n's the noblest work of God;'
And certes, in fair Virtue's heavenly road,
The cottage leaves the palace far behind;
What is a lordling's pomp? a cumbrous load,
Disguising oft the wretch of human kind,
Studied in arts of hell, in wickedness refin'd!

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-loved isle.

O Thou! who poured the patriotic tide
That streamed thro' Wallace's undaunted heart,
Who dared 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!

No less impressive than that of his father is the intellectual hunger
of the future poet himself. We have had Gilbert's testimony to the
eagerness with which he devoured such books as came within his reach,
and the use he made of his later fragments of schooling points the
same way. He had a quarter at the parish school of Dalrymple when he
was thirteen; and in the following summer he attended the school at
Ayr under his former Alloway instructor. Murdoch's own account of
these three weeks gives an idea of Burns's quickness of apprehension;
and the style of it is worth noting with reference to the
characteristics of the poet's own prose.

"In 1773," says Murdoch, "Robert Burns came to board and lodge
with me, for the purpose of revising English grammar, etc., that
he might be better qualified to instruct his brothers and sisters
at home. He was now with me day and night, in school, at all
meals, and in all my walks. At the end of one week, I told him as
he was now pretty much master of the parts of speech, etc., I
should like to teach him something of French pronunciation, that
when he should meet with the name of a French town, ship, officer,
or the like, in the newspapers, he might be able to pronounce it
some