THE OOLOGIST. 



Ill 



viage, early iadiiced the youth to leave 

 the paternal roof. At the age of thir- 

 teen he bound himself to his brother-in- 

 law, William Duncan, who resided at 

 Queen's Ferry, on the Frith of Forth, 

 as an apprentice in liie weaver's trade. 

 Up to this period young Wilson had re- 

 ceived only the rudiu)ei)ts of a common 

 education at a grammar school in his 

 native place. At an early period of his 

 life he evinced a strong desire for learn- 

 ing; so much that his father proposed 

 to educate him for the ministry; but his 

 worthy' intentions failed to materialize. 

 The occupation to which he had bound 

 himself was not in the least adapted to 

 his free indepiMulcnt nature. Long 

 hours of gloom and despondency, soft- 

 ened only by poetical musing, marked 

 the three years of his apprenticeship. 

 His leisure hours were employed in the 

 perusal of magazines and trying his 

 skill in the composition of verses. Be- 

 coming weary of the sedentary employ- 

 ment of weaver he procured a pack and 

 travelled through Scotland as a peddler. 

 On these journeys he carried with him 

 a prospectus of a volume of poems 

 which he intended to pui^lish. We can 

 scarcely imagine a more peculiar com- 

 bination than that of peddler and poet. 

 He speaks of his occupation in such 

 language as this: 



If the pedler should fail to be favored with sale, 

 Then I hope you'll encourage the poet. 



Burns was now at the zenith of his 

 glory. His verses were eagerly read by 

 all the English speaking race. The 

 sweet cadence of his lines became the 

 admiration of every Scotchman. Wil- 

 son was alike moved. Burns had ever 

 been his ideal. To attain success equal 

 to Burns was the high goal of his am- 

 bition. Little did he realize that time 

 and circumstances would favor his rise; 

 and thai he would lead a life more ex- 

 cellent a:.d honored, and hand down to 

 posterity a name of ecjual renown. 



Soon after Burns had published his 

 poems, Wilsoi addres.sed a letter to 



him, objecting to the moral tendency of 

 some of the pieces. Burns perceiving 

 the writer of the letter to be a man of 

 no ordinary ability invited Wilson to 

 vi.--it him at his home in Ayx-shire. This 

 interview was extremely pleasant to 

 Wilson, and he repeatedly referred to 

 it in after life in terms of great delight. 

 Not long subsequent to his conversa- 

 tion with 'Burns he wrote an anony- 

 mous poem called "Natty and Megg," 

 which brought high praise from all who 

 read it, and which was acknowledged 

 to have proceeded from the pen of 

 Burns. 



The cause of his emigrating to Amer- 

 ica was the outcome of a dispute be- 

 tween the manufacturers and weavei'S 

 of Paisley. Wilson sided with the 

 weavers and wrote a personal satire 

 against an individual in the opponent 

 faction. It was published anonymous- 

 ly, but public opinion ascribed it to 

 Wilson ; 



On returning from the printers one 

 evening he was seized by spies who 

 found upon his person certain papers 

 which testified to the author of the se- 

 vere satire. He was tried and sentenced 

 to a short imprisonment and compelled 

 to burn the libel at the public cross of 

 Paisley with his own hand. Not long 

 after he decidedto emigrate to America 

 and there engage in the merchantile 

 business. He applied himself assidous- 

 ly to weaving and thus procured the 

 necessary funds to defray the expenses 

 of the passage. He set sail fronj Bel- 

 fast for the land of his future fame in 

 the summer of 1794. The vessel had its 

 full number of passengers, but rather 

 than give up the opportunity he con- 

 .sented to sle6p on the deck throiighout 

 the passage. He landed at New Castle, 

 Delaware on the 14th of July, 1794. 



Such are, in brief the important 

 events of the first twenty-eight years of 

 the great ornithologist's life. Years of 

 depressiqg circumstances indeed; yet 

 he rose in the face of great opposition 



