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 rustic 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. Scotia! from rude affliction shield thy bard; R. B. His heaven-taught numbers Fame herself will guard.' "I have been trying to add to the number of your subscribers, but find many of my acquaintance are already among them. 1 have only to add, that, with every sentiment of esteem, and the most cordial good wishes, "I am "Your obedient humble servant, "J. MOORE."-M. No. XLIV. TO THE REV. G. LAWRIE, NEWMILLS, NEAR KILMARNOCK. REVEREND AND DEAR SIR, EDINBURGH, Feb. 5th, 1787. 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 piano forte. 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 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 was 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. SIR, No. XLV. TO DR MOORE.* EDINBURGH, 15th February, 1787. PARDON my seeming neglect in delaying so long to acknowledge the honour you have done me, in your kind notice of me, January 23d. Not many months ago I knew * We subjoin the answer of Dr Moore to the foregoing: "CLIFFORD-STREET, 28th February, 1787. "DEAR SIR,-Your letter of the 15th gave me a great deal of pleasure. It is not surprising that you improve in correctness and taste, considering where you have been for some time past. And I dare swear there is no danger of your admitting any polish which might weaken the vigour of your native powers. no other employment than following the plough, nor coula boast any thing higher than a distant acquaintance with a country clergyman. Mere greatness never embarrasses me; I have nothing to ask from the great, and I do not fear their judgment: but genius, polished by learning, and at its proper point of elevation in the eye of the world, this of late I frequently meet with, and tremble at its approach. I scorn the affectation of seeming modesty to cover self-conceit. That I have some merit I do not deny; but I see with frequent wringings of heart, that the novelty of my character, and the honest national prejudice of my countrymen, have borne me to a height altogether untenable to my abilities. For the honour Miss Williams has done me, please, Sir, return her in my name my most grateful thanks. I have "I am glad to perceive that you disdain the nauseous affectation of decrying your own merit as a poet, an affectation which is displayed with most ostentation by those who have the greatest share of self-conceit, and which only adds undeceiving falsehood to disgusting vanity. For you to deny the merit of your poems, would be arraigning the fixed opinion of the public. "As the new edition of my View of Society' is not yet ready, I have sent you the former edition, which I beg you will accept as a small mark of my esteem. It is sent by sea to the care of Mr Creech, and, along with these four volumes for yourself, I have also sent my Medical Sketches' in one volume, for my friend Mrs Dunlop of Dunlop: this you will be so obliging as to transmit, or, if you chance to pass soon by Dunlop, to give to her. "I am happy to hear that your subscription is so ample, and shall rejoice at every piece of good fortune that befalls you. For you are a very great favourite in my family; and this is a higher compliment than perhaps you are aware of. It includes almost all the professions, and of course is a proof that your writings are adapted to various tastes and situations. My youngest son, who is at Winchester school, writes to me, that he is translating some stanzas of your Hallowe'en' into Latin verse, for the benefit of his comrades. This union of taste partly proceeds, no doubt, from the cement of Scottish partiality, with which they are all somewhat tinctured. Even your translator, who left Scotland too early in life for recollection, is not without it. I remain, with great sincerity, more than once thought of paying her in kind, but have hitherto quitted the idea in hopeless despondency. I had never before heard of her; but the other day I got her poems, which, for several reasons, some belonging to the head, and others the offspring of the heart, give me a great deal of pleasure. I have little pretensions to critic lore; there are, I think, two characteristic features in her poetry -the unfettered wild flight of native genius, and the querulous, sombre tenderness of " time-settled sorrow." I only know what pleases me, often without being able to tell why. No. XLVI. TO JOHN BALLANTINE, Esq. MY HONOURED FRIEND, R. B. EDINBURGH, Feb. 24, 1787. I WILL Soon be with you now, in guid black prent;—in a week or ten days at farthest. I am obliged, against my own wish, to print subscribers' names; so if any of my Ayr friends have subscription bills, they must be sent into Creech directly. I am getting my phiz done by an eminent engraver, and if it can be ready in time, I will appear in my book, looking like all other fools to my title-page.* R. B. *This portrait is engraved by Mr Beugo, an artist who well merits the epithet bestowed on him by the Poet, after a picture of Mr Nasmyth, which he painted con amore, and liberally presented to Burns. This picture is of the cabinet size, and is now in the possession of Mr Alex. Cunningham, of Edinburgh.— Cromek. Mr Cunningham states, that the portrait passed into the hands of Mr Burns after the death of Alex. Cunningham; and is now on its way to the Poet's son, Captain William Burns, in India.-M. |