We must be at peace with our species, if not for their sakes, at least very much for our own." [1512] No one knew the value of self-control better than the poet Burns, and no one could teach it more eloquently to others; but when it came to practice, Burns was as weak as the weakest.

He could not deny himself the pleasure of uttering a harsh and clever sarcasm at another's expense.

One of his biographers observes of him, that it was no extravagant arithmetic to say that for every ten jokes he made himself a hundred enemies.

But this was not all.

Poor Burns exercised no control over his appetites, but freely gave them rein: "Thus thoughtless follies laid him low And stained his name." Nor had he the self-denial to resist giving publicity to compositions originally intended for the delight of the tap-room, but which continue secretly to sow pollution broadcast in the minds of youth.