Page:Biographical and critical studies by James Thomson ("B.V.").djvu/410

 394 CRITICAL STUDIES tuously chawed up " by them as was the Opium Eater, who had been claiming mastery of the Scottish dialects, by the Shepherd's, " What's a gowpen of glaur?" and the lucid interpretation, " It's just hva neif-fu's d" darts" [two fistfuls of mud]. It would have been well, also, had Mr. Skelton, like Ferrier, noted the dates at which the several dialogues appeared ; and we think he had better have given, as did Ferrier, some of the best of the songs, with the airs, even although not by Wilson, merely naming the author. For the rest, we have nothing but praise for the manner in which he has accomplished the task he set himself. In several recent literary biographies we have re- marked that a letter from Carlyle, or anything concern- ing him personally, is about the most interesting piece in the work. In the " Memoir of Wilson," II. 140-151, Carlyle appears but once, in a letter, not important but characteristic, from Craigenputtock, December, 1829, reminding the Professor of his promise of a Christmas visit : " Come, then, if you would do us a high favour, that warm hearts may welcome in the cold New Year, and the voice of poetry and philosophy, numeris lege solutis, may for once be heard in these deserts, where, since Noah's deluge, little but the whirring of heath-cocks and the lowing of oxen has broken the stillness. You shall have a warm fire, and a warm welcome ; and we will talk in all dialects, concerning all things, climb to hill-tops, and see certain of the kingdoms of this world ; and at night gather round a clear hearth, and forget that winter and the devil are so busy in our planet. There are seasons when one seems as if emancipated from