riel. There is the
vehemence of battle, the wail of woe, the march of veterans "red-wat-shod,"
the smiles of meeting, the tears of parting friends, the gurgle of brown
burns, the roar of the wind through pines, the rustle of barley rigs, the
thunder on the hill--all Scotland is in his verse. Let who will make her
laws, Burns has made the songs, which her emigrants recall "by the long
wash of Australasian seas," in which maidens are wooed, by which mothers
lull their infants, which return "through open casements unto dying
ears"--they are the links, the watchwords, the masonic symbols of the Scots
race.

(J. N.) [v.04 p.0860]

The greater part of Burns's verse was posthumously published, and, as he
himself took no care to collect the scattered pieces of occasional verse,
different editors have from time to time printed, as his, verses that must
be regarded as spurious. _Poems chiefly in the Scottish Dialect_, by Robert
Burns (Kilmarnock, 1786), was followed by an enlarged edition printed in
Edinburgh in the next year. Other editions of this book were printed--in
London (1787), an enlarged edition at Edinburgh (2 vols., 1793) and a
reprint of this in 1794. Of a 1790 edition mentioned by Robert Chambers no
traces can be found. Poems by Burns appeared originally in _The Caledonian
Mercury, The Edinburgh Evening Courant, The Edinburgh Herald, The Edinburgh
Advertiser_; the London papers, _Stuart's Star and Evening Advertiser_
(subsequently known as _The Morning Star_), _The Morning Chronicle_; and in
the _Edinburgh Magazine_ and _The Scots Magazine_. Many poems, most of
which had first appeared elsewhere, were printed in a series of penny
chap-books, _Poetry Original and Select_ (Brash and Reid, Glasgow), and
some appeared separately as broadsides. A series of tracts issued by
Stewart and Meikle (Glasgow, 1796-1799) includes some Burns's numbers, _The
Jolly Beggars, Holy Willie's Prayer_ and other poems making their first
appearance in this way. The seven numbers of this publication were reissued
in January 1800 as _The Poetical Miscellany_. This was followed by Thomas
Stewart's _Poems ascribed to Robert Burns_ (Glasgow, 1801). Burns's songs
appeared chiefly in James Johnson's _Scots Musical Museum_ (6 vols.,
1787-1803), which he appears after the first volume to have virtually
edited, though the two last volumes were published only after his death;
and in George Thomson's _Select Collection of Original Scottish Airs_ (6
vo