dictine Monastery at Ratisbon, and the Scots Benedictine Monastery at Maryburgh. I have looked over the list with considerable care, and detect only two names belonging to persons whom I know to be still (March 1851) alive; namely, Francis Charteris, Esq. Junior' (now Earl of Wemyss), and Mr Charles Hope, advocate' (lately President of the Court of Session.)

Full justice has never been done to the Scottish public of that day for its liberality to Burns. Instead of being cold towards him, or refusing to help him up from the lowly and embarrassed circumstances in which nature and fortune had placed him, there was a burst of generous enthusiasm in his favour, and he met with an amount of patronage perhaps unprecedented in Britain since the days of Pope's Iliad. The enactment of the Caledonian Hunt was equivalent to a gift of nearly a hundred pounds. We have seen that two persons, the Earl of Eglintoun, and Mr Miller of Dalswinton, sent him each ten guineas as a gift. Those individuals who subscribed for a multitude of copies of his poems, may be said to have also given him presents. The whole subscription-list can only be properly viewed as a contribution of society, for the benefit of one whom they understood to be a man of merit above his circumstances. Measured against an ardent modern estimate of the genius of Burns, the whole contribution may appear not merely small but insignificant; but, measured against the idea of a young and poor man, whom various critics had ventured to pronounce an extraordinary genius, and of whom little further was as yet known, it certainly is not small. Nor were its results to the recipient of little moment. A man who had hitherto lived as a farm-labourer, and never before, as he himself confesses, had ten pounds at once in his possession, is instantaneously received into the highest circles of society, treated respectfully and kindly, and endowed with a little fortune of five hundred pounds: it may be, and doubtless is, below the merits of Burns, as we now regard him; but to him at the time, it was a windfall of fortune fully enough perhaps for him to bear with any equanimity.

TO DR MOORE.

EDINBURGH, 23d 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

LETTER OF DR JOIN MOORE.

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73

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, &c. 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.

The answer of Dr Moore was as follows:

R. B.

CLIFFORD STREET, May 23, 1787.

DEAR SIR-I had the pleasure of your letter by Mr Creech, and soon after he sent me the new edition of your poems. You seem to think it incumbent on you to send to each subscriber a number of copies proportionate to his subscription money, but you may depend upon it few subscribers expect more than one copy, whatever they subscribed: I must inform you, however, that I took twelve copies for those subscribers, for whose money you were so accurate as to send me a receipt; and Lord Eglintoun told me he had sent for six copies for himself, as he wished to give five of them as presents.

Some of the poems you have added in this last edition are very beautiful, particularly the Winter Night, the Address to Edinburgh, Green Grow the Rashes, and the two songs immediately following, the latter of which is exquisite. By the way, I imagine you have a peculiar talent for such compositions, which you ought to indulge. No kind of poetry demands more delicacy or higher polishing. Horace is more admired on account of his Odes than all his other writings. But nothing now added is equal to your Vision and Cotter's Saturday Night. In these are united fine imagery, natural and pathetic description, with sublimity of language and thought. It is evident that you already possess a great variety of expression and command of the English language; you ought, therefore, to deal more sparingly for the future in the provincial dialect: why should you, by using that, limit the number of your admirers to those who understand the Scottish, when you can extend it to all persons of taste who understand the English language? In my. opinion, you should plan some larger work than any you have as yet attempted. I mean, reflect upon some proper subject, and arrange

1The Gloomy Night is gathering fast.'

the plan in your mind, without beginning to execute any part of it till you have studied most of the best English poets, and read a little more of history. The Greek and Roman stories you can read in some abridgment, and soon become master of the most brilliant facts, which must highly delight a poetical mind. You should also, and very soon may, become master of the heathen mythology, to which there are everlasting allusions in all the poets, and which in itself is charmingly fanciful. What will require to be studied with more attention is modern history; that is, the history of France and Great Britain, from the beginning of Henry VII.'s reign. I know very well you have a mind capable of attaining knowledge by a shorter process than is commonly used, and I am certain you are capable of making a better use of it when attained than is generally done.

I beg you will not give yourself the trouble of writing to me when it is inconvenient, and make no apology when you do write for having postponed it: be assured of this, however, that I shall always be happy to hear from you. I think my friend Mr told me

that you had some poems in manuscript by you of a satirical and humorous nature (in which, by the way, I think you very strong), which your prudent friends prevailed on you to omit, particularly one called Somebody's Confession; if you will intrust me with a sight of any of these, I will pawn my word to give no copies, and will be obliged to you for a perusal of them.

