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ROBERT BURNS:

A Memoir.

BY

THE REV. JAMES WHITE,
AUTHOR OF "THE LANDMARKS OF ENGLISH HISTORY,"

ETC.

LONDON:

ROUTLEDGE, WARNES, AND ROUTLEDGE,

FARRINGDON STREET.

NEW YORK: 18, BEEKMAN STREET.

1859.

[The Author reserves the right of translation.] Burns

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ROBERT BURNS.

1759-1796.

EVERYBODY knows the name of Robert Burns, but, as in the case of many others, the name is nearly all that is known. He is a poet; no one is ignorant of that. A Scottish poet; that also is universally known. But by what means his poetic faculty was called forth, at what exact period he lived, how he was received in his own time, how his reputation has been preserved till now, and what are the constituents of his powers, -very few of us could answer minutely, if examined on these points.

There are excellent lives of Burns; some too ponderous for easy reference, others devoting themselves exclusively to the incidents of his career, and referring the reader for examples of his genius to separate portions of his works. Without pretending to rival either the completeness of the larger biographies, or the critical skill of the smaller, it is the object of the present little sketch to give a narrative of the poet's life, with a different view of some portions of his career from that which obtained a few years ago,

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