170 THE LAW OF LOVE AND RELIGION. fast their integrity, and, slaves as they are, show their tyrants and task-masters virtues which they haena the grace to comprehend, far less to imitate ;-I do not despair that a Law, far beyond the sphere o' sic legislators as we hae been speakin o'a Law originatin in Heaven, and sanctioned in the heart-will yet rule wi' a savin sway ower sic doleful regions, for doleful they may weel be ca'd, since there famished folk forget their hunger in their thirst, and flee to cursed gin for relief rather than to blessed bread;—the Law o' Love and Religion, that was frae the beginnin o' the warld, and was given us again auchteen hundred years ago, in brichter licht than to the first Adam, to us, the children o' Adam, and though obscured and troubled by man's passions, that mak a' men at times seem waur nor mad, shall yet shine through the huge city smoke that the material day-spring canna penetrate, and establish an illumination, not on the spires, and steeples, and towers alone o' churches and cathedrals, although ever may they be held sacred, but on the low-roofed houses o' the puirest o' the puir, wherever twa or three are gathered together to worship the Giver o' a' mercies, or to enjoy His mercies-say the frugal meal industry has earned and piety blessed, or the hard bed that seems saft to the sleep which nae evil conscience ever haunts;-bed and sleep, emblems indeed o' death and the grave, but only o' their rest, for a lamp burns beside them, let doun frae the skies, which they hae but to feed wi' gude warks and trim wi' the finger o' faith, and when they will wauken at last in Heaven, they will know it was the lamp o' Eternal Life. North (looking up at the Cuckoo). Eight o'clock! It is Saturday night and Tickler and I have good fourteen miles to drive to the Castle of Indolence. "O blest retirement ! friend to Life's decline!" Our nags must be all bedded before twelve-for there must be no intrusion on the still hours of Sabbath. James, we must go. Shepherd. I declare I never observed Tibbie takin awa the roasts! Sae charmed, sir, hae I been wi' your conversation, that I canna tell whether this be my first, second, or third jug? North. Your second. Shepherd. Gude nicht. [They finish the second jug, but seem unwilling to rise. SHEPHERD ON SUMPTUARY LAWS. North. God bless you, my dearest James! 171 North. I cannot lend my sanction, James, to sumptuary laws. Shepherd. What kind o' laws may they be? I never heard tell o' them afore-but if they be laws anent eatin and drinkin ony particular sort o' vivres, I gie ma vote for beginnin wi' wine. North. On what principle, James ? Shepherd. On the principal o' principles-Justice. Our legislators that's the maist feck o' them-belang to the upper ranks—at least, members o' Parliament are seldom seen hedgin and ditchin, or knappin stanes-excepp it may be for their ain amusement, in avenues and the like; and still seldomer working at the haun-loom, or takin tent o' the power-loom, or overlookin ony great instrumental establishment o' spindles obedient to the command o' steam. North. Steam is a tyrant. Shepherd. He's a' that-and his subjects are slaves. But what I was gaun to say was this-that our legislators maun be better acquented wi' the gude and ill o' their ain condition o' life than wi' them o' that aneath it, for personal experience is the surest teacher o' truth. Now, sir, hard-workin folk dinna for ordinar drink wine; and I dinna pity them, for, to my taste, wine's wersh, and it aye sours on my stamack, and bein' made o' mere frute it can hae nae nourishment. Still the gentry like it, and get fou on't—or if no fou, they drink daily sufficient to sap thousans o' constitutions-forbye injuring their fortunes by the annual expense o' importation. Let a' foreign wines then be excluded by ack o' Parliament, makin it felony, punishable by transportation for life, to hae aboon half-a-dizzen o' ony ae kind in a preevat cellar provision legaleezin the sale thereof in Apothecaries' shops alang wi' ither droggs-to be selt in thummlefu's, per permit. After an experiment o' a few years' trial, the gentry will be able to judge, not only hoo they like the law, but hoo its operation agrees wi' their health. They will then be able, wi' a gude grace, to ca' the attention o' the lower orders to the temperance o' the higher-and as the example o' our superiors is powerfu', sobriety will be seen descendin by degrees through all grawds till it reaches even the tinklers-and then the ack -wi' a 172 VICE TO BE CURED BY MORAL INFLUENCES. may be extended to speerits frae sugar and grain, without ony national convulsion, but a slicht sneeze. North. I grieve to think that the lower orders should be so addicted to this most pernicious vice. But like all other evil habits, it can be prevented or cured but by moral influences and, in my opinion, to expect to see that done by Act of Parliament, betrays a lamentable ignorance of human nature. Shepherd. Waur than that-cruel injustice in them who seek to hae recourse to sic measures. They winna suffer ony interference in their ain vices-or rather they ken that mony o' them in which they shamelessly indulge, are o' a kind that nae law can weel tak haud o'; and while they enjoy their ain luxuries without stint, their ain vices and their sins, they froon on the far mair excusable frailties o' the puir, exaggerate them out o' a' measure, and to prevent excesses, which all gude men must deplore, would, without compunction, cut awa comforts frae that condition, which, rather than curtail, a gude man would put baith hauns into the fire. North. Luxury hardens the