e look at his
literary work, any falling off in his powers as a poet. He sang as
sweetly, as purely, as magically as ever he did; and this man, who has
been branded as a blasphemer and a libertine, had nobly set himself to
purify the polluted stream of Scottish Song. He was still continuing his
contributions to Johnson's Museum, and now he had also begun to write
for Thomson's more ambitious work.

Some of the first of his Dumfriesshire songs owe their inspiration to a
hurried visit he paid to Mrs. Maclehose in Edinburgh before she sailed
to join her husband in the West Indies. The best of these are, perhaps,
_My Nannie's Awa'_ and _Ae Fond Kiss_. The fourth verse of the latter
was a favourite of Byron's, while Scott claims for it that it is worth a
thousand romances--

'Had we never loved so kindly,
Had we never loved so blindly!
Never met--or never parted,
We had ne'er been broken-hearted.'

Another song of a different kind, _The Deil's awa wi' the Exciseman_,
had its origin in a raid upon a smuggling brig that had got into shallow
water in the Solway. The ship was armed and well manned; and while
Lewars, a brother-excisemen, posted to Dumfries for a guard of dragoons,
Burns, with a few men under him, watched to prevent landing or escape.
It was while impatiently waiting Lewars's return that he composed this
song. When the dragoons arrived Burns put himself at their head, and
wading, sword in hand, was the first to board the smuggler. The affair
might ultimately have led to his promotion had he not, next day at the
sale of the vessel's arms and stores in Dumfries, purchased four
carronades, which he sent, with a letter testifying his admiration and
respect, to the French Legislative Assembly. The carronades never
reached their destination, having been intercepted at Dover by the
Custom House authorities. It is a pity perhaps that Burns should have
testified his political leanings in so characteristic a way. It was the
impetuous act of a poet roused to enthusiasm, as were thousands of his
fellow-countrymen at the time, by what was thought to be the beginning
of universal brotherhood in France. But whatever may be said as to the
impulsive imprudence of the step, it is not to be condemned as a most
absurd and presumptuous breach of decorum. We were not at war with
France at this time; had not even begun to await developments with
critical suspicion. Talleyrand had not yet been slighted by our Queen,