THE MORAL PHILOSOPHY CHAIE. 209 



many calumnies have been industriously circulated against my pri- 

 vate character. Among others, it has lately been insinuated that I 

 am a bad husband, a bad father, and, in short, in all respects a bad 

 family man. I believe that I may with perfect confidence assert, 

 that whatever may be my faults or sins, want of affection for my 

 wife and children, my mother, sisters, and brothers, is not of the 

 number. My whole happiness in life is centred hi my family, whom 

 God in his infinite goodness has hitherto preserved to me in their 

 beauty, their simplicity, and innocence. I am more at home than 

 perhaps any other married man in Edinburgh ; nor is there on earth 

 a human being who feels more profoundly and gratefully the bless- 

 edness and sanctity of domestic fife. This, my dear madam, must 

 be your conviction ; and you would now be conferring upon me a 

 singular favor, by expressing to me in such a letter as I could show 

 to my friends in Council, of whom I have many, your sentiments 

 with respect to me and my character. Your own pure and lofty 

 character will be a warrant of the truth of what you write, and a 

 hundred anonymous slanders will fall before the weight of your fa- 

 vorable opinion. I would not write to you thus, if I were conscious 

 of having done any thing which might forfeit your esteem ; but 

 whatever may be thought of my talents or of my poetical genius, 

 neither of which I have ever wished to hear overrated, I have no 

 doubt that I am entitled to the character of a virtuous man in the 

 relations of private life. I am, my dear madam, yours, with true 

 respect, "Johx Wilson." 



Mrs. Grant thus replied : — 



" I have known your family for several years intimately ; indeed, 

 through intermediate friends, have known much of you from your 

 very childhood ; and in the glow of youth, high spirits, and un- 

 clouