Hope "springs exulting on triumphant wing," 1
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.

17

Compared 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 Pow'r, 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 enroll.

18

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.

19

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!

20

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 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,

Pope, Winsdor Forest, 112
Pope, Essay on Man, iv, 248

5

"The humorous satire of the piece is at the expense of popular Scottish Calvinism."-J. L. Robertson.

▲ from cloot, one of the divisions of a cloven hoof "Spairges is the best Scots word in its place I ever met with. The deil is not standing flinging the liquid brimstone on his friends with a ladle, but we see him standing at a large boiling vat, with something like a golfbat, striking the liquid this way and that way aslant, with all his might, making it fly through the whole apartment, while the inmates are winking and holding up their arms to defend their faces." (James Hogg.) interpretation admirably fits the spairges (Latin, spargere, to sprinkle; English, asperge, asperse); if it is correct, word cootie, which properly means a wooden kitchen dish of any size from a ladle to a small tub, is used rather boldly for the contents of the cootie. brimstone 7 scald

8 hangman

9

• slap

This word

the