with critical observations and biographical notices, by Robert Burns

224
APPENDIX (e.)
ACCOUNT OF THE LATE JOSEPH RITSON.
(Communicated by a Barrister of Gray^s Inn.)
The subsequent authentic narrative of the last mo-
ments of poor Ritson, while it may afford gratification
to some of those who suffered under the lash of his
sarcastic criticism, must at the same time offer some
apology for that eccentricity and violence which too
frequently disgrace his controversial writings, and even
his antiquarian disquisitions. They doubtless origi-
nated in that maniacal tendency which latt^ly burst
forth into full outrage, and terminated in his death.
It has been ascertained that a sister, elder than himself,
fell also a victim to the same deplorable malady. Let
it check the pride of human nature, even in that point
on which we think we are most justified in valuing
ourselves— ^the superiority of our intellectual faculties;
to mark in this, as well as in so many other instances,
the near alliance between genius and insanity.
It has been farther learned from a Mrs. Kirby, who
knew him from early infancy, and retained more in-