But, in point of fact, Burns had too much discrimination and good sense to cherish deeply the absurd notions of equality and other trumpery, follies then prevalent, and he in many passages of his correspondence distinctly avows that his jacobinism, like the jaeobitism of the present day, was more a thing of whim and faney than anything else: It ehimed in more with the romance of the poet than the judgment of the man.
The eoneluding and most mournful part of our sketeh must neeessarily be brief. After continuing to hold the farm for some time after entering on his new duties, he eame to the resolution of abandoning Elliesland, and betaking himself altogether to the revenue. His salary was advanced to £70; and although, as we have seen, his company was a good deal broken in upon, it is well known Burns diseharged his duties with faithfulness and aeeuracy. Towards the elose of 1790 he was employed as aeting supervisor. During part of that year his youngest ehild lingered through an illness, of which every week promised to be the last, and when she was in the end cut off, the nerves of the poet, who had uneeasingly watehed her with the fondest solicitude, were shattered to an unusual degree. A cold which he subsequently caught completed the measure of his ill health, and from this period may be dated the commencement of that gradual
