and simple, namely, those divested of any humorous
element, Ramsay has done good work; but it is not by any means on a par
with what is expected from the poet who could write _The Gentle
Shepherd_. A painter of low life in its aspects both humorous and
farcical was Ramsay's distinctive _metier_. Pity it was his vanity and
ambition ever induced him to turn aside from the path wherein he was
supreme. His 'Ode to the Memory of Lady Mary Anstruther,' that to 'the
Memory of Lady Garlies,' the one to Sir John Clerk on the death of his
son James Clerk, and the 'Ode to the Memory of Mrs. Forbes of Newhall,'
are his best elegies. The versification is correct, the ideas expressed
are sympathetically tender, poetic propriety and the modesty of nature
are not infringed by any exaggerated expressions of grief, but the glow
of genius is lacking, and the subtle union of sentiment and expression
that are so prominent features in his greater poem.

His two finest efforts as an elegist were his _Ode to the Memory of Mrs.
Forbes_, beginning--

'Ah, life! thou short uncertain blaze,
Scarce worthy to be wished or loved,
Why by strict death so many ways,
So soon, the sweetest are removed!

If outward charms and temper sweet,
The cheerful smile, the thought sublime,
Could have preserved, she ne'er had met
A change till death had sunk with time;'

also the one on the _Death of Sir Isaac Newton_, wherein occur two
memorable stanzas--

'Great Newton's dead!--full ripe his fame;
Cease vulgar grief, to cloud our song:
We thank the Author of our frame,
Who lent him to the earth so long.

For none with greater strength of soul
Could rise to more divine a height,
Or range the orbs from pole to pole,
And more improve the human sight.'

His 'humorous elegies,' written in a mock heroic strain, and sometimes
upon persons still living, though, for the purposes of his art, he
represented them as dead, as in the case of John Cowper, are instinct
with broad, rollicking, Rabelaisian fun. Their vivid portrayal of the
manners and customs of the time renders them invaluable. What better
description of the convivial habits of Edinburgh society early last
century could be desired, than the graphic pictures in _Luckie Wood's
Elegy_, particularly the stanza--

'To the sma' hours we aft sat still,
Nick'd round our toasts and sneeshin'-mill;
Good cakes we wanted