Grant me, indulgent Heav’n, that I may live
To see the miscreants feel the pains they give,
Deal Freedom’s sacred treasures free as air,
Till slave and despot be but things which were.


XLV.

THE PARSON’S LOOKS.

[Some sarcastic person said, in Burns’s hearing, that there was falsehood in the Reverend Dr. Burnside’s looks: the poet mused for a moment, and replied in lines which have less of truth than point.]

That there is falsehood in his looks
I must and will deny;
They say their master is a knave—
And sure they do not lie.


XLVI.

THE TOAD-EATER.