"My heart is not of that rock, nor my soul careless as that sea." I do not make my progress among mankind as a bowl does among its fellows--rolling through the crowd without bearing away any mark of impression, except where they hit in hostile collision.
I am here, driven in with my harvest-folks by bad weather; and as you and your sister once did me the honour of interesting yourselves much _a l"egard de moi_, I sit down to beg the continuation of your goodness. I can truly say that, all the exterior of life apart, I never saw two, whose esteem flattered the n.o.bler feelings of my soul--I will not say more, but so much as Lady Mackenzie and Miss Chalmers. When I think of you--hearts the best, minds the n.o.blest of human kind--unfortunate even in the shades of life--when I think I have met with you, and have lived more of real life with you in eight days than I can do with almost any body I meet with in eight years--when I think on the improbability of meeting you in this world again--I could sit down and cry like a child! If ever you honoured me with a place in your esteem, I trust I can now plead more desert. I am secure against that crushing grip of iron poverty, which, alas! is less or more fatal to the native worth and purity of, I fear, the n.o.blest souls; and a late important step in my life has kindly taken me out of the way of those ungrateful iniquities, which, however overlooked in fashionable license, or varnished in fashionable phrase, are indeed but lighter and deeper shades of VILLANY.
Shortly after my last return to Ayrshire, I married "my Jean." This was not in consequence of the attachment of romance, perhaps; but I had a long and much-loved fellow-creature"s happiness or misery in my determination, and I durst not trifle with so important a deposit. Nor have I any cause to repent it. If I have not got polite tattle, modish manners, and fashionable dress, I am not sickened and disgusted with the multiform curse of boarding-school affectation: and I have got the handsomest figure, the sweetest temper, the soundest const.i.tution, and the kindest heart in the county. Mrs. Burns believes, as firmly as her creed, that I am _le plus bel esprit, et le plus honnete homme_ in the universe; although she scarcely ever in her life, except the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, and the Psalms of David in metre, spent five minutes together either on prose or verse. I must except also from this last a certain late publication of Scots poems, which she has perused very devoutly; and all the ballads in the country, as she has (O the partial lover! you will cry) the finest "wood-note wild" I ever heard. I am the more particular in this lady"s character, as I know she will henceforth have the honour of a share in your best wishes. She is still at Mauchline, as I am building my house; for this hovel that I shelter in, while occasionally here, is pervious to every blast that blows, and every shower that falls; and I am only preserved from being chilled to death by being suffocated with smoke. I do not find my farm that pennyworth I was taught to expect, but I believe, in time, it may be a saving bargain. You will be pleased to hear that I have laid aside idle _eclat_, and bind every day after my reapers.
To save me from that horrid situation of at any time going down in a losing bargain of a farm, to misery, I have taken my Excise instructions, and have my commission in my pocket for any emergency of fortune. If I could set all before your view, whatever disrespect you, in common with the world, have for this business, I know you would approve of my idea.
I will make no apology, dear Madam, for this egotistic detail; I know you and your sister will be interested in every circ.u.mstance of it.
What signify the silly, idle gewgaws of wealth, or the ideal trumpery of greatness! When fellow-partakers of the same nature fear the same G.o.d, have the same benevolence of heart, the same n.o.bleness of soul, the same detestation at everything dishonest, and the same scorn at everything unworthy--if they are not in the dependence of absolute beggary, in the name of common sense are they not EQUALS? And if the bias, the instinctive bias, of their souls run the same way, why may they not be FRIENDS?
When I may have an opportunity of sending you this, Heaven only knows.
Shenstone says, "When one is confined idle within doors by bad weather, the best antidote against _ennui_ is to read the letters of or write to, one"s friends;" in that case then, if the weather continues thus, I may scrawl you half a quire.
I very lately--to wit, since harvest began--wrote a poem, not in imitation, but in the manner, of Pope"s Moral Epistles. It is only a short essay, just to try the strength of my muse"s pinion in that way.
I will send you a copy of it, when once I have heard from you. I have likewise been laying the foundation of some pretty large poetic works: how the superstructure will come on, I leave to that great maker and marrer of projects--TIME. Johnson"s collection of Scots songs is going on in the third volume; and, of consequence, finds me a consumpt for a great deal of idle metre. One of the most tolerable things I have done in that way is two stanzas I made to an air, a musical gentleman of my acquaintance composed for the anniversary of his wedding-day, which happens on the seventh of November. Take it as follows:--
"The day returns--my bosom burns, The blissful day we twa did meet," &c.[188]
I shall give over this letter for shame. If I should be seized with a scribbling fit, before this goes away, I shall make it another letter; and then you may allow your patience a week"s respite between the two.
I have not room for more than the old, kind, hearty farewell.
To make some amends, _mes cheres Mesdames_, for dragging you on to this second sheet, and to relieve a little the tiresomeness of my unstudied and uncorrectible prose, I shall transcribe you some of my late poetic bagatelles; though I have, these eight or ten months, done very little that way. One day in a hermitage on the banks of Nith, belonging to a gentleman in my neighbourhood, who is so good as give me a key at pleasure, I wrote as follows; supposing myself the sequestered, venerable inhabitant of the lonely mansion.
LINES WRITTEN IN FRIARS-Ca.r.s.e
HERMITAGE.
"Thou whom chance may hither lead, Be thou clad in russet weed."[189]
R. B.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 188: Song LXIX.]
[Footnote 189: Poems Lx.x.xIX. and XC.]
Cx.x.xV.
TO MR. MORISON,
MAUCHLINE.
[Morison, of Mauchline, made most of the poet"s furniture, for Ellisland: from Mauchline, too, came that eight-day clock, which was sold, at the death of the poet"s widow, for thirty-eight pounds, to one who would have paid one hundred, sooner than wanted it.]
_Ellisland, September 22, 1788._
MY DEAR SIR,
Necessity obliges me to go into my new house even before it be plastered. I will inhabit the one end until the other is finished.
About three weeks more, I think, will at farthest be my time, beyond which I cannot stay in this present house. If ever you wished to deserve the blessing of him that was ready to perish; if ever you were in a situation that a little kindness would have rescued you from many evils; if ever you hope to find rest in future states of untried being--get these matters of mine ready. My servant will be out in the beginning of next week for the clock. My compliments to Mrs. Morison.
I am,
After all my tribulation,
Dear Sir, yours,
R. B.
Cx.x.xVI.
TO MRS. DUNLOP,
OF DUNLOP.
[Burns had no great respect for critics who found blemishes without perceiving beauties: he expresses his contempt for such in this letter.]
_Mauchline, 27th Sept. 1788._
I have received twins, dear Madam, more than once; but scarcely ever with more pleasure than when I received yours of the 12th instant. To make myself understood; I had wrote to Mr. Graham, enclosing my poem addressed to him, and the same post which favoured me with yours brought me an answer from him. It was dated the very day he had received mine; and I am quite at a loss to say whether it was most polite or kind.
Your criticisms, my honoured benefactress, are truly the work of a friend. They are not the blasting depredations of a canker-toothed, caterpillar critic; nor are they the fair statement of cold impartiality, balancing with unfeeling exact.i.tude the _pro_ and _con_ of an author"s merits; they are the judicious observations of animated friendship, selecting the beauties of the piece. I have just arrived from Nithsdale, and will be here a fortnight. I was on horseback this morning by three o"clock; for between my wife and my farm is just forty-six miles. As I jogged on in the dark, I was taken with a poetic fit as follows:
"Mrs. Ferguson of Craigdarroch"s lamentation for the death of her son; an uncommonly promising youth of eighteen or nineteen years of age."
"Fate gave the word--the arrow sped, And pierced my darling"s heart."[190]
You will not send me your poetic rambles, but, you see I am no n.i.g.g.ard of mine. I am sure your impromptus give me double pleasure; what falls from your pen can neither be unentertaining in itself, nor indifferent to me.
The one fault you found, is just; but I cannot please myself in an emendation.
What a life of solicitude is the life of a parent! You interested me much in your young couple.
I would not take my folio paper for this epistle, and now I repent it.