Probably it was for want of noting this distinction that the late Principal Shairp, who was a good judge of a certain class of poetry, lamented that Burns should have written _Holy Willie's Prayer_ and the _Jolly Beggars_!--a remark which led Louis Stevenson, in a compassionating way, to hint that Burns was perhaps too 'burly' a figure for the Principal's microscope. There is a good deal of this 'burliness' in Buchanan's _Leonoras_, which in point of graphic power are second only to the _Jolly Beggars_, while their savage and even hideous realism, contrasting with the elegance of the Latin line, produce a piquant effect from the mere point of view of art. But I demur to any suggestion that these or any of Buchanan's so-called 'amorous' poetry are corrupting or intended to be, or that they exhibit any gloating over the degrading or the degraded on the part of the writer. From references in them I believe they were satires written for the warning of 'college' youth, and resembled certain passages in the Book of Proverbs and elsewhere in the Bible, where certain counsels, highly necessary and practical, are conveyed in language not deficient either in directness or detail. They could not possibly scandalise or tempt any one, being written in Latin. Mr. Podsnap and the 'young person' would pass equally scatheless, for they could not read them. Only men who could construe and scan Horace could understand them, and these might be trusted to see their true drift. Then the _Ad Gelliam_ verses were merely playful little satires upon ladies who painted, or wore brass rings and glass gems, which might amuse readers, while producing no effect, good or evil, upon their subjects. As to the _Neæra_ series, they are not love-poems at all, but epigrams. There is no passion, sensuous or otherwise, in them. What show of manufactured emotion there may be is simply a stage-scaffolding on which to plant and fire off the epigram. Probably the best known of the series is the following:--
'Illa mihi semper præsenti dura Neæra, Me quoties absum semper abesse dolet; Non desiderio nostri, non moeret amore, Sed se non nostro posse dolore frui';
which James Hannay, who was well able to appreciate this class of work, translated thus:--