. But perhaps the best idea of the appearance of the poet may
be gathered from Sir John Steele's fine statue of him (designed from his
son's portrait) which now stands at the corner of West Princes Street
Gardens, Edinburgh, immediately below the site of his house. There, with
his familiar 'nightcap' on his head, he stands, watching the busy crowds
passing to and fro in front of him, wearing the while an expression on
his face as though he were saying with his Patie--

'He that hath just enough can soundly sleep,
The o'ercome only fashes fouk to keep;
Content's the greatest bliss we can procure
Frae 'boon the lift: without it, kings are poor.'

FOOTNOTES:

[2] The first stanza is in reality by Burns, and is identical with that
he placed on the tombstone he erected over the remains of Fergusson, the
poet, in the Canongate Churchyard.

CHAPTER X

RAMSAY AS A PASTORAL POET AND AN ELEGIST

In attempting a critical estimate of the value of Ramsay's works, for
the purpose of analysis it will be most convenient to consider the great
body of his writings under certain classified headings--(1) Ramsay as a
Pastoral Poet and an Elegist; (2) Ramsay as a Satirist and a
Song-writer; (3) Ramsay's Miscellaneous Works.

In the chapter on _The Gentle Shepherd_, we noted the distinctive
constituents of pastoral poetry, as currently defined, and also wherein
Ramsay's principles, as exemplified in practice, differ from those of
other writers of pastoral. To furnish examples illustrative of our
contention is now all that remains to be done. Early in his poetical
career, as soon, in fact, as he had completed his first tentative
efforts, Ramsay seems to have become conscious, with that rare gift of
prevision always distinguishing him, that his strength lay in a
picturesque yet truthful delineation of rural life. His earliest pieces,
although termed elegies, exhibit, rather, many of the characteristics of
pastorals, in the broad humour and in the graphic and vivid colouring
wherewith he depicts the scenes at Maggy Johnston's tavern at
Morningside, or the incidents in the life of Luckie Wood or of Patie
Birnie. But, as he has termed them _elegies_, under that heading let
them be considered, though a humorous or mock elegy is somewhat of a
contradiction in terms.

Roughly classified, Ramsay's pastorals may be stated as follows:--the
dialogues between _Richy_ (Sir Rich. Steele) _and Sandy_ (Alex. Pope),
on the de