Wol, Tit. ] 
‘mended chiefly by licentious wit, 
and with whom he could not, long 
affociate wirhdut fharing in, the ex- 
-cefles of their debauchery. Even im the 
country, men of this fort had. begun 
20 faften on him, and to feduce him 
to. embeilifh the grofs pleafures of their 
loofer hours with the charms of his wit 
and fancy. And yet I have been inform- 
‘ed by Mr. ARTHUR Bruce, a gentle- 
‘man of great worth and difcernment, to 
whom Burns was, in his earlier days, 
well Known, thar he had, in thofe times, 
feen the poet fteadily refift fuch folicita- 
tions and allurements to exce{s in convi- 
vial enjoyment, as {carcely any other 
perfon could have withftood. But the 
enticements of pleafure too often unman 
our virtuous refolution, even’ while we 
avear the air of rejecting them with a 
fern brow: we refift, and refit, and 
refift; but, at laft, f{uddenly turn and paf- 
fionately embrace the enchantrefs. 
ducks of Edinburgh accomplifhed, in re- 
gard to Burns, that in which the doors 
of Ayrfhire had failed. After refiding 
fome months in Edinburgh, he began to 
eftrange himfelf, not altogether, but in 
fome meafure, from the focietv of his 
graver friends. Too many of his hours 
were now fpent at the tables of perfons 
who delighted to urge conviviality to 
drunkennefs, in the tavern, in the bro- 
thel, on the lap of the woman of plea- 
fure. He faffered himfelf to be fur- 
rounded by a race of mifgrable beings 
who were proud to tell that they had 
been in company with Burns 5 and had 
feen Burns as loofe and as foolifh as 
themfelves. F¥e was not yet irrecovera- 
bly loft to temperance and moderation 2 
but he-was already almoft too much cap- 
tivared with their wanton rivals, to be 
ever more won back toa faithful attach- 
ment to fheir more fober charms. He 
now alfo began to contract fomething of 
new arrogance in converfation. Accuf- 
tomed to be, among his favourite affo- 
Ciates, what is vulgarly but expreffively 
called the cock of the company, he could 
fearcely refrain from indulging in fimilar 
freedoin and diétatorial decifion of talk, 
even.in the prefence of perfons who 
could lefs patiently endure his prefump- 
tion. | 
Thus paffed two winters, and an in- 
tervening tummer, of the life of Burws. 
The fubfcription edition of his poems, 
in the mean time, appeared ; and, al-— 
though not enlarged beyond that which 
came from the Ki/marnock prefs, by any 
new pieces of eminent merit, did nat 
: 3 
Original Memoirs of the late Robert Burns. 
‘The. 
555 
fail to give entire fatisfaétion to the fub- 
fcribers. He at one time, during this 
period, accompanied, for a few weeks, 
into Berwick/bire, Robert Atnflic, efg. a 
gentleman of the pureit and mof correct’ 
manners, who was accuftomed fometimes 
to foothe the toils of a laborious profedfion, 
by an occafional converte with polite h- 
terature, and with general fcienée. At 
another time, he wandered on a jaunt of 
four or five weeks, through the H25- 
lands, in company with the late Mr. 
WiILLtaAm NICoL, a man who-had been 
before the companion and friend of Dr. 
GILBERT STUART, who in vigour of 
intelleét, and in wild, yet generous, im- 
petuofity of patfion, remarkably refem- 
bled both Sruarr and Burns: who, 
for his fkill and facility of Latin compa- 
fition, was perhaps without a fival’ in 
Europe ; whofe virtues and genius were 
clouded by habits of Bacchanalian excefs ; 
whofe latter years were vexatioufly em- 
bittered’ by a conteft with a creature, 
that, although accidentally. exalted inte 
competition with him, was unworthy 
even to wnloofe bis fooe-latchel; who by 
the moft unwearied and extraordinary 
profeffional toil. in the midft of a per- 
fevering diilipation, by which alone it 
was, at any time, interrupted, won and 
accumulated an honourable and fudicient 
competence for his family; and, ‘alas! 
who died, within thefe few weeks, of a 
Jaundice, with a complication of other 
complaints, the effects of long-continued 
intemperance ! So much did the zeal 
of friendfhip, and the ambition of honett 
fame, predominate in N:cox’s mind; 
that he was, in his laft hours. exceed- 
ingly pained by the thought that fince 
he had furvived Burns, there remained 
none who might refcue his mixed charac- 
ter from mifreprefentation, and might 
embalm his memory in néver-dying 
verfe ! ; aes 
In their excurfion, Burns and his friend 
Nicor were naturally led to vifit the in- 
terefting {cenery adjacent to the duke of 
Athol’s feat at Dunkeld, on the banks of 
the Tay. While they were at a contiguous 
inn, the duke, accidentally informed of 
Mr. Bunws’s arrival fo near, invited him, 
by a polite meflage, to Dunkeld-hoyfe. 
Burns did not fail to attend his obliging 
inviter ; was received with fatterin- 
condefcenfion ; made himfelf fuficiently 
agreeable by his converfation and man. 
ners ; was detained for a day or two by 
his grace’s kind hofpitality ; and, ere he 
departed, in a poetical petition, in the 
name vf the river Brxar, which fails 
lato 
