e following extraordinary spectacle of angelic
gymnastics, whereby the rescue of the lads was effected--

'Angels came posting down the divine beam
To save the helpless in their last extreme.'

Little promise was visible in that piece of future excellence, yet
within eighteen months he had written the _Elegy on Maggy Johnston_, to
which the critics of the Easy Club gave unstinted praise. For humorous
description of the convivial habits of the day, and graphic
word-painting, the poem is exceedingly happy. But alas! judged by our
latter-day standard of refinement, good taste, and morality, it is
_caviare_ to the general. Only to antiquarians and students of by-past
customs do its allusions contain much that is either interesting or
edifying.

To follow Ramsay's poetic development through all his earlier pieces
would simply exhaust the interest of the reader. Suffice it to say,
that, at the request of the Easy Club, he wrote an Elegy on the death
of Dr. Pitcairn in 1713, but the poem contained so many political
references and satirical quips that he omitted it from the collected
edition of his works in 1721. Pitcairn was a sort of Scottish Voltaire,
a man far in advance of his time, who paid in popular suspicion and
reprobation for his liberality and tolerance. What Robert Chambers
remarks of him is well within the facts of the case. 'His sentiments and
opinions on various subjects accord with the most enlightened views of
the present day, and present a very striking and remarkable contrast to
the ignorance and prejudice with which he was surrounded. Fanatics and
bigots he detested, and by fanatics and bigots, as a matter of course,
he was abused and calumniated. He was accused of being an atheist, a
deist, a mocker and reviler of religion, ... _and one who was twice
drunk every day_.' Ramsay, in his _Elegy_, rebutted those grossly
malevolent falsehoods, not only clearing the memory of his patron from
such foul dishonour, but with bitingly sarcastic humour he turned the
tables on the calumniators, by showing, over their action in connection
with the Union, who in reality were the traitors.

To the instigation of the Easy Club we also owe the piece on _The
Qualifications of a Gentleman_, published in 1715, subsequent to a
debate in the Society on the subject. Ramsay versified the arguments
used by the various speakers, executing the task in a manner at once so
graceful and witty that the Club formally declared h