* * * * * CXXXIV.--TO MR. PETER STUART, EDITOR, LONDON. _End of Aug_. 1789. My dear Sir,--The hurry of a farmer in this particular season, and the indolence of a poet at all seasons, will, I hope, plead my excuse for neglecting so long to answer your obliging letter of the 5th August. ... When I received your letter I was transcribing for _The Star_ my letter to the magistrates of the Canongate of Edinburgh, begging their permission to place a tombstone over poor Fergusson. [102a] Poor Fergusson! if there be a life beyond the grave, which I trust there is; and if there be a good God presiding over all nature, which I am sure there is, thou art now enjoying existence in a glorious world where worth of heart alone is distinction in the man; where riches, deprived of their pleasure-purchasing powers, return to their native sordid matter; where titles and honours are the disregarded reveries of an idle dream; and where that heavy virtue, which is the negative consequence of steady dulness, and those thoughtless though often destructive follies, which are the unavoidable aberrations of frail human nature, will be thrown into equal oblivion as if they had never been! R. B. [Footnote 102a: A young Scottish poet of undoubted ability who perished miserably in Edinburgh at the age of twenty-four. He was the senior of Burns, who greatly admired and mourned him, by about eight years.] * * * * * CXXXV.--To HIS BROTHER, WILLIAM BURNS, SADDLER, NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNE. ELLISLAND, 14_th Aug_. 1789. My Dear William,--I received your letter, and am very happy to hear that you have got settled for the winter. I enclose you the two guinea-notes of the Bank of Scotland, which I hope will serve your need. It is, indeed, not quite so convenient for me to spare money as it once was, but I know your situation, and, I will say it, in some respects your worth. I have no time to write at present, but I beg you will endeavour to pluck up a _little_ more of the Man than you used to have. Remember my favourite quotations: On reason build resolve, That pillar of true majesty in man.[103] and What proves the hero truly great, Is never, never to despair![103a] Your mother and sisters desire their compliments. A Dieu je vous commende, ROBT. BURNS. [Footnote 103: From Young.] [Footnote 103a: From Thomson.] * * * * * CXXXVL--TO MRS. DUNLOP. ELLISLAND, _6th Sept_. 1789.