Robert Burns: A Memoir

Excerpt from Robert Burns: A Memoir

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 ex amined on these points.