Letter from Robert Burns to William Niven, 29 July 1780
not think I ever met with any entertaining than the agreeable 20th; the circumstances in it
placed, and yet seem to rise nature and tho' keenly satirical had indelicate. I shall not at present
criticism on it as I am deter(mine?) observations on the subject but I must first premise
are entirely my own, and consequently nay perhaps to an unpre(pared?)- of them may appear absurd:
to a Friend.
quality in the soul of man which incentives in the human mind ingredients in every thing
manly & c. the I call pride and not bad in itself; but,
& counterbalanced with quality in its highest perf it is called rashness: there is ferocity which is sometimes nothing akin to the fromer. - you see that according to any absurd to say such a one person must have it in pretensions to human nature the ordinary acceptation of the aforementioned principle.
![](https://ciim-data.nts.org.uk/media/iiif/3/pf%2F2%2F1%2F40%2F694%2FNTSBRNp03035.ptif/full/!640,640/0/default.jpg)
Key details
- Archive number
- NTS/02/25/BRN/01/03
- Alt. number
- 3.6029
- Date
- 29 July 1780
- On display
- No
- Creator
- Burns, Robert (Author)
- Recipient
- Niven, William
- Archive number
- NTS/02/25/BRN/01/03
- Alt. number
- 3.6029
- Date
- 29 July 1780
- On display
- No
- Creator
- Burns, Robert (Author)
- Recipient
- Niven, William
Description
Letter from Robert Burns to William Niven, dated Lochlea, 29 July 1780. One of three letters written to William Niven.
William Niven had been at Hugh Roger's school in Kirkoswald when Burns was there in 1775, and who was afterwards a merchant in Maybole. This set of letters is dated from Lochlee (Lochlea) between July, 1780, and June, 1781, and are the earliest letters of Robert Burns in the National Trust for Scotland Collection.
Archive information
Place of creation
Themes
Hierarchy
-
Letters from and to Robert Burns
(
a sub-fonds is a subdivision in the archival material)
- Letter from Robert Burns to William Niven, 29 July 1780
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