CCXX. To J. Clarke, Edinburgh, July 16- Humorous invitation to come to the country CCXXI. To Mrs. Dunlop, Aug. 22-Almost in love with Miss Lesley Baillie-separation CCXXII. To Alex'. Cunningham, Sep. 10- Wild apostrophe to a spirit-religious non- CCXXIII. To Mrs. Dunlop, Sep. 27-Con- doles with her on Mrs. Henri's situation in France-the life of a farmer, paying a dear, CCXXIV. To the same, Sep.-Condoles on the death of her daughter-Mrs. Henri CCXXV. To the same-Dec. 6-Melancholy reflexions on the death of friends-birth of his daughter-Poetical quotations CCXXVI. To Robert Graham, of Fintray, Esq., Dec.-Distress of mind in consequence of an order of the Board of Excise to en- quire into his political conduct-earnest ap- CCXXVII. To Mrs. Dunlop, Dec. 31-How fleeting are pleasures!-resolutions against ib. anecdote of a wise-looking, jabbering CCXXXIV. To Miss Kennedy-Faint sketches of her portrait-poets, of all mankind, feel most forcibly the powers of "beauty" CCXXXV. To Miss Craik, Dumfries, Aug.- Fate and character of the rhyming tribe- to her noble family-would rather have it said that his profession borrowed credit from him than that he borrowed credit from his profession-has turned his thoughts on the CCXXXVII. To John Macmurdo, Esq., Dec. -Pays a debt of six guineas, and now, he does not owe a shilling to either man or woman-sends a collection of Scots songs of which there is not another copy in the world 728 CCXXXVIII. To the same-With a present of his poems-to no man has he ever paid a compliment at the expense of TRUTH. CCXXXIX. To Capt". CCXXVIII. To the same, Jan. 5-All set CCXXXIII. To Robert Ainslie, April 26- Damnably out of humour- - SPUNKIE his ib. [Stature of Sir William Wallace (Note)] CCLV. To Peter Miller, jun., Esq. of Dals- winton, Nov.-Dares not accept of his ge- nerous offer of a salary to write for the Morning Chronicle-has long had it in his head to try his hand at little prose essays, to CCLVI. To Samuel Clarke, jun., Dumfries, CCLXXIII. To Alexander Cunningham, July 7-Fears the voice of the Bard will soon be heard no more!-his spirits fled! fled!-his last and only chance is sea-bathing, country CCLXXIV. To Gilbert Burns, July 10-His CCLXXVI. To Mrs. Dunlop, July 12-His illness will, in all probability, speedily send him beyond that "bourne whence no tra- veller returns"-her friendship dearest to CCLXXVII. To James Burness, Montrose, July 12-Solicits aid-alas! he is not used to beg!-melancholy and low spirits half his disease-his brother's affairs-fears he must CCLXXVIII. To James Gracie, Esq., July 16-His loss of appetite still continues- CCLXIII. To Colonel W. Dunbar.-Not yet CCLXIV. To Mr. Heron, of Heron-Pillory on Parnassus-a life of literary leisure, with a decent competency, the summit of his CCLXV. To Mrs. Dunlop, Dec. 20-Has the . [To Mr. Burness, Montrose, from John Lew- [To Mrs. Robert Burns, Dumfries, from [To Mr. Burness, Montrose, from the Poet's CCLXVI. Ironical address of the Scottish Distillers to the Right Hon. William Pitt, signed JOHN BARLEYCORN, Præses CCLXVII. To the Hon. the Provost, Bailies, and Town Council of Dumfries-requesting XII. Her person unapproachable, by the laws of her country-wretched condition of one XIII. Never does things by halves-she is the XIV. Feb. 7. Fortune, the most capricious XV. Feb. 9. The pensive hours of "Philo- sophic melancholy"-a peep through "The dark postern of time long elaps'd"-child- ish fondness of the every-day children of XVI. Feb. 10. Invocation to Heaven-vows to be hers in the way she thinks most to her XVII. Feb. 12. Was "behind the scenes with her" saw the noblest immortal soul cre- ation ever showed him-fears his acquaint- ance is too short to make that lasting impression on her heart he could wish XIX. Esteems and loves her as a friend. XX. When matters are desperate, we must put on a desperate face-her fame, her wel- His genius was universal. In satire, in humour, in pathos, in description, in sentiment, he was equally great: but his satire and his humour partake of the soil whence they sprung. They are rude, forceful, and manly: they are not polished into elegance, nor laboured into ease; but in every composition I am inclined to regard him as one of the few geniuses who arise to illuminate the hemisphere of mind. Education had nothing in the formation of his