with critical observations and biographical notices, by Robert Burns

202
was to be completed in two volumes 8vo, mifinished,
and turned aside, to attack the opinions of a new
religious sect called Bereans, in a " Letter to Mr.
John Barclay on the Doctrine of Jtssurance" in
which he again performed the functions of author,
compositor, and pressman. He next set forth, with
such assistance as he could iind, a monthly publica-
tion, entitled " The Gentleman and Ladys Maga-
zine" which was soon abandoned for " The Weekly
Reviezv" a literary miscellany, which, in its turn
was discontinued in a very short time. These publi-
cations, unavoidably disfigured with many typogra-
phical deformities, made him known to the book-
sellers ;
and from them he afterwards found constant
employment in compilations, abridgments, transla-
tions, and miscellaneous essays. He now ventured
to leave the miserable apartments which he hgd long
occupied in the sanctuary for debtors, for more com-
fortable lodgings, first at Restalrig, and afterwards
in the city, and if his prudence and steadiness had
been equal to his talents and industry, he might have
earned by his labours a competent maintenance,
which never fell to his lot. As he wrote for subsist-
ence, not from the vanity of authorship, he was en-
gaged in many works which were anonymous, and in
others which appeared with the names of his em-
ployers. He is editor or author of the following