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 3d 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 be quite 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.1

1

All friends in this county 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.

About the end of February, Burns paid his proposed visit to Edinburgh, in order to have a further 'racking of accounts' with Creech. He would now be entitled to receive payment in respect of sales effected during the last half of the year 1787 and the first half of 1788: from an expression dropped in one of his letters, the sum appears to have been about £50; and it further appears that Burns was satisfied with the degree of justice measured out to him by the publisher.

Burns had a younger brother named William, who had been brought up as a saddler, and was now in search of employment. This youth had visited the poet at the Isle early in the preceding month, and had been kindly treated. There is something interesting in the conduct of Burns towards this young relative, so different from himself in an intellectual respect and in importance in the world's eye, yet possessing a claim of equality as another child of the same parents. William appears to have paid a visit to his brother about the end of 1788, and spent some weeks with him. The young man had then proceeded to Longtown, in search of employment in his business, which he had readily obtained.

This young woman was afterwards married to a brother of Mrs Burns.

Though his education was greatly inferior to that of Robert and Gilbert, and his highest ambition was to be a good journeyman saddler, he seems to have had some small share of that natural readiness and propriety of diction which so remarkably distinguished his elder brothers, and the eldest particularly. We find him thus addressing the poet (15th February 1789): 'I know not how it happened, but you were more shy of your counsel than I could have wished the time I stayed with you: whether it was because you thought it would disgust me to have my faults freely told me while I was dependent on you, or whether it was because you saw that, by my indolent disposition, your instructions would have no effect, I cannot determine; but if it proceeded from any of these causes, the reason of withholding your admonition is done away, for I now stand on my own bottom, and that indolence which I am very conscious of, is something rubbed off, by being called to act in life whether I will or not; and my inexperience, which I daily feel, makes me wish for that advice which you are so able to give, and which I can only expect from you or Gilbert, since the loss of the kindest and ablest of fathers.'

TO MR WILLIAM BURN S.

ISLE, 2d March 1789.

MY DEAR WILLIAM-I arrived from Edinburgh only the night before last, so could not answer your epistle sooner. I congratulate you on the prospect of employ; and I am indebted to you for one of the best letters that has been written by any mechanic-lad in Nithsdale, or Annandale, or any dale on either side of the Border, this twelvemonth. Not that I would have you always affect the stately stilts of studied composition, but surely writing a handsome letter is an accomplishment worth courting; and, with attention and practice, I can promise you that it will soon be an accomplishment of yours. If my advice can serve you that is to say, if you can resolve to accustom yourself not only in reviewing your own deportment, manners, &c., but also in carrying your consequent resolutions of amending the faulty parts into practice-my small knowledge and experience of the world is heartily at your service. I intended to have given you a sheetful of counsels, but some business has prevented me. In a word, learn taciturnity; let that be your motto. Though you had the wisdom of Newton, or the wit of Swift, garrulousness would lower you in the eyes of your fellow-creatures. I'll probably write you next week.-I am your brother, ROBERT BURNS.1

'The original of this letter is in the possession of Mrs Begg.

It was probably next week, according to promise, that the poet wrote a second letter to his brother, in which he enforced the injunction of silence on the subject of one's private affairs-a theme on which he had recently descanted to Robert Ainslie, which he had previously advanced in one of his poems

Aye keep something to yoursel',

Ye scarcely tell to ony

and which he undoubtedly illustrated by many curious traits of reticence in his own conduct.

TO MR WILLIAM BURNS.

ISLE, Tuesday even [March 10, 1789 ?] DEAR WILLIAM-In my last, I recommended that invaluable apothegm-learn taciturnity.

So.

It is absolutely certain that nobody can know our thoughts; and yet, from a slight observation of mankind, one would not think What mischiefs daily arise from silly garrulity, or foolish confidence! There is an excellent Scots saying, that 'A man's mind is his kingdom.' It is certainly so; but how few can govern that kingdom with propriety.

