s, groans]
But human bodies are sic fools.
For a' their colleges and schools,
That when nae real ills perplex them,
They make enow themselves to vex them,
An' aye the less they hae to sturt them, [fret]
In like proportion less will hurt them.
A country fellow at the pleugh,
His acres till'd, he's right eneugh;
A country lassie at her wheel,
Her dizzens done, she's unco weel; [dozens]
But gentlemen, an' ladies warst,
Wi' ev'ndown want o' wark are curst, [positive]
They loiter, lounging, lank, and lazy;
Though de'il haet ails them, yet uneasy; [devil a bit]
Their days insipid, dull, and tasteless;
Their nights unquiet, lang, and restless.
And e'en their sports, their balls, and races,
Their galloping through public places;
There's sic parade, sic pomp and art,
The joy can scarcely reach the heart.
The men cast out in party matches, [quarrel]
Then sowther a' in deep debauches: [solder]
Ae night they're mad wi' drink and whoring, [One]
Neist day their life is past enduring. [Next]
The ladies arm-in-arm, in clusters,
As great and gracious a' as sisters;
But hear their absent thoughts o' ither,
They're a' run de'ils and jades thegither. [downright]
Whyles, owre the wee bit cup and platie,
They sip the scandal-potion pretty;
Or lee-lang nights, wi' crabbit leuks, [live-long, crabbed looks]
Pore owre the devil's picture beuks; [playing-cards]
Stake on a chance a farmer's stack-yard,
And cheat like ony unhang'd blackguard.
There's some exception, man and woman;
But this is gentry's life in common.

By this the sun was out o' sight,
And darker gloamin' brought the night; [twilight]
The bum-clock humm'd wi' lazy drone, [cockchafer]
The kye stood rowtin' i' the loan; [cattle, lowing, lane]
When up they gat and shook their lugs, [ears]
Rejoiced they werena men but dogs;
And each took aff his several way,
Resolved to meet some ither day.

The satirical tendency becomes more evident in _The Holy Fair_. The
personifications whom the poet meets on