Proud to be thought a comic poet, }
And let a judge of numbers know it, }
I court occasion thus to show it. }
Second of thirdly--Pray take heed,
Ye's get a short swatch of my creed.
To follow method negatively,
Ye ken takes place of positively:
Weel then, I'm neither Whig nor Tory,
Nor credit give to purgatory.
Frae twenty-four to five-and-forty,
My muse was neither sweer nor dorty,
My Pegasus would break his tether,
E'en at the shagging of a feather,
And through ideas scour like drift,
Streaking his wings up to the lift;
Then, then my soul was in a low,
That gart my members safely row;
But eild and judgment 'gin to say,
Let be your sangs, and learn to pray.

I.S.W.

* * * * *


ESPRIT DE CORPS.

Old Captain Humdrum,
Being sent home in rum,
The tars as they brought him on shore,