An insect is only an insect at most,
Though it crawl on the curls of a queen.”
Having been storm-sted one Sunday at Lamington, in Clydesdale, the poet went to church, but the day was so cold, the place so uncomfortable, and the sermon so poor, that he left this protest on the pew which he had occupied:—
“As cauld a wind as ever blew,
A caulder kirk, and in ’t but few;
As cauld a preacher’s ever spak’—
Ye’ll a’ be het ere I come back.”
While in Edinburgh, he visited at the studio of a well-known painter, who was at that time engaged on a picture of Jacob’s dream. Burns embodied his criticism of the work in the following lines, which he wrote on the back of a sketch still preserved in the painter’s family:—
“Dear ⸺, I’ll gie ye some advice,
You’ll tak’ it no uncivil;