Scotland/Scots > Life of Robert Burns

LIFE OF
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a wise man ; but the first year, from unfortunately
buying bad seed, the second, from a late harvest,
we lost half our crops. This overset all my wis¬
dom, and I returned like the dog to his vomit, and
the sow that was washed, to her wallowing in the
mire. ”
“ At the time that our poet took the resolution
of becoming wise, he procured, ” says Gilbert, “ a
little book of blank paper, with the purpose ex¬
pressed on the first page, of making farming me¬
morandums. These farming memorandums are
curious enough, ” Gilbert slyly adds, “ and a spe¬
cimen may gratify the reader. ”—Specimens ac¬
cordingly he gives ; as,
“ O why the deuce should I repine
And be an ill foreboder?
I’m twenty-three, and five foot nine—
I’ll go and be a sodger, ” &c.
“ O leave novells, ye Mauchline belles,
Ye’re safer at your spining wheel ;
Such witching books are baited hooks
For rakish rooks—like Rob Mossgiel.
Your fine Tom Jones and Grandisons,
They make your youthful fancies reel,
They heat your veins, and fire your brains,
And then ye’re prey for Rob Mossgiel, ” &c. &c.
The four years during which Burns resided on
this cold and ungrateful farm of Mossgiel, were
the most important of his life. It was then that
his genius developed its highest energies ; on the
works produced in those years his fame was first
established, and must ever continue mainly to rest:
it was then also that his personal character came
out in all its brightest lights, and in all but its dark¬
est shadows ; and indeed from the commence¬
ment of this period, the history of the man may be
traced, step by step, in his own immortal writings.