8 EARLY YEAES. 



heaped on the industrious head of plain James Wilson. 

 Although he travelled on the Continent in the self-same 

 years, he is not the author of James Wilson's " Continental 

 Tour in 181G-18 ;" although a poet and a Paisley man, 

 he is not the author of " Silent Love," by James Wilson 

 " the Paisley poet ; " lawyer though he was, he did not sit 

 in the first Congress, and he had no hand in drawing up 

 the American constitution ; aquatic as were many of his 

 tastes, he did not compile a manual on "The Water 

 Cure ; " and Scotchman though he was, he never pub- 

 lished on statistics, nor did he edit a London newspaper. 

 What is still more worthy of observation, although their 

 mental features somewhat corresponded, and their affec- 

 tion for each other was intense, he was a distinct person- 

 ality from his own brother John. One day, many years 

 ago. at the dinner-table at Ardencaple the conversation 

 came to turn on Blackwood's Magazine, which, with its 

 merry mischief, was then vexing or diverting all the 

 world. " Has Professor Wilson any brothers ? " exclaimed 

 a guest ; but before Lord John Campbell could introduce 

 the quiet gentleman opposite, with a face of impene- 

 trable solidity, James Wilson, turning to the interrogator, 

 made answer for himself. " Oh yes, he has several 

 brothers. But, as you know always happens in such 

 cases, all the brothers are idiots ! However, I submit to 

 the laws of nature." 



