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real interefts in the pleafure which they 
found in his company, and in the grati- 
fication which the plenty and feftivity 
of their tables appeared evidently to af- 
ford him. With thefe — gentlemen, 
while difappointments and difgufts con- 
tinued to multiply upon him in his pre- 
fent fituation, he continued to affociate 
every day more and more eagerly. His 
croffes and difappointments drove him 
every day more and more into diffipa- 
tion; and his diffipation tended to en- 
hance whatever was difagreeable and 
perplexing in the ftate of his affairs. 
die funk, by degrees, into the boon 
companion of mtere excifemen; and al- 
moft every drunken fellow, who was 
willing to fpend his money lJavifhly in 
the ale-houfe, could eafily command the 
company of Burns. The care of his 
farm was thus negleéted; wafte and 
lofles wholly confumed his little capital ; 
he refigned his leafe into the hands of 
his landiord; and retired, with his- fa- 
mily to the town of Dumfries, deter- 
mining to depend entirely for the means 
of future {upport upon his income as an 
excife-officer. 
Yet, during this unfortunate period 
of his life, which paficd between his de- 
parture from Edinburgh to fettle in 
BDumfriesfhire, 
country in order to take up his rehdence 
in the town of Dumfries, the energy 
and attivity of his intelleftual powers 
appeared to have been not at all impair- 
ed. He made a collection of Scottith 
fongs, which were publifhed, the words 
with the mufic, by a Mr. JOHNSTONE, 
an engraver, in Edinburgh, in three 
fmall volumes, oétavo. In making this 
éolleétion, he, in many infiances, accom- 
modated new vérfes to the old tunes, 
with admirable felicity and fkill. He 
compofed feveral other poems, fuch as 
the tale of Zam o' Shavier, the Whiftle, 
Ferfes on a wounded Hare, the Paibetic 
Ad.trefs fo RE** Y Casi = of Pes, and 
fome others which he afterwards per- 
mitted Mr. Cxexrcu to infert in the 
fowth and ffib edition of his poems. 
. Be affified in the temporary inftitudon 
-of afmall fubfcription library, for the 
-tfe of a number of the well-difpofed 
peafants, m his neighbourhood. He 
readily aided, and by his knowledge of 
genuine Scottifh phrafeology and man- 
ners, greatly enlightened the antigurian 
refearches of the late ingenious Captain 
Grose. He full carried on an epiito- 
lary correfpondence, fometimes gay, 
{portive, humourcus, but always en- 
Original Memoirs of the late Robert Burns. 
and his leaving the. 
[Sup. 
livened by bright flafhes of genis, with’ 
a number of his old friends, and on a 
very wide diverfity of topics. At times 
as it fhould feem from his writings. of 
this period, he refle€ted, with inexpref- 
fible heart-bitrernefs, on the high hopes 
from which he had fallen; on the errors 
of moral conduét into which he had been | 
hurried, by the ardour of his-foul, and, 
in fome meafure, by the very generofity 
of his nature; on the difgrace and 
wretchednefs into which he faw him- 
feif rapidiy inking; on the forrow with 
which his mifconduét oppreffed the 
heart of his JANE; on the want and 
deftitute mifery in which it feemed_pro- 
bable that he muft leave her and theirin- 
fants ; nor, amidft thefe agonizing re- 
flections, did he fail to look, with an 
indignation half invidious, half con- 
temptucus, on thofe, who, with moral 
habits not more excellent than his, with — 
powers of intelleét far inferior, yet. 
bafked in the fun-fhine of fortune, and 
were loaded with the wealth and ho- 
nours of the world, while 47s follies 
could not obtain pardon, nor his wants 
an honourable fupply. His wit became, 
from this time, more gloomily farcaftic ; 
and his converfation and writings began, 
to aflume fomething of a tone of mifan-. 
thropical malignity, by which they had 
not been before, in any eminent degree, 
diftinguifhed. But, with all thefe fail- 
ings, he was ftill that exalted mind 
which had raifed itfelf above the depref-. 
fion of its original condition ; with all 
the energy of the lion, pawing to fet 
free his hinder limbs from the yet in- 
cumbering earth, he ftiil appeared we 
lefs archangel ruined! 
What more rémains there for me 
to relate? In Dumfries his diffipation 
became {till more deeply habitual; he 
was here more expofed than in the 
country to be. folicited to fhare the riet 
of the difolute and the idle: foolifh 
young men, fuch as writers’ apprentices, 
young furgeons, merchants’ clerks, and 
his brother excifemen, flocked eagerly 
about him, and from time to time preffed 
him to drink with them, that they 
might enjoy his wicked wit. His friend 
Nicor made one or two autumnal ex-. 
curfions to Dumfries; and they met in 
Dumfries, friendfhip, and genius, and 
wanton wit, and good liquor could never 
failtokeep Burns and Nicou together, 
till both the one and the other were as 
dead drunk as ever was SILENUs. ‘The 
Caledonian Club too, and the Dumfries« 
Spire and Galloway Hunt, had occafional 
mectings, 
