To save your souls fu’ mony o’ ye are fain,
But de’il a dizzen to mak’ it worth the daein’.
I widna gi’e five meenits wi’ Dunbar
For a’ the millions o’ ye as ye are).
I micht ha’e been contentit wi’ the Rose
Gin I’d had ony reason to suppose
That what the English dae can e’er mak’ guid
For what Scots dinna—and first and foremaist should.
I micht ha’e been contentit—gin the feck
O’ my ain folk had grovelled wi’ less respec’,