LITERATURE. — BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE. 153 



CHAPTER VIII. 



LITERATURE. BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE. 



1817-1820. 



"With the year 1817 we enter on a new epoch in Wilson's life. 

 Hitherto his literary exertions had been confined, almost exclu- 

 sively to poetry ; and the reception of his works, however favorable, 

 had not been such as to satisfy him that that was the department in 

 which he was destined to assert his superiority, or to find full scope 

 for his varied powers. Much as has been said as to the mode in 

 which these were exercised, and the comparative inadequacy of the 

 results, I cannot but think that there is misconception on the subject. 

 I dismiss the question what he or any other man of great powers 

 ought to have done : I look simply at what he did do, which alone 

 concerns us, now that his work is finished. Whether he might or 

 should have written certain works on certain subjects, for the use or 

 pleasure of his own generation and of posterity, seems to me an idle 

 question. Enough for his vindication, that in a long and laborious 

 literary life he wielded a wholesome and powerful influence in the 

 world of letters ; and enough for his fame, that amid the haste and 

 exigencies of incessant periodical composition, he wrote such things 

 as no other man but himself could have written, and which will be 

 read and delighted in as long as the highest kind of criticism and of 

 prose-poetry are valued among men. Periodical literature, it seems 

 to me, was precisely the thing for which he was suited by tempera- 

 ment, versatility, and power; and unless it be broadly asserted, that 

 the service done to letters and civilization through the medium of a 

 great literary organ is unimportant, and unworthy of the efforts of 

 a man of genius, I do not see how it can be maintained that Profes- 

 sor Wilson neglected or threw away his gifts when he devoted them 

 to the establishment and maintenance of the influence of Black- 

 xcoocTs Magazine. 



Before, however, entering on the less peaceful events which follow, 

 let us have a glimpse of him once more — rod in hand, and knapsack 

 on back — away in the heart of the Highlands towards the close of 

 July, 1817. This time, however, he was burdened with a new load, 



