Letter from Robert Burns to James Candlish, 21 March 1787

My ever dear old acquaintance,

I was equally surprised and pleased at your letter, tho' I dare say you will think by my delaying so long to write you, that I am so drowned in the intoxication of good fortune as to be indifferent to old and once deal connections.

- The truth is, I was determined to write a damn'd good letter, full of argument, amplification, erudition and, as Bays says, all that. - I thought of it and thought of it, but for my soul I cannot; and lest you should mistake the cause of my silence, I just sit down to tell you so.

- Don't give yourself credit though, that the strength of your logic scares me: the truth is I never mean to meet you on that ground at all. - You have shown me one thing, which was to be demonstrated, that strong pride of reasoning, with a little affection of singularity, may mislead the

;best of heats. - I, likewise, since you and I were first acquainted, in the pride of despising old women's stories, ventured in the "the daring path Spinosa trod;" but ex-perience of the weakness, not the strength of human powers made me glad to grasp at revealed Religion.

I must stop, but don't impute my brevity to a wrong
cause. - I am still, in the apostle Paul's phrase,
"The old man with his deeds" as when we were
sporting about the Lady thorn. - I shall be four
weeks here yet, at least; and so I shall expect to
hear from you- welcome sense, welcome non-
-sense.

I am with the warmest sincerity,
My D.r old Friend,
yours
Rob.t Burns