330 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1800. 



reach my ears — a poor negro driver 

 — or perhaps a victim to that inhos- 

 pitable cHme, and gone to the 

 world of spirits ! I can truly say, 

 that paiivre inconnu as I then was, I 

 had pretty nearly as high an idea of 

 myself and of my works as I have 

 at this moment, when the public 

 has decided in their favour. It ever 

 was my opinion, that the mistakes 

 andblunders, both in a rational and 

 religious point of view, of which 

 we see thousands daily guilty, are 

 owing to their ignorance of them- 

 selves. To know myself had been 

 all along my constant study. I 

 weighed myself alone ; I balanced 

 myself with others; I watched every 

 means of information, to see how 

 much ground I occupied as a man 

 and as a poet ; I studied assiduous- 

 ly nature's design in my formation, 

 Avhere the lights and shades in my 

 character were intended. I was 

 pretty confident my poems would 

 meet with some applause ; but at 

 the worst, the roar of the Atlantic 

 would deafen the voice of censure, 

 and the novelty of West Indian 

 scenes make me forget neglect. I 

 threw off six hundred copies, of 

 which I had got subscriptions for 

 about three hundred and fifty. My 

 vanity was highly gratified by the 

 reception I met with from the pub- 

 lic ; and besides, I pocketed, all 

 expenses deducted, nearly twenty 

 pounds. This sum caifle very sea- 

 sonably, as I was thinking of in- 

 denting myself, for want of money 

 to procure a passage. As soon as 

 I was master of nine guineas, the 

 price of wafting me to the torrid 

 zone, I took a steerage passage in 



the first ship that was to sail from 

 the Clyde, for 



Hungry ruin Iiad me in the wind. 



I had been for some days skulking 

 from covert to covert, under all 

 the terrors of a jail ; as some ill ad- 

 vised people had uncoupled the 

 merciless pack of the law at my 

 heels. 1 had taken the last fare- 

 well of my few friends ; my chest 

 was on the road to Greenock; I 

 had composed the last song I should 

 ever measure in Caledonia, " The 

 gloomy night is gathering fast," 

 when a letter from Dr. Blacklock to 

 a friend of mine overthrew all my 

 schemes, by opening new prospects 

 to my poetic ambition. The doctor 

 belonged to a set of critics for whose 

 applause I had not dared to hope. 

 His opinion that I would meet with 

 encouragement in Edinburgh for a 

 second edition fired me so much, 

 that away I posted for that city, 

 without a single acquaintance, or a 

 single letter of introduction. The 

 baneful star that had so long shed 

 its blasting influence in my zenith, 

 for once made a revolution to the 

 Nadir ; and a kind Providence 

 placed me under the patronage of 

 tlie noblest of men, the earl of Glen- 

 cairn — Oubiie mot, grand Dieu, si 

 jamais je foiiblie ! 



I need relate no farther. At 

 Edinburgh I was in a new world ; 

 I mingled among many classes of 

 men, but all of them new to me ; 

 and I was all attention to catch the 

 characters and the manners living 

 as they rise. Whether I have pro- 

 fited, time will shew.* 



* His death, which took place in Ju]y, 1796, is noticed in our Chronicle for that 

 year. 