I understand you intend to take a farm, and make the useful and respectable business of husbandry your chief occupation: this I hope will not prevent your making occasional addresses to the nine ladies who have shewn you such favour, one of whom visited you in the "auld clay biggin'. Virgil, before you, proved to the world that there is nothing in the business of husbandry inimical to poetry; and I sincerely hope that you may afford an example of a good poet being a successful farmer. I fear it will not be in my power to visit Scotland this season; when I do, I'll endeavour to find you out, for I heartily wish to see and converse with you. If ever your occasions call you to this place, I make no doubt of your paying me a visit, and you may depend on a very cordial welcome from this family. I am, dear sir, your friend and obedient servant,

J. MOORE.

The following letter develops a strong feature in Burns's character. Mrs Dunlop had sent him a letter of comments on his volume, particularly dwelling with regret on his reprinting The Dream, which she of course conceived to be likely to damage the poet at court, if his fame should ever extend so far. We here see that, while good-natured and conceding up to a certain point with

1 Probably Holy Willie's Prayer is meant.

LETTER TO DR BLAIR.

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friendly critics, he could also hold fast by any ground which he had once determinedly taken up:—

TO MRS DUNLOP.

EDINBURGH, 30th 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, &c. as all these respective gentry do by my bardship. I know what I may expect from the world by and by-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, 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.

Already a kind of bitterness had taken possession of Burns's mind, as if the reception of his volume had in some degree disappointed him. This strongly appears in a letter

TO THE REV. DR HUGH BLAIR.

LAWNMARKET, EDINBURGH, 3d May 1787. REV. AND MUCH-RESPECTED SIR-I leave Edinburgh to-morrow morning, but could not go without troubling you with half a line, sincerely to thank you for the kindness, patronage, and friendship you have shewn me. I often felt the embarrassment of my singular situation: drawn forth from the veriest shades of life to the glare of remark, and honoured by the notice of those illustrious names of my country whose works, while they are applauded to the end of time, will ever instruct and mend the heart. However the meteorlike novelty of my appearance in the world might attract notice, and honour me with the acquaintance of the permanent lights of genius and literature, those who are truly benefactors of the immortal nature of man, I knew very well that my utmost merit was far unequal to the task of preserving that character when once the novelty was over: I have made up my mind that abuse, or almost even neglect, will not surprise me in my quarters.

I have sent you a proof-impression of Beugo's work for me, done on Indian paper, as a trifling but sincere testimony with what heartwarm gratitude I am, &c. R. B.

The answer of Dr Blair is interesting. It exhibits the calm

ness of ordinary talent in contrast to the irritability of genius. The noted self-complacency of the writer comes also strongly out. Everybody must be struck by the naturalness and simplicity of Burns's style, in comparison with the studied and stilted manner of the learned professor of rhetoric :—

ARGYLE SQUARE, EDINBURGH, 4th May 1787.

DEAR SIR-I was favoured this forenoon with your very obliging letter, together with an impression of your portrait, for which I return you my best thanks. The success you have met with I do not think was beyond your merits; and if I have had any small hand in contributing to it, it gives me great pleasure. I know no way in which literary persons who are advanced in years can do more service to the world, than in forwarding the efforts of rising genius, or bringing forth unknown merit from obscurity. I was the first person who brought out to the notice of the world the poems of Ossian: first, by the Fragments of Ancient Poetry, which I published; and afterwards by my setting on foot the undertaking for collecting and publishing the Works of Ossian; and I have always considered this as a meritorious action of my life.

Your situation, as you say, was indeed very singular; and in being brought out, all at once, from the shades of deepest privacy to so great a share of public notice and observation, you had to stand a severe trial. I am happy that you have stood it so well; and as far as I have known or heard, though in the midst of many temptations, without reproach to your character and behaviour.

You are now, I presume, to retire to a more private walk of life; and I trust will conduct yourself there with industry, prudence, and honour. You have laid the foundation for just public esteem. In the midst of those employments which your situation will render proper, you will not, I hope, neglect to promote that esteem, by cultivating your genius, and attending to such productions of it as may raise your character still higher. At the same time, be not in too great a haste to come forward. Take time and leisure to improve and mature your talents; for on any second production you give the world, your fate as a poet will very much depend. There is no doubt a gloss of novelty, which time wears off. As you very properly hint yourself, you are not to be surprised if, in your rural retreat, you do not find yourself surrounded with that glare of notice and applause which here shone upon you. No man can be a good poet without being somewhat of a philosopher. He must lay his account that any one, who exposes himself to public observation, will occasionally meet with the attacks of illiberal censure, which it is always best to overlook and despise. He will be inclined sometimes to court retreat, and to disappear from public view. He will not affect to shine always, that he may at proper seasons come forth with more advantage and energy. He will not think himself neglected if he be not always praised. I have taken the liberty,