---
title: "To Mr. James Hamilton"
author: "Robert Burns"
recipient: "Mr. James Hamilton"
letter_number: 162
roman: "CLXII"
date: "26 May 1789"
place: "Ellisland"
source: "Project Gutenberg #18500 — The Complete Works of Robert Burns (ed. Allan Cunningham)"
editor: "Allan Cunningham"
source_url: "https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/18500/pg18500.txt"
canonical_url: "https://robert-burns.com/letters/162-to-james-hamilton/"
---

# To Mr. James Hamilton

## Editor's note
James Hamilton, grocer, in Glasgow, interested himself early in the fortunes of the poet.

— Allan Cunningham

## Letter
DEAR SIR,

I send you by John Glover, carrier, the account for Mr. Turnbull, as I suppose you know his address.

I would fain offer, my dear Sir, a word of sympathy with your misfortunes; but it is a tender string, and I know not how to touch it. It is easy to flourish a set of high-flown sentiments on the subjects that would give great satisfaction to—a breast quite at ease; but as ONE observes, who was very seldom mistaken in the theory of life, "The heart knoweth its own sorrows, and a stranger intermeddleth not therewith."

Among some distressful emergencies that I have experienced in life, I ever laid this down as my foundation of comfort—_That he who has lived the life of an honest man, has by no means lived in vain!_

With every wish for your welfare and future success,

I am, my dear Sir,

Sincerely yours,

R. B.

---

Source: [Project Gutenberg #18500 — The Complete Works of Robert Burns (ed. Allan Cunningham)](https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/18500/pg18500.txt), edited by Allan Cunningham  
Canonical HTML: https://robert-burns.com/letters/162-to-james-hamilton/