Page:Alloway Kirk or Tam o Shanter a tale and man was made to mourn a poem with a sketch of burnss life.pdf/7

7 sonsie lass." He says, "she altogether, unwittingly to herself, initiated me in that delicious passion, which, in spite of acid disappointment, gin-horse prudence, and luke warm philosophy, I hold to be the first of human joys, our dearest blessing here below. Indeed, I did not know myself why I liked so much to loiter behind with her, when returning in the evening from our labours; why the tones of her voice made my heart-strings thrill, like a Æolian harp; and particularly, why my pulse beat such a furious ratan, when I looked and fingered over her little hand, to pick out the cruel nettle stings and thistles.

"Thus," says he, "with me began love & poetry; which at times have been my only, and till within the last twelve months, my highest enjoyment.

In the course of the poet's life he was received at the tables of the