to support, sir, I have had some little
difficulties to contend with; but, thank God, I have encountered them
pretty well. I have received many little helps from the family, for
which I hope, sir, I may be allowed to say that I have shown my
gratitude, by a faithful discharge of my duty; but, within the last
year, my children have all gone to service. Having been rather busy this
last week, sir, I have taken up but little time in the preparation of
this, and I am fearful you will think it comes before you in a
discreditable shape; but I hope you will be able to collect from it all
that may be required for your benevolent purpose: but should you wish to
be empowered to speak with greater confidence of my character, by having
the testimony of others in support of my own, I believe, sir, I should
not find much difficulty in obtaining it; for it affords me some little
gratification, sir, to think that in the few families I have served, I
have lived respected, for in none do I remember of ever being accused of
an immoral action; nor with all my propensity to rhyme have I been
charged with a neglect of duty. I therefore hope, sir, that if some of
the fruits of my humble muse be destined to see the light, and should
not be thought worthy of commendation, no person of a beneficent
disposition will regret any little encouragement given to an old servant
under such circumstances."--pp. 179, 180.

The tranquil, affectionate, and contented spirit that shines out in the
"Attempts" is in keeping with the tone of this letter; and if Burns was
right when he told Dugald Stewart that no man could understand the
pleasure he felt in seeing the smoke curling up from a cottage chimney,
who had not been born and bred, like himself, in such abodes, and
therefore knew how much worth and happiness they contain; and if the
works of that great poet have, in spite of many licentious passages,
been found, on the whole, productive of a wholesome effect in society,
through their aim and power to awaken sympathy and respect between
classes whom fortune has placed asunder, surely this old man's verses
ought to meet with no cold reception among those who appreciate the
value of kindly relations between masters and dependents. In them they
will trace the natural influence of that old system of manners which was
once general throughout England; under which the young domestic was
looked after, by his master and mistress, with a sort of parental
solicitude-