ars, an' plays at cartes, [cards]
Yet has sae mony takin' arts
Wi' great an' sma',
Frae God's ain priest the people's hearts
He steals awa'.

An' when we chasten'd him therefor,
Thou kens how he bred sic a splore [raised such a row]
As set the warld in a roar
O' laughin' at us;
Curse thou his basket and his store,
Kail and potatoes!

Lord hear my earnest cry an' pray'r,
Against that presbyt'ry o' Ayr;
Thy strong right hand, Lord, make it bare
Upo' their heads;
Lord, visit them, and dinna spare, [do not]
For their misdeeds.

O Lord my God, that glib-tongu'd Aiken,
My very heart and soul are quakin',
To think how we stood sweatin', shakin',
An' pish'd wi' dread,
While he, wi' hingin' lips and snakin', [sneering]
Held up his head.

Lord, in Thy day of vengeance try him;
Lord, visit him wha did employ him,
And pass not in Thy mercy by them,
Nor hear their pray'r:
But, for Thy people's sake, destroy them,
And dinna spare.

But, Lord, remember me and mine
Wi' mercies temporal and divine,
That I for grace and gear may shine [wealth]
Excell'd by nane,
And a' the glory shall be thine,
Amen, Amen!

Still more highly generalized is his _Address to the Unco Guid_, a
plea for charity in judgment, kept from sentimentalism by its gleam of
humor. It has perhaps the widest appeal of any of his poems of this
class. One may note that as Burns passes from the satirical and
humorous tone to the directly didactic, the dialect disappears, and
the last two stanzas are practically pure English.

ADDRESS TO THE UNCO GUID, OR THE RIGIDLY RIGHTEOUS

_My son, these maxims make a rule,
And lump them aye thegither; [together]
The rigid righteous is a fool,
The rigid wise anither;
The cleanest corn that e'er was dight, [sifted]
May hae some pyles o' caff in [grains, chaff]
So ne'er a fellow-creature slight
For random fits o' daffin._ [larking]
SOLOMON (_Eccles._ vii. 16).

O ye wha are sae guid yoursel,