Blythe Jenny sees the visit's no ill ta'en;
The Father cracks of horses, pleughs, and kye.
The Youngster's artless heart o'erflows wi' joy,

But blate and laithfu', scarce can weel behave;
The Mother, wi' a woman's wiles, can spy

What makes the youth sae bashfu' an' sae grave; Weel-pleas'd to think her bairn's respected like the lave. t

O happy love! where love like this is found!
O heart-felt raptures! bliss beyond compare !
I've paced much this weary, mortal round,
And sage EXPERIENCE bids me this declare-
"If Heaven a draught of heavenly pleasure spare,
One 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 ev'ning 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,

Betray sweet Jenny's unsuspecting youth? Curse on his perjur'd arts! dissembling smooth! Are Honor, 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 healsome porritch, chief o' SCOTIA's food:
The soupe their only Hawkie does afford,

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That 'yont the hallan snugly chows her cood; urfs1a8 The Dame brings forth in complimental mood, a wo To grace the lad, her weel-hain'd kebbuck, fell.

An' aft he's prest, an' aft he ca's it guid;

The frugal Wifie, garrulous, will tell,

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How 'twas a towmond auld, sin' Lint was i' the bell. tux fre

The chearfu' Supper done, wi' serious face,
They, round the ingle, form a circle wide;
The Sire turns o'er, wi' patriarchal grace,
The big ha'-Bible, ance his Father's pride:
His bonnet rev'rently is laid aside,

His lyart haffets wearing thin an' bare;
Those strains that once did sweet in ZION glide,
He wales a portion with judicious care,

a fox

"And let us worship GOD!" he says, with solemn air.

They chant their artless notes in simple guise ;
They tune their hearts, by far the noblest aim:
Perhaps Dundee's wild warbling measures rise,
Or plaintive Martyrs, worthy of the name;
Or noble Elgin beets the heav'nward flame,
The sweetest far of SCOTIA's holy lays :

Compar'd with these, Italian trills are tame;

The tickl'd ears no heartfelt raptures raise ; Nae unison hae they with our CREATOR's praise.

The priest-like Father reads the sacred page,
How Abram was the Friend of GOD on high;
Or, Moses bade eternal warfare wage,

With Amalek's ungracious progeny ;
Or how the royal Bard did groaning lie
Beneath the stroke of Heaven's avenging ire;
Or Job's pathetic plaint, and wailing cry;
Or rapt Isaiah's wild, seraphic fire ;
Or other Holy Seers that tune the sacred lyre.

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,

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.

Compar'd with this, how poor Religion's pride,

In all the pomp of method, and of art,
When men display to congregations wide
Devotion's ev'ry grace, except the heart!
The POWER, incens'd, the Pageant will desert,
The pompous strain, the sacerdotal stole ;
But haply, in some Cottage far apart,

May hear, well pleas'd the language of the Soul;
And in his Book of Life the inmates poor enrol.

Then homeward all take off their sev'ral 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 clam'rous nest, 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,
That makes her loved at home, rever'd abroad:
Princes and lords are but the breath of kings,
"An honest man's the noble 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 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! 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 pour'd the patriotic tide

That stream'd thro' great, unhappy Wallace' heart; Who dared to, nobly, stem tyrannic pride,

Or nobly die, the second glorious part: