Page:Life of Robert Burns.pdf/20

 20 tion, however, which I once heard a recruiting sergeant give to his auditors on one of the streets of Kilmarnock- Gentlemen,' said he, I can assure you for your further encouragement, that ours is the most blackguard corps under the crown consequently an honest man has the better chance of promotion." But, in point of fact, Barns had too much dis- crimination and good sense to cherish deeply the absurd notions of equality and other trumpery follies then prevalent, and lie in many passages of his correspondence distinctly avows that his jaco- binism, like the jacobitism of the present day, was more a thing of whim and fancy than anything else. It chimed in more with the romance of the poet than the judgment of the man. The concluding and most mournful part of our sketch must necessarily be brief. After continu- ing to hold the farm for some time after entering on his new duties, he came to the resolution of abandoning Elliesland, and betaking himself alto- gether to the revenue His salary was advanced to £ 70; and although, as we have seen, his com- pany was a good deal broken in upon, it is well known Burns discharged his duties with faithful- ness and accuracy. Towards the close of 1793 he was employed as acting supervisor. During part of that year his youngest child 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 unceasingly watched her with the fondest solicitude, were shattered to an unnsual 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 decay which terminated in his