They had been fou for week thegether.”

None knew better than Burns how ephemeral are the joys of social drinking, and no one has ever produced such a chain of similitudes to describe their fleeting sweetness.

“But pleasures are like poppies spread,

You seize the flower, its bloom is shed;

Or like the Borealis race

That flit ere you can point their place;

Or like the rainbow’s lovely form

Evanishing amid the storm.

Or like the snow-flakes in the river,

A moment white, then melts forever.”