heart. Shepherd. Maks it fat or fozie-fu' o' creesh or wund. North. How did the Drunken committee vote on the Malt Tax? Shepherd. I really canna say. But I fear thae beer-houses are bad places; and I'm sure that folk are no like to mak themsels fou on hame-brewed yill-for the speerit o' domestic comfort's a sober speerit, though a gladsome-and the maister o' the maut, at his ain fireside, has every reason to preserve moderation at the cheerfu', hamely meal, enlivened by the liquor flowin frae the produce o' his ain farm. But the incidence o' taxation's a kittle problem-and, I confess, no for a shepherd to solve. Only this is sure, that taxation is a burden that a' ought to bear alike, accordin to the strength o' their shouthers; sae that your political economists maun begin wi' ascertainin the strength o' folk's shouthers, or they Iwill alloo thousans and tens o' thousans to walk wi' their backs straucht and no an unce on the nape o' their necks, while they oppress as mony mair beneath a hunderwecht, that lang ere the close o' this life's darg bows their foreheads to the dust. North. James, a little while ago you delivered one of the longest sentences of perfect grammatical construction I remember since the days of Jeremy Taylor.1 Shepherd. Was't grammatical? That's curious, for I never learned grammar. North. One seldom hears a speaker get out of a long sentence till after the most fearful floundering Shepherd. Perhaps 'cause he has learned what grammar is, without ha'in acquired the power o' observin't! whereas the like o' me, wha kens naething about it, instinctively steers clear o' a' difficulties, and comes out at the end, bauldly shakin his head, like a stag frae a wudd, hungry for the mountains. North. James, the days are fast shortening-alas! alas! Shepherd. Let them shorten. The nichts 'ill be sae muckle the langer-and "mortal man, who liveth here by toil," hae mair time for waukin as weel as for sleepin rest. Wunter, wild as he sometimes is, is a gracious Season—and in the Forest I hae kent him amaist as gentle as the Spring. Indeed, he seems to me to be gettin safter and safter in his temper ilka year. Frost is his favourite son-and I devoutly howp there 'll never be ony serious quarrel atween them twa; for Wunter never looks sae cheery as when you see him gaun linkin haun in haun wi' fine black Frost. Snaw is Frost's sister, and she's a bonny white-skinned lassie, wi' character without speck or stain. She cam to see us last Christmas, but staid only about a week, and we thocht her lookin rather thin; but the morning afore she left us, I happened to see her on the hill at sunrise-and oh! what a breist! North. Like that of the sea-mew or the swan. Shepherd. Richt. For o' a' the birds that sail the air, thae twa are surely the maist purely beautifu'. Then they come and they gae just like the snaw. You see the mew fauldin her wings on the meadow as if she were gaun to be for lang our inland guest-you see the swan floatin on the loch as if she had cast anchor for the Wunter there-you see the snaw settled on the hill as if she never would forsake the sun who looks on her with saftened licht-but neist mornin you daunner out to the brae—and mew, swan, and snaw are a' gane-melted into air or flown awa to the sea. North. These images touch my heart. Yet how happens it that my own imagination does not supply them, and that you, 1 See ante, vol. ii. p. 129. 174 BURNS'S "COTTAR'S SATURDAY NIGHT." my dear Shepherd, have to bring them before the old man's eyes? Shepherd. Because I hae genie. North. And I, alas! have none. Shepherd. Dinna look sae like as if you was gaun to fa' a-greetin-for I only answered simply a simple question, and was far frae meanin to deny that you had the gift. North. But I canna write a sang, Jamie-I canna write a sang! Shepherd. Nor sing ane verra weel either, sir; for, be the tune what it may, ye chant them a' to "Stroudwater," and I never hear you without thinkin that you would hae made-a monotonous ane to be sure, but a pathetic precentor. O but hoo touchingly would ye hae gien out the line! North. Allan Cunningham, and William Motherwell, and you, my dear James, have caught the true spirit of the old traditionary strain-and, seek the wide world, where will there be found such a lyrical lark as he whom, not in vain, you three have aspired to emulate-sweet Robbie Burns? Shepherd. That's richt, sir. I was wrang in ever hintin ae word in disparagement o' Burns's Cottar's Saturday Night. But the truth is, you see, that the subjeck's sae heaped up wi' happiness, and sae charged wi' a' sorts o' sanctity-sae national and sae Scottish-that beautifu' as the poem is-and really, after a', naething can be mair beautifu'-there's nae satisfyin either peasant or shepherd by ony delineation o't, though drawn in lines o' licht, and shinin equally wi' genius and wi' piety. That's it. Noo, this is Saturday nicht at Tibbie's and, though we've been gey funny, there has been naething desecratin in our fun, and we'll be a' attendin divine service the morn-me in Yarrow, and you, Mr North, and Mr Tickler, and the lave o' you, in Ettrick kirk. North. And, James, we can nowhere else hear Christianity preached in a more fervent and truthful spirit. Shepherd. Naewhere.-Do you see, sir, that splendid and magnificent assemblage o' towers and temples far ben in the heart o' that fire o' peat and wudd? See! see! how they sink and settle doun in the flames! I prophesy the destruction o' baith Houses o' Parliament. Oh spare, thou devourin element! Oh spare, I beseech thee, that ancient Ha'; spare, oh, spare, that ancient Abbey, where the banes o' the michty dead repose |