king,
I'd advance ye, I'd advance ye;
Were I but a prince or king,
So highly I'd advance ye!
Great wit and sense are ever found
Among ye always to abound;
Much like the orbs that still move round,
No ways constrained, but easy.
Were I but, etc.

Most of what's hid from vulgar eye,
Even from earth's centre to the sky,
Your brighter thoughts do clearly spy,
Which makes you wise and easy.
Were I but, etc.

All faction in the Church or State,
With greater wisdom still you hate,
And leave learn'd fools there to debate,--
Like rocks in seas you're easy.
Were I but, etc.

I love ye well--O let me be
One of your blythe Society;
And like yourselves I'll strive to be
Aye humorous and easy.
Were I but, etc.

The benefits received by the self-confident young poet were not alone of
an intangible character. Praise is an excellent thing of itself, but a
modicum of pudding along with it is infinitely better. To Ramsay the
Easy Club was the means of securing both. The _role_ of his literary
patrons was at once assumed by its members. They printed and published
his _Address_ at their own expense, appointed him, within a few months'
time, their 'Poet Laureate,' and manifested, both by counsel and the
exercise of influence, the liveliest interest in his welfare. No trivial
service this to the youthful poet on the part of his kindly club
brethren. How great it was, and how decisive the effect of their
generous championship in establishing Ramsay's reputation on a sure
basis, will best be understood by glancing for a moment at the character
of the Easy Club and the _personnel_ of its membership.

Originally founded, under a different name, as a means of frustrating,
and afterwards of protesting against, the Union, the Club, after its
reconstruction in 1711, became a Jacobite organisation pure and simple.
As Ramsay himself stated in after years: 'It originated in the antipathy
we all of that day seemed to have at the ill-humour and contradiction
which arise from trifles, especially those which constitute Whig and
Tory, _without having the grand reason for it_.' The grand reason in
question was the restoration of the Stuarts. To give a _soupcon_ of
mystery to their proceedings, as well as to veil their identity when
thus plotting against the 'powers that