The Complete Works of Robert Burns: Containing his Poems, Songs, and Correspondence. Allan Cunningham

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XXI.

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THE ORDINATION.

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      “For sense they little owe to frugal heav’n—

       To please the mob they hide the little giv’n.”

      [This sarcastic sally was written on the admission of Mr. Mackinlay, as one of the ministers to the Laigh, or parochial Kirk of Kilmarnock, on the 6th of April, 1786. That reverend person was an Auld Light professor, and his ordination incensed all the New Lights, hence the bitter levity of the poem. These dissensions have long since past away: Mackinlay, a pious and kind-hearted sincere man, lived down all the personalities of the satire, and though unwelcome at first, he soon learned to regard them only as a proof of the powers of the poet.]