The General Magazine and Impartial Review. Volume I.

This book contains a contemporary review of Burn's Edinburgh edition of poems.   EXTRACT (from page 79-80):  "Poems, chiefly in the Scottish Dialect. By Robert Burns.  8vo. 6s. Edinb. Creech. By general report we learn, that R. B. is a plough boy of small education, but blessed by nature with a powerful genius. His subjects are not, as might have been expected, confined to the objects which surround him: he is satirical as  well as pastoral, and humorous as well as elegiac. Thus he speaks of a certain great character: For you, young Potentate of W... It is greatly to be lamented that these poems are "chiefly in the Scottish dialect", as it must necessarily confine their beauties to a small circle of readers, and as the author has given good specimens of his skill in the English; probably in the humorous pieces the spirit might evaporate with the dialect; but in the serious compositions we should have been more highly gratified had the language been of a piece with the following stanza, which we quote not only as very elegant, but highly poetical: O happy love! where love like this is found!... We are happy to observe prefixed to this collection of natural genius and strong sense, a lift of subscribers, at once so numerous and respectable as to do honour to the author's countrymen, and whose bounty we will trust will enable him to preserve that independence of mind, and to indulge himself in those flights of imagination which he appears to possess in an eminent degree, and which constitute the genuine poet of nature."