--[158]

My proposals for publishing I am just going to send to press. I expect
to hear from you by the first opportunity.

I am ever, dear Sir,

Yours,

ROBT. BURNESS.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 158: See Poem LXXVIII.]

* * * * *

XVI.

TO MR. M'WHINNIE,

WRITER, AYR.

[Mr. M'Whinnie obtained for Burns several subscriptions for the first
edition of his Poems, of which this note enclosed the proposals.]

_Mossgiel, 17th April, 1786._

It is injuring some hearts, those hearts that elegantly bear the
impression of the good Creator, to say to them you give them the
trouble of obliging a friend; for this reason, I only tell you that I
gratify my own feelings in requesting your friendly offices with
respect to the enclosed, because I know it will gratify yours to
assist me in it to the utmost of your power.

I have sent you four copies, as I have no less than eight dozen, which
is a great deal more than I shall ever need.

Be sure to remember a poor poet militant in your prayers. He looks
forward with fear and trembling to that, to him, important moment
which stamps the die with--with--with, perhaps, the eternal disgrace
of,

My dear Sir,

Your humble,

afflicted, tormented,

ROBERT BURNS.

* * * * *

XVII.

TO MR. JOHN KENNEDY.

["The small piece," the very last of his productions, which the poet
enclosed in this letter, was "The Mountain Daisy," called in the
manuscript more properly "The Gowan."]

_Mossgiel, 20th April, 1786._

SIR,

By some neglect in Mr. Hamilton, I did not hear of your kind request
for a subscription paper 'till this day. I will not attempt any
acknowledgment for this, nor the manner in which I see your name in
Mr. Hamilton's subscription list. Allow me only to say, Sir, I feel
the weight of the debt.

I have here likewise enclosed a small piece, the very latest of my
productions. I am a good deal pleased with some sentiments myself, as
they are just the native querulous feelings of a heart, which, as the
elegantly melting Gray says, "melancholy has marked for her own."

Our race comes on a-pace; that much-expected scene of revelry and
mirth; but to me it brings no joy equal to that meeting with which
your last flattered the expectation of,

Sir,

Your indebted humble servant,

R. B.

* * * * *

XVIII.

TO MON. JAMES SMITH,

MAUCHLINE.