yet low enough to keep clear of the venal contagion of a court ;-these are a nation's strength. I know not how to apologise for the imperti nent length of this epistle; but one small request I must ask of you farther-When you have honoured this letter-with a perusal, please to commit it to the flames. Burns, in whose behalf you have so generously interested yourself, I have here, in his native colours, drawn as he is; but should any of the people in whose hands is the very bread he eats, get the least knowledge of the picture, it would ruin the poor bard for ever! My poems having just come out in another edition, I beg leave to present you with a copy, as a small mark of that high esteem and ardent gratitude, with which I have the honour to be, Sir, Your deeply indebted, And ever devoted humble servant. No. LIV. To Mr. ROBERT AINSLIE. April 26, 1793. I am d-mnably out of humour, my dear Ainslie, and that is the reason why I take up the pen to you 'tis the nearest way (probatum est) to recover my spirits again. I received your last, and was much entertained with it; but I will not at this time, nor at any other time, answer it.-Answer a letter! I never could answer a letter in my life!-I have written many a letter in return for letters I have received; but then they were original matter-spurt-away! zig, here; zag, there; as if the devil, that, my grannie (an old woman indeed!) often told me, rode in will-o'-wisp, or, in her more classic phrase, Spunkie, were looking over my elbow.-Happy thought that idea has engendered in my head! Spunkie-thou shalt henceforth be my symbol, signature, and tutelary genius! Like thee, hap-step-and-lowp, here-awa-there-awa, higglety-pigglety, pell-mell. hither-and-yon, ram-stam, happy-go-lucky, up tails-a'-by-the-light-o'-the-moon; has been, is, and shall be, my progress through the mosses and moors of this vile, bleak, barren wilderness of a life of ours. Come, then, my guardian spirit! like thee, may I skip away, amusing myself by, and at my own light and if any opaque-souled lubber of mankind complain that my elfine, lambent, glimmerous wanderings have misled his stupid steps over precipices, or into bogs; let the thick-headed blunderbuss recollect that he is not Spunkie :-that Spunkie's wanderings could not copied be; * I have no doubt but scholarcraft may be caught as a Scotsman catches the itch,-by friction. How else can you account for it, that born blockheads, by mere dint of handling books, grow so wise that even they themselves are equally convinced of, and surprised at their own parts? I once carried this philosophy to that degree, that in a knot of country folks who had a library amongst them, and who, to the honour of their good sense, made me factotum in the business; one of our members, a little, wise-looking, squat, upright, jabbering body of a taylor, I advised him, instead of turning over the leaves, to bind the book on his back.-Johnie took the hint; and as our meetings were every fourth Saturday, and Pricklouse having a good Scots mile to walk in coming, and, of course, another in returning, Bodkin was sure to lay his hands on some heavy quarto, or ponderous folio, with, and under which, wrapt up in his grey plaid, he grew wise, as he grew weary, all the way home. He carried this so far, that an old musty Hebrew concordance which we had in a present from a neighbouring priest, by mere dint of applying it, as doctors do a blistering plaister, between his shoulders, Stitch, in a dozen pilgrimages, acquired as much rational theology, as the said priest had done by forty years perusal of the pages. Tell me, and tell me truly, what you think of this theory. Yours, No. LV.. To Miss K SPUNKIE. Madam, Permit me to present you with the enclosed song, as a small though grateful tribute for the honour of your acquaintance. I have, in these verses, attempted some faint sketches of your por trait in the unembellished simple manner of deseriptive truth.-Flattery I leave to your lovers, whose exaggerating fancies may make them imagine you still nearer perfection than you really are. Poets, madam, of all mankind, feel most forcibly the powers of beauty; as, if they are really poets of nature's making, their feelings must be finer, and their taste more delicate than most of the world. In the cheerful bloom of spring, or the pensive mildness of autumn; the grandeur of summer, or the hoary majesty of winter; the poet feels a charm unknown to the rest of his species. Even the sight of a fine flower, or the company of a fine woman, (by far the finest part of God's works below) have sensations for the poetic heart, that the herd of man are strangers to.-On this last account, madam, I am, as in many other things, indebted to Mr. Hamilton's kindness in introducing me to you. Your lovers may view you with a wish, I look on you with pleasure; their hearts, in your presence, may glow with desire, mine rises with admiration. That the arrows of misfortune, however they should, as incident to humanity, glance a slight wound, may never reach your heart-that the snares of villainy may never beset you in the road of life-that innocence may hand you by the path of honour to the dwelling of peace, is the sincere wish of him who has the honour to be, &c. My lady, No. LVI. To LADY GLENCAIRN. The honour you have done your poor poet, in writing him so very obliging a letter, and the pleasure the enclosed beautiful verses have given him, came very seasonably to his aid amid the cheerless gloom and sinking despondency of diseased nerves and December weather. As to forgetting the family of Glencairn, Heaven is my witness with what sincerity I could use those old verses, which please me more in their rude simplicity than the most elegant lines I ever saw: If thee, Jerusalem, I forget, Skill part from my right hand.- My tongue to my mouth's roof let cleave, Jerusalem, and thee above My chief joy do not set.- When I am tempted to do any thing improper, I dare not, because I look on myself as accountable to your ladyship and family. Now and then, when I have the honour to be called to the tables of the great, if I happen to meet with any mortification from the stately stupidity of self-sufficient squires, or the luxuriant insolence of upstart nabobs, I get above the creatures by calling to remembrance that I am patronised by the noble house of Glencairn ; and at gala-times, such as new-year's day, a christening, or the kirn-night, when my punch-bowl is brought from its dusty corner, and filled up in honour of the occasion, I begin with-the countess of Glencairn! My good woman, with the enthusiasm of a grateful heart, next cries, my lord! and so the toast goes on until I end with lady Harriet's little angel! whose epithalamium I have pledged myself to write. When I received your ladyship's letter, I was just in the act of transcribing for you some verses I have lately composed; and meant to have sent them my first leisure hour, and acquainted you with my late change of life. I mentioned to my lord, my fears concerning my farm. Those fears were indeed too true; it is a bargain would have ruined me but for the lucky circumstance of my having an excise commission. People may talk as they please, of the ignominy of the excise; fifty pounds a year will support my wife and children, and keep me independent of the world; and I would much rather have it said that my profession borrowed credit from me than that I borrowed credit from my profession. Another advantage I have in this business, is the knowledge it gives me of the various shades of human character,consequently assisting me vastly in my poetic pursuits. I had the most ardent enthusiasm for the muses when nobody knew me but myself, and that ardour is by no means eooled now that my lord Glencairn's goodness has introduced me to all the world. Not that I am in haste for the press. I have no idea of publishing, else I certainly had consulted my noble generous patron; but after acting the part of an honest man, and supporting my family, my whole wishes and views are directed to poetic pursuits. I am aware, that though I were to give performances to the world superior to my former works, still, if they were of the |