See Robert Burns' spirited song with the chorus: "Up wi' my ploughman lad, And hey my merry ploughman; Of a' the trades that I do ken, Commend me to the ploughman." A somewhat different reading of this very obscure and now indeed obsolete proverb has been suggested by an esteemed and learned friend:--"I should say rather it meant that the ploughshare, or country life, accompanied with good luck or fortune was best; _i.e.,_ that industry coupled with good fortune (good seasons and the like) was the combination that was most to be desired.

_Soel_, in Anglo-Saxon, as a noun, means _opportunity_, and then good luck, happiness, etc." _There's mae[124] madines[125] nor makines_[126].

Girls are more plentiful in the world than hares.
_Ye bried[127] of the gouk[128], ye have not a rhyme[129] but ane_.
Applied to persons who tire everybody by constantly harping on one subject.
The collection by Allan Ramsay is very good, and professes to correct the errors of former collectors.

I have now before me the _first edition_, Edinburgh, 1737, with the appropriate motto on the title-page, "That maun be true that a' men say." This edition contains proverbs only, the number being 2464.

Some proverbs in this collection I do not find in others, and one quality it possesses in a remarkable degree--it is very Scotch.