and independent sentiments, which I trust will be found in the MAN. Reasons, of no less weight than the support of a wife and family, have pointed out as the eligible, and, situated as I was, the only eligible line of life for me, my present occupation. Still my honest fame is my dearest concern; and a thousand times have I trembled at the idea of those degrading epithets that malice or misrepresentation may affix to my name. I have often, in blasting anticipation, listened to some future hackney scribbler, with the heavy malice of savage stupidity, exulting in his hireling paragraphs-" BURNS, notwithstanding the fanfaronade of independ ence to be found in his works, and after having been held forth to public view, and to public estimation as a man of some genius, yet, quite destitute of resources within himself to support his borrowed dignity, he dwindled into a paltry exciseman, and slunk out the rest of his insignificant existence in the meanest of pursuits, and among the vilest of mankind." In your illustrious hands, Sir, permit me to lodge my disavowal and defiance of these slanderous falsehoods.-BURNS was a poor man ‚from birth, and an excisemen by necessity: but -I will say it! the sterling of his honest worth, no poverty could debase; and his independent British mind, oppression might bend, but could not subdue. Have not I, to me, a more pre cious stake in my country's welfare, than the richest dukedom in it? I have a large family of children, and the prospect of many more. I have three sons, who, I see already, have brought into the world souls ill qualified to inhabit the bodies of SLAVES Can I look tamely on, and see any machination to wrest from them the birth-right of my boys, the little independent BRITONS, in whose veins runs my own blood? -No! I will not! should my heart's blood stream around my attempt to defend it! Does any man tell me, that my full efforts can be of no service; and that it does not belong to my humble station to meddle with the concern of a nation? I can tell him, that it is on such individuals as I that a nation has to rest, both for the hand of support, and the eye of intelligence. The unin formed MOB may swell a nation's bulk; and the titled, tinsel, courtly throng, may be its feathered ornament; but the number of those who are elevated enough in life to reason and to reflect, yet low enough to keep clear of the venal contagion of a court-these are a nation's strength, I know not how to apologize for the impertinent length of this epistle; but one small request I must ask of you farther-When you have honoured this letter with a perusal, please to commit it to the flames. BURNS, in whose behalf you have so generously interested your.. : self, I have here, in his native colours drawn as he is but should any of the people in whose hand is the very bread he eats, get the least knowledge of the picture, it would ruin the poor BARD for ever! My poems having just come out in another edition, I beg leave to present you with a copy, as a small mark of that high esteem and ardent gratitude, with which I have the honour to be, Sir, your deeply indebted, And ever devoted humble servant. No. 294. To MR. ROBERT AINSLIE. April, 26, 1793. I AM d-mnably out of humour, my dear Ainslie, and that is the reason, why I take up the pen to you: 'tis the nearest way, (probatum est) to recover my spirits again. I received your last, and was much entertained with it; but I will not at this time, nor at any other time answer it.-Answer a letter? I never could answer a letter in my life!-I have written many a letter in return for letters I have received; but then-they were original matter -spurtaway! zig, here; zag, there; as if the Devil that, my Grannie (an old woman indeed!) often told me, rode in will-'o-wisp, or, in her more classic phrase, SPUNKIE, were looking over my elbow.-Happy thought that idea has engendered in my head! SPUNKIE-thou shalt henceforth be my symbol, signature, and tutelary genius! Like thee, hap-step-and lowp, hereawa-there-awa, higglety, piggelty, pell-mell, hither-and-yon, ram-stam, happy-go-lucky, up tails-a'-by-the-light-o'the-moon; has been, is, and shall be, my progress through the Mosses and Moors of this vile, bleak, barren wilderness of a life of ours. : Come then, my guardian spirit! like thee, may I skip away, amusing myself by and at my own light and if any opaque-souled lubber of mankind complain that my elfine, lambent, glimmerous wanderings have misled his stupid steps over precipices, or into bogs; let the thick headed Blunderbuss recollect, that he is not SPUNKIE :-that SPUNKIE'S wanderings could not copied be; * I have no doubt but scholarcraft may be caught as a Scotsman catches the itch,-by friction. How else can you account for it, that born blockheads, by mere dint of handling books, grow so wise that even they themselves are equally convinced of, and surprized at their own parts? I once carried this philosophy to that degree, that in a knot of country folks, who had a library amongst them, and who, to the honour of their good sense, made me factotum in the business; one of our members, a little, wise-looking, squat, upright, jabbering body of a taylor, I advised him, instead of turning over the leaves, to bind the book on his back.-Johnie took the hint; and as our meetings were every fourth Saturday, and Pricklouse, having a good Scots mile to walk, in coming, and, of course, another in returning, Bodkin was sure to lay his hands on some, heavy quarto, or ponderous folio; with, and under which, wrapt up in his grey plaid, he grew wise, as he grew weary, all the way home. He carried this so far, that an old musty Hebrew concordance, which we had in a present from a neighbouring priest, by mere dint of applying it, as doctors do a blistering plaister, between his shoulders, Stitch, in a dozen pilgrimages, acquired as much rational theology as the said priest had done by forty years perusal of the pages. Tell me, and tell me truly, what you think of PERMIT me to present you with the inclosed song, as a small, though grateful tri |