Poetry is the very earliest form of literature, and is the natural
expression of a person in love; and I suppose we might as well admit the
fact at once that without love there would be no poetry.

Poetry is the bill and coo of sex. All poets are lovers, and all lovers,
either actual or potential, are poets. Potential poets are the people who
read poetry; and so without lovers the poet would never have a market for
his wares.

If you have ceased to be moved by religious emotion; if your spirit is no
longer exalted by music, and you do not linger over certain lines of
poetry, it is because the love-instinct in your heart has withered to
ashes of roses. It is idle to imagine Bobby Burns as a staid member of the
Kirk; had he been so, there would now be no Bobby Burns. The literary
ebullition of Robert Burns (he himself has told us) began shortly after he
had reached the age of indiscretion; and the occasion was his being
paired in the hayfield, according to the Scottish custom, with a bonnie
lassie. This custom of pairing still endures, and is what the students of
sociology call an expeditious move. The Scotch are great economists--the
greatest in the world. Adam Smith, the father of the science of economics,
was a Scotchman; and Draper, author of "A History of Civilization," flatly
declares that Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations" has influenced the people
of Earth for good more than any other book ever written--save none.

The Scotch are great conservators of energy.

The practise of pairing men and women in the hayfield gets the work done.
One man and one woman going down the grass-grown path afield might linger
and dally by the way. They would never make hay, but a company of a dozen
or more men and women would not only reach the field, but do a lot of