s, nor discomfited by its founderous
passages--for the instruction of others--might have delineated, almost
as in a map, the way which the afflicted pilgrim had pursued till the
sad close of his diversified journey. In this manner the venerable
spirit of Isaac Walton was qualified to have retraced the unsteady
course of a highly-gifted man, who, in this lamentable point, and in
versatility of genius, bore no unobvious resemblance to the Scottish
bard; I mean his friend COTTON--whom, notwithstanding all that the sage
must have disapproved in his life, he honoured with the title of son.
Nothing like this, however has the biographer of Burns accomplished;
and, with his means of information, copious as in some respects they
were, it would have been absurd to attempt it. The only motive,
therefore, which could authorize the writing and publishing matter so
distressing to read--is wanting!

Nor is Dr. Currie's performance censurable from these considerations
alone; for information, which would have been of absolute worth if in
his capacity of biographer and editor he had known when to stop short,
is rendered unsatisfactory and inefficacious through the absence of this
reserve, and from being coupled with statements of improbable and
irreconcileable facts. We have the author's letters discharged upon us
in showers; but how few readers will take the trouble of comparing those
letters with each other, and with the other documents of the
publication, in order to come at a genuine knowledge of the writer's
character!--The life of Johnson by Boswell had broken through many
pre-existing delicacies, and afforded the British public an opportunity
of acquiring experience, which before it had happily wanted;
nevertheless, at the time when the ill-selected medley of Burns's
correspondence first appeared, little progress had been made (nor is it
likely that, by the mass of mankind, much ever will be made) in
determining what portion of these confidential communications escapes
the pen in courteous, yet often innocent, compliance--to gratify the
several tastes of correspondents; and as little towards distinguishing
opinions and sentiments uttered for the momentary amusement merely of
the writer's own fancy, from those which his judgment deliberately
approves, and his heart faithfully cherishes. But the subject of this
book was a man of extraordinary genius; whose birth, education, and
employments had placed and kept him in a situation far