the hallowed spot where the ashes of the bard are deposited.*

It must not however be supposed that the present volume contains the whole, or nearly the whole of the writings of Burns, which have come under my eye, or fallen into my hands; much

less

66 poet died, and every thing about her bespoke decent competence, and even comfort. She shewed me the "study and small library of her Husband, nearly as he left "them. By every thing I hear she conducts herself irreproachably.

"From Mrs. Burns's house my Son and I went to the “Church-yard at no great distance, to visit the grave of "the poet. As it is still uninscribed, we could not have "found it, had not a person we met with in the Church"" yard pointed it out. He told us he knew Burns well, "and that he (Burns) himself chose the spot in which he is "buried. His grave is on the north-east corner of the "Church-yard, which it fills up; and at the side of the

grave of his two sons, Wallace and Maxwell, the first of "whom, a lad of great promise, died last year of a con"sumption, the last immediately after his father. The

spot is well situated for a monument, for which there is

་

money collected; but the subscribers, I understand, can"not agree as to a design."

*On this little pilgrimage I was accompanied by Mr.

James

less have I thought it justifiable to reprint those exceptionable pieces, in prose and verse, which have been surreptitiously published, or erroneously attributed to him, and which in every point of view ought to have been consigned to oblivion. Notwithstanding the vigour which characterizes all his productions, perhaps there is no author whose writings are so difficult to select with a view to publication as Burns; and the very strength and exuberance by which they are marked, are in no small degree the cause of this difficulty. Whatever was the object, or the idea, of the moment, he has delineated, or expressed it, with a force and a veracity that brings it before us in all its beauty, or all its deformity. But the subjects of his pen were almost as various as nature herself; and hence it follows, that some of his compositions must be discarded, as inconsistent with that decorum which is due to the public at large. In his early years, Burns had imbibed a strong attach

ment

James M'Clure, a man who by his punctuality, his integrity, his benevolence, and the uniform uprightness of his character, confers respectability on the humble situation of a lettercarrier. He was the constant and faithful friend of the poet, and since his death has been most active and successful in his endeavours to promote the interests of the family.

ment to the unfortunate House of Stuart, which he seems to have cherished as a patriotic feeling; and as whatever he felt, he felt strongly, his prejudices occasionally burst forth in his writings; and some compositions of his yet remain, the publication of which, although in these days perfectly harmless, might render the Editor obnoxious to the letter, though not to the spirit of the law. If the affections of Burns were ardent, his animosities were scarcely less so; and hence some of his pieces display a spirit of resentment, the result of the moment, which it would be unjust to his memory, as well as to the objects of his satire, to revive. These and various other causes, on which it would be tedious to dwell, have imposed difficulties upon me from which I have endeavoured to extricate myself according to the best of my judgment. If on the one hand, with the example of the former Editor before my eyes, I have rejected whatever I conceived might in any point of view be improper for the public eye, I have on the other hand, been anxious not to deprive the author, through too fastidious an apprehension of indecorum, of those peculiar marks and that masculine freedom of thought and expression, which so strongly characterize his works. Nor have I in this respect trusted wholly to my own judgment and feelings. Several persons, some of them most near

dy

ly connected by the ties of relationship with the poet, others distinguished by their literary attainments, and their well known admiration of his works, have also been consulted. But though I have availed myself of this assistance to the utmost of my power, and “ though I "love the man, and do honour his memory on "this side idolatry as much as any," yet as on many occasions I must exercise my own judgment and discretion, I know not whether the warmth of my attachment to the poet and his productions, may not have led me to publish sentiments and pieces which would have been better withheld, and even letters and poems, to which an ardent admiration of their author may have induced me to attach a fancied value and interest. I can however assure the reader, that whatever may be thought of the following collection, I have neither forgotten, nor been indifferent to the apprehensions so strongly expressed by Burns, in nearly his last moments; "that every scrap of his writing would be re"vived against him to the injury of his future

66

reputation; that letters and papers written "with unguarded and improper freedom, and " which he earnestly wished to have buried in "oblivion, would be handed about by idle vanity

or malevolence, when no dread of his resent"ment would restrain them, or prevent the cen66 sures

66

"sures of shrill-tongued malice, or he insidious "sarcasms of envy, from pouring forth all their venom to blast his fame."* On the contrary, I must be allowed to say, that if I am at all accurate in my estimate of the character and feelings of this extraordinary but eccentric genius, I have printed no one piece of his composition that he would have been ashamed to acknowledge, and that in this publication, I have been actuated only by an earnest desire of preserving such of the writings of Burns, and such only, as do honour to the poet's head, or to his heart; or that are immediately or remotely connected with the circumstances of his life, or the developement of his character.

To one whose admiration of the bard was less ardent than mine, it might have occurred that some of his pieces, containing passages of great beauty, were rendered inadmissible merely by a single indelicate sentiment, or unguarded expression, which it might be easy to alter, so as to preserve the whole. But from such a presumption as the substituting a word of my own in the place of that of the poet (except in a very few instances of evident error), I have most religiously abstained;

* Burns's Works-Dr. Currie's Ed. vol. i. p. 222.