character; what he wrote was the pure offspring of native genius and if we reflect how excellent he was in all; what various powers he has shewn in paths that are amongst the highest of poetical delineation; we may, without much offence to justice, place him by the side of the greatest names this country has produced. OF BURNS'S LIFE AND WORKS. Forms several connexions with other younkers, who possess superior advantages, but who never insult the clouterly appearance of his plough boy carcase, the two extremes of which were often exposed to all the inclemencies of the seasons. They give him stray volumes of books, and one (the late Sir John Malcolm), whose heart, not even the Munny Begum scenes have tainted, helped him to a little French. Parting with these young friends, as they occasionally went off for the East of West Indies, was often a sore affliction, but he is soon called to more serious evils. His father's farm proves a ruinous bargain, and, to clench the misfortune, he falls into the hands of a scoundrelly factor, who afterwards sat for the picture he drew of one in his Tale of The Twa Dogs. He becomes à dexterous ploughman for his age, but his indignation boils at the insolent threatening letters of the factor, which sets the family all in tears. 1774.-(15.) Is the principal labourer in his father's farm-suffers great depression of spirits-is alicted with head-ache in the evenings-forms his first attachment for Nelly Blair, a bonnie sweet sousie lass, the tones of whose voice makes his heart-strings thrill like an Eolian harp. Composes his first song in praise of his Handsome Nelly. 1775.-(16.) A Collection of Songs, his vade mecum-these he pores over, while driving his cart, or walking to labour, song by song, verse by verse, carefully noting the true tender, or sublime, from affectation and fustian. To this practice he owes much of his critic craft. Hitherto, he was, perhaps, the most ungainly, awkward boy in the parish-no solitaire less acquainted with the ways of the world. 1776.-(17.) He goes to a country dancing school to give his manners a brush, strongly against the wish of his father, who was subject to strong passions, and, from that instance of disobedience, took a sort of dislike to him, which, he believes, was one cause of the apparent dissipation which marked his succeeding years-the great misfortune of his life was to want an aim-the only two openings by which he can enter the temple of fortune are the gate of niggardly economy, or the path of little chicaning bargain-making. A constitutional melancholy makes him fly solitude, and be becomes a welcome guest wherever he visits-bis greatest impulse is un penchant pour l'adorable moitié du genre humain-his heart is completely tinder, and eternally lighted up by some goddess or other. At the plough, scythe, or reap-hook, he fears no competitor, and spends his evenings after his own heart. His zeal, curiosity, and intrepid dexterity, recommend him as a confidant in all love adventures, and he is in the secret of half the loves of the parish of Tarbolton. 1777.-(18.) occasionally with the smugglers, and learns to fill his glass and mix without fear in a drunken squabble, yet he goes on with a high hand with his geometry, till the sun enters Virgo, a month always a carnival in his bosom, when a charming fillette, who lives next door to the school, oversets all his trigonometry, and sets him off at a tangent from the sphere of his studies. Returns home considerably improvedengages several of his schoolfellows to keep up a literary correspondence-pores over a collection of Letters of the Wits of Queen Anne's reign. 1779.-(20.) Vive l'amour, et vive la bagatelle, his sole principles of actionTristram Shandy and the Man of Feeling his favourite books. Poetry the darling walk of his mind-usually half-a-dozen or more pieces on hand. His passions now rage like so many devils, till they find vent in rhyme. Composes Winter, a Dirge," the eldest of his printed pieces--The Death of poor Mailie, John Barleycorn, and several songs. 1780.-(21.) November.-Forms, in conjunction with Gilbert, and seven or eight young men, a Bachelors' Club, in Tarbolton, the rules of which he afterwards draws up-the declared objects are-relaxation from toil-the promotion of sociality and friendship, and the improvement of the mind. 1781.