Excerpt from Poems, Songs and Sonnets The Contents of this volume have, with few exceptions, already appeared in print, and the author has no desire to make his pages tedious by apologising for their re-appearance in book-form. The opening poem of the volume was originally printed some nine years ago, and the others were all written at intervals since that time. Having formed the resolution to publish his volume by subscription, the author appealed to a number of Members of Parliament, also to many gentlemen well-known in Glasgow and the West of Scotland, for their support in his undertaking; in many cases he was most agreeably surprised at the promptitude and heartiness of the response accorded to his appeal, and it gives him much pleasure to acknowledge here that, but for the support thus received, it would have been impossible for him to secure the services of a printer. He has also to acknowledge himself very deeply indebted to many personal friends and acquaintances, who not only subscribed for copies of the volume, but also assisted him very materially by recommending others to subscribe. In conclusion, the author begs leave to tender his most sincere thanks to all who, by their sympathy, encouragement and assistance, have enabled him to bring his volume through the Press, and he trusts that none of them may see cause to regret the assistance given him. 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.