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Then kneeling down to heaven's eternal King,
The saint, the father, and the husband prays:
Hope "springs exulting on triumphant wing,
That thus they all shall meet in future days;
There, ever bask in uncreated rays,

No more to sigh, or shed the bitter tear, Together hymning their Creator's praise, In such society, yet still more dear, While circling time moves round in an eternal sphere. Compared with this, how poor religion's pride, In all the pomp of method and of art, When men display to congregations wide, Devotions every grace except the heart! The Power, incensed, the pageant will desert, The pompous strain, the sacerdotal stole; But haply, in some cottage far apart,

May hear, well pleased, the language of the soul;

And in his book of life the inmates poor enrol.

Then homeward all take off their several way;
The youngling cottagers retire to rest:
The parent-pair their secret homage pay,

And proffer up to Heaven the warm request,
That He who stills the raven's clamorous nest,
And decks the lily fair in flowery 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, That makes her loved at home, revered abroad. (Princes and lords are but the breath of kings,

"An honest man 's the noblest work of God:"2
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 refined!
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!

1 Pope's Windsor Forest.-2 Pope's Essay on Man.

And, oh! 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 pour'd the patriotic tide
That stream'd 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!

The "Cotter's Saturday Night is, perhaps, of all Burns's pieces, the onə whose exclusion from the collection, were such things possible now-a-days, would be the most injurious, if not to the genius, at least to the character, of the man. Loftier flights he certainly has made, but in these he remained but a short while on the wing, and effort is too often perceptible; here the motion is easy, gentle, placidly undulating. There is more of the conscious security of power, than in any other of his serious pieces of considerable length; the whole has the appearance of coming in a full stream from the fountain of his heart-a stream that soothes the ear, and has no glare on the surface."Lockhart's Life of Burns.

[The following Poem will, by many readers, be well enough understood; but for the sake of those who are unacquainted with the manners and traditions of the country where the scene is cast, Notes are added, to give some account of the principal charms and spells of that night, so big with prophecy to the peasantry in the west of Scotland. The passion of prying into futurity makes a striking part of the history of human nature in its rude state in all ages and nations; and it may be some entertainment to a philosophic mind, if any such should honor the Author with a perusal, to see the remains of it among the more unenlightened in our own.]

HALLOWEEN.

Yes! let the rich deride, the proud disdain,

The simple pleasures of the lowly train;

To me more dear, congenial to my heart,

One native charm, than all the gloss of art.-Goldsmith.

UPON that night, when fairies light
On Cassilis Downans' dance,
Or owre the lays, in splendid blaze,
On sprightly coursers prance;
Or for Colean the rout is taen,
Beneath the moon's pale beams;
There up the Cove, to stray an' rove
Amang the rocks an' streams,

To sport that night.

Amang the bonnie winding banks,

Where Doon rins, wimplin', clear,
Where Bruce ance ruled the martial ranks

And shook the Carrick spear,
Some merry, friendly, countra folks,
Together did convene,

1 Is thought to be a night when witches, devils, and other mischief-making beings, are all abroad on their baneful, midnight errands; particularly those aerial people, the fairies, are said on that night to hold a grand anniversary.

2 Certain little, romantic, rocky, green hills, in the neighborhood of the ancient seat of the earls of Cassilis.

3 A noted cavern near Colean-house, called the Cove of Colean; which, as well as Cassilis Downans, is famed in country story for being a favorite haunt of fairies.

4 Meandering.

5 The famous family of that name, the ancestors of Robert, the great deliverer of his country, were earls of Carrick.

To burn their nits,' an' pou2 their stocks,
An' haud their Halloween

Fu' blythe that night.

The lasses feat," an' cleanly neat,
Mair braw than when they're fine;
Their faces blythe, fu' sweetly kythe,
Hearts leal, an' warm, an' kin':"
The lads sae trig,' wi' wooer-babs,8
Weel knotted on their garten,
Some unco blate, and some wi' gabs,"
Gar lasses' hearts gang startin'

9

Whyles fast that night.

Then first and foremost, thro' the kail,
Their stocks" maun a' be sought ance;
They steek their een," an' graip, an' wale,"
For muckle anes an' straught anes."
Poor hav'rel' Will fell aff the drift,
An' wander'd thro' the bow-kail,
An' pou 't," for want o' better shift,
A runtis was like a sow-tail,

16

Sae bow't that night.

Then straught or crooked, yird20 or nane,
They roar an' cry a' throu'ther;21
The vera wee-things," todlin', rin2

Wi' stocks out-owre their shouther;

1 Nuts.-2 Pull, or pluck.- Nice, trim.-4 Discover, or show themselves.— Loyal, true, faithful.—6 Kind.-7 Spruce, neat.-8 The garter knotted below the knee with a couple of loops.- Very bashful.-10 To talk boldly.

11 The first ceremony of Halloween is pulling each a stock or plant of kail. They must go out, hand in hand, with eyes shut, and pull the first they meet with. Its being big or little, straight or crooked, is prophetic of the size and shape of the grand object of all their spells-the husband or wife. If any yird, or earth, stick to the root, that is tocher, or fortune; and the taste of the custock, that is, the heart of the stem, is indicative of the natural temper and disposition. Lastly, the stems, or, to give them their ordinary appellation, the runts, are placed somewhere above the head of the door; and the Christian names of the people whom chance brings into the house, are, according to the priority of placing the runts, the names in question.

12 Shut their eyes.-13 Grope and choose, or pick.-14 For large and straight ones.-16 A half-witted, talkative person.-16 Cabbages.-17 Pulled.-18 Stem of cabbage, or colewort.-19 Crooked.-20 With earth, or dirt.-21 Pell-mell, confusedly.-22 Young children.-23 Tottering run.

An' gif the custock's sweet or sour,
Wi' jocktelegs they taste them;
Syne coziely, aboon the door,

Wi' cannie care, they 've placed them
To lie that night.

The lasses staw' frae 'mang them a'
Το pou their stalks o' corn;
But Rab slips out, an' jinks' about,
Behint the muckle thorn;
He grippet Nelly hard an' fast;
Loud skirled a' the lasses;
But her tap-pickle maist was lost,
When kiuttlin" i' the fause-house"
Wi' him that night.

The auld guidwife's" weel hoordet" nits"
Are round an' round divided,
An' monie lads' an' lasses' fates
Are there that night decided;
Some kindle, couthie," side by side,
An' burn thegither trimly;

Some start awa' wi' saucy pride,
An' jump out-owre the chimlie
Fu' high that night.

Jean slips in twa wi' tentie e'e;16
Wha 'twas she wadna" tell;

1 If.—2 The stalk of the kail, or colewort.-3 A kind of knife.-4 Snugly. 5 Stole away.

• They go to the barn-yard and pull cach, at three several times, a stalk of oats. If the third stalk wants the top-pickle, that is, the grain at the top of the stalk, the party in question will come to the marriage-bed any thing but a maid.

7 To turn a corner.-8 Shrieked.- Supposed to have allusion to something of which ladies are said to be very careful.-10 Cuddling.

11 When the corn is in a doubtful state, by being too green, or wet, the stack-builder, by means of old timber, &c., makes a large apartment in his stack, with an opening in the side which is fairest exposed to the wind; this he calls the fause-house.

12 Mistress of the house.-13 Hoarded.

14 Burning the nuts is a famous charm. They name the lad and lass to each particular nut, as they lay them in the fire, and accordingly as they burn quietly together, or start from beside one another, the course and issue of the courtship will be.

15 Lovingly.—16 With watchful eye.-17 Would not.