ch warm admiration of the Kilmarnock volume
was expressed, he forwarded it to Burns at Mossgiel. The result of it
fell like sunshine on the young poet's heart; for as he says, "The
doctor belonged to a set of critics for whose applause I had not dared
to hope." The next word of approval from Edinburgh was a highly
appreciative criticism of the poems, which appeared in a number (p. 039)
of _The Edinburgh Magazine_ at the beginning of November. Up till this
time Burns had not abandoned his resolution to emigrate to the West
Indies. But the refusal of the Kilmarnock printer to undertake a new
edition, and the voices of encouragement reaching him from Edinburgh,
combining with his natural desire to remain, and be known as a poet,
in his native country, at length made him abandon the thought of
exile. On the 18th November we find him writing to a friend, that he
had determined on Monday or Tuesday, the 27th or 28th November, to set
his face toward the Scottish capital and try his fortune there.

At this stage of the poet's career, Chambers pauses to speculate on
the feelings with which the humble family at Mossgiel would hear of
the sudden blaze of their brother's fame, and of the change it had
made in his prospects. They rejoiced, no doubt, that he was thus
rescued from compulsory banishment, and were no way surprised that the
powers they had long known him to possess had at length won the
world's admiration. If he had fallen into evil courses, none knew it
so well as they, and none had suffered more by these aberrations.
Still, with all his faults, he had always been to them a kind son and
brother, not loved the less for the anxieties he had caused them. But
the pride and satisfaction they felt in his newly-won fame, would be
deep, not demonstrative. For the Burns family were a shy, reserved
race, and like so many of the Scottish peasantry, the more they felt,
the less they would express. In this they were very unlike the poet,
with whom to have a feeling and to express it were almost synonymous.
His mother, though not lacking in admiration of her son, is said to
have been chiefly concerned lest the praises of his genius should make
him forget the Giver of it. Such may have been the feelings of (p. 040)
the poet's family.

What may we imagine his own feeling to have been in this crisis of his
fate? The thought of Edinburgh society would naturally stir that
ambition which was strong within him, and awaken a desire t