LATE PROFESSOR OF MORAL PHILOSOPHY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH,

"Nevertheless, we are far from thinking that the problem of Burns's Biography has yet been ade-
quately solved. We do not allude so much to deficiency of facts or documents,-thongh of these we
are still every day receiving some fresh accession; as to the limited and imperfect application of them
to the great end of Biography. Our notions upon this subject may perhaps appear extravagant; but
if an individual is really of consequence enough to have his life and character recorded for public
remembrance, we have always been of opinion, that the public ought to be made acquainted with all
the inward springs and relations of his character. How did the world and man's life, from his particu-
lar position, represent themselves to his mind? How did co-existing circumstances modify him from
without; how did he modify these from within? With what endeavours and what efficacy rule over
them; with what resistance and what suffering sink under them? In one word, what and how pro-
duced was the effect on society? He who should answer these questions, in regard to any individual,
would, as we believe, furnish a model of perfection in biography."
T. CARLYLE.