BURN S. 
_ed to nearly eleven hundred pounds. Out of tills fum, 
indeed, the expences of printing the edition lor the fub- 
fcribcrs were to be deducted. 
He was now at lad to fix upon a plan for his future 
life. He talked loudly of independence of fpirit, and fim- 
plicity of manners; and boalled his refolution to return 
to the plough : yet Hill he lingered in Edinburgh, week 
after week, and month after month,^perhaps expecting 
that one or other of his noble patrons might procure hint 
join - permanent and competent annual income, which 
iln nld let him above all ncccfiity of future exertions to 
n for himfelf the means of fubfiftence • perhaps uncot^- 
1. iouflv reluctant to quit the pleafures of that voluptuous 
t ■ n-life to which he had for fo.nte time too willingly ac- 
cuftonted himfelf. An accidental dislocation or fradlure 
of an arm or a leg, confining him for fome weeks to his 
apartment, left him, during this time, lei Cure for ferious 
reflection ; and lie determined to retire from the town, 
without longer delay. None of till his patrons interpofed 
to divert him from his purpofe of returning to the plough, 
by the offer of any penllon, or any finecure place of mo¬ 
derate emolument, fuch as might have given him compe¬ 
tence without withdrawing him from his poetical (Indies. 
It feemed to be forgotten that a ploughman, thus exalted 
into a man of letters, was unfitted for his former toils, 
without being regularly qualified to enter the career of 
any new profeilion ; and that it became incumbent upon 
thofe patrons who had called him from the plough, not 
merely to make him their companion in the hour of riot, 
not (imply to fill his purfe with gold for a few tranfient 
expences, but to fec.ure him, as far as was poilible, from 
being overwhelmed in diftrefs, in confequence of the fa¬ 
vour which they had (hewn him, and of the habits of life 
into which they had feduced him. Perhaps, indeed, the 
fame delufion of fancy betrayed both Burns and his pa¬ 
trons into the miflaken idea that, after all which had pall¬ 
ed, it was Hill pofiible for him to return in cheerful con¬ 
tent to the homely joys and fimple toils of undifiipated 
rural life. In this temper of Burns’s mind, in this (fate 
of his fortune, a farm was taken for him in Dnmfriesfhire; 
a leafe was granted to the poetical farmer at that annual 
rent which his own friends declared that the due cultiva¬ 
tion of his farm might eafily enable him to pay : what yet 
remained of the profits of his publication was laid out in 
the purchafe of farm-ftock; and Burns, with his Jane, 
whom he now married, took up their refidence upon his 
farm. The. neighbouring farmers and gentlemen, pleafed 
to obtain for an inmate among them the poet by wliofe 
works they had been delighted, kindly fought his com¬ 
pany, and invited him to their houfes. He found an in- 
expreffible charm in fitting down befide his wife, at his 
own fire-fide ; in wandering over his own grounds ; in 
once more putting his hand to the fpade and the plough; 
in forming his inclofures, and managing his cattle. For 
fome moments he felt almofl: all that felicity which fancy had 
taught him to expeCt in his new fituation. He had been, 
for a time, idle ; but his mufcles were not yet unbraced 
for rural toil. He now feemed to find a joy in being the 
hufband of the miftrefs of his affections, in feeing himfelf 
the father of her children, fuch as might promife to at¬ 
tach him for ever to that modeft, humble, and domeftic, 
life, in which alone he could hope to be permanently happy. 
But it was not poilible for Burns now to affume that fo- 
bernefs of fancy and pafijons, that fedatenefs of feeling, 
thofe habits of earned attention to grofs and vulgar cares, 
without which, fuccefs in his new fituation was not to be 
expeC'ted. A thonfand difficulties were to be encountered 
and overcome, much money was to be expended, much 
weary toil was to be exercifed, before his farm could be 
brought into a (late of cultivation, in which its produce, 
might enrich the occupier. The profpect before him was, 
in this refpeCt, fuch as might well have difeouraged the 
mod; ftubborrily laborious peafant, the moft fanguine pro¬ 
jector in agriculture ; and much more, therefore, was it 
likely, that this profpeCt fiiould quickly difhearten Burns, 
VOL. III. No. 146, . 
who had never loved labour; and who was, at this time, 
certainly not'at all difpofed to enter into agriculture with 
the enthu'jjafm of a projector. 
