Wee Miller1 niest the guard relieves, And orthodoxy raibles, Though in his heart he weel believes, And thinks it auld wives' fables: But, faith! the birkie wants a manse, So, cannily he hums them; Although his carnal wit and sense next rattles fellow Like hafflins-ways o'ercomes him half-ways ale-pot Now but and ben the change-house fills, throughout And there the pint-stoup clatters; While thick and thrang, and loud and lang, Wi' logic and wi' scripture, They raise a din, that, in the end, Is like to breed a rupture O' wrath that day. under the title of Common Sense. On the particular day which Burns.is supposed to have had in view, Mackenzie was engaged to join Sir John Whitefoord of Ballochmyle, and go to Dumfries House, in Auchinleck parish, in order to dine with the Earl of Dumfries. The doctor, therefore, after attending church, and listening to some of the out-door harangues, was seen to leave the assembly, and go off along the Cowgate, on his way to Ballochmyle, exactly as Peebles ascended the rostrum. 1 The Rev. Mr. Miller, afterwards minister of Kilmaurs. He was of remarkably low stature, but enormous girth. Burns believed him at the time to lean at heart to the moderate party. This stanza, virtually the most depreciatory in the whole poem, is said to have retarded Miller's advance ment. Leeze me on drink! it gies us mair Commend to Than either school or college: It kindles wit, it waukens lair, It pangs us fou o' knowledge. It never fails, on drinking deep, By night or day. The lads and lasses, blithely bent learning crams small-beer On this ane's dress, and that ane's leuk, And formin' assignations To meet some day. But now the L-'s ain trumpet touts, And echoes back return the shouts tickle roaring 1 The Rev. John Russell, at this time minister of the Chapelof-Ease, Kilmarnock, afterwards minister of Stirling, one of the heroes of The Twa Herds. A correspondent says: "He was the most tremendous man I ever saw: Black Hugh Macpherson was a beauty in comparison. His voice was like thunder, and his sentiments were such as must have shocked any class of hearers in the least more refined than those whom he usually addressed." His piercing words, like Highland swords, Wi' fright that day. A vast, unbottomed, boundless pit, Wha's ragin' flame, and scorchin' heat, "Twad be owre lang a tale to tell How monie stories past, And how they crowded to the yill, When they were a' dismist: blazing ale How drink gaed round, in cogs and caups, pails Amang the forms and benches: And cheese and bread, frae women's laps, Was dealt about in lunches, In comes a gaucy, gash guidwife, fat-talkative And sits down by the fire, Syne draws her kebbuck and her knife; cheese 1 Shakspeare's Hamlet.-B. The lasses they are shyer. The auld guidmen, about the grace, Waesucks! for him that gets nae lass, How bonny lads ye wanted, And dinna, for a kebbuck-heel, Let lasses be affronted On sic a day! Now Clinkumbell, wi' rattlin' tow, Begins to jow and croon ; soil with meal cheese-rind Some swagger hame, the best they dow, can Some wait the afternoon. At slaps the billies halt a blink, Till lasses strip their shoon : Wi' faith and hope, and love and drink, For crack that day. How monie hearts this day converts O' sinners and o' lasses! 1 Variation-"Now Robin Gib," etc. gates Their hearts o' stane, gin night, are gane, As saft as ony flesh is. There's some are fou o' love divine; There's some are fou o' brandy; And monie jobs that day begin May end in houghmagandy ON A SCOTCH BARD, GONE TO THE WEST INDIES. A'YE wha live by sowps o' drink, A' ye wha live and never think, Come, mourn wi' me! Our billie's gien us a' a jink,1 And owre the sea. Lament him a' ye rantin' core, For now he's ta'en anither shore, 1 "Our brother has eluded us all." versifying frolic |