Preface

of his people.

he first showed plete mastery of verse in the field of satire. in “the twa herds,” “holy willie's prayer,” “address to the unco guid,” “the holy fair,” and others, he maed sympathy with the protest of the so-called “new light” party, which had sprung up in opposition to the extreme calvinism and intolerance of the dominant “auld lichts.” the fact that burns had personally suffered from the discipline of the kirk probably added fire to his attacks, but the satires show more than personal animus. the force of the iive, the keenness of the wit, and the fervor of the imagination which they displayed, rehem an important for the theological liberation of scotland.

the kilmarnoe tained, besides satire, a number of poems like “the twa dogs” and “the cotter's saturday night,” which are vividly descriptive of the scots peasant life with which he was most familiar; and a group like “puir mailie” and “to a mouse,” which, ienderness of their treatment of an

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