been able to effect would have been impossible. My friend Dr DAVID PATRICK, Editor of Chambers's Encyclopædia, has read the proofs of the New Edition from the beginning. To his great and various learning, and to his knowledge of Ayrshire, I am indebted for most valuable suggestions, more particularly in tracing to their often unfamiliar sources the numerous quotations which, better than anything else, show the range of Burns's reading. While the first and second volumes of this edition were passing through the press, I received much help from the late Mr ROBERT MOWAT, Managing Director of Messrs W. & R. Chambers; his enthusiasm for Burns, and acquaintance with Scottish life, language, and literature were greatly above the common.
Although several Letters and Songs which have been recovered during the past forty years have not been given a place in the present work, on account of their triviality or for other reasons, it may be interesting to note that it contains nearly fifty poems and fragments of poems and sixty letters which did not appear in the original edition. The growth of the book generally may be judged by the fact that, while the four volumes of the original edition contained respectively 362, 322, 320, and 356 pages, the corresponding figures in the present work are 492, 416, 467, and 623.