IV PREFACE. 



I have availed myself of the letters of my father's principal 

 correspondents, so far as they served to throw light on the main 

 subject, or were in themselves interesting and characteristic. I 

 trust, in doing so, that I have inserted nothing calculated to 

 displease or give pain to any now living. If I have erred in 

 this or other respects, my inexperience in literary work must be 

 my excuse. 



I have spoken of the difficulties that I had to encounter. It 

 is now my pleasing duty to thank the friends who have so 

 kindly lent me their assistance, without which I should indeed 

 have been much at a loss. 



To my brothers, Mr. John Wilson of Billholm, Mr. Blair 

 Wilson, and my brother-in-law, Professor Aytoun, I am in- 

 debted for memoranda and many domestic letters. 



Others, too numerous to mention by name, will, I hope, ac- 

 cept my thauks for their courteous kindness in rendering me 

 such service as lay in their power. 



To the various students of former days, who have so heartily 

 contributed their reminiscences of the " old man eloquent" 

 whom they loved, I offer my most grateful thanks. Those parts 

 of the work which are chiefly made up of such contributions, 

 will, I am sure, be regarded by many as among its most valu- 

 able and interesting contents. To Mr. Hill Burton, the Eev. 

 William Smith, and Mr. A. T. Innes, I am under very special 

 obligations in this respect. 



To Messrs. Blackwood I am indebted for a complete list of 

 my father's contributions to the Magazine from 1826, which 

 has enabled me to make use of autobiographic details otherwise 

 inaccessible. 



