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‘Sic as against the Assembly speak,

The rudest sauls betray,

When matrons noble, wise, and meek,

Conduct the healthfu’ play;

Where they appear nae vice daur keek,

But to what’s guid gies way,

Like night, sune as the morning creek

Has ushered in the day.

Dear E’nburgh, shaw thy gratitude,

And o’ sic friends mak sure,

Wha strive to mak our minds less rude,

And help our wants to cure;

Acting a generous part and guid,

In bounty to the poor:

Sic virtues, if right understood,

Should every heart allure.’

We can easily see from this, and other symptoms, that the Assembly had to make many sacrifices to the spirit which sought to abolish it. In reality, the dancing was conducted under such severe rules as to render the whole affair more like a night at La Trappe than anything else. So lately as 1753, when the Assembly had fallen under the control of a set of directors, and was much more of a public affair than formerly, we find Goldsmith giving the following graphic account of its meetings in a letter to a friend in his own country. The author of the Deserted Village was now studying the medical profession, it must be recollected, at the university of Edinburgh: