjoyed by small alterations--alterations that we can fully enter into,
+in this present state of existence. For instance, suppose you and I,
+just as we are at present; the same reasoning powers, sentiments, and
+even desires; the same fond curiosity for knowledge and remarking
+observation in our minds; and imagine our bodies free from pain, and the
+necessary supplies for the wants of nature at all times, and easily,
+within our reach: imagine further, that we were set free from the laws
+of gravitation, which bind us to this globe, and could at pleasure fly,
+without inconvenience, through all the yet unconjectured bounds of
+creation, what a life of bliss would we lead, in our mutual pursuit of
+virtue and knowledge, and our mutual enjoyment of friendship and love!
+
+I see you laughing at my fairy fancies, and calling me a voluptuous
+Mahometan; but I am certain I would be a happy creature, beyond anything
+we call bliss here below; nay, it would be a paradise congenial to you
+too. Don't you see us, hand in hand, or rather, my arm about your lovely
+waist, making our remarks on Sirius, the nearest of the fixed stars; or
+surveying a comet, flaming innoxious by us, as we just now would mark
+the passing pomp of a travelling monarch; or in a shady bower of Mercury
+or Venus, dedicating the hour to love, in mutual converse, relying
+honour, and revelling endearment, whilst the most exalted strains of
+poesy and harmony would be the ready spontaneous language of our souls!
+Devotion is the favourite employment of your heart; so it is of mine:
+what incentives then to, and powers for reverence, 'gratitude, faith,
+and hope, in all the fervours of adoration and praise to that Being,
+whose unsearchable wisdom, power, and goodness, so pervaded, so inspired
+every sense and feeling! By this time, I daresay, you will be blessing
+the neglect of the maid that leaves me destitute of paper!
+
+SYLVANDER.
+
+   [Footnote 65a: Alluding to Captain Brown.]
+
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+XVI.
+
+[_Monday_, 21_st Jan_. 1788.]
+
+... I am a discontented ghost, a perturbed spirit. Clarinda, if ever you
+forget Sylvander, may you be happy, but he will be miserable. O what a
+fool I am in love! What an extraordinary prodigal of affection! Why are
+your sex called the tender sex, when I have never met with one who can
+repay me in passion? They are either not so rich in love as I am, or
+they are niggards where I am lavish.
+
+O Thou, whose I am, and whose are all my ways! Thou seest me here, the
+hapless wreck of tides and tempests in my own bosom: do Thou direct to
+Thyself that ardent love for which I have so often sought a return in
+vain from my fellow-creatures! If Thy goodness has yet such a gift in
+store for me as an equal return of affection from her who, Thou knowest,
+is dearer to me than life, do Thou bless and hallow our bond of love and
+friendship; watch over us in all our outgoings and incomings for good:
+and may the tie that unites our hearts be strong and indissoluble as the
+thread of man's immortal life!...
+
+I am just going to take your "Blackbird,"[66] the sweetest, I am sure,
+that ever sung, and prune its wings a little.
+
+SYLVANDER.
+
+   [Footnote 66: Her verses, "To a Blackbird Singing."]
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+XVII.
+
+_Thursday Morning_, 24_th January._
+
+Unlavish Wisdom never works in vain.
+
+I have been tasking my reason, Clarinda, why a woman, who, for native
+genius, poignant wit, strength of mind, generous sincerity of soul, and
+the sweetest female tenderness, is without a peer, and whose personal
+charms have few, very very few parallels, among her sex; why, or how she
+should fall to the blessed lot of a poor _hairum scairum_ poet, whom
+Fortune had kept for her particular use, to wreak her temper on whenever
+she was in ill humour. One time I conjectured, that as Fortune is the
+most capricious jade ever known, she may have taken, not a fit of
+remorse, but a paroxysm of whim, to raise the poor devil out of the
+mire, where he had so often and so conveniently served her as a stepping
+stone, and given him the most glorious boon she ever had in her gift,
+merely for the maggot's sake, to see how his fool head and his fool
+heart will bear it. At other times I was vain enough to think, that
+Nature, who has a great deal to say with Fortune, had given the
+coquettish goddess some such hint as, "Here is a paragon of female
+excellence, whose equal, in all my former compositions, I never was
+lucky enough to hit on, and despair of ever doing so again; you have
+cast her rather in the shades of life; there is a certain Poet of my
+making; among your frolics it would not be amiss to attach him to this
+masterpiece of my hand, to give her that immortality among mankind,
+which no woman, of any age, ever more deserved, and which few rhymsters
+of this age are better able to confer."
+
+
+_Evening_, 9 _o'clock._
+
+I am here, absolutely unfit to finish my letter--pretty hearty after a
+bowl, which has been constantly plied since dinner till this moment. I
+have been with Mr. Schetki, the musician, and he has set it[66a]
+finely.----I have no distinct ideas of anything, but that I have drunk
+your health twice to-night, and that you are all my soul holds dear in
+this world.
+
+SYLVANDER.
+
+   [Footnote 66a: "Clarinda, Mistress of my Soul, etc."--See Poems.]
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+XVIII.
+
+[_Friday, Jan_. 25.]
+
+Clarinda, my life, you have wounded my soul. Can I think of your being
+unhappy, even though it be not described in your pathetic elegance of
+language, without being miserable? Clarinda, can I bear to be told from
+you that you "will not see me to-morrow night"--that you "wish the hour
+of parting were come?" Do not let us impose on ourselves by sounds. If
+in the moment of tender endearment I perhaps trespassed against the
+letter of decorum's law I appeal even to you whether I ever sinned in
+the very least degree against the spirit of her strictest statute. But
+why, my love, talk to me in such strong terms?--every word of which cuts
+me to the very soul. You know a hint, the slightest signification of
+your wish is to me a sacred command. Be reconciled, my angel, to your
+God, yourself, and me: and I pledge you Sylvander's honour--an oath I
+daresay you will trust without reserve--that you shall never more have
+reason to complain of his conduct. Now, my love, do not wound our next
+meeting with any averted looks or restrained caresses. I have marked the
+line of conduct, a line I know exactly to your taste, and which I will
+inviolably keep; but do not you shew the least inclination to make
+boundaries. Seeming distrust where you know you may confide is a cruel
+sin against sensibility. "Delicacy, you know, it was, which won me to
+you at once--take care you do not loosen the dearest, most sacred tie
+that unites us." Clarinda, I would not have stung _your_ soul, I would
+not have bruised _your_ spirit, as that harsh, crucifying _"Take Care"_
+did mine--no, not to have gained Heaven! Let me again appeal to your
+dear self, if Sylvander, even when he seemingly half-transgressed the
+laws of decorum, if he did not shew more chastened trembling, faltering
+delicacy than the many of the world do in keeping these laws?
+
+O Love and Sensibility, ye have conspired against my peace! I love to
+madness and I feel to torture! Clarinda, how can I forgive myself that I
+have ever touched a single chord in your bosom with pain! Would I do it
+willingly? Would any consideration, any gratification make me do so? Oh,
+did you love like me, you would not, you could not, deny or put off a
+meeting with the man who adores you--who would die a thousand deaths
+before he would injure you; and who must soon bid you a long farewell!
+
+I had proposed bringing my bosom friend, Mr. Ainslie, to-morrow evening
+at his strong request to see you, as he has only time to stay with us
+about ten minutes for an engagement. But I shall hear from you--this
+afternoon, for mercy's sake! for till I hear from you I am wretched. O
+Clarinda, the tie that binds me to thee is intwisted, incorporated with
+my dearest threads of life!
+
+SYLVANDER.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+XIX.
+
+[_Sat_., 26 _Jan_.]
+
+I was on the way, _my Love_, to meet you (I never do things by halves),
+when I got your card. Mr. Ainslie goes out of town to-morrow morning, to
+see a brother of his who is newly arrived from France. I am determined
+that he and I shall call on you together; so, look you, lest I should
+never see to-morrow, we will call on you to-night; Mary and you may put
+off tea till about seven; at which time, in the Galloway phrase, "an the
+beast be to the fore, and the branks bide hale," expect the humblest of
+your humble servants, and his dearest friend. We propose staying only
+half-an-hour, "for ought we ken." I could suffer the lash of misery
+eleven months in the year, were the twelfth to be composed of hours like
+yesternight. You are the soul of my enjoyment: all else is of the stuff
+of stocks and stones.
+
+SYLVANDER.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+XX.
+
+_Sunday Noon, Jan_. 27_th_.
+
+I have almost given up the excise idea. I have been just now to wait on
+a great person, Miss----'s friend, ----. Why will great people not only
+deafen us with the din of their equipage, and dazzle us with their
+fastidious pomp, but they must also be so very dictatorially wise? I
+have been questioned like a child about my matters, and blamed and
+schooled for my inscription on Stirling window. Come Clarinda-Come!
+curse me Jacob, and come defy me Israel!
+
+_Sunday Night_.
+
+I have been with Miss Nimmo; she is indeed a good soul, as my Clarinda
+finely says. She has reconciled me in a good measure to the world with
+her friendly prattle.
+
+Schetki has sent me the song set to a fine air of his composing. I have
+called the song "Clarinda." I have carried it about in my pocket and
+hummed it over all day.
+
+_Monday Morning_.
+
+If my prayers have any weight in heaven, this morning looks in on you
+and finds you in the arms of Peace, except where it is charmingly
+interrupted by the ardours of devotion. I find so much serenity of soul,
+so much positive pleasure, so much fearless daring toward the world when
+I warm in devotion, or feel the glorious sensation of a consciousness of
+Almighty friendship, that I am sure I shall soon be an honest
+enthusiast.
+
+  How are Thy Servants blest, O Lord,
+  How sure is their defence!
+
+I am, my dear madam, yours, SYLVANDER.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+XXI.
+
+_Tuesday Morning_, 29_th January_.
+
+I cannot go out to-day, my dearest love, without sending you half a
+line, by way of a sin-offering; but, believe me, 'twas the sin of
+ignorance. Could you think that I _intended_ to hurt you by any thing I
+said yesternight? Nature has been too kind to you for your happiness,
+your delicacy, your sensibility. O why should such glorious
+qualifications be the fruitful source of woe! You have "murdered sleep"
+to me last night. I went to bed, impressed with an idea that you were
+unhappy; and every start I closed my eyes, busy Fancy painted you in
+such scenes of romantic misery, that I would almost be persuaded you
+were not well this morning.
+
+  If I unweeting have offended,
+  Impute it not.
+  But while we live
+  But one short hour perhaps, between us two,
+  Let there be peace.
+
+If Mary is not gone by this reaches you, give her my best compliments.
+She is a charming girl, and highly worthy of the noblest love.
+
+I send you a poem to read, till I call on you this night, which will be
+about nine. I wish I could procure some potent spell, some fairy charm,
+that would protect from injury, or restore to rest that bosom-chord,
+"tremblingly alive all o'er," on which hangs your peace of mind. I
+thought, vainly, I fear, thought that the devotion of love--love strong
+as even you can feel--love guarded, invulnerably guarded, by all the
+purity of virtue, and all the pride of honour; I thought such a love
+would make you happy--shall I be mistaken? I can no more for hurry.
+
+SYLVANDER.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+XXII.
+
+_Sunday Morning_, 3_rd February_.
+
+I have just been before the throne of my God, Clarinda; according to my
+association of ideas, my sentiments of love and friendship, I next
+devote myself to you. Yesternight I was happy--happiness "that the world
+cannot give." I kindle at the recollection; but it is a flame where
+innocence looks smiling on, and honour stands by, a sacred guard. Your
+heart, your fondest wishes, your dearest thoughts, these are yours to
+bestow; your person is unapproachable by the laws of your country; and
+he loves not as I do, who would make you miserable.
+
+You are an angel, Clarinda; you are surely no mortal that "the earth
+owns." To kiss your hand, to live on your smile, is to me far more
+exquisite bliss than the dearest favours that the fairest of the sex,
+yourself excepted, can bestow.
+
+_Sunday Evening_.
+
+You are the constant companion of my thoughts. How wretched is the
+condition of one who is haunted with conscious guilt, and trembling
+under the idea of dreaded vengeance! and what a placid calm, what a
+charming secret enjoyment it gives, to bosom the kind feelings of
+friendship and the fond throes of love! Out upon the tempest of anger,
+the acrimonious gall of fretful impatience, the sullen frost of louring
+resentment, or the corroding poison of withered envy! They eat up the
+immortal part of man! If they spent their fury only on the unfortunate
+objects of them, it would be something in their favour; but these
+miserable passions, like traitor Iscariot, betray their lord and master.
+
+Thou Almighty Author of peace, and goodness, and love! do thou give me
+the social heart that kindly tastes of every man's cup! Is it a draught
+of joy?--warm and open my heart to share it with cordial unenvying
+rejoicing! Is it the bitter potion of sorrow?--melt my heart with
+sincerely sympathetic woe! Above all, do thou give me the manly mind
+that resolutely exemplifies, in life and manners, those sentiments which
+I would wish to be thought to possess! The friend of my soul--there may
+I never deviate from the firmest fidelity and most active kindness!
+Clarinda, the dear object of my fondest love; there may the most sacred
+inviolate honour, the most faithful kindling constancy, ever watch and
+animate my every thought and imagination!
+
+Did you ever meet with the following lines spoken of Religion, your
+darling topic?--
+
+    _'Tis this_, my friend, that streaks our morning bright;
+    _'Tis this_ that gilds the horrors of our night;
+    When wealth forsakes us, and when friends are few,
+    When friends are faithless, or when foes pursue;
+    'Tis this that wards the blow, or stills the smart,
+    Disarms affliction, or repels its dart:
+    Within the breast bids purest rapture rise,
+    Bids smiling Conscience spread her cloudless skies.[67]
+
+I met with these verses very early in life, and was so delighted with
+them that I have them by me, copied at school.
+
+Good night and sound rest, my dearest Clarinda!
+
+SYLVANDER.
+
+   [Footnote 67: From Hervey's _Meditations_.]
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+XXIII.
+
+_Thursday Night, Feb_. 7, 1788.
+
+It is perhaps rather wrong to speak highly to a friend of his letter; it
+is apt to lay one under a little restraint in their future letters, and
+restraint is the death of a friendly epistle. But there is one passage
+in your last charming letter, Thomson or Shenstone never exceeded nor
+often came up to. I shall certainly steal it, and set it in some future
+poetic production, and get immortal fame by it. 'Tis when you bid the
+Scenes of Nature remind me of Clarinda. Can I forget you, Clarinda? I
+would detest myself as a tasteless, unfeeling, insipid, infamous
+blockhead! I have loved women of ordinary merit whom I could have loved
+for ever. You are the first, the only unexceptionable individual of the
+beauteous sex that I ever met with: and never woman more entirely
+possessed my soul. I know myself, and how far I can depend on passions,
+well. It has been my peculiar study.
+
+I thank you for going to Myers.[68] Urge him, for necessity calls, to
+have it done by the middle of next week, Wednesday at latest. I want it
+for a breast-pin, to wear next my heart. I propose to keep sacred set
+times, to wander in the woods and wilds for meditation on you. Then, and
+only then, your lovely image shall be produced to the day, with a
+reverence akin to devotion....
+
+To-morrow night shall not be the last. Good-night! I am perfectly
+stupid, as I supped late yesternight.
+
+SYLVANDER.
+
+   [Footnote 68: Miniature painter.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+XXIV.
+
+_Wednesday, 13th February_.
+
+My ever dearest Clarinda,--I make a numerous dinner party wait me, while
+I read yours and write this. Do not require that I should cease to love
+you, to adore you in my soul--'tis to me impossible--your peace and
+happiness are to me dearer than my soul: name the terms on which you
+wish to see me, to correspond with me, and you have them--I must love,
+pine, mourn, and adore in secret--this you must not deny me; you will
+ever be to me
+
+   Dear as the light that visits these sad eyes,
+   Dear as the ruddy drops that warm my heart!
+
+I have not patience to read the puritanic scrawl. Damn'd sophistry! Ye
+heavens! thou God of nature! thou Redeemer of mankind! ye look down with
+approving eyes on a passion inspired by the purest flame, and guarded by
+truth, delicacy, and honour; but the half-inch soul of an unfeeling,
+cold-blooded, pitiful presbyterian bigot,[69] cannot forgive anything
+above his dungeon bosom and foggy head.
+
+Farewell; I'll be with you to-morrow evening--and be at rest in your
+mind--I will be yours in the way you think most to your happiness! I
+dare not proceed--I love, and will love you, and will with joyous
+confidence approach the throne of the Almighty Judge of men, with your
+dear idea, and will despise the scum of sentiment, and the mist of
+sophistry. SYLVANDER.
+
+   [Footnote 69: Rev. Mr. Kemp, Clarinda's spiritual adviser.]
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+XXV.
+
+_Wednesday Midnight [Feb. 13]._
+
+MADAM,-After a wretched day I am preparing for a sleepless night. I am
+going to address myself to the Almighty Witness of my actions, some
+time, perhaps very soon, my Almighty Judge. I am not going to be the
+advocate of passion: be Thou my inspirer and testimony, O God, as I
+plead the cause of truth!
+
+I have read over your friend's[70] haughty dictatorial letter: you are
+answerable only to your God in such a matter. Who gave any
+fellow-creature of yours (one incapable of being your judge because not
+your peer) a right to catechise, scold, undervalue, abuse, and
+insult--wantonly and inhumanly to insult you thus? I do not even _wish_
+to deceive you, Madam. The Searcher of hearts is my witness how dear you
+are to me; but though it were possible you could be still dearer to me,
+I would not even kiss your hand at the expense of your conscience. Away
+with declamation! let us appeal to the bar of commonsense. It is not
+mouthing everything sacred; it is not vague ranting assertions; it is
+not assuming, haughtily and insultingly, the dictatorial language of a
+Roman pontiff, that must dissolve a union like ours. Tell me, Madam--Are
+you under the least shadow of an obligation to bestow your love,
+tenderness, caresses, affections, heart and soul, on Mr. M'Lehose, the
+man who has repeatedly, habitually, and barbarously broken through every
+tie of duty, nature, and gratitude to you? The laws of your country,
+indeed, for the most useful reasons of policy and sound government, have
+made your person inviolate; but, are your heart and affections bound to
+one who gives not the least return of either to you? You cannot do it:
+it is not in the nature of things: the common feelings of humanity
+forbid it. Have you then a heart and affections which are no man's
+right? You have. It would be absurd to suppose the contrary. Tell me
+then, in the name of common-sense, can it be wrong, is such a
+supposition compatible with the plainest ideas of right and wrong, that
+it is improper to bestow the heart and these affections on
+another--while that bestowing is not in the smallest degree hurtful to
+your duty to God, to your children, to yourself, or to society at large?
+
+This is the great test; the consequences: let us see them. In a widowed,
+forlorn, lonely condition, with a bosom glowing with love and
+tenderness, yet so delicately situated that you cannot indulge these
+nobler feelings.... [_cetera desunt_.]
+
+[Footnote 70: Rev. Mr. Kemp.]
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+XXVI.
+
+_Thurs., 14 Feb_.
+
+"I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan!" I have suffered,
+Clarinda, from your letter. My soul was in arms at the sad perusal; I
+dreaded that I had acted wrong. If I have robbed you of a friend,[71]
+God forgive me!
+
+But, Clarinda, be comforted: let me raise the tone of our feelings a
+little higher and bolder. A fellow-creature who leaves us, who spurns us
+without a just cause, though once our bosom friend--up with a little
+honest pride--let them go! How shall I comfort you, who am the cause of
+the injury? Can I wish that I had never seen you, that we had never met?
+No! I never will. But have I thrown you friendless? There is almost
+distraction in that thought.
+
+Father of mercies! against Thee often have I sinned: through Thy grace I
+will endeavour to do so no more! She who, Thou knowest, is dearer to me
+than myself, pour Thou the balm of peace into her past wounds, and hedge
+her about with Thy peculiar care, all her future days and nights.
+Strengthen her tender noble mind, firmly to suffer, and magnanimously to
+bear! Make me worthy of that friendship she honours me with. May my
+attachment to her be pure as devotion, and lasting as immortal life! O
+Almighty Goodness, hear me! Be to her at all times, particularly in the
+hour of distress or trial, a Friend and Comforter, a Guide and Guard.
+
+   How are Thy servants blest, O Lord,
+     How sure is their defence!
+   Eternal Wisdom is their guide,
+     Their help, Omnipotence!
+
+Forgive me, Clarinda, the injury I have done you! Tonight I shall be
+with you; as indeed I shall be ill at ease till I see you.
+
+SYLVANDER.
+
+   [Footnote 71: Her minister.]
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+XXVII.
+
+_Thursday, 14th Feb., Two o'clock_.
+
+I just now received your first letter of yesterday, by the careless
+negligence of the penny-post. Clarinda, matters are grown very serious
+with us; then seriously hear me, and hear me, Heaven--I met you, my dear
+Nancy, by far the first of womankind, at least to me; I esteemed, I
+loved you at first sight; the longer I am acquainted with you the more
+innate amiableness and worth I discover in you. You have suffered a
+loss, I confess, for my sake: but if the firmest, steadiest, warmest
+friendship; if every endeavour to be worthy of your friendship; if a
+love, strong as the ties of nature, and holy as the duties of
+religion--if all these can make anything like a compensation for the
+evil I have occasioned you, if they be worth your acceptance, or can in
+the least add to your enjoyment--so help Sylvander, ye Powers above, in
+his hour of need, as he freely gives these all to Clarinda!
+
+I esteem you, I love you as a friend; I admire you, I love you as a
+woman, beyond any one in all the circle of creation; I know I shall
+continue to esteem you, to love you, to pray for you, nay, to pray for
+myself for your sake.
+
+Expect me at eight. And believe me to be ever, my dearest Madam, yours
+most entirely, SYLVANDER.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+XXVIII.
+
+
+_February 15th, 1788_.
+
+When matters, my love, are desperate, we must put on a desperate face--
+
+   On reason build resolve,
+   That column of true majesty in man.
+
+Or, as the same author finely says in another place--
+
+   Let thy soul spring up,
+   And lay strong hold for help on Him that made thee.
+
+I am yours, Clarinda, for life. Never be discouraged at all this. Look
+forward; in a few weeks I shall be somewhere or other out of the
+possibility of seeing you: till then I shall write you often, but visit
+you seldom. Your fame, your welfare, your happiness are dearer to me
+than any gratification whatever. Be comforted, my love! the present
+moment is the worst; the lenient hand of Time is daily and hourly either
+lightening the burden, or making us insensible to the weight. None of
+these friends, I mean Mr.---- and the other gentleman, can hurt your
+worldly support; and for their friendship, in a little time you will
+learn to be easy, and, by and by, to be happy without it. A decent means
+of livelihood in the world, an approving God, a peaceful conscience, and
+one firm, trusty friend--can anybody that has these be said to be
+unhappy? These are yours.
+
+To-morrow evening I shall be with you about eight; probably for the last
+time till I return to Edinburgh. In the meantime, should any of these
+two unlucky friends question you respecting me, whether I am the man, I
+do not think they are entitled to any information. As to their jealousy
+and spying, I despise them.--Adieu, my dearest Madam!
+
+SYLVANDER.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+XXIX.
+
+GLASGOW, _Monday Evening, 9 o'clock, 18th Feb. 1788._
+
+The attraction of love, I find, is in an inverse proportion to the
+attraction of the Newtonian philosophy. In the system of Sir Isaac, the
+nearer objects are to one another, the stronger is the attractive force;
+in my system, every mile-stone that marked my progress from Clarinda,
+awakened a keener pang of attachment to her. How do you feel, my love?
+Is your heart ill at ease? I fear it.--God forbid that these persecutors
+should harass that peace, which is more precious to me than my own. Be
+assured I shall ever think of you, muse on you, and, in my moments of
+devotion, pray for you. The hour that you are not in all my
+thoughts--"be that hour darkness! let the shadows of death cover it! let
+it not be numbered in the hours of the day!"
+
+   When I forget the darling theme,
+   Be my tongue mute! my fancy paint no more!
+   And, dead to joy, forget, my heart, to beat!
+
+I have just met with my old friend, the ship captain;[72] guess my
+pleasure--to meet you could alone have given me more. My brother
+William, too, the young saddler, has come to Glasgow to meet me; and
+here are we three spending the evening.
+
+I arrived here too late to write by post; but I'll wrap half a dozen
+sheets of blank paper together, and send it by the fly, under the name
+of a parcel. You shall hear from me next post town. I would write you a
+long letter, but for the present circumstance of my friend.
+
+Adieu, my Clarinda! I am just going to propose your health by way of
+grace-drink. SYLVANDER.
+
+   [Footnote 72: Richard Brown, whom he first knew at Irvine.]
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+XXX.
+
+CUMNOCK, _2nd March_ 1788.
+
+I hope, and am certain, that my generous Clarinda[73] will not think my
+silence, for now a long week, has been in any decree owing to my
+forgetfulness. I have been tossed about through the country ever since I
+wrote you; and am here, returning from Dumfries-shire, at an inn, the
+post office of the place, with just so long time as my horse eats his
+corn, to write you. I have been hurried with business and dissipation
+almost equal to the insidious decree of the Persian monarch's mandate,
+when he forbade asking petition of God or man for forty days. Had the
+venerable prophet been as throng as I, he had not broken the decree, at
+least not thrice a day.
+
+I am thinking my farming scheme will yet hold. A worthy intelligent
+farmer, my father's friend and my own, has been with me on the spot: he
+thinks the bargain practicable. I am myself, on a more serious review of
+the lands, much better pleased with them. I won't mention this in
+writing to any body but you and Ainslie. Don't accuse me of being
+fickle: I have the two plans of life before me, and I wish to adopt the
+one most likely to procure me independence. I shall be in Edinburgh next
+week. I long to see you: your image is omnipresent to me; nay, I am
+convinced I would soon idolatrise it most seriously; so much do absence
+and memory improve the medium through which one sees the much-loved
+object. To-night, at the sacred hour of eight, I expect to meet you--at
+the Throne of Grace. I hope, as I go home tonight, to find a letter from
+you at the post office in Mauchline. I have just once seen that dear
+hand since I left Edinburgh--a letter indeed which much affected me.
+Tell me, first of womankind! will my warmest attachment, my sincerest
+friendship, my correspondence, will they be any compensation for the
+sacrifices you make for my sake! If they will, they are yours. If I
+settle on the farm I propose, I am just a day and a half's ride from
+Edinburgh. We will meet--don't you say, "perhaps too often!"
+
+Farewell, my fair, my charming Poetess! May all good things ever attend
+you! I am ever, my dearest Madam, yours, SYLVANDER.
+
+   [Footnote 73: The letter about the 23rd of February seems to be
+   wanting.]
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+XXXI.
+
+MAUCHLINE, 6 _Mar_.
+
+I own myself guilty, Clarinda; I should have written you last week; but
+when you recollect, my dearest Madam, that yours of this night's post is
+only the third I have got from you, and that this is the fifth or sixth
+I have sent to you, you will not reproach me, with a good grace, for
+unkindness. I have always some kind of idea, not to sit down to write a
+letter except I have time and possession of my faculties, so as to do
+some justice to my letter; which at present is rarely my situation. For
+instance, yesterday I dined at a friend's at some distance; the savage
+hospitality of this country spent me the most part of the night over the
+nauseous potion in the bowl: this day--sick--headache--low
+spirits--miserable--fasting, except for a draught of water or small
+beer: now eight o'clock at night--only able to crawl ten minutes walk
+into Mauchline to wait the post, in the pleasurable hope of hearing from
+the mistress of my soul.
+
+But, truce with all this! When I sit down to write to you, all is
+harmony and peace. A hundred times a day do I figure you, before your
+taper, your book, or work laid aside, as I get within the room. How
+happy have I been! and how little of that scantling portion of time,
+called the life of man, is sacred to happiness! much less transport!
+
+I could moralise to-night like a death's head.
+
+   O what is life, that thoughtless wish of all!
+   A drop of honey in a draught of gall.
+
+Nothing astonishes me more, when a little sickness clogs the wheels of
+life, than the thoughtless career we run in the hour of health. "None
+saith, where is God, my Maker, that giveth songs in the night; who
+teacheth us more knowledge than the beasts of the field, and more
+understanding than the fowls of the air."
+
+Give me, my Maker, to remember thee! Give me to act up to the dignity of
+my nature! Give me to feel "another's woe;" and continue with me that
+dear-loved friend that feels with mine!
+
+The dignified and dignifying consciousness of an honest man, and the
+well-grounded trust in approving Heaven, are two most substantial
+foundations of happiness.
+
+SYLVANDER.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+XXXII.
+
+MOSSGIEL, _7th March_ 1788.
+
+Clarinda, I have been so stung with your reproach for unkindness, a sin
+so unlike me, a sin I detest more than a breach of the whole Decalogue,
+fifth, sixth, seventh and ninth articles excepted, that I believe I
+shall not rest in my grave about it, if I die before I see you. You have
+often allowed me the head to judge, and the heart to feel, the influence
+of female excellence.
+
+Was it not blasphemy, then, against your own charms, and against my
+feelings, to suppose that a short fortnight could abate my passion? You,
+my love, may have your cares and anxieties to disturb you, but they are
+the usual recurrences of life; your future views are fixed, and your
+mind in a settled routine. Could not you, my ever dearest Madam, make a
+little allowance for a man, after long absence, paying a short visit to
+a country full of friends, relations, and early intimates? Cannot you
+guess, my Clarinda, what thoughts, what cares, what anxious forebodings,
+hopes and fears, must crowd the breast of the man of keen sensibility,
+when no less is on the tapis than his aim, his employment, his very
+existence, through future life!
+
+Now that, not my apology, but my defence is made, I feel my soul respire
+more easily. I know you will go along with me in my justification--would
+to Heaven you could in my adoption too! I mean an adoption beneath the
+stars--an adoption where I might revel in the immediate beams of
+
+   Her, the bright sun of all her sex.
+
+I would not have you, my dear Madam, so much hurt at Miss Nimmo's
+coldness. 'Tis placing yourself below her, an honour she by no means
+deserves. We ought, when we wish to be economists in happiness--we
+ought, in the first place, to fix the standard of our own character; and
+when, on full examination, we know where we stand, and how much ground
+we occupy, let us contend for it as property; and those who seem to
+doubt, or deny us what is justly ours, let us either pity their
+prejudices, or despise their judgment. I know, my dear, you will say
+this is self-conceit; but I call it self-knowledge. The one is
+theoverweening opinion of a fool, who fancies himself to be what he
+wishes himself to be thought; the other is the honest justice that a man
+of sense, who has thoroughly examined the subject, owes to himself.
+Without this standard, this column in our own mind, we are perpetually
+at the mercy of the petulance, the mistakes, the prejudices, nay, the
+very weakness and wickedness of our fellow-creatures.
+
+I urge this, my dear, both to confirm myself in the doctrine, which, I
+assure you, I sometimes need; and because I know that this causes you
+often much disquiet. To return to Miss Nimmo: she is most certainly a
+worthy soul, and equalled by very, very few, in goodness of heart. But
+can she boast more goodness of heart than Clarinda? Not even prejudice
+will dare to say so. For penetration and discernment, Clarinda sees far
+beyond her: to wit, Miss Nimmo dare make no pretence; to Clarinda's wit,
+scarcely any of her sex dare make pretence. Personal charms, it would be
+ridiculous to run the parallel. And for conduct in life, Miss Nimmo was
+never called out, either much to do or to suffer; Clarinda has been
+both; and has performed her part, where Miss Nimmo would have sunk at
+the bare idea.
+
+Away, then, with these disquietudes! Let us pray with the honest weaver
+of Kilbarchan--"Lord, send us a gude conceit o' oursel!" Or, in the
+words of the auld sang,
+
+  Who does me disdain, I can scorn them again,
+  And I'll never mind any such foes.
+
+There is an error in the commerce of intimacy[74] ...
+
+way of exchange, have not an equivalent to give us; and, what is still
+worse, have no idea of the value of our goods. Happy is our lot indeed,
+when we meet with an honest merchant, who is qualified to deal with us
+on our own terms; but that is a rarity. With almost everybody we must
+pocket our pearls, less or more, and learn in the old Scotch phrase--"To
+gie sic like as we get." For this reason one should try to erect a kind
+of bank or store-house in one's own mind; or, as the Psalmist says, "We
+should commune with our own hearts, and be still." This is exactly
+
+   [Footnote 74: The MS. is so worn as to be indecipherable.]
+
+   [MS. dilapidated.]
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+XXXIII.
+
+EDINBURGH, 18_th March_ 1788.
+
+I am just hurrying away to wait on the great man, Clarinda; but I have
+more respect on my own peace and happiness than to set out without
+waiting on you; for my imagination, like a child's favourite bird, will
+fondly flutter along with this scrawl till it perch on your bosom I
+thank you for all the happiness of yesterday--the walk delightful, the
+evening rapture. Do not be uneasy today, Clarinda. I am in rather better
+spirits today, though I had but an indifferent night. Care, anxiety, sat
+on my spirits. All the cheerfulness of this morning is the fruit of some
+serious, important ideas that lie, in their realities, beyond the dark
+and narrow house. The Father of mercies be with you, Clarinda. Every
+good thing attend you!
+
+SYLVANDER.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+XXXIV.
+
+_Friday_ 9 [_p.m_., 21_st March_ 1788].
+
+I am just now come in, and have read your letters. The first thing I did
+was to thank the Divine Disposer of events that he has had such
+happiness in store for me as the connexion I have with you. Life, my
+Clarinda, is a weary, barren path; and woe be to him or her that
+ventures on it alone! For me, I have my dearest partner of my soul.
+Clarinda and I will make out our pilgrimage together. Wherever I am, I
+shall constantly let her know how I go on, what I observe in the world
+around me, and what adventures I meet with. Would it please you, my
+love, to get every week, or every fortnight at least, a packet of two or
+three sheets of remarks, nonsense, news, rhymes and old songs? Will you
+open with satisfaction and delight a letter from a man who loves you,
+who has loved you, and who will love you to death, through death, and
+for ever? O Clarinda! what do I owe to heaven for blessing me with such
+a piece of exalted excellence as you! I call over your idea, as a miser
+counts over his treasure. Tell me, were you studious to please me last
+night? I am sure you did it to transport.
+
+How rich am I who have such a treasure as you! You know me; you know how
+to make me happy, and you do it most effectually. God bless you with
+"long life, long youth, long pleasure, and a friend!" Tomorrow night,
+according to your own direction, I shall watch the window--'tis the star
+that guides me to Paradise. The great relish to all is that honour, that
+innocence, that Religion are the witnesses and guarantees of our
+affection, Adieu, Clarinda! I am going to remember you in my prayers.
+
+SYLVANDER.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE.
+
+
+LETTERS.
+
+(_General Correspondence Resumed_.)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+LXXXIV.--To MR. GAVIN HAMILTON.
+
+[_April_ 1788] MOSSGIEL, _Friday Morning_.
+
+The language of refusal is to me the most difficult language on earth,
+and you are the man in the world, excepting one of Right Hon.
+designation, to whom it gives me the greatest pain to hold such
+language. My brother has already got money,[75] and shall want nothing
+in my power to enable him to fulfil his engagement with you; but to be
+security on so large a scale, even for a brother, is what I dare not do,
+except I were in such circumstances of life as that the worst that might
+happen could not greatly injure me.
+
+I never wrote a letter which gave me so much pain in my life, as I know
+the unhappy consequences:--I shall incur the displeasure of a gentleman
+for whom I have the highest respect and to whom I am deeply
+obliged.--I am etc.
+
+ROBERT BURNS.
+
+   [Footnote 75: Altogether L180. Gilbert is meant, and the business
+   referred to was renewal of lease of Mossgiel, the poet to be
+   cautioner.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+LXXXV.--To MR. WILLIAM DUNBAR, W.S., EDINBURGH.
+
+MAUCHLINE, 7_th April_ 1788.
+
+I have not delayed so long to write you, my much respected friend,
+because I thought no further of my promise. I have long since given up
+that formal kind of correspondence where one sits down irksomely to
+write a letter, because he is in duty bound to do so.
+
+I have been roving over the country, as the farm[76] I have taken is
+forty miles from this place, hiring servants and preparing matters; but
+most of all, I am earnestly busy to bring about a revolution in my own
+mind. As, till within these eighteen months, I never was the wealthy
+master of ten guineas, my knowledge of business is to learn. Add to
+this, my late scenes of idleness and dissipation have enervated my mind
+to an alarming degree. Skill in the sober science of life is my most
+serious, and hourly study. I have dropped all conversation and all
+reading (prose reading) but what tends in some way or other to my
+serious aim. Except one worthy young fellow[77] I have not a single
+correspondent in Edinburgh. You have indeed kindly made me an offer of
+that kind. The world of wits, the _gens comme-il-faut_, which I lately
+left, and in which I never again will intimately mix--from that port,
+Sir, I expect your gazette, what the _beaux esprits_ are saying, what
+they are doing, and what they are singing. Any sober intelligence from
+my sequestered life is all you have to expect from me. I have scarcely
+made a single distich since I saw you. When I meet with an old Scots air
+that has any facetious idea in its name, I have a peculiar pleasure in
+following out that idea for a verse or two.
+
+I trust this will find you in better health than I did the last time I
+called for you. A few lines from you, directed to me, at Mauchline, were
+it but to let me know how you are, will settle my mind a good deal. Now,
+never shun the idea of writing me because, perhaps, you may be out of
+humour or spirits. I could give you a hundred good consequences
+attending a dull letter; one, for example, and the remaining ninety-nine
+some other time--it will always serve to keep in countenance, my much
+respected Sir, your obliged friend and humble servant, R. B.
+
+   [Footnote 76: Ellisland, near Dumfries.]
+
+   [Footnote 77: Robert Ainslie, W.S.]
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+LXXXVI.--To MRS. DUNLOP.
+
+MAUCHLINE, 28_th April_ 1788.
+
+MADAM,--Your powers of reprehension must be great indeed, as I assure
+you they make my heart ache with penitential pangs, even though I was
+really not guilty. As I commence farming at Whitsunday, you will easily
+guess I must be pretty busy; but that is not all. As I got the offer of
+the Excise business without solicitation, and as it costs me only six
+months' attendance for instructions, to entitle me to a commission
+--which commission lies by me, and at any future period, on my simple
+petition, can be resumed--I thought five-and-thirty pounds a-year was no
+bad _dernier ressort_ for a poor poet, if Fortune in her jade tricks
+should kick him down from the little eminence to which she has lately
+helped him up.
+
+For this reason, I am at present attending these instructions, to have
+them completed before Whitsunday. Still, Madam, I prepared with the
+sincerest pleasure to meet you at the Mount, and came to my brother's on
+Saturday night, to set out on Sunday; but for some nights preceding I
+had slept in an apartment, where the force of the winds and rains was
+only mitigated by being sifted through numberless apertures in the
+windows, walls, etc. In consequence I was on Sunday, Monday, and part of
+Tuesday, unable to stir out of bed, with all the miserable effects of a
+violent cold.
+
+You see, Madam, the truth of the French maxim, _le vrai n'est pas
+toujours le vrai-semblable;_ your last was so full of expostulation, and
+was something so like the language of an offended friend, that I began
+to tremble for a correspondence, which I had with grateful pleasure set
+down as one of the greatest enjoyments of my future life.
+
+Your books have delighted me; Virgil, Dryden, and Tasso were all equally
+strangers to me; but of this more at large in my next. R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+LXXXVII.--To MR. JAMES SMITH, AVON PRINTFIELD, LINLITHGOW.
+
+MAUCHLINE, _April_ 28_th_, 1788.
+
+Beware of your Strasburgh, my good Sir! Look on this as the opening of a
+correspondence, like the opening of a twenty-four gun battery!
+
+There is no understanding a man properly, without knowing something of
+his previous ideas; that is to say, if the man has any ideas; for I know
+many who, in the animal-muster, pass for men, that are the scanty
+masters of only one idea on any given subject, and by far the greatest
+part of your acquaintances and mine can barely boast of ideas,
+1.25--1.5--1.75 (or some such fractional matter); so to let you a little
+into the secrets of my pericranium, there is, you must know, a certain
+clean-limbed, handsome, bewitching young hussy of your acquaintance, to
+whom I have lately and privately given a matrimonial title to my corpus.
+
+  Bode a robe and wear it,
+  Bode a pock and bear it,
+
+says the wise old Scots adage! I hate to presage ill-luck; and as my
+girl has been doubly kinder to me than even the best of women usually
+are to their partners of our sex, in similar circumstances, I reckon on
+twelve times a brace of children against I celebrate my twelfth
+wedding-day: these twenty-four will give me twenty-four gossipings,
+twenty-four christenings (I mean one equal to two), and I hope, by the
+blessing of the God of my fathers, to make them twenty-four dutiful
+children to their parents, twenty-four useful members of society, and
+twenty-four approved servants of their God....
+
+"Light's heartsome," quo' the wife when she was stealing sheep. You see
+what a lamp I have hung up to lighten your paths, when you are idle
+enough to explore the combinations and relations of my ideas. 'Tis now
+as plain as a pike-staff, why a twenty-four gun battery was a metaphor I
+could readily employ.
+
+Now for business. I intend to present Mrs. Burns with a printed shawl,
+an article of which I dare say you have variety: 'tis my first present
+to her since I have irrevocably called her mine, and I have a kind of
+whimsical wish to get her the first said present from an old and
+much-valued friend of hers and mine, a trusty Trojan, on whose
+friendship I count myself possessed of as a life-rent lease.
+
+Look on this letter as a "beginning of sorrows;" I will write you till
+your eyes ache reading nonsense.
+
+Mrs. Burns ('tis only her private designation) begs her best compliments
+to you. R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+LXXXVIII--To PROFESSOR DUGALD STEWART.
+
+MAUCHLINE, 3_rd May_ 1788.
+
+SIR,--I enclose you one or two more of my bagatelles. If the fervent
+wishes of honest gratitude have any influence with that great unknown
+Being who frames the chain of causes and events, prosperity and
+happiness will attend your visit to the Continent, and return you safe
+to your native shore.
+
+Wherever I am, allow me, Sir, to claim it as my privilege to acquaint
+you with my progress in my trade of rhymes; as I am sure I could say it
+with truth, that, next to my little fame, and the having it in my power
+to make life more comfortable to those whom nature has made dear to me,
+I shall ever regard your countenance, your patronage, your friendly good
+offices, as the most valued consequence of my late success in life.
+R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+LXXXIX.--To MRS. DUNLOP.
+
+MAUCHLINE, 4_th May_ 1788.
+
+MADAM,--Dryden's Virgil has delighted me. I do not know whether the
+critics will agree with me, but the Georgics are to me by far the best
+of Virgil. It is indeed a species of writing entirely new to me, and has
+filled my head with a thousand fancies of emulation; but, alas! when I
+read the Georgics, and then survey my own powers, 'tis like the idea of
+a Shetland pony, drawn up by the side of a thorough-bred hunter, to
+start for the plate. I own I am disappointed in the AEneid. Faultless
+correctness may please, and does highly please, the lettered critic; but
+to that awful character T have not the most distant pretensions. I do
+not know whether I do not hazard my pretensions to be a critic of any
+kind, when I say that I think Virgil, in many instances, a servile
+copier of Homer. If I had the Odyssey by me, I could parallel many
+passages where Virgil has evidently copied, but by no means improved,
+Homer. Nor can I think there is anything of this owing to the
+translators; for, from everything I have seen of Dryden, I think him, in
+genius and fluency of language, Pope's master. I have not perused Tasso
+enough to form an opinion: in some future letter you shall have my ideas
+of him; though I am conscious my criticisms must be very inaccurate and
+imperfect, as there I have ever felt and lamented my want of learning
+most. R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+XC.--To MR. SAMUEL BROWN, KIRKOSWALD.
+
+MOSSGIEL, 4_th May_ 1788.
+
+DEAR UNCLE,--This, I hope, will find you and your conjugal yoke-fellow
+in your good old way. I am impatient to know if the Ailsa[78] fowling be
+commenced for this season yet, as I want three or four stones of
+feathers, and I hope you will bespeak them for me. It would be a vain
+attempt for me to enumerate the various transactions I have been engaged
+in since I saw you last; but this know--I engaged in a smuggling trade,
+and no poor man ever experienced better returns, two for one: but as
+freight and delivery have turned out so dear, I am thinking of taking
+out a license and beginning in fair trade. I have taken a farm, on the
+borders of the Nith, and in imitation of the old patriarchs, get
+men-servants and maid-servants, and flocks and herds, and beget sons and
+daughters.--Your obedient nephew,
+
+ROBERT BURNS.
+
+   [Footnote 78: A well-known rock in the Firth of Clyde, frequented by
+   innumerable sea-fowl.]
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+XCI.--To MR. JAMES JOHNSON, ENGRAVER, EDINBURGH.
+
+MAUCHLINE, 25_th May_ 1788.
+
+MY DEAR SIR,--I am really uneasy about that money which Mr. Creech owes
+me per note in your hand, and I want it much at present, as I am
+engaging in business pretty deeply both for myself and my brother. A
+hundred guineas can be but a trifling affair to him, and'tis a matter of
+most serious importance to me.[79] To-morrow I begin my operations as a
+farmer, and so God speed the plough!
+
+I am so enamoured of a certain girl.... To be serious, I found I had a
+long and much-loved fellow-creature's happiness or misery in my hands;
+and though pride and seeming justice were murderous king's advocates on
+the one side, yet humanity, generosity, and forgiveness were such
+powerful, such irresistible counsel on the other, that a jury of all
+endearments and new attachments brought in a unanimous verdict of _not
+guilty_. And the panel, be it known unto all whom it concerns, is
+installed and instated into all the rights, privileges, etc., that
+belong to the name, title, and designation of wife.
+
+   [Footnote 79: Creech paid the amount five days after the date of this
+   letter.]
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+XCII.--To MR. ROBERT AINSLIE.
+
+MAUCHLINE, _May_ 26_th_, 1788.
+
+MY DEAR FRIEND,--I am two kind letters in your debt; but I have been
+from home, and horridly busy, buying and preparing for my farming
+business, over and above the plague of my Excise instructions, which
+this week will finish.
+
+As I flatter my wishes that I foresee many future years' correspondence
+between us, 'tis foolish to talk of excusing dull epistles! a dull
+letter may be a very kind one. I have the pleasure to tell you that I
+have been extremely fortunate in all my buyings and bargainings
+hitherto, Mrs. Burns not excepted; which title I now avow to the world.
+I am truly pleased with this last affair. It has indeed added to my
+anxieties for futurity, but it has given a stability to my mind and
+resolutions unknown before; and the poor girl has the most sacred
+enthusiasm of attachment to me, and has not a wish but to gratify my
+every idea of her deportment. I am interrupted. Farewell! my dear
+Sir. R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+XCIII.--To MRS. DUNLOP.
+
+27_th_ _May _1788.
+
+MADAM,--I have been torturing my philosophy to no purpose to account for
+that kind partiality of yours, which has followed me, in my return to
+the shade of life, with assiduous benevolence. Often did I regret, in
+the fleeting hours of my late will-o'-wisp appearance, that "here I had
+no continuing city;" and, but for the consolation of a few solid
+guineas, could almost lament the time that a momentary acquaintance with
+wealth and splendour put me so much out of conceit with the sworn
+companions of my road through life--insignificance and poverty.
+
+There are few circumstances relating to the unequal distribution of the
+good things of this life that give me more vexation (I mean in what I
+see around me) than the importance the opulent bestow on their trifling
+family affairs, compared with the very same things on the contracted
+scale of a cottage. Last afternoon I had the honour to spend an hour or
+two at a good woman's fireside, where the planks that composed the floor
+were decorated with a splendid carpet, and the gay table sparkled with
+silver and china. 'Tis now about term-day, and there has been a
+revolution among those creatures who, though in appearance partakers,
+and equally noble partakers, of the same nature with Madame, are from
+time to time--their nerves, their sinews, their health, strength,
+wisdom, experience, genius, time, nay, a good part of their very
+thoughts--sold for months and years, not only to the necessities, the
+conveniences, but the caprices of the important few. We talked of the
+insignificant creatures; nay, notwithstanding their general stupidity
+and rascality, did some of the poor devils the honour to commend them.
+But light be the turf upon his breast who taught "Reverence thyself!" We
+looked down on the unpolished wretches, their impertinent wives, and
+clouterly brats, as the lordly bull does on the little dirty ant-hill,
+whose puny inhabitants he crushes in the carelessness of his ramble, or
+tosses in the air in the wantonness of his pride.
+
+R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+XCIV.--TO MRS. DUNLOP, AT MR. DUNLOP'S, HADDINGTON.
+
+ELLISLAND, 13_th June_ 1788.
+
+  Where'er I roam, whatever realms I see,
+  My heart, untravell'd, fondly turns to thee;
+  Still to my friend it turns with ceaseless pain,
+  And drags, at each remove, a lengthen'd chain.
+    GOLDSMITH.
+
+This is the second day, my honoured friend, that I have been on my farm.
+A solitary inmate of an old smoky spence; far from every object I love,
+or by whom I am beloved; nor any acquaintance older than yesterday,
+except Jenny Geddes, the old mare I ride on; while uncouth cares and
+novel plans hourly insult my awkward ignorance and bashful inexperience.
+There is a foggy atmosphere native to my soul in the hour of care;
+consequently the dreary objects seem larger than the life. Extreme
+sensibility, irritated and prejudiced on the gloomy side by a series of
+misfortunes and disappointments, at that period of my existence when the
+soul is laying in her cargo of ideas for the voyage of life, is, I
+believe, the principal cause of this unhappy frame of mind.
+
+  The valiant, in himself, what can he suffer?
+  Or what need he regard his _single_ woes?
+
+Your surmise, Madam, is just: I am indeed a husband.
+
+I found a once much-loved and still much-loved female, literally and
+truly cast out to the mercy of the naked elements--but there is no
+sporting with a fellow-creature's happiness or misery.... The most
+placid good-nature and sweetness of disposition; a warm heart,
+gratefully devoted with all its powers to love me; vigorous health and
+sprightly cheerfulness, set off to the best advantage by a more than
+common handsome figure--these, I think, in a woman may make a good wife
+though she should never have read a page but the Scriptures of the Old
+and New Testaments, nor have danced in a brighter assembly than a penny
+pay wedding.
+
+R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+XCV.-TO MR. ROBERT AINSLIE.
+
+ELLISLAND, _June 14th_, 1788.
+
+This is now the third day, my dearest Sir, that I have sojourned in
+these regions; and during these three days you have occupied more of my
+thoughts than in three weeks preceding: in Ayrshire I have several
+variations of friendship's compass, here it points invariably to the
+pole. My farm gives me a good many uncouth cares and anxieties, but I
+hate the language of complaint. Job, or some one of his friends, says
+well--"Why should a living man complain?"
+
+I have lately been much mortified with contemplating an unlucky
+imperfection in the very framing and construction of my soul; namely, a
+blundering inaccuracy of her olfactory organs in hitting the scent of
+craft or design in my fellow-creatures. I do not mean any compliment to
+my ingenuousness, or to hint that the defect is in consequence of the
+unsuspicious simplicity of conscious truth and honour: I take it to be,
+in some way or other, an imperfection in the mental sight; or, metaphor
+apart, some modification of dulness. In two or three instances lately, I
+have been most shamefully out.
+
+I have all along, hitherto, in the warfare of life, been bred to arms
+among the light horse--the piquet-guards of fancy; a kind of hussars and
+Highlanders of the brain; but I am firmly resolved to sell out of these
+giddy battalions, who have no ideas of a battle but fighting the foe, or
+of a siege but storming the town. Cost what it will, I am determined to
+buy in among the grave squadrons of heavy-armed thought, or the
+artillery corps of plodding contrivance.
+
+What books are you reading, or what is the subject of your thoughts,
+besides the great studies of your profession? You said something about
+religion in your last. I don't exactly remember what it was, as the
+letter is in Ayrshire; but I thought it not only prettily said, but
+nobly thought. You will make a noble fellow if once you were married. I
+make no reservation of your being well-married; you have so much sense,
+and knowledge of human nature, that though you may not realise perhaps
+the ideas of romance, yet you will never be ill-married.
+
+Were it not for the terrors of my ticklish situation respecting
+provision for a family of children, I am decidedly of opinion that the
+step I have taken is vastly for my happiness.[80] As it is, I look to
+the Excise scheme as a certainty of maintenance; a maintenance!--luxury
+to what either Mrs. Burns or I were born to. Adieu.
+
+R. B.
+
+   [Footnote 80: This alludes to his marriage.]
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+XCVI.-TO MR. ROBERT AINSLIE.
+
+ELLISLAND, _30th June_ 1788.
+
+MY DEAR SIR,--I just now received your brief epistle; and, to take
+vengeance on your laziness, I have, you see, taken a long sheet of
+writing-paper, and have begun at the top of the page, intending to
+scribble on to the very last corner.
+
+I am vexed at that affair of the ..., but dare not enlarge on the
+subject until you send me your direction, as I suppose that will be
+altered on your late master and friend's death.[81] I am concerned for
+the old fellow's exit, only as I fear it may be to your disadvantage in
+any respect--for an old man's dying, except he have been a very
+benevolent character, or in some particular situation of life that the
+welfare of the poor or the helpless depended on him, I think it an event
+of the most trifling moment to the world. Man is naturally a kind,
+benevolent animal, but he is dropped into such a needy situation here in
+this vexatious world, and has such a hungry, growling, multiplying pack
+of necessities, appetites, passions, and desires about him, ready to
+devour him for want of other food, that in fact he must lay aside his
+cares for others that he may look properly to himself. You have been
+imposed upon in paying Mr. Miers for the profile of a Mr. H. I did not
+mention it in my letter to you, nor did I ever give Mr. Miers any such
+order. I have no objection to lose the money, but I will not have any
+such profile in my possession.
+
+I desired the carrier to pay you, but as I mentioned only 15s. to him, I
+will rather inclose you a guinea-note. I have it not, indeed, to spare
+here, as I am only a sojourner in a strange land in this place; but in a
+day or two I return to Mauchline, and there I have the bank-notes
+through the house like salt permits.
+
+There is a great degree of folly in talking unnecessarily of one's
+private affairs. I have just now been interrupted by one of my new
+neighbours, who has made himself absolutely contemptible in my eyes, by
+his silly, garrulous pruriency. I know it has been a fault of my own,
+too; but from this moment I abjure it as I would the service of hell!
+Your poets, spendthrifts, and other fools of that kidney, pretend,
+forsooth, to crack their jokes on prudence; but'tis a squalid vagabond
+glorying in his rags. Still, imprudence respecting money matters is much
+more pardonable than imprudence respecting character, I have no
+objection to prefer prodigality to avarice, in some few instances; but I
+appeal to your observation if you have not met, and often met, with the
+same disingenuousness, the same hollow-hearted insincerity, and
+disintegritive depravity of principle, in the hackneyed victims of
+profusion, as in the unfeeling children of parsimony. I have every
+possible reverence for the much talked-of world beyond the grave, and I
+wish that which piety believes, and virtue deserves, may be all matter
+of fact. But in things belonging to, and terminating in this present
+scene of existence, man has serious and interesting business on hand.
+Whether a man shall shake hands with welcome in the distinguished
+elevation of respect, or shrink from contempt in the abject corner of
+insignificance: whether he shall wanton under the tropic of plenty, at
+least enjoy himself in the comfortable latitude of easy convenience, or
+starve in the arctic circle of dreary poverty; whether he shall rise in
+the manly consciousness of a self-approving mind, or sink beneath a
+galling load of regret and remorse--these are alternatives of the
+last moment.
+
+You see how I preach. You used occasionally to sermonise too; I wish you
+would, in charity, favour me with a sheet full in your own way. I admire
+the close of a letter Lord Bolingbroke writes to Dean Swift:--"Adieu,
+dear Swift! with all thy faults I love thee entirely: make an effort to
+love me with all mine!" Humble servant, and all that trumpery, is now
+such a prostituted business, that honest friendship, in her sincere way,
+must have recourse to her primitive, simple--farewell!
+
+R. B.
+
+   [Footnote 81: Samuel Mitchelson, W.S., with whom young Ainslie served
+   his apprenticeship.]
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+XCVII--TO MRS. DUNLOP.
+
+MAUCHLINE, _July_ 10_th_, 1788.
+
+MY MUCH HONOURED FRIEND,--Yours of the 24th June is before me. I found
+it, as well as another valued friend--my wife, waiting to welcome me to
+Ayrshire: I met both with the sincerest pleasure.
+
+When I write you, Madam, I do not sit down to answer every paragraph of
+yours, by echoing every sentiment, like the faithful Commons of Great
+Britain in Parliament assembled, answering a speech from the best of
+kings! I express myself in the fulness of my heart, and may, perhaps, be
+guilty of neglecting some of your kind inquiries; but not from your very
+odd reason, that I do not read your letters. All your epistles, for
+several months, have cost me nothing except a swelling throb of
+gratitude, or a deep-felt sentiment of veneration.
+
+When Mrs. Burns, Madam, first found herself "as women wish to be who
+love their lords," as I loved her nearly to distraction, we took steps
+for a private marriage. Her parents got the hint; and not only forbade
+me her company and their house, but, on my rumoured West Indian voyage,
+got a warrant to put me in jail, till I should find security in my
+about-to-be paternal relation. You know my lucky reverse of fortune. On
+my _eclatant_ return to Mauchline, I was made very welcome to visit my
+girl. The usual consequences began to betray her; and, as I was at that
+time laid up a cripple in Edinburgh, she was turned, literally turned,
+out of doors, and I wrote to a friend to shelter her till my return,
+when our marriage was declared. Her happiness or misery were in my
+hands, and who could trifle with such a deposit?
+
+To jealousy or infidelity I am an equal stranger. My preservative
+against the first is the most thorough consciousness of her sentiments
+of honour and her attachment to me; my antidote against the last is my
+long and deep-rooted affection for her. I can easily _fancy_ a more
+agreeable companion for my journey of life; but, upon my honour, I have
+never _seen_ the individual instance.
+
+In household matters, of aptness to learn and activity to execute, she
+is eminently mistress; and during my absence in Nithsdale, she is
+regularly and constantly apprentice to my mother and sisters in their
+dairy, and other rural business.
+
+The muses must not be offended when I tell them, the concerns of my wife
+and family will, in my mind, always take the _pas_; but I assure them
+their ladyships will ever come next in place.
+
+You are right that a bachelor state would have insured me more friends;
+but, from a cause you will easily guess, conscious peace in the
+enjoyment of my own mind, and unmistrusting confidence in approaching my
+God, would seldom have been of the number.
+
+Circumstanced as I am, I could never have got a female partner for life
+who could have entered into my favourite studies, relished my favourite
+authors, etc., without probably entailing on me at the same time
+expensive living, fantastic caprice, perhaps apish affectation, with all
+the other blessed boarding-school acquirements, which (_pardonnez moi_,
+_Madame_) are sometimes to be found among females of the upper ranks,
+but almost universally pervade the misses of the would-be gentry.[82]
+
+I like your way in your churchyard lucubrations. Thoughts that are the
+spontaneous result of accidental situations, either respecting health,
+place, or company, have often a strength, and always an originality,
+that would in vain be looked for in fancied circumstances, and studied
+paragraphs. For me, I have often thought of keeping a letter, in
+progression by me, to send you when the sheet was written out. Now I
+talk of sheets, I must tell you, my reason for writing to you on paper
+of this kind is my pruriency of writing to you at large. A page of post
+is on such a dis-social, narrow-minded scale, that I cannot abide it;
+and double letters, at least in my miscellaneous reverie manner, are a
+monstrous tax in a close correspondence. R. B.
+
+   [Footnote 82: In Burns's private memoranda are these words:--"I am
+   more and more pleased with the step I took respecting my Jean. A
+   wife's head is immaterial compared with her heart; and Virtue's (for
+   wisdom, what poet pretends to it?) 'ways are ways of pleasantness,
+   and all her paths are peace.'"]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+XCVIII.--To MR. PETER HILL, BOOKSELLER, EDINBURGH.
+
+MY DEAR HILL,--I shall say nothing to your mad present--you have so long
+and often been of important service to me, and I suppose you mean to go
+on conferring obligations until I shall not be able to lift up my face
+before you. In the meantime, as Sir Roger de Coverley, because it
+happened to be a cold day in which he made his will, ordered his
+servants great-coats for mourning, so, because I have been this week
+plagued with an indigestion, I have sent you by the carrier a fine old
+ewe-milk cheese.[83]
+
+Indigestion is the devil: nay, 'tis the devil and all. It besets a man
+in every one of his senses. I lose my appetite at the sight of
+successful knavery, and sicken to loathing at the noise and nonsense of
+self-important folly. When the hollow-hearted wretch takes me by the
+hand, the feeling spoils my dinner; the proud man's wine so offends my
+palate that it chokes me in the gullet; and the _pulvilised_, feathered,
+pert coxcomb, is so disgustful in my nostril that my stomach turns.
+
+If ever you have any of these disagreeable sensations, let me prescribe
+for you patience, and a bit of my cheese. I know that you are no niggard
+of your good things among your friends, and some of them are in much
+need of a slice. There, in my eye, is our friend Smellie; a man
+positively of the first abilities and greatest strength of mind, as well
+as one of the best hearts and keenest wits that I have ever met with;
+when you see him, as, alas! he too is smarting at the pinch of
+distressful circumstances, aggravated by the sneer of contumelious
+greatness--a bit of my cheese alone will not cure him, but if you add a
+tankard of brown stout, and superadd a magnum of bright Oporto, you will
+see his sorrows vanish like the morning mist before the summer sun.
+
+Candlish, the earliest friend, except my only brother, that I have on
+earth, and one of the worthiest fellows that ever any man called by the
+name of friend, if a luncheon of my cheese would help to rid him of some
+of his superabundant modesty, you would do well to give it him.
+
+David,[84] with his _Courant_, comes, too, across my recollection, and I
+beg you will help him largely from the said ewe-milk cheese, to enable
+him to digest those bedaubing paragraphs with which he is eternally
+larding the lean characters of certain great men in a certain great
+town. I grant you the periods are very well turned; so, a fresh egg is a
+very good thing, but when thrown at a man in a pillory, it does not at
+all improve his figure, not to mention the irreparable loss of the egg.
+
+My facetious friend Dunbar, I would wish also to be a partaker: not to
+digest his spleen, for that he laughs off, but to digest his last
+night's wine at the last field-day of the Crochallan corps.[85]
+
+Among our common friends I must not forget one of the dearest of
+them--Cunningham. The brutality, insolence, and selfishness of a world
+unworthy of having such a fellow as he is in it, I know sticks in his
+stomach, and if you can help him to anything that will make him a little
+easier on that score, it will be very obliging.
+
+As to honest John Sommerville, he is such a contented, happy man, that I
+know not what can annoy him, except, perhaps, he may not have got the
+better of a parcel oif modest anecdotes which a certain poet gave him
+one night at supper, the last time the said poet was in town.
+
+Though I have mentioned so many men of law, I shall have nothing to do
+with them professedly--the faculty are beyond my prescription. As to
+their clients, that is another thing; God knows they have much
+to digest!
+
+The clergy I pass by; their profundity of erudition, and their
+liberality of sentiment, their total want of pride, and their
+detestation of hypocrisy, are so proverbially notorious as to place them
+far, far above either my praise or censure.
+
+I was going to mention a man of worth, whom I have the honour to call
+friend--the Laird of Craigdarroch; but I have spoken to the landlord of
+the King's Arms Inn here, to have at the next county meeting a large
+ewe-milk cheese on the table, for the benefit of the Dumfriesshire
+Whigs, to enable them to digest the Duke of Queensberry's late
+political conduct.
+
+I have just this moment an opportunity of a private hand to Edinburgh,
+as perhaps you would not digest double postage.
+
+R. B.
+
+   [Footnote 83: In return for some valuable books.]
+
+   [Footnote 84: Printer of the _Edinburgh Evening Courant_.]
+
+   [Footnote 85: A club of boon companions.]
+
+              *    *    *    *    *    *    *
+
+XCIX.--To MRS. DUNLOP.
+
+MAUCHLINE, _August_ 2_nd_, 1788.
+
+HONOURED MADAM,--Your kind letter welcomed me, yesternight, to Ayrshire.
+I am, indeed, seriously angry with you at the quantum of your luckpenny;
+but, vexed and hurt as I was, I could not help laughing very heartily at
+the noble lord's apology for the missed napkin.
+
+I would write you from Nithsdale, and give you my direction there, but I
+have scarce an opportunity of calling at a post-office once in a
+fortnight. I am six miles from Dumfries, am scarcely ever in it myself,
+and, as yet, have little acquaintance in the neighbourhood. Besides, I
+am now very busy on my farm, building a dwelling-house; as at present I
+am almost an evangelical man in Nithsdale, for I have scarce "where to
+lay my head."
+
+There are some passages in your last that brought tears in my eyes. "The
+heart knoweth its own sorrows, and a stranger intermeddleth not
+therewith." The repository of these "sorrows of the heart" is a kind of
+_sanctum sanctorum_: and'tis only a chosen friend, and that, too, at
+particular, sacred times, who dares enter into them:--
+
+  Heaven oft tears the bosom-chords
+  That nature finest strung.
+
+You will excuse this quotation for the sake of the author. Instead of
+entering on this subject farther, I shall transcribe you a few lines I
+wrote in a hermitage, belonging to a gentleman in my Nithsdale
+neighbourhood. They are almost the only favour the muses have conferred
+on me in that country.[86]
+
+Since I am in the way of transcribing, the following were the production
+of yesterday as I jogged through the wild hills of New Cumnock. I intend
+inserting them, or something like them, in an epistle I am going to
+write to the gentleman on whose friendship my Excise hopes depend, Mr.
+Graham of Fintray, one of the worthiest and most accomplished gentlemen,
+not only of this country, but, I will dare to say it, of this age. The
+following are just the first crude thoughts "unhousel'd, unanointed,
+unanneal'd:"[87]--
+
+Here the muse left me. I am astonished at what you tell me of Anthony's
+writing me. I never received it. Poor fellow I you vex me much by
+telling me that he is unfortunate. I shall be in Ayrshire ten days from
+this date. I have just room for an old Roman FAREWELL.
+
+R. B.
+
+   [Footnote 86: Lines written in Friar's Carse Hermitage.]
+
+   [Footnote 87: First Epistle to Robert Graham.]
+
+             *     *     *     *     *     *     *
+
+C.--To MRS. DUNLOP.
+
+ELLISLAND, 16_th August_ 1788.
+
+I am in a fine disposition, my honoured friend, to send you an elegiac
+epistle; and want only genius to make it quite Shenstonian:--
+
+  Why droops my heart with fancied woes forlorn?
+  Why sinks my soul beneath each wintry sky?
+
+My increasing cares in this, as yet, strange country--gloomy
+conjectures in the dark vista of futurity--consciousness of my own
+inability for the struggle of the world--my broadened mark to misfortune
+in a wife and children;--I could indulge these reflections, till my
+humour should ferment into the most acid chagrin, that would corrode the
+very thread of life.
+
+To counterwork these baneful feelings, I have sat down to write to you;
+as I declare upon my soul I always find that the most sovereign balm for
+my wounded spirit.
+
+I was yesterday at Mr. Miller's to dinner, for the first time. My
+reception was quite to my mind: from the lady of the house quite
+flattering. She sometimes hits on a couplet or two, _impromptu_. She
+repeated one or two to the admiration of all present. My suffrage as a
+professional man was expected: I for once went agonising over the belly
+of my conscience. Pardon me, ye, my adored household gods, independence
+of spirit, and integrity of soul! In the course of conversation,
+_Johnsorfs Musical Museum_, a collection of Scottish songs with the
+music, was talked of. We got a song on the harpsichord, beginning
+
+  Raving winds around her blowing.
+
+The air was much admired: the lady of the house asked me whose were the
+words. "Mine, Madam--they are indeed my very best verses;" she took not
+the smallest notice of them! The old Scottish proverb says well, "King's
+caff is better than ither folks' corn." I was going to make a New
+Testament quotation about "casting pearls," but that would be too
+virulent, for the lady is actually a woman of sense and taste.
+
+After all that has been said on the other side of the question, man is
+by no means a happy creature. I do not speak of the selected few,
+favoured by partial heaven, whose souls are tuned to gladness amidst
+riches and honours, and prudence and wisdom. I speak of the neglected
+many, whose nerves, whose sinews, whose days are sold to the minions
+of fortune.
+
+If I thought you had never seen it, I would transcribe for you a stanza
+of an old Scottish ballad, called "The Life and Age of Man;"
+beginning thus:--
+
+  'Twas in the sixteenth hundred year
+     Of God and fifty-three
+   Frae Christ was born, that bought us dear,
+     As writings testifie.
+
+I had an old grand-uncle, with whom my mother lived a while in her
+girlish years; the good old man, for such he was, was long blind ere he
+died, during which time his highest enjoyment was to sit down and cry,
+while my mother would sing the simple old song of "The Life and Age
+of Man."
+
+It is this way of thinking; it is these melancholy truths, that make
+religion so precious to the poor, miserable children of men. If it is a
+mere phantom, existing only in the heated imagination of enthusiasm,
+
+  What truth on earth so precious as the lie?
+
+My idle reasonings sometimes make me a little sceptical, but the
+necessities of my heart always give the cold philosophisings the lie.
+Who looks for the heart weaned from earth; the soul affianced to her
+God; the correspondence fixed with heaven; the pious supplication and
+devout thanksgiving, constant as the vicissitudes of even and morn; who
+thinks to meet with these in the court, the palace, in the glare of
+public life? No; to find them in their precious importance and divine
+efficacy, we must search among the obscure recesses of disappointment,
+affliction, poverty, and distress.
+
+I am sure, dear Madam, you are now more than pleased with the length of
+my letters. I return to Ayrshire middle of next week: and it quickens my
+pace to think that there will be a letter from you waiting me there. I
+must be here again very soon for my harvest.
+
+R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+CI.--To MR. BEUGO, ENGRAVER, EDINBURGH.
+
+ELLISLAND, 9_th Sept._ 1788.
+
+MY DEAR SIR,--There is not in Edinburgh above the number of the graces
+whose letters would have given so much pleasure as yours of the 3rd
+instant, which only reached me yesternight.
+
+I am here on my farm, busy with my harvest; but for all that most
+pleasurable part of life called SOCIAL COMMUNICATION, I am here at the
+very elbow of existence. The only things that are to be found in this
+country, in any degree of perfection, are stupidity and canting. Prose
+they only know in graces, prayers, etc., and the value of these they
+estimate, as they do their plaiding webs, by the ell! As for the muses,
+they have as much an idea of a rhinoceros as of a poet. For my old,
+capricious, but good-natured hussy of a muse,
+
+  By banks of Nith I sat and wept
+   When Coila I thought on,
+  In midst thereof I hung my harp
+   The willow trees upon.
+
+I am generally about half my time in Ayrshire with my "darling Jean,"
+and then I, at lucid intervals, throw my horny fist across my
+becobwebbed lyre, much in the same manner as an old wife throws her hand
+across the spokes of her spinning-wheel.
+
+I will send you the "Fortunate Shepherdess" as soon as I return to
+Ayrshire, for there I keep it with other precious treasure. I shall send
+it by a careful hand, as I would not for anything it should be mislaid
+or lost. I do not wish to serve you from any benevolence, or other grave
+Christian virtue; 'tis purely a selfish gratification of my own feelings
+whenever I think of you.
+
+If your better functions would give you leisure to write me, I should be
+extremely happy; that is to say, if you neither keep nor look for a
+regular correspondence. I hate the idea of being obliged to write a
+letter. I sometimes write a friend twice a week; at other times once
+a quarter.
+
+I am exceedingly pleased with your fancy in making the author you
+mention place a map of Iceland, instead of his portrait, before his
+works; 'twas a glorious idea.
+
+Could you conveniently do me one thing?--whenever you finish any head, I
+should like to have a proof copy of it. I might tell you a long story
+about your fine genius; but, as what everybody knows cannot have escaped
+you, I shall not say one syllable about it.
+
+R. B.
+
+              *      *      *      *      *
+
+CII.--To MR. ROBERT GRAHAM, OF FINTRAY.
+
+SIR,--When I had the honour of being introduced to you at Athole House,
+I did not think so soon of asking a favour of you. When Lear, in
+Shakespeare, asked Old Kent why he wished to be in his service, he
+answers, "Because you have that in your face which I would fain call
+master." For some such reason, Sir, do I now solicit your patronage. You
+know, I dare say, of an application I lately made to your Board to be
+admitted an officer of the Excise. I have, according to form, been
+examined by a supervisor, and today I gave in his certificate, with a
+request for an order for instructions. In this affair, if I succeed, I
+am afraid I shall but too much need a patronising friend. Propriety of
+conduct as a man, and fidelity and attention as an officer, I dare
+engage for; but with anything like business, except manual labour, I am
+totally unacquainted.
+
+I had intended to have closed my late appearance on the stage of life in
+the character of a country farmer; but, after discharging some filial
+and fraternal claims, I find I could only fight for existence in that
+miserable manner, which I have lived to see throw a venerable parent
+into the jaws of a jail, whence death, the poor man's last and often
+best friend, rescued him.
+
+I know, Sir, that to need your goodness, is to have a claim on it; may
+I, therefore, beg your patronage to forward me in this affair, till I be
+appointed to a division, where, by the help of rigid economy, I will try
+to support that independence so dear to my soul, but which has been too
+often so distant from my situation.
+
+R. B.
+
+                *     *     *     *     *     *
+
+CII.--To His WIFE, AT MAUCHLINE.
+
+ELLISLAND, _Friday_, 12_th Sep._ 1788.
+
+MY DEAR LOVE,--I received your kind letter with a pleasure which no
+letter but one from you could have given me. I dreamed of you the whole
+night last; but alas! I fear it will be three weeks yet ere I can hope
+for the happiness of seeing you. My harvest is going on. I have some to
+cut down still, but I put in two stacks to-day, so I'm as tired as
+a dog.
+
+You might get one of Gilbert's sweet-milk cheeses, and send it to.... On
+second thoughts I believe you had best get the half of Gilbert's web of
+table linen and make it up; though I think it damnable dear, but it is
+no outlaid money to us, you know. I have just now consulted my old
+landlady about table linen, and she thinks I may have the best for two
+shillings a yard; so, after all, let it alone till I return; and some
+day soon I will be in Dumfries and ask the price there. I expect your
+new gowns will be very forward or ready to make, against I be home to
+get the _baiveridge._[88]
+
+I have written my long-thought-on letter to Mr. Graham, the Commissioner
+of Excise; and have sent a sheetful of poetry besides.
+
+   [Footnote 88: On her first appearance in public in a new dress a
+   young woman was subject to this tax, if claimed by the young man who
+   happened first to meet her. ]
+
+                  *      *      *      *      *
+
+CIV.--To Miss CHALMERS, EDINBURGH.
+
+ELLISLAND, NEAR DUMFRIES, _Sept_. 16_th_, 1788.
+
+Where are you? and how are you? and is Lady Mackenzie recovering her
+health? for I have had but one solitary letter from you. I will not
+think you have forgot me, Madam and, for my part,
+
+  When thee, Jerusalem, I forget,
+  Skill part from my right hand!
+
+"My heart is not of that rock, nor my soul careless as that sea." I do
+not make my progress among mankind as a bowl does among its
+fellows-rolling through the crowd without bearing away any mark or
+impression, except where they hit in hostile collision.
+
+I am here, driven in with my harvest-folks by bad weather; and as you
+and your sister once did me the honour of interesting yourselves much _a
+l' egard de moi_, I sit down to beg the continuation of your goodness. I
+can truly say that, all the exterior of life apart, I never saw two
+whose esteem flattered the nobler feelings of my soul--I will not say
+more, but so much, as Lady Mackenzie and Miss Chalmers. When I think of
+you--hearts the best, minds the noblest of human kind--unfortunate even
+in the shades of life--when I think I have met with you, and have lived
+more of real life with you in eight days than I can do with almost
+anybody I meet with in eight years--when I think on the improbability
+of meeting you in this world again--I could sit down and cry like a
+child! If ever you honoured me with a place in your esteem, I trust I
+can now plead more desert. I am secure against that crushing grip of
+iron poverty, which, alas! is less or more fatal to the native worth and
+purity of, I fear, the noblest souls; and a late important step in my
+life has kindly taken me out of the way of those ungrateful iniquities,
+which, however overlooked in fashionable licence, or varnished in
+fashionable phrase, are indeed but lighter and deeper shades
+of villainy.
+
+Shortly after my last return to Ayrshire, I married "my Jean." This was
+not in consequence of the attachment of romance, perhaps; but I had a
+long and much-loved fellow-creature's happiness or misery in my
+determination, and I durst not trifle with so important a deposit. Nor
+have I any cause to repent it. If I have not got polite tattle, modish
+manners, and fashionable dress, I am not sickened and disgusted with the
+multiform curse of boarding-school affectation; and I have got the
+handsomest figure, the sweetest temper, the soundest constitution, and
+the kindest heart in the county. Mrs. Burns believes, as firmly as her
+creed, that I am _le plus bel esprit, et le plus honnete homme_ in the
+universe; although she scarcely ever in her life, except the Scriptures
+of the old and New Testament, and the Psalms of David in metre, spent
+five minutes together on either prose or verse. I must except also from
+this last a certain late publication of Scots poems, which she has
+perused very devoutly; and all the ballads in the country, as she has (O
+the partial lover! you will cry) the finest "wood note wild" I ever
+heard. I am the more particular in this lady's character, as I know she
+will henceforth have the honour of a share in your best wishes. She is
+still at Mauchline, as I am building my house; for this hovel that I
+shelter in, while occasionally here, is pervious to every blast that
+blows, and every shower that falls; and I am only preserved from being
+chilled to death, by being suffocated with smoke. I do not find my farm
+that pennyworth I was taught to expect, but I believe, in time, it may
+be a saving bargain. You will be pleased to hear that I have laid aside
+the idle _eclat_, and bind every day after my reapers.
+
+To save me from that horrid situation of at any time
+going down, in a losing bargain of a farm, to misery, I
+have taken my Excise instructions, and have my commission
+in my pocket for any emergency of fortune. If I could set
+all before your view, whatever disrespect you, in common
+with the world, have for this business, I know you would
+approve of my idea.
+
+I will make no apology, dear Madam, for this egotistic detail; I know
+you and your sister will be interested in every circumstance of it. What
+signify the silly, idle gew-gaws of wealth, or the ideal trumpery of
+greatness! When fellow-partakers of the same nature fear the same God,
+have the same benevolence of heart, the same nobleness of soul, the same
+detestation at everything dishonest, and the same scorn at everything
+unworthy--if they are not in the dependence of absolute beggary, in the
+name of common sense, are they not equals? And if the bias, the
+instinctive bias of their souls run the same way, why may they not
+be friends?
+
+When I may have an opportunity of sending you this, Heaven only knows.
+Shenstone says, "When one is confined idle within doors by bad weather,
+the best antidote against _ennui_ is to read the letters of, or write
+to, one's friends;" in that case then, if the weather continues thus, I
+may scrawl you half a quire.
+
+I very lately--to wit, since harvest began--wrote a poem, not in
+imitation, but in the manner of Pope's Moral Epistles. It is only a
+short essay, just to try the strength of my Muse's pinion in that way. I
+will send you a copy of it, when once I have heard from you. I have
+likewise been laying the foundation of some pretty large poetic works;
+how the superstructure will come on, I leave to that great maker and
+marrer of projects, time. Johnson's collection of Scots songs is going
+on in the third volume; and, of consequence, finds me a consumpt for a
+great deal of idle metre. One of the most tolerable things I have done
+in that way, is two stanzas I made to an air a musical gentleman of my
+acquaintance composed for the anniversary of his wedding-day, which
+happens on the seventh of November. Take it as follows:--
+
+  The day returns--my bosom burns--
+  The blissful day we twa did meet, etc.
+
+I shall give over this letter for shame. If I should be seized with a
+scribbling fit, before this goes away, I shall make it another letter;
+and then you may allow your patience a week's respite between the two. I
+have not room for more than the old, kind, hearty farewell!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+To make some amends, _mes cheres Mesdames_, for dragging you on to this
+second sheet; and to relieve a little the tiresomeness of my unstudied
+and uncorrectible prose, I shall transcribe you some of my late poetic
+bagatelles; though I have, these eight or ten months, done very little
+that way. One day, in a hermitage on the banks of Nith, belonging to a
+gentleman in my neighbourhood, who is so good as give me a key at
+pleasure, I wrote as follows; supposing myself the sequestered,
+venerable inhabitant of the lonely mansion.
+
+   LINES WRITTEN IN FRIARS-CARSE HERMITAGE.
+
+   Thou whom chance may hither lead,
+   Be thou clad in russet weed, etc.
+
+R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+CV.--To MR. MORISON, WRIGHT, MAUCHLINE.
+
+Ellisland, _September_ 22_nd_ 1788.
+
+MY DEAR SIR,--Necessity obliges me to go into my new house, even before
+it be plastered. I will inhabit the one end until the other is finished.
+About three weeks more, I think, will at farthest be my time, beyond
+which I cannot stay in this present house. If ever you wish to deserve
+the blessing of him that was ready to perish; if ever you were in a
+situation that a little kindness would have rescued you from many evils;
+if ever you hope to find rest in future states of untried being-get
+these matters of mine ready.[89] My servant will be out in the beginning
+of next week for the clock. My compliments to Mrs. Morison. --I am,
+after all my tribulation, Dear Sir, yours,
+
+R. B.
+
+   [Footnote 89: The letter refers to chairs and other articles of
+   furniture which the Poet had ordered.]
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+CVI.--To MRS. DUNLOP, OF DUNLOP.
+
+Mauchline, 27_th Sept_. 1788.
+
+I have received twins, dear Madam, more than once; but scarcely ever
+with more pleasure than when I received yours of the 12th instant. To
+make myself understood; I had wrote to Mr. Graham, enclosing my poem
+addressed to him, and the same post which favoured me with yours brought
+me an answer from him. It was dated the very day he had received mine;
+and I am quite at a loss to say whether it was most polite or kind.
+
+Your criticisms, my honoured benefactress, are truly the work of a
+friend. They are not the blasting depredations of a canker-toothed,
+caterpillar critic; nor are they the fair statement of cold
+impartiality, balancing with unfeeling exactitude the _pro_ and _con_ of
+an author's merits; they are the judicious observations of animated
+friendship, selecting the beauties of the piece. I am just arrived from
+Nithsdale, and will be here a fortnight. I was on horseback this morning
+by three o'clock; for between my wife and my farm is just forty-six
+miles. As I jogged on in the dark, I was taken with a poetic fit,
+as follows:
+
+"Mrs. Ferguson of Craigdarroch's lamentation for the death of her son;
+an uncommonly promising youth of eighteen or nineteen years of age:--
+
+   Fate gave the word--the arrow sped,
+   And pierced my darling's heart,"(_etc_.)
+
+You will not send me your poetic rambles, but, you see, I am no niggard
+of mine. I am sure your impromptus give me double pleasure; what falls
+from your pen can neither be unentertaining in itself, nor
+indifferent to me.
+
+The one fault you found is just: but I cannot please myself in an
+emendation.
+
+What a life of solicitude is the life of a parent! You interested me
+much in your young couple.
+
+I would not take my folio paper for this epistle, and now I repent it. I
+am so jaded with my dirty long journey, that I was afraid to drawl into
+the essence of dulness with anything larger than a quarto, and so I must
+leave out another rhyme of this morning's manufacture.
+
+I will pay the sapientipotent George most cheerfully, to hear from you
+ere I leave Ayrshire. R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+CVII--To MR. PETER HILL.
+
+Mauchline, 1_st October_ 1788.
+
+I have been here in this country about three days, and all that time my
+chief reading has been the "Address to Lochlomond" you were so obliging
+as to send to me. Were I impanneled one of the author's jury, to
+determine his criminality respecting the sin of poesy, my verdict should
+be "Guilty! A poet of nature's making!" It is an excellent method for
+improvement, and what I believe every poet does, to place some favourite
+classic author in his walks of study and composition before him as a
+model. Though your author had not mentioned the name, I could have, at
+half a glance, guessed his model to be Thomson. Will my brother-poet
+forgive me if I venture to hint that his imitation of that immortal bard
+is, in two or three places, rather more servile than such a genius as
+his required:--_e.g._
+
+  To soothe the maddening passions all to peace.
+    ADDRESS.
+  To soothe the throbbing passions into peace.
+    THOMSON.
+
+I think the "Address" is in simplicity, harmony, and elegance of
+versification, fully equal to the "Seasons." Like Thomson, too, he has
+looked into nature for himself: you meet with no copied description. One
+particular criticism I made at first reading; in no one instance has he
+said too much. He never flags in his progress, but, like a true poet of
+nature's making, kindles in his course. His beginning is simple and
+modest, as if distrustful of the strength of his passion; only, I do not
+altogether like--
+
+    Truth,
+  The soul of every song that's nobly great.
+
+Fiction is the soul of many a song that is nobly great. Perhaps I am
+wrong: this may be but a prose criticism. Is not the phrase, in line 7,
+page 6, "Great lake," too much vulgarised by every-day language for so
+sublime a poem?
+
+  Great mass of waters, theme for nobler song,
+
+is perhaps no emendation. His enumeration of a comparison with other
+lakes is at once harmonious and poetic. Every reader's ideas must
+sweep the
+
+  Winding margin of a hundred miles.
+
+The perspective that follows mountains blue--the imprisoned billows
+beating in vain--the wooded isles--the digression on the
+yew-tree--"Benlomond's lofty, cloud-envelop'd head," etc., are
+beautiful. A thunder-storm is a subject which has been often tried, yet
+our poet, in his grand picture, has interjected a circumstance, so far
+as I know, entirely original in
+
+    the gloom
+  Deep seam'd with frequent streaks of moving fire.
+
+In his preface to the Storm, "the glens how dark between," is noble
+highland landscape! The "rain ploughing the red mould," too, is
+beautifully fancied. "Benlomond's lofty, pathless top," is a good
+expression; and the surrounding view from it is truly great: the
+
+    silver mist,
+  Beneath the beaming sun,
+
+is well described; and here he has contrived to enliven his poem with a
+little of that passion which bids fair, I think, to usurp the modern
+muses altogether. I know not how far this episode is a beauty on the
+whole, but the swain's wish to carry "some faint idea of the vision
+bright," to entertain her "partial listening ear," is a pretty thought.
+But, in my opinion, the most beautiful passages in the whole poem are
+the fowls crowding, in wintry frosts, to Lochlomond's "hospitable
+flood;" their wheeling round; their lighting, mixing, diving, etc.; and
+the glorious description of the sportsman. This last is equal to
+anything in the "Seasons." The idea of "the floating tribes distant
+seen, far glistering to the moon," provoking his eye as he is obliged to
+leave them, is a noble ray of poetic genius.
+
+The "howling winds," the "hideous roar" of "the white cascades," are all
+in the same style.
+
+I forget that while I am thus holding forth, with the heedless warmth of
+an enthusiast, I am perhaps tiring you with nonsense. I must, however,
+mention that the last verse of the sixteenth page is one of the most
+elegant compliments I have ever seen. I must likewise notice that
+beautiful paragraph beginning "The gleaming lake," etc. I dare not go
+into the particular beauties of the last two paragraphs, but they are
+admirably fine, and truly Ossianic. I must beg your pardon for this
+lengthened scrawl. I had no idea of it when I began--I should like to
+know who the author is; but, whoever he be, please present him with my
+grateful thanks for the entertainment he has afforded me.[90]
+
+A friend of mine desired me to commission for him two books, _Letters on
+the Religion essential to Man_, a book you sent me before; and _The
+World Unmasked, or the Philosopher the greatest Cheat_. Send me them by
+the first opportunity. The Bible you sent me is truly elegant; I only
+wish it had been in two volumes. R. B.
+
+   [Footnote 90: The poem, entitled "An Address to Lochlomond," is said
+   to have been written by one of the masters of the High School of
+   Edinburgh.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CVIIL--To THE EDITOR OF THE "STAR".
+
+_November_ 8_th_, 1788.
+
+Sir,--Notwithstanding the opprobrious epithets with which some of our
+philosophers and gloomy sectarians have branded our nature--the
+principle of universal selfishness, the proneness to all evil, they have
+given us--still, the detestation in which inhumanity to the distressed,
+or insolence to the fallen, are held by all mankind, shows that they are
+not natives of the human heart. Even the unhappy partner of our kind who
+is undone, the bitter consequence of his follies or his crimes--who
+but sympathises with the miseries of this ruined profligate brother? We
+forget the injuries, and feel for the man.
+
+I went, last Wednesday, to my parish church, most cordially to join in
+grateful acknowledgment to the AUTHOR OF ALL GOOD for the consequent
+blessings of the glorious Revolution. To that auspicious event we owe no
+less than our liberties, civil and religious; to it we are likewise
+indebted for the present Royal Family, the ruling features of whose
+administration have ever been mildness to the subject, and tenderness of
+his rights.
+
+Bred and educated in revolution principles, the principles of reason and
+common sense, it could not be any silly political prejudice which made
+my heart revolt at the harsh, abusive manner in which the reverend
+gentleman mentioned the House of Stuart, and which, I am afraid, was too
+much the language of the day. We may rejoice sufficiently in our
+deliverance from past evils, without cruelly raking up the ashes of
+those whose misfortune it was, perhaps as much as their crime, to be the
+authors of those evils; and we may bless GOD for all His goodness to us
+as a nation, without, at the same time, cursing a few ruined, powerless
+exiles, who only harboured ideas, and made attempts, that most of us
+would have done, had we been in their situation.
+
+"The bloody and tyrannical House of Stuart" may be said with propriety
+and justice, when compared with the present Royal Family, and the
+sentiments of our days; but is there no allowance to be made for the
+manners of the times? Were the royal contemporaries of the Stuarts more
+attentive to their subjects' rights? Might not the epithets of "bloody
+and tyrannical" be, with at least equal justice, applied to the House of
+Tudor, of York, or any other of their predecessors?
+
+The simple state of the case, Sir, seems to be this:--At that period,
+the science of government, the knowledge of the true relation between
+king and subject, was, like other sciences and other knowledge, just in
+its infancy, emerging from dark ages of ignorance and barbarity.
+
+The Stuarts only contended for prerogatives which they knew their
+predecessors enjoyed, and which they saw their contemporaries enjoying;
+but these prerogatives were inimical to the happiness of a nation and
+the rights of subjects.
+
+In this contest between prince and people, the consequence of that light
+of science which had lately dawned over Europe, the monarch of France,
+for example, was victorious over the struggling liberties of his people:
+with us, luckily, the monarch failed, and his unwarrantable pretensions
+fell a sacrifice to our rights and happiness. Whether it was owing to
+the wisdom of leading individuals, or to the justling of parties, I
+cannot pretend to determine; but, likewise, happily for us, the kingly
+power was shifted into another branch of the family, who, as they owed
+the throne solely to the call of a free people, could claim nothing
+inconsistent with the covenanted terms which placed them there.
+
+The Stuarts have been condemned and laughed at, for the folly and
+impracticability of their attempts in 1715, and 1745. That they failed,
+I bless GOD; but cannot join in the ridicule against them. Who does not
+know that the abilities or defects of leaders and commanders are often
+hidden, until put to the touchstone of exigency; and that there is a
+caprice of fortune, an omnipotence in particular accidents and
+conjunctures of circumstances, which exalt us as heroes, or brand us as
+madmen, just as they are for or against us?
+
+Man, Mr. Publisher, is a strange, weak, inconsistent being: who would
+believe, Sir, 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 our monarch
+and a few favourite advisers, but against our WHOLE LEGISLATIVE BODY,
+for similar oppression, and almost in the very same terms, as our
+forefathers did of the House of Stuart! I will not, I cannot, enter into
+the merits of the cause; but I dare say the American Congress, in 1776,
+will be allowed to be as able and enlightened as the English Convention
+was in 1688; and that their posterity will celebrate the centenary of
+their deliverance from us, as duly and sincerely, as we do ours from the
+oppressive measures of the wrong-headed House of Stuart.
+
+To conclude, Sir; let every man who has a tear for the many miseries
+incident to humanity, feel for a family illustrious as any in Europe,
+and unfortunate beyond historic precedent; and let every Briton (and
+particularly every Scotsman) who ever looked with reverential pity on
+the dotage of a parent, cast a veil over the fatal mistake of the Kings
+of his forefathers.
+
+R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CIX.--TO MRS. DUNLOP, AT MOREHAM MAINS.
+
+MAUCHLINE, 13_th November_ 1788.
+
+Madam,--I had the very great pleasure of dining at Dunlop yesterday. Men
+are said to flatter women because they are weak, if it is so, poets must
+be weaker still; for Misses R. and K. and Miss G. M'K., with their
+flattering attentions, and artful compliments, absolutely turned my
+head. I own they did not lard me over as many a poet does his patron,
+but they so intoxicated me with their sly insinuations and delicate
+innuendos of compliment, that if it had not been for a lucky
+recollection, how much additional weight and lustre your good opinion
+and friendship must give me in that circle, I had certainly looked upon
+myself as a person of no small consequence. I dare not say one word how
+much I was charmed with the Major's friendly welcome, elegant manner,
+and acute remark, lest I should be thought to balance my orientalisms of
+applause over-against the finest heifer in Ayrshire, which he made me a
+present of to help and adorn my farm-stock. As it was on hallow-day, I
+am determined annually as that day returns, to decorate her horns with
+an ode of gratitude to the family of Dunlop.
+
+So soon as I know of your arrival at Dunlop, I will take the first
+conveniency to dedicate a day, or perhaps two, to you and friendship,
+under the guarantee of the Major's hospitality. There will soon be three
+score and ten miles of permanent distance between us; and now that your
+friendship and friendly correspondence is entwisted with the
+heart-strings of my enjoyment of life, I must indulge myself in a happy
+day of "the feast of reason and the flow of soul."
+
+R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CX.--TO DR. BLACKLOCK.
+
+MAUCHLINE, _November_ 15_th_, 1788.
+
+Reverend and dear Sir,--As I hear nothing of your motions, but that you
+are, or were, out of town, I do not know where this may find you, or
+whether it will find you at all. I wrote you a long letter, dated from
+the land of matrimony, in June; but either it had not found you, or,
+what I dread more, it found you or Mrs. Blacklock in too precarious a
+state of health and spirits to take notice of an idle packet.
+
+I have done many little things for Johnson since I had the pleasure of
+seeing you; and I have finished one piece, in the way of Pope's "Moral
+Epistles;" but, from your silence, I have everything to fear, so I have
+only sent you two melancholy things, which I tremble to fear may too
+well suit the tone of your present feelings.
+
+In a fortnight I move, bag and baggage, to Nithsdale; till then, my
+direction is at this place; after that period, it will be at Ellisland,
+near Dumfries. It would extremely oblige me, were it but half a line, to
+let me know how you are, and where you are. Can I be indifferent to the
+fate of a man to whom I owe so much--a man whom I not only esteem,
+but venerate?
+
+My warmest good wishes and most respectful compliments to Mrs.
+Blacklock, and Miss Johnson, if she is with you.
+
+I cannot conclude without telling you that I am more and more pleased
+with the step I took respecting "my Jean." Two things, from my happy
+experience, I set down as apophthegms in life,--a wife's head is
+immaterial, compared with her heart; and "Virtue's (for wisdom, what
+poet pretends to it?) ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths
+are peace." Adieu!
+
+R. B.[91]
+
+   [Footnote 91: Here follow "The mother's lament for the loss of her
+   son," and the song beginning "The lazy mist hangs from the brow of
+   the hill."]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CXI.--TO MRS. DUNLOP.
+
+ELLISLAND, 17_th December_ 1788.
+
+My dear honoured friend,--Yours, dated Edinburgh, which I have just
+read, makes me very unhappy. "Almost blind and wholly deaf" are
+melancholy news of human nature; but when told of a much-loved and
+honoured friend, they carry misery in the sound. Goodness on your part,
+and gratitude on mine, began a tie which has gradually entwisted itself
+among the dearest chords of my bosom, and I tremble at the omens of your
+late and present ailing habit and shattered health. You miscalculate
+matters widely, when you forbid my waiting on you, lest it should hurt
+my worldly concerns. My small scale of farming is exceedingly more
+simple and easy than what you have lately seen at Moreham Mains. But, be
+that as it may, the heart of the man and the fancy of the poet are the
+two grand considerations for which I live: if miry ridges and dirty
+dunghills are to engross the best part of the functions of my soul
+immortal, I had better been a rook or a magpie at once, and then I
+should not have been plagued with any ideas superior to breaking of
+clods and picking up grubs; not to mention barn-door cocks of mallards,
+creatures with which I could almost exchange lives at any time. If you
+continue so deaf, I am afraid a visit will be no great pleasure to
+either of us; but if I hear you are got so well again as to be able to
+relish conversation, look you to it, Madam, for I will make my
+threatenings good. I am to be at the New-year-day fair of Ayr, and, by
+all that is sacred in the world, friend, I will come and see you.
+
+Your meeting, which you so well describe, with your old schoolfellow and
+friend, was truly interesting. Out upon the ways of the world! They
+spoil these "social offsprings of the heart." Two veterans of the "men
+of the world" would have met with little more heart-workings than two
+old hacks worn out on the road. Apropos, is not the Scotch phrase, "Auld
+lang syne," exceedingly expressive? There is an old song and tune which
+has often thrilled through my soul. You know I am an enthusiast in old
+Scotch song. I shall give you the verses on the other sheet, as I
+suppose Mr. Kerr[92] will save you the postage.
+
+  Should auld acquaintance be forgot?
+
+Light be the turf on the breast of the Heaven-inspired poet who composed
+this glorious fragment! There is more of the fire of native genius in it
+than in half a dozen of modern English Bacchanalians! Now I am on my
+hobbyhorse, I cannot help inserting two other old stanzas, which please
+me mightily:--
+
+  Go fetch to me a pint o' wine, etc.
+
+R. B.
+
+   [Footnote 92: Postmaster in Edinburgh.]
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+CXII.--TO MR. JOHN TENNANT.
+
+_December_ 22_nd_, 1788.
+
+I yesterday tried my cask of whisky for the first time, and I assure you
+it does you great credit. It will bear five waters, strong: or six
+ordinary toddy. The whisky of this country is a most rascally liquor;
+and, by consequence, only drunk by the most rascally part of the
+inhabitants. I am persuaded, if you once get a footing here, you might
+do a great deal of business, in the way of consumpt; and should you
+commence distiller again, this is the native barley country. I am
+ignorant if, in your present way of dealing, you would think it worth
+your while to extend your business so far as this country-side. I write
+you this on the account of an accident, which I must take the merit of
+having partly designed too. A neighbour of mine, a John Currie, miller,
+in Carse Mill--a man who is, in a word, a very good man, even for a L500
+bargain--he and his wife were in my house the time I broke open the
+cask. They keep a country public-house and sell a great deal of foreign
+spirits, but all along thought that whisky would have degraded their
+house. They were perfectly astonished at my whisky, both for its taste
+and strength; and, by their desire, I write you to know if you could
+supply them with liquor of an equal quality, and what price. Please
+write me by first post, and direct to me at Ellisland, near Dumfries. If
+you could take a jaunt this way yourself, I have a spare spoon, knife,
+and fork, very much at your service. My compliments to Mrs. Tennant, and
+all the good folks in Glenconnel and Barguharrie.
+
+R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CXIII.--TO MRS. DUNLOP.
+
+ELLISLAND, _New-year-day Morning_, 1789.
+
+This, dear Madam, is a morning of wishes, and would to God that I came
+under the Apostle James's description!--_the prayer of a righteous man
+availeth much_. In that case, Madam, you should welcome in a year full
+of blessings: everything that obstructs or disturbs tranquillity and
+self-enjoyment should be removed, and every pleasure that frail humanity
+can taste, should be yours. I own myself so little a Presbyterian, that
+I approve of set times and seasons of more than ordinary acts of
+devotion, for breaking in on that habituated routine of life and
+thought, which is so apt to reduce our existence to a kind of instinct,
+or even sometimes, and with some minds, to a state very little superior
+to mere machinery.
+
+This day; the first Sunday of May; a breezy blue-skyed noon some time
+about the beginning, and a hoary morning and calm sunny day about the
+end of autumn; these, time out of mind, have been with me a kind
+of holiday.
+
+I believe I owe this to that glorious paper in the _Spectator_ "The
+Vision of Mirza," a piece that struck my young fancy before I was
+capable of fixing an idea to a word of three syllables: "On the fifth
+day of the moon, which, according to the custom of my forefathers, I
+always _keep holy_, after having washed myself, and offered up my
+morning devotions, I ascended the high hill of Bagdat, in order to pass
+the rest of the day in meditation and prayer."
+
+We know nothing, or next to nothing, of the substance or structure of
+our souls, so cannot account for those seeming caprices in them, that
+one should be particularly pleased with this thing, or struck with that,
+which, on minds of a different cast, makes no extraordinary impression.
+I have some favourite flowers in spring, among which are the
+mountain-daisy, the hare-bell, the fox-glove, the wild brier-rose, the
+budding birch, and the hoary hawthorn, that I view and hang over with
+particular delight. I never hear the loud, solitary whistle of the
+curlew in a summer noon, or the wild mixing cadence of a troop of grey
+plovers, in an autumnal morning, without feeling an elevation of soul
+like the enthusiasm of devotion or poetry. Tell me, my dear friend, to
+what can this be owing? Are we a piece of machinery, which, like the
+AEolian harp, passive, takes the impression of the passing accident? Or
+do these workings argue something within us above the trodden clod? I
+own myself partial to such proofs of those awful and important
+realities--a God that made all things--man's immaterial and immortal
+nature--and a world of weal or woe beyond death and the grave.
+
+R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CXIV.-TO DR. MOORE, LONDON.
+
+ELLISLAND, 4_th Jan._ 1789.
+
+Sir,--As often as I think of writing to you, which has been three or
+four times every week these six months, it gives me something so like
+the idea of an ordinary-sized statue offering at a conversation with the
+Rhodian Colossus, that my mind misgives me, and the affair always
+miscarries somewhere between purpose and resolve. I have at last got
+some business with you, and business letters are written by the
+style-book. I say my business is with you, Sir, for you never had any
+with me, except the business that benevolence has in the mansion
+of poverty.
+
+The character and employment of a poet were formerly my pleasure, but
+are now my pride. I know that a very great deal of my late eclat was
+owing to the singularity of my situation, and the honest prejudice of
+Scotsmen; but still, as I said in the preface to my first edition, I do
+look upon myself as having some pretensions from nature to the poetic
+character. I have not a doubt but the knack, the aptitude, to learn the
+Muses' trade, is a gift bestowed by Him "who forms the secret bias of
+the soul;" but I as firmly believe that _excellence_ in the profession
+is the fruit of industry, labour, attention, and pains. At least I am
+resolved to try my doctrine by the test of experience. Another
+appearance from the press I put off to a very distant day, a day that
+may never arrive--but poesy I am determined to prosecute with all my
+vigour. Nature has given very few, if any, of the profession, the
+talents of shining in every species of composition. I shall try (for
+until trial it is impossible to know) whether she has qualified me to
+shine in any one. The worst of it is, by the time one has finished a
+piece, it has been so often viewed and reviewed before the mental eye,
+that one loses in a good measure the powers of critical discrimination.
+Here the best criterion I know is a friend--not only of abilities to
+judge, but with good-nature enough, like a prudent teacher with a young
+learner, to praise perhaps a little more than is exactly just, lest the
+thin-skinned animal fall into that most deplorable of all poetic
+diseases--heart-breaking despondency of himself. Dare I, Sir, already
+immensely indebted to your goodness, ask the additional obligation of
+your being that friend to me? I inclose you an essay of mine in a walk
+of poesy to me entirely new; I mean the epistle addressed to R. G.,
+Esq., or Robert Graham, of Fintry, Esq., a gentleman of uncommon worth,
+to whom I lie under very great obligations. The story of the poem, like
+most of my poems, is connected with my own story, and to give you the
+one, I must give you something of the other. I cannot boast of Mr.
+Creech's ingenuous fair dealing to me. He kept me hanging about
+Edinburgh from the 7th August 1787 until the 13th April 1788 before he
+would condescend to give a statement of affairs; nor had I got it even
+then, but for an angry letter I wrote him, which irritated his pride. "I
+could" not a "tale," but a detail "unfold"; but what am I that should
+speak against the Lord's anointed Bailie of Edinburgh?[93]
+
+I believe I shall, in whole, L100 copyright included, clear about L400,
+some little odds; and even part of this depends upon what the gentleman
+has yet to settle with me. I give you this information, because you did
+me the honour to interest yourself much in my welfare. I give you this
+information, but I give it to yourself only, for I am still much in the
+gentleman's mercy. Perhaps I injure the man in the idea I am sometimes
+tempted to have of him--God forbid I should. A little time will try, for
+in a month I shall go to town to wind up the business, if possible.
+
+To give the rest of my story in brief, I have married "my Jean," and
+taken a farm; with the first step I have every day more and more reason
+to be satisfied; with the last, it is rather the reverse. I have a
+younger brother, who supports my aged mother, another still younger
+brother, and three sisters, in a farm. On my last return from Edinburgh
+it cost me about L180 to save them from ruin.
+
+Not that I have lost so much--I only interposed between my brother and
+his impending fate by the loan of so much. I give myself no airs on
+this, for it was mere selfishness on my part; I was conscious that the
+wrong scale of the balance was pretty heavily charged, and I thought
+that throwing a little filial piety and fraternal affection into the
+scale in my favour, might help to smooth matters at the _grand
+reckoning_. There is still one thing would make my circumstances quite
+easy--I have an excise officer's commission, and I live in the midst of
+a country division. My request to Mr. Graham, who is one of the
+commissioners of excise, was, if in his power, to procure me that
+division. If I were very sanguine, I might hope that some of my great
+patrons might procure me a treasury warrant for supervisor,
+surveyor-general, etc.
+
+Thus, secure of a livelihood, "to thee, sweet poetry, delightful
+maid,"[94] I would consecrate my future days.
+
+R. B.
+
+   [Footnote 93: Creech; remarkable for his reluctance to settle
+   accounts.]
+
+   [Footnote 94: Goldsmith's "Deserted Village."]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CXV.--TO MR. ROBERT AINSLIE.
+
+ELLISLAND, _January_ 6_th_, 1789.
+
+Many happy returns of the season to you, my dear Sir! May you be
+comparatively happy, up to your comparative worth among the sons of men;
+which wish would, I am sure, make you one of the most blessed of the
+human race.
+
+I do not know if passing a "Writer to the Signet" be a trial of
+scientific merit, or a mere business of friends and interest. However it
+be, let me quote you my two favourite passages, which, though I have
+repeated them ten thousand times, still they rouse my manhood and steel
+my resolution like inspiration.
+
+    On Reason build resolve.
+  That column of true majesty in man.
+
+    YOUNG.
+
+  Hear, Alfred, hero of the slate,
+  Thy genius heaven's high will declare;
+  The triumph of the truly great,
+  Is never, never to despair!
+  Is never to despair!
+
+    MASQUE OF ALFRED.
+
+I grant you enter the lists of life, to struggle for bread, business,
+notice, and distinction, in common with hundreds. But who are they? Men
+like yourself, and of that aggregate body your compeers, seven-tenths of
+them come short of your advantages, natural and accidental; while two of
+those that remain, either neglect their parts, as flowers blooming in a
+desert, or misspend their strength like a bull goring a bramble bush.
+
+But to change the theme: I am still catering for Johnson's publication;
+and among others, I have brushed up the following old favourite song a
+little, with a view to your worship. I have only altered a word here and
+there; but if you like the humour of it, we shall think of a stanza or
+two to add to it. R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CXVI.--TO PROFESSOR DUGALD STEWART.
+
+ELLISLAND, 20_th Jan_. 1789.
+
+Sir,--The inclosed sealed packet I sent to Edinburgh, a few days after I
+had the happiness of meeting you in Ayrshire, but you were gone for the
+Continent. I have now added a few more of my productions, those for
+which I am indebted to the Nithsdale Muses. The piece inscribed to R.
+G., Esq., is a copy of verses I sent Mr. Graham, of Fintry, accompanying
+a request for his assistance in a matter to me of very great moment. To
+that gentleman I am already doubly indebted; for deeds of kindness of
+serious import to my dearest interests, done in a manner grateful to the
+delicate feelings of sensibility. This poem is a species of composition
+new to me, but I do not intend it shall be my last essay of the kind, as
+you will see by the "Poet's Progress." These fragments, if my design
+succeed, are but a small part of the intended whole. I propose it shall
+be the work of my utmost exertions, ripened by years; of course I do not
+wish it much known. The fragment beginning "A little upright, pert,
+tart," etc., I have not shown to man living, till I now send it you. It
+forms the postulata, the axioms, the definition of a character, which,
+if it appear at all, shall be placed in a variety of lights. This
+particular part I send you merely as a sample of my hand at
+portrait-sketching; but, lest idle conjecture should pretend to point
+out the original, please to let it be for your single, sole inspection.
+
+Need I make any apology for this trouble, to a gentleman who has treated
+me with such marked benevolence and peculiar kindness; who has entered
+into my interests with so much zeal, and on whose critical decisions I
+can so fully depend? A poet as I am by trade, these decisions are to me
+of the last consequence. My late transient acquaintance among some of
+the mere rank and file of greatness, I resign with ease; but to the
+distinguished champions of genius and learning, I shall be ever
+ambitious of being known. The native genius and accurate discernment in
+Mr. Stewart's critical strictures; the justness (iron justice, for he
+has no bowels of compassion for a poor poetic sinner) of Dr. Gregory's
+remarks, and the delicacy of Professor Dalzel's taste, I shall
+ever revere.
+
+I shall be in Edinburgh some time next month.--I have the honour to be,
+Sir, your highly obliged, and very humble servant, R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CXVII.--TO MR. ROBERT CLEGHORN, SAUGHTON MILLS.
+
+ELLISLAND, 23_rd Jan_. 1789.
+
+I must take shame and confusion of face to myself, my dear friend and
+brother Farmer, that I have not written you much sooner. The truth is I
+have been so tossed about between Ayrshire and Nithsdale that, till now
+I have got my family here, I have had time to think of nothing except
+now and then a stanza or so as I rode along. Were it not for our
+gracious monarch's cursed tax of postage I had sent you one or two
+pieces of some length that I have lately done. I have no idea of the
+_Press_. I am more able to support myself and family, though in a
+humble, yet an independent way; and I mean, just at my leisure, to pay
+court to the tuneful sisters in the hope that they may one day enable me
+to carry on a work of some importance. The following are a few verses
+which I wrote in a neighbouring gentleman's _hermitage_ to which he is
+so good as let me have a key.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CXVIII.--To BISHOP GEDDES, EDINBURGH.
+
+ELLISLAND, _3rd Feb_. 1789.
+
+VENERABLE FATHER,--As I am conscious that wherever I am, you do me the
+honour to interest yourself in my welfare, it gives me pleasure to
+inform you, that I am here at last, stationary in the serious business
+of life, and have now not only the retired leisure, but the hearty
+inclination, to attend to those great and important questions,--what I
+am? where I am? and for what I am destined.
+
+In that first concern, the conduct of the man, there was ever but one
+side on which I was habitually blameable, and there I have secured
+myself in the way pointed out by nature and nature's God. I was sensible
+that, to so helpless a creature as a poor poet, a wife and family were
+incumbrances, which a species of prudence would bid him shun; but when
+the alternative was, being at eternal warfare with myself, on account of
+habitual follies, to give them no worse name, which no general example,
+no licentious wit, no sophistical infidelity, would, to me, ever
+justify, I must have been a fool to have hesitated, and a madman to have
+made another choice. Besides, I had in "my Jean" a long and much-loved
+fellow-creature's happiness or misery among my hands, and who could
+trifle with such a deposit?
+
+In the affair of a livelihood, I think myself tolerably secure: I have
+good hopes of my farm, but should they fail, I have an excise
+commission, which, on my simple petition, will, at any time, procure me
+bread. There is a certain stigma affixed to the character of an excise
+officer, but I do not pretend to borrow honour from my profession; and
+though the salary be comparatively small, it is luxury to anything that
+the first twenty-five years of my life taught me to expect.
+
+Thus, with a rational aim and method in life, you may easily guess, my
+reverend and much-honoured friend, that my characteristical trade is not
+forgotten. I am, if possible, more than ever an enthusiast to the Muses.
+I am determined to study man and nature, and in that view incessantly;
+and to try if the ripening and corrections of years can enable me to
+produce something worth preserving.
+
+You will see in your book, which I beg your pardon for detaining so
+long, that I have been tuning my lyre on the banks of Nith. Some large
+poetic plans that are floating in my imagination, or partly put in
+execution, I shall impart to you when I have the pleasure of meeting
+with you; which, if you are then in Edinburgh, I shall have about the
+beginning of March.
+
+That acquaintance, worthy Sir, with which you were pleased to honour me,
+you must still allow me to challenge; for, with whatever unconcern I
+give up my transient connection with the merely great, I cannot lose the
+patronising notice of the learned and good without the bitterest regret.
+
+R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CXIX.--TO MR. JAMES BURNESS.
+
+ELLISLAND, _9th Feb_. 1789.
+
+MY DEAR SIR,--Why I did not write to you long ago is what, even on the
+rack, I could not answer. If you can in your mind form an idea of
+indolence, dissipation, hurry, cares, change of country, entering on
+untried scenes of life, all combined, you will save me the trouble of a
+blushing apology. It could not be want of regard for a man for whom I
+had a high esteem before I knew him--an esteem which has much increased
+since I did know him; and this caveat entered, I shall plead guilty to
+any other indictment with which you shall please to charge me.
+
+After I parted from you, for many months my life was one continued scene
+of dissipation. Here at last I am become stationary, and have taken a
+farm and--a wife.
+
+The farm is beautifully situated on the Nith, a large river that runs by
+Dumfries, and falls into the Solway frith. I have gotten a lease of my
+farm as long as I please; but how it may turn out is just a guess, and
+it is yet to improve and inclose, etc.; however, I have good hopes of my
+bargain on the whole.
+
+My wife is my Jean, with whose story you are partly acquainted. I found
+I had a much-loved fellow-creature's happiness or misery among my hands,
+and I durst not trifle with so sacred a deposit. Indeed, I have not any
+reason to repent the step I have taken, as I have attached myself to a
+very good wife, and have shaken myself loose of every bad failing.
+
+I have found my book a very profitable business, and with the profits of
+it I have begun life pretty decently. Should fortune not favour me in
+farming, as I have no great faith in her fickle ladyship, I have
+provided myself in another resource, which, however some folks may
+affect to despise it, is still a comfortable shift in the day of
+misfortune. In the hey-day of my fame, a gentleman, whose name at least
+I daresay you know, as his estate lies somewhere near Dundee, Mr.
+Graham, of Fintry, one of the commissioners of Excise, offered me the
+commission of an excise officer. I thought it prudent to accept the
+offer; and, accordingly, I took my instructions, and have my commission
+by me. Whether I may ever do duty, or be a penny the better for it, is
+what I do not know; but I have the comfortable assurance that, come
+whatever ill fate will, I can, on my simple petition to the Excise
+Board, get into employ.
+
+We have lost poor uncle Robert this winter. He has long been very weak,
+and with very little alteration on him; he expired 3rd January.
+
+His son William has been with me this winter, and goes in May to be an
+apprentice to a mason. His other son, the eldest, John, comes to me I
+expect in summer. They are both remarkably stout young fellows, and
+promise to do well. His only daughter, Fanny, has been with me ever
+since her father's death, and I purpose keeping her in my family till
+she is woman grown, and fit for better service. She is one of the
+cleverest girls, and has one of the most amiable dispositions I have
+ever seen.
+
+All friends in this country and Ayrshire are well. Remember me to all
+friends in the north. My wife joins me in compliments to Mrs. B. and
+family.--I am ever, my dear cousin, yours sincerely,
+
+R. B.[95]
+
+   [Footnote 95: "Fanny Burns, the Poet's relation, merited all the
+   commendations he has here bestowed. I remember her while she lived at
+   Ellisland, and better still as the wife of Adam Armour, the brother
+   of bonnie Jean."--CUNNINGHAM.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CXX.-To MRS. DUNLOP.
+
+ELLISLAND, 4_th March_ 1789.
+
+Here am I, my honoured friend, returned safe from the capital. To a man
+who has a home, however humble or remote--if that home is like mine, the
+scene of domestic comfort--the bustle of Edinburgh will soon be a
+business of sickening disgust.
+
+  Vain pomp and glory of this world, I hate you!
+
+When I must skulk into a corner, lest the rattling equipage of some
+gaping blockhead should mangle me in the mire, I am tempted to
+exclaim--"What merits has he had, or what demerit have I had, in some
+state of pre-existence, that he is ushered into this state of being with
+the sceptre of rule, and the key of riches in his puny fist, and I am
+kicked into the world, the sport of folly, or the victim of pride?" I
+have read somewhere of a monarch (in Spain I think it was) who was so
+out of humour with the Ptolemean system of astronomy, that he said, had
+he been of the Creator's council, he could have saved him a great deal
+of labour and absurdity. I will not defend this blasphemous speech; but
+often, as I have glided with humble stealth through the pomp of Princes
+Street, it has suggested itself to me, as an improvement on the present
+human figure, that a man, in proportion to his own conceit of his
+consequence in the world, could have pushed out the longitude of his
+common size, as a snail pushes out his horns, or as we draw out a
+perspective. This trifling alteration, not to mention the prodigious
+saving it would be in the tear and wear of the neck and limb-sinews of
+many of his majesty's liege-subjects, in the way of tossing the head and
+tip-toe strutting, would evidently turn out a vast advantage, in
+enabling us at once to adjust the ceremonials in making a bow, or making
+way to a great man, and that too within a second of the precise
+spherical angle of reverence, or an inch of the particular point of
+respectful distance, which the important creature itself requires, as a
+measuring-glance at its towering altitude would determine the affair
+like instinct.
+
+You are right, Madam, in your idea of poor Mylne's poem, which he has
+addressed to me. The piece has a good deal of merit, but it has one
+great fault--it is, by far, too long. Besides, my success has encouraged
+such a shoal of ill-spawned monsters to crawl into public notice, under
+the title of Scottish Poets, that the very term Scottish Poetry borders
+on the burlesque. When I write to Mr. Carfrae, I shall advise him rather
+to try one of his deceased friend's English pieces. I am prodigiously
+hurried with my own matters, else I would have requested a perusal of
+all Mylne's poetic performances, and would have offered his friends my
+assistance in either selecting or correcting what would be proper for
+the press. What it is that occupies me so much, and perhaps a little
+oppresses my present spirits, shall fill up a paragraph in some future
+letter. In the meantime, allow me to close this epistle with a few lines
+done by a friend of mine.... I give you them, that, as you have seen the
+original, you may guess whether one or two alterations I have ventured
+to make in them, be any real improvement.
+
+  Like the fair plant that from our touch withdraws,
+  Shrink, mildly fearful, even from applause,
+  Be all a mother's fondest hope can dream,
+  And all you are, my charming Rachel, seem.
+  Straight as the fox-glove, ere her bells disclose,
+  Mild as the maiden-blushing hawthorn blows,
+  Fair as the fairest of each lovely kind,
+  Your form shall be the image of your mind;
+  Your manners shall so true your soul express,
+  That all shall long to know the worth they guess;
+  Congenial hearts shall greet with kindred love,
+  And even sick'ning envy must approve.[96]
+
+R. B.
+
+   [Footnote 96: These lines are Mrs. Dunlop's own, addressed to her
+   daughter.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CXXI.--TO MRS. M'LEHOSE (FORMERLY CLARINDA).
+
+ELLISLAND, _Mar. 9th_, 1789.
+
+Madam,--The letter you wrote me to Heron's carried its own answer. You
+forbade me to write you unless I was willing to plead guilty to a
+certain indictment you were pleased to bring against me. As I am
+convinced of my own innocence, and, though conscious of high imprudence
+and egregious folly, can lay my hand on my breast and attest the
+rectitude of my heart, you will pardon me, Madam, if I do not carry my
+complaisance so far as humbly to acquiesce in the name of "Villain"
+merely out of compliment to your opinion, much as I esteem your judgment
+and warmly as I regard your worth.
+
+I have already told you, and I again aver it, that, at the time alluded
+to, I was not under the smallest moral tie to Mrs. Burns; nor did I, nor
+could I, then know all the powerful circumstances that omnipotent
+necessity was busy laying in wait for me. When you call over the scenes
+that have passed between us, you will survey the conduct of an honest
+man struggling successfully with temptations the most powerful that ever
+beset humanity, and preserving untainted honour in situations where the
+austerest virtue would have forgiven a fall; situations that, I will
+dare to say not a single individual of all his kind, even with half his
+sensibility and passion, could have encountered without ruin; and I
+leave you, Madam, to guess how such a man is likely to digest an
+accusation of "perfidious treachery."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When I shall have regained your good opinion, perhaps I may venture to
+solicit your friendship; but, be that as it may, the first of her sex I
+ever knew shall always be the object of my warmest good wishes.
+
+ROBT. BURNS.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CXXIL--TO DR. MOORE.
+
+ELLISLAND, _23rd March_ 1789.
+
+Sir,--The gentleman who will deliver you this is a Mr. Nielson, a worthy
+clergyman in my neighbourhood, and a very particular acquaintance of
+mine. As I have troubled him with this packet, I must turn him over to
+your goodness, to recompense him for it in a way in which he much needs
+your assistance, and where you can effectually serve him. Mr. Nielson is
+on his way for France, to wait on his Grace of Queensberry, on some
+little business of a good deal of importance to him, and he wishes for
+your instructions respecting the most eligible mode of travelling, etc.,
+for him, when he has crossed the channel. I should not have dared to
+take this liberty with you, but that I am told, by those who have the
+honour of your personal acquaintance, that to be a poor honest Scotsman
+is a letter of recommendation to you, and that to have it in your power
+to serve such a character, gives you much pleasure.
+
+The inclosed ode is a compliment to the memory of the late Mrs. Oswald
+of Auchencruive. You probably knew her personally, an honour of which I
+cannot boast; but I spent my early years in the neighbourhood, and among
+her servants and tenants. I know that she was detested with the most
+heartfelt cordiality. However, in the particular part of her conduct
+which roused my poetic wrath, she was much less blameable. In January
+last, on my road to Ayrshire, I had put up at Bailie Whigham's, in
+Sanquhar, the only tolerable inn in the place. The frost was keen, and
+the grim evening and howling wind were ushering in a night of snow and
+drift. My horse and I were both much fatigued with the labours of the
+day, and just as my friend the Bailie and I were bidding defiance to the
+storm, over a smoking bowl, in wheels the funeral pageantry of the late
+great Mrs. Oswald, and poor I am forced to brave all the horrors of the
+tempestuous night, and jade my horse, my young favourite horse, whom I
+had just christened Pegasus, twelve miles farther on, through the
+wildest moors and hills of Ayrshire, to New Cumnock, the next inn. The
+powers of poesy and prose sink under me, when I would describe what I
+felt. Suffice it to say, that when a good fire at New Cumnock had so far
+recovered my frozen sinews, I sat down and wrote the inclosed ode.
+
+I was at Edinburgh lately, and settled finally with Mr. Creech; and I
+must own, that at last, he has been amicable and fair with me.
+
+R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CXXIII.--To HIS BROTHER, MR. WILLIAM BURNS.
+
+ISLE, March 25th 1789.
+
+I have stolen from my corn-sowing this minute to write a line to
+accompany your shirt and hat, for I can no more. Your sister Nannie
+arrived yesternight, and begs to be remembered to you. Write me every
+opportunity--never mind postage. My head, too, is as addle as an egg
+this morning, with dining abroad yesterday. I received yours by the
+mason. Forgive me this foolish looking scrawl of an epistle.--I am ever,
+my dear William, yours,
+
+R. B.
+
+P.S.--If you are not then gone from Longtown, I'll write you a long
+letter by this day se'ennight. If you should not succeed in your tramps,
+don't be dejected, or take any rash step--return to us in that case, and
+we will court Fortune's better humour. Remember this, I charge you.
+
+R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CXXIV.--To MR. HILL, BOOKSELLER, EDINBURGH.
+
+ELLISLAND, _2nd April_ 1789.
+
+I will make no excuse, my dear Bibliopolus (God forgive me for murdering
+language!) that I have sat down to write you on this vile paper.
+
+It is economy, Sir; it is that cardinal virtue, prudence; so I beg you
+will sit down, and either compose or borrow a panegyric. If you are
+going to borrow, apply to[97] ... to compose, or rather to compound,
+something very clever on my remarkable frugality; that I write to one of
+my most esteemed friends on this wretched paper, which was originally
+intended for the venal fist of some drunken exciseman, to take dirty
+notes in a miserable vault of an ale-cellar.
+
+O Frugality! thou mother of ten thousand blessings--thou cook of fat
+beef and dainty greens!--thou manufacturer of warm Shetland hose, and
+comfortable surtouts!--thou old housewife, darning thy decayed
+stockings with thy ancient spectacles on thy aged nose!--lead me, hand
+me in thy clutching palsied fist, up those heights, and through those
+thickets, hitherto inaccessible, and impervious to my anxious, weary
+feet:--not those Parnassian crags, bleak and barren, where the hungry
+worshippers of fame are, breathless, clambering, hanging between heaven
+and hell; but those glittering cliffs of Potosi, where the
+all-sufficient, all-powerful deity, wealth, holds his immediate court of
+joy and pleasures; where the sunny exposure of plenty, and the hot walls
+of profusion, produce those blissful fruits of luxury, exotics in this
+world, and natives of paradise!--Thou withered sibyl, my sage
+conductress, usher me into thy refulgent, adored presence!--The power,
+splendid and potent as he now is, was once the puling nursling of thy
+faithful care and tender arms! Call me thy son, thy cousin, thy kinsman,
+or favourite, and adjure the god by the scenes of his infant years, no
+longer to repulse me as a stranger, or an alien, but to favour me with
+his peculiar countenance and protection! He daily bestows his great
+kindness on the undeserving and the worthless--assure him that I bring
+ample documents of meritorious demerits! Pledge yourself for me, that,
+for the glorious cause of lucre, I will do anything, be anything; but
+the horse-leech of private oppression, or the vulture of public robbery!
+
+But to descend from heroics.
+
+I want a Shakespeare; I want likewise an English dictionary,--Johnson's,
+I suppose, is best. In these and all my prose commissions, the cheapest
+is always the best for me. There is a small debt of honour that I owe
+Mr. Robert Cleghorn, in Saughton Mills, my worthy friend, and your
+well-wisher. Please give him, and urge him to take it, the first time
+you see him, ten shillings worth of anything you have to sell, and place
+it to my account.
+
+The library scheme that I mentioned to you is already begun under the
+direction of Captain Riddel. There is another in emulation of it going
+on at Closeburn, under the auspices of Mr. Monteith of Closeburn, which
+will be on a greater scale than ours. Captain Riddel gave his infant
+society a great many of his old books, else I had written you on that
+subject; but, one of these days, I shall trouble you with a commission
+for "The Monkland Friendly Society," a copy of _The Spectator_,
+_Mirror_, and _Lounger_, _Man of Feeling_, _Man of the World_,
+_Guthrie's Geographical Grammar_, with some religious pieces, will
+likely be our first order.
+
+When I grow richer, I will write to you on gilt-post, to make amends for
+this sheet. At present every guinea has a five guinea errand with, my
+dear Sir, your faithful, poor, but honest friend,
+
+R. B.
+
+[Footnote 97: Creech? or Ramsay of _The Courant?_]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CXXV.--TO MRS. M'MURDO, DRUMLANRIG.
+
+ELLISLAND, _2nd May_ 1789.
+
+Madam,--I have finished the piece which had the happy fortune to be
+honoured with your approbation; and never did little Miss, with more
+sparkling pleasure, show her applauded sampler to partial Mamma, than I
+now send my poem to you and Mr. M'Murdo,[98] if he is returned to
+Drumlanrig. You cannot easily imagine what thin-skinned animals--what
+sensitive plants poor poets are. How do we shrink into the imbittered
+corner of self-abasement, when neglected or condemned by those to whom
+we look up! and how do we, in erect importance, add another cubit to our
+stature on being noticed and applauded by those whom we honour and
+respect! My late visit to Drumlanrig has, I can tell you, Madam, given
+me a balloon waft up Parnassus, where, on my fancied elevation, I regard
+my poetic self with no small degree of complacency. Surely with all
+their sins, the rhyming tribe are not ungrateful creatures--I recollect
+your goodness to your humble guest--I see Mr. M'Murdo adding to the
+politeness of the gentleman, the kindness of a friend, and my heart
+swells as it would burst, with warm emotions and ardent wishes! It may
+be it is not gratitude--it may be a mixed sensation. That strange,
+shifting, doubling animal, MAN, is so generally, at best, but a
+negative, often a worthless creature, that we cannot see real goodness
+and native worth, without feeling the bosom glow with sympathetic
+approbation. With every sentiment of grateful respect, I have the honour
+to be, Madam, your obliged and grateful humble servant,
+
+R. B.
+
+   [Footnote 98: The piece beginning--There was a lass and she was
+   fair.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CXXVI.--TO MR. CUNNINGHAM.
+
+ELL ISLAND, 4_th May_ 1789.
+
+My dear Sir,--Your _duty-free_ favour of the 25th April I received two
+days ago; I will not say I perused it with pleasure; that is the cold
+compliment of ceremony; I perused it, Sir, with delicious
+satisfaction;--in short, it is such a letter, that not you, nor your
+friend, but the legislature, by express proviso in their postage laws,
+should frank. A letter informed with the soul of friendship is such an
+honour to human nature, that they should order it free ingress and
+egress to and from their bags and mails, as an encouragement and mark of
+distinction to supereminent virtue.
+
+I have just put the last hand to a little poem, which I think will be
+something to your taste.[99] One morning lately, as I was out pretty
+early in the fields, sowing some grass seeds, I heard the burst of a
+shot from a neighbouring plantation, and presently a poor little wounded
+hare came crippling by me. You will guess my indignation at the inhuman
+fellow who could shoot a hare at this season, when all of them have
+young ones. Indeed there is something in that business of destroying,
+for our sport, individuals in the animal creation that do not injure us
+materially, which I could never reconcile to my ideas of virtue.
+
+Let me know how you like my poem. I am doubtful whether it would not be
+an improvement to keep out the last stanza but one altogether.
+
+Cruikshank is a glorious production of the author of man. You, he, and
+the noble Colonel[100] of the Crochallan Fencibles are to me
+
+  Dear as the ruddy drops which warm my heart.
+
+I have got a good mind to make verses on you all, to the tune of "_Three
+guid fellows ayont the glen_"
+
+
+R. B.
+
+   [Footnote 99: See the poem on the "Wounded Hare."]
+
+   [Footnote 100: That is, William Dunbar, W.S.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CXXVIL--TO MR. RICHARD BROWN.
+
+MAUCHLINE, _21st May_ 1789.
+
+My Dear Friend,--I was in the country by accident, and hearing of your
+safe arrival, I could not resist the temptation of wishing you joy on
+your return--wishing you would write to me before you sail
+again--wishing that you would always set me down as your bosom
+friend--wishing you long life and prosperity, and that every good thing
+may attend you--wishing Mrs. Brown and your little ones as free of the
+evils of this world as is consistent with humanity--wishing you and she
+were to make two at the ensuing lying-in, with which Mrs. B. threatens
+very soon to favour me--wishing I had longer time to write to you at
+present; and, finally, wishing that if there is to be another state of
+existence, Mrs. Brown, Mrs. Burns, our little ones of both families, and
+you and I, in some snug retreat, may make a jovial party to
+all eternity!
+
+My direction is at Ellisland, near Dumfries.--Yours,
+
+R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CXXVIIL--To MR. ROBERT AINSLIE.
+
+ELLISLAND, _8th June_ 1789.
+
+MY DEAR FRIEND,--I am perfectly ashamed of myself when I look at the
+date of your last. It is not that I forget the friend of my heart and
+the companion of my peregrinations; but I have been condemned to
+drudgery beyond sufferance, though not, thank God, beyond redemption. I
+have had a collection of poems by a lady put into my hands to prepare
+them for the press; which horrid task, with sowing corn with my own
+hand, a parcel of masons, wrights, plasterers, etc., to attend to,
+roaming on business through Ayrshire--all this was against me, and the
+very first dreadful article was of itself too much for me.
+
+13th. I have not had a moment to spare from incessant toil since the
+8th. Life, my dear Sir, is a serious matter. You know by experience that
+a man's individual self is a good deal, but believe me, a wife and
+family of children, whenever you have the honour to be a husband and a
+father, will show you that your present and most anxious hours of
+solitude are spent on trifles. The welfare of those who are very dear to
+us, whose only support, hope, and stay we are--this, to a generous mind,
+is another sort of more important object of care than any concerns
+whatever which centre merely in the individual. On the other hand, let
+no young, rakehelly dog among you, make a song of his pretended liberty
+and freedom from care. If the relations we stand in to king, country,
+kindred, and friends, be anything but the visionary fancies of dreaming
+metaphysicians; if religion, virtue, magnanimity, generosity, humanity
+and justice, be ought but empty sounds; then the man who may be said to
+live only for others, for the beloved, honourable female, whose tender
+faithful embrace endears life, and for the helpless little innocents who
+are to be the men and women, the worshippers of his God, the subjects of
+his king, and the support, nay the very vital existence of his COUNTRY,
+in the ensuing age;--compare such a man with any fellow whatever, who,
+whether he bustle and push in business among labourers, clerks,
+statesmen; or whether he roar and rant, and drink and sing in taverns--a
+fellow over whose grave no one will breathe a single heigh-ho, except
+from the cobweb-tie of what is called good fellowship--who has no view
+nor aim but what terminates in himself--if there be any grovelling
+earth-born wretch of our species, a renegade to common sense, who would
+fain believe that the noble creature, man, is no better than a sort of
+fungus, generated out of nothing, nobody knows how, and soon dissipating
+in nothing, nobody knows where; such a stupid beast, such a crawling
+reptile, might balance the foregoing unexaggerated comparison, but no
+one else would have the patience.
+
+Forgive me, my dear Sir, for this long silence. _To make you amends_, I
+shall send you soon, and more encouraging still, without any postage,
+one or two rhymes of my later manufacture.
+
+R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CXXIX.--TO MRS. DUNLOP.
+
+ELLISLAND, 21_st June_ 1789.
+
+Dear Madam,--Will you take the effusions, the miserable effusions of low
+spirits, just as they flow from their bitter spring? I know not of any
+particular cause for this worst of all my foes besetting me; but for
+some time my soul has been beclouded with a thickening atmosphere of
+evil imaginations and gloomy presages.
+
+_Monday Evening._
+
+I have just heard Mr. Kilpatrick preach a sermon. He is a man famous for
+his benevolence, and I revere him; but from such ideas of my Creator,
+good Lord, deliver me! Religion, my honoured friend, is surely a simple
+business, as it equally concerns the ignorant and the learned, the poor
+and the rich. That there is an incomprehensible Great Being, to whom I
+owe my existence, and that He must be intimately acquainted with the
+operations and progress of the internal machinery, and consequent
+outward deportment of this creature which He has made; these are, I
+think, self-evident propositions. That there is a real and eternal
+distinction between virtue and vice, and consequently, that I am an
+accountable creature; that from the seeming nature of the human mind, as
+well as from the evident imperfection, nay, positive injustice, in the
+administration of affairs, both in the natural and moral worlds, there
+must be a retributive scene of existence beyond the grave; must, I
+think, be allowed by every one who will give himself a moment's
+reflection. I will go farther, and affirm, that from the sublimity,
+excellence, and purity of his doctrine and precepts, unparalleled by all
+the aggregated wisdom and learning of many preceding ages, though, to
+_appearance_ he, himself, was the obscurest and most illiterate of our
+species; therefore Jesus Christ was from God.
+
+Whatever mitigates the woes, or increases the happiness of others, this
+is my criterion of goodness; and whatever injures society at large, or
+any individual in it, this is my measure of iniquity.
+
+What think you, Madam, of my creed? I trust that I have said nothing
+that will lessen me in the eye of one, whose good opinion I value almost
+next to the approbation of my own mind.
+
+R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CXXX.--TO MISS HELEN MARIA WILLIAMS.
+
+ELLISLAND, 1789.
+
+Madam,--Of the many problems in the nature of that wonderful creature,
+man, this is one of the most extraordinary--that he shall go on from day
+to day, from week to week, from month to month, or perhaps from year to
+year, suffering a hundred times more in an hour from the impotent
+consciousness of neglecting what he ought to do, than the very doing of
+it would cost him. I am deeply indebted to you, first, for a most
+elegant poetic compliment; then for a polite, obliging letter; and,
+lastly, for your excellent poem on the Slave Trade; and yet, wretch that
+I am! though the debts were debts of honour, and the creditor a lady, I
+have put off and put off even the very acknowledgment of the obligation,
+until you must indeed be the very angel I take you for, if you can
+forgive me.
+
+Your poem I have read with the highest pleasure. I have a way whenever I
+read a book--I mean a book in our own trade, Madam, a poetic one, and
+when it is my own property--that I take a pencil and mark at the ends of
+verses, or note on margins and odd paper, little criticisms of
+approbation or disapprobation as I peruse along. I will make no apology
+for presenting you with a few unconnected thoughts that occurred to me
+in my repeated perusals of your poem. I want to show you that I have
+honesty enough to tell you what I take to be truths, even when they are
+not quite on the side of approbation; and I do it in the firm faith that
+you have equal greatness of mind to hear them with pleasure. [Here
+follows a list of strictures.]
+
+I had lately the honour of a letter from Dr. Moore, where he tells me
+that he has sent me some books; they are not yet come to hand, but I
+hear they are on the way.
+
+Wishing you all success in your progress in the path of fame, and that
+you may equally escape the danger of stumbling through incautious speed,
+or losing ground through loitering neglect, I am, etc.
+
+R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CXXXI.--To MR. ROBERT GRAHAM, OF FINTRY.
+
+ELLISLAND, 31st _july_ 1789.
+
+Sir,--The language of gratitude has been so prostituted by servile
+adulation and designing flattery that I know not how to express myself
+when I would acknowledge receipt of your last letter. I beg and hope,
+ever-honoured "Friend of my life and patron of my rhymes," that you will
+always give me credit for the sincerest, chastest gratitude. I dare call
+the Searcher of hearts and Author of all Goodness to witness how truly
+grateful I am.
+
+Mr. Mitchell[101] did not wait my calling on him, but sent me a kind
+letter, giving me a hint of the business; and yesterday he entered with
+the most friendly ardour into my views and interests. He seems to think,
+and from my private knowledge I am certain he is right, that removing
+the officer who now does, and for these many years has done, duty in the
+Division in the middle of which I live, will be productive of at least
+no disadvantage to the revenue, and may likewise be done without any
+detriment to him. Should the Honourable Board [of Excise] think so, and
+should they deem it eligible to appoint me to officiate in his present
+place, I am then at the top of my wishes. The emoluments in my office
+will enable me to carry on, and enjoy those improvements on my farm,
+which but for this additional assistance, I might in a year or two have
+abandoned. Should it be judged improper to place me in this Division, I
+am deliberating whether I had not better give up my farming altogether,
+and go into the Excise whenever I can find employment. Now that the
+salary is L50 per annum, the Excise is surely a much superior object to
+a farm, which, without some foreign assistance, must for half a lease be
+a losing bargain. The worst of it is--I know there are some respectable
+characters who do me the honour to interest themselves in my welfare and
+behaviour, and, as leaving the farm so soon may have an unsteady,
+giddy-headed appearance, I had better perhaps lose a little money than
+hazard their esteem.
+
+You see, Sir, with what freedom I lay before you all my little
+matters--little indeed to the world, but of the most important magnitude
+to me.... Were it not for a very few of our kind, the very existence of
+magnanimity, generosity, and all their kindred virtues, would be as much
+a question with metaphysicians as the existence of witchcraft. Perhaps
+the nature of man is not so much to blame for this, as the situation in
+which by some miscarriage or other he is placed in this world. The poor,
+naked, helpless wretch, with such voracious appetites and such a famine
+of provision for them, is under a cursed necessity of turning selfish in
+his own defence. Except a few instances of original scoundrelism,
+thorough-paced selfishness is always the work of time. Indeed, in a
+little time, we generally grow so attentive to ourselves and so
+regardless of others that I have often in poetic frenzy looked on this
+world as one vast ocean, occupied and commoved by innumerable vortices,
+each whirling round its centre. These vortices are the children of men.
+The great design and, if I may say so, merit of each particular vortex
+consists in how widely it can extend the influence of its circle, and
+how much floating trash it can suck in and absorb.
+
+I know not why I have got into this preaching vein, except it be to show
+you that it is not my ignorance but my knowledge of mankind which makes
+me so much admire your goodness to me.
+
+I shall return your books very soon. I only wish to give Dr. Adam Smith
+one other perusal, which I will do in one or two days.
+
+R. B.
+
+   [Footnote 101: A collector in the Excise.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CXXXIL--TO DAVID SILLAR, MERCHANT, IRVINE.[102]
+
+ELLISLAND, 5 _Aug_. 1789.
+
+My Dear Sir,--I was half in thoughts not to have written to you at all,
+by way of revenge for the two damn'd business letters you sent me. I
+wanted to know all about your publications--your news, your hopes,
+fears, etc., in commencing poet in print. In short, I wanted you to
+write to Robin like his old acquaintance Davie, and not in the style of
+Mr. Tare to Mr. Tret, as thus:--
+
+"Mr. Tret.--Sir,--This comes to advise you that fifteen barrels of
+herrings were, by the blessing of God, shipped safe on board the _Lovely
+Janet_, Q.D.C., Duncan Mac-Leerie, master, etc."
+
+I hear you have commenced married man--so much the better. I know not
+whether the nine gipsies are jealous of my lucky, but they are a good
+deal shyer since I could boast the important relation of husband.
+
+I have got about eleven subscribers for your book.... My best
+compliments to Mrs. Sillar, and believe me to be, dear Davie,
+ever yours,
+
+ROBT. BURNS.
+
+   [Footnote 102: This letter was first published in 1879. The original
+   is probably lost, but a copy is to be found in the minute-book of the
+   Irvine Burns Club. Sillar was "Davie, a brother poet."]
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+CXXXIII.--TO MR. JOHN LOGAN, OF KNOCK SHINNOCK.
+
+ELLISLAND, NEAR DUMFRIES, 7_th Aug_. 1789.
+
+Dear Sir,--I intended to have written you long ere now, and, as I told
+you, I had gotten three stanzas on my way in a poetic epistle to you;
+but that old enemy of all _good works_, the Devil, threw me into a
+prosaic mire, and for the soul of me I cannot get out of it. I dare not
+write you a long letter, as I am going to intrude on your time with a
+long ballad. I have, as you will shortly see, finished "The Kirk's
+Alarm;" but now that it is done, and that I have laughed once or twice
+at the conceits in some of the stanzas, I am determined not to let it
+get into the public; so I send you this copy, the first that I have sent
+to Ayrshire, except some few of the stanzas, which I wrote off in embryo
+for Gavin Hamilton, under the express provision and request that you
+will only read it to a few of us, and do not on any account give, or
+permit to be taken, any copy of the ballad. If I could be of any service
+to Dr. M'Gill, I would do it, though it should be at a much greater
+expense than irritating a few bigoted priests, but I am afraid serving
+him in his present _embarras_ is a task too hard for me. I have enemies
+enow, God knows, though I do not wantonly add to the number. Still, as I
+think there is some merit in two or three of the thoughts, I send it to
+you as a small, but sincere testimony how much, and with what respectful
+esteem, I am, dear Sir, your obliged humble servant
+
+R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CXXXIV.--TO MR. PETER STUART, EDITOR, LONDON.
+
+_End of Aug_. 1789.
+
+My dear Sir,--The hurry of a farmer in this particular season, and the
+indolence of a poet at all seasons, will, I hope, plead my excuse for
+neglecting so long to answer your obliging letter of the 5th August.
+
+... When I received your letter I was transcribing for _The Star_ my
+letter to the magistrates of the Canongate of Edinburgh, begging their
+permission to place a tombstone over poor Fergusson. [102a] Poor
+Fergusson! if there be a life beyond the grave, which I trust there is;
+and if there be a good God presiding over all nature, which I am sure
+there is, thou art now enjoying existence in a glorious world where
+worth of heart alone is distinction in the man; where riches, deprived
+of their pleasure-purchasing powers, return to their native sordid
+matter; where titles and honours are the disregarded reveries of an idle
+dream; and where that heavy virtue, which is the negative consequence of
+steady dulness, and those thoughtless though often destructive follies,
+which are the unavoidable aberrations of frail human nature, will be
+thrown into equal oblivion as if they had never been!
+
+R. B.
+
+   [Footnote 102a: A young Scottish poet of undoubted ability who
+   perished miserably in Edinburgh at the age of twenty-four. He was the
+   senior of Burns, who greatly admired and mourned him, by about
+   eight years.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CXXXV.--To HIS BROTHER, WILLIAM BURNS, SADDLER, NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNE.
+
+ELLISLAND, 14_th Aug_. 1789.
+
+My Dear William,--I received your letter, and am very happy to hear that
+you have got settled for the winter. I enclose you the two guinea-notes
+of the Bank of Scotland, which I hope will serve your need. It is,
+indeed, not quite so convenient for me to spare money as it once was,
+but I know your situation, and, I will say it, in some respects your
+worth. I have no time to write at present, but I beg you will endeavour
+to pluck up a _little_ more of the Man than you used to have. Remember
+my favourite quotations:
+
+             On reason build resolve,
+  That pillar of true majesty in man.[103]
+
+and
+
+  What proves the hero truly great,
+    Is never, never to despair![103a]
+
+Your mother and sisters desire their compliments. A Dieu je vous
+commende,
+
+ROBT. BURNS.
+
+   [Footnote 103: From Young.]
+
+   [Footnote 103a: From Thomson.]
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CXXXVL--TO MRS. DUNLOP.
+
+ELLISLAND, _6th Sept_. 1789.
+
+Dear Madam,--I have mentioned, in my last, my appointment to the Excise,
+and the birth of little Frank; who, by the bye, I trust will be no
+discredit to the honourable name of Wallace, as he has a fine manly
+countenance, and a figure that might do credit to a liltle fellow two
+months older; and likewise an excellent good temper, though when he
+pleases he has a pipe, only not quite so loud as the horn that his
+immortal namesake blew as a signal to take out the pin of
+Stirling bridge.
+
+I had some time ago an epistle, part poetic, and part prosaic, from your
+poetess Miss. J. Little,[104] a very ingenious, but modest composition.
+I should have written her as she requested, but for the hurry of this
+new business. I have heard of her and her compositions in this country;
+and I am happy to add, always to the honour of her character. The fact
+is, I knew not well how to write to her: I should sit down to a sheet of
+paper that I knew not how to stain. I am no dab at fine-drawn
+letter-writing; and, except when prompted by friendship or gratitude,
+or, which happens extremely rarely, inspired by the Muse (I know not her
+name) that presides over epistolary writing, I sit down, when
+necessitated to write, as I would sit down to beat hemp.
+
+Some parts of your letter of the 2oth August struck me with the most
+melancholy concern for the state of your mind at present.
+
+Would I could write you a letter of comfort, I would sit down to it with
+as much pleasure as I would to write an epic poem of my own composition
+that should equal the _Iliad!_ Religion, my dear friend, is the true
+comfort. A strong persuasion in a future state of existence; a
+proposition so obviously probable, that, setting revelation aside, every
+nation and people, so far as investigation has reached, for at least
+near four thousand years, have, in some mode or other, firmly believed
+it. In vain would we reason and pretend to doubt. I have myself done so
+to a very daring pitch; but, when I reflected that I was opposing the
+most ardent wishes and the most darling hopes of good men, and flying in
+the face of all human belief, in all ages, I was shocked at my
+own conduct.
+
+I know not whether I have ever sent you the following lines; or if you
+have ever seen them; but it is one of my favourite quotations, which I
+keep constantly by me in my progress through life, in the language of
+the book of Job,
+
+  Against the day of battle and of war--
+
+spoken of religion:
+
+  'Tis _this_, my friend, that streaks our morning bright,
+  'Tis _this_ that gilds the horror of our night,
+  When wealth forsakes us, and when friends are few;
+  When friends are faithless, or when foes pursue;
+  Tis this that wards the blow, or stills the smart,
+  Disarms affliction, or repels his dart;
+  Within the breast bids purest raptures rise,
+  Bids smiling conscience spread her cloudless skies.
+
+I have been busy with _Zeluco_. The Doctor is so obliging as to request
+my opinion of it; and I have been revolving in my mind some kind of
+criticisms on novel-writing, but it is a depth beyond my research. I
+shall, however, digest my thoughts on the subject as well as I can.
+_Zeluco_ is a most sterling performance.
+
+Farewell! _A Dieu, le bon Dieu, je vous commende!_
+
+   [Footnote 104: A maid servant at Loudon house.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CXXXVIL--To CAPTAIN RIDDEL, FRIARS CARSE.
+
+ELLISLAND, _16th October_ 1789.
+
+Sir,--Big with the idea of this important day at Friars Carse, I have
+watched the elements and skies, in the full persuasion that they would
+announce it to the astonished world by some phenomena of terrific
+portent. Yesternight until a very late hour, did I wait with anxious
+horror for the appearance of some comet firing half the sky, or aerial
+armies of sanguinary Scandinavians, darting athwart the startled
+heavens, rapid as the ragged lightning, and horrid as those convulsions
+of nature that bury nations.
+
+The elements, however, seem to take the matter very quietly; they did
+not even usher in this morning with triple suns and a shower of blood,
+symbolical of the three potent heroes[105] and the mighty claret-shed of
+the day. For me--as Thomson in his Winter says of the storm--I shall
+"hear astonished, and astonished sing"
+
+  The WHISTLE and the man I sing,
+    The man that won the whistle, etc.
+
+To leave the heights of Parnassus and come to the humble vale of prose.
+I have some misgivings that I take too much upon me, when I request you
+to get your guest, Sir Robert Lawrie, to frank the two inclosed covers
+for me, the one of them to Sir William Cunningham, of Robertland, Bart.,
+at Kilmarnock,--the other, to Mr. Allan Masterton, Writing-Master,
+Edinburgh. The first has a kindred claim on Sir Robert, as being a
+brother Baronet, and likewise a keen Foxite; the other is one of the
+worthiest men in the world, and a man of real genius; so, allow me to
+say, he has a fraternal claim on you. I want them franked for to-morrow,
+as I cannot get them to the post to-night. I shall send a servant again
+for them in the evening. Wishing that your head may be crowned with
+laurels to-night, and free from aches to-morrow, I have the honour to
+be, Sir, your deeply indebted humble Servant,
+
+R. B.
+
+   [Footnote 105: Sir Robert Lawrie of Maxwellton, the holder of the
+   Whistle, Alexander Fergusson of Craigdarroch, and Captain Riddel.
+   _See_ the Poem. Burns was apparently absent.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CXXXVIII--To MR. ROBERT AINSLIE, W.S.
+
+ELLISLAND, 1_st Nov_. 1789.
+
+My Dear Friend,--I had written you ere now, could I have guessed where
+to find you, for I am sure you have more good sense than to waste the
+precious days of vacation time in the dirt of business and Edinburgh.
+Wherever you are, God bless you, and lead you not into temptation, but
+deliver you from evil!
+
+I do not know if I have informed you that I am now appointed to an
+Excise division, in the middle of which my house and farm lie. In this I
+was extremely lucky. Without ever having been an expectant, as they call
+their journeymen excisemen, I was directly planted down to all intents
+and purposes an officer of Excise; there to flourish and bring forth
+fruits--worthy of repentance.
+
+You need not doubt that I find several very unpleasant and disagreeable
+circumstances in my business; but I am tired with and disgusted at the
+language of complaint against the evils of life. Human existence in the
+most favourable situations does not abound with pleasures, and has its
+inconveniences and ills: capricious foolish man mistakes these
+inconveniences and ills as if they were the peculiar property of his
+particular situation; and hence that eternal fickleness, that love of
+change, which has ruined, and daily does ruin many a fine fellow, as
+well as many a blockhead, and is almost, without exception, a constant
+source of disappointment and misery.
+
+I long to hear from you how you go on-not so much in business as in
+life. Are you pretty well satisfied with your own exertions, and
+tolerably at ease in your internal reflections? 'Tis much to be a great
+character as a lawyer, but beyond comparison more to be a great
+character as a man. That you may be both the one and the other is the
+earnest wish, and that you _will_ be both is the firm persuasion of, my
+dear Sir, etc.
+
+R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CXXXIX.--To MR. RICHARD BROWN, PORT-GLASGOW.
+
+ELLISLAND, _4th November_ 1789.
+
+I have been so hurried, my ever dear friend, that though I got both your
+letters, I have not been able to command an hour to answer them as I
+wished; and even now, you are to look on this as merely confessing debt,
+and craving days. Few things could have given me so much pleasure as the
+news that you were once more safe and sound on terra firma, and happy in
+that place where happiness is alone to be found, in the fireside circle.
+May the benevolent Director of all things peculiarly bless you in all
+those endearing connections consequent on the tender and venerable names
+of husband and father! I have indeed been extremely lucky in getting an
+additional income of L50 a-year, while, at the same time, the
+appointment will not cost me above L10 or L12 per annum of expenses more
+than I must have inevitably incurred. The worst circumstance is, that
+the Excise division which I have got is so extensive, no less than ten
+parishes to ride over; and it abounds besides with so much business,
+that I can scarcely steal a spare moment. However, labour endears rest,
+and both together are absolutely necessary for the proper enjoyment of
+human existence. I cannot meet you anywhere.
+
+No less than an order from the Board of Excise, at Edinburgh, is
+necessary before I can have so much time as to meet you in Ayrshire. But
+do you come, and see me. We must have a social day, and perhaps lengthen
+it out with half the night, before you go again to sea. You are the
+earliest friend I now have on earth, my brothers excepted; and is not
+that an endearing circumstance? When you and I first met, we were at the
+green period of human life. The twig would easily take a bent, but would
+as easily return to its former state. You and I not only took a mutual
+bent, but, by the melancholy, though strong influence of being both of
+the family of the unfortunate, we were entwined with one another in our
+growth towards advanced age; and blasted be the sacrilegious hand that
+shall attempt to undo the union! You and I must have one bumper to my
+favourite toast, "May the companions of our youth be the friends of our
+old age!" Come and see me one year; I shall see you at Port-Glasgow the
+next, and if we can contrive to have a gossiping between our two
+bed-fellows, it will be so much additional pleasure. Mrs. Burns joins me
+in kind compliments to you and Mrs. Brown. Adieu!--I am ever, my dear
+Sir, yours,
+
+R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CXL.--To MR. R. GRAHAM, OF FINTRY.
+
+_9th December_ 1789.
+
+Sir,--I have a good while had a wish to trouble you with a letter, and
+had certainly done it long ere now, but for a humiliating something that
+throws cold water on the resolution, as if one should say, "You have
+found Mr. Graham a very powerful and kind friend indeed, and that
+interest he is so kindly taking in your concerns, you ought by
+everything in your power to keep alive and cherish." Now, though since
+God has thought proper to make one powerful and another helpless, the
+connection of obliger and obliged is all fair; and though my being under
+your patronage is to me highly honourable, yet, Sir, allow me to flatter
+myself that,--as a poet and an honest man you first interested yourself
+in my welfare, and principally as such still, you permit me to
+approach you.
+
+I have found the Excise business go on a great deal smoother with me
+than I expected; owing a good deal to the generous friendship of Mr.
+Mitchell, my collector, and the kind assistance of Mr. Findlater, my
+supervisor. I dare to be honest, and I fear no labour. Nor do I find my
+hurried life greatly inimical to my correspondence with the Muses. Their
+visits to me, indeed, and I believe to most of their acquaintance, like
+the visits of good angels, are short and far between; but I meet them
+now and then as I jog through the hills of Nithsdale, just as I used to
+do on the banks of Ayr. I take the liberty to inclose you a few
+bagatelles, all of them the productions of my leisure thoughts in my
+excise rides.
+
+If you know or have ever seen Captain Grose, the antiquarian, you will
+enter into any humour that is in the verses on him. Perhaps you have
+seen them before, as I sent them to a London newspaper. Though, I dare
+say, you have none of the solemn-league-and-covenant fire, which shone
+so conspicuous in Lord George Gordon, and the Kilmarnock weavers, yet I
+think you must have heard of Dr. M'Gill, one of the clergymen of Ayr,
+and his heretical book. God help him, poor man! Though he is one of the
+worthiest, as well as one of the ablest of the whole priesthood of the
+Kirk of Scotland, in every sense of that ambiguous term, yet the poor
+Doctor and his numerous family are in imminent danger of being thrown
+out to the mercy of the winter-winds. The inclosed ballad on that
+business is, I confess, too local, but I laughed myself at some conceits
+in it, though I am convinced in my conscience that there are a good many
+heavy stanzas in it too.[106]
+
+The election ballad,[107] as you will see, alludes to the present
+canvass in our string of boroughs. I do not believe there will be such a
+hard run match in the whole general election.
+
+I am too little a man to have any political attachments; I am deeply
+indebted to, and have the warmest veneration for, individuals of both
+parties; but a man[108] who has it in his power to be the father of a
+country, and who is only known to that country by the mischiefs he does
+in it, is a character that one cannot speak of with patience.
+
+Sir J. J. does "what man can do," but yet I doubt his fate.
+
+R. B.
+
+   [Footnote 106: The Kirk's Alarm.]
+
+   [Footnote 107: _The Five Carlines._]
+
+   [Footnote 108: Duke of Queensbury.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CXLL--To MRS. DUNLOP.
+
+ELLISLAND, _13th December_ 1789.
+
+Many thanks, dear Madam, for your sheetful of rhymes. Though at present
+I am below the veriest prose, yet from you everything pleases. I am
+groaning under the miseries of a diseased nervous system; a system, the
+state of which is most conducive to our happiness--or the most
+productive of our misery. For now near three weeks I have been so ill
+with a nervous headache, that I have been obliged for a time to give up
+my excise-books, being scare able to lift my head, much less to ride
+once a week over ten muir parishes. What is man? To-day, in the
+luxuriance of health, exulting in the enjoyment of existence; in a few
+days, perhaps in a few hours, loaded with conscious painful being,
+counting the tardy pace of the lingering moments by the repercussions of
+anguish, and refusing or denied a comforter. Day follows night, and
+night comes after day, only to curse him with life which gives him no
+pleasure; and yet the awful, dark termination of that life, is something
+at which he recoils.
+
+  Tell us, ye dead; will none of you in pity
+  Disclose the secret
+  _What'tis you are, and we must shortly be?_
+    'Tis no matter:
+  A little time will make us learn'd as you are.
+
+Can it be possible, that when I resign this frail, feverish being, I
+shall still find myself in conscious existence? When the last gasp of
+agony has announced that I am no more to those that knew me, and the few
+who loved me; when the cold, stiffened, unconscious, ghastly corse is
+resigned into the earth, to be the prey of unsightly reptiles, and to
+become in time a trodden clod, shall I be yet warm in life, seeing and
+seen, enjoying and enjoyed? Ye venerable sages, and holy flamens, is
+there probability in your conjectures, truth in your stories, of another
+world beyond death; or are they all alike, baseless visions, and
+fabricated fables? If there is another life, it must be only for the
+just, the benevolent, the amiable, and the humane; what a flattering
+idea, then, is a world to come! Would to God I as firmly believed it, as
+I ardently wish it! There I should meet an aged parent, now at rest from
+the many buffetings of an evil world, against which he so long and so
+bravely struggled. There should I meet the friend, the disinterested
+friend of my early life; the man who rejoiced to see me, because he
+loved me and could serve me. Muir, thy weaknesses were the aberrations
+of human nature, but thy heart glowed with everything generous, manly,
+and noble; and if ever emanation from the All-good Being animated a
+human form, it was thine! There should I, with speechless agony of
+rapture, again recognise my lost, my ever dear Mary! whose bosom was
+fraught with truth, honour, constancy, and love.
+
+  My Mary, dear departed shade!
+    Where is thy place of heavenly rest?
+  Seest thou thy lover lowly laid?
+    Hear'st thou the groans that rend his breast?
+
+Jesus Christ, thou amiablest of characters! I trust thou art no
+impostor, and that thy revelation of blissful scenes of existence beyond
+death and the grave, is not one of the many impositions which time after
+time have been palmed on credulous mankind. I trust that in thee "shall
+all the families of the earth be blessed," by being yet connected
+together in a better world, where every tie that bound heart to heart,
+in this state of existence, shall be, far beyond our present
+conceptions, more endearing.
+
+I am a good deal inclined to think with those who maintain, that what
+are called nervous affections are in fact diseases of the mind. I cannot
+reason, I cannot think; and but to you I would not venture to write
+anything above an order to a cobbler. You have felt too much of the ills
+of life not to sympathise with a diseased wretch, who has impaired more
+than half of any faculties he possessed. Your goodness will excuse this
+distracted scrawl, which the writer dare scarcely read, and which he
+would throw into the fire, were he able to write anything better, or
+indeed anything at all.
+
+Rumour told me something of a son of yours, who was returned from the
+East or West Indies. If you have gotten news from James or Anthony, it
+was cruel in you not to let me know; as I promise you, on the sincerity
+of a man, who is weary of one world, and anxious about another, that
+scarce anything could give me so much pleasure as to hear of any good
+thing befalling my honoured friend.
+
+If you have a minute's leisure, take up your pen in pity to LE PAUVRE
+MISERABLE.
+
+R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CXLII.--To LADY WINIFRED M. CONSTABLE.
+
+ELLISLAND, 16th DECEMBER 1789.
+
+My Lady,--In vain have I from day to day expected to hear from Mis.
+Young, as she promised me at Dalswinton that she would do me the honour
+to introduce me at Tinwald; and it was impossible, not from your
+Ladyship's accessibility, but from my own feelings, that I could go
+alone. Lately, indeed, Mr. Maxwell, of Currachan, in his usual goodness,
+offered to accompany me, when an unlucky indisposition on my part
+hindered my embracing the opportunity. To court the notice or the tables
+of the great, except where I sometimes have had a little matter to ask
+of them, or more often the pleasanter task of witnessing my gratitude to
+them, is what I never have done, and I trust never shall do. But with
+your Ladyship I have the honour to be connected by one of the strongest
+and most endearing ties in the whole moral world. Common sufferings, in
+a cause where even to be unfortunate is glorious--the cause of heroic
+loyalty! Though my fathers had not illustrious honours and vast
+properties to hazard in the contest, though they left their humble
+cottages only to add so many units more to the unnoted crowd that
+followed their leaders, yet what they could they did, and what they had
+they lost; with unshaken firmness and unconcealed political attachments,
+they shook hands with Ruin for what they esteemed the cause of their
+king and their country. This language and the inclosed verses are for
+your Ladyship's eye alone. Poets are not very famous for their prudence;
+but as I can do nothing for a cause which is now nearly no more, I do
+not wish to hurt myself.--I have the honour to be, my lady, your
+Ladyship's obliged and obedient humble servant.
+
+R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CXLIII.--To MR. CHARLES K. SHARPE, OF HODDAM.
+
+_Under a fictitious Signature, inclosing a Ballad, 1790 or 1791._[109]
+
+It is true, Sir, you are a gentleman of rank and fortune, and I am a
+poor devil; you are a feather in the cap of society, and I am a very
+hobnail in his shoes; yet I have the honour to belong to the same family
+with you, and on that score I now address you. You will perhaps suspect
+that I am going to claim affinity with the ancient and honourable house
+of Kirkpatrick. No, no, Sir. I cannot indeed be properly said to belong
+to any house, or even any province or kingdom; as my mother, who for
+many years was spouse to a marching regiment, gave me into this bad
+world, aboard the packet-boat, somewhere between Donaghadee and
+Portpatrick. By our common family, I mean, Sir, the family of the Muses.
+I am a fiddler and a poet; and you, I am told, play an exquisite violin,
+and have a standard taste in the belles lettres. The other day, a
+brother catgut gave me a charming Scots air of your composition. If I
+was pleased with the tune, I was in raptures with the title you have
+given it, and, taking up the idea, I have spun it into the three stanzas
+inclosed. Will you allow me, Sir, to present you them, as the dearest
+offering that a misbegotten son of poverty and rhyme has to give? I have
+a longing to take you by the hand and unburden my heart by saying, "Sir,
+I honour you as a man who supports the dignity of human nature, amid an
+age when frivolity and avarice have, between them, debased us below the
+brutes that perish!" But, alas, Sir! to me you are unapproachable. It is
+true, the Muses baptised me in Castalian streams; but the thoughtless
+gipsies forgot to give me a name. As the sex have served many a good
+fellow, the Nine have given me a great deal of pleasure; but, bewitching
+jades! they have beggared me. Would they but spare me a little of their
+cast-linen! Were it only to put it in my power to say, that I have a
+shirt on my back! But the idle wenches, like Solomon's lilies, "they
+toil not, neither do they spin;" so I must e'en continue to tie my
+remnant of a cravat, like the hangman's rope, round my naked throat, and
+coax my galligaskins to keep together their many-coloured fragments. As
+to the affair of shoes, I have given that up. My pilgrimages in my
+ballad-trade, from town to town, and on your stony-hearted turnpikes
+too, are not what even the hide of Job's behemoth could bear. The coat
+on my back is no more: I shall not speak evil of the dead. It would be
+equally unhandsome and ungrateful to find fault with my old surtout,
+which so kindly supplies and conceals the want of that coat. My hat,
+indeed, is a great favourite; and though I got it literally for an old
+song, I would not exchange it for the best beaver in Britain. I was,
+during several years, a kind of fac-totum servant to a country
+clergyman, where I picked up a good many scraps of learning,
+particularly--in some branches of the mathematics. Whenever I feel
+inclined to rest myself on my way, I take my seat under a hedge, laying
+my poetic wallet on the one side, and my fiddle-case on the other, and
+placing my hat between my legs, I can by means of its brim, or rather
+brims, go through the whole doctrine of the Conic Sections. However,
+Sir, don't let me mislead you, as if I would interest your pity. Fortune
+has so much forsaken me, that she has taught me to live without her;
+and, amid all my rags and poverty, I am as independent, and much more
+happy than a monarch of the world. According to the hackneyed metaphor,
+I value the several actors in the great drama of life, simply as they
+act their parts. I can look on a worthless fellow of a duke with
+unqualified contempt, and can regard an honest scavenger with sincere
+respect. As you, Sir, go through your role with such distinguished
+merit, permit me to make one in the chorus of universal applause, and
+assure you that with the highest respect, I have the honour to be, etc.
+
+   [Footnote 109: "Here Burns plays high Jacobite to that singular old
+   curmudgeon, Lady Constable. I imagine his Jacobitism, like my own,
+   belonged to the fancy rather than the reason."--Scott.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CXLIV.--To HIS BROTHER, GILBERT BURNS, MOSSGIEL.
+
+ELLISLAND, _11th January 1790_.
+
+Dear Brother,--I mean to take advantage of the frank, though I have not
+in my present frame of mind much appetite for exertion in writing. My
+nerves are in a cursed state. I feel that horrid hypochondria pervading
+every atom of both body and soul. This farm has undone my enjoyment of
+myself. It is a ruinous affair on all hands. But let it go to hell! I'll
+fight it out and be off with it.
+
+We have gotten a set of very decent players here just now. I have seen
+them an evening or two. David Campbell, in Ayr, wrote to me by the
+manager of the company, a Mr. Sutherland, who is a man of apparent
+worth. On New-year-day evening I gave him the following prologue, which
+he spouted to his audience with applause:--
+
+  No song nor dance I bring from yon great city, etc.
+
+I can no more. If once I was clear of this curst farm, I should respire
+more at ease.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CXLV.--To MR. WILLIAM DUNBAR, W.S.
+
+ELLISLAND, 14th Jan. 1790.
+
+Since we are here creatures of a day, since "a few summer days, a few
+winter nights, and the life of man is at an end," why, my dear much
+esteemed Sir, should you and I let negligent indolence, for I know it is
+nothing worse, step in between us and bar the enjoyment of a mutual
+correspondence? We are not shapen out of the common, heavy, methodical
+clod, the elemental stuff of the plodding selfish race, the sons of
+Arithmetic and Prudence; our feelings and hearts are not benumbed and
+poisoned by the cursed influence of riches, which, whatever blessing
+they may be in other respects, are no friends to the nobler qualities of
+the heart; in the name of random sensibility, then, let never the moon
+change on our silence any more. I have had a tract of bad health the
+most part of this winter, else you had heard from me long ere now. Thank
+heaven, I am now got so much better as to be able to partake a little in
+the enjoyments of life.
+
+Our friend, Cunningham, will perhaps have told you of my going into the
+Excise. The truth is, I found it a very convenient business to have L50
+per annum, nor have I yet felt any of these mortifying circumstances in
+it that I was led to fear.
+
+_Feb. 2nd._--I have not for sheer hurry of business been able to spare
+five minutes to finish my letter. Besides my farm business, I ride on my
+Excise matters at least two hundred miles every week. I have not by any
+means given up the Muses. You will see in the third volume of Johnson's
+Scots songs that I have contributed my mite there.
+
+But, my dear Sir, little ones that look up to you for paternal
+protection are an important charge. I have already two fine healthy
+stout little fellows, and I wish to throw some light upon them. I have a
+thousand reveries and schemes about them, and their future destiny. Not
+that I am an Utopian projector in these things. I am resolved never to
+breed up a son of mine to any of the learned professions. I know the
+value of independence; and since I cannot give my sons an independent
+fortune, I shall give them an independent line of life. What a chaos of
+hurry, chance, and changes is this world, when one sits soberly down to
+reflect on it! To a father, who himself knows the world, the thought
+that he shall have sons to usher into it, must fill him with dread; but
+if he have daughters, the prospect in a thoughtful moment is apt to
+shock him.
+
+I hope Mrs. Fordyce and the two young ladies are well. Do let me forget
+that they are nieces of yours, and let me say that I never saw a more
+interesting, sweeter pair of sisters in my life. I am the fool of my
+feelings and attachments. I often take up a volume of my Spenser to
+realise you to my imagination, [109a] and think over the social scenes
+we have had together. God grant that there may be another world more
+congenial for honest fellows beyond this; a world where these rubs and
+plagues of absence, distance, misfortunes, ill-health, etc., shall no
+more damp hilarity and divide friendship. This I know is your throng
+season, but half a page will much oblige, my dear Sir, yours sincerely,
+
+R. B.
+
+   [Footnote 109a: Mr. Dunbar had made him a present of a Spenser's
+   Poems.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CXLVL.--To MRS. DUNLOP.
+
+ELLISLAND, _25th January 1790._
+
+It has been owing to unremitting hurry of business that I have not
+written to you, Madam, long ere now. My health is greatly better, and I
+now begin once more to share in satisfaction and enjoyment with the rest
+of my fellow-creatures.
+
+Many thanks, my much esteemed friend, for your kind letters; but why
+will you make me run the risk of being contemptible and mercenary in my
+own eyes? When I pique myself on my independent spirit, I hope it is
+neither poetic licence, nor poetic rant; and I am so flattered with the
+honour you have done me in making me your compeer in friendship and
+friendly correspondence, that I cannot without pain, and a degree of
+mortification, be reminded of the real inequality between our
+situations.
+
+Most sincerely do I rejoice with you, dear Madam, in the good news of
+Anthony. Not only your anxiety about his fate, but my own esteem for
+such a noble, warm-hearted, manly young fellow, in the little I had of
+his acquaintance, has interested me deeply in his fortunes.
+
+Falconer, the unfortunate author of the "Shipwreck," which you so much
+admire, is no more. After witnessing the dreadful catastrophe he so
+feelingly describes in his poem, and after weathering many hard gales of
+fortune, he went to the bottom with the _Aurora_ frigate!
+
+I forget what part of Scotland had the honour of giving him birth; but
+he was the son of obscurity and mis'ortune.[110] He was one of those
+daring, adventurous spirits, which Scotland, beyond any other country,
+is remarkable for producing. Little does the fond mother think, as she
+hangs delighted over the sweet little leech at her bosom, where the poor
+fellow may hereafter wander, or what may be his fate. I remember a
+stanza in an old Scottish ballad, which, notwithstanding its rude
+simplicity, speaks feelingly to the heart:--
+
+  Little did my mother think,
+    That day she cradled me,
+  What land I was to travel in,
+    Or what death I should dee!
+
+Old Scottish songs are, you know, a favourite study and pursuit of mine,
+and now I am on that subject, allow me to give you two stanzas of
+another old simple ballad, which I am sure will please you. The
+catastrophe of the piece is a poor ruined female, lamenting her fate,
+She concludes with this pathetic wish:--
+
+  O that my father had ne'er on me smil'd;
+    O that my mother had ne'er to me sung!
+  O that my cradle had never been rock'd;
+    But that I had died when I was young!
+
+  O that the grave it were my bed;
+    My blankets were my winding sheet;
+  The clocks and the worms my bedfellows a';
+    And O sad sound as I should sleep!
+
+I do not remember in all my reading to have met with anything more truly
+the language of misery than the exclamation in the last line. Misery is
+like love; to speak its language truly, the author must have felt it.
+
+I am every day expecting the doctor to give your little godson the
+small-pox. They are _rife_ in the country, and I tremble for his fate.
+By the way, I cannot help congratulating you on his looks and spirit.
+Every person who sees him, acknowledges him to be the finest, handsomest
+child he has ever seen. I am myself delighted with the manly swell of
+his little chest, and a certain miniature dignity in the carriage of his
+head, and the glance of his fine black eye, which promise the undaunted
+gallantry of an independent mind.
+
+I thought to have sent you some rhymes, but time forbids. I promise you
+poetry until you are tired of it, next time I have the honour of
+assuring you how truly I am, etc.
+
+R. B.
+
+   [Footnote 110: He was of poor parentage, and a native of Edinburgh.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CXLVII.--To MR. PETER HILL, BOOKSELLER, EDINBURGH.
+
+ELLISLAND, _2nd Feb. 1790._
+
+No! I will not say one word about apologies or excuses for not
+writing--I am a poor, rascally gauger, condemned to gallop at least 200
+miles every week to inspect dirty ponds and yeasty barrels, and where
+can I find time to write to, or importance to interest anybody? The
+upbraidings of my conscience, nay, the upbraidings of my wife, have
+persecuted me on your account these two or three months past. I wish to
+God I was a great man, that my correspondence might throw light upon
+you, to let the world see what you really are: and then I would make
+your fortune, without putting my hand in my pocket for you, which, like
+all other great men, I suppose I would avoid as much as possible. What
+are you doing, and how are you doing? Have you lately seen any of my few
+friends? What has become of the borough reform, or how is the fate of my
+poor namesake Mademoiselle Burns decided? O man! but for thee and thy
+selfish appetites, and dishonest artifices, that beauteous form, and
+that once innocent and still ingenuous mind, might have shone
+conspicuous and lovely in the faithful wife, and the affectionate
+mother; and shall the unfortunate sacrifice to thy pleasures have no
+claim on thy humanity!
+
+I saw lately, in a review, some extracts from a new poem, called the
+"Village Curate;" send it me. I want likewise a cheap copy of _The
+World_. Mr. Armstrong, the young poet, who does me the honour to mention
+me so kindly in his works, please give him my best thanks for the copy
+of his book.[111]--I shall write him, my first leisure hour. I like his
+poetry much, but I think his style in prose quite astonishing.
+
+Your book came safe, and I am going to trouble you with farther
+commissions. I call it troubling you, because I want only books; the
+cheapest way, the best; so you may have to hunt for them in the evening
+auctions. I want Smollett's Works, for the sake of his incomparable
+humour. I have already _Roderick Random_ and _Humphrey Clinker_;
+--_Peregrine Pickle_, _Launcelot Greaves_, and _Ferdinand_, _Count
+Fathom_, I still want; but, as I said, the veriest ordinary copies will
+serve me. I am nice only in the appearance of my poets. I forget the
+price of Cowper's _Poems_, but, I believe, I must have them. I saw the
+other day, proposals for a publication, entitled _Banks's New and
+Complete Christian Family Bible_, printed for C. Cooke, Paternoster Row,
+London. He promises at least to give in the work, I think it is three
+hundred and odd engravings, to which he has put the names of the first
+artists in London. You will know the character of the performance, as
+some numbers of it are published, and if it is really what it pretends
+to be, set me down as a subscriber, and send me the published numbers.
+
+Let me hear from you, your first leisure minute, and trust me, you shall
+in future have no reason to complain of my silence. The dazzling
+perplexity of novelty will dissipate, and leave me to pursue my course
+in the quiet path of methodical routine.
+
+R. B.
+
+   [Footnote 111: John Armstrong, student in the University of
+   Edinburgh, who had recently published a volume of Juvenile Poems.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CXLVIIL.--To MR. W. NICOL.
+
+ELLISLAND, _Feb. 9th, 1790._
+
+My Dear Sir,--That damn'd mare of yours is dead. I would freely have
+given her price to have saved her; she has vexed me beyond description.
+Indebted as I was to your goodness beyond what I can ever repay, I
+eagerly grasped at your offer to have the mare with me. That I might at
+least show my readiness in wishing to be grateful, I took every care of
+her in my power. She was never crossed for riding above half a score of
+times by me or in my keeping. I drew her in the plough, one of three,
+for one poor week. I refused fifty-five shillings for her, which was the
+highest bode I could squeeze for her. I fed her up and had her in fine
+order for Dumfries fair, when, four or five days before the fair, she
+was seized with an unaccountable disorder in the sinews, or somewhere in
+the bones of the neck--with a weakness or total want of power in her
+fillets; and, in short, the whole vertebrae of her spine seemed to be
+diseased and unhinged, and in eight and forty hours, in spite of the two
+best farriers in the country, she died and be damn'd to her! The
+farriers said that she had been quite strained in the fillets beyond
+cure before you had bought her; and that the poor devil, though she
+might keep a little flesh, had been jaded and quite worn out with
+fatigue and oppression. While she was with me she was under my own eye,
+and I assure you, my much valued friend, everything was done for her
+that could be done; and the accident has vexed me to the heart. In fact,
+I could not pluck up spirits to write to you, on account of the
+unfortunate business.
+
+There is little new in this country. Our theatrical company, of which
+you must have heard, leave us this week. Their merit and character are
+indeed very great, both on the stage and in private life; not a
+worthless creature among them; and their encouragement has been
+accordingly. Their usual run is from eighteen to twenty-five pounds a
+night; seldom less than the one, and the house will hold no more than
+the other. There have been repeated instances of sending away six, and
+eight, and ten pounds a night for want of room. A new theatre is to be
+built by subscription; the first stone is to be laid on Friday first to
+come. Three hundred guineas have been raised by thirty subscribers, and
+thirty more might have been got if wanted. The manager, Mr. Sutherland,
+was introduced to me by a friend from Ayr; and a worthier or cleverer
+fellow I have rarely met with. Some of our clergy have slipt in by
+stealth now and then; but they have got up a farce of their own. You
+must have heard how the Rev. Mr. Lawson of Kirkmahoe, seconded by the
+Rev. Mr. Kirkpatrick of Dunscore, and the rest of that faction, have
+accused, in formal process, the unfortunate and Rev. Mr. Heron of
+Kirkgunzeon, that in ordaining Mr. Nielson to the cure of souls in
+Kirkbean, he, the said Heron, feloniously and treasonably bound the said
+Nielson to the confession of faith, _so far as it was agreeable to
+reason and the word of God!_
+
+Mrs. B. begs to be remembered most gratefully to you. Little Bobby and
+Frank are charmingly well and healthy. I am jaded to death with fatigue.
+For these two or three months, on an average, I have not ridden less
+than two hundred miles per week. I have done little in the poetic way. I
+have given Mr. Sutherland two Prologues, one of which was delivered last
+week. I have likewise strung four or five barbarous stanzas, to the tune
+of Chevy Chase, by way of Elegy on your poor unfortunate mare, beginning
+(the name she got here was Peg Nicholson),--
+
+  Peg Nicholson was a good bay mare,
+    As ever trod on airn;
+  But now she's floating down the Nith,
+    And past the mouth o' Cairn.
+
+My best compliments to Mrs. Nicol, and little Neddy, and all the family;
+I hope Ned is a good scholar, and will come out to gather nuts and
+apples with me next harvest.
+
+R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CXLIX.--To MR. CUNNINGHAM, WRITER, EDINBURGH.
+
+ELLISLAND, _13th February 1790._
+
+I beg your pardon, my dear and much valued friend, for writing to you on
+this very unfashionable, unsightly sheet--
+
+  My poverty but not my will consents.
+
+But to make amends, since of modish post I have none, except one poor
+widowed half-sheet of gilt, which lies in my drawer, among my plebeian
+foolscap pages, like the widow of a man of fashion, whom that unpolite
+scoundrel, Necessity, has driven from Burgundy and Pineapple to a dish
+of Bohea, with the scandal-bearing help-mate of a village-priest; or a
+glass of whisky-toddy with a ruby-nosed yokefellow of a foot-padding
+exciseman--I make a vow to inclose this sheet-full of epistolary
+fragments in that my only scrap of gilt paper.
+
+I am, indeed, your unworthy debtor for three friendly letters. I ought
+to have written to you long ere now, but it is a literal fact, I have
+scarcely a spare moment. It is not that I _will not_ write to you: Miss
+Burnet is not more dear to her guardian angel, nor his grace the Duke of
+Queensberry to the powers of darkness, than my friend Cunningham to me.
+It is not that I cannot write to you; should you doubt it, take the
+following fragment, which was intended for you some time ago, and be
+convinced that I can antithesize sentiment, and circumvolute periods, as
+well as any coiner of phrase in the regions of philology.
+
+_December 1789._
+
+My Dear Cunningham,--Where are you? And what are you doing? Can you be
+that son of levity, who takes up a friendship as he takes up a fashion;
+or are you, like some other of the worthiest fellows in the world, the
+victim of indolence, laden with fetters of ever-increasing weight?
+
+What strange beings we are! Since we have a portion of conscious
+existence, equally capable of enjoying pleasure, happiness, and rapture,
+or of suffering pain, wretchedness, and misery, it is surely worthy of
+an inquiry, whether there be not such a thing as a science of life;
+whether method, economy, and fertility of expedients, be not applicable
+to enjoyment; and whether there be not a want of dexterity in pleasure,
+which renders our little scantling of happiness still less; and a
+profuseness, an intoxication in bliss, which leads to satiety, disgust,
+and self-abhorrence. There is not a doubt but that health, talents,
+character, decent competency, respectable friends, are real substantial
+blessings; and yet do we not daily see those who enjoy many or all of
+these good things, contrive, notwithstanding, to be as unhappy as others
+to whose lot few of them have fallen? I believe one great source of this
+mistake or misconduct is owing to a certain stimulus, with us called
+ambition, which goads us up the hill of life, not as we ascend other
+eminences; for the laudable curiosity of viewing an extended landscape,
+but rather for the dishonest pride of looking down on others of our
+fellow-creatures, seemingly diminutive in humbler stations, etc., etc.
+
+_Sunday, 14th February 1790._
+
+God help me! I am now obliged to join
+
+  Night to day, and Sunday to the week.
+
+If there be any truth in the orthodox faith of these churches, I am
+damn'd past redemption, and what is worse, damn'd to all eternity. I am
+deeply read in Boston's _Four-fold State_, Marshal _On Sanctification_,
+Guthrie's _Trial of a Saving Interest_, etc., but "there is no balm in
+Gilead, there is no physician there," for me; so I shall e'en turn
+Arminian, and trust to "Sincere though imperfect obedience."
+
+_Tuesday, 16th._
+
+Luckily for me, I was prevented from the discussion of the knotty point
+at which I had just made a full stop. All my fears and cares are of this
+world; if there is another, an honest man has nothing to fear from it. I
+hate a man that wishes to be a deist; but I fear, every fair,
+unprejudiced inquirer must in some degree be a sceptic. It is not that
+there are any very staggering arguments against the immortality of man;
+but, like electricity, phlogiston, etc., the subject is so involved in
+darkness, that we want data to go upon. One thing frightens me much:
+that we are to live for ever seems _too good news to be true_. That we
+are to enter into a new scene of existence, where, exempt from want and
+pain, we shall enjoy ourselves and our friends without satiety or
+separation--how much should I be indebted to any one who could fully
+assure me that this was certain!
+
+My time is once more expired. I will write to Mr. Cleghorn soon. God
+bless him and all his concerns! And may all the powers that preside over
+conviviality and friendship, be present with all their kindest
+influence, when the bearer of this, Mr. Syme, and you meet! I wish I
+could also make one.
+
+Finally, brethren, farewell! Whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever
+things are gentle, whatsoever things are charitable, whatsoever things
+are kind, think on these things, and think on
+
+R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CL.--To MR. HILL, BOOKSELLER, EDINBURGH.
+
+ELLISLAND, _2nd March 1790._
+
+At a late meeting of the Monkland Friendly Society, it was resolved to
+augment their library by the following books, which you are to send us
+as soon as possible:--_The Mirror, The Lounger, Man of Feeling, Man of
+the World,_ (these, for my own sake, I wish to have by the first
+carrier), Knox's _History of the Reformation_, Rae's _History of the
+Rebellion in 1715_, any good History of the Rebellion in 1745, _A
+Display of the Secession Act and Testimony_, by Mr. Gib, Hervey's
+_Meditations_, Beveridge's _Thoughts_, and another copy of Watson's
+_Body of Divinity_.
+
+I wrote to Mr. A. Masterton three or four months ago, to pay some money
+he owed me into your hands, and lately I wrote to you to the same
+purpose, but I have heard from neither one nor other of you.
+
+In addition to the books I commissioned in my last, I want very much, an
+Index to the Excise Laws, or an Abridgment of all the statutes now in
+force, relative to the Excise, by Jellinger Symons; I want three copies
+of this book: if it is now to be had, cheap or dear, get it for me. An
+honest country neighbour of mine wants too a Family Bible, the larger
+the better, but second-handed, for he does not choose to give above ten
+shillings for the book. I want likewise for myself, as you can pick them
+up, second-handed or cheap, copies of Otway's Dramatic Works, Ben
+Jonson's, Dryden's, Congreve's, Wycherley's, Vanbrugh's, Gibber's, or
+any Dramatic Works of the more modern Macklin, Garrick, Foote, Colman,
+or Sheridan. A good copy too of Moliere, in French, I much want. Any
+other good dramatic authors in that language I want also; but comic
+authors chiefly, though I should wish to have Racine, Corneille, and
+Voltaire too. I am in no hurry for all, or any of these, but if you
+accidentally meet with them very-cheap, get them for me.
+
+And now, to quit the dry walk of business, how do you do, my dear
+friend? and how is Mrs. Hill? I trust, if now and then not so
+_elegantly_ handsome, at least as amiable, and sings as divinely as
+ever. My good wife too has a charming "wood-note wild;" now could we
+four get together, etc.
+
+I am out of all patience with this vile world, for one thing. Mankind
+are by nature benevolent creatures, except in a few scoundrelly
+instances. I do not think that avarice of the good things we chance to
+have, is born with us; but we are placed here amid so much nakedness,
+and hunger, and poverty, and want, that we are under a cursed necessity
+of studying selfishness, in order that we may exist! Still there are, in
+every age, a few souls that all the wants and woes of life cannot debase
+to selfishness, or even to the necessary alloy of caution and prudence.
+If ever I am in danger of vanity, it is when I contemplate myself on
+this side of my disposition and character. God knows I am no saint; I
+have a whole host of follies and sins to answer for; but if I could--and
+I believe I do it as far as I can--I would wipe away all tears from all
+eyes. Adieu!
+
+R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CLI.--To MRS. DUNLOP.
+
+ELLISLAND, _10th April 1790._
+
+I have just now, my ever honoured friend, enjoyed a very high luxury, in
+reading a paper of the _Lounger_. You know my national prejudices. I had
+often read and admired the _Spectator_, _Adventurer_, _Rambler_, and
+_World_, but still with a certain regret, that they were so thoroughly
+and entirely English. Alas! have I often said to myself, what are all
+the boasted advantages which my country reaps from the Union, that can
+counterbalance the annihilation of her independence, and even her very
+name? I often repeat that couplet of my favourite poet, Goldsmith--
+
+    States of native liberty possest,
+  Tho' very poor, may yet be very blest.
+
+Nothing can reconcile me to the common terms, "English ambassador,"
+"English court," etc., and I am out of all patience to see that
+equivocal character, Hastings, impeached by "the Commons of England."
+Tell me, my friend, is this weak prejudice? I believe in my conscience
+such ideas as "my country; her independence; her honour; the illustrious
+names that mark the history of my native land," etc.--I believe these,
+among your _men of the world_, men who, in fact, guide for the most part
+and govern our world, are looked on as so many modifications of
+wrong-headedness. They know the use of bawling out such terms, to rouse
+or lead THE RABBLE; but for their own private use, with almost all the
+_able statesmen_ that ever existed, or now exist, when they talk of
+right and wrong they only mean proper and improper; and their measure of
+conduct is, not what they ought, but what they dare. For the truth of
+this I shall not ransack the history of nations, but appeal to one of
+the ablest judges of men that ever lived--the celebrated Earl of
+Chesterfield. In fact, a man who could thoroughly control his vices
+whenever they interfered with his interests, and who could completely
+put on the appearance of every virtue as often as it suited his
+purposes, is, on the Stanhopian plan, the _perfect man_; a man to lead
+nations. But are great abilities, complete without a flaw, and polished
+without a blemish, the standard of human excellence? This is certainly
+the staunch opinion of _men of the world_; but I call on honour, virtue,
+and worth, to give the Stygian doctrine a loud negative! However, this
+must be allowed, that, if you abstract from man the idea of an existence
+beyond the grave, _then_, the true measure of human conduct is, _proper_
+and _improper_: virtue and vice, as dispositions of the heart, are, in
+that case, of scarcely the same import and value to the world at large,
+as harmony and discord in the modifications of sound; and a delicate
+sense of honour, like a nice ear for music, though it may sometimes give
+the possessor an ecstacy unknown to the coarser organs of the herd, yet,
+considering the harsh gratings, and inharmonic jars, in this ill-tuned
+state of being, it is odds but the individual would be as happy, and
+certainly would be as much respected by the true judges of society as it
+would then stand, without either a good ear or a good heart.
+
+You must know I have just met with the _Mirror_ and _Lounger_ for the
+first time, and I am quite in raptures with them; I should be glad to
+have your opinion of some of the papers. The one I have just read,
+_Lounger_, No. 61, has cost me more honest tears than anything I have
+read for a long time. Mackenzie has been called the Addison of the
+Scots, and in my opinion, Addison would not be hurt at the comparison.
+If he has not Addison's exquisite humour, he as certainly outdoes him in
+the tender and the pathetic. His _Man of Feeling_ (but I am not counsel
+learned in the laws of criticism) I estimate as the first performance in
+its kind I ever saw. From what book, moral or even pious, will the
+susceptible young mind receive impressions more congenial to humanity
+and kindness, generosity and benevolence; in short, more of all that
+ennobles the soul to herself, or endears her to others--than from the
+simple affecting tale of poor Harley?
+
+Still, with all my admiration of Mackenzie's writings, I do not know if
+they are the fittest reading for a young man who is about to set out, as
+the phrase is, to make his way into life. Do you not think, Madam, that
+among the few favoured of Heaven in the structure of their minds (for
+such there certainly are) there may be a purity, a tenderness, a
+dignity, an elegance of soul, which are of no use, nay, in some degree,
+absolutely disqualifying for the truly important business of making a
+man's way into life? If I am not much mistaken, my gallant young friend,
+Antony, is very much under these disqualifications; and for the young
+females of a family I could mention, well may they excite parental
+solicitude; for I, a common acquaintance, or as my vanity will have it,
+an humble friend, have often trembled for a turn of mind which may
+render them eminently happy--or peculiarly miserable!
+
+I have been manufacturing some verses lately; but as I have got the most
+hurried season of Excise business over, I hope to have more leisure to
+transcribe any thing that may show how much I have the honour to be,
+Madam, yours, etc.
+
+R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *        *
+
+CLII.--To DR. JOHN MOORE, LONDON.
+
+DUMFRIES, _Excise-Office, 14th July 1790._
+
+Sir,--Coming into town this morning to attend my duty in this office, it
+being collection-day, I met with a gentleman who tells me he is on his
+way to London; so I take the opportunity of writing to you, as franking
+is at present under a temporary death. I shall have some snatches of
+leisure through the day, amid our horrid business and bustle, and I
+shall improve them as well as I can; but let my letter be as stupid
+as..., as miscellaneous as a newspaper, as short as a hungry
+grace-before-meat, or as long as a law-paper in the Douglas cause; as
+ill spelt as country John's billet-doux, or as unsightly a scrawl as
+Betty Byre-Mucker's answer to it; I hope, considering circumstances, you
+will forgive it; and as it will put you to no expense of postage, I
+shall have the less reflection about it.
+
+I am sadly ungrateful in not returning you my thanks for your most
+valuable present, _Zeluco_. In fact, you are in some degree blameable
+for my neglect. You were pleased to express a wish for my opinion of the
+work, which so flattered me, that nothing less would serve my
+over-weening fancy, than a formal criticism on the book. In fact, I have
+gravely planned a comparative view of you, Fielding, Richardson, and
+Smollett, in your different qualities and merits as novel-writers. This,
+I own, betrays my ridiculous vanity, and I may probably never bring the
+business to bear; but I am fond of the spirit young Elihu shows in the
+book of Job--"And I said, I will also declare my opinion." I have quite
+disfigured my copy of the book with my annotations. I never take it up
+without at the same time taking my pencil, and marking with asterisms,
+parentheses, etc., wherever I meet with an original thought, a nervous
+remark on life and manners, a remarkably well-turned period, or a
+character sketched with uncommon precision.
+
+Though I should hardly think of fairly writing out my "Comparative
+View," I shall certainly trouble you with my remarks, such as they are.
+
+I have just received from my gentleman that horrid summons in the Book
+of Revelation--"that time shall be no more."
+
+The little collection of sonnets have some charming poetry in them. If
+_indeed_ I am indebted to the fair author for the book, and not, as I
+rather suspect, to a celebrated author of the other sex, I should
+certainly have written to the lady, with my grateful acknowledgments,
+and my own idea of the comparative excellence of her pieces.[112] I
+would do this last, not from any vanity of thinking that my remarks
+could be of much consequence to Mrs. Smith, but merely from my own
+feelings as an author, doing as I would be done by.
+
+R. B.
+
+   [Footnote 112: Sonnets of Charlotte Smith.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CLIII.--To MR. MURDOCH,[113] TEACHER OF FRENCH, LONDON.
+
+ELLISLAND, _July_ 16_th_, 1790.
+
+My Dear Sir,--I received a letter from you a long time ago, but
+unfortunately, as it was in the time of my peregrinations and
+journeyings through Scotland, I mislaid or lost it, and by consequence
+your direction along with it. Luckily my good star brought me acquainted
+with Mr. Kennedy, who, I understand, is an acquaintance of yours: and by
+his means and mediation I hope to replace that link, which my
+unfortunate negligence had so unluckily broke, in the chain of our
+correspondence. I was the more vexed at the vile accident, as my brother
+William, a journeyman saddler, has been for some time in London; and
+wished above all things for your direction, that he might have paid his
+respects to his father's friend.
+
+His last address he sent me was, "Wm. Burns, at Mr. Barber's, saddler,
+No. 181 Strand." I writ him by Mr. Kennedy, but neglected to ask him for
+your address; so, if you find a spare half minute, please let my brother
+know by a card where and when he will find you, and the poor fellow will
+joyfully wait on you, as one of the few surviving friends of the man
+whose name, and Christian name too, he has the honour to bear.
+
+The next letter I write you shall be a long one. I have much to tell you
+of "hair-breadth 'scapes in th' imminent deadly breach," with all the
+eventful history of a life, the early years of which owed so much to
+your kind tutorage; but this at an hour of leisure. My kindest
+compliments to Mrs. Murdoch and family.--I am ever, my dear Sir, your
+obliged friend,
+
+R. B.
+
+   [Footnote 113: He had been Burns's schoolmaster at Mount Oliphant.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CLIV.--To MR. CUNNINGHAM.
+
+ELLISLAND, _8th August 1790._
+
+Forgive me, my once dear, and ever dear friend, my seeming negligence.
+You cannot sit down and fancy the busy life I lead.
+
+I laid down my goose feather to beat my brains for an apt simile, and
+had some thoughts of a country grannum at a family christening; a bride
+on the market-day before her marriage; or a tavern-keeper at an election
+dinner; but the resemblance that hits my fancy best is, that blackguard
+miscreant, Satan, who roams about like a roaring lion, seeking,
+searching, whom he may devour. However, tossed about as I am, if I
+choose (and who would not choose) to bind down with the crampets of
+attention the brazen foundation of integrity, I may rear up the
+superstructure of Independence, and from its daring turrets bid defiance
+to the storms of fate. And is not this a "consummation devoutly to
+be wished?"
+
+  Thy spirit, Independence, let me share;
+    Lord of the lion-heart, and eagle-eye!
+  Thy steps I follow with my bosom bare,
+    Nor heed the storm that howls along the sky!
+
+Are not these noble verses? They are the introduction of Smollett's Ode
+to Independence: if you have not seen the poem, I will send it to you.
+How wretched is the man that hangs on by the favours of the great! To
+shrink from every dignity of man, at the approach of a lordly piece of
+self-consequence, who, amid all his tinsel glitter, and stately hauteur,
+is but a creature formed as thou art--and perhaps not so well formed as
+thou art--came into the world a puling infant as thou didst, and must go
+out of it as all men must, a naked corse...
+
+R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CLV.--To MR. CRAUFORD TAIT,[114] W.S., EDINBURGH.
+
+ELLISLAND, 15th _October_ 1790.
+
+Dear Sir,--Allow me to introduce to your acquaintance the bearer, Mr.
+Wm. Duncan, a friend of mine, whom I have long known and long loved. His
+father, whose only son he is, has a decent little property in Ayrshire,
+and has bred the young man to the law, in which department he comes up
+an adventurer to your good town. I shall give you my friend's character
+in two words: as to his head, he has talents enough, and more than
+enough for common life; as to his heart, when nature had kneaded the
+kindly clay that composes it, she said, "I can no more."
+
+You, my good Sir, were born under kinder stars; but your fraternal
+sympathy, I well know, can enter into the feelings of the young man who
+goes into life with the laudable ambition to do something, and to be
+something among his fellow-creatures; but whom the consciousness of
+friendless obscurity presses to the earth and wounds to the soul!
+
+Even the fairest of his virtues are against him. That independent
+spirit, and that ingenuous modesty, qualities inseparable from a noble
+mind, are, with the million, circumstances not a little disqualifying.
+What pleasure is in the power of the fortunate and the happy, by their
+notice and patronage, to brighten the countenance and glad the heart of
+such depressed youth! I am not so angry with mankind for their deaf
+economy of the purse--the goods of this world cannot be divided without
+being lessened--but why be a niggard of that which bestows bliss on a
+fellow-creature, yet takes nothing from our own means of enjoyment? We
+wrap ourselves up in the cloak of our own better fortune, and turn away
+our eyes, lest the wants and woes of our brother-mortals should disturb
+the selfish apathy of our souls!
+
+I am the worst hand in the world at asking a favour. That indirect
+address, that insinuating implication, which, without any positive
+request, plainly expresses your wish, is a talent not to be acquired at
+a plough-tail. Tell me, then, for you can, in what periphrasis of
+language, in what circumvolution of phrase, I shall envelope, yet not
+conceal, the plain story. "My dear Mr, Tait, my friend, Mr. Duncan, whom
+I have the pleasure of introducing to you, is a young lad of your own
+profession, and a gentleman of much modesty and great worth. Perhaps it
+may be in your power to assist him in the, to him, important
+consideration of getting a place; but, at all events, your notice and
+acquaintance will be a very great acquisition to him; and I dare pledge
+myself that he will never disgrace your favour."
+
+You may possibly be surprised, Sir, at such a letter from me; 'tis, I
+own, in the usual way of calculating these matters, more than our
+acquaintance entitles me to; but my answer is short: Of all the men at
+your time of life whom I knew in Edinburgh, you are the most accessible
+on the side on which I have assailed you. You are very much altered
+indeed from what you were when I knew you, if generosity point the path
+you will not tread, or humanity call to you in vain.
+
+As to myself, a being to whose interest I believe you are still a
+well-wisher; I am here, breathing at all times, thinking sometimes, and
+rhyming now and then. Every situation has its share of the cares and
+pains of life, and my situation I am persuaded has a full ordinary
+allowance of its pleasures and enjoyments.
+
+My best compliments to your father and Miss Tait. If you have an
+opportunity, please remember me in the solemn league and covenant of
+friendship to Mrs. Lewis Hay.[115] I am a wretch for not writing her;
+but I am so hackneyed with self-accusation in that way, that my
+conscience lies in my bosom with scarce the sensibility of an oyster in
+its shell. Where is Lady M'Kenzie? wherever she is, God bless her! I
+likewise beg leave to trouble you with compliments to Mr. Wm. Hamilton;
+Mrs. Hamilton and family; and Mrs. Chalmers, when you are in that
+country. Should you meet with Miss Nimmo, please remember me kindly
+to her.
+
+R. B.
+
+   [Footnote 114: Son of Mr. Tait of Harviestoun, where Burns was a
+   happy guest in the Autumn of 1787. He was also father of the late
+   Archbishop Tait.]
+
+   [Footnote 115: Miss Peggy Chalmers.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CLVL.--To MRS. DUNLOP.
+
+ELLISLAND, _November_ 1790.
+
+"As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country."
+
+Fate has long owed me a letter of good news from you, in return for the
+many tidings of sorrow which I have received. In this instance I most
+cordially obey the apostle--"Rejoice with them that do rejoice;" for me,
+to sing for joy, is no new thing; but to preach for joy, as I have done
+in the commencement of this epistle, is a pitch of extravagant rapture
+to which I never rose before.
+
+I read your letter--I literally jumped for joy. How could such a
+mercurial creature as a poet lumpishly keep his seat on the receipt of
+the best news from his best friend. I seized my gilt-headed Wangee rod,
+an instrument indispensably necessary in the moment of inspiration and
+rapture; and stride, stride-quick and quicker-out skipt I among the
+broomy banks of Nith to muse over my joy by retail. To keep within the
+bounds of prose was impossible. Mrs. Little's is a more elegant, but not
+a more sincere compliment to the sweet little fellow, than I, extempore
+almost, poured out to him in the following verses:--
+
+  Sweet flow'ret, pledge o' meikle love, etc.[116]
+
+I am much flattered by your approbation of my "Tam o' Shanter," which
+you express in your former letter; though, by-the-bye, you load me in
+that said letter with accusations heavy and many; to all which I plead,
+_not guilty!_ Your book is, I hear, on the road to reach me. As to
+printing of poetry, when you prepare it for the press, you have only to
+spell it right, and place the capital letters properly: as to the
+punctuation, the printers do that themselves.
+
+I have a copy of "Tam o' Shanter" ready to send you by the first
+opportunity: it is too heavy to send by post.
+
+I heard of Mr. Corbet lately.[116a] He, in consequence of your
+recommendation, is most zealous to serve me. Please favour me soon with
+an account of your good folks; if Mrs. H. is recovering, and the young
+gentleman doing well.
+
+R. B.
+
+   [Footnote 116: See Poems.]
+
+   [Footnote 116a: A Supervisor of Excise.]
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+CLVIL.--To MR. WILLIAM DUNBAR, W.S.
+
+ELLISLAND, 17_th January_ 1791.
+
+I am not gone to Elysium, most noble Colonel,[117] but am still here in
+this sublunary world, serving my God by propagating His image, and
+honouring my king by begetting him loyal subjects.
+
+Many happy returns of the season await my friend. May the thorns of care
+never beset his path! May peace be an inmate of his bosom, and rapture a
+frequent visitor of his soul! May the blood-hounds of misfortune never
+track his steps, nor the screech-owl of sorrow alarm his dwelling! May
+enjoyment tell thy hours, and pleasure number thy days, thou friend of
+the Bard! "Blessed be he that blesseth thee, and cursed be he that
+curseth thee!!!"
+
+As a farther proof that I am still in the land of existence, I send you
+a poem, the latest I have composed. I have a particular reason for
+wishing you only to show it to select friends, should you think it
+worthy a friend's perusal: but if at your first leisure hour you will
+favour me with your opinion of, and strictures on the performance, it
+will be an additional obligation on, dear Sir, your deeply indebted
+humble servant,
+
+R. B.
+
+   [Footnote 117: Colonel of Volunteers.]
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CLVIIL.--To MR. PETER HILL.
+
+ELLISLAND, 17_th January_ 1791.
+
+Take these two guineas, and place them over against that damn'd account
+of yours which has gagged my mouth these five or six months. I can as
+little write good things as apologies to the man I owe money to. O the
+supreme misery of making three guineas do the business of five! Not all
+the labours of Hercules not all the Hebrews' three centuries of Egyptian
+bondage, were such an insuperable business, such an infernal task!
+Poverty, thou half-sister of death, thou cousin-german of hell! where
+shall I find force or execration equal to the amplitude of thy demerits?
+Oppressed by thee, the venerable ancient, grown hoary in the practice of
+every virtue, laden with years and wretchedness, implores a little,
+little aid to support his existence, from a stony-hearted son of Mammon,
+whose sun of prosperity never knew a cloud; and is by him denied and
+insulted. Oppressed by thee, the man of sentiment, whose heart glows
+with independence, and melts with sensibility, inly pines under the
+neglect, or writhes in bitterness of soul under the contamely of
+arrogant unfeeling wealth. Oppressed by thee, the son of genius, whose
+ill-starred ambition plants him at the tables of the fashionable and
+polite, must see in suffering silence his remark neglected and his
+person despised, while shallow greatness, in his idiot attempts at wit,
+shall meet with countenance and applause. Nor is it only the family of
+worth that have reason to complain of thee; the children of folly and
+vice, though in common with thee the offspring of evil, smart equally
+under thy rod. Owing to thee, the man of unfortunate disposition and
+neglected education, is condemned as a fool for his dissipation,
+despised and shunned as a needy wretch, when his follies as usual bring
+him to want; and when his unprincipled necessities drive him to
+dishonest practices, he is abhorred as a miscreant, and perishes by the
+justice of his country. But far otherwise is the lot of the man of
+family and fortune. _His_ early follies and extravagance are spirit and
+fire; _his_ consequent wants are the embarrassments of an honest fellow;
+and when, to remedy the matter, he has gained a legal commission to
+plunder distant provinces, or massacre peaceful nations, he returns,
+perhaps, laden with the spoils of rapine and murder; lives wicked and
+respected; and dies a scoundrel and a lord. Nay, worst of all, alas for
+helpless woman!...
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Well! divines may say of it what they please; but execration is to the
+mind, what phlebotomy is to the body; the overloaded sluices of both are
+wonderfully relieved by their respective evacuations.
+
+R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+CLIX.--To DR. MOORE.
+
+ELLISLAND, 28_th January_ 1791.
+
+I do not know, Sir, whether you are a subscriber to Grose's _Antiquities
+of Scotland_. If you are, the inclosed poem will not be altogether new
+to you. Captain Grose did me the favour to send me a dozen copies of the
+proof sheet, of which this is one. Should you have read the piece
+before, still this will answer the principal end I have in view: it will
+give me another opportunity of thanking you for all your goodness to the
+rustic bard; and also of showing you, that the abilities you have been
+pleased to commend and patronise, are still employed in the way
+you wish.
+
+The _Elegy on Captain Henderson_ is a tribute to the memory of the man I
+loved much. Poets have in this the same advantage as Roman Catholics;
+they can be of service to their friends after they have passed that
+bourne where all other kindness ceases to be of avail. Whether, after
+all, either the one or the other be of any real service to the dead, is,
+I fear, very problematical; but I am sure they are highly gratifying to
+the living: and as a very orthodox text, I forget where in Scripture,
+says, "whatsoever is not of faith is sin;" so say I, whatsoever is not
+detrimental to society, and is of positive enjoyment, is of God, the
+giver of all good things, and ought to be received and enjoyed by His
+creatures with thankful delight. As almost all my religious tenets
+originate from my heart, I am wonderfully pleased with the idea, that I
+can still keep up a tender intercourse with the dearly beloved friend,
+or still more dearly beloved mistress, who is gone to the world
+of spirits.
+
+The ballad on Queen Mary was begun while I was busy with _Percy's
+Reliques of English Poetry_. By the way, how much is every honest heart,
+which has a tincture of Caledonian prejudice, obliged to you for your
+glorious story of Buchanan and Targe! 'Twas an unequivocal proof of your
+loyal gallantry of soul giving Targe the victory. I should have been
+mortified to the ground if you had not.
+
+I have just read over, once more of many times, your _Zeluco_. I marked
+with my pencil as I went along, every passage that pleased me above the
+rest; and one or two, which, with humble deference, I am disposed to
+think unequal to the merits of the book. I have sometimes thought to
+transcribe these marked passages, or at least so much of them as to
+point where they are, and send them to you. Original strokes that
+strongly depict the human heart, is your and Fielding's province, beyond
+any other novelist I have ever perused. Richardson, indeed, might,
+perhaps, be excepted; but unhappily, his _dramatis personae_ are beings
+of another world; and however they may captivate the unexperienced
+romantic fancy of a boy or a girl, they will ever, in proportion as we
+have made human nature our study, dissatisfy our riper years.
+
+As to my private concerns, I am going on, a mighty tax-gatherer before
+the Lord, and have lately had the interest to get myself ranked on the
+list of excise as a supervisor. T am not yet employed as such, but in a
+few years I shall fall into the file of supervisorship by seniority. I
+have had an immense loss in the death of the Earl of Glencairn--the
+patron from whom all my fame and fortune took its rise. Independent of
+my grateful attachment to him, which was indeed so strong that it
+pervaded my very soul, and was entwined with the thread of my existence;
+so soon as the prince's friends had got in, (and every dog, you know,
+has his day) my getting forward in the excise would have been an easier
+business than otherwise it will be. Though this was a consummation
+devoutly to be wished, yet, thank Heaven, I can live and rhyme as I am;
+and as to my boys, poor little fellows! if I cannot place them on as
+high an elevation in life as I could wish, I shall, if I am favoured so
+much of the Disposer of events as to see that period, fix them on as
+broad and independent a basis as possible. Among the many wise adages
+which have been treasured up by our Scottish ancestors, this is one of
+the best--_Better be the head o' the commonalty than the tail o'
+the gentry_.
+
+But I am got on a subject which, however interesting to me, is of no
+manner of consequence to you; so I shall give you a short poem on the
+other page, and close this with assuring you how sincerely I have the
+honour to be, yours, etc.,
+
+R. B.
+
+Written on the blank leaf of a book which I presented to a very young
+lady, whom I had formerly characterised under the denomination of _The
+Rose Bud._[118]
+
+   [Footnote 118: See Poems---"Lines to Miss Cruikshank."]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CLX.--To MRS. DUNLOP.
+
+ELLISLAND, _7th Feb. 1791._
+
+When I tell you, Madam, that by a fall, not from my horse, but with my
+horse, I have been a cripple some time, and that this is the first day
+my arm and hand have been able to serve me in writing,--you will allow
+that it is too good an apology for my seemingly ungrateful silence. I am
+now getting better, and am able to rhyme a little, which implies some
+tolerable ease; as I cannot think that the most poetic genius is able to
+compose on the rack.
+
+I do not remember if ever I mentioned to you my having an idea of
+composing an elegy on the late Miss Burnet, of Monboddo. I had the
+honour of being pretty well acquainted with her, and have seldom felt so
+much at the loss of an acquaintance, as when I heard that so amiable and
+accomplished a piece of God's work was no more. I have, as yet, gone no
+farther than the following fragment, of which please let me have your
+opinion. You know that elegy is a subject so much exhausted, that any
+new idea on the business is not to be expected: 'tis well if we can
+place an old idea in a new light. How far I have succeeded as to this
+last, you will judge from what follows. I have proceeded no further.
+
+Your kind letter, with your kind _remembrance_ of your godson, came
+safe. This last, Madam, is scarcely what my pride can bear. As to the
+little fellow,[118a] he is, partiality apart, the finest boy I have of a
+long time seen. He is now seventeen months old, has the small-pox and
+measles over, has cut several teeth, and never had a grain of doctor's
+drugs in his bowels.
+
+I am truly happy to hear that the "little floweret" is blooming so fresh
+and fair, and that the "mother plant" is rather recovering her drooping
+head. Soon and well may her "cruel wounds" be healed! I have written
+thus far with a good deal of difficulty. When I get a little abler you
+shall hear farther from, Madam, yours,
+
+R. B.
+
+   [Footnote 118a: The infant was Francis Wallace, the Poet's second
+   son.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CLXI.--To THE REV. ARCH. ALISON.
+
+ELLISLAND, _near Dumfries 14th Feb. 1791._
+
+Sir,--You must by this time have set me down as one of the most
+ungrateful of men. You did me the honour to present me with a book,
+which does honour to science and the intellectual powers of man, and I
+have not even so much as acknowledged the receipt of it. The fact is,
+you yourself are to blame for it. Flattered as I was by your telling me
+that you wished to have my opinion of the work, the old spiritual enemy
+of mankind, who knows well that vanity is one of the sins that most
+easily beset me, put it into my head to ponder over the performance with
+the look-out of a critic, and to draw up forsooth a deep learned digest
+of strictures on a composition, of which, in fact, until I read the
+book, I did not even know the first principles. I own, Sir, that at
+first glance, several of your propositions startled me as paradoxical.
+That the martial clangour of a trumpet had something in it vastly more
+grand, heroic, and sublime, than the twingle twangle of a Jews-harp;
+that the delicate flexure of a rose-twig, when the half-blown flower is
+heavy with the tears of the dawn, was infinitely more beautiful and
+elegant than the upright stub of a burdock; and that from something
+innate and independent of all associations of ideas;-these I had set
+down as irrefragable, orthodox truths, until perusing your book shook my
+faith. In short, Sir, except Euclid's Elements of Geometry, which I made
+a shift to unravel by my father's fire-side, in the winter evening of
+the first season I held the plough, I never read a book which gave me
+such a quantum of information, and added so much to my stock of ideas,
+as your _Essays on the Principles of Taste_. One thing, Sir, you must
+forgive my mentioning as an uncommon merit in the work, I mean the
+language. To clothe abstract philosophy in elegance of style, sounds
+something like a contradiction in terms; but you have convinced me that
+they are quite compatible.
+
+I inclose you some poetic bagatelles of my late composition. The one in
+print is my first essay in the way of telling a tale.--I am, Sir, etc.
+
+R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CLXII.--TO THE REV. G. BAIRD.
+
+ELLISLAND, 1791.
+
+Reverend Sir,--Why did you, my dear Sir, write to me in such a
+hesitating style on the business of poor Bruce?[119] Don't I know, and
+have I not felt, the many ills, the peculiar ills, that poetic flesh is
+heir to? You shall have your choice of all the unpublished poems[120] I
+have; and had your letter had my direction so as to have reached me
+sooner (it only came to my hand this moment) I should have directly put
+you out of suspense on the subject. I only ask, that some prefatory
+advertisement in the book, as well as the subscription bills, may bear,
+that the publication is solely for the benefit of Bruce's mother. I
+would not put it in the power of ignorance to surmise, or malice to
+insinuate, that I clubbed a share in the work from mercenary motives.
+Nor need you give me credit for any remarkable generosity in my part of
+the business. I have such a host of peccadilloes, failings, follies, and
+backslidings (anybody but myself might perhaps give some of them a worse
+appellation), that by way of some balance, however trifling, in the
+account, I am fain to do any good that occurs in my very limited power
+to a fellow-creature, just for the selfish purpose of clearing a little
+the vista of retrospection.
+
+R. B.
+
+[Footnote 119: Michael Bruce, a young poet of Kinross-Shire.]
+
+[Footnote 120: _Tam o' Shanter_ included! It was refused!!]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CLXIII.--TO MR. CUNNINGHAM, WRITER, EDINBURGH.
+
+ELLISLAND, 2_th March_ 1791.
+
+If the foregoing piece be worth your strictures, let me have them. For
+my own part, a thing I have just composed always appears through a
+double portion of that partial medium in which an author will ever view
+his own works. I believe, in general, novelty has something in it that
+inebriates the fancy, and not unfrequently dissipates and fumes away
+like other intoxication, and leaves the poor patient, as usual, with an
+aching heart. A striking instance of this might be adduced, in the
+revolution of many a hymeneal honeymoon. But lest I sink into stupid
+prose, and so sacrilegiously intrude on the office of my parish priest,
+I shall fill up the page in my own way, and give you another song of my
+late composition, which will appear perhaps in Johnson's work, as well
+as the former.
+
+You must know a beautiful Jacobite air, _There'll never be peace till
+Jamie comes hame_. When political combustion ceases to be the object of
+princes and patriots, it then, you know, becomes the lawful prey of
+historians and poets.
+
+  By yon castle wa' at the close of the day,
+  I heard a man sing, tho' his head it was grey;
+  And as he was singing, the tears fast down came--
+  There'll never be peace till Jamie comes hame.
+
+If you like the air, and if the stanzas hit your fancy, you cannot
+imagine, my dear friend, how much you would oblige me, if, by the charms
+of your delightful voice, you would give my honest effusion, to "the
+memory of joys that are past," to the few friends whom you indulge in
+that pleasure. But I have scribbled on till I hear the clock has
+intimated the near approach of
+
+  That hour, o' night's black arch the key-stane.
+
+So good night to you! Sound be your sleep, and delectable your dreams!
+Apropos, how do you like this thought in a ballad I have just now on
+the tapis?--
+
+  I look to the west when I gae to my rest,
+    That happy my dreams and my slumbers may be;
+  Far, far in the west is he I lo'e best,
+    The lad that is dear to my babie and me!
+
+Good night once more, and God bless you!
+
+R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CLXIV.--TO MRS. DUNLOP.
+
+ELLISLAND, 11_th April_ 1791.
+
+I am once more able, my honoured friend, to return you, with my own
+hand, thanks for the many instances of your friendship, and particularly
+for your kind anxiety in this last disaster that my evil genius had in
+store for me. However, life is chequered--joy and sorrow--for on
+Saturday morning last, Mrs. Burns made me a present of a fine boy;
+rather stouter, but not so handsome as your godson was at his time of
+life. Indeed, I look on your little namesake to be my _chef d'oeuvre_ in
+that species of manufacture, as I look on "Tam o' Shanter" to be my
+standard performance in the poetical line. 'Tis true, both the one and
+the other discover a spice of roguish waggery, that might perhaps be as
+well spared; but then they also show, in my opinion, a force of genius,
+and a finishing polish, that I despair of ever excelling. Mrs. Burns is
+getting stout again, and laid as lustily about her to-day at breakfast,
+as a reaper from the corn-ridge. That is the peculiar privilege and
+blessing of our hale sprightly damsels, that are bred among the _hay_
+_and heather_. We cannot hope for that highly polished mind, that
+charming delicacy of soul, which is found among the female world in the
+more elevated stations of life, and which is certainly by far the most
+bewitching charm in the famous cestus of Venus, It is indeed such an
+inestimable treasure, that where it can be had in its native heavenly
+purity, unstained by some one or other of the many shades of
+affectation, and unalloyed by some one or other of the many species of
+caprice, I declare to Heaven I should think it cheaply purchased at the
+expense of every other earthly good! But as this angelic creature is, I
+am afraid, extremely rare in any station and rank of life, and totally
+denied to such an humble one as mine, we meaner mortals must put up with
+the next rank of female excellence. As fine a figure and face we can
+produce as any rank of life whatever; rustic, native grace; unaffected
+modesty and unsullied purity; nature's mother-wit and the rudiments of
+taste, a simplicity of soul, unsuspicious of, because unacquainted with,
+the crooked ways of a selfish, interested, disingenuous world; and the
+dearest charm of all the rest, a yielding sweetness of disposition, and
+a generous warmth of heart, grateful for love on our part, and ardently
+glowing with a more than equal return; these, with a healthy frame, a
+sound, vigorous constitution, which your higher ranks can scarcely ever
+hope to enjoy, are the charms of lovely woman in my humble walk of life.
+
+This is the greatest effort my broken arm has yet made. Do let me hear,
+by first post, how _cher petit Monsieur_ comes on with his small-pox.
+May Almighty goodness preserve and restore him!
+
+R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CLXV.--TO MR. CUNNINGHAM.
+
+11_th June_ 1791.
+
+Let me interest you, my dear Cunningham, in behalf of the gentleman who
+waits on you with this. He is a Mr. Clarke, of Moffat, principal
+schoolmaster there, and is at present suffering severely under the
+persecution of one or two powerful individuals of his employers. He is
+accused of harshness to boys that were placed under his care. God help
+the teacher, if a man of sensibility and genius, and such is my friend
+Clarke, when a booby father presents him with his booby son, and insists
+on lighting up the rays of science in a fellow's head whose skull is
+impervious and inaccessible by any other way than a positive fracture
+with a cudgel: a fellow whom in fact it savours of impiety to attempt
+making a scholar of, as he has been marked a blockhead in the book of
+fate, at the almighty fiat of his Creator.
+
+The patrons of Moffat school are the ministers, magistrates, and town
+council of Edinburgh; and as the business comes now before them, let me
+beg my dearest friend to do every thing in his power to serve the
+interests of a man of genius and worth, and a man whom I particularly
+respect and esteem. You know some good fellows among the magistracy and
+council, but particularly you have much to say with a reverend gentleman
+to whom you have the honour of being very nearly related, and whom this
+country and age have had the honour to produce. I need not name the
+historian of Charles V.[121] I tell him through the medium of his
+nephew's influence, that Mr. Clarke is a gentleman who will not disgrace
+even his patronage. I know the merits of the cause thoroughly, and say
+it, that my friend is falling a sacrifice to prejudiced ignorance.
+
+God help the children of dependence! Hated and persecuted by their
+enemies, and too often, alas! almost unexceptionally always, received by
+their friends with disrespect and reproach, under the thin disguise of
+cold civility and humiliating advice. O! to be a sturdy savage, stalking
+in the pride of his independence, amid the solitary wilds of his
+deserts, rather than in civilised life, helplessly to tremble for a
+subsistence precarious as the caprice of a fellow-creature! Every man
+has his virtues, and no man is without his failings; and plague on that
+privileged plain-dealing of friendship, which, in the hour of my
+calamity, cannot reach forth the helping hand without at the same time
+pointing out those failings, and apportioning them their share in
+procuring my present distress. My friends, for such the world calls ye,
+and such ye think yourselves to be, pass by my virtues if you please,
+but do, also, spare my follies; the first will witness in my breast for
+themselves, and the last will give pain enough to the ingenuous mind
+without you. And since deviating more or less from the paths of
+propriety and rectitude must be incident to human nature, do thou,
+Fortune, put it in my power, always from myself, and of myself, to bear
+the consequence of those errors! I do not want to be independent that I
+may sin, but I want to be independent in my sinning.
+
+To return in this rambling letter to the subject I set out with, let me
+recommend my friend, Mr. Clarice, to your acquaintance and good offices;
+his worth entitles him to the one, and his gratitude will merit the
+other. I long much to hear from you. Adieu!
+
+R. B.
+
+   [Footnote 121: Dr. Robertson, uncle to Mr. Alexander Cunningham.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CLXVL--To MR. THOMAS SLOAN.[122]
+
+ELLISLAND, _Sept. 1st_, 1791.
+
+My Dear Sloan,--Suspense is worse than disappointment; for that reason I
+hurry to tell you that I just now learn that Mr. Ballantine does not
+choose to interfere more in the business. I am truly sorry for it, but
+cannot help it.
+
+You blame me for not writing you sooner, but you will please to
+recollect that you omitted one little necessary piece of
+information;--your address.
+
+However, you know equally well my hurried life, indolent temper, and
+strength of attachment. It must be a longer period than the longest life
+"in the world's hale and undegenerate days," that will make me forget so
+dear a friend as Mr. Sloan. I am prodigal enough at times, but I will
+not part with such a treasure as that.
+
+I can easily enter into the _embarras_ of your present situation. You
+know my favourite quotation from Young--
+
+  On Reason build RESOLVE!
+  That column of true majesty in man,--
+
+and that other favourite one from Thomson's "Alfred"--
+
+  What proves the hero truly GREAT,
+  Is, never, never to despair.
+
+Or, shall I quote you an author of your acquaintance?--
+
+  Whether DOING, SUFFERING, or FORBEARING,
+  You may do miracles by--PERSEVERING.
+
+I have nothing new to tell you. The few friends we have are going on in
+the old way. I sold my crop on this day se'ennight, and sold it very
+well. A guinea an acre, on an average, above value. But such a scene of
+drunkenness was hardly ever seen in this country. After the roup was
+over, about thirty people engaged in a battle, every man for his own
+hand, and fought it out for three hours. Nor was the scene much better
+in the house. No fighting, indeed, but folks lying drunk on the floor,
+and decanting, until both my dogs got so drunk by attending them, that
+they could not stand. You will easily guess how I enjoyed the scene, as
+I was no farther over than you used to see me.
+
+Mrs. B. and family have been in Ayrshire these many weeks.
+
+Farewell! and God bless you, my dear Friend! R.B.
+
+   [Footnote 122: Of Wanlockhead. Burns got to know him during his
+   frequent journeys between Ellisland and Mauchline in 1788-9.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CLXVII--TO MR. AINSLIE.
+
+ELLISLAND, 1791.
+
+My Dear Ainslie,--Can you minister to a mind diseased? can you, amid the
+horrors of penitence, regret, remorse, head-ache, nausea, and all the
+rest of the damn'd hounds of hell that beset a poor wretch who has been
+guilty of the sin of drunkenness--can you speak peace to a
+troubled soul?
+
+_Miserable perdu_ that I am, I have tried every thing that used to amuse
+me, but in vain; here must I sit, a monument of the vengeance laid up in
+store for the wicked, slowly counting every click of the clock as it
+slowly, slowly numbers over these lazy scoundrels of hours, who, damn
+them, are ranked up before me, every one at his neighbour's backside,
+and every one with a burthen of anguish on his back, to pour on my
+devoted head--and there is none to pity me. My wife scolds me, my
+business torments me, and my sins come staring me in the face, every one
+telling a more bitter tale than his fellow.--When I tell you even ----
+has lost its power to please, you will guess something of my hell
+within, and all around me.--I began _Elibanks and Elibraes_, but the
+stanzas fell unenjoyed and unfinished from my listless tongue: at last I
+luckily thought of reading over an old letter of yours, that lay by me
+in my bookcase, and I felt something for the first time since I opened
+my eyes, of pleasurable existence.----Well--I begin to breathe a little,
+since I began to write to you. How are you, and what are you doing? How
+goes Law? Apropos, for correction's sake do not address to me
+supervisor, for that is an honour I cannot pretend to--I am on the list,
+as we call it, for a supervisor, and will be called out by-and-by to act
+as one; but at present I am a simple gauger, tho' t'other day I got an
+appointment to an excise division of L25 _per annum_ better than the
+rest. My present income, down money, is L70 _per annum_.
+
+I have one or two good fellows here whom you would be glad to know.
+
+R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CLXVIII.--TO MISS DAVIES.
+
+It is impossible, Madam, that the generous warmth and angelic purity of
+your youthful mind can have any idea of that moral disease under which I
+unhappily must rank as the chief of sinners; I mean a torpitude of the
+moral powers that may be called a lethargy of conscience. In vain
+Remorse rears her horrent crest, and rouses all her snakes: beneath the
+deadly-fixed eye and leaden hand of Indolence their wildest ire is
+charmed into the torpor of the bat, slumbering out the rigours of winter
+in the chink of a ruined wall. Nothing less, Madam, could have made me
+so long neglect your obliging commands. Indeed, I had one apology--the
+bagatelle was not worth presenting. Besides, so strongly am I interested
+in Miss Davies's fate and welfare in the serious business of life, amid
+its chances and changes, that to make her the subject of a silly ballad
+is downright mockery of these ardent feelings; 'tis like an impertinent
+jest to a dying friend.
+
+Gracious Heaven! why this disparity between our wishes and our powers?
+Why is the most generous wish to make others blest impotent and
+ineffectual as the idle breeze that crosses the pathless desert? In my
+walks of life I have met with a few people to whom how gladly would I
+have said--"Go, be happy! I know that your hearts have been wounded by
+the scorn of the proud, whom accident has placed above you; or worse
+still, in whose hands are, perhaps, placed many of the comforts of your
+life. But there! ascend that rock, Independence, and look justly down on
+their littleness of soul. Make the worthless tremble under your
+indignation, and the foolish sink before your contempt; and largely
+impart that happiness to others which, I am certain, will give
+yourselves so much pleasure to bestow."
+
+Why, dear Madam, must I wake from this delightful reverie, and find it
+all a dream? Why, amid my generous enthusiasm, must I find myself poor
+and powerless, incapable of wiping one tear from the eye of pity, or of
+adding one comfort to the friend I love? Out upon the world! say I, that
+its affairs are administered so ill! They talk of reform;--good Heaven!
+what a reform would I make among the sons, and even the daughters of
+men! Down, immediately, should go fools from the high places where
+misbegotten chance has perked them up, and through life should they
+skulk, ever haunted by their native insignificance, as the body marches
+accompanied by its shadow. As for a much more formidable class, the
+knaves, I am at a loss what to do with them: had I a world, there should
+not be a knave in it.
+
+But the hand that could give, I would liberally fill: and I would pour
+delight on the heart that could kindly forgive, and generously love.
+
+Still the inequalities of life are, among men, comparatively tolerable;
+but there is a delicacy, a tenderness, accompanying every view in which
+we can place lovely Woman, that are grated and shocked at the rude,
+capricious distinctions of Fortune. Woman is the blood-royal of life:
+let there be slight degrees of precedency among them--but let them be
+ALL sacred. Whether this last sentiment be right or wrong, I am not
+accountable; it is an original component feature of my mind.
+
+R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CLXIX.--To MRS. DUNLOP.
+
+_5th January_ 1792.
+
+You see my hurried life, Madam: I can only command starts of time;
+however, I am glad of one thing; since I finished the other sheet, the
+political blast that threatened my welfare is overblown. I have
+corresponded with Commissioner Graham, for the Board had made me the
+subject of their animadversions; and now I have the pleasure of
+informing you that all is set to rights in that quarter. Now as to these
+informers, may the devil be let loose to--but, hold! I was praying most
+fervently in my last sheet, and I must not so soon fall a swearing
+in this.
+
+Alas! how little do the wantonly or idly officious think what mischief
+they do by their malicious insinuations, indirect impertinence, or
+thoughtless babblings. What a difference there is in intrinsic worth,
+candour, benevolence, generosity, kindness,--in all the charities and
+all the virtues--between one class of human beings and another!
+
+For instance, the amiable circle I so lately mixed with in the
+hospitable hall of Dunlop, their generous hearts--their uncontaminated
+dignified minds--their informed and polished understandings--what a
+contrast, when compared--if such comparing were not downright
+sacrilege--with the soul of the miscreant who can deliberately plot the
+destruction of an honest man that never offended him, and with a grin of
+satisfaction see the unfortunate being, his faithful wife, and prattling
+innocents, turned over to beggary and ruin!
+
+Your cup, my dear Madam, arrived safe. I had two worthy fellows dining
+with me the other day, when I, with great formality, produced my
+whigmeleerie cup, and told them that it had been a family-piece among
+the descendants of William Wallace, This roused such an enthusiasm, that
+they insisted on bumpering the punch round in it; and by-and-by, never
+did your great ancestor lay a _Southron_ more completely to rest than
+for a time did your cup my two friends. Apropos, this is the season of
+wishing. May God bless you, my dear friend, and bless me, the humblest
+and sincerest of your friends, by granting you yet many returns of the
+season! May all good things attend you and yours wherever they are
+scattered over the earth!
+
+R.B.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CLXX.--TO MR. WILLIAM SMELLIE, PRINTER.
+
+DUMFRIES, _22nd January_ 1792.
+
+I sit down, my dear Sir, to introduce a young lady[123] to you, and a
+lady in the first ranks of fashion, too. What a task! to you--who care
+no more for the herd of animals called young ladies than you do for the
+herd of animals called young gentlemen; to you--who despise and detest
+the groupings and combinations of fashion, as an idiot painter that
+seems industrious to place staring fools and unprincipled knaves in the
+foreground of his picture, while men of sense and honesty are too often
+thrown in the dimmest shades. Mrs. Riddell, who will take this letter to
+town with her, and send it to you, is a character that, even in your own
+way as a naturalist and a philosopher, would be an acquisition to your
+acquaintance. The lady, too, is a votary of the muses; and as I think
+myself somewhat of a judge in my own trade, I assure you that her
+verses, always correct, and often elegant, are much beyond the common
+run of the _lady poetesses_ of the day. She is a great admirer of your
+book; and, hearing me say that I was acquainted with you, she begged to
+be known to you, as she is just going to pay her first visit to our
+Caledonian capital. I told her that her best way was to desire her near
+relation, and your intimate friend, Craigdarroch, to have you at his
+house while she was there; and lest you might think of a lively West
+Indian girl of eighteen, as girls of eighteen too often deserve to be
+thought of, I should take care to remove that prejudice. To be
+impartial, however, in appreciating the lady's merits, she has one
+unlucky failing--a failing which you will easily discover, as she seems
+rather pleased with indulging in it; and a failing that you will easily
+pardon, as it is a sin which very much besets yourself;--where she
+dislikes, or despises, she is apt to make no more a secret of it, than
+where she esteems and respects.
+
+I will not present you with the unmeaning _compliments of the season_,
+but I will send you my warmest wishes and most ardent prayers, that
+Fortune may never throw your subsistence to the mercy of a knave, or set
+your character on the judgment of a fool; but that, upright and erect,
+you may walk to an honest grave, where men of letters shall say, here
+lies a man who did honour to science, and men of worth shall say, here
+lies a man who did honour to human nature.
+
+R. B.
+
+   [Footnote 123: Maria Riddell, a gay, clever, young Creole, wife of
+   Walter, brother of Captain Riddell.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CLXXL--TO MR. WILLIAM NICOL.
+
+20_th February_ 1792.
+
+O thou wisest among the wise, meridian blaze of prudence, full moon of
+discretion, and chief of many counsellors! How infinitely is thy
+puddle-headed, rattleheaded, wrong-headed, round-headed slave indebted
+to thy super-eminent goodness, that from the luminous path of thy own
+right-lined rectitude, thou lookest benignly down on an erring wretch,
+of whom the zig-zag wanderings defy all the powers of calculation, from
+the simple copulation of units, up to the hidden mysteries of fluxions!
+May one feeble ray of that light of wisdom which darts from thy
+sensorium, straight as the arrow of heaven, and bright as the meteor of
+inspiration, may it be my portion, so that I may be less unworthy of the
+face and favour of that father of proverbs and master of maxims, that
+antipode of folly, and magnet among the sages, the wise and witty Willie
+Nicol! Amen! Amen! Yea, so be it!
+
+For me! I am a beast, a reptile, and know nothing! From the cave of my
+ignorance, amid the fogs of my dulness, and pestilential fumes of my
+political heresies, I look up to thee, as doth a toad through the
+iron-barred lucarne of a pestiferous dungeon, to the cloudless glory of
+a summer sun! Sorely sighing in bitterness of soul, I say, When shall my
+name be the quotation of the wise, and my countenance be the delight of
+the godly, like the illustrious lord of Laggan's many hills?[124] As for
+him, his works are perfect: never did the pen of calumny blur the fair
+page of his reputation, nor the bolt of hatred fly at his dwelling.
+
+Thou mirror of purity, when shall the elfin lamp of my glimmerous
+understanding, purged from sensual appetites and gross desires, shine
+like the constellation of thy intellectual powers. As for thee, thy
+thoughts are pure and thy lips are holy. Never did the unhallowed breath
+of the powers of darkness, and the pleasures of darkness, pollute the
+sacred flame of thy sky-descended and heaven-bound desires: never did
+the vapours of impurity stain the unclouded serene of thy cerulean
+imagination. O that like thine were the tenor of my life, like thine the
+tenor of my conversation! then should no friend fear for my strength, no
+enemy rejoice in my weakness! Then should I lie down and rise up, and
+none to make me afraid. May thy pity and thy prayer be exercised for, O
+thou lamp of wisdom and mirror of morality! thy devoted slave,
+
+R. B.
+
+   [Footnote 124: Mr. Nicol had purchased a small piece of ground called
+   Laggan, on the Nith. There took place the Bacchanalian scene which
+   called forth "Willie brew'd a peck o' Maat."]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CLXXIL.--TO MR. FRANCIS GROSE, F.S A.
+
+DUMFRIES, 1792.
+
+Among the many witch stories I have heard, relating to Alloway Kirk, I
+distinctly remember only two or three.
+
+Upon a stormy night, amid whistling squalls of wind, and bitter blasts
+of hail; in short, on such a night as the devil would choose to take the
+air in; a farmer or farmer's servant was plodding and plashing homeward
+with his plough-irons on his shoulder, having been getting some repairs
+on them at a neighbouring smithy. His way lay by the kirk of Alloway,
+and being rather on the anxious look out in approaching a place so well
+known to be a favourite haunt of the devil and the devil's friends and
+emissaries, he was struck aghast by discovering through the horrors of
+the storm and stormy night, a light, which on his nearer approach
+plainly showed itself to proceed from the haunted edifice. Whether he
+had been fortified from above on his devout supplication, as is
+customary with people when they suspect the immediate presence of Satan;
+or whether, according to another custom, he got courageously drunk at
+the smithy, I will not pretend to determine; but so it was that he
+ventured to go up to, nay, into the very kirk. As luck would have it his
+temerity came off unpunished.
+
+The members of the infernal junto were all out on some midnight business
+or other, and he saw nothing but a kind of kettle or caldron, depending
+from the roof, over the fire, simmering some heads of unchristened
+children, limbs of executed malefactors, etc., for the business of the
+night. It was in for a penny, in for a pound, with the honest ploughman:
+so without ceremony he unhooked the caldron from off the fire, and,
+pouring out the damn'd ingredients, inverted it on his head, and carried
+it fairly home, where it remained long in the family, a living evidence
+of the truth of the story.
+
+Another story, which I can prove to be equally authentic, is as follows:
+
+On a market day in the town of Ayr a farmer from Carrick, and
+consequently whose way lay by the very gate of Alloway kirk-yard, in
+order to cross the river Doon at the old Bridge, which is about two or
+three hundred yards farther on than the said gate, had been detained by
+his business, till by the time he reached Alloway it was the wizard
+hour, between night and morning.
+
+Though he was terrified with a blaze streaming from the kirk, yet as it
+is a well-known fact that to turn back on these occasions is running by
+far the greatest risk of mischief, he prudently advanced on his road.
+When he had reached the gate of the kirk-yard, he was surprised and
+entertained, through the ribs and arches of an old gothic window, which
+still faces the highway, to see a dance of witches merrily footing it
+round their old sooty blackguard master, who was keeping them all alive
+with the power of his bagpipe. The farmer stopping his horse to observe
+them a little, could plainly descry the faces of many old women of his
+acquaintance and neighbourhood. How the gentleman was dressed tradition
+does not say; but that the ladies were all in their smocks: and one of
+them happening unluckily to have a smock which was considerably too
+short to answer all the purpose of that piece of dress, our farmer was
+so tickled that he involuntarily burst out with a loud laugh, "Weel
+luppen, Maggy wi' the short sark!" and recollecting himself, instantly
+spurred his horse to the top of his speed. I need not mention the
+universally known fact, that no diabolical power can pursue you beyond
+the middle of a running stream. Lucky it was for the poor farmer that
+the river Doon was so near, for, notwithstanding the speed of his horse,
+which was a good one, against he reached the middle of the arch of the
+bridge, and consequently the middle of the stream, the pursuing,
+vengeful hags were so close at his heels, that one of them actually
+sprung to seize him; but it was too late; nothing was on her side of the
+stream but the horse's tail, which immediately gave way at her infernal
+grip, as if blasted by a stroke of lightning; but the farmer was beyond
+her reach. However, the unsightly, tail-less condition of the vigorous
+steed was to the last hour of the noble creature's life, an awful
+warning to the Carrick farmers, not to stay too late in Ayr markets.
+
+The last relation I shall give, though equally true, is not so well
+identified as the two former, with regard to the scene; but as the best
+authorities give it for Alloway, I shall relate it.
+
+On a summer's evening, about the time nature puts on her sables to mourn
+the expiry of the cheerful day, a shepherd boy, belonging to a farmer in
+the immediate neighbourhood of Alloway kirk, had just folded his charge,
+and was returning home. As he passed the kirk, in the adjoining field he
+fell in with a crew of men and women, who were busy pulling stems of the
+plant ragwort. He observed that as each person pulled a ragwort, he or
+she got astride of it, and called out, "Up, horsie!" on which the
+ragwort flew off, like Pegasus, through the air with its rider. The
+foolish boy likewise pulled his ragwort, and cried with the rest, "Up,
+horsie!" and, strange to tell, away he flew with the company. The first
+stage at which the cavalcade stopt was a merchant's wine-cellar in
+Bourdeaux, where, without saying "By your leave," they quaffed away at
+the best the cellar could afford, until the morning, foe to the imps and
+works of darkness, threatened to throw light on the matter, and
+frightened them from their carousals.
+
+The poor shepherd lad, being equally a stranger to the scene and the
+liquor, heedlessly got himself drunk; and when the rest took horse, he
+fell asleep, and was found so next day by some of the people belonging
+to the merchant. Somebody that understood Scotch, asking him what he
+was, he said such a-one's herd in Alloway, and by some means or other
+getting home again, he lived long to tell the world the wondrous
+tale.[125]
+
+R. B.
+
+[Footnote 125: _Cp._ _Hogg's Witch of Fife._]
+
+        *       *       *       *       *
+
+CLXXIIL.--TO MRS. DUNLOP.
+
+ANNAN WATER FOOT, 22_nd August_ 1792.
+
+Do not blame me for it, Madam--my own conscience, hackneyed and
+weather-beaten as it is, in watching and reproving my vagaries, follies,
+indolence, etc., has continued to punish me sufficiently.
+
+Do you think it possible, my dear and honoured friend, that I could be
+so lost to gratitude for many favours; to esteem for much worth; and to
+the honest, kind, pleasurable tie of, now old acquaintance, and I hope
+and am sure of progressive, increasing friendship--as, for a single day,
+not to think of you nor to ask the Fates what they are doing and about
+to do with my much loved friend and her wide scattered connections, and
+to beg of them to be as kind to you and yours as they possibly can?
+
+Apropos! (though how it is apropos I have not leisure to explain) do you
+know that I am almost in love with an acquaintance of yours?--Almost!
+said I--I _am_ in love, souse! over head and ears, deep as the most
+unfathomable abyss of the boundless ocean; but the word Love, owing to
+the _intermingledoms_ of the good and the bad, the pure and the impure,
+in this world, being rather an equivocal term for expressing one's
+sentiments and sensations, I must do justice to the sacred purity of my
+attachment. Know, then, that the heart-struck awe the distant humble
+approach; the delight we should have in gazing upon and listening to a
+Messenger of Heaven, appearing in all the unspotted purity of his
+celestial home, among the coarse, polluted, far inferior sons of men, to
+deliver to them tidings that make their hearts swim in joy, and their
+imaginations soar in transport--such, so delighting and so pure, were
+the emotions of my soul on meeting the other day with Miss Lesley
+Baillie, your neighbour at Mayfield. Mr. B., with his two daughters,
+accompanied by Mr. H. of G., passing through Dumfries a few days ago, on
+their way to England, did me the honour of calling on me; on which I
+took my horse (though God knows I could ill spare the time), and
+accompanied them fourteen or fifteen miles, and dined and spent the day
+with them. Twas about nine, I think, when I left them, and, riding home,
+I composed the following ballad, of which you will probably think you
+have a dear bargain, as it will cost you another groat of postage. You
+must know that there is an old ballad beginning with--
+
+  My bonnie Lizzie Bailie,
+  I'll lowe thee in my plaidie, (etc,)
+
+So I parodied it as follows, which is literally the first copy,
+"unanointed, unanneal'd," as Hamlet says,--
+
+  O saw ye bonny Lesley
+    As she gaed o'er the border?
+  She's gane, like Alexander,
+    To spread her conquests farther, (etc.)
+
+So much for ballads. I regret that you are gone to the east country, as
+I am to be in Ayrshire in about a fortnight. This world of ours,
+notwithstanding it has many good things in it, yet it has ever had this
+curse, that two or three people, who would be the happier the oftener
+they met together, are, almost without exception, always so placed as
+never to meet but once or twice a-year, which, considering the few years
+of a man's life, is a very great "evil under the sun," which I do not
+recollect that Solomon has mentioned in his catalogue of the miseries of
+man. I hope and believe that there is a state of existence beyond the
+grave, where the worthy of this life will renew their former intimacies,
+with this endearing addition, that "we meet to part no more"
+
+    Tell us, ye dead,
+  Will none of you in pity disclose the secret
+  What 'tis you are, and we must shortly be!
+
+A thousand times have I made this apostrophe to the departed sons of
+men, but not one of them has ever thought fit to answer the question. "O
+that some courteous ghost would blab it out!" but it cannot be; you and
+I, my friend, must make the experiment by ourselves, and for ourselves.
+However, I am so convinced that an unskaken faith in the doctrines of
+religion is not only necessary, by making us better men, but also by
+making us happier men, that I shall take every care that your little
+godson, and every little creature that shall call me father, shall be
+taught them. So ends this heterogeneous letter, written at this wild
+place of the world, in the intervals of my labour of discharging a
+vessel of rum from Antigua.
+
+R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CLXXIV.--TO MR. CUNNINGHAM.
+
+DUMFRIES, 10_th September_ 1792.
+
+No! I will not attempt an apology. Amid all my hurry of business,
+grinding the faces of the publican and the sinner on the merciless
+wheels of the Excise; making ballads, and then drinking, and singing
+them; and, over and above all, the correcting the press-work of two
+different publications; still, still I might have stolen five minutes to
+dedicate to one of the first of my friends and fellow-creatures. I might
+have done, as I do at present-snatched an hour near "witching time of
+night," and scrawled a page or two; I might have congratulated my friend
+on his marriage; or I might have thanked the Caledonian archers for the
+honour they have done me (though, to do myself justice, I intended to
+have done both in rhyme, else I had done both long ere now). Well, then,
+here is to your good health! for you must know, I have set a nipperkin
+of toddy by me, just by way of spell, to keep away the meikle horned
+deil, or any of his subaltern imps who may be on their nightly rounds.
+
+But what shall I write to you?--"The voice said, cry," and I said, "What
+shall I cry?"--O, thou spirit! whatever thou art, or wherever thou
+makest thyself visible! be thou a bogle by the eerie side of an auld
+thorn, in the dreary glen through which the herd-callan maun bicker in
+his gloamin route frae the fauld!--Be thou a brownie, set, at dead of
+night, to thy task by the blazing ingle, or in the solitary barn, where
+the repercussions of thy iron flail half affright thyself, as thou
+performest the work of twenty of the sons of men, ere the cock-crowing
+summon thee to thy ample cog of substantial brose. Be thou a kelpie,
+haunting the ford or ferry, in the starless night, mixing thy laughing
+yell with the howling of the storm and the roaring of the flood, as thou
+viewest the perils and miseries of man on the foundering horse, or in
+the tumbling boat!--Or, lastly, be thou a ghost, paying thy nocturnal
+visits to the hoary ruins of decayed grandeur; or performing thy mystic
+rites in the shadow of the time-worn church, while the moon looks,
+without a cloud, on the silent, ghastly dwellings of the dead around
+thee; or taking thy stand by the bedside of the villain, or the
+murderer, portraying on his dreaming fancy, pictures, dreadful as the
+horrors of unveiled hell, and terrible as the wrath of incensed
+Deity!--Come, thou spirit, but not in these horrid forms; come with the
+milder, gentle, easy inspirations, which thou breathest round the wig of
+a prating advocate, or the tete of a tea-sipping gossip, while their
+tongues run at the light-horse gallop of clish-maclaver for ever and
+ever--come and assist a poor devil who is quite jaded in the attempt to
+share half an idea among half a hundred words; to fill up four quarto
+pages, while he has not got one single sentence of recollection,
+information, or remark worth putting pen to paper for.
+
+I feel, I feel the presence of supernatural assistance! Circled in the
+embrace of my elbow-chair, my breast labours, liked the bloated Sibyl on
+her three-footed stool, and like her too, labours with Nonsense.
+Nonsense, auspicious name! Tutor, friend, and finger-post in the mystic
+mazes of law; the cadaverous paths of physic: and particularly in the
+sightless soarings of SCHOOL DIVINITY, who, leaving Common Sense
+confounded at the strength of his pinion; Reason delirious with eyeing
+his giddy flight; and Truth creeping back into the bottom of her well,
+cursing the hour that ever she offered her scorned alliance to the
+wizard power of Theologic Vision-raves abroad on all the winds:-- "On
+earth discord! a gloomy Heaven above, opening her jealous gates to the
+nineteen-thousandth part of the tithe of mankind! and below, an
+inescapable and inexorable hell, expanding its leviathan jaws for the
+vast residue of mortals!!! "--O doctrine! comfortable and healing to the
+weary wounded soul of man! Ye sons and daughters of affliction, ye
+_pauvres miserables,_ to whom day brings no pleasure, and night yields
+no rest, be comforted! 'Tis but _one_ to nineteen hundred thousand that
+your situation will mend in this world; so, alas, the experience of the
+poor and needy too often affirms; and 'tis nineteen hundred thousand to
+_one,_ by the dogmas of Theology, that you will be condemned eternally
+in the world to come!
+
+But of all Nonsense, Religious Nonsense is the most nonsensical; so
+enough, and more than enough, of it. Only, by-the-bye, will you, or can
+you tell me, my dear Cunningham, why a sectarian turn of mind has always
+a tendency to narrow and illiberalise the heart? They are orderly; they
+may be just; nay, I have known them merciful: but still your children
+of sanctity move among their fellow-creatures with a nostril snuffing
+putrescence, and a foot spurning filth--in short, with a conceited
+dignity that your titled Douglases, or any other of your Scottish
+lordlings of seven centuries standing, display when they accidentally
+mix among the many-aproned sons of mechanical life. I remember, in my
+plough-boy days, I could not conceive it possible that a noble lord
+could be a fool, or a godly man could be a knave. How ignorant are
+plough-boys!--Nay, I have since discovered that a _godly woman_ may be
+a--!--But hold--here's t'ye again--this rum is generous Antigua, so a
+very unfit menstruum for scandal.
+
+Apropos, how do you like, I mean _really_ like, the married life? Ah, my
+friend! matrimony is quite a different thing from what your love-sick
+youths and sighing girls take it to be! But marriage, we are told, is
+appointed by God, and I shall never quarrel with any of His
+institutions. I am a husband of older standing than you, and shall give
+you my ideas of the conjugal state, (_en passant_--you know I am no
+Latinist-is not _conjugal_ derived from _jugum_, a yoke?) Well, then,
+the scale of good wifeship I divide into ten parts. Good-nature, four;
+Good Sense, two; Wit, one; Personal Charms, viz., a sweet face, eloquent
+eyes, fine limbs, graceful carriage (I would add a fine waist too, but
+that is so soon spoilt, you know), all these, one; as for the other
+qualities belonging to, or attending on, a wife, such as Fortune,
+Connections, Education (I mean education extraordinary), Family blood,
+etc., divide the two remaining degrees among them as you please; only,
+remember that all these minor properties must be expressed by
+_fractions,_ for there is not any one of them, in the aforesaid scale,
+entitled to the dignity of an _integer_.
+
+As for the rest of my fancies and reveries--how I lately met with Miss
+Lesley Baillie, the most beautiful, elegant woman in the world--how I
+accompanied her and her father's family fifteen miles on their journey,
+out of pure devotion, to admire the loveliness of the works of God, in
+such an unequalled display of them--how, in galloping home at night, I
+made a ballad on her, of which these two stanzas make a part--
+
+  Thou, bonnie Lesley, art a queen,
+    Thy subjects we before thee;
+  Thou, bonnie Lesley, art divine,
+    The hearts o' men adore thee.
+  The very deil he could na scathe
+    Whatever wad belang thee!
+  He'd look into thy bonnie face
+    And say, "I canna wrang thee"--
+
+behold all these things are written in the chronicles of my imagination,
+and shall be read by thee, my dear friend, and by thy beloved spouse, my
+other dear friend, at a more convenient season.
+
+Now to thee and thy wife [_etc._--a mock benediction.]
+
+R.B.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CLXXV.--To MRS. DUNLOP.
+
+DUMFRIES, _24th September 1792_.
+
+I have this moment, my dear Madam, yours of the twenty-third. All your
+other kind reproaches, your news, etc., are out of my head when I read
+and think of Mrs. Henri's[126] situation. Good God! a heart-wounded
+helpless young woman--in a strange, foreign land, and that land
+convulsed with every horror that can harrow the human feelings
+--sick-looking, longing for a comforter, but finding none--a mother's
+feelings, too:--but it is too much: He who wounded (He only can) may
+He heal!
+
+I wish the farmer great joy of his new acquisition to his family.... I
+cannot say that I give Him joy of his life as a farmer. 'Tis, as a
+farmer paying a dear, unconscionable rent, a _cursed life!_ As to a
+laird farming his own property; sowing his own corn in hope; and reaping
+it, in spite of brittle weather, in gladness; knowing that none can say
+unto him, "What dost thou?"--fattening his herds; shearing his flocks;
+rejoicing at Christmas; and begetting sons and daughters, until he be
+the venerated, grey-haired leader of a little tribe--'tis a heavenly
+life! but devil take the life of reaping the fruits that another
+must eat!
+
+Well, your kind wishes will be gratified, as to seeing me when I make my
+Ayrshire visit. I cannot leave Mrs. Burns until her nine months' race is
+run, which may perhaps be in three or four weeks. She, too, seems
+determined to make me the patriarchal leader of a band. However, if
+Heaven will be so obliging as to let me have them in the proportion of
+three boys to one girl, I shall be so much the more pleased. I hope, if
+I am spared with them, to show a set of boys that will do honour to my
+cares and name; but I am not equal to the task of rearing girls.
+Besides, I am too poor; a girl should always have a fortune. Apropos,
+your little godson is thriving charmingly, but is a very deil. He,
+though two years younger, has completely mastered his brother. Robert is
+indeed the mildest, gentlest creature I ever saw. He has a most
+surprising memory, and is quite the pride of his schoolmaster.
+
+You know how readily we get into prattle upon a subject dear to our
+heart: you can excuse it. God bless you and yours!
+
+   [Footnote 126: Her daughter, ill in France.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CLXXVI.--To MRS. DUNLOP.
+
+_Supposed to have been written on the Death of Mirs. Henri, her
+daughter, at Muges._
+
+I had been from home, and did not receive your letter until my return
+the other day. What shall I say to comfort you, my much-valued,
+much-afflicted friend! I can but grieve with you; consolation I have
+none to offer, except that which religion holds out to the children of
+affliction--_children of affliction!_--how just the expression! and
+like every other family, they have matters among them which they hear,
+see, and feel in a serious, all-important manner, of which the world has
+not, nor cares to have, any idea. The world looks indifferently on,
+makes the passing remark, and proceeds to the next novel occurrence.
+
+Alas, Madam! who would wish for many years? What is it but to drag
+existence until our joys gradually expire, and leave us in a night of
+misery: like the gloom which blots out the stars, one by one, from the
+face of night, and leaves us, without a ray of comfort, in the
+howling waste!
+
+I am interrupted, and must leave off. You shall soon hear from me again.
+
+R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+CLXXVII.--To MRS. DUNLOP.
+
+DUMFRIES, _6th December 1792._
+
+I shall be in Ayrshire, I think, next week; and, if at all possible, I
+shall certainly, my much esteemed friend, have the pleasure of visiting
+at Dunlop House.
+
+Alas, Madam! how seldom do we meet in this world, that we have reason to
+congratulate ourselves on accessions of happiness! I have not passed
+half the ordinary term of an old man's life, and yet I scarcely look
+over the obituary of a newspaper that I do not see some names that I
+have known, and which I and other acquaintances little thought to meet
+with there so soon. Every other instance of the mortality of our kind
+makes us cast an anxious look into the dreadful abyss of uncertainty,
+and shudder with apprehension for our own fate. But of how different an
+importance are the lives of different individuals! Nay, of what
+importance is one period of the same life more than another? A few years
+ago I could have lain down in the dust, "careless of the voice of the
+morning;" and now not a few, and these most helpless individuals, would,
+on losing me and my exertions, lose both "staff and shield." By the way,
+these helpless ones have lately got an addition--Mrs. B. having given me
+a fine girl since I wrote you. There is a charming passage in Thomson's"
+Edward and Eleanora:"
+
+  The valiant, _in himself_ what can he suffer?
+  Or what need he regard his _single_ woes? (etc.)
+
+I do not remember to have heard you mention Thomson's dramas. I pick up
+favourite quotations, and store them in my mind as ready armour,
+offensive or defensive, amid the struggle of this turbulent existence.
+Of these is one, a very favourite one, from his "Alfred:"
+
+  Attach thee firmly to the virtuous deeds
+  And offices of life; to life itself,
+  With all its vain and transient joys, sit loose.
+
+Probably I have quoted these to you formerly, as indeed, when I write
+from the heart, I am apt to be guilty of repetitions. The compass of the
+heart, in the musical style of expression, is much more bounded than
+that of the imagination; so the notes of the former are extremely apt to
+run into one another; but in return for the paucity of its compass, its
+few notes are much more sweet....
+
+I see you are in for double postage, so I shall e'en scribble out
+t'other sheet. We in this country here have many alarms of the
+reforming, or rather the republican spirit, of your part of the kingdom.
+Indeed, we are a good deal in commotion ourselves. For me, I am a
+placeman, you know; a very humble one indeed, Heaven knows, but still so
+much as to gag me. What my private sentiments are, you will find out
+without an interpreter.
+
+I have taken up the subject, and the other day, for a pretty actress's
+benefit night, I wrote an address, which I will give on the other page,
+called "The Rights of Woman." I shall have the honour of receiving your
+criticisms in person at Dunlop.
+
+R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CLXXVIII.--To MR. R. GRAHAM, FINTRY.
+
+_December 1792. _
+
+Sir,--I have been surprised, confounded, and distracted, by Mr. Mitchel,
+the collector, telling me that he has received an order from your Board
+to inquire into my political conduct, and blaming me as a person
+disaffected to government.
+
+Sir, you are a husband--and a father. You know what you would feel, to
+see the much-loved wife of your bosom, and your helpless, prattling
+little ones, turned adrift into the world, degraded and disgraced from a
+situation in which they had been respectable and respected, and left
+almost without the necessary support of a miserable existence. Alas,
+Sir! must I think that such, soon, will be my lot! and from the damn'd,
+dark insinuations of hellish, groundless envy too! I believe, Sir, I may
+aver it, and in the sight of Omniscience, that I would not tell a
+deliberate falsehood, no, not though even worse horrors, if worse can
+be, than those I have mentioned, hung over my head; and I say, that the
+allegation, whatever villain has made it, is a lie! To the British
+Constitution, on revolution principles, next after my God, I am most
+devoutly attached. You, Sir, have been much and generously my friend:
+Heaven knows how warmly I have felt the obligation, and how gratefully I
+have thanked you. Fortune, Sir, has made you powerful, and me impotent;
+has given you patronage, and me dependence. I would not for my single
+self call on your humanity; were such my insular, unconnected situation,
+I would despise the tear that now swells in my eye--I could brave
+misfortune, I could face ruin; for at the worst, "Death's thousand doors
+stand open;" but, good God! the tender concerns that I have mentioned,
+the claims and ties that I see at this moment, and feel around me, how
+they unnerve Courage, and wither Resolution! To your patronage, as a man
+of some genius, you have allowed me a claim; and your esteem, as an
+honest man, I know is my due: to these, Sir, permit me to appeal; by
+these may I adjure you to save me from that misery which threatens to
+overwhelm me, and which, with my latest breath I will say it, I have
+not deserved.
+
+R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CLXXIX.--To MRS. DUNLOP.
+
+DUMFRIES, _31st December 1792._
+
+Dear Madam,--A hurry of business, thrown in heaps by my absence, has
+until now prevented my returning my grateful acknowledgments to the good
+family of Dunlop, and you in particular, for that hospitable kindness
+which rendered the four days I spent under that genial roof, four of the
+pleasantest I ever enjoyed. Alas, my dearest friend! how few and
+fleeting are those things we call pleasures! on my road to Ayrshire I
+spent a night with a friend whom I much valued; a man whose days
+promised to be many; and on Saturday last we laid him in the dust!
+
+_Jan. 2nd, 1793._
+
+I have just received yours of the 30th, and feel much for your
+situation. However, I heartily rejoice in your prospect of recovery from
+that vile jaundice. As to myself, I am better, though not quite free of
+my complaint. You must not think, as you seem to insinuate, that in my
+way of life I want exercise. Of that I have enough; but occasional hard
+drinking is the devil to me. Against this I have again and again bent my
+resolution, and have greatly succeeded. Taverns I have totally
+abandoned: it is the private parties in the family way, among the
+hard-drinking gentlemen of this country, that do me the mischief--but
+even this I have more than half given over.
+
+Mr. Corbet can be of little service to me at present; at least I should
+be shy of applying. I cannot possibly be settled as a supervisor for
+several years. I must wait the rotation of the list, and there are
+twenty names before mine. --I might indeed get a job of officiating,
+where a settled supervisor was ill, or aged; but that hauls me from my
+family, as I could not remove them on such an uncertainty. Besides, some
+envious, malicious devil has raised a little demur on my political
+principles, and I wish to let that matter settle before I offer myself
+too much in the eye of my supervisors. I have set, henceforth, a seal on
+my lips, as to these unlucky politics; but to you I must breathe my
+sentiments. In this, as in everything else, I shall show the undisguised
+emotions of my soul. War I deprecate: misery and ruin to thousands are
+in the blast that announces the destructive demon. But....
+
+R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CLXXX.--To MR. ROBERT GRAHAM OF FINTRY.
+
+DUMFRIES, _Morning of 5th Jan._ 1793.
+
+Sir,--I am this moment honoured with your letter. With what feelings I
+received this other instance of your goodness I shall not pretend
+to describe.
+
+Now to the charges which malice and misrepresentation have brought
+against me.[127] It has been said, it seems, that I not only belong to,
+but head a disaffected party in this town. I know of no party here,
+republican or reform, except an old Burgh-Reform party, with which I
+never had anything to do. Individuals, both republican and reform, we
+have, though not many of either; but if they have associated, it is more
+than I have the least knowledge of, and if such an association exist it
+must consist of such obscure, nameless beings as precludes any
+possibility of my being known to them, or they to me.
+
+I was in the playhouse one night when _Ca Ira_ was called for. I was in
+the middle of the pit, and from the pit the clamour arose. One or two
+persons, with whom I occasionally associate, were of the party, but I
+neither knew of, nor joined in the plot, nor at all opened my lips to
+hiss or huzza that, or any other political tune whatever. I looked on
+myself as far too obscure a man to have any weight in quelling a riot,
+and at the same time as a person of higher respectability than to yell
+to the howlings of a rabble. I never uttered any invectives against the
+king. His private worth it is altogether impossible that such a man as I
+can appreciate; but in his public capacity I always revered, and always
+will with the soundest loyalty revere the monarch of Great Britain
+as--to speak in masonic--the sacred keystone of our royal arch
+constitution. As to Reform principles, I look upon the British
+Constitution, as settled at the Revolution, to be the most glorious on
+earth, or that perhaps the wit of man can frame; at the same time I
+think, not alone, that we have a good deal deviated from the original
+principles of that Constitution,--particularly, that an alarming system
+of corruption has pervaded the connection between the Executive and the
+House of Commons. This is the whole truth of my Reform opinions, which,
+before I knew the complexion of these innovating times, I too
+unguardedly as I now see sported with: henceforth I seal up my lips. But
+I never dictated to, corresponded with, or had the least connection with
+any political association whatever. Of Johnstone, the publisher of the
+_Edinburgh Gazetteer_, I know nothing. One evening, in company with four
+or five friends, we met with his prospectus, which we thought manly and
+independent; and I wrote to him, ordering his paper for us. If you think
+I act improperly in allowing his paper to come addressed to me, I shall
+immediately countermand it. I never wrote a line of prose to _The
+Gazetteer_ in my life. An address, spoken by Miss Fontenelle on her
+benefit night, and which I called "The Rights of Woman," I sent to _The
+Gazetteer_, as also some stanzas on the Commemoration of the poet
+Thomson: both of these I will subjoin for your perusal. You will see
+they have nothing whatever to do with politics.
+
+As to France, I was her enthusiastic votary in the beginning of the
+business. When she came to shew her old avidity for conquest by annexing
+Savoy and invading the rights of Holland, I altered my sentiments.
+
+This, my honoured patron, is all. To this statement I challenge
+disquisition. Mistaken prejudice or unguarded passion may mislead, have
+often misled me; but when called on to answer for my mistakes, though no
+man can feel keener compunction for them, yet no man can be more
+superior to evasion or disguise.--I have the honour to be, Sir, your
+ever grateful, etc.,
+
+ROBT. BURNS.
+
+   [Footnote 127: Because of what Burns elsewhere called "Some temeraire
+   conduct of mine, in the political opinions of the day."]
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+CLXXXI.--TO MR. ALEX. CUNNINGHAM, W.S., EDINBURGH.
+
+DUMFRIES, _20th Feb_. 1793.
+
+What are you doing? What hurry have you got on your head, my dear
+Cunningham, that I have not heard from you? Are you deeply engaged in
+the mazes of the Jaw, the mysteries of love, or the profound wisdom of
+_politics_? Curse on the word!
+
+_Q_. What is Politics?
+
+_A_. It is a science wherewith, by means of nefarious cunning and
+hypocritical pretence, we govern civil politics (sic) for the emolument
+of ourselves and adherents.
+
+Q. What is a minister?
+
+A. An unprincipled fellow who, by the influence of hereditary or
+acquired wealth, by superior abilities or by a lucky conjuncture of
+circumstances, obtains a principal place in the administration of the
+affairs of government.
+
+Q. What is a patriot?
+
+A. An individual exactly of the same description as a minister, only out
+of place.
+
+I was interrupted in my Catechism, and am returned at a late hour just
+to subscribe my name, and to put you in mind of the forgotten friend of
+that name who is still in the land of the living, though I can hardly
+say in the place of hope.
+
+I made the enclosed sonnet[128] the other day. Adieu!
+
+ROBT. BURNS.
+
+   [Footnote 128: "On Hearing a Thrush Sing."]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CLXXXIL--To MR. CUNNINGHAM.
+
+3rd March 1793.
+
+Since I wrote to you the last lugubrious sheet, I have not had time to
+write to you farther. When I say that I had not time, that, as usual,
+means that the three demons, indolence, business, and ennui, have so
+completely shared my hours among them, as not to leave me a five
+minutes' fragment to take up a pen in.
+
+Thank Heaven, I feel my spirits buoying upwards with the renovating
+year. Now I shall in good earnest take up Thomson's songs. I dare say he
+thinks I have used him unkindly, and I must own with too much appearance
+of truth...
+
+There is one commission that I must trouble you with. I lately lost a
+valuable seal, a present from a departed friend, which vexes me much. I
+have gotten one of your Highland pebbles, which I fancy would make a
+very decent one; and I want to cut my armorial bearing on it; will you
+be so obliging as inquire what will be the expense of such a business? I
+do not know that my name is matriculated, as the heralds call it, at
+all; but I have invented arms for myself, so you know I shall be chief
+of the name; and, by courtesy of Scotland, will likewise be entitled to
+supporters. These, however, I do not intend having on my seal. I am a
+bit of a herald, and shall give you, _secundum artem_, my arms. On a
+field, azure, a holly bush, seeded, proper, in base; a shepherd's pipe
+and crook, saltier-wise, also proper, in chief. On a wreath of the
+colours, a wood-lark perching on a sprig of bay-tree, proper, for crest.
