The Letters of Robert Burns | Page 9

you will forgive me when I tell you that
I most sincerely and affectionately love you. I am a stranger in these
matters, A---, as I assure you that you are the first woman to whom I
ever made such a declaration; so I declare I am at a loss how to
proceed.
I have more than once come into your company with a resolution to say
what I have just now told you; but my resolution always failed me, and
even now my heart trembles for the consequence of what I have said. I
hope, my dear A----, you will not despise me because I am ignorant of
the flattering arts of courtship: I hope my inexperience of the work will
plead for me. I can only say I sincerely love you, and there is nothing
on earth I so ardently wish for, or that could possibly give me so much
happiness, as one day to see you mine.
I think you cannot doubt my sincerity, as I am sure that whenever I see
you my very looks betray me: and when once you are convinced I am
sincere, I am perfectly certain you have too much goodness and
humanity to allow an honest man to languish in suspense only because
he loves you too well. And I am certain that in such a state of anxiety
as I myself at present feel, an absolute denial would be a much
preferable state.
[Footnote 1: The original MS. of the foregoing letter is the property of
John Adam, Esquire, Greenock, and the letter was first published in
1878. If it is a genuine love-letter, and not a mere exercise in love-letter
writing, it was probably the first of the short series to Alison Begbie,
who is supposed to have been the daughter of a small farmer, and who
has been identified with the Mary Morison of the well-known lyric.
The sentiment of the last paragraph of the letter agrees with the
sentiment of the last stanza of the song.]
* * * * *
II.-To ELLISON BEGBIE.

[LOCHLIE, 1780.]
MY DEAR E.,--I do not remember, in the course of your acquaintance
and mine, ever to have heard your opinion on the ordinary way of
falling in love, amongst people in our station in life; I do not mean the
persons who proceed in the way of bargain, but those whose affection
is really placed on the person.
Though I be, as you know very well, but a very awkward lover myself,
yet, as I have some opportunities of observing the conduct of others
who are much better skilled in the affair of courtship than I am, I often
think it is owing to lucky chance, more than to good management, that
there are not more unhappy marriages than usually are.
It is natural for a young fellow to like the acquaintance of the females,
and customary for him to keep them company when occasion serves;
some one of them is more agreeable to him than the rest; there is
something, he knows not what, pleases him, he knows not how, in her
company. This I take to be what is called love with the greater part of
us; and I must own, my dear E., it is a hard game such a one as you
have to play when you meet with such a lover. You cannot refuse but
he is sincere, and yet though you use him ever so favourably, perhaps
in a few months, or at farthest in a year or two, the same unaccountable
fancy may make him as distractedly fond of another, whilst you are
quite forgot. I am aware that perhaps the next time I have the pleasure
of seeing you, you may bid me take my own lesson home, and tell me
that the passion I have professed for you is perhaps one of those
transient flashes I have been describing; but I hope, my dear E., you
will do me the justice to believe me, when I assure you that the love I
have for you is founded on the sacred principles of virtue and honour,
and by consequence so long as you continue possessed of those
amiable qualities which first inspired my passion for you, so long must
I continue to love you. Believe me, my dear, it is love like this alone
which can render the marriage state happy. People may talk of flames
and raptures as long as they please, and a warm fancy, with a flow of
youthful spirits, may make them feel something like what they describe;
but sure I am the nobler faculties of the mind with kindred feelings of

the heart can only be the foundation of friendship, and it has always
been my opinion that the married