with critical observations and biographical notices, by Robert Burns

§01
he was employed in preparing chemical medicines
for the druggists ; but the liberality of his employers
being insufficient to preserve an increasing family
from the evils of penury, he returned to Edinburgh,
in the year 1772, in extreme poverty, and took re-
fuge from the molestation of his creditors within the
precincts of the sanctuary of Holyrood House. At
this period his wife deserted him and their five chil-
dren, the youngest only six months old, and returned
to her relations. He solaced himself for the priva-
tion of domestic happiness by composing a humorous
ballad, entitled " The Pleasures of The Abhey"
which was his first attempt in poetry. In a descrip^
tion of its inhabitants, the author himself is intro-
duced in the l6th and 17th stanzas. In the avoca-
tion of an author by profession, which he was now
compelled to assume, he displayed a versatility of
talent and a facility in writing unexampled in the
transactions of the press. He commenced his literary
career by a publication entitled " Essays on the most
important Subjects of natural and revealed Reli'^
gion/' which issued from the asylum for debtors,
under the peculiar circumstances of being composed
by himself, at the printing case, from his own con-
ceptions, without a manuscript before him, and
wrought off at a press of his own construction, by
his own hands. He left this singular work, which