Letter from Robert Burns to Mrs Dunlop, 31 January 1796

my pleasures. - I have lately drank deep
of the cup of affliction. - The Autumn robbed
me of my only daughter & darling child, & that
at a distance too & so rapidly as to put it out of
my power to pay the last duties to her. - I had
scarcely began to recover from that shock, when
became myself the victim of a most severe
Rheumatic fever, & long the die spun doubtful
until after many weeks of a sick-bed it seemed to
have turned up more life, & I am beginning
to crawl across my room, & once indeed have [?]
my own door in the street. -
When Pleasure fascinates the mental Sight,
Affliction purifies the visual ray;
Religion hails the drear, the untried night
That shuts, forever shuts! Life's doubtful day.
As

As to other matters of my concern, my family, views & c.
they are all as successful as I could well wish. -
I know not how you are in Ayr-shire, but here, we have
actual famine, & that too in the midst of plenty. Many
days my family, & hundreds of other families, are
absolutely without one grain of meal; as money cannot
purchase it. - How long the Swinish Multitude will be
quiet, I cannot tell: they threaten daily.
Farewell! May all good things attend you!

RBurns
Jan 31st 96