The serious mischiefs in business which this flux of language occasions, do not come immediately to your situation; but in another point of view, the dignity of the man, now is the time that will either make or mar you. Yours is the time of life for laying in habits; you cannot avoid it, though you would choose; and these habits will stick to your last sand. At after periods, even at so little advance as my years, 'tis true, one may still be very sharp-sighted to one's habitual failings and weaknesses; but to eradicate, or even amend them, is quite a different matter. Acquired at first by accident, they by and by begin to be as it were convenient, and in time are in a manner a necessary part of our existence. I have not time for more. Whatever you read, whatever you hear, concerning the ways and works of that strange creature, Man, look into the living world about you look into yourself for the evidence of the fact, or the application of the doctrine. I am ever yours, ROBERT BUrns.

The union with Jean had of course closed the hopes of Clarinda. The lady heard of the event with indignation, having had all possible reason to hope that Burns might, sooner or later, be her own. In a letter to Burns, which has not been preserved, she appears to have expressed her opinion of his conduct in the plainest terms. He made this answer, at once justificatory of himself, and preserving due respect towards the lady.

TO CLARINDA.

9th March 1789.

MADAM-The letter you wrote me to Heron's carried its own answer in its bosom: you forbade me to write you, unless I was willing to plead guilty to a certain indictment that 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 period of 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 to guess, madam, how such a man is likely to digest an accusation of perfidious treachery.

Was I to blame, madam, in being the distracted victim of charms which, I affirm it, no man ever approached with impunity? Had I seen the least glimmering of hope that these charms could ever have been mine; or even had not iron necessity But these are unavailing words.

I would have called on you when I was in town; indeed, I could not have resisted it, but that Mr Ainslie told me that you were determined to avoid your windows while I was in town, lest even a glance of me should occur in the street.

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.

A Rev. Mr Carfrae, a friend of Mrs Dunlop of Dunlop, had addressed the following letter to Burns:

2d January 1789.

SIR-If you have lately seen Mrs Dunlop of Dunlop, you have certainly heard of the author of the verses which accompany this letter. He was a man highly respectable for every accomplishment and virtue which adorns the character of a man or a Christian.

D

To a great degree of literature, of taste, and poetic genius, was added an invincible modesty of temper, which prevented, in a great degree, his figuring in life, and confined the perfect knowledge of his character and talents to the small circle of his chosen friends. He was untimely taken from us a few weeks ago by an inflammatory fever, in the prime of life; beloved by all who enjoyed his acquaintance, and lamented by all who have any regard for virtue or genius. There is a wo pronounced in Scripture against the person whom all men speak well of: if ever that wo fell upon the head of mortal man, it fell upon him. He has left behind him a considerable number of compositions, chiefly poetical; sufficient, I imagine, to make a large octavo volume. In particular, two complete and regular tragedies, a farce of three acts, and some smaller poems on different subjects. It falls to my share, who have lived on the most intimate and uninterrupted friendship with him from my youth upwards, to transmit to you the verses he wrote on the publication of your incomparable poems. It is probable they were his last, as they were found in his scrutoire, folded up with the form of a letter addressed to you, and, Í imagine, were only prevented from being sent by himself by that melancholy dispensation which we still bemoan. The verses themselves I will not pretend to criticise, when writing to a gentleman whom I consider as entirely qualified to judge of their merit. They are the only verses he seems to have attempted in the Scottish style; and I hesitate not to say, in general, that they will bring no dishonour on the Scottish Muse; and allow me to add, that if it is your opinion they are not unworthy of the author, and will be no discredit to you, it is the inclination of Mr Mylne's friends that they should be immediately published in some periodical work, to give the world a specimen of what may be expected from his performances in the poetic line, which, perhaps, will be afterwards published for the advantage of his family.

I must beg the favour of a letter from you, acknowledging the receipt of this, and to be allowed to subscribe myself, with great regard, sir, your most obedient servant, P. CARFRAE.

In a letter which Burns addressed to Mrs Dunlop immediately after his return from Edinburgh, he adverts to Mr Carfrae's application :

TO MRS DUNLOP.

ELLISLAND, 4th 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!'