36 MEMOIR OF JOHN WILSON. 



TO 

 MARGARET, 



THE FOLLOWING LITTLE POEMS, 

 WHICH OWE ANT BEAUTY THEY POSSESS 



TO THE DELICACY OP HER FEELINGS, 



AND THE EMOTIONS SHE HAS INSPIRED, 



ARE, AS A SMALL MARK 



OP HIS ESTEEM AND REGARD, 



INSCRIBED 



BY HER WARMEST FRIEND AND SINCEREST ADMIRER, 



JOHN WILSON* 



After this comes an elaborate preface of thirty-eight MS. pages, 

 which, considering that it was the composition of a youth under 

 eighteen, is very remarkable for the ease and grace of the style, the 

 knowledge of poetical literature, the acute critical faculty, and the 

 judicious and elevated sentiments which it displays. This Preface, 

 and the poetical compositions to which it is prefixed, indicate suffi- 

 ciently that the person to whom they were addressed must have 

 possessed no ordinary mental qualities, and that the relation be- 

 tween her and the writer was founded on a true congeniality of 

 feeling. 



The poems are thirty-eight in number, including an " Answer" 

 by Margaret to " Lines" of his. The titles, copied from the table of 

 contents, are given below. f There are few of these compositions 



* Then follow on the next page these lines: — 



TO MARGARET. 



If this small offering of a grateful heart 



The thrill of pleasure to thy soul impart, 



Or teach It e'er that magic charm to feel, 



Which thy tongue knows so sweetly to reveal, 



Blessed be the breathing language of the line 



That speaks of grace aud virtues such as thine ; 



Blessed be those hours, when, warmed by love and thee, 



I poured the verse in trembling ecstasy ! 



Oh that the music which these lines contain 



Flowed like the murmurs of thy holy strain, 



When thy soft voice, clear-swelling, loves to pour 



The tones of feeling in her pensive hour, etc. 

 t Contents. — Poem on the Immortality of the Soul. Henry and Helen ; a Tale. Caledonia, or 

 Highland Scenery. Verses to a Lady weeping at a Tragedy. The Disturbed Spirit ; a Fragment. 

 The Song of the Shipwrecked Slave. The Prayer of the Orphan. The Fate of Beauty. Feeling 

 at parting from a beloved object. Lines on hearing a Lady play upon the Harp. Anna; a Song. 

 Love. Florentine. Parental Affection. Elegy on the Death of Dr. Lockhart. Lines suggested 

 by the fate of Governor Wall. Lines addressed to the Glasgow Volunteers. Osmond; an imita- 

 tion of M. G. Lewis. The Pains of Memory. The Sun shines bright, etc. I know some people 

 in this world, etc. A Wish. The Child of Misfortune. Mary. To a Lady who said she was not 



