Page:The Poetical Works of William Motherwell, 1849.djvu/45

 most book-fanciers he sometimes sacrificed usefulness to the indulgence of a spirit of curiosity, but in that province of literature to which he was chiefly devoted—poetry and the historical romance—his library was rich. Its chief wants were in the department of modern history and moral and philosophical science, in none of which subjects can it be said that he took much pleasure. His knowledge of them was, consequently, defective, and this was both felt and seen when politics became his profession.

It may be naturally supposed of the man who at fourteen sketched the outline of Jeanie Morrison, that if he did not actually lisp in numbers the art of versification must have been at least an irresistible habit, and that but when he first committed himself publicly to the dangers and allurements of rhyme, or where, I have been unable satisfactorily to ascertain. In 1818 he contributed some little things to a small work published at Greenock, called the 'Visitor,' and for several years afterwards he continued to furnish with pieces of original poetry such of his literary friends in Paisley and Glasgow as applied to him for assistance. In this respect his liberality was exemplary, if not prodigal, but he afterwards collected the best of these fugitive productions, and embodied them in that volume upon which his reputation as a poet must ultimately rest. In 1819, the, of which he was