THE VISION

Preserve the dignity of Man,

With soul erect;

And trust the Universal Plan

Will all protect.

"And wear thou this "-she solemn said,
And bound the holly round my head:
The polish'd leaves and berries red

Did rustling play;

And, like a passing thought, she fled

In light away.

[To Mrs Stewart of Stair Burns presented a manuscript copy of the Vision. That copy embraces about twenty stanzas at the end of Duan First, which he cancelled when he came to print the piece in his Kilmarnock volume. Seven of these he restored in printing his second edition, as noted on p. 187. The following are the verses which he left unpublished.]

SUPPRESSED STANZAS OF "THE VISION."

After 18th stanza of the text (at "His native land"):

With secret throes I marked that earth,
That cottage, witness of my birth;

And near I saw, bold issuing forth

In youthful pride,

A Lindsay race of noble worth,

Famed far and wide.

Among the rest I well could spy
One gallant, graceful, martial boy,
The soldier sparkled in his eye,

A diamond water.

I blest that noble badge with joy,

That owned me frater.1

After 20th stanza of the text (at 'Dispensing good') :—

Near by arose a mansion fine,"
The seat of many a muse divine;
Not rustic muses such as mine,

With holly crown'd,

But th' ancient, tuneful, laurell'd Nine,
From classic ground.

I mourn'd the card that Fortune dealt,
To see where bonie Whitefoords dwelt;
But other prospects made me melt,

That village near ;“

There Nature, Friendship, Love, I felt,

Fond-mingling, dear!

Hail! Nature's pang, more strong than death!
Warm Friendship's glow, like kindling wrath !
Love, dearer than the parting breath

Of dying friend!

Not ev❜n with life's wild devious path,
Your force shall end!

The Power that gave the soft alarms
In blooming Whitefoord's rosy charms,
Still threats the tiny, feather'd arms,
The barbed dart,

While lovely Wilhelmina warms

The coldest heart."

After 21st stanza of the text (at "That, to adore ") :-
Where Lugar leaves his moorland plaid,"
Where lately Want was idly laid,

I marked busy, bustling Trade,

In fervid flame,

Beneath a Patroness's aid,

Of noble name.

1 Captain James Montgomerie, Master of St James' Lodge, Tarbolton, to which the author has the honour to belong.R.B.

2 Auchinleck.-R.B. $ Ballochmyle.

4 Mauchline.

5 A compliment to Miss Wilhelmina Alexander as successor, in that locality to Miss Maria Whitefoord.—S.D. 6 Cumnock.-R.B.

THE RANTIN DOG

Wild, countless hills I could survey,
And countless flocks as wild as they;
But other scenes did charms display,
That better please,

Where polish'd manners dwell with Gray,
In rural ease.1

Where Cessnock pours with gurgling sound;2
And Irwine, marking out the bound,
Enamour'd of the scenes around,

Slow runs his race,

A name I doubly honour'd found,

With knightly grace.

ADDRESS TO THE UNCO GUID

Address to the Unco Guid,

Or the Rigidly Righteous.1

My Son, these maxims make a rule,
An' lump them aye thegither;
The Rigid Righteous is a fool,

The Rigid Wise anither:

The cleanest corn that ere was dight
May hae some pyles o' caff in ;
So ne'er a fellow-creature slight
For random fits o' daffin."

SOLOMON.-Eccles. ch. vii. verse 16.

O YE wha are sae guid yoursel',
Sae pious and sae holy,

Ye've nought to do but mark and tell
Your neibours' fauts and folly!
Whase life is like a weel-gaun mill,
Supplied wi' store o' water;
The heaped happer's ebbing still,
An' still the clap plays clatter.

Hear me, ye venerable core,

As counsel for poor mortals
That frequent pass douce Wisdom's door
For glaikit Folly's portals:

I, for their thoughtless, careless sakes,
Would here propone defences-

е

Their donsie tricks, their black mistakes,
Their failings and mischances.

Ye see your state wi' theirs compared,
And shudder at the niffer1;

But cast a moment's fair regard,

What maks the mighty differs?

1 A favourite morality of Burns. The piece first appears in the Edinburgh edition.