Excerpt from The Poetical Works of William Motherwell The selection made in 1846 by his friend, Dr. M'conechy, who succeeded him in the editor's chair of the Glasgow Courier, was most judicious; and the Memoir attached to the volume by that gentleman, retained in the present edition, is marked by good taste and critical acumen. The first and second issues of the Poems were speedily exhausted, and a third edition, containing additional pieces, was published in 1848, under the supervision of the author's friend and brother poet, William Kennedy. The selections of Messrs. M'conechy and Kennedy form the basis of the present edition of motheewell's Works. The bulk of the volume might have been increased by additional unpublished poems which have come under Observation at this time. With the judgment, however, which led preceding editors to reject these, we heartily concur. It is not desirable that every piece written by an author should be published. Even Burns has suffered at the hands of injudicious editors who have failed to respect his own desire that certain of his writings should pass into oblivion. In one respect, however, this volume differs from preced ing editions. Appended to it is the reprint of a scarce poem written by motherwell under the pseudonym of Isaac Brown. Motherwell more than once gave to the public under the cloak of a name that differed from his the effusions of his own pen. In the Minsh'elsy, at least one ballad attributed to Lovelace had its origin in the sheriff-clerk's Office at Paisley; and the carefully-elaborated account of the discovery by motherwell of the Curious Poems by James Macalpie* is now generally regarded as a fictitious narrative, by means Of which the author desired to mislead and mystify the public mind. 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.