Graham of Fintry, through whom he had
obtained his position, he disclaimed all revolutionary beliefs and all
political activity. No action was taken against him, nor was his
failure to obtain promotion to an Examinership due to anything but
the slow progress involved in promotion by seniority. Hereafter, he
exercised considerable caution in the expression of his political
sympathies, though he allowed himself to associate with men of
revolutionary opinions. The feeling that he was not free to utter what
he believed on public affairs was naturally chafing to a man of his
independent nature.

Burns's chief enjoyment in these days was the work he was doing for
Scottish song. While in Edinburgh he had made the acquaintance of an
engraver, James Johnson, who had undertaken the publication of the
_Scots Musical Museum_, a collection of songs and music. Burns agreed
to help him by the collection and refurbishing of the words of old
songs, and when these were impossible, by providing new words for the
melodies. The work finally extended to six volumes; and before it was
finished a more ambitious undertaking, managed by a Mr. George
Thomson, was set on foot. Burns was invited to cooperate in this also,
and entered into it with such enthusiasm that he was Thomson's main
support. In both of these publications the poet worked purely with
patriotic motives and for the love of song, and had no pecuniary
interest in either. Once Thomson sent him a present of five pounds
and endangered their relations thereby; later, when Burns was in his
last illness, he asked and received from Thomson an advance of the
same amount. Apart from these sums Burns never made or sought to make
a penny from his writings after the publication of the first Edinburgh
edition. Twice he declined journalistic work for a London paper.
Poetry was the great consolation of his life, and even in his severest
financial straits he refused to consider the possibility of writing
for money, regarding it as a kind of prostitution.

By the autumn of 1795 signs began to appear that the poet's
constitution was breaking down. The death of his daughter Elizabeth
and a severe attack of rheumatism plunged him into deep melancholy and
checked for a time his song-writing; and though for a time he
recovered, his disease returned early in the next year. It seems
clear, too, that though the change from Ellisland to Dumfries relieved
him of much of the severer physical exertion, othe