his sojourn in Edinburgh since October, he could not
have more than 200_l._ over, with which to set up at Ellisland. We see
in what terms Burns had written to Clarinda on the 21st of March. On
his leaving Edinburgh and returning to Ayrshire, he married Jean
Armour, and forthwith acknowledged her in letters as his wife. (p. 086)
This was in April, though it was not till August that he and Jean
appeared before the Kirk-Session, and were formally recognized as man
and wife by the Church.

Whether, in taking this step, Burns thought that he was carrying out a
legal, as well as a moral, obligation, we know not. The interpreters
of the law now assert that the original marriage in 1786 had never
been dissolved, and that the destruction of the promissory lines, and
the temporary disownment of him by Jean and her family, could not in
any way invalidate it. Indeed after all that had happened, for Burns
to have deserted Jean, and married another, even if he legally could
have done so, would have been the basest infidelity. Amid all his
other errors and inconsistencies, and no doubt there were enough of
these, we cannot but be glad for the sake of his good name that he now
acted the part of an honest man, and did what he could to repair the
much suffering and shame he had brought on his frail but faithful
Jean.

As to the reasons which determined Burns to marry Jean Armour, and not
another, this is the account he himself gives when writing to Mrs.
Dunlop, one of his most trusted correspondents, to whom he spoke out
his real heart in a simpler, more natural way, than was usual with him
in letter-writing:--

"You are right that a bachelor state would have ensured me more
friends; but, from a cause you will easily guess, conscious peace in
the enjoyment of my own mind, and unmistrusting confidence in
approaching my God, would seldom have been of the number. I found a
once much-loved, and still much-loved, female, literally and truly
cast out to the mercy of the naked elements; but I enabled her to
purchase a shelter;--there is no sporting with a fellow-creature's (p. 087)
happiness or misery. The most placid good-nature and sweetness of
disposition; a warm heart, gratefully devoted with all its powers to
love me; vigorous health and sprightly cheerfulness, set off to the
best advantage by a more than commonly handsome figure: these I think,
in a woman may make a good wife, though she should never have read a
page but the Scri