Excerpt from Carlyle's Essay on Burns: Edited, With Introduction and Notes Jeffrey was surprised at the spirit and method of the essay, and said that it must be cut down one-half. He himself undertook to mitigate the intensity of its fervor, the diffuseness of its diction, and the exaggeration of its judgment. When Carlyle received the proof he found it only a torso; he became defiant at such tinkering, and insisted that it be published as he wrote it, or not at all. Jeffrey reluctantly descended from his throne; and so we have the work, 'saved as by fire, ' substantially as it was written. 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.