13863

OF

ROBERT BURNS;

CONSISTING CHIEFLY OF

ORIGINAL LETTERS, POEMS,

AND

CRITICAL OBSERVATIONS

ON!

SCOTTISH SONGS.

COLLECTED AND PUBLISHED BY

R. H. CROMEK.

Ordain'd to fire th' adoring Sons of Earth
With every charm of wisdom and of worth;
Or, warm with Fancy's energy to glow,
And rival all but Shakspeare's name below.

Pleasures of Hope.

LONDON:

PRINTED BY J, M'CREERY,

FOR T. CADELL, AND W. DAVIES, STRAND.

1808,

PREFACE.

ON an occasion of such delicacy as the presenting to the world another volume of the writings of ROBERT BURNS, it becomes the Editor to account for his motives in undertaking the publication, and to explain his reasons for giving it in the form in which it now appears.

Whatever unhappiness the Poet was in his lifetime doomed to experience, few persons have been so fortunate in a biographer as Burns. A strong feeling of his excellencies, a perfect discrimination of his character, and a just allowance for his errors, are the distinguishing features in the work of Dr. Currie, who

66 -With kind concern and skill has weav'd
A silken web; and ne'er shall fade

Its colours; gently has he laid
The mantle o'er his sad distress,
And GENIUS shall the texture bless."

The