oortith's brink;
They're sae accustom'd wi' the sight,
The view of it gi'es little fright;
And how it comes I never kent yet,
They're maistly wonderfu' contented;
And buirdly chiels and clever hizzies
Are bred in such a way as this is."

But where are we, after all, to look for the source of this beautiful
attribute of contentment? Is it not in the still more admirable one of
their piety? It is here almost superfluous to make any close appeal to
our poet's authority--to that most sublime description, so familiar to
you all, where the old peasant on the Saturday night collects his
scattered family, at the close of the long week's labour, around his
humble but happy cottage fireside, and, after a few sweet but
hard-earned hours of social enjoyment, instils, before retiring to
repose, from the open Word of God, into their minds those lessons of
Divine wisdom which were to guide them during the next week, and through
life, in the paths of religion and virtue. Are not such scenes to this
day common in our cottages, still, as of old, I firmly believe, the
favourite abodes of the genuine spirit of simple Scottish piety? Then as
to the last, if not the least, in the above list of the virtues of our
peasants--their patriotism. To whom, I would ask, but to the peasantry
of Scotland, does our poet so beautifully appeal as having bled with
Wallace? To whom, but to our peasantry, did our national hero look--and
never look in vain--for support in his gallant effort to restore the
fallen fortunes of his country, at the period when our doughty knights
and nobles--happily but for a season--had been reduced, by the intrigues
or intimidation of our powerful enemy, to crouch submissive beneath the
throne of his usurpation. And can we doubt that this proud spirit of
patriotism still burns as warm in their hearts as then, if no longer, by
God's blessing, so fearfully or so desperately called into action; or
that when after, as our poet again has it,

"They lay aside their private cares
To mind the Kirk and State affairs
They'll talk of patronage and priests
Wi' kindling fury in their breasts,
Or tell what new taxation's coming,
And ferlie at the folks in Lunnan."

But I have already detained you too long--if not longer than the
interest of the subject, at least than my power of doing justice to it
entitles me. I shall therefore conclude by pronouncing a grace over our
bumper, also suppli