terary reputation survive my
temporal existence, the public may know from good authority all that
they are entitled to know of an individual who has contributed to
their amusement.

From the lives of some poets a most important moral lesson may
doubtless be derived, and few sermons can be read with so much profit
as the Memoirs of Burns, of Chatterton, or of Savage. Were I conscious
of anything peculiar {p.002} in my own moral character which could
render such development necessary or useful, I would as readily
consent to it as I would bequeath my body to dissection, if the
operation could tend to point out the nature and the means of curing
any peculiar malady. But as my habits of thinking and acting, as well
as my rank in society, were fixed long before I had attained, or even
pretended to, any poetical reputation,[18] and as it produced, when
acquired, no remarkable change upon either, it is hardly to be
expected that much information can be derived from minutely
investigating frailties, follies, or vices, not very different in
number or degree from those of other men in my situation. As I have
not been blessed with the talents of Burns or Chatterton, I have been
happily exempted from the influence of their violent passions,
exasperated by the struggle of feelings which rose up against the
unjust decrees of fortune. Yet, although I cannot tell of difficulties
vanquished, and distance of rank annihilated by the strength of
genius, those who shall hereafter read this little Memoir may find in
it some hints to be improved, for the regulation of their own minds,
or the training those of others.

[Footnote 18: I do not mean to say that my success in
literature has not led me to mix familiarly in society much
above my birth and original pretensions, since I have been
readily received in the first circles in Britain. But there
is a certain intuitive knowledge of the world, to which most
well-educated Scotchmen are early trained, that prevents them
from being much dazzled by this species of elevation. A man
who to good nature adds the general rudiments of good
breeding, provided he rest contented with a simple and
unaffected manner of behaving and expressing himself, will
never be ridiculous in the best society, and so far as his
talents and information permit, may be an agreeable part of
the company. I hav