Debar a' side pretences; Uncaring consequences. The great Creator to revere Must sure become the creature ; Yet ne'er with wits profane to range, An atheist's laugh's a poor exchange When ranting round in Pleasure's ring, Or if she gie2 a random sting, It may be little minded; But when on life we're tempest driven, A correspondence fix'd wi' Heaven Adieu, dear, amiable youth, Your heart can ne'er be wanting! May prudence, fortitude, and truth. In ploughman phrase, "God send you speed," And may you better reck the rede3 Than ever did th' adviser! ROBERT BURNS, one of the greatest of Scottish poets, was born in Ayrshire in 1759. His life was far from being commendable. Had he 1 atheist, one who denies that there is a God. 2 gie, to give. 3 reck the rede, heed the counsel. bent his energies to the purpose, he might have become eminent in almost any calling. Dissipation marred his work and shortened his life. He died in 1796. "The Cotter's Saturday Night" is regarded by many as one of his very best poems. A LIBERAL EDUCATION THOMAS H. HUXLEY THAT man has had a liberal education, who has been so trained in youth that his body is the ready servant of his will, and does with ease and pleasure all the work that, as a mechanism, it is capable of; whose intellect is a clear, cold, logic-engine, with all its parts of equal strength and in smooth working order; ready, like a steam engine, to be turned to any kind of work and spin the gossamers, as well as forge the anchors of the mind; whose mind is stored with a knowledge of the great and fundamental truths of Nature and of the laws of her operations; one who, no stunted ascetic, is full of life and fire, but whose passions are trained to come to heel by a vigorous will, the servant of a tender conscience; who has learned to love all beauty, whether of Nature or of Art, to hate all vileness, and to respect others as himself. Such a one and no other, I conceive, has had a liberal education; for he is, as completely as a man can be, in harmony with Nature. He will make the best of her, and she of him. They will get on together rarely; she as his beneficent mother; he as her mouthpiece, her conscious self, her minister, and interpreter ! as cet'ic, one entirely devoted to religious exercises. |