COTTER'S SATURDAY NIGHT Wi' kindly welcome, Jenny brings him ben*; The father cracks of horses, pleughs, and kye. O happy love! where love like this is found: And sage experience bids me this declare, "If Heaven a draught of heavenly pleasure spareOne cordial in this melancholy vale, 'Tis when a youthful, loving, modest pair In other's arms, breathe out the tender tale, Beneath the milk-white thorn that scents the evening gale.' Is there, in human form, that bears a heart, A wretch! a villain! lost to love and truth! That can, with studied, sly, ensnaring art, Are honour, virtue, conscience, all exil'd? Is there no pity, no relenting ruth, Points to the parents fondling o'er their child? Then paints the ruin'd maid, and their distraction wild? But now the supper crowns their simple board, The sowp' their only hawkie does afford, That, 'yont the hallan snugly chows her cood: To grace the lad, her weel-hain'd kebbuck, fella; How 'twas a towmond' auld, sin' lint was i' the bell. The cheerfu' supper done, wi' serious face, Those strains that once did sweet in Zion glide, And "Let us worship God!" he says with solemn air. They chant their artless notes in simple guise, Compar'd with these, Italian trills are tame; The priest-like father reads the sacred page, With Amalek's ungracious progeny ; Or other holy seers that tune the sacred lyre. well-saved cheese, strong. a hoary temples. b twelve-month. • flax was in flower. f feeds. COTTER'S SATURDAY NIGHT Perhaps the Christian volume is the theme, How guiltless blood for guilty man was shed; How He, who bore in Heaven the second name, Had not on earth whereon to lay His head: How His first followers and servants sped; The precepts sage they wrote to many a land: How he, who lone in Patmos banished, Saw in the sun a mighty angel stand, And heard great Bab'lon's doom pronounc'd by Heaven's command. Then kneeling down to Heaven's Eternal King, In such society, yet still more dear; While circling Time moves round in an eternal sphere. Compar'd with this, how poor Religion's pride, But haply, in some cottage far apart, May hear, well-pleas'd, the language of the soul; Then homeward all take off their sev'ral way; The parent-pair their secret homage pay, And proffer up to Heaven the warm request, 1 Pope's "Windsor Forest."-R.B. And decks the lily fair in flow'ry pride, Would, in the way His wisdom sees the best, For them and for their little ones provide; But chiefly, in their hearts with grace divine preside. From scenes like these, old Scotia's grandeur springs, What is a lordling's pomp? a cumbrous load, O Scotia! my dear, my native soil! For whom my warmest wish to Heaven is sent, Long may thy hardy sons of rustic toil Be blest with health, and peace, and sweet content! And O may Heaven their simple lives prevent From luxury's contagion, weak and vile! Then, howe'er crowns and coronets be rent, A virtuous populace may rise the while, And stand a wall of fire around their much-lov'd isle. O Thou! who pour'd the patriotic tide, That stream'd thro' great unhappy Wallace' heart, Who dar'd to nobly stem tyrannic pride, Or nobly die, the second glorious part: (The patriot's God peculiarly thou art, His friend, inspirer, guardian, and reward O never, never Scotia's realm desert; But still the patriot, and the patriot-bard In bright succession raise, her ornament and guard! ADDRESS TO THE deil Address to the Deil.1 "O Prince O chief of many throned pow'rs " MILTON. O THOU! whatever title suit thee— Clos'd under hatches, poor wretches! Hear me, auld Hangie, for a wee, Ev'n to a deil, To skelp an' scaud poor dogs like me, Great is thy pow'r an' great thy fame; An' faith! thou's neither lage nor lame, Whiles, ranging like a roarin lion, For prey, a' holes and corners tryin; Whiles, on the strong-wing'd tempest flyin, Tirling the kirks; Whiles, in the human bosom pryin, ⚫ spatters. Unseen thou lurks. b wooden dish. • slow. stanza was altered. This was early in 1786. The Mason's Word, in stanza fourteenth, is very solemnly dealt with by the Rev. Robert Kirk of Aberfoyle, (later carried away by the Fairies,) in his Secret Commonwealth. |