LONGMANS' ENGLISH CLASSICS EDITED BY GEORGE RICE CARPENTER, A.B. LATE PROFESSOR OF RHETORIC AND ENGLISH COMPOSITION THOMAS CARLYLE ESSAY ON BURNS PREFACE 66 THIS edition has been prepared with a view to careful study, as it is evident that a book thus prepared will serve equally well for more cursory reading. The concluding portion of Carlyle's lecture on "The Hero as Man of Letters"-the fifth in the course on 'Heroes and Hero Worship," delivered in London, in 1840-is appended as affording an interesting comparison with the earlier and more elaborate essay on the same subject. As this passage is intended, however, only for supplementary reading, and not for study, it has not been annotated. In the "Essay on Burns" Carlyle makes many quotations from various sources. As it is difficult, if not impossible, to trace many of these quotations, and as a knowledge of their origin is of no value whatever as an aid to the understanding of the essay, no attempt has been made to treat them fully in the notes. The thought of the editor throughout has been that the primary aim in the study of this essay should be to introduce the student to Carlyle and his works; but it has also been borne constantly in mind that this study will fall far short of its purpose if it fails to awaken also an interest in the life and songs of Robert Burns, W. F. |