OF ROBERT BURNS; CONSISTING CHIEFLY OF 20 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 PUBLISHED BY BRADFORD AND INSKEEP, PHILADELPHIA; INSKEEP AND BRADFORD, NEW YORK; COALE AND C. GREENLEAF, BOSTON. 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 charac ter, and a just allowance for his errors, are the distinguishing features in the work of Dr. Currie, who "With kind concern and skill has wear'd Its colours; gently has he laid And GENIUS shall the texture bless." The same judgment and discretion which dictated the memoirs of the poet, presided also in the selection of his writings in the edition by Dr. Currie; of which it may justly be said, that whilst no production of Burns could be withdrawn from it without diminishing its value, nothing is there inserted which can render his works unworthy of the approbation of manly taste, or inconsistent with the delicacy of female virtue. But although no reduction can be made from the published works of the poet, it will, it is hoped, appear from the following pages, that much may be added to them, not unworthy of his genius and character. Of |