In the neighbourhood were other gentlemen, occaflon- 
ally addicted, like Burns, to convivial excels; who, while 
they admired the poet’s talents, and were charmed with 
his licentious wit, forgot the care of his real interefts irt 
the pleafure which they found in his company, and in the 
gratification which the plenty and feftivity of their tables 
appeared evidently to afford him. With tliefe gentlemen, 
while difappointments and difgufts continued to multiply 
upon him in his prefent fituation, he continued to affociate 
every day more and more eagerly. His croffes and difap- 
pointments drove him every day more and more into difli. 
pation ; and his di'ffi'pation tended to enhance whatever 
was difagreeable and perplexing in the date of his affair:;. 
He funk, by degrees, into the boon companion; and.al¬ 
mofi: every drunken fellow, who was willing to fpend his 
money laviffily in the ale-houfe, could eafily command the 
company of Burns. The care of His farm was, thus neg- 
leCled ; wafie and Ioffes wholly confuvned his little capi¬ 
tal; he refigned Itis leafe into the hands of his landlord ; 
and retired, with his family, to the town of Dumfries, 
determining to depend entirely for the means of future 
fupport upon his income as an excile-officer. Yet, during 
this unfortunate period of his life, v\hich paffed between 
liis departure from Edinburgh to fettle in Dnmfriesfhire, 
arid His leaving the co.untry m order to take up his refi¬ 
dence in the town of Dumfries, the energy and adivity 
of his intellectual powers appeared to have been not at all 
impaired. In a collection of Scottifh fongs, which were 
pnblifiied (tHe words with the mufic) by Mr Johnfon, 
engraver, in Edinburgh, in 4 vols. 8vo. Burns, in many 
inltances, accommodated new verfes to the old tunes witty 
admirable felicity and (kill. He compofed feveral other 
poems, fuch as the tale of Tam o’Shanier, the Whiffle, 
Verles on a wounded Hare, the Pathetic Addrefs to R*** 
G * * * of F***, and fome others, which he afterwards 
permitted Mr. Creech to infert in the fourth and fifth edi¬ 
tion of his poems. He affified alfo in the temporary infii- 
tution of a fmall fubfeription library, for the ufe of a num¬ 
ber of the well-difpofed peafants in his neighbourhood. 
He readily aided, and, by His knowledge of genuine Scot- 
tifli phrafeoiogy and manners, greatly enlightened, the an¬ 
tiquarian refearches of the late ingenious captain Grofe. 
He Hill carried on an epifiolary correfpo.ndence, with a 
number of his old friends, and on a very wide diverfity of 
topics. At times, as it ffiould feem from his writings of 
this period, he reflected, with inexpreffi.ble heart-bitter- 
nefs, on the high hopes from which he had fallen ; on the 
errors of moral conduct into which he had been hurried, 
by tlie ardour of his foul, and, in fome meafure, by the 
very generofity of his nature ; nor, amidit thefe agonizing 
reflections, did he fail to look, with an indignation Half 
invidious, half contemptuous, on thofe, who, with moral 
habits not more excellent than his, with powers of intel¬ 
lect far inferior, yet balked in the fun-fhine of fortune, 
and were loaded with the wealth and honours of tHe world, 
while his follies could not obtain pardon, nor his wants 
an honourable fupply. His wit became, from this time, 
more gloomily farcaffic ; and his conveffati'on and writings 
began to affume fomething of a tone of mifanthropical ma¬ 
lignity, by which they had not been before, in any emi¬ 
nent degree, difiinguifhed. But, with all thefe failings, 
lie was (till that exalted mind which had raifety itfelf a- 
bove the depreffion of its original condition. 
In the intervals between his different fits of intempe¬ 
rance, he fuffered ftill the keened anguifh of remorfe, and 
horribly afflictive ’forefight. At laH, crippled, emaciated, 
having the very power of animation walled by difeafe, 
quite broken-hearted by the fenfe of his errors, and of 
the hopelels miferies in which he faw himfelf and his fa¬ 
mily depreffed ; with his foul dill tremblingly alive to the 
fenfe of lhame, and to the love of virtue; ye 1, even in 
the lad feeblcnefs, and amid the lad agonies’of expiring 
6 X - life, 