+Two mottoes; round the top of the crest, _Wood notes wild_; at the
+bottom of the shield, in the usual place, _Better a wee bush than nae
+bield_. By the shepherd's pipe and crook I do not mean the nonsense of
+painters of Arcadia, but a _Stock and Horn_, and a _Club_ such as you
+see at the head of Allan Ramsay, in Allan's quarto edition of the
+"Gentle Shepherd." By-the-bye, do you know Allan? He must be a man of
+very great genius--Why is he not more known?--Has he no patrons? or do
+"Poverty's cold wind and crushing rain beat keen and heavy" on him? I
+once, and but once, got a glance of that noble edition of the noblest
+pastoral in the world: and dear as it was, I mean dear as to my pocket,
+I would have bought it; but I was told that it was printed and engraved
+for subscribers only. He is the _only_ artist who has hit _genuine_
+pastoral _costume_. What, my dear Cunningham, is there in riches, that
+they narrow and harden the heart so? I think, that were I as rich as the
+sun, I should be as generous as the day: but as I have no reason to
+imagine my soul a nobler one than any other man's, I must conclude that
+wealth imparts a bird-lime quality to the possessor, at which the man,
+in his native poverty, would have revolted. What has led me to this, is
+the idea of such merit as Mr. Allan possesses, and such riches as a
+nabob or government contractor possesses, and why they do not form a
+mutual league. Let wealth shelter and cherish unprotected merit, and the
+gratitude and celebrity of that merit will richly repay it.
+
+R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CLXXXIII.--To Miss BENSON, YORK, AFTERWARDS MRS. BASIL MONTAGU.
+
+DUMFRIES, _21st March 1793._
+
+Madam,--Among many things for which I envy those hale, long-lived old
+fellows before the flood, is this in particular, that when they met with
+anybody after their own heart, they had a charming long prospect of
+many, many happy meetings with them in after-life.
+
+Now, in this short, stormy, winter day of our fleeting existence, when
+you now and then, in the Chapter of Accidents, meet an individual whose
+acquaintance is a real acquisition, there are all the probabilities
+against you, that you shall never meet with that valued character more.
+On the other hand, brief as this miserable being is, it is none of the
+least of the miseries belonging to it, that if there is any miscreant
+whom you hate, or creature whom you despise, the ill-run of the chances
+shall be so against you, that in the over takings, turnings, and
+jostlings of life, pop! at some unlucky corner, eternally comes the
+wretch upon you, and will not allow your indignation or contempt a
+moment's repose. As I am a sturdy believer in the powers of darkness, I
+take these to be the doings of that old author of mischief, the devil.
+It is well known that he has some kind of short-hand way of taking down
+our thoughts, and I make no doubt that he is perfectly acquainted with
+my sentiments respecting Miss Benson; how much I admired her abilities
+and valued her worth, and how very fortunate I thought myself in her
+acquaintance. For this last reason, my dear Madam, I must entertain no
+hopes of the very great pleasure of meeting with you again.--I am, etc.
+
+R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+CLXXXIV.-To MR. JOHN FRANCIS ERSKINE, OF MAR.
+
+DUMFRIES, 13th _April 1793.
+
+Sir,--Degenerate as human nature is said to be--and in many instances
+worthless and unprincipled it is--still there are bright examples to the
+contrary: examples that, even in the eyes of superior beings, must shed
+a lustre on the name of Man.
+
+Such an example have I now before me, when you, Sir, came forward to
+patronise and befriend a distant and obscure stranger, merely because
+poverty had made him helpless, and his British hardihood of mind had
+provoked the arbitrary of wantonness and power. My much esteemed friend,
+Mr, Riddel of Glenriddel, has just read me a paragraph of a letter he
+had from you. Accept, Sir, of the silent throb of gratitude, for words
+would but mock the emotions of my soul.
+
+You have been misinformed as to my final dismissal from the Excise; I am
+still in the service. Indeed, but for the exertions of a gentleman who
+must be known to you, Mr. Graham of Fintry, a gentleman who has ever
+been my warm and generous friend, I had, without so much as a hearing,
+or the slightest previous intimation, been turned adrift, with my
+helpless family, to all the horrors of want. Had I had any other
+resource, probably I might have saved them the trouble of a dismissal;
+but the little money I gained by my publication is almost every guinea
+embarked to save from ruin an only brother, who, though one of the
+worthiest, is by no means one of the most fortunate of men.
+
+In my defence to their accusations, I said, that whatever might be my
+sentiments of republics, ancient or modern, as to Britain, I abjured the
+idea: That a constitution, which, in its original principles, experience
+had proved to be every way fitted for our happiness in society, it would
+be insanity to sacrifice to an untried visionary theory: That, in
+consideration of my being situated in a department, however humble,
+immediately in the hands of people in power, I had forborne taking any
+active part, either personally, or as an author, in the present business
+of Reform: but that, where I must declare my sentiments, I would say
+there existed a system of corruption between the executive power and the
+representative part of the legislature, which boded no good to our
+glorious constitution, and which every patriotic Briton must wish to see
+amended. Some such sentiments as these I stated in a letter to my
+generous patron, Mr. Graham, which he laid before the Board at large;
+where, it seems, my last remark gave great offence: and one of our
+supervisors-general, a Mr. Corbet, was instructed to inquire on the
+spot, and to document me--"that my business was to act, _not to think_;
+and that whatever might be men or measures, it was for me to be _silent_
+and _obedient_".
+
+Mr. Corbet was likewise my steady friend; so between Mr. Graham and him
+I have been partly forgiven; only I understand that all hopes of my
+getting officially forward are blasted.
+
+Now, Sir, to the business in which I would more immediately interest
+you. The partiality of my countrymen has brought me forward as a man of
+genius, and has given me a character to support. In the Poet I have
+avowed manly and independent sentiments, which I trust will be found in
+the man. Reasons of no less weight than the support of a wife and
+family, have pointed out as the eligible, and situated as I was, the
+only eligible line of life for me, my present occupation. Still my
+honest fame is my dearest concern; and a thousand times have I trembled
+at the idea of those _degrading_ epithets that malice or
+misrepresentation may affix to my name. I have often, in blasting
+anticipation, listened to some future hackney scribbler, with the heavy
+malice of savage stupidity, exulting in his hireling paragraphs--"Burns,
+notwithstanding the _fanfaronade_ of independence to be found in his
+works, and after having been held forth to public view and to public
+estimation as a man of some genius, yet, quite destitute of resources
+within himself to support his borrowed dignity, he dwindled into a
+paltry exciseman, and slunk out the rest of his insignificant existence
+in the meanest of pursuits, and among the vilest of mankind."
+
+In your illustrious hands, Sir, permit me to lodge my disavowal and
+defiance of these slanderous falsehoods. Burns was a poor man from
+birth, and an exciseman by necessity; but--I will say it! the sterling
+of his honest worth no poverty could debase, and his independent British
+mind, oppression might bend, but could not subdue. Have not I, to me a
+more precious stake in my country's welfare, than the richest dukedom in
+it?--I have a large family of children, and the prospect of more. I have
+three sons, who, I see already, have brought into the world souls ill
+qualified to inhabit the bodies of slaves.--Can I look tamely on, and
+see any machinations to wrest from them the birthright of my boys,--the
+little independent Britons, in whose veins runs my own blood?--No! I
+will not! should my heart's blood stream around my attempt to defend it!
+
+Does any man tell me that my full efforts can be of no service; and that
+it does not belong to my humble station to meddle with the concerns of
+a nation?
+
+I can tell him that it is on such individuals as I that a nation has to
+rest, both for the hand of support and the eye of intelligence. The
+uninformed mob may swell a nation's bulk; and the titled, tinsel,
+courtly throng may be its feathered ornament; but the number of those
+who are elevated enough in life to reason and to reflect, yet low enough
+to keep clear of the venal contagion of a court!--these are a
+nation's strength.
+
+I know not how to apologise for the impertinent length of this epistle;
+but one small request I must ask of you farther--When you have honoured
+this letter with a perusal, please to commit it to the flames. Burns, in
+whose behalf you have so generously interested yourself, I have here, in
+his native colours, drawn as he is; but should any of the people in
+whose hands is the very bread he eats, get the least knowledge of the
+picture, it would ruin the poor bard for ever!
+
+My poems having just come out in another edition, I beg leave to present
+you with a copy as a small mark of that high esteem and ardent gratitude
+with which I have the honour to be, Sir, your deeply indebted, and ever
+devoted, humble servant,
+
+R. B.[129]
+
+   [Footnote 129: This letter was penned in response to the sympathy
+   which Mr. Erskine had expressed for Burns in a letter to Captain
+   Riddell of Carse, when Burns was taken to task by the Board of Excise
+   for his political opinions.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CLXXXV.--To MISS M'MORDO, DRUMLANRIG.
+
+DUMFRIES, _Juy 1793._
+
+... Now let me add a few wishes which every man, who has himself the
+honour of being a father, must breathe when he sees female youth,
+beauty, and innocence about to enter into this chequered and very
+precarious world. May you, my young madam, escape that frivolity which
+threatens universally to pervade the minds and manners of fashionable
+life, The mob of fashionable female youth--what are they? Are they
+anything? They prattle, laugh, sing, dance, finger a lesson, or perhaps
+turn the pages of a fashionable novel; but are their minds stored with
+any information worthy of the noble powers of reason and judgment? and
+do their hearts glow with sentiment, ardent, generous, or humane? Were I
+to poetize on the subject I would call them the butterflies of the human
+kind, remarkable only for the idle variety of their ordinary glare,
+sillily straying from one blossoming weed to another, without a meaning
+or an aim, the idiot prey of every pirate of the skies who thinks them
+worth his while as he wings his way by them, and speedily by wintry time
+swept to that oblivion whence they might as well never have appeared.
+Amid this crowd of nothings may you be something, etc.
+
+R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CLXXXVI.--To JOHN M'MURDO, ESQ., DRUMLANRIG.
+
+This is a painful, disagreeable letter, and the first of the kind I ever
+wrote. I am truly in serious distress for three or four guineas: can
+you, my dear sir, accommodate me? These accursed times by tripping up
+importation have, for this year at least, lopped off a full third of my
+income;[130] and with my large family this is to me a distressing matter.
+
+R. B.
+
+   [Footnote 130: Never more than 70 UK pounds.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CLXXXVII.--To MRS. RIDDEL.
+
+Dear Madam,--I meant to have called on you yesternight, but as I edged
+up to your box-door, the first object which greeted my view, was one of
+those lobster-coated puppies[131] sitting like another dragon, guarding
+the Hesperian fruit. On the conditions and capitulations you so
+obligingly offer, I shall certainly make my weather-beaten rustic phiz a
+part of your box-furniture on Tuesday; when we may arrange the business
+of the visit.
+
+Among the profusion of idle compliments, which insidious craft, or
+unmeaning folly, incessantly offer at your shrine--a shrine, how far
+exalted above such adoration--permit me, were it but for rarity's sake,
+to pay you the honest tribute of a warm heart and an independent mind;
+and to assure you that I am, thou most amiable, and most accomplished of
+thy sex, with the most respectful esteem, and fervent regard,
+thine, etc.
+
+R. B.
+
+   [Footnote 131: Military officers.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CLXXXVIII.--To MRS. RIDDEL.
+
+I will wait on you, my ever valued friend, but whether in the morning I
+am not sure. Sunday closes a period of our curst revenue business, and
+may probably keep me employed with my pen until noon. Fine employment
+for a poet's pen! There is a species of human genus that I call _the
+gin-horse class_: what enviable dogs they are! Round, and round, and
+round they go,--Mundell's ox, that drives his cotton mill, is their
+exact prototype--without an idea or wish beyond their circle; fat,
+sleek, stupid, patient, quiet, and contented; while here I sit,
+altogether Novemberish, a damn'd melange of fretfulness and melancholy;
+not enough of the one to rouse me to passion, nor of the other to repose
+me in torpor; my soul flouncing and fluttering round her tenement, like
+a wild finch, caught amid the horrors of winter, and newly thrust into a
+cage. Well, I am persuaded that it was of me the Hebrew sage prophesied,
+when he foretold-- "And behold, on whatsoever this man doth set his
+heart, it shall not prosper!" If my resentment is awaked, it is sure to
+be where it dare not squeak; and if--....
+
+Pray that wisdom and bliss be more frequent visitors of
+
+R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CLXXXIX.--To MRS. RIDDEL.
+
+I have often told you, my dear friend, that you had a spice of caprice
+in your composition, and you have as often disavowed it; even perhaps
+while your opinions were, at the moment, irrefragably proving it. Could
+any thing estrange me from a friend such as you?--No! To-morrow I shall
+have the honour of waiting on you.
+
+Farewell, thou first of friends, and most accomplished of women I even
+with all thy little caprices!
+
+R B.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CXC.--To MRS. RIDDEL.
+
+Madam,--I return your commonplace book. I have perused it with much
+pleasure, and would have continued my criticisms, but as it seems the
+critic has forfeited your esteem, his strictures must lose their value.
+
+If it is true that "offences come only from the heart," before you I am
+guiltless. To admire, esteem, and prize you as the most accomplished of
+women, and the first of friends--if these are crimes, I am the most
+offending thing alive.
+
+In a face where I used to meet the kind complacency of friendly
+confidence, _now_ to find cold neglect and contemptuous scorn--is a
+wrench that my heart can ill bear. It is, however, some kind of
+miserable good luck, that while _de-haut-en-bas_ rigour may depress an
+unoffending wretch to the ground, it has a tendency to rouse a stubborn
+something in his bosom, which, though it cannot heal the wounds of his
+soul, is at least an opiate to blunt their poignancy.
+
+With the profoundest respect for your abilities, the most sincere esteem
+and ardent regard for your gentle heart and amiable manners, and the
+most fervent wish and prayer for your welfare, peace, and bliss, I have
+the honour to be, Madam, your most devoted humble servant.
+
+R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CXCI.--TO MR. CUNNINGHAM.
+
+25_th February_ 1794.
+
+Canst thou minister to a mind diseased? Canst thou speak peace and rest
+to a soul tost on a sea of troubles, without one friendly star to guide
+her course, and dreading that the next surge may overwhelm her? Canst
+thou give to a frame, tremblingly alive to the tortures of suspense, the
+stability and hardihood of the rock that braves the blast? If thou canst
+not do the least of these, why wouldst thou disturb me in my miseries,
+with thy inquiries after me?
+
+For these two months I have not been able to lift a pen. My constitution
+and frame were, _ab origine_, blasted with a deep incurable taint of
+hypochondria, which poisons my existence. Of late a number of domestic
+vexations, and some pecuniary share in the ruin of these cursed times;
+losses which, though trifling, were yet what I could ill bear, have so
+irritated me, that my feelings at times could only be envied by a
+reprobate spirit listening to the sentence that dooms it to perdition.
+
+Are you deep in the language of consolation? I have exhausted in
+reflection every topic of comfort. _A heart at ease_ would have been
+charmed with my sentiments and reasonings; but as to myself, I was like
+Judas Iscariot preaching the gospel; he might melt and mould the hearts
+of those around him, but his own kept its native incorrigibility.
+
+Still there are two great pillars that bear us up, amid the wreck of
+misfortune and misery. The ONE is composed of the different
+modifications of a certain noble, stubborn something in a man, known by
+the names of courage, fortitude, magnanimity. The OTHER is made up of
+those feelings and sentiments, which, however the sceptic may deny them,
+or the enthusiast disfigure them, are yet, I am convinced, original and
+component parts of the human soul; those _senses of the mind_ if I may
+be allowed the expression, which connect us with, and link us to, those
+awful obscure realities--an all-powerful, and equally beneficent God;
+and a world to come, beyond death and the grave. The first gives the
+nerve of combat, while a ray of hope beams on the field: the last pours
+the balm of comfort into the wounds which time can never cure.
+
+I do not remember, my dear Cunningham, that you and I ever talked on the
+subject of religion at all. I know some who laugh at it, as the trick of
+the crafty FEW, to lead the undiscerning MANY; or at most, as an
+uncertain obscurity which mankind can never know anything of, and with
+which they are fools if they give themselves much to do. Nor would I
+quarrel with a man for his irreligion, any more than I would for his
+want of a musical ear, I would regret that he was shut out from what, to
+me and to others, were such superlative sources of enjoyment. It is in
+this point of a view, and for this reason, that I will deeply imbue the
+mind of every child of mine with religion. If my son should happen to be
+a man of feeling, sentiment, and taste, I shall thus add largely to his
+enjoyments. Let me flatter myself that this sweet little fellow, who is
+just now running about my desk, will be a man of a melting, ardent,
+glowing heart; and an imagination, delighted with the painter, and rapt
+with the poet. Let me figure him wandering out in a sweet evening, to
+inhale the balmy gales, and enjoy the glowing luxuriance of the spring;
+himself the while in the blooming youth of life. He looks abroad on all
+nature, and through nature up to nature's God. His soul, by swift
+delighting degrees, is rapt above this sublunary sphere until he can be
+silent no longer, and bursts out into the glorious enthusiasm
+of Thomson,
+
+  These, as they change, Almighty Father, these
+  Are but the varied God. The rolling year
+  Is full of thee.
+
+And so on, in all the spirit and ardour of that charming hymn. These are
+no ideal pleasures, they are real delights; and I ask, what of the
+delights among the sons of men are superior, not to say equal to them?
+And they have this precious, vast addition, that conscious virtue stamps
+them for her own; and lays hold on them to bring herself into the
+presence of a witnessing, judging, and approving God.
+
+R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CXCII.--To MRS. DUNLOP.
+
+CASTLE DOUGLAS, _25th June 1794._
+
+Here in a solitary inn, in a solitary village, am I set by myself, to
+amuse my brooding fancy as I may. Solitary confinement, you know, is
+Howard's favourite idea of reclaiming sinners; so let me consider by
+what fatality it happens, that I have so long been exceeding sinful as
+to neglect the correspondence of the most valued friend I have on earth.
+To tell you that I have been in poor health will not be excuse enough,
+though it is true. I am afraid that I am about to suffer for the follies
+of my youth. My medical friends threaten me with a flying gout; but I
+trust they are mistaken.
+
+I am just going to trouble your critical patience with the first sketch
+of a stanza I have been framing, as I passed along the road. The subject
+is Liberty: you know, my honoured friend, how dear the theme is to me. I
+design it an irregular ode for General Washington's birth-day. After
+having mentioned the degeneracy of other kingdoms I come to
+Scotland thus:
+
+  Thee, Caledonia, thy wild heaths among,
+  Thee, famed for martial deed and sacred song,
+    To thee I turn with swimming eyes;
+  Where is that soul of freedom fled?
+  Immingled with the mighty dead!
+    Beneath the hallowed turf where Wallace lies!
+  Hear it not, Wallace, in thy bed of death;
+    Ye babbling winds, in silence sweep,
+    Disturb ye not the hero's sleep.
+
+You will probably have another scrawl from me in a stage or two.
+
+R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CXCIII.--To MR. JAMES JOHNSON.
+
+DUMFRIES, 1794.
+
+My Dear Friend,--You should have heard from me long ago; but over and
+above some vexatious share in the pecuniary losses of these accursed
+times, I have all this winter been plagued with low spirits and blue
+devils, so that _I have almost hung my harp on the willow trees_.
+
+I am just now busy correcting a new edition of my poems, and this, with
+my ordinary business, finds me in full employment.
+
+I send you by my friend, Mr. Wallace, forty-one songs for your fifth
+volume; if we cannot finish it any other way, what would you think of
+Scotch words to some beautiful Irish airs? In the meantime, at your
+leisure, give a copy of the _Museum_ to my worthy friend, Mr. Peter
+Hill, bookseller, to bind for me, interleaved with blank leaves, exactly
+as he did the Laird of Glenriddel's, that I may insert every anecdote I
+can learn, together with my own criticisms and remarks on the songs. A
+copy of this kind I shall leave with you, the editor, to publish at some
+after period, by way of making the _Museum_ a book famous to the end of
+time, and you renowned for ever.
+
+I have got a highland dirk, for which I have great veneration, as it
+once was the dirk of _Lord Balmerino_. It fell into bad hands, who
+stripped it of the silver mounting, as well as the knife and fork. I
+have some thoughts of sending it to your care, to get it mounted
+anew.--Yours, etc.,
+
+R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CXCIV.--To MR. PETER MILLER, JUN., OF DALSWINION.[131]
+
+DUMFRIES, _Nov. 1794._
+
+Dear Sir,--Your offer is indeed truly generous, and sincerely do I thank
+you for it; but in my present situation, I find that I dare not accept
+it. You well know my political sentiments; and were I an insular
+individual, unconnected with a wife and a family of children, with the
+most fervid enthusiasm I would have volunteered my services; I then
+could and would have despised all consequences that might have ensued.
+
+My prospect in the Excise is something; at least, it is--encumbered as
+I am with the welfare, the very existence, of near half-a-score of
+helpless individuals--what I dare not sport with.
+
+In the meantime, they are most welcome to my Ode; only, let them insert
+it as a thing they have met with by accident and unknown to me. Nay, if
+Mr. Perry, whose honour, after your character of him, I cannot doubt, if
+he will give me an address and channel by which anything will come safe
+from those spies with which he may be certain that his correspondence is
+beset, I will now and then send him any bagatelle that I may write. In
+the present hurry of Europe, nothing but news and politics will be
+regarded; but against the days of peace, which Heaven send soon, my
+little assistance may perhaps fill up an idle column of a newspaper. I
+have long had it in my head to try my hand in the way of little prose
+essays, which I propose sending into the world through the medium of
+some newspaper; and should these be worth his while, to these Mr. Perry
+shall be welcome; and all my reward shall be, his treating me with his
+paper, which, by-the-by, to anybody who has the least relish for wit, is
+a high treat indeed.
+
+With the most grateful esteem, I am ever, Dear Sir,
+
+R. B.
+
+   [Footnote 131: He had offered Burns a post on the staff of _The
+   Morning Chronicle_, of which newspaper Mr. Perry was proprietor.]
+
+        *       *       *       *       *
+
+CXCV.--To MRS, RIDDEL,
+
+Madam,--I dare say that this is the first epistle you ever received from
+this nether world. I write you from the regions of hell, amid the
+horrors of the damn'd. The time and manner of my leaving your earth I do
+not exactly know, as I took my departure in the heat of a fever of
+intoxication, contracted at your too hospitable mansion; but, on my
+arrival here, I was fairly tried, and sentenced to endure the
+purgatorial tortures of this infernal confine for the space of
+ninety-nine years, eleven months, and twenty-nine days, and all on
+account of the impropriety of my conduct yesternight under your roof.
+Here am I, laid on a bed of pitiless furze, with my aching head reclined
+on a pillow of ever-piercing thorn, while an infernal tormentor,
+wrinkled, and old, and cruel--his name I think is _Recollection_--with
+a whip of scorpions, forbids peace or rest to approach me, and keeps
+anguish eternally awake. Still, Madam, if I could in any measure be
+reinstated in the good opinion of the fair circle whom my conduct last
+night so much injured, I think it would be an alleviation to my
+torments. For this reason I trouble you with this letter. To the men of
+the company I will make no apology.--Your husband, who insisted on my
+drinking more than I chose, has no right to blame me, and the other
+gentlemen were partakers of my guilt. But to you, Madam, I have much to
+apologise. Your good opinion I valued as one of the greatest
+acquisitions I had made on earth, and I was truly a beast to forfeit it.
+There was a Miss I---too, a woman of fine sense, gentle and unassuming
+manners--do make, on my part, a miserable damn'd wretch's best apology
+to her. A Mrs. G--, a charming woman, did me the honour to be prejudiced
+in my favour; this makes me hope that I have not outraged her beyond all
+forgiveness.--To all the other ladies please present my humblest
+contrition for my conduct, and my petition for their gracious pardon. O
+all ye powers of decency and decorum! whisper to them that my errors,
+though great, were involuntary--that an intoxicated man is the vilest of
+beasts--that it was not in my nature to be brutal to any one--that to be
+rude to a woman, when in my senses, was impossible with me--but--
+
+Regret! Remorse! Shame! ye three hell hounds that ever dog my steps and
+bay at my heels, spare me! spare me!
+
+Forgive the offences, and pity the perdition of, Madam, your humble
+slave,
+
+R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CXCVI.--To MRS. DUNLOP.
+
+_15th December 1795._
+
+My Dear Friend,--As I am in a complete Decemberish humour, gloomy,
+sullen, stupid, as even the Deity of Dulness herself could wish, I shall
+not drawl out a heavy letter with a number of heavier apologies for my
+late silence. Only one I shall mention, because I know you will
+sympathise with it: these four months, a sweet little girl, my youngest
+child, has been so ill, that every day a week or less threatened to
+terminate her existence. There had much need be many pleasures annexed
+to the states of husband and father, for, God knows, they have many
+peculiar cares. I cannot describe to you the anxious, sleepless hours
+these ties frequently give me. I see a train of helpless little folks;
+me and my exertions all their stay: and on what a brittle thread does
+the life of man hang! If I am nipt off at the command of fate! even in
+all the vigour of manhood as I am--such things happen every day
+--Gracious God! what would become of my little flock! 'Tis here that I
+envy your people of fortune. A father on his deathbed, taking an
+everlasting leave of his children, has indeed woe enough; but the man of
+competent fortune leaves his sons and daughters independency and
+friends; while I--but I shall run distracted if I think any longer on
+the subject!
+
+To leave talking of the matter so gravely, I shall sing with the old
+Scots ballad--
+
+  O that I had ne'er been married,
+    I would never had nae care;
+  Now I've gotten wife and bairns,
+    They cry crowdie evermair.
+
+  Crowdie ance, crowdie twice:
+    Crowdie three times in a day:
+  An ye crowdie ony mair,
+    Ye'll crowdie a' my meal away.
+
+  _25th, Christmas Morning._
+
+This, my much-loved friend, is a morning of wishes; accept mine--so
+Heaven hear me as they are sincere! that blessings may attend your
+steps, and affliction know you not! In the charming words of my
+favourite author--"The Man of Feeling," "May the Great Spirit bear up
+the weight of thy grey hairs, and blunt the arrow that brings
+them rest!"
+
+Now that I talk of authors, how do you like Cowper? Is not the "Task" a
+glorious poem? The religion of the "Task," bating a few scraps of
+Calvinistic divinity, is the religion of God and Nature; the religion
+that exalts, that ennobles man. Were not you to send me your _Zeluco_ in
+return for mine? Tell me how you like my marks and notes through the
+book. I would not give a farthing for a book, unless I were at liberty
+to blot it with my criticisms.
+
+R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CXCVII.--To MRS. DUNLOP, IN LONDON.
+
+DUMFRIES, _2Oth December 1795._
+
+I have been prodigiously disappointed in this London journey of
+yours.... Do let me hear from you the soonest possible. As I hope to get
+a frank from my friend Captain Miller, I shall, every leisure hour, take
+up the pen and gossip away whatever comes first, prose or poetry, sermon
+or song. In this last article I have abounded of late. I have often
+mentioned to you a superb publication of Scottish songs, which is making
+its appearance in our great metropolis, and where I have the honour to
+preside over the Scottish verse, as no less a personage than Peter
+Pindar does over the English.
+
+_December 29th._
+
+Since I began this letter, I have been appointed to act in the capacity
+of supervisor here, and I assure you, what with the load of business,
+and what with that business being new to me, I could scarcely have
+commanded ten minutes to have spoken to you, had you been in town, much
+less to have written you an epistle. This appointment is only temporary,
+and during the illness of the present incumbent; but I look forward to
+an early period when I shall be appointed in full form: a consummation
+devoutly to be wished! My political sins seem to be forgiven me.
+
+This is the season (New Year's day is now my date) of wishing, and mine
+are most fervently offered up for you! May life to you be a positive
+blessing while it lasts, for your own sake; and that it may yet be
+greatly prolonged is my wish for my own sake, and for the sake of the
+rest of your friends! What a transient business is life! Very lately I
+was a boy; but t'other day I was a young man; and I already begin to
+feel the rigid fibre and stiffening joints of old age coming fast o'er
+my frame. With all my follies of youth, and, I fear, a few vices of
+manhood, still I congratulate myself on having had in early days
+religion strongly impressed on my mind. I have nothing to say to any one
+as to which sect he belongs to, or what creed he believes: but I look on
+the man who is firmly persuaded of infinite Wisdom and Goodness
+superintending and directing every circumstance that can happen in his
+lot--I felicitate such a man for having a solid foundation for his
+mental enjoyment; a firm prop and sure stay, in the hour of difficulty,
+trouble, and distress; and a never-failing anchor of hope when he looks
+beyond the grave.
+
+R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+CXVIII.--To THE HON, THE PROVOST, ETC., OF DUMFRIES.
+
+Gentlemen,--The literary taste, and liberal spirit, of your good town
+has so ably filled the various departments of your schools, as to make
+it a very great object for a parent to have his children educated in
+them. Still, to me, a stranger, with my large family, and very stinted
+income, to give my young ones the education I wish, at the high-school
+fees which a stranger pays, will bear hard upon me.
+
+Some years ago, your good town did me the honour of making me an
+honorary Burgess. Will you allow me to request that this mark of
+distinction may extend so far, as to put me on a footing of a real
+freeman of the town, in the schools?
+
+If you are so very kind as to grant my request, it will certainly be a
+constant incentive to me to strain every nerve where I can officially
+serve you; and will, if possible, increase that grateful respect with
+which I have the honour to be, Gentlemen, your devoted humble servant,
+
+R. B.[132]
+
+   [Footnote 132: With the Poet's request the Magistiates of Dumfries
+   very handsomely complied. He was induced to make the request through
+   the persuasions of Mr. James Gray and Mr. Thomas White, Masters of
+   the Grammar School, Dumfries whose memories are still green on the
+   banks of the Nith.--CUNNINGHAM.]
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+CXCIX.--To MRS. DUNLOP.[133]
+
+DUMFRIES, _3lst January 1796._
+
+These many months you have been two packets in my debt--what sin of
+ignorance I have committed against so highly valued a friend I am
+utterly at a loss to guess. Alas! Madam, ill can I afford, at this time,
+to be deprived of any of the small remnant of my pleasures. I have
+lately drunk deep of the cup of affliction. The autumn robbed me of my
+only daughter and darling child, and that at a distance too, and so
+rapidly, as to put it out of my power to pay the last duties to
+her.[133a] I had scarcely begun to recover from that shock, when I
+became myself the victim of a most severe rheumatic fever, and long the
+die spun doubtful; until after many weeks of a sick bed, it seems to
+have turned up life, and I am beginning to crawl across my room, and
+once indeed have been before my own door in the street.
+
+R. B.
+
+   [Footnote 133: Cunningham says--"It seems all but certain that Mrs.
+   Dunlop regarded the Poet with some little displeasure during the
+   evening of his days."]
+
+   [Footnote 133a: This child died at Mauchline.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CC.--To MR. JAMES JOHNSON.
+
+DUMFRIES, _4th July 1796._
+
+How are you, my dear friend, and how comes on your fifth volume?[134]
+You may probably think that for some time past I have neglected you and
+your work; but, alas! the hand of pain, and sorrow, and care has these
+many months lain heavy on me! Personal and domestic affliction have
+almost entirely banished that alacrity and life with which I used to woo
+the rural muse of Scotia.
+
+You are a good, worthy, honest fellow, and have a good right to live in
+this world--because you deserve it. Many a merry meeting this
+publication has given us, and possibly it may give us more, though,
+alas! I fear it. This protracting, slow, consuming illness which hangs
+over me will, I doubt much, my dear friend, arrest my sun before he has
+well reached his middle career, and will turn over the poet to far more
+important concerns than studying the brilliancy of wit, or the pathos of
+sentiment! However, hope is the cordial of the human heart, and I
+endeavour to cherish it as well as I can.
+
+I am ashamed to ask another favour of you, because you have been so very
+good already; but my wife has a very particular friend, a young lady who
+sings well, to whom she wishes to present the _Scots Musical Museum_. If
+you have a spare copy, will you be so obliging as to send it by the very
+first fly, as I am anxious to have it soon.--Yours ever,
+
+R. B.[135]
+
+   [Footnote 134: Of the _Musical Museum_.]
+
+   [Footnote 135: "In this humble manner did poor Burns ask for a copy
+   of a work to which he had contributed, gratuitously, not less than
+   184 original, altered, and collected songs!"--CROMEK.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CCI--TO MR. CUNNINGHAM.
+
+BROW, _Sea-bathing quarters, 7th July_ 1796.
+
+My Dear Cunningham,--I received yours here this moment, and am indeed
+highly flattered with the approbation of the literary circle you
+mention; a literary circle inferior to none in the two kingdoms. Alas!
+my friend, I fear the voice of the bard will soon be heard among you no
+more! For these eight or ten months I have been ailing, sometimes
+bedfast and sometimes not; but these last three months I have been
+tortured with an excruciating rheumatism, which has reduced me to nearly
+the last stage. You actually would not know me if you saw me. Pale,
+emaciated, and so feeble, as occasionally to need help from my chair--
+my spirits fled! fled!--but I can no more on the subject--only the
+medical folks tell me that my last and only chance is bathing and
+country quarters, and riding. The deuce of the matter is this--when an
+exciseman is off duty, his salary is reduced to L35 instead of L50. What
+way, in the name of thrift, shall I maintain myself, and keep a horse in
+country quarters, with a wife and five children at home, on 35 pounds? I
+mention this, because I had intended to beg your utmost interest, and
+that of all the friends you can muster, to move our Commissioners of
+Excise to grant me the full salary; I dare say you know them all
+personally. If they do not grant it me, I must lay my account with an
+exit truly _en poete_; if I die not of disease, I must perish with
+hunger.[136]
+
+I have sent you one of the songs; the other my memory does not serve me
+with, and I have no copy here, but I shall be at home soon, when I will
+send it you. Apropos to being at home, Mrs. Burns threatens in a week or
+two to add one more to my paternal charge, which, if of the right
+gender, I intend shall be introduced to the world by the respectable
+designation of _Alexander Cunningham Burns_. My last was _James
+Glencairn_, so you can have no objection to the company of
+nobility. Farewell.
+
+R. B.
+
+   [Footnote 136: _Not_ granted.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CCII.--To MR. GILBERT BURNS.
+
+_10th July 1795._
+
+Dear Brother,--It will be no very pleasing news to you to be told that I
+am dangerously ill, and not likely to get better. An inveterate
+rheumatism has reduced me to such a state of debility, and my appetite
+is so totally gone, that I can scarcely stand on my legs. I have been a
+week at sea-bathing, and will continue there, or in a friend's house in
+the country, all the summer. God keep my wife and children; if I am
+taken from their head, they will be poor indeed. I have contracted one
+or two serious debts, partly from my illness these many months, partly
+from too much thoughtlessness as to expense when I came to town, that
+will cut in too much on the little I leave them in your hands. Remember
+me to my mother.--Yours,
+
+R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CCIII.--To MRS. BURNS.[137]
+
+BROW, _Thursday._
+
+My Dearest Love,--I delayed writing until I could tell you what effect
+sea-bathing was likely to produce. It would be injustice to deny that it
+has eased my pains, and I think has strengthened me; but my appetite is
+still extremely bad. No flesh nor fish can I swallow: porridge and milk
+are the only things I can taste. I am very happy to hear, by Miss Jess
+Lewars, that you are all well. My very best and kindest compliments to
+her, and to all the children. I will see you on Sunday.--Your
+affectionate husband,
+
+R. B.
+
+   [Footnote 137: One evening, while at the Brow, Burns was visited by
+   two young ladies. The sun, setting on the western hills, threw a
+   strong light upon him through the window. One of them perceiving
+   this, proceeded to draw the curtain; "Let me look at the sun, my
+   dear," said the sinking poet, "he will not long shine on me."]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CCIV.--To MRS. DUNLOP.
+
+BROW, _Saturday, 12th July 1796._
+
+Madam,--I have written you so often, without receiving any answer, that
+I would not trouble you again, but for the circumstances in which I am.
+An illness which has long hung about me, in all probability will
+speedily send me beyond that bourne whence no traveller returns. Your
+friendship, with which for many years you honoured me, was a friendship
+dearest to my soul. Your conversation, and especially your
+correspondence, were at once highly entertaining and instructive. With
+what pleasure did I use to break up the seal! The remembrance yet adds
+one pulse more to my poor palpitating heart. Farewell!!!
+
+R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CCV.--To MR. JAMES BURNESS, WRITER, MONTROSE.
+
+DUMFRIES, _12th July._
+
+MY DEAR COUSIN,--When you offered me money assistance, little did I
+think I should want it so soon. A rascal of a haberdasher, to whom I owe
+a considerable bill, taking it into his head that I am dying, has
+commenced a process against me, and will infallibly put my emaciated
+body into jail. Will you be so good as to accommodate me, and that by
+return of post, with ten pounds? O James, did you know the pride of my
+heart, you would feel doubly for me! Alas! I am not used to beg! The
+worst of it is, my health was coming about finely. Melancholy and low
+spirits are half my disease. If I had it settled, I would be, I think,
+quite well in a manner.
+
+R. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CCVI.--To HIS FATHER-IN-LAW, JAMES ARMOUR, MASON, MAUCHLINE.[138]
+
+DUMFRIES, _18th July 1799._
+
+MY DEAR SIR,--Do, for heaven's sake, send Mrs. Armour here immediately.
+My wife is hourly expecting to be put to bed. Good God! what a situation
+for her to be in, poor girl, without a friend! I returned from
+sea-bathing quarters to-day, and my medical friends would almost
+persuade me that I am better, but I think and feel that my strength is
+so gone that the disorder will prove fatal to me.--Your son-in-law,
+
+R. B.
+
+   [Footnote 138: Mrs. Burns's father. This is the very last of Burns's
+   compositions, being written only three days before his death.]
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+THE THOMSON LETTERS.
+
+
+PREFATORY NOTE.
+
+This correspondence began in September 1792, when Burns had already been
+domiciled nine months in the town of Dumfries, and ended only with his
+death in July 1796. It originated in the request of a stranger for a
+series of songs to suit a projected collection of the best Scottish
+airs. The stranger was George Thomson, a young man of about Burns's own
+age, and head clerk in the office of the Board of Manufactures in
+Edinburgh. Thomson outlived his great correspondent by more than half a
+century. He died so recently as 1851, at the advanced age of ninety-two.
+Robert Chambers has described him as a most honourable man, of
+singularly amiable character and cheerful manners. It may interest some
+people to know that his granddaughter was the wife of Dickens, the
+famous novelist.
+
+
+THE THOMSON LETTER.
+
+I.
+
+DUMFRIES, _16th September 1792._
+
+Sir,--I have just this moment got your letter. As the request you make
+to me will positively add to my enjoyments in complying with it, I shall
+enter into your undertaking with all the small portion of abilities I
+have, strained to their utmost exertion by the impulse of enthusiasm.
+Only, don't hurry me. "Deil tak the hindmost" is by no means the _crie
+de guerre_ of my muse. Will you, as I am inferior to none of you in
+enthusiastic attachment to the poetry and music of old Caledonia, and,
+since you request it, have cheerfully promised my mite of
+assistance--will you let me have a list of your airs, with the first
+line of the printed verses you intend for them, that I may have an
+opportunity of suggesting any alteration that may occur to me? You know
+'tis in the way of my trade; still leaving you, gentlemen,[139] the
+undoubted rights of publishers, to approve or reject at your pleasure,
+for your own publication. _Apropos_ if you are for _English_ verses,
+there is, on my part, an end of the matter. Whether in the simplicity of
+the ballad, or the pathos of the song, I can only hope to please myself
+in being allowed at least a sprinkling of our native tongue. English
+verses, particularly the works of Scotsmen, that have merit, are
+certainly very eligible. "Tweedside;" "Ah! the Poor Shepherd's Mournful
+Fate;" "Ah! Chloris, could I now but sit," etc., you cannot mend; but
+such insipid stuff as "To Fanny fair, could I impart," etc., usually set
+to "The Mill, Mill, O," is a disgrace to the collections in which it has
+already appeared, and would doubly disgrace a collection that will have
+the very superior merit of yours. But more of this in the farther
+prosecution of the business, if I am to be called on for my strictures
+and amendments--I say, amendments; for I will not alter, accept where I
+myself, at least, think that I amend.
+
+As to any renumeration, you may think my songs either above or below
+price; for they shall absolutely be the one or the other. In the honest
+enthusiasm with which I embark in your undertaking, to talk of money,
+wages, fee, hire, etc., would be downright sodomy of soul! A proof of
+each of the songs that I compose or amend I shall receive as a favour.
+In the rustic phrase of the season, "Gude speed the wark!"--I am, Sir,
+your very humble servant,
+
+R. BURNS.
+
+P.S.--I have some particular reasons for wishing my interference to be
+known as little as possible.
+
+   [Footnote 139: Thomson in his letter spoke of coadjutors, but in less
+   than a year he became sole editor of the collection.]
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+II.
+
+My Dear Sir,--Let me tell you that you are too fastidious in your ideas
+of songs and ballads. I own that your criticisms are just; the songs you
+specify in your list have, _all but one_, the faults you remark in them;
+but how shall we mend the matter? Who shall rise up and say--Go to, I
+will make a better? For instance, on reading over "The Lea-rig," I
+immediately set about trying my hand on it, and, after all, I could make
+nothing more of it than the following, which, Heaven knows, is
+poor enough:--
+
+  When o'er the hill the eastern star
+  Tells bughtin-time is near, my jo, (etc.)
+
+Your observation as to the aptitude of Dr. Percy's ballad to the air,
+"Nannie O," is just. It is besides, perhaps, the most beautiful ballad
+in the English language. But let me remark to you, that in the sentiment
+and style of our Scottish airs there is a pastoral simplicity, a
+something that one may call the Doric style and dialect of vocal music,
+to which a dash of our native tongue and manners is particularly, nay,
+peculiarly apposite. For this reason, and upon my honour, for this
+reason alone, I am of opinion (but, as I told you before, my opinion is
+yours, freely yours to approve or reject as you please) that my ballad
+of "Nannie, O", might perhaps do for one set of verses to the tune. Now
+don't let it enter into your head that you are under any necessity of
+taking my verses. I have long ago made up my mind as to my own
+reputation in the business of authorship; and have nothing to be pleased
+or offended at, in your adoption or rejection of my verses. Though you
+should reject one half of what I give you, I shall be pleased with your
+adopting the other half, and shall continue to serve you with the same
+assiduity.
+
+In the printed copy of my "Nannie, O", the name of the river is horridly
+prosaic. I will alter it,
+
+  Behind yon hills where _Lugar_ flows.
+
+Girvan is the name of the river that suits the idea of the stanza best,
+but Lugar is the most agreeable modulation of syllables.
+
+I will soon give you a great many more remarks on this business; but I
+have just now an opportunity of conveying you this scrawl, free of
+postage, an expense that it is ill able to pay; so, with my best
+compliments to honest Allan,[140] goodbye to ye.
+
+  _Friday night.
+  Saturday morning._
+
+As I find I have still an hour to spare this morning before my
+conveyance goes away, I will give you "Nannie, O", at length.
+
+Your remarks on "Ewe-bughts, Marion", are just; still it has obtained a
+place among our more classical Scottish songs; and what with many
+beauties in its composition, and more prejudices in its favour, you will
+not find it easy to supplant it.
+
+In my very early years, when I was thinking of going to the West Indies,
+I took the following farewell of a dear girl. It is quite trifling, and
+has nothing of the merits of "Ewe-bughts", but it will fill up this
+page. You must know that all my earlier love-songs were the breathings
+of ardent passion, and though it might have been easy in after-times to
+have given them a polish, yet that polish, to me, whose they were, and
+who perhaps alone cared for them, would have defaced the legend of my
+heart, which was so faithfully inscribed on them. Their uncouth
+simplicity was, as they say of wines, their _race_.
+
+  Will ye go to the Indies, my Mary, (etc.)
+
+"Gala Water," and "Auld Rob Morris," I think, will most probably be the
+next subject of my musings. However, even on _my verses_, speak out your
+criticisms with equal frankness. My wish is, not to stand aloof, the
+uncomplying bigot of _opiniatrete_, but cordially to join issue with you
+in the furtherance of the work. Gude speed the wark!
+
+Amen.
+
+[Footnote 140: David Allan, the artist.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+III.
+
+_November_ 8_th_, 1792,
+
+If you mean, my dear Sir, that all the songs in your collection shall be
+poetry of the first merit, I am afraid you will find more difficulty in
+the undertaking than you are aware of. There is a peculiar rhythmus in
+many of our airs, and a necessity of adapting syllables to the emphasis,
+or what I would call the _feature-notes_ of the tune, that cramp the
+poet, and lay him under almost insuperable difficulties. For instance,
+in the air, "My Wife's a wanton wee Thing", if a few lines, smooth and
+pretty, can be adapted to it, it is all you can expect. The enclosed
+were made extempore to it; and though, on farther study, I might give
+you something more profound, yet it might not suit the light-horse
+gallop of the air so well as this random clink.
