of their father's estate to supply a scanty
stock for the new venture. The records of the first summer show the
poet in anything but a happy frame of mind. His health was miserable;
and the loosening of his moral principles, which he ascribes to the
influence of a young sailor he had met at Irvine, bore fruit in the
birth to him of an illegitimate daughter by a servant girl, Elizabeth
Paton. The verses which carry allusion to this affair are illuminating
for his character. One group is devout and repentant; the other marked
sometimes by cynical bravado, sometimes by a note of exultation. Both
may be regarded as genuine enough expressions of moods which
alternated throughout his life, and which corresponded to conflicting
sides of his nature. Here is a typical example of the former:

A PRAYER IN THE PROSPECT OF DEATH

O Thou unknown Almighty Cause
Of all my hope and fear!
In whose dread presence ere an hour,
Perhaps I must appear!

If I have wander'd in those paths
Of life I ought to shun;
As something, loudly in my breast,
Remonstrates I have done;

Thou know'st that Thou hast formed me
With passions wild and strong;
And list'ning to their witching voice
Has often led me wrong.

Where human weakness has come short,
Or frailty stept aside,
Do thou, All-Good! for such Thou art,
In shades of darkness hide.

Where with intention I have err'd,
No other plea I have,
But thou art good; and Goodness still
Delighteth to forgive.

In his _Epistle to John Rankine_, with a somewhat hard and heartless
humor, he braves out the affair; in the following _Welcome_ he treats
it with a tender pride, as sincere as his remorse:

THE POET'S WELCOME TO HIS LOVE-BEGOTTEN DAUGHTER

Thou's welcome, wean! Mishanter fa' me, [child! Misfortune befall]
If ought of thee, or of thy mammy,
Shall ever daunton me, or awe me,
My sweet wee lady,
Or if I blush when thou shalt ca' me
Tit-ta or daddy.

What tho' they ca' me fornicator,
An' tease my name in kintra clatter: [country gossip]
The mair they talk I'm kent the better, [more]
E'en let them clash; [tattle]
An auld wife's tongue's a feckless matter [feeble]
To gie ane fash.