And for this there are perhaps
two subsidiary reasons. For, first, there is, in our drunken
land, a certain privilege extended to drunkenness. In
Scotland, in particular, it is almost respectable, above all
when compared with any "irregularity between the sexes." The
selfishness of the one, so much more gross in essence, is so
much less immediately conspicuous in its results that our
demiurgeous Mrs. Grundy smiles apologetically on its victims.
It is often said - I have heard it with these ears - that
drunkenness "may lead to vice." Now I did not think it at
all proved that Burns was what is called a drunkard; and I
was obliged to dwell very plainly on the irregularity and the
too frequent vanity and meanness of his relations to women.
Hence, in the eyes of many, my study was a step towards the
demonstration of Burns's radical badness.
But second, there is a certain class, professors of that low
morality so greatly more distressing than the better sort of
vice, to whom you must never represent an act that was
virtuous in itself, as attended by any other consequences
than a large family and fortune. To hint that Burns's
marriage had an evil influence is, with this class, to deny
the moral law. Yet such is the fact. It was bravely done;
but he had presumed too far on his strength. One after
another the lights of his life went out, and he fell from
circle to circle to the dishonoured sickbed of the end.
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