CCXLIV.

IS THERE, FOR HONEST POVERTY.

Tune--"_For a' that, and a' that._"

[In this noble lyric Burns has vindicated the natural right of his species. He modestly says to Thomson, "I do not give you this song for your book, but merely by way of _vive la bagatelle_; for the piece is really not poetry, but will be allowed to be two or three pretty good prose thoughts inverted into rhyme." Thomson took the song, but hazarded no praise.]