" be glad to have your opinion of some of the papers. The one I have just read, Lounger, No. 61, has cost me more honest tears than any thing I have read of a long time. (106) Mackenzie has been called the Addison of the Scots, and, in my opinion, Addison would not be hurt at the comparison. If he has not Addison's exquisite humour, he as certainly outdoes him in the tender and the pathetic. His Man of Feeling (but I am not counsel-learned in the laws of criticism) I estimate as the first performance in its kind I ever saw. From what book, moral or even pious, will the susceptible young mind receive impressions more congenial to humanity and kindness, generosity and benevolence-in short, more of all that ennobles the soul to herself, or endears her to others--than from the simple affecting tale of poor Harley? Nothing can reconcile me to the common terms, English ambassador, English court, &c. And I am out of all patience to see that equivocal character, Hastings, impeached by "the Commons of England." Tell me, my friend, is this weak prejudice? I believe, on my conscience, such ideas asmy country, her independence, her honour, the illustrious names that mark the history of my native land," &c.-I believe these, among your men of the world,―men who, in fact, guide for the most part and govern our world,-are looked on as so many modifications of wrong-headedness. They know the use of bawling out such terms, to rouse or lead THE RABBLE; but for their own private use, with almost all the able statesmen that ever existed, or now exist, when they talk of right and wrong, they only mean proper and improper; and their measure of conduct is not what they OUGHT, Still, with all my admiration of Mackenzie's but what they DARE. For the truth of writings, I do not know if they are the fittest this, I shall not ransack the history of reading for a young man who is about to set nations, but appeal to one of the ablest out, as the phrase is, to make his way into judges of men that ever lived--the cele- life. Do not you think, Madam, that among brated Earl of Chesterfield. In fact, a man the few favoured of Heaven in the structure who could thoroughly control his vices of their minds (for such there certainly are), whenever they interfered with his interests, there may be a purity, a tenderness, a and who could completely put on the ap. dignity, an elegance of soul, which are of no pearance of every virtue as often as it use, nay, in some degree, absolutely dissuited his purposes, is, on the Stanhopian qualifying, for the truly important business plan, the perfect man; a man to lead of making a man's way into life! If I am nations. But are great abilities, complete not much mistaken, my gallant young friend, without a flaw, and polished without a A******, is very much under these disqualiblemish, the standard of human excellence?fications; and, for the young females of a This is certainly the staunch opinion of men family I could mention, well may they excite of the world; but I call on honour, virtue, parental solicitude, for parental solicitude, for I, a common acand worth, to give the Stygian doctrine aquaintance, or as my vanity will have it, a loud negative! However, this must be humble friend, have often trembled for a allowed, that, if you abstract from man the turn of mind which may render them emiidea of an existence beyond the grave, then nently happy, or peculiarly miserable! the true measure of human conduct is, proper and improper; virtue and vice, as dispositions of the heart, are, in that case, of scarcely the same import and value to the world at large, as harmony and discord in the modifications of sound; and a delicate sense of honour, like a nice ear for music, though it may sometimes give the possessor an ecstacy unknown to the coarser organs of the herd, yet, considering the harsh gratings, and inharmonic jars, in this illtuned state of being, it is odds but the individual would be as happy, and certainly would be as much respected, by the true judges of society as it would then stand, without either a good ear or a good heart. You must know, I have just met with the Mirror aud Lounger for the first time, and I am quite in raptures with them; I should I have been manufacturing some verses lately; but as I have got the most hurried season of Excise business over, I hope to have more leisure to transcribe any thing that may show how much I have the honour to be, Madam, yours, &c. R. B. NO. CXCVIII. TO COLLECTOR MITCHELL Ellisland, 1790. SIR-I shall not fail to wait on Captain Riddel to-night-I wish and pray that the goddess of justice herself would appear tomorrow among our hon. gentlemen, merely to give them a word in their ear that mercy to the thief is injustice to the honest man. | For my part, I have galloped over my ten parishes these four days, until this moment that I am just alighted, or rather, that