Reverend Friend's house; The first Psalm; Prayer under the pressure of violent anguish; the first six Verses of the nineteenth Psalm; Verses to Miss Logan, with Beattie's Poems; To a Haggis; Address to Edinburgh; John Barleycorn; When Guilford Guid; Behind yon hills where Stinchar flows; Green grow the Rashes; Again rejoicing Nature sees; The gloomy Night; No Churchman am I. . If you have never seen the first edition, it will perhaps not be amiss to transcribe the Preface, that you may see the manner in which the Poet made his first awe-struck approach to the bar of public judgment. Preface to the first Edition of Burns's Poems, published at Kilmarnock. "THE following Trifles are not the produc"tion of the poet, who, with all the advantages "of learned art, and, perhaps, amid the ele 66 gances and idleness of upper life, looks down "for a rural theme, with an eye to Theocritus "or Virgil. To the author of this, these and "other celebrated names, their countrymen, are, "at least in their original language, a fountain "shut up, and a book sealed. Unacquainted "with the necessary requisites for commenc'ing poet by rule, he sings the sentiments CC 2 "and "and manners, he felt and saw in himself "and his rustic compeers around him, in his “and their native language. Though a rhymer from his earliest years, at least from the earliest impulses of the softer passions, it was not "till very lately that the applause, perhaps "the partiality of friendship, awakened his va nity so far as to make him think any thing of "his worth showing; and none of the following "works were composed with a view to the press. "To amuse himself with the little creations of "his own fancy, amid the toil and fatigues of a "laborious life; to transcribe the various feel 66 ings, the loves, the griefs, the hopes, the fears, "in his own breast; to find some kind of coun"terpoise to the struggles of a world, always an "alien scene, a task uncouth to the poetical "mind-these were his motives for courting the muses, and in these he found poetry to be its "own reward. 66 "Now that he appears in the public charac"ter of an author, he does it with fear and trem"bling. So dear is fame to the rhyming tribe, "that even he, an obscure, nameless Bard, shrinks 66 aghast at the thought of being branded as "--an impertinent blockhead, obtruding his "nonsense on the world; and, because he can "make a shift to jingle a few doggrel Scotch rhymes 5 "rhymes together, looking upon himself as a poet of no small consequence forsooth! 66 "It is an observation of that celebrated poet, "Shenstone, whose divine elegies do honour to our language, our nation, and our species, that 66 Humility has depressed many a genius to a "hermit, but never raised one to fame!' If any "critic catches at the word genius, the author "tells him once for all, that he certainly looks 66 upon himself as possest of some poetic abi"lities, otherwise his publishing in the manner " he has done, would be a manœuvre below the "worst character, which he hopes his worst 46 enemy will ever give him. But to the genius "of a Ramsay, or the glorious dawnings of the poor unfortunate Fergusson, he, with equal "unaffected sincerity, declares, that, even in "his highest pulse of vanity, he has not the "most distant pretensions. These two justly ad"mired Scotch poets he has often had in his eye "in the following pieces; but rather with a "view to kindle at their flame, than for servile "imitation. "To his Subscribers the Author returns his "most sincere thanks. Not the mercenary bow "over a counter, but the heart-throbbing gra"titude of the bard, conscious how much he owes to benevolence and friendship, for gratifying him, if he deserves it, in that dearest 66 "wish of every poetic bosom-to be distinguished. He begs his readers, particularly "the learned and the polite, who may honour "him with a perusal, that they will make every "allowance for education and circumstances of "life; but, if after a fair, candid, and impartial "criticism, he shall stand convicted of dulness "and nonsense, let him be done by as he would "in that case do by others-let him be con"demned, without mercy, to contempt and "oblivion." I am, dear Sir, Your most obedient humble Servant, GILBERT BURNS. Dr. CURRIE, Liverpool. To this history of the Poems which are contained in this volume, it may be added, that our Author appears to have made little alteration in them after their original composition, except in some few instances where considerable additions have been introduced. After he had attracted the notice of the public by his first edition, various criticisms were offered him on the peculiarities of his style, as well as of his sentiments, and some of these, which remain among his manuscripts, are by persons of great taste and judgment. Some few of these criticisms he adopted, but the far greater part he rejected; and, though something has by this means been lost in point of delicacy and correctness, yet a deeper impression is left of the strength and originality of his genius. The firmness of our poet's character, arising from a just confidence in his own powers, may, in part, explain his tenaciousness of his peculiar expressions; but it may be in some degree accounted for also, by the circumstances under which the poems were composed. Burns did not, like men of genius born under happier auspices, retire, in the moment of inspiration, to the silence and solitude of his study, and commit his verses to paper as they arranged themselves in his mind. Fortune did not afford him this indulgence. It was during the toils of daily labour that his fancy exerted itself; the muse, as he himself informs us, found him at the plough. In this situation, it was necessary to fix his verses on his memory, and it was often many days, nay weeks, after a poem was finished, before it was written down. During all this time, by frequent repetition, the association between the |