Glen Collection of printed music > Printed text > Poems and songs, chiefly in the Scottish dialect

xvm
tt> play on these might be abandoned partly oa
account of his father and some of his family falling
sacrifices to consumption.
« With the temperament of genius, there is fre*
quently combined either disease, or a. condition
nearly allied to disease, that seeks for consolation
from without, and requires to be fed by other
praise than the mere approbation of the domestic
circle. A careful reader may discover traces in his
works of a diseased state, though it escaped the
observation of his acquaintances. In one of the
suppressed poems, dated 1804, we have the follow-
ing explicit and striking acknowledgement.
" But ere a few short summers gae,
Your friend will mix his kindred clay,
For fell Disease tugs at my breast
To hurry me away."
His delicate state of health is evident from what
he writes in a letter, September 10th, 1809. — "You
will, I am sure, be glad to hear that I am well .;
indeed I have been a good deal stouter and healer
these some months past than I have been fox years,™