LOVE AND POETRY. 35 



feelings were brought into play ; and though the high-minded Mar- 

 garet gave no assurance to her lover entitling him to regard her 

 heart as bound to him, it is at least apparent that when, at the end 

 of that time, he left Scotland for Oxford, their communings had 

 been such that the heart of the young poet looked back to them as 

 recalling memories of "unmingled bliss." There is in the essay on 

 " Streams" an imaginative episode, manifestly founded on reality ; 

 but as manifestly designed to be a skilful mystification of his real 

 and unforgotten experience. As he naively hints at the end, "there 

 is some truth in it ;" truth to this extent, undoubtedly, that in " that 

 gloomy but ever-glorious glen," of which he speaks, young John 

 Wilson and Margaret did meet many a time, and hold sweet con- 

 verse together ; that to her sympathizing ear he poured forth the 

 aspirations of as pure and ardent a love as ever dwelt in the breast 

 of youth ; and that the recollection of those happy hours, and of her 

 many modest charms, working in a nature of fiery susceptibility 

 and earnestness, drove him afterwards, when clouds came over the 

 heaven of his dreams, to the very brink of despair. The coloring 

 of imagination has transformed the picture in " Streams" into a 

 vision of things that never were ; but there is no fiction in l he de- 

 scription of that passion as having " stormed the citadel of his heart, 

 and put the whole garrison to the sword," or, elsewhere, as " a life- 

 deep love, call it passion, pity, friendship, brotherly affection, all 

 united together by smiles, sighs, and tears." 



Of his life, from the date last mentioned to the time of his leav- 

 ing Glasgow for Oxford, I have unfortunately no memorial in the 

 shape of letters, his correspondence with his aunt already referred 

 to, who was his confidante and constant correspondent throughout, 

 having been irretrievably lost. There has come to my hands, how- 

 ever, a memorial of his love for Margaret, consisting of an octavo 

 volume of " Poems" in MS., written in that fair and beautiful hand 

 which he wrote up to the time when (it is no fancy to say so) the 

 " fever of the soul" begins to show itself in the impetuous tracings 

 of his pen. It is without date, but must have been written before 

 he left Glasgow. On the title-page, facing which are two dedica- 

 tory verses, is the inscription, " Poems on various subjects, by John 

 Wilson," with a poetical quotation below. On the next leaf is this 

 inscription : — 



