Vanity Scathingly Reproved
Burns was dining with Maxwell of Terraughty, when one of the guests chose to talk of the dukes and earls with whom he had drank or dined, till the host and others got tired of him. Burns, however, silenced him with an epigram:
"What of earls, with whom you have supped?
And of dukes, that you dined with yestreen?
Lord! a louse, sir, is still but a louse,
Though it crawls on the curls of a queen."
Gratifying Industry!
In Galloway large craigs are met with having ancient writing on them. One on the farm of Knockleby has, cut deep on the upper side:
"Lift me up and I'll tell you more."
A number of people gathered to this craig, and succeeded in lifting it up, in hopes of being well repaid; but, instead of finding any gold, they found written on it:
"Lay me down as I was before."
The Force of Habit
Some years ago a Scotch gentleman, who went to London for the first time, took the uppermost story of a lodging-house, and was very much surprised to get what he thought the genteelest place of the whole at the lowest price. His friends who came to see him, in vain acquainted him with the mistake he had been guilty of.