The Life of Robert Burns. By John Gibson Lockhart. Revised
edition, with new Notes, Appendices, and Literary Illustrations, by John H. Ingram. (Ward, Lock, and Co.)—On the title-page of this volume, the editor has unfortunately quoted a familiar couplet from Wordsworth with two misprints in one line. The notes are interesting, and the best Life of Burns we possess is worthy of the attention Mr. Ingram has betsowed upon it. There is some fresh and attractive matter in the appendices, and some old matter the insertion of which is appropriate. Extracts from " Christopher North's " review of the Life are given, and Carlyle's fine paper on Burns appears without abridgment. Who does not regret that his article on the best and greatest of Scotland's men of letters was not equally just and generous ? Writing of Cunningham in his Journal, Scott says : 'Honest Allan —a leal and true Scotsman of the old cast I " That Lockhart held him in equal respect is evident, since the biography of Burns is dedicated to Cunningham and to Hogg. We are now told "that not a single statement made by Allan Cunningham about Burns
may be accepted as fact unless fully corroborated by independent witnesses. His whole story of the poet's career is replete with, to say the best of it, inaccuracy and imagination." On the other hand, Cunningham's "Burns" is described in Mr. Leslie Stephen's Dictionary as a "meritorious" work.
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