Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 7.djvu/334

470 from his morbid despondency in the deceitful stimulant of the bottle. He yielded to its influence, only in as far as he manifested an increasing aversion to his occupation; or, as more worldly-minded people would term it, a tendency to idleness. Nor did the circumstance of several of his juvenile pieces appearing about this time in the Glasgow Advertiser, (now the Glasgow Herald,) and which attracted no small attention amongst his townsmen, tend anything to reconcile him to the shuttle. This was immediately before his migration to Queensferry; on his removal to which place, a circumstance occurred, which had a strong influence upon his future fortunes and character. His brother-in-law, Duncan, finding the trade of weaving inadequate to the support of his family, resolved to attempt that of a peddler or travelling merchant, for a while, and invited Wilson to join in the expedition. No proposal could have been more congenial to the young poet's mind, promising, as it did, the gratification of the two most powerful passions which he cherished, a desire for increasing his knowledge of men and manners; and a thirst for contemplating the varied scenery of nature. From a journal which he kept, indeed, (he was in his twentieth year when he set out,) during this expedition, it is evident that his sensations almost amounted to rapture; and he speaks with the i^ost profound contempt of the "grovelling sons of interest, and the grubs of this world, who know as little of, and are as incapable of enjoying, the pleasures arising from the study of nature, as those miserable spirits who are doomed to perpetual darkness, can the glorious regions and eternal delights of paradise!" For nearly three years did Wilson lead this wandering life, during which time it appears that he paid less attention to the sale of his wares, than to gratifying his predilection for reading and composition, and indulging in a sort of dreamy meditation, little compatible with the interests of his pack. In fact, of all occupations, the sneaking, cajoling, and half-mendicant profession of a peddler, was perhaps the most unsuitable to the manly and zealously independent tone of Wilson's mind; but he was consoled for his want of success, by the opportunities he enjoyed of visiting those spots rendered classical, or hallowed by the "tales of the days of old." He used to speak, for instance, with rapt enthusiasm, of the exultation he experienced in visiting the village of Athelstaneford, successively the residence of Blair and Home. During this happy period the only truly happy one, perhaps, of his whole life his muse was so busy, that, in 1 789, he began to think of publishing. As he could get no bookseller, however, to risk the necessary outlay, he was compelled to advance what little gains he had stored up, and getting a bundle of prospectuses thrown off, he set out on a second journey with his pack, for the double purpose of selling muslins and procuring subscribers for his poems. In the latter object, he was grievously disappointed; but Wilson was not a man to travel from Dan to Beersheba, and say all is barren, even although foiled in the immediate purpose of bis heart. His journal, during this second journey, indicates the strong and rapid growth of his understanding, and exhibits powers of observation and philosophic reflection, remarkable in a young man of the immature age of twenty-three. Upon his return home, he obtained the publication of his poems by Mr John Neilson, printer in Paisley, when he again set out on his former route, carrying with him a plentiful supply of copies, for the benefit of those who might prefer poetry to packware. A less sanguine individual than Wilson, might have anticipated the prejudice with which attempts at literary eminence, emanating from such a quarter, were likely to be viewed by the world. But our author was one to whose mind nothing but the test of experience could ever carry conviction a characteristic, which, in his subsequent career, proved one of the most valuable attributes of his mind. His expectations were