Page It was the charming month of May 391 Keen blows the wind o'er Donochthead 382 392 Last May a braw wooer came down the lang glen 428 Let me wander where I will 362 Let not woman e'er complain 385 Long, long the night 415 Mark yonder pomp of costly fashion 418 Maxwell, if merit here you crave 877 My Chloris, mark how green the groves 390 Now in her green mantle blythe nature arrays 407 Now spring has elad the grove in green O ken ye what Meg o' the mill has gotten 307 O Lassie, art thou sleeping yet 411 O leese me on my wee thing 286 O Logan, sweetly didst thou glide 310 O mirk, mirk is the midnight hour O poortith cauld, and restless love O whistle and I'll come to you, my lad Page Sweet fa's the eve on Craigie-burn 409 The hunter lo'es the mor..ing sun 288 Their groves o' sweet myrtle let foreign 416 There's auld Rob Morris that wons in yon glen There's braw, braw lads on Yarrow braes 289 292 323 Thine am I, my faithful fair This wot ye all whom it concerns 359 92 348 Thou lingering star, with less'ning ray 'Twas na her bonie blue e'e was my jewel 86 301 83 425 416 True hearted was he, the sad swain o' the Where are the joys I hae met in the morning 356 LIFE OF ROBERT BURNS. PREFATORY REMARKS. THOUGH the dialeet in which many of the Rappiest effusions of Robert Burns are composed be peculiar to Scotland, yet his reputation has extended itself beyond the limits of that country, and his poetry has been admired as the offspring of original genius by persons of taste in every part of the sister islands. The interest excited by his early death and the distress of his infant family, has been felt in a remarkable manner wherever his writings have been known; and these posthumous volumes, which give to the world his works complete, and which it is hoped may raise his widow and children from penury, are printed and published in England. It seems proper, therefore, to write the memoirs of his life, not with the view of their being read by Scotchmen only, but also by natives of England, and of other countries where the English language is spoken or understood. Robert Burns was in reality what he has been represented to be, a Scottish peasant. To render the incidents of his humble story generally intelligible, it seems therefore advisable to prefix some observations on the character and situation of the order to which he belonged, a class of men distinguished by many peculiarities. By this means we shall form a more correct notion of the advanVol. I. A tages with which he started, and of the obstacles which he surmounted. A few observations on the Scottish peasantry, will not perhaps be found unworthy of attention in other respects, and the subject is in a great measure new. Scotland has produced persons of high distinction in every branch of philosophy and literature, and her history, while a separate and independent nation, has been successfully explored. But the present character of the people was not then formed; the nation then presented features similar to those which the feudal system and the catholic religion had diffused over Europe, modified indeed by the peculiar nature of her territory and climate. The Reformation, by which such important changes were produced on the national character, was speedily followed by the accession of the Scottish monarchs to the English throne, and the period which elapsed from that accession to the Union. has been rendered memorable, chiefly, by those bloody convulsions in which both divisions of the island were involved, and which in a eonsiderable degree concealed from the eye of the historian, the domestic history of the people, and the gradual variations in their condition and manners. Since the Union, Scotland, though the seat of two unsuccessful attempts to restore the house of Stewart to the throne, has enjoyed a comparative tranquillity, and it is since this period that the present character of her peasantry has been in a great measure formed, though the political causes affecting it are to be traced to the previous acts of her separate legislature. A slight acquaintance with the peasantry of Scotland will serve to convince an unprejudiced observer, that they possess a degree of intelligence not generally found among the same class of men in the other countries of Europe. In the very humblest condition of the Scottish peasants every one can ead, and most persons are more or less. skilled in writing and arithmetic; and under the disguise of their uncouth appearance, and of |