Note 19 — Chapter VIII
Reading edition
This story is sometimes said to have been told by the Rev. Dr. Guthrie. It is also reported as having had its origin in a smiddy at Auchtermuchty, in Fife. The idea is probably as old as the human race. The Ayrshire farmer’s expression of it however was a good deal more graphic than Pope’s
We think our fathers fools, so wise we grow, Our wiser sons, no doubt, will think us so.