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XXII. DRINKING-SONG.

WILLIAM SUTHERLAND, merchant in Elgin, well known in the North, early in the eighteenth century, under the cognomen "Bogsie," had his virtues suitably immortalized by the comic muse. Bogsie" and his brother merchants were evidently men of classical education.

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"Viri Humani, Salsi, et Faceti Gulielmi Sutherland, Multarum Artium et Scientiarum, Doctoris Doctissimi, Diploma :

UBIQUE gentium et terrarum

From Sutherland to Padanarum,

From those who have six months of day,

Ad caput usque bonæ Spei;

And farther yet, si forte tendat,
Ne ignorantiam quis pretendat,
We Doctors of the merry meeting,
To all and sundry do send greeting:
Ut omnes habeant compertum,
Per hanc præsentem nostram chartam,
Gulielmum Sutherlandum Scotum,
At home per nomen Bogsie notum,
Who studied stoutly at our College,
And gave good specimens of knowledge.

In multis artibus versatum,

Nunc factum esse Doctoratum.
Quoth PRESES, strictum post examen,
Nunc esto Doctor, we said Amen.
So to you all hunc commendamus
Ut juvenem quem nos amamus,
Qui multas habet qualitates

To please all humours and ætates.
He vies, if sober, with Duns Scotus,
Sed multo magis, si sit potus,

In disputando just as keen as
Calvin, John Knox, or Tom Aquinas
In every question of theologie.
Versatus multum in trickologie,
Et in catalogis librorum

Frazer could never stand before him,
For he, by page and leaf, can quote,
More books than Solomon ev'r wrote.
A lover of the mathematicks
He is, but hates the hydrostaticks,
Because he thinks it a cold study,
To deal in water clear or mudy.
Doctissimus est medicinæ,
Almost a Borehave or Bellini.

He thinks the dyet of Cornaro

In meat and drink too scrimp and narrow,
And that the rules of Leonard Lessius

Are good for nothing but to stress us.

By solid arguments and keen,

He has confuted Dr. Cheyne,

And clearly proved by demonstration,

That claret is a good colation,

Sanis, ægris, always better

Than coffee or tea, milk or water;

!

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And can discover in urina,

Quando sit opus medicina.

A good French night-cap still has been,

He says, a proper anodyne,

Better than laudanum or poppy

Ut dormiamus like a toppy.

Affirmat lusum alearum
Medicamentum esse clarum,

Or else a touch at three hand Umber,
When toil or care our spirits cumber,
Which graft wings on our hours of leasure
And make them fly with ease and pleasure.
Aucupium et venationem,

Post longam nimis potationem,

He has discover'd to be good

Both for the stomach and the blood;

As frequent exercise and travel
Are good against the gout and gravel.
He clearly proves the cause of death
Is nothing but the want of breath,
And that, indeed, is a disaster,
When 'tis occasion'd by a plaster
Of hemp and pitch laid closely on
Somewhat above the colar bone.

Well does he know the proper doses
Which will prevent the fall of noses;
Ev'n keep them qui privantur illis,
Ægre utuntur perspicilis.

To this and ten times more his skill
Extends, when he would cure or kill.
Immensam cognitionem legum

Ne prorsus hic silentio tegam,
Cum sociis artis greese his fist,
Torquebit illas as you list.

If laws for bribes are made, its plain,
They may be bought and sold again.
Spectando aurum now we find,
That Madame Justice is stone-blind;
So deaf and dull on both her ears,
The clink of gold she only hears,
Nought else, but a loud party-shout,
Will make her start or look about.
His other talents to rehearse,
Brevissime in prose or verse;
To tell how gracefully he dances,
And artfully contrives romances;
How well he arches and shoots flying--
Let no man think that we mean lying;
How well he fences, rides, and sings,
And does ten thousand other things;
Allow a line, nay, but a comma,
To each turgerent hoc diploma.
Quare ut tandem concludamus,
Qui brevitatem approbamus,
For brevity is always good,
Providing we be understood,
In rerum omnium naturis,
Non minus quam scientia juris,

Et medicinæ Doctoratum

Bogsæum novimus versatum;

Nor shall we here say more about him,
But you may dacker if you doubt him.
Addamus tamen hoc tantillum,
Duntaxat nostrum hoc sigillum,
Huic Testimonio appensum,
Ad confirmandum ejus sensum,
Junctis Chyrographis cunctorum,
Blyth, honest, hearty, sociorum,
Dabamus at a large punch bowel,
Within our proper common school,
The twenty-sixth day of November,
Ten years, the date we may remember,
After the Race of Sherrifmuir,1

Scots-men will count from a black hour.
Ab omni probo nunc signetur
Qui denegabit extrudetur.

"Formula Gradus dandi :--

FADEM nos authoritate

Reges memoriæ beatæ,

Pontifices et Papæ læti,

Nam alii sunt a nobis spreti,

Quam quondam nobis indulserunt,

Qua privilegia semper erunt

Collegio nostro safe and sound

As long's the earth and cups go round,

Te Bogsæum hic creamus,

Statuimus et proclamamus,

Artium Magistrum et Doctorem,

Si libet etiam Proffessorem;

1 The battle of Sheriffmuir was fought November 12, 1715.

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