-(22.) Midsummer.-Partly through whim, and partly that he wishes to set about doing something in life, he joins a fax-dresser in Irvine, of the name of Peacock, a relation of his mother-where he spends six months learning the trade. December 27-Writes a remarkable letter to his father, in which he states that the weakness of his nerves has so debilitated his mind that he dares neither review past wants, nor look forward into futurity. He is quite transported at the thonght that ere long, perhaps very soon, he shall bid adien to all the pains, and uneasiness, and disquietudes of this weary life; for he is heartily tired of it, and, if he does not very much deceive himself, he could contentedly and gladly resign it. He concludes by saying, "My meal is nearly out, but I am going to borrow till I get more." December 31.-His shop accidentally catches fire, as he is giving a welcome carousal to the new year, and is burned to ashes, and, like a true poet, he is left without a sixpence. 1782.-(23.) The clouds of misfortune gather thick round his father's head; and he is visibly far gone in consumption. To crown the distresses of the poet, a belle fille, whom he adores, and who had pledged her soul to meet him in the field of matrimony, jilts him, with peculiar circumstances of mortification. His constitutional melancholy is now increased to such a degree that for three months he is in a state of mind scarcely to be envied by the hopeless wretches who have got their mittimusdepart from me, ye accursed! He forms a friendship with a young fellow, a very noble character, bu a hapless son of misfortune, whose mind was fraught with independence, magnanimity, and every manly virtue. He was the only man he ever saw who was a greater fool than himself, where woman was the presiding star; but he spoke of illicit love with the levity of a sailor, which hitherto he had regarded with horror. Here his friendship did him a mischief, and the consequence was, that soon after he resumed the plough, he wrote "The Poet's Welcome to his Illegitimate Child." Meeting with Fergusson's Scottish Poems, he strings anew his wildly-sounding lyre. 1783.-(24.) April.-Commences his Common Place Book, entitled: "Observations, Hints, Songs, Scraps of Poetry, &c. By Robert Burness; a man who had little art in making money, and still less in keeping it." June 21.-Writes to his cousin, James Burness, that his father is in a dying condition; and sends, probably for the last time in this world, his warmest wishes for his welfare and happiness-He becomes a Free Mason, being his first introduction to the life of a boon companion. 1784.-(25.) January. Writes his "First Epistle to Davie, a Brother Poet," in which he alludes to his Darling Jean. The first idea of his becoming an Author started on this occasion. February 13.-Death of his Father; whose all went among the hellhounds that growl in the kennel of Justice-He makes shift to collect a little money in the family; and he and his brother Gilbert take the neighbouring farm of Mossgiel, on which he enters with a full resolution, Come, go to, I will be wise!-He reads farming books, calculates crops, attends markets; and, in spite of the devil, the world, and the flesh, he believes he would have been a wise man; but the first year, from unfortunately buying bad seed, the second from a late harvest, they lost half their crops. This overset all his wisdom, and he returns, like the dog to his vomit, and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire. He now begins to be known in the neighbourhood as a maker of rhymes, and the first of his poetic offspring that saw the light was The Holy Tuilzie or Twa Herdi, a burlesque sham imitation of a quarrel between two reverend Calvinists, both of them dramatis persone in his Holy Fair. Holy Willie's Prayer next makes its appearance, and alarms the Kirk-session so much that they hold several meetings, to look over their spiritual artillery. Unluckily for him, his wanderings lead him on another side, within point blank shot of their heaviest metal. This is the unfortunate story that gave rise to his printed poem, The Lament. He is compelled to perform penance in church-inveighs against the clergyman for rebaking him-writes his "Epistle to Raukine" and his song "The Ranting Dog the Daddie o't." |