Excerpt from The Life and Works of Robert Burns, Vol. 4 of 4 Although the final volume of the New Edition of Dr Robert Chambers's Life and Works of Robert Burns is larger than any of its predecessors, the strictly biographical portion is compara tively small. But as the period embraced in it has been the subject of considerable controversy - especially as to the origin and dates of several of Burns's poems and as to the determining causes of his death - investigations begun by Dr Robert Chambers after the publication of the first edition have been completed, the result being a partial re - grouping of poems and songs, and a considerable recasting of narrative. Some argumentative matter bearing on the reputation and habits of Burns during the latest years of his life, which was formerly given as an appendix, is accordingly incorporated either with the text of the biography or with the closing Essay, in which an attempt is made to appraise the character of the man and the work of the poet. As in the first edition, Versicles, Songs Improved, Fragments, and Doubtful Poems are given apart from the body of the work. N o effort has been spared to make the Indexes at once exhaustive and convenient for purposes of reference. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.