SHEPHERD SINGS. SONG.1 O weel befa' the maiden gay, Wha lo'es the modest truth sae weel- Amang sae mony men. O, weel befa' the bonny thing 'Tis sweet to hear the music float 'Tis sweet to hear the blackbird's note To see the lambkin's lightsome race— But sweeter far the bonny face O, had it no been for the blush Dear beauty never had been known, But aye sin' that dear thing of blame But deadliest far the sacred flame There's beauty in the violet's vest— There's hinny in the haw There's dew within the rose's breast, The sweetest o' them a'. The sun will rise and set again, And lace wi' burning gowd the main-- But lovelier far the bonny thing That wons in yonder glen. 191 1 Sung here for the second time, with one or two slight variations. See vol. i. p. 203. 2 Bught-sheepfold. 192 LITERARY SUPPERS.- THE BEST SOCIETY." Tickler. Clearly and crousely crawed, my cock. North. Sweetly and silverly sung, my nightingale. Shepherd. It's a gran' thing, sirs, to be the cock o' the company, occasionally; at ither times, pensie as a pullet. Tickler. Anything but a hen. Shepherd. At leeterary soopers, I like to see a blue-stocking playin the how-towdy. North. How? Shepherd. Chucklin intil hersel, when a spruce young cockie is lettin his wing drap close aside hers, and half-receivin halfdeclinin his advances, like ony ither Christian lassie wha mayna hae the gift o' writin verses ayont a Valentine. Far better sic undertoned and underhaund natural dealins, maist innocent a', than cacklin about Coleridge, or blouterin about Byron, or cheepin, as if she had the pip, o' Barry Cornwall. North. Some maidens I know, James, bright as the muses, whose souls, as well as frames, are made of the finest clay, who before the eyes of the uninitiated pass for commonplace characters, because, unpresumptuous in their genius, and retiring in their sensibility, oft "the house affairs do call them thence;" because, to their lips none so familiar as household words; and because to their hearts dearer are the tender humanities of life, than bright to their imaginations the poetic visions, that yet "swarm on every bough," when they walk in their beautiful happiness by Windermere or Loch Lomond. Tickler. I, too, like occasionally to play the first fiddle. Shepherd. An' you're entitled to do sae; for you've a fine finger, and a bauld bow-haun. North. I love best of all to sit sympathetically mute among my friends, and by a benign countenance to encourage the artless fluency of young lips, overflowing with the music of untamed delight in life, "a stranger yet to pain." Shepherd. A benign countenance ! North. Few words have been more perverted from their true meaning, by being narrowed, than the words one so frequently hears, nowadays, from not unvulgar lips—“Good Society ""The Best Society." Tickler. "The highest circles." North. In my opinion, James, a man may commit a worse mistake, in aspiring to association with persons above his own rank, than in descending_somewhat, perhaps, below it, in the intercourse of private and domestic life. ITS VOTARIES-THEIR USUAL FATE. 193 Shepherd. Many sumphs o' baith sexes do. There may be pride in ilka case; but the pride o' the first maun aften gnaw its thoom. The pride o' the second aftener wats its thoom to join't to that o' a brither, though born in laigh degree, probably as gude or a better man than himsel; and whan that's fund out, pride dees, and in its place there grows up a richtfu' affection. North. All men of sense know their natural position in society-whether it has been allotted to them by birth, by wealth, by profession, by virtue, by talent, by learning, or by genius. Shepherd. Happy he-and fortunate to whom have been given all these gifts! North. Yet some, my dear James, to whom they all have been given, have abused them—ay, even genius and virtue— and their friends have been speechless of them ever after their funerals. Tickler. Some use the terms "good society," as if they thought all society but that which they have in their eye, bad; and they superciliously shun all other, as not only infra dig, but in itself absolutely low, and such as they could not even casually enter without loss of honour-without degradation. North. Yet, when one asks himself, Tim, "who are they?" it is not, at least, of their pedigree they have to be proud, for, perhaps, "Their ignoble blood Has crept through scoundrels ever since the Flood." But by means of some showy accomplishment, or some acquired elegance, perhaps of demeanour, or some suave subservience that sits so naturally upon them that they-all unlike though it be mistake it for the easy manner of the higher class to which they have been permitted to become an appendage— they believe, at last, that they belong to the privileged orders, and look down on people who would not have shaken hands with their father, had he given them half the gold his itching palm had purloined. Tickler. Such aspirants generally sink as they had soared; and after their dangling days are done, you may chance to meet them shabby-genteel, in streets not only unfashionable, but unfrequented, somewhat old-looking, and ready to return your unexpected nod with an obsequious bow. VOL. III. N 194 EVERY MAN SHOULD STAND BY HIS OWN ORDER. Shepherd. Puir chiels! North. We all fall-if we be wise-of our own accord-and according to the operation of laws plain and unperplexinginto our proper place in the intercommunion of life. Thence we can look pleasantly, and cheerfully, and socially, around, above, and below us-unimpatient of peer, and unashamed of peasant-but most at home at firesides most like our own-a modest mansion-half-way, perchance, between hall and hutthat Golden Mean which all sages have prayed for, and which Religion herself has called blest! Shepherd. A' doors alike are open to you, sir, and every heart loups wi' welcomin at the clank o' your crutch on the marble-the stane-the sclate-the wooden, or the earthen stair. North. I am no flatterer of the great, James; but Shepherd. The Freen o' the sma'. North. Small? Who is- or need sing small, who bears within his bosom an honest heart? Shepherd. But why look sae fearsome in uttering sic a sentiment ? North. Because I thought of "the proud man's contumely," the oppressor's Shepherd. There's less oppression in this land than in ony ither that ever basked in sunshine, or was swept by storm; sae lay by the crutch, sir, and let that face subside, for "Blackness comes across it like a squall, ay, ay-thank ye, sir, thank ye, sir, 'tis again like the sky in the mornin licht. Tickler. Not quite so blue, I hope. Shepherd. Nae sarcasm, Tickler; better blue nor yellow. May I ask hae ye gotten the jaundice? Tickler. Merely the reflection of that bright yellow vest of yours, James, which, I fear, won't stand the washing. Shepherd. It'll scoor. North. Yet, delightful indeed, James, as you know, are the manners of high birth. There is a mighty power in manners, James, connected with the imagination. Shepherd. What's your wull? North. Why, in societies highly cultivated, some of the THE POWER OF REFINED MANNERS. 195 lightest and most exquisite motions of imagination exercise acknowledged authority over the framework of life. Shepherd. Eh, sir? North. As it might have been said at Paris, for example, James, in its height of civilisation, that among its highest circles, even the delicate play of Fancy, in lightest conversation, cultivated as it was as an accomplishment, and worn as the titular ornament of those among whom life was polished to its most sparkling lustre, even that grace of courtly wit, and playing fancy, had force in binding together the minds of men, and in maintaining at the summit of life, the peace and union of society. How strongly the quick clear sense of the slight shades of manners marked out to them those who belonged, and those who did not belong, to their order! In that delicate perception of manners, they held a criterion of rank by which they bound together as strongly their own society, as they separated it from all others. And thus the punctilios of manners, which appear so insignificant to ordinary observers, are, as they more finely discriminate the relations of men, of absolute power in the essential regulation and subordination of ranks. Shepherd. Fine philosophy, I daursay, but rather ower fine for the fingers o' my apprehension, clumsy at the uptak o' silk threeds, but strang when clasped roun' a rape or a cable. North. Now, James, passing from France under the old régime, when it was acknowledged all over Europe that the French were the politest people in the world, and their nobility the exemplars, in manners, of all nobilities, allow me to say that in all countries, where there is a hereditary peerage, that theirs is a life under the finest influences; and that in the delicate faculties of the mind, in its subtlest workings, in its gentlest pleasures, in even its morbid sensibilities, we are to look for the principles which govern with power their social condition. Why, the literature of this country is a bulwark of its political peace; not by the wisdom of knowledge thus imparted, but by the character it has impressed on the life of great classes of its inhabitants, drawing the pleasures of their ordinary life into the sphere of intellect. Shepherd. But arena you rinnin awa frae the subjeck? |