+
+I have just been looking over the "Collier's bonny Dochter", and if the
+enclosed rhapsody which I composed the day, on a charming Ayrshire girl,
+Miss Baillie, as she passed through this place to England, will suit
+your taste better than the "Collier Lassie", fall on and welcome.
+
+I have hitherto deferred the sublimer, more pathetic airs until more
+leisure, as they will take, and deserve a greater effort. However, they
+are all put into your hands, as clay into the hands of the potter, to
+make one vessel to honour, and another to dishonour. Farewell, etc.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+IV.
+
+Inclosing "Highland Mary".--Tune--_Katharine Ogie_.
+
+Ye banks, and braes, and streams around, (etc.)
+
+14_th November_ 1792.
+
+My Dear Sir,--I agree with you, that the song "Katharine Ogie", is very
+poor stuff, and unworthy, altogether unworthy, of so beautiful an air. I
+tried to mend it; but the awkward sound "Ogie," recurring in the rhyme,
+spoils every attempt at introducing sentiment into the piece. The
+foregoing song pleases myself; I think it is in my happiest manner; you
+will see at the first glance that it suits the air. The subject of the
+song is one of the most interesting passages of my youthful days; and I
+own that I should be much flattered to see the verses set to an air
+which would ensure celebrity. Perhaps, after all,'tis the still glowing
+prejudice of my heart that throws a borrowed lustre over the merits of
+the composition.
+
+I have partly taken your idea of "Auld Rob Morris". I have adopted the
+two first verses, and am going on with the song on a new plan, which
+promises pretty well. I take up one or another, just as the bee of the
+moment buzzes in my bonnet-lug; and do you, _sans ceremonie_, make what
+use you choose of the productions. Adieu! etc.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+V.
+
+26_th January_ 1793.
+
+I approve greatly, my dear Sir, of your plans. Dr. Beattie's essay will
+of itself be a treasure. On my part, I mean to draw up an appendix to
+the Doctor's essay, containing my stock of anecdotes, etc., of our Scots
+songs. All the late Mr. Tytler's anecdotes I have by me, taken down in
+the course of my acquaintance with him, from his own mouth. I am such an
+enthusiast, that in the course of my several peregrinations through
+Scotland, I made a pilgrimage to the individual spot from which every
+song took its rise, Lochaber and the Braes of Ballendean excepted. So
+far as locality, either from the title of the air, or the tenor of the
+song, could be ascertained, I have paid my devotions at the particular
+shrine of every Scots Muse.
+
+I do not doubt but you might make a very valuable collection of Jacobite
+songs--but would it give no offence? In the meantime, do not you think
+that some of them, particularly "The Sow's Tail to Geordie", as an air,
+with other words, might be well worth a place in your collection of
+lively songs?
+
+If it were possible to procure songs of merit, it would be proper to
+have one set of Scots words to every air, and that the set of words to
+which the notes ought to be set. There is a _naivete_, a pastoral
+simplicity, in a slight intermixture of Scots words and phraseology,
+which is more in unison (at least to my taste, and, I will add, to every
+genuine Caledonian taste), with the simple pathos or rustic
+sprightliness of our native music, than any English verses whatever.
+
+The very name of Peter Pindar is an acquisition to your work. His
+"Gregory" is beautiful. I have tried to give you a set of stanzas in
+Scots, on the same subject, which are at your service. Not that I intend
+to enter the lists with Peter; that would be presumption indeed. My
+song, though much inferior in poetic merit, has, I think, more of the
+ballad simplicity in it.
+
+    LORD GREGORY.
+  O mirk, mirk is this midnight hour, (etc.)
+
+Your remark on the first stanza of my "Highland Mary" is just, but I
+cannot alter it, without injuring the poetry.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+VI.
+
+_20th March 1793._
+
+My Dear Sir,--The song prefixed ("Mary Morison") is one of my juvenile
+works. I leave it in your hands. I do not think it very remarkable,
+either for its merits or demerits. It is impossible (at least I feel it
+so in my stinted powers) to be always original, entertaining, and witty.
+
+What is become of the list, etc., of your songs? I shall be out of all
+temper with you by and by. I have always looked on myself as the prince
+of indolent correspondents, and valued myself accordingly; and I will
+not, cannot bear rivalship from you, nor anybody else.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+VII.
+
+_7th April 1793. _
+
+Thank you, my dear Sir, for your packet. You cannot imagine how much
+this business of composing for your publication has added to my
+enjoyments. What, with my early attachment to ballads, your book, etc.,
+ballad-making is now as completely my hobby-horse as ever fortification
+was Uncle Toby's; so I'll e'en canter it away till I come to the limit
+of my race (God grant that I may take the right side of the
+winning-post!) and then cheerfully looking back on the honest folks with
+whom I have been happy, I shall say, or sing, "Sae merry as we a' hae
+been" and raising my last looks to the whole human race, the last words
+of the voice of Coila shall be, "Good night, and joy be wi' you a'!" So
+much for my last words; now for a few present remarks as they have
+occurred at random, on looking over your list.
+
+The first lines of "The last time I came o'er the Moor", and several
+other lines in it, are beautiful; but in my opinion--pardon me, revered
+shade of Ramsay!--the song is unworthy of the divine air. I shall try to
+_make_ or _mend_. "For ever, Fortune, wilt thou prove," is a charming
+song; but "Logan Burn and Logan Braes" are sweetly susceptible of rural
+imagery; I'll try that likewise, and if I succeed, the other song may
+class among the English ones. I remember the two last lines of a verse
+in some of the old songs of "Logan Water" (for I know a good many
+different ones), which I think pretty--
+
+  Now my dear lad maun face his faes,
+  Far, far frae me, and Logan braes.
+
+"My Patie is a lover gay", is unequal. "His mind is never muddy," is a
+muddy expression indeed.
+
+  Then I'll resign and marry Pate,
+  And syne my cockernony--
+
+This is surely far unworthy of Ramsay, or your book. My song, "Rigs of
+Barley", to the same tune, does not altogether please me; but if I can
+mend it, and thresh a few loose sentiments out of it, I will submit it
+to your consideration. The "Lass o' Patie's Mill" is one of Ramsay's
+best songs; but there is one loose sentiment in it, which my much-valued
+friend, Mr. Erskine, will take into his critical consideration. In Sir
+J. Sinclair's statistical volumes are two claims, one I think, from
+Aberdeenshire, and the other from Ayrshire, for the honour of this song.
+The following anecdote, which I had from the present Sir William
+Cunningham, of Robertland, who had it of the late John, Earl of Loudon,
+I can on such authorities believe.
+
+Allan Ramsay was residing at Loudon Castle with the then Earl, father to
+Earl John; and one forenoon, riding or walking out together, his
+lordship and Allan passed a sweet romantic spot on Irwine water, still
+called "Patie's Mill," where a bonnie lass was "tedding hay, bareheaded
+on the green." My lord observed to Allan, that it would be a fine theme
+for a song, Ramsay took the hint, and lingering behind, he composed the
+first sketch of it, which he produced at dinner.
+
+"One day I heard Mary say," is a fine song; but for consistency's sake,
+alter the name "Adonis." Was there ever such banns published, as a
+purpose of marriage between Adonis and Mary? I agree with you that my
+song, "There's nought but care on every hand," is much superior to
+"Poortith Cauld." The original song, "The Mill, Mill, O," though
+excellent, is, on account of delicacy, inadmissible; still I like the
+title, and think a Scottish song would suit the notes best; and let your
+chosen song, which is very pretty, follow, as an English set. The "Banks
+of Dee" is, you know, literally "Langolee" to slow time. The song is
+well enough, but has some false imagery in it, for instance,
+
+  And sweetly the nightingale sung from the _tree_.
+
+In the first place, the nightingale sings in a low bush, but never from
+a tree; and in the second place, there never was a nightingale seen or
+heard on the banks of the Dee, or on the banks of any other river in
+Scotland. Exotic rural imagery is always comparatively flat. If I could
+hit on another stanza equal to "The small birds rejoice," etc., I do
+myself honestly avow that I think it a superior song. "John Anderson, my
+jo"--the song to this tune in Johnson's _Museum_ is my composition, and
+I think it not my worst: if it suit you, take it and welcome. Your
+collection of sentimental and pathetic songs is, in my opinion, very
+complete; but not so your comic ones. Where are "Tullochgorum," "Lumps
+o' Puddin'," "Tibbie Fowler," and several others, which, in my humble
+judgment, are well worthy of preservation? There is also one sentimental
+song of mine in the _Museum_, which never was known out of the immediate
+neighbourhood, until I got it taken down from a country girl's singing.
+It is called "Craigie-burn Wood;" and in the opinion of Mr. Clarke is
+one of our sweetest Scottish songs. He is quite an enthusiast about it;
+and I would take his taste in Scottish music against the taste of most
+connoisseurs.
+
+You are quite right in inserting the last five in your list, though they
+are certainly Irish. "Shepherds, I have lost my love," is to me a
+heavenly air--what would you think of a set of Scottish verses to it? I
+have made one a good while ago, which I think is the best love song[141]
+I ever composed in my life; but in its original state it is not quite a
+lady's song. I enclose an altered, not amended copy for you, if you
+choose to set the tune to it, and let the Irish verses follow.
+
+Mr. Erskine's songs are all pretty, but his "Lone Vale" is
+divine.--Yours, etc.
+
+Let me know just how you like these random hints.
+
+   [Footnote 141: "Yestreen I had a pint o' wine."]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+VIII.
+
+_April 1793._
+
+My Dear Sir,--I own my vanity is flattered when you give my songs a
+place in your elegant and superb work; but to be of service to the work
+is my first wish. As I have often told you, I do not in a single
+instance wish you, out of compliment to me, to insert anything of mine.
+One hint let me give you--whatever Mr. Peyel does, let him not alter one
+_iota_ of the original Scottish airs; I mean in the song department; but
+let our national music preserve its native features. They are, I own,
+frequently wild, and irreducible to the more modern rules; but on that
+very eccentricity, perhaps, depends a great part of their effect.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+IX.
+
+_June_ 1793.
+
+When I tell you, my dear Sir, that a friend of mine, in whom I am much
+interested, has fallen a sacrifice to these accursed times, you will
+easily allow that it might unhinge me for doing any good among ballads.
+My own loss, as to pecuniary matters, is trifling; but the total ruin of
+a much-loved friend is a loss indeed. Pardon my seeming inattention to
+your last commands.
+
+I cannot alter the disputed lines in the "Mill, Mill, O."[142] What you
+think a defect I esteem as a positive beauty; so you see how doctors
+differ. I shall now, with as much alacrity as I can muster, go on with
+your commands.
+
+You know Frazer, the hautboy player in Edinburgh--he is here instructing
+a band of music for a fencible corps quartered in this country. Among
+many of the airs that please me, there is one well known as a reel, by
+the name of "The Quaker's Wife"; and which I remember a grand-aunt of
+mine used to sing, by the name of "Liggeram Cosh, my bonnie wee lass".
+Mr. Frazer plays it slow, and with an expression that quite charms me. I
+became such an enthusiast about it that I made a song for it, which I
+here subjoin, and inclose Frazer's set of the tune. If they hit your
+fancy, they are at your service; if not, return me the tune, and I will
+put it in Johnson's _Museum_. I think the song is not in my
+worst manner.
+
+  Blithe hae I been on yon hill, (etc.)
+
+I should wish to hear how this pleases you.
+
+   [Footnote 142: The lines were the third and fourth--
+
+   Wi' mony a sweet babe fatherless,
+   And mony a widow mourning.]
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+X.
+
+_June 25th 1793_.
+
+Have you ever, my dear Sir, felt your bosom ready to burst with
+indignation on reading of those mighty villains who divide kingdom
+against kingdom, desolate provinces, and lay nations waste, out of the
+wantonness of ambition, or often from still more ignoble passions? In a
+mood of this kind to-day I recollected the air of "Logan Water;" and it
+occurred to me that its querulous melody probably had its origin from
+the plaintive indignation of some swelling, suffering heart, fired at
+the tyrannic strides of some public destroyer, and overwhelmed with
+private distress, the consequence of a country's ruin. If I have done
+anything at all like justice to my feelings, the following song,
+composed in three quarters of an hour's meditation in my elbow-chair,
+ought to have some merit.
+
+  [Here follows "Logan Water."]
+
+Do you know the following beautiful little fragment in
+Witherspoon's _Collection of Scots Songs_?
+
+Air--_Hughie Graham._
+
+  O gin my love were yon red rose,
+    That grows upon the castle wa',
+  And I mysel' a drap o' dew
+    Into her bonnie breast to fa'!
+
+  Oh, there beyond expression blest,
+    I'd feast on beauty a' the night;
+  Seal'd on her silk saft faulds to rest,
+    Till fley'd awa by Phoebus light.
+
+This thought is inexpressibly beautiful; and quite, so far as I know,
+original. It is too short for a song, else I would forswear you
+altogether, unless you gave it a place. I have often tried to eke a
+stanza to it, but in vain. After balancing myself for a musing five
+minutes, on the hind legs of my elbow-chair, I produced the following.
+The verses are far inferior to the foregoing, I frankly confess; but if
+worthy of insertion at all, they might be first in place; as every poet,
+who knows anything of his trade, will husband his best thoughts for a
+concluding stroke.
+
+  O were my love yon lilac fair,
+    Wi' purple blossoms to the spring;
+  And I a bird to shelter there,
+    When wearied on my little wing;
+
+  How I wad mourn, when it was torn
+    By autumn wild, and winter rude!
+  But I wad sing on wanton wing,
+    When youthfu' May its bloom renew'd.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+XI.
+
+_July_ 1793.
+
+I assure you, my dear Sir, that you truly hurt me with your pecuniary
+parcel. It degrades me in my own eyes. However, to return it would
+savour of affectation; but as to any more traffic of that debtor or
+creditor kind, I swear by that HONOUR which crowns the upright statue of
+ROBERT BURNS'S INTEGRITY--on the least motion of it, I will indignantly
+spurn the by--past transaction, and from that moment commence entire
+stranger to you! BURNS'S character for generosity of sentiment and
+independence of mind will, I trust, long outlive any of his wants, which
+the cold, unfeeling ore can supply: at least, I will take care that such
+a character he shall deserve.
+
+Thank you for my copy of your publication. Never did my eyes behold, in
+any musical work, such elegance and correctness. Your preface, too, is
+admirably written; only, your partiality to me has made you say too
+much: however, it will bind me down to double every eifort in the future
+progress of the work. The following are a few remarks on the songs in
+the list you sent me. I never copy what I write to you, so I may be
+often tautological, or perhaps contradictory.
+
+"The Flowers of the Forest" is charming as a poem; and should be, and
+must be, set to the notes; but, though out of your rule, the three
+stanzas, beginning,
+
+  I hae seen the smiling o' fortune beguiling,
+
+are worthy of a place, were it but to immortalise the author of them,
+who is an old lady[143] of my acquaintance, and at this moment living in
+Edinburgh. She is a Mrs. Cockburn; I forget of what place; but from
+Roxburghshire. What a charming apostrophe is
+
+  O fickle Fortune, why this cruel sporting,
+  Why, why torment us--_poor sons of a day_!
+
+The old ballad, "I wish I were where Helen lies," is silly, to
+contemptibility. My alteration of it, in Johnson's, is not much better.
+
+   [Footnote 142: _Nee_ Rutherford, of Selkirkshire. She was then 81
+   years old.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+XII.
+
+_August_ 1793.
+
+That tune, "Cauld Kail," is such a favourite of yours, that I once more
+roved out yesterday for a gloamin-shot at the muses; when the muse that
+presides o'er the shores of Nith, or rather my old inspiring dearest
+nymph, Coila, whispered me the following. I have two reasons for
+thinking that it was my early, sweet, simple inspirer that was by my
+elbow, "smooth gliding without step," and pouring the song on my glowing
+fancy. In the first place, since I left Coila's haunts, not a fragment
+of a poet has arisen to cheer her solitary musings, by catching
+inspiration from her; so I more than suspect she has followed me hither,
+or at least makes me occasional visits; secondly, the last stanza of
+this song I send you is the very words that Coila taught me many years
+ago, and which I set to an old Scots reel in Johnson's _Museum_.
+
+Autumn is my propitious season. I make more verses in it than in all the
+year else. God bless you.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+XIII.
+
+_Sept_. 1793.
+
+You may readily trust, my dear Sir, that any exertion in my power is
+heartily at your service. But one thing I must hint to you; the very
+name of Peter Finder is of great service to your publication, so get a
+verse from him now and then; though I have no objection, as well as I
+can, to bear the burden of the business.
+
+You know that my pretensions to musical taste are merely a few of
+nature's instincts, untaught and untutored by art. For this reason, many
+musical compositions, particularly where much of the merit lies in
+counterpoint, however they may transport and ravish the ears of your
+connoisseurs, affect my simple lug no otherwise than merely as melodious
+din. On the other hand, by way of amends, I am delighted with many
+little melodies which the learned musician despises as silly and
+insipid. I do not know whether the old air "Hey tuttie taittie" may rank
+among this number; but well I know that, with Frazer's hautboy, it has
+often filled my eyes with tears. There is a tradition, which I have met
+with in many places of Scotland, that it was Robert Bruce's march at the
+battle of Bannockburn. This thought, in my solitary wanderings, warmed
+me to a pitch of enthusiasm on the theme of Liberty and Independence,
+which I threw into a kind of Scottish ode, fitted to the air, that one
+might suppose to be the gallant Royal Scot's address to his heroic
+followers on that eventful morning.
+
+    BRUCE TO HIS TROOPS,
+  On the Eve of the Battle of Bannockburn.
+    _Hey tuttie taittie_.
+  Scots, wha hae wi' Wallace bled, (etc.)
+
+So may God ever defend the cause of Truth and Liberty, as He did that
+day!--Amen.
+
+P.S.--I showed the air to Urbani, who was highly pleased with it, and
+begged me to make soft verses for it; but I had no idea of giving myself
+any trouble on the subject, till the accidental recollection of that
+glorious struggle for freedom, associated with the glowing ideas of some
+other struggles of the same nature, not quite so ancient, roused my
+rhyming mania. Clarke's set of the tune, with his bass, you will find in
+the _Museum_; though I am afraid that the air is not what will entitle
+it to a place in your elegant selection.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+XIV.
+
+_September 1793_.
+
+I have received your list, my dear Sir, and here go my observations on
+it.[143]
+
+"Down the burn, Davie." I have this moment tried an alteration, leaving
+out the last half of the third stanza, and the first half of the last
+stanza, thus:--
+
+  As down the burn they took their way,
+    And thro' the flowery dale,
+  His cheek to hers he aft did lay,
+    And love was aye the tale.
+
+  With "Mary, when shall we return,
+    Sic pleasure to renew?"
+  Quoth Mary, "Love, I like the burn,
+    And aye shall follow you."
+
+"Thro' the wood, laddie." I am decidedly of opinion that both in this
+and "There'll never be peace till Jamie comes hame," the second or high
+part of the tune being a repetition of the first part an octave higher,
+is only for instrumental music, and would be much better omitted
+in singing.
+
+"Cowden-knowes." Remember in your index that the song in pure English,
+to this tune, beginning
+
+           When summer comes, the swains on Tweed,
+
+is the production of Crawford; Robert was his Christian name.
+
+"Laddie lie near me," must _lie by me_ for some time. I do not know the
+air; and until I am complete master of a tune in my own singing (such as
+it is), I never can compose for it. My way is: I consider the poetic
+sentiment correspondent to my idea of the musical expression, then
+choose my theme, begin one stanza; when that is composed, which is
+generally the most difficult part of the business, I walk out, sit down
+now and then, look out for objects in nature around me that are in
+unison or harmony with the cogitations of my fancy, and workings of my
+bosom; humming every now and then the air, with the verses I have
+framed. When I feel my muse beginning to jade, I retire to the solitary
+fireside of my study, and there commit my effusions to paper; swinging
+at intervals on the hind legs of my elbow chair, by way of calling forth
+my own critical strictures, as my pen goes on. Seriously, this, at home,
+is almost invariably my way. What cursed egotism!
+
+"Gil Morice" I am for leaving out. It is a plaguy length; the air itself
+is never sung, and its place can well be supplied by one or two songs
+for fine airs that are not in your list. For instance,
+"Craigieburn-wood" and "Roy's Wife". The first, besides its intrinsic
+merit, has novelty; and the last has high merit, as well as great
+celebrity. I have the original words of a song for the last air in the
+handwriting of the lady who composed it, and they are superior to any
+edition of the song which the public has yet seen.
+
+"Highland Laddie". The old set will please a mere Scotch ear best; and
+the new an Italianised one. There is a third, and what Oswald calls the
+"Old Highland Laddie", which pleases we more than either of them. It is
+sometimes called "Jinglan Johnnie", it being the air of an old humorous
+tawdry song of that name. You will find it in the Museum, "I hae been at
+Crookie-den," etc. I would advise you in this musical quandary, to offer
+up your prayers to the muses for inspiring direction; and, in the
+meantime, waiting for this direction, bestow a libation to Bacchus, and
+there is not a doubt but you will hit on a judicious choice.
+_Probatum est_.
+
+"Auld Sir Simon," I must beg you to leave out, and put in its place "The
+Quaker's Wife".
+
+"Blythe hae I been on yon hill" is one of the finest songs ever I made
+in my life; and, besides, is composed on a young lady positively the
+most beautiful, lovely woman in the world. As I purpose giving you the
+names and designations of all my heroines, to appear in some future
+edition of your work, perhaps half a century hence, you must certainly
+include _the bonniest lass in a' the warld_ in your collection.
+
+"Daintie Davie" I have heard sung nineteen thousand, nine hundred, and
+ninety-nine times, and always with the low part of the tune; and nothing
+has surprised me so much as your opinion on this subject. If it will not
+suit, as I propose, we will lay two of the stanzas together, and then
+make the chorus follow.
+
+"Fee him, Father". I enclose you Frazer's set of this tune when he plays
+it slow; in fact, he makes it the language of despair, I shall here give
+you two stanzas in that style, merely to try if it will be any
+improvement. Were it possible, in singing, to give it half the pathos
+which Frazer gives it in playing, it would make an admirable pathetic
+song. I do not give these verses for any merit they have. I composed
+them at the time at which _Patie Allan's mither died_; that was _the
+back o' midnight_; and by the lee-side of a bowl of punch, which had
+overset every mortal in the company, except the hautbois and the muse.
+
+  Thou hast left me ever, Jamie, (etc.)
+
+"Jockie and Jenny" I would discard, and in its place would put "There's
+nae luck about the house", which has a very pleasant air; and which is
+positively the finest love-ballad in that style in the Scottish, or
+perhaps in any other language. "When she came ben she bobbet", as an
+air, is more beautiful than either, and in the _andante_ way would unite
+with a charming sentimental ballad.
+
+"Saw ye my father" is one of my greatest favourites. The evening before
+last I wandered out, and began a tender song, in what I think its native
+style. I must premise that the old way, and the way to give most effect,
+is to have no starting note, as the fiddlers call it, but to burst at
+once into the pathos. Every country girl sings-"Saw ye my father", etc.
+
+My song is just begun; and I should like, before I proceed, to know your
+opinion of it. I have sprinkled it with the Scottish dialect, but it may
+be easily turned into correct English.
+
+    Fragment.--Tune--"_Saw ye my Father_"
+  Where are the joys I hae met in the morning, (etc.)
+
+"Todlin hame": Urbani mentioned an idea of his, which has long been
+mine; and this air is highly susceptible of pathos; accordingly, you
+will soon hear him, at your concert, try it to a song of mine in the
+_Museum_--"Ye banks and braes o' bonnie Doon". One song more and I have
+done: "Auld lang syne". The air is but _mediocre_; but the following
+song, the old song of the olden times, and which has never been in
+print, nor even in manuscript, until I took it down from an old man's
+singing, is enough to recommend any air.[144]
+
+    AULD LANG SYNE.
+  Should auld acquaintance be forgot, (etc.)
+
+Now, I suppose I have tired your patience fairly. You must, after all is
+over, have a number of ballads, properly so called, "Gil Morice",
+"Tranent Muir", "M'Pherson's Farewell", "Battle of Sheriff-Muir", or "We
+ran and they ran" (I know the author of this charming ballad, and his
+history); "Hardiknute", "Barbara Allan" (I can furnish a finer set of
+this tune than any that has yet appeared), and besides, do you know that
+I really have the old tune to which "The Cherry and the Slae" was sung?
+and which is mentioned as a well-known air in _Scotland's Complaint_, a
+book published before poor Mary's days. It was then called "The Banks o'
+Helicon"; an old poem which Pinkerton has brought to light. You will see
+all this in Tytler's _History of Scottish Music_. The tune, to a learned
+ear, may have no great merit; but it is a great curiosity. I have a good
+many original things of this kind.
+
+   [Footnote 143: Songs for his publication. Burns goes through the
+   whole; but only his remarks of any importance are presented here.]
+
+   [Footnote 144: It is believed to have been his own composition.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+XV.
+
+_September_ 1793.
+
+"Who shall decide when doctors disagree?" My ode[145] pleases me so much
+that I cannot alter it. Your proposed alterations would, in my opinion,
+make it tame. I am exceedingly obliged to you for putting me on
+reconsidering it; as I think I have much improved it. Instead of
+"sodger! hero!" I will have it "Caledonian! on wi' me!"
+
+I have scrutinised it over and over; and to the world some way or other
+it shall go as it is. At the same time it will not in the least hurt me,
+should you leave it out altogether, and adhere to your first intention
+of adopting Logan's verses.
+
+I have finished my song to "Saw ye my Father;" and in English, as you
+will see. That there is a syllable too much for the _expression_ of the
+air, is true; but allow me to say, that the mere dividing of a dotted
+crotchet into a crotchet and a quaver is not a great matter; however, in
+that, I have no pretensions to cope in judgment with you. Of the poetry
+I speak with confidence; but the music is a business where I hint my
+ideas with the utmost diffidence.
+
+   [Footnote 145: Scots wha hae.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+XVI.
+
+_May_ 1794.
+
+My Dear Sir,--I return you the plates, with which I am highly pleased. I
+would humbly propose, instead of the younker knitting stockings, to put
+a stock and horn into his hands. A friend of mine, who is positively the
+ablest judge on the subject I have ever met with, and though an unknown,
+is yet a superior artist with the _burin_, is quite charmed with Allan's
+manner. I got him a peep of the "Gentle Shepherd", and he pronounces
+Allan a most original artist of great excellence.
+
+For my part, I look on Mr. Allan's choosing my favourite poem for his
+subject to be one of the highest compliments I have ever received.
+
+I am quite vexed at Pleyel's being cooped up in France, as it will put
+an entire stop to our work. Now, and for six or seven months, I shall be
+quite in song, as you shall see by-and-by. I got an air, pretty enough,
+composed by Lady Elizabeth Heron, of Heron, which she calls "The Banks
+of Cree." Cree is a beautiful romantic stream, and, as her ladyship is a
+particular friend of mine, I have written the following song to it:--
+
+  Here is the glen, and here the bower, (etc.)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+XVII.
+
+_Sept_. 1794.
+
+I shall withdraw my "On the seas and far away" altogether; it is
+unequal, and unworthy of the work. Making a poem is like begetting a
+son; you cannot know whether you have a wise man or a fool, until you
+produce him to the world and try him.
+
+For that reason I have sent you the offspring of my brain, abortions and
+all; and as such, pray look over them, and forgive them, and burn them.
+I am flattered at your adopting "Ca' the yowes to the knowes", as it was
+owing to me that it ever saw the light. About seven years ago I was well
+acquainted with a worthy little fellow of a clergyman, a Mr. Clunie, who
+sung it charmingly: and, at my request, Mr. Clarke took it down from his
+singing. When I gave it to Johnson, I added some stanzas to the song,
+and mended others, but still it will not do for you. In a solitary
+stroll which I took to-day, I tried my hand on a few pastoral lines,
+following up the idea of the chorus, which I would preserve. Here it is,
+with all its crudities and imperfections on its head.
+
+  Ca' the yowes, (etc.)
+
+I shall give you my opinion of your other newly adopted songs, my first
+scribbling fit.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+XVIII.
+
+19_th October_ 1794.
+
+My Dear Friend,--By this morning's post I have your list, and, in
+general, I highly approve of it. I shall, at more leisure, give you a
+critique on the whole. Clarke goes to your town by to-day's fly, and I
+wish you would call on him and take his opinion in general; you know his
+taste is a standard. He will return here again in a week or two, so
+please do not miss asking for him. One thing I hope he will do--persuade
+you to adopt my favourite, "Craigie-burn wood", in your selection; it is
+as great a favourite of his as of mine. The lady on whom it was made is
+one of the finest women in Scotland; and, in fact (_entre nous_), is in
+a manner to me what Sterne's Eliza was to him--a mistress, a friend, or
+what you will, in the guileless simplicity of Platonic love. (Now, don't
+put any of your squinting constructions on this, or have any
+clishmaclaiver about it among our acquaintances.) I assure you that to
+my lovely friend you are indebted for many of your best songs of mine.
+Do you think that the sober gin-horse routine of existence could inspire
+a man with life, and love, and joy--could fire him with enthusiasm, or
+melt him with pathos, equal to the genius of your book? No! no! Whenever
+I want to be more than ordinary _in song_--to be in some degree equal to
+your diviner airs--do you imagine I fast and pray for the divine
+emanation? _Tout au contraire_! I have a glorious recipe--the very one
+that for his own use was invented by the divinity of healing and poetry,
+when erst he piped to the flocks of Admetus. I put myself on a regimen
+of admiring a fine woman; and in proportion to the adorability of her
+charms, in proportion you are delighted with my verses. The lightning of
+her eye is the godhead of Parnassus, and the witchery of her smile the
+divinity of Helicon!
+
+To descend to business; if you like my idea of "When she cam ben she
+bobbit", the enclosed stanzas of mine, altered a little from what they
+were formerly when set to another air, may perhaps do instead of
+worse stanzas.
+
+Now for a few miscellaneous remarks. "The Posie" (in the _Museum_) is my
+composition; the air was taken down from Mrs. Burns's voice. It is well
+known in the West Country, but the old words are trash. By-the-bye, take
+a look at the tune again, and tell me if you do not think it is the
+original from which "Roslin Castle" is composed. The second part in
+particular, for the first two or three bars, is exactly the old air.
+"Strathallan's Lament" is mine; the music is by our right trusty and
+deservedly well beloved, Allan Masterton. "Donocht head" is not mine; I
+would give ten pounds if it were. It appeared first in the _Edinburgh
+Herald_; and came to the editor of that paper with the Newcastle
+post-mark on it[146]
+
+"Whistle o'er the lave o't" is mine; the music is said to be by a John
+Bruce, a celebrated violin player in Dumfries, about the beginning of
+this century. This I know, Bruce, who was an honest man, though a redwud
+Highlandman, constantly claimed it; and by all the old musical people
+here is believed to be the author of it.
+
+"Andrew and his cutty gun". The song to which this is set in the
+_Museum_ is mine; and was composed on Miss Euphemia Murray, of Lintrose,
+commonly and deservedly called the "Flower of Strathmore."
+
+"How lang and dreary is the night." I met with some such words in a
+collection of songs somewhere, which I altered and enlarged; and to
+please you, and to suit your favourite air, I have taken a stride or two
+across the room, and have arranged it anew, as you will find on the
+other page.
+
+  Tune--_Cauld Kail in Aberdeen_.
+  How lang and dreary is the night, (etc.)
+
+Tell me how you like this. I differ from your idea of the expression of
+the tune. There is, to me, a great deal of tenderness in it.
+
+I would be obliged to you if you would procure me a sight of Ritson's
+_Collection of English Songs_, which you mention in your letter. I will
+thank you for another information, and that as speedily as you
+please--whether this miserable drawling hotch-potch epistle has not
+completely tired you of my correspondence.
+
+   [Footnote 146:
+
+    "Keen blaws the wind o'er Donocht head,
+    The snaw drives snelly thro' the dale,
+    The Gaberlunzie tirls my sneck,
+    And, shivering, tells his waefu' tale.
+    "Cauld is the night, O let me in,
+    And dinna let your minstrel fa',
+    And dinna let his winding-sheet
+    Be naething but a wreath o' snaw."(etc.)]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+XIX.
+
+_November_ 1794.
+
+Many thanks to you, my dear sir, for your present: it is a book of the
+utmost importance to me. I have yesterday begun my anecdotes, etc., for
+your work. I intend drawing it up in the form of a letter to you, which
+will save me from the tedious dull business of systematic arrangement.
+Indeed, as all I have to say consists of unconnected remarks, anecdotes,
+scraps of old songs, etc., it would be impossible to give the work a
+beginning, a middle, and an end; which the critics insist to be
+absolutely necessary in a work. In my last, I told you my objections to
+the song you had selected for "My lodging is on the cold ground". On my
+visit the other day to my fair Chloris (that is the poetic name of the
+lovely goddess of my inspiration), she suggested an idea, which I, on my
+return from the visit, wrought into the following song:--
+
+  My Chloris, mark how green the groves, (etc,)
+
+How do you like the simplicity and tenderness of this pastoral? I think
+it pretty well.
+
+I like you for entering so candidly and so kindly into the story of _ma
+chlre amie_. I assure you, I was never more in earnest in my life than
+in the account of that affair which I sent you in my last. Conjugal love
+is a passion which I deeply feel and highly venerate; but, somehow, it
+does not make such a figure in poesy as that other species of
+the passion,
+
+  Where Love is liberty, and Nature law,
+
+Musically speaking, the first is an instrument of which the gamut is
+scanty and confined, but the tones inexpressibly sweet; while the last
+has powers equal to all the intellectual modulations of the human soul.
+Still, I am a very poet, in my enthusiasm of the passion. The welfare
+and happiness of the beloved object is the first and inviolate sentiment
+that pervades my soul; and whatever pleasures I might wish for, or
+whatever might be the raptures they would give me, yet, if they
+interfere with that first principle, it is having these pleasures at a
+dishonest price; and justice forbids, and generosity disdains,
+the purchase!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+XX.
+
+I am out of temper that you should set so sweet, so tender an air, as
+"Deil tak the wars," to the foolish old verses. You talk of the
+silliness of "Saw ye my father:" by heavens, the odds is gold to brass!
+Besides, the old song, though now pretty well modernised into the
+Scottish language, is, originally, and in the early editions, a bungling
+low imitation of the Scottish manner, by that genius, Tom D'Urfey; so
+has no pretensions to be a Scottish production. There is a pretty
+English song by Sheridan in the "Duenna," to this air, which is out of
+sight superior to D'Urfey's. It begins,
+
+  When sable night each drooping plant restoring.
+
+The air, if I understand the expression of it properly, is the very
+native language of simplicity, tenderness, and love. I have again gone
+over my song to the tune as follows.[147]
+
+There is an air, "The Caledonian Hunt's delight", to which I wrote a
+song that you will find in Johnson. "Ye banks and braes o' bonnie Doon";
+this air, I think, might find a place among your hundred, as Lear says
+of his knights. Do you know the history of the air? It is curious
+enough. A good many years ago, Mr. James Miller, writer in your good
+town, a gentleman whom possibly you know, was in company with our friend
+Clarke; and talking of Scottish music, Miller expressed an ardent
+ambition to be able to compose a Scots air. Mr. Clarke, partly by way of
+joke, told him to keep to the black keys of the harpsichord, and
+preserve some kind of rhythm, and he would infallibly compose a Scots
+air. Certain it is, that in a few days, Mr. Miller produced the
+rudiments of an air, which Mr. Clarke, with some touches and
+corrections, fashioned into the tune in question. Ritson, you know, has
+the same story of the "Black keys;" but this account which I have just
+given you, Mr. Clarke informed me of several years ago. Now, to shew you
+how difficult it is to trace the origin of our airs, I have heard it
+repeatedly asserted that this was an Irish air nay, I met with an Irish
+gentleman who affirmed he had heard it in Ireland among the old women;
+while, on the other hand, a countess informed me, that the first person
+who introduced the air into this country was a baronet's lady of her
+acquaintance, who took down the notes from an itinerant piper in the
+Isle of Man. How difficult then to ascertain the truth respecting our
+poesy and music! I, myself, have lately seen a couple of ballads sung
+through the streets of Dumfries, with my name at the head of them as the
+author, though it was the first time I had ever seen them.
+
+I am ashamed, my dear fellow, to make the request; 'tis dunning your
+generosity; but in a moment when I had forgotten whether I was rich or
+poor, I promised Chloris a copy of your songs. It wrings my honest pride
+to write you this; but an ungracious request is doubly so, by a tedious
+apology. To make you some amends, as soon as I have extracted the
+necessary information out of them, I will return you Ritson's volumes.
+
+The lady is not a little proud that she is to make so distinguished a
+figure in your collection, and I am not a little proud that I have it in
+my power to please her so much. Lucky it is for your patience that my
+paper is done, for when I am in a scribbling humour, I know not when to
+give over.
+
+   [Footnote 147: Our Bard remarks upon it, "I could easily throw this
+   into an English mould; but, to my taste, in the simple and the tender
+   of the pastoral song, a sprinkling of the old Scottish has an
+   inimitable effect."]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+XXI.
+
+19_th Nov_. 1794.
+
+Tell my friend Allan (for I am sure that we only want the trifling
+circumstance of being known to one another to be the best friends on
+earth) that I much suspect he has, in his plates, mistaken the figure of
+the stock and horn. I have, at last, gotten one; but it is a very rude
+instrument. It is composed of three parts; the stock, which is the
+hinder thigh-bone of a sheep, such as you see in a mutton-ham, the horn,
+which is a common Highland cow's horn, cut off at the smaller end, until
+the aperture be large enough to admit the stock to be pushed up through
+the horn, until it be held by the thicker end of the thigh-bone; and,
+lastly, an oaten reed exactly cut and notched like that which you see
+every shepherd boy have, when the corn stems are green and full-grown.
+The reed is not made fast in the bone, but is held up by the lips, and
+plays loose in the smaller end of the stock; while the stock, with the
+horn hanging on its larger end, is held by the hands in playing. The
+stock has six or seven ventiges on the upper side, and one back ventige,
+like the common flute. This of mine was made by a man from the Braes of
+Athole, and is exactly what the shepherds wont to use in that country.
+
+However, either it is not quite properly bored in the holes, or else we
+have not the art of blowing it rightly; for we can make little of it. If
+Mr. Allan chooses, I will send him a sight of mine; as I look on myself
+to be a kind of brother-brush with him. "Pride in poets is nae sin", and
+I will say it, that I look on Mr. Allan and Mr. Burns to be the only
+genuine and real painters of Scottish costume in the world.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+XXII.
+
+_January_ 1795.
+
+I fear for my songs; however a few may please, yet originality is a coy
+feature in composition, and in a multiplicity of efforts in the same
+style, disappears altogether. For these three thousand years we poetic
+folks have been describing the spring, for instance; and, as the spring
+continues the same, there must soon be a sameness in the imagery, etc.,
+of these said rhyming folks.
+
+A great critic, Aikin on Songs, says that love and wine are the
+exclusive themes for song-writing. The following is on neither subject,
+and consequently is no song; but will be allowed, I think, to be two or
+three pretty good prose thoughts, inverted into rhyme.
+
+  FOR A' THAT AND A' THAT.
+  Is there for honest poverty, (etc.)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+XXIII.
+
+Ecclefechan,[148] 7_th Feb_. 1795.
+
+My Dear Thomson,--You cannot have any idea of the predicament in which I
+write to you. In the course of my duty as supervisor (in which capacity
+I have acted of late) I came yesternight to this unfortunate, wicked
+little village. I have gone forward, but snows of ten feet deep have
+impeded my progress: I have tried to "gae back the gate I cam again,"
+but the same obstacle has shut me up within insuperable bars. To add to
+my misfortune, since dinner, a scraper has been torturing catgut, in
+sounds that would have insulted the dying agonies of a sow under the
+hands of a butcher, and thinks himself, on that very account, exceeding
+good company. In fact, I have been in a dilemma, either to get drunk, to
+forget these miseries; or to hang myself, to get rid of them; like a
+prudent man (a character congenial to my every thought, word, and deed)
+I of two evils have chosen the least, and am very drunk at your service!
+
+I wrote you yesterday from Dumfries. I had not time then to tell you all
+I wanted to say; and Heaven knows, at present I have not capacity.
+
+Do you know an air--I am sure you must know it, "We'll gang nae mair to
+yon town?" I think, in slowish time, it would make an excellent song. I
+am highly delighted with it; and if you should think it worthy of your
+attention, I have a fair dame in my eye to whom I would consecrate it.
+
+As I am just going to bed, I wish you a good night.
+
+   [Footnote 148: The birthplace of Carlyle.]
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+XXIV.
+
+You see how I answer your orders; your tailor could not be more
+punctual. I am just now in a high fit of poetising, provided that the
+strait-jacket of criticism don't cure me. If you can, in a post or two,
+administer a little of the intoxicating potion of your applause, it will
+raise your humble servant's frenzy to any height you want. I am at this
+moment "holding high converse" with the Muses, and have not a word to
+throw away on such a prosaic dog as you are.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+XXV.
+
+_April_ 1796.
+
+Alas, my dear Thomson, I fear it will be some time ere I tune my lyre
+again! "By Babel streams I have sat and wept" almost ever since I wrote
+you last. I have only known existence by the pressure of the heavy hand
+of sickness, and have counted time by the repercussions of pain!
+Rheumatism, cold, and fever have formed to me a terrible combination. I
+close my eyes in misery, and open them without hope. I look on the
+vernal day, and say, with poor Fergusson--
+
+  Say, wherefore has an all indulgent Heaven
+  Light to the comfortless and wretched given?
+
+This will be delivered to you by a Mrs. Hyslop, landlady of the Globe
+Tavern here, which for these many years has been my _howff_, and where
+our friend Clarke and I have had many a merry squeeze. I am highly
+delighted with Mr. Allan's etchings. "Woo'd and married and a'", is
+admirable! The _grouping_ is beyond all praise. The expression of the
+figures, conformable to the story in the ballad, is absolutely faultless
+perfection. I next admire "Turnim-spike". What I like least is, "Jenny
+said to Jockey". Besides the female being in her appearance quite a
+virago, if you take her stooping into the account, she is at least two
+inches taller than her lover. Poor Cleghorn! I sincerely sympathise with
+him! Happy am I to think that he yet has a well-grounded hope of health
+and enjoyment in this world. As for me--but that is a damning subject!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+XXVI.
+
+[_Probably May_ 1796.]
+
+My Dear Sir,--Inclosed is a certificate which (although little different
+from the model) I suppose will amply answer the purpose, and I beg you
+will prosecute the miscreants[149] without mercy. When your publication
+is finished, I intend publishing a collection, on a cheap plan, of all
+the songs I have written for you, The Museum, and others--at least, all
+the songs of which I wish to be called the author. I do not propose this
+so much in the way of emolument as to do justice to my muse, lest I
+should be blamed for trash I never saw, or be defrauded by false
+claimants of what is justly my own. The post is going.--I will write you
+again to-morrow. Many thanks for the beautiful seal.
+
+R. B.
+
+   [Footnote 149: For infringement of copyright.]
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+XXVII.
+
+BROW-ON-SOLWAY, 4_th July_ 1796.
+
+My Dear Sir,--I received your songs; but my health is so precarious,
+nay, dangerously situated, that, as a last effort, I am here at
+sea-bathing quarters. Besides an inveterate rheumatism, my appetite is
+quite gone, and I am so emaciated as to be scarce able to support myself
+on my own legs. Alas! Is this a time for me to woo the muses? However, I
+am still anxiously willing to serve your work, and if possible shall
+try. I would not like to see another employed--unless you could lay your
+hand upon a poet whose productions would be equal to the rest. Farewell,
+and God bless you.
+
+R. BURNS.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+XXVIII.
+
+BROW, on the Solway Firth, 12_th July_ 1796.
+
+After all my boasted independence, curst necessity compels me to implore
+you for five pounds. A cruel wretch of a haberdasher, to whom I owe an
+account, taking it into his head that I am dying, has commenced a
+process, and will infallibly put me into jail.
+
+Do, for God's sake, send me that sum, and that by return of post.
+Forgive me this earnestness, but the horrors of a jail have made me half
+distracted. I do not ask all this gratuitously; for, upon returning
+health, I hereby promise and engage to furnish you with five pounds
+worth of the neatest song-genius you have seen. I tried my hand on
+"Rothiemurchie" this morning. The measure is so difficult that it is
+impossible to infuse much genius into the lines; they are on the other
+side. Forgive, forgive me![150]
+
+  Fairest maid on Devon banks,
+  Crystal Devon, winding Devon,
+  Wilt thou lay that frown aside,
+  And smile as thou wert wont to do? (etc.)
+
+   [Footnote 150: These verses, and the letter inclosing them, are
+   written in a character that marks the very feeble state of
+   their author.]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Letters of Robert Burns, by Robert Burns
+
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