my poor jackass-skeleton of a horse has let me down; for the miserable devil has been on his knees half a score of times within the last twenty miles, telling me, in his own way, "Behold, am not I thy faithful jade of a horse, on which thou hast ridden these many years!" In short, Sir, I have broke my horse's wind, and almost broke my own neck, besides some injuries in a part that shall be nameless, owing to a hard-hearted stone of a saddle. I find that every offender has so many great men to espouse his cause, that I shall not be surprised if I am committed to the strong-hold of the law to-morrow for insolence to the dear friends of the gentlemen of the country. I have the honour to be, Sir, your obliged and obedient humble NO. CXCIX. TO DR. MOORE. R. B. Dumfries, Excise-Office, July 14th, 1790. SIR-Coming into town this morning to attend my duty in this office, it being collection-day, I met with a gentleman who tells me he is on his way to London; so I take the opportunity of writing to you, as franking is at present under a temporary death. I shall have some snatches of leisure through the day, amid our horrid business and bustle, and I shall improve them as well as I can; but let my letter be as stupid as *** as miscellaneous as a newspaper, as short as a hungry grace-before-meat, or as long as a law-paper in the Douglas cause; as ill-spelt as country John's billet-doux, or as unsightly a scrawl as Betty ByreMucker's answer to it; I hope, considering circumstances, you will forgive it; and as it will put you to no expense of postage, I shall have the less reflection about it. I am sadly ungrateful in not returning you my thanks for your most valuable present, Zeluco. In fact, you are in some degree blameable for my neglect. You were pleased to express a wish for my opinion of the work, which so flattered me, that nothing less would serve my overweening fancy, than a formal criticism on the book. In fact, I have gravely planned a comparative view of you, Fielding, Richardson and Smollett, in your different qualities and merits as novel writers. This, I own, betrays my ridiculous vanity, and I may probably never bring the business to bear; but I am fond of the spirit young Elihu shows in the book of Job-"And I said, I will also declare my opinion." I have quite disfigured my copy of the book with my annotations. I never take it up without at the same time taking my pencil, and marking with asterisks, parentheses, &c., wherever I meet with an original thought, a nervous remark on life and manners, a remarkable, well-turned period, or a character sketched with uncommon precision. Though I should hardly think of fairly writing out my "Comparative View," I shall certainly trouble shall certainly trouble you with my remarks, such as they are. I have just received from my gentleman that horrid summons in the book of Revelation-"That time shall be no more!" The little collection of sonnets have some charming poetry in them. If, indeed, I am indebted to the fair author for the book (107), and not, as I rather suspect, to a celebrated author of the other sex, I should certainly have written to the lady, with my grateful acknowledgments, and my own ideas of the comparative excellence of her pieces. would do this last, not from any vanity of thinking that my remarks could be of much consequence to Mrs. Smith, but merely from my own feelings as an author, doing as I would be done by. R. B. NO. CC. TO MR. MURDOCH, TEACHER OF FRENCH, LONDON. Ellisland, July 16th, 1790. I MY DEAR SIR-I received a letter from you a long time ago, but, unfortunately, as it was in the time of my peregrinations and journeyings through Scotland, I mislaid or lost it, and, by consequence, your direction along with it. Luckily, my good star brought me acquainted with Mr. Kennedy, who, I understand is an acquaintance of yours: and by his means and mediation, I hope to replace that link which my unfortunate negligence had so unluckily broke in the chain of our correspondence. I was the more vexed at the vile accident, as my brother William, a journeyman saddler, has been for some time in London, and wished above all things for your direction, that he might have paid his respects to his father's friend. His last address he sent to me was," Wm. Burns, at Mr. Barber's, saddler, No. 181, Strand." I writ him by Mr. Kennedy, but neglected to ask him for your address; so, if you find a spare half minute, please let my brother know by a card where and when he will find you, and the poor fellow will joyfully wait on you, as one of the few surviving friends of the man whose name, and Christian name too, he has the honour to bear. The next letter I write you shall be a long one. I have much to tell you of "hairbreath 'scapes in th' imminent deadly breach," with all the eventful history of a life, the early years of which owed so much to your kind tutorage; but this at an hour of leisure. My kindest compliments to Mrs. Murdoch, and family. I am ever, my dear Sir, your obliged friend, R. B. (108) NO. CCI. TO MR. M'MURDO. I laid down my goose feather to beat my brains for an apt simile, and had some thoughts of a country grannum at a family christening a bride on the market-day before her marriage, or a tavern-keeper at an election dinner; but the resemblance that hits my fancy best is, that blackguard Ellisland, August 2nd, 1790. miscreant, Satan, who roams about like a roaring lion, seeking, searching whom he SIR-Now, that you are over with the may devour. However, tossed about as I sirens of Flattery, the harpies of Corruption, am, if I choose (and who would not choose?) and the furies of Ambition-these infernal to bind down with the crampets of attendeities, that on all sides, and in all parties, tion the brazen foundation of integrity, I preside over the villainous business of poli- may rear up the superstructure of indetics-permit a rustic muse of your acquain-pendence, aid from its daring turrets bid tance to do her best to soothe you with a song. defiance to the storms of fate. And is not this a "consummation devoutly to be You knew Henderson-I have not flat-wished?" tered his memory. I have the honour to Thy spirit, Independence, let me share; be, Sir, your obliged humble servant, NO. CCII. R. B TO MRS. DUNLOP. August 8th, 1790. DEAR MADAM-After a long day's toil, plague and care, I sit down to write to you. Ask me not why I have delayed it so long? It was owing to hurry, indolence, and fifty other things; in short, to anything but forgetfulness of la plus aimable de son sexe. By the bye, you are indebted your best courtesy to me for this last compliment, as I pay it from my sincere conviction of Lord of the lion-heart, and eagle-eye! Thy steps I follow with my bosom bare, Nor heed the storm that howls along the sky! Are not these noble verses? They are the introduction of Smollett's Ode to Independence: if you have not seen the poem, I will send it to you. How wretched is the man that hangs on by the favours of the great! To shrink from every dignity of man, at the approach of a lordly piece of self-consequence, who, amid all his tinsel glitter and stately hauteur, is but a creature formed as thou art and perhaps not so well formed as thou art came into the world a puling infant as though didst, and must go out of it, as all men must, a naked corse, R. B. (109) NO. CCIV. TO DR. ANDERSON. SIR-I am much indebted to my worthy friend, Dr. Blacklock, for introducing me to a gentleman of Dr. Anderson's celebrity; but when you do me the honour to ask my assistance in your proposed publication, alas, Sir! you might as well think to cheapen a little honesty at the sign of an advocate's wig, or humility under the Geneva band. I am a miserable hurried devil, worn to the marrow in the friction of holding the noses of the poor publicans to the grindstone of the Excise! and, like Milton's Satan, for private reasons, am forced To do what yet though damn'd I would abhor. --and, except a couplet or two of honest * * R. B. (110) execration NO. CCV. TO CRAUFORD TAIT, Esq., EDINBURGH. Ellisland, October 15th, 1790. DEAR SIR-Allow me to introduce to your acquaintance the bearer, Mr. Wm. Duncan, a friend of mine, whom I have long known and long loved. His father, whose only son he is, has a decent little property in Ayrshire, and has bred the young man to the law, in which department he comes up an adventurer to your good town. I shall give you my friend's character in two words: as to his head, he has talents enough, and more than enough, for common life; as to his heart, when nature had fashioned the kindly clay that composes it, she said, "I can no more.” You, my good Sir, were born under kinder stars ; but your fraternal sympathy, I well know, can enter into the feelings of the young man who goes into life with the laudable ambition to do something, and to be something, among his fellow-creatures, but whom the consciousness of friendless obscurity presses to the earth, and wounds to the soul. to brighten the countenance and glad the heart of such depressed youth! I am not so angry with mankind for their deaf economy of the purse: the goods of this world cannot be divided without being lessenedbut why be a niggard of that which bestows bliss on a fellow-creature, yet takes nothing from our own means of enjoyment? We wrap ourselves up in the cloak of our own better fortune, and turn away our eyes, lest the wants and woes of our brother mortals should disturb the selfish apathy of our souls! I am the worst hand in the world at asking a favour. That indirect address, that insinuating implication, which, without any positive request, plainly expresses your wish, is a talent not to be acquired at a ploughtail. Tell me then, for you can, in what periphrasis of language, in what circumvolution of phrase, I shall envelope, yet not conceal, this plain story-" My dear Mr. Tait, my friend Mr. Duncan, whom I have the pleasure of introducing to you, is a young lad of your own profession, and a gentleman of much modesty and great worth. Perhaps, it may be in your power to assist him in the, to him, important consideration of getting a place, but, at all events, your notice and acquaintance will be a very great acquisition to him; and I dare pledge myself, that he will never disgrace your favour." You may possibly be surprised, Sir, at such a letter from me; 'tis, I own, in the usual way of calculating these matters, more than our acquaintance entitles me to; but my answer is short :-of all the men at your time of life, whom I knew in Edinburgh, you are the most accessible on the side on which I have assailed you. You are very much altered, indeed, from what you were when I knew you, if generosity point the path you will not tread, or humanity call to you in vain. As to myself, a being to whose interest I believe you are still a well-wisher, I am here, breathing at all times, thinking sometimes, and rhyming now and then. Every situation has its share of the cares and pains of life, and my situation, I am persuaded, has a full ordinary allowance of its pleasures and enjoyments. Even the fairest of his virtues are against My best compliments to your father and him. That independent spirit, and that Miss Tait. If you have an opportunity, ingenuous modesty, qualities inseparable from please remember me in the solemn-leaguea noble mind, are, with the million, circum-and-covenant of friendship to Mrs. Lewis stances not a little disqualifying. What pleasure is in the power of the fortunate and the happy, by their notice and patronage, Hay. I am a wretch for not writing her; but I am so hackneyed with self-accusation in that way, that my conscience lies in my DEAR SIR-Whether in the way of my trade, I can be of any service to the Rev. Doctor, is, I fear, very doubtful. Ajax's shield consisted, I think, of seven bull hides, and a plate of brass, which, altogether, set Hector's utmost force at defiance. Alas! I am not a Hector, and the worthy Doctor's foes are as securely armed as Ajax was. Ignorance, superstition, bigotry, stupidity, malevolence, self-conceit, envy-all strongly bound in a massy frame of brazen impudence. Good God, Sir! to such a shield, humour is the peck of a sparrow, and satire the pop-gun of a school-boy. of a school-boy. Creation-disgracing scelerats such as they, God only can mend, and the devil only can punish. In the comprehensive way of Caligula, I wish they all had but one neck. I feel impotent as a child to the ardour of my wishes! Oh, for a withering curse to blast the germens of their wicked machinations. Oh, for a poisonous tornado, winged from the torrid zone of Tartarus, to sweep the spreading crop of their villanous contrivances to the lowest hell R. B. NO. CCVII. TO MRS. DUNLOP. (111) Ellisland, November, 1790. "As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country." Fate has long owed me a letter of good news from you, in return for the many tidings of sorrow which I have received. In this instance, I most cordially obey the apostle" Rejoice with them that do rejoice."For me to sing for joy, is no new thing; but to preach for joy, as I have done in the commencement of this epistle, is a pitch of extravagant rapture to which I never rose before. I read your letter-I literally jumped for joy. How could such a mercurial creature as a poet lumpishly keep his seat, on the receipt of the best news from his best friend. I seized my gilt-headed Wangee rod, an instrument indispensably necessary, in my left hand, in the moment of inspiration and rapture; and stride, stride-quick and quicker-out skipt I among the broomy banks of Nith to muse over my joy by retail. To keep within the bounds of prose was impossible. Mrs. Little's is a more elegant, but not a more sincere compliment to the sweet little fellow, than I, extempore almost, poured out to him in the following verses : of Sweet flow'ret, pledge o' meikle love, And ward o' mony a prayer, Chill on thy lovely form; Should shield thee frae the storm. And wings the blast to blaw, Best be thy bloom, thou lovely gem, And from thee many a parent stem I am much flattered by your approbation my "Tam O'Shanter," which you express in your former letter; though, by the bye, you load me in that said letter with accusations heavy and many, to all which I plead not guilty! Your book is, I hear, on the road to reach me. As to printing of poetry, when you prepare it for the press, you have only to spell it right, and place the capital letters properly-as to the punctuation, the printers do that themselves. I have a copy of "Tam o' Shanter" ready to send you by the first opportunity—it is too heavy to send by post. |