“The difference between our two tracks of education, and ways of life, is entirely in your favour, and gives you the preference every manner of way.” He sets Burns's lived experience above his own learning as the stronger claim on the muse · Letter to Robert Burns, Linshart, 14 November 1787 Education Humility Poetry
“Your acknowledgment of my poor but just encomiums on your surprising genius, and your opinion of my rhyming excursions, are both, I think, by far too high.” A modest deflection of praise from the man Burns had called the author of Scotland's best song · Letter to Robert Burns, Linshart, 14 November 1787 Modesty Poetry Praise
