PISTLES

Fame first came to Burns through his satires. Before he had been
recognized by the Edinburgh litterateurs, before he had written more
than a handful of songs, he was known and feared on his own countryside
as a formidable critic of ecclesiastical tyranny. It was this reputation
that made possible the success of the subscription to the Kilmarnock
volume, and so saved Burns to Scotland.

Two characteristics of the Kirk of Scotland had tended to prepare the
people to welcome an attack on its authority: the severity with which
the clergy administered discipline, and the extremes to which they had
pushed their Calvinism.

In spite of the existence of dissenting bodies, the great mass of the
population belonged to the established church, and both their
spiritual privileges and their social standing were at the mercy of
the Kirk session and the presiding minister. It is difficult for a
Protestant community to-day to realize the extent to which the
conduct of the individual and the family were controlled by the
ecclesiastical authorities. Offenses which now would at most be the
subject of private remonstrance were treated as public crimes and
expiated in church before the whole parish. Gavin Hamilton, Burns's
friend and landlord at Mossgiel, a liberal gentleman of means and
standing, was prosecuted in the church courts for lax attendance at
divine service, for traveling on Sabbath, for neglecting family
worship, and for having had one of his servants dig new potatoes on
the Lord's day. Burns's irregular relations with Jean Armour led to
successive appearances by both him and Jean before the congregation,
to receive open rebuke and to profess repentance. Further expiation
was demanded in the form of a contribution for the poor.

Against the discipline which he himself had to suffer Burns seems to
have made no protest, and probably thought it just enough; but what he
considered the persecution of his friend roused his indignation. This
was all the fiercer as he regarded some of the members of the session
as hypocrites, whose own private morals would not stand examination.
Chief among these was a certain William Fisher, immortalized in a
satire the application of which was meant to extend to the whole class
which he represented.

HOLY WILLIE'S PRAYER

Thou, that in the Heavens does dwell,
Wha, as it pleases best Thysel',
Sends ane to heaven and ten to hell,
A' for thy glory,
A