And think na, my auld trusty servan',
That now perhaps thou's less deservin',
An' thy auld days may end in starvin';
For my last fou, [bushel]
A heapit stimpart I'll reserve ane [quarter-peck]
Laid by for you.
We've worn to crazy years thegither;
We'll toyte about wi' ane anither; [totter]
Wi' tentie care I'll flit thy tether [attentive, change]
To some hain'd rig, [reserved plot]
Where ye may nobly rax your leather, [stretch, sides]
Wi' sma' fatigue.
To the evidence of Burns's warm-heartedness supplied by these kindly
verses may appropriately be added the _Address to the Deil_. Burns's
attitude to the supernatural we have already slightly touched on.
Apart from the somewhat vague Deism which seems to have formed his
personal creed, the poet's attitude toward most of the beliefs in the
other world which were held around him was one of amused skepticism.
_Halloween_ and _Tam o' Shanter_ show how he regarded the grosser
rural superstitions; but the Devil was another matter. Scottish
Calvinism had, as has been said, made him almost the fourth person in
the Godhead; and Burns's thrusts at this belief are among the most
effective things in his satire.
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