In this note I endeavor to apply the critical principles with which we are familiar, when applied to “the Hexateuch,” to a well-known ode of the poet Burns. I shall endeavor to show that it must have proceeded from at least two “sources,” with a probable admixture by a third hand in the last stanza, which, after approved precedent, I venture to ascribe to a “compiler,” who “appears to have introduced slight additions of his own.” I shall distinguish the sources as B1 and B2, and the compiler as C. The ode consists of nine stanzas, and it will be seen at a glance that the principal line of demarcation falls after the fifth of these. The first five I assign to B1, the next three unhesitatingly to B2, while of the last I speak with more reserve, and leave to more curious and minute critics the question, in what proportions it is to be divided between-B2 and C. I fear I shall hardly make my remarks intelligible without a transcript of the greater part of the poem, which, happily, is not long.