Probably I have quoted some of these to you formerly, as indeed when I write from the heart, I am apt to be guilty of such repet.i.tions. The compa.s.s of the heart, in the musical style of expression, is much more bounded than that of the imagination; so the notes of the former are extremely apt to run into one another; but in return for the paucity of its compa.s.s, its few notes are much more sweet. I must still give you another quotation, which I am almost sure I have given you before, but I cannot resist the temptation. The subject is religion--speaking of its importance to mankind, the author says,
""Tis this, my friend, that streaks our morning bright."
I see you are in for double postage, so I shall e"en scribble out t"other sheet. We, in this country here, have many alarms of the reforming, or rather the republican spirit, of your part of the kingdom. Indeed we are a good deal in commotion ourselves. For me, I am a placeman, you know; a very humble one indeed, Heaven knows, but still so much as to gag me. What my private sentiments are, you will find out without an interpreter.
I have taken up the subject, and the other day, for a pretty actress"s benefit night, I wrote an address, which I will give on the other page, called "The rights of woman:"
"While Europe"s eye is fixed on mighty things."
I shall have the honour of receiving your criticisms in person at Dunlop.
R. B.
CCXLIII.
TO R. GRAHAM, ESQ.,
FINTRAY.
[Graham stood by the bard in the hour of peril recorded in this letter: and the Board of Excise had the generosity to permit him to eat its "bitter bread" for the remainder of his life.]
_December, 1792._
SIR,
I have been surprised, confounded, and distracted by Mr. Mitch.e.l.l, the collector, telling me that he has received an order from your Board to inquire into my political conduct, and blaming me as a person disaffected to government.
Sir, you are a husband--and a father.--You know what you would feel, to see the much-loved wife of your bosom, and your helpless, prattling little ones, turned adrift into the world, degraded and disgraced from a situation in which they had been respectable and respected, and left almost without the necessary support of a miserable existence. Alas, Sir! must I think that such, soon, will be my lot! and from the d--mned, dark insinuations of h.e.l.lish, groundless envy too! I believe, Sir, I may aver it, and in the sight of Omniscience, that I would not tell a deliberate falsehood, no, not though even worse horrors, if worse can be, than those I have mentioned, hung over my head; and I say, that the allegation, whatever villain has made it, is a lie! To the British const.i.tution on Revolution principles, next after my G.o.d, I am most devoutly attached; you, Sir, have been much and generously my friend.--Heaven knows how warmly I have felt the obligation, and how gratefully I have thanked you.--Fortune, Sir, has made you powerful, and me impotent; has given you patronage, and me dependence.--I would not for my single self, call on your humanity; were such my insular, unconnected situation, I would despise the tear that now swells in my eye--I could brave misfortune, I could face ruin; for at the worst, "Death"s thousand doors stand open;" but, good G.o.d! the tender concerns that I have mentioned, the claims and ties that I see at this moment, and feel around me, how they unnerve courage, and wither resolution! To your patronage, as a man of some genius, you have allowed me a claim; and your esteem, as an honest man, I know is my due: to these, Sir, permit me to appeal; by these may I adjure you to save me from that misery which threatens to overwhelm me, and which, with my latest breath I will say it, I have not deserved.
R. B.
CCXLIV.
TO MRS. DUNLOP.
[Burns was ordered, he says, to mind his duties in the Excise, and to hold his tongue about politics--the latter part of the injunction was hard to obey, for at that time politics were in every mouth.]
_Dumfries, 31st December, 1792._
DEAR MADAM,
A hurry of business, thrown in heaps by my absence, has until now prevented my returning my grateful acknowledgments to the good family of Dunlop, and you in particular, for that hospitable kindness which rendered the four days I spent under that genial roof, four of the pleasantest I ever enjoyed.--Alas, my dearest friend! how few and fleeting are those things we call pleasures! on my road to Ayrshire, I spent a night with a friend whom I much valued; a man whose days promised to be many; and on Sat.u.r.day last we laid him in the dust!
_Jan. 2, 1793._
I have just received yours of the 30th, and feel much for your situation. However, I heartily rejoice in your prospect of recovery from that vile jaundice. As to myself, I am better, though not quite free of my complaint.--You must not think, as you seem to insinuate, that in my way of life I want exercise. Of that I have enough; but occasional hard drinking is the devil to me. Against this I have again and again bent my resolution, and have greatly succeeded. Taverns I have totally abandoned: it is the private parties in the family way, among the hard-drinking gentlemen of this country, that do me the mischief--but even this I have more than half given over.
Mr. Corbet can be of little service to me at present; at least I should be shy of applying. I cannot possibly be settled as a supervisor, for several years. I must wait the rotation of the list, and there are twenty names before mine. I might indeed get a job of officiating, where a settled supervisor was ill, or aged; but that hauls me from my family, as I could not remove them on such an uncertainty. Besides, some envious, malicious devil, has raised a little demur on my political principles, and I wish to let that matter settle before I offer myself too much in the eye of my supervisors. I have set, henceforth, a seal on my lips, as to these unlucky politics; but to you I must breathe my sentiments. In this, as in everything else, I shall show the undisguised emotions of my soul. War I deprecate: misery and ruin to thousands are in the blast that announces the destructive demon.
R. B.
CCXLV.
TO MR. THOMSON.
[The songs to which the poet alludes were "Poort.i.th Cauld," and "Galla Water."]
_Jan. 1793._
Many returns of the season to you, my dear Sir. How comes on your publication?--will these two foregoing [Songs CLx.x.xV. and CLx.x.xVI.] be of any service to you? I should like to know what songs you print to each tune, besides the verses to which it is set. In short, I would wish to give you my opinion on all the poetry you publish. You know it is my trade, and a man in the way of his trade may suggest useful hints that escape men of much superior parts and endowments in other things.
If you meet with my dear and much-valued Cunningham, greet him, in my name, with the compliments of the season.
Yours, &c.,
R. B.
CCXLVI.
TO MR. THOMSON.
[Thomson explained more fully than at first the plan of his publication, and stated that Dr. Beattie had promised an essay on Scottish music, by way of an introduction to the work.]