THE OKPHAN MAID. 



67 



tion a woman of delicate feelings has but one way of acting. I have 

 not time for more. " Yours ever, 



"Alex. Blatb." 



The next letter in my possession is dated March 7, 1804,* and 

 may be inserted below for the sake of chronological order, as show- 

 ing the kind of studies which were meantime engaging his attention. 



From this date down to September of the same year there is no 

 record of his doings. Blair writing to Findlay, September 30th, 

 says : — " I imagine Wilson should be in London about this time to 

 meet his mother. I have not seen him this summer." It may be 

 inferred that he was occupied during the spring with his studies, 

 and struggling as best he could to overcome the dejection of spirits, 

 which, judging from the next letter, did not for a time pass away. 

 During the summer, he went off on a long excursion through Wales, 

 to which he subsequently alludes in no very agreeable terms. It 

 could not fail, however, to arouse his poetic sensibilities, and in one 

 of the commonplace-books I find a sketch of an intended poem on 

 this subject, entitled "Hints for the Pedestrian." 



The next glimpse of him from correspondence is in a letter from 

 Blair to Findlay, of date November 24, 1804:— 



" Wilson has been walking about in Wales all this summer, and 

 is now at Oxford again. I have not once seen him. He says he is 

 going to Scotland in about five weeks. I believe he had better not. 



* It is little more than a mere catalogue of books, but the playful tone in which the commission 

 is rendered, gives interest and not a little character to the document. 



"Bob, you scoundrel, did you get my last letter? If you can get any bookseller to trust me 

 under my own name, or me under your name, for the following books, until this time twelve- 

 months, buy them, and send them down-as soon as possible. I think that, with proper manage- 

 ment, you may manage to get it done. 



" 1. Ferguson's Koman Republic, in octavo ; don't buy it unless in octavo. 2. Mitford's Greece, 

 in octavo; don't buy it unless in octavo. 3. Stewart's edition of Reid's Philosophy. This book 

 is only in octavo, therefore don't buy it unless in octavo. 4. Malthus's Essay on Population— an 

 excellent book— read part of it; most acute thing of the present day. 5. Godwin's Political Jus- 

 tice ; don't buy it unless in octavo. 6. Gillies' Greece in octavo ; don't buy it unless in octavo. 

 1. Pinkerton's Ancient Scottish Poems; recollect this is not his Ancient Comic Ballads. 8. AU 

 Ritson's publications, except English Romances, and Essay on Abstinence from Animal Food. 



9. Hartley on Man; last edition in three vols, octavo, with notes by some foreigner or another. 



10. Rousseau's Works, if cheap and complete; thirty-four volumes, or perhaps less ; but complete, 

 certainly complete. 11. Reguier's History, if tolerably cheap. 12. Turner's History of the An- 

 glo-Saxons, three vols. 13. Any good edition of Gilbert Stuart's Works; also, Mallet's Northern 

 Antiquities, translated. 15. Bisset's History of this Country. 16. All Pinkerton's works indeed 

 you may buy, except his Geography. H possible, let them all be in boards. 



■ "J.Wilson. 

 "Magdalen College, March, 1S04, 

 " Tuesday Evening." 



