III.

TO MR. JOHN KENNEDY.

["The small piece," the very last of his productions, which the poet enclosed in this letter, was "The Mountain Daisy," called in the manuscript more properly" The Gowan."]

SIR,

Mossgiel, 20th April, 1786.

By some neglect in Mr. Hamilton, I did not hear of your kind request for a subscription paper 'till this day. I will not attempt any acknowledgment for this, nor the manner in which I see your name in Mr. Hamilton's subscription list. Allow me only to say, Sir, I feel the weight of the debt.

I have here likewise inclosed a small piece, the very latest of my productions. I am a good deal pleased with some sentiments myself, as they are just the native querulous feelings of a heart, which, as the elegantly melting Gray says, "melancholy has marked for her own."

Our race comes on a-pace; that much-expected scene of revelry and mirth; but to me it brings no joy equal to that meeting with which your last flattered the expectation of.

Sir,

Your indebted humble servant,

R. B.

IV.

TO MR. JOHN KENNEDY.

[Burns was busy in a two-fold sense at present; he was seeking patrons in every quarter for his contemplated volume, and he was composing for it some of his most exquisite poetry.]

Mossgiel, 16th May, 1786.

DEAR SIR,

I HAVE sent you the above hasty copy as I promised. In about three or four weeks I shall probably set the press a-going. I am much hurried at present, otherwise your diligence, so very friendly in my subscription, should have a more lengthened acknowledgment from,

Dear Sir,

Your obliged Servant,

V.

TO MR. JOHN KENNEDY.

R. B.

[It is a curious chapter in the life of Burns to count the number of letters which he wrote, the number of fine poems he composed, and the number of places which he visited in the unhappy summer and autumn of 1786.]

Kilmarnock, August, 1786.

MY DEAR SIR,

YOUR truly facetious epistle of the 3rd inst. gave me much entertainment. I was 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.-Could I
have got a carrier, you should have had a score of
vouchers for my authorship; but now you have them, let
them speak for themselves.-

Farewell, my dear friend! may guid luck hit you,
And 'mang her favorites admit you!
If e'er Detraction shore to smit you,

[The good and generous James Burness, of Montrose, was ever ready to rejoice with his cousin's success or sympathize with his sorrows, but he did not like the change which came over the old northern surname of Burness, when the bard modified it into Burns: the name, now a rising one in India, is spelt Burnes.]

MY DEAR SIR,

Massgiel, Tuesday noon, Sept. 26, 1786.

I THIS moment receive yours-receive it with the

you

honest hospitable warmth of a friend's welcome. Whatever comes from wakens always up the better blood about my heart, which your kind little recollections of my parental friends 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) author 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 exist

ence.

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 endeavor to drop you a line some time before. My best compliments to Mrs. —; 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-perhaps rather more than the ordinary sincerity,

I am, dear Sir,

Ever yours,

R. B.

DEAR SIR,

VII.

TO DR. ARCHIBALD LAURIE.

Mossgiel, 13th Nov. 1786.

I HAVE along with this sent the two volumes of Ossian, with the remaining volume of the Songs. Ossian I am not in such a hurry about; but I wish the songs with the volume of the Scotch Poets returned as soon as they can conveniently be despatched. If they are left at Mr. Wilson, the bookseller's shop, Kilmarnock, they will easily reach me.

My most respectful compliments to Mr. and Mrs. Laurie; and a Poet's warmest wishes for their happiness to the young ladies; particularly the fair musician, whom I think much better qualified than ever David was, or could be, to charm an evil spirit out of a Saul.

peace

Indeed, it needs not the feelings of a poet to be interested in the welfare of one of the sweetest scenes of domestic and kindred love that ever I saw; as I think the peaceful unity of St. Margaret's Hill can only be excelled by the harmonious concord of the Apocalyptic Zion.

I am, dear Sir, yours sincerely,

ROBERT BURNS.

VIII.

TO MR. GAVIN HAMILTON.

[This letter was first published by Robert Chambers, who considered it as closing the inquiry, was Burns a married man?" No