Vol: III.] 
Mirtar might. for fome. fhort time, 
pleafe himfelt with the perfuafion thar 
he had approved himfelf the liberal pa- 
tron of genius ; had acquired a good te- 
nant upon his efiate; and had placed 
a deferving mian in the very fituation in 
which alone he himfelf defired to be 
placed; in order to be happy to his withes. 
BURNS, with his Jane, whom he 
now married, took up their refidence 
upon his farm. The. neighbouring far- 
mers.and gentlemen, pleafed to obtain 
for an inmate among them, the poet by 
whofe, works they had been delighted, 
kindly fought his company, ahd invited 
tim to their houfes. He found an inex- 
- preffible charm in fitting down befide his 
wife, at his own fire-fide + in wandering 
over his owh protinds; in once more put- 
ting his hand to the {pade and the plough, 
ih forming his inclofures, and managing 
His cattle. For forne moments he felt 
almoft all that felicity which fancy had 
taught him to expeét in his new fitu- 
ation. He had been, for atime, idle; 
but his mufcles were not yet unbraced 
for rural.toil. He had been admitted to 
fatter ladies of fafhion ; he had bees 
dccafionally feduced by the allurements 
df venal beauty ; but, he now feemed to 
find a joy in being the hufband of the 
miftrefs of his affections, in feeing him- 
felf the father of-Ker children, fuch as 
right promife to attach him for ever 
to that modeft, humble, and domeftic 
life in which alone he could hope to be 
permanently happy.. Even his engage- 
thents in the fervice of the excife did 
tot, at the very firft, threaten necefiarily 
to debafe him by affociation with the 
mean, the grofs, and the profligate, to 
contaminate the poet, or to ruin the 
farmer. 3 
But, it could not be: it was not pof- 
fible for BURNS now to affume that fo- 
bernefs of fancy and patfions, that fedate- 
nefs of feeling, thofe habits of earneft 
attention to grofs and vulgar cares, with- 
out which, fuccefs in his new fituation 
was not to be expected. A thoufand 
difficulties were to be encountered and 
overcome, much money was to he ex- 
pended, muth weary toil was to be ex- 
excifed, before his farm could be brought 
into a ftate of cultivation, in which its 
produce might enrich the occupier.— 
The profpeét before him was, in this 
refpect, fuch as might well have dif- 
¢ouraged the moft ftubborniy laborious 
peafant, the moft fanguine projeétor in 
agriculture : and much more, therefore, 
‘was it likely, that this profpeét fthould 
Monrary Mas. No. XIX. 
Original Memoirs of the late Rabert Burns. 
quickly dithearten Burns, who had ne- 
ssh. 
fsa 
yal 
ver loved labour; and who was, at this 
time, certainly notat all difpofed to en- 
ter into agriculture with the enthufiafim: 
of aprojector. Befide all this, I have 
reafon to believe, that the poet had made’ 
his bargain rafhly; and had not duly 
availed -himfelf of his patron’s genero- 
{ity 
little acquainted with the foil, with the 
manures, with ‘the markets, with the’ 
dairies, with the modes of improvement’ 
in Dumfriesfhire. They had fet upon 
-his farm rather fuch a value of rental, 
as it miglit have borne in Ayr‘nire, thant 
that which it could eafily afford in the 
local circumftances in which it was ac- 
He himfelf had inconfi-’ 
tually placed. 
derately {ubmitted to their judgment, 
without once doubting whether they 
might not have erred againft his interefts,’ 
without the flighteft with to make a bare 
gain artfully advantageous for himfelf. 
And the neceffary confequence was, that 
he held his farm at too high a rent, 
contrary to his landlord’s intention.— 
_The bufiniefs of the excife too, as he be- 
gan to be more and more employed in it, 
diftraéted his mind from the care of his 
farm, led him into grofs and vulgar fo- 
ciety, and expofed him to many unavoid- 
able temptations to drunken excefs,; fuch 
as he had no longer fufficient fortitude 
torefift. Amid the anxieties, diftrac= 
tions, and feducements, which thus arofe 
to him, home became infenfibly lefs 
and lefs pleafing; even the -endear-= 
ments of his JANE’s affection began ta 
lofe their hold on his heart ; he became 
every day lefs and lefs unwilling to forget 
in riot thofe gathering furrows which he | 
knew not to fubdue. o 
Mr. MirLar, and fome others of 
his friends, would gladly have exerted 
an influence over his mind, which might 
have preferved him, in this fituation of 
his affaire, equally from defpondency; 
and from diffipation. But Buaws's 
temper fpurned all ‘control from 
his fuperiots in fortune. He refent- 
ed, as ah arrogant encroachment up 
on his independence, that tenor of cons 
dudt by which Mr. Mriuar wihhed to 
turn him from diffolute conviviality, to — 
His friends from-Ayrithire, were 
that feady attention to the bufinefs of 
his farm, without which it was impofft- 
ble to thrive init. In the neighbour- 
hood were other gentlemen occafionally 
addiéted, like Burns, to convivial exe. 
cefs; who, while they admired the 
poect’s talents, and were charmed. with 
his licentious wit, forgot the care of his. 
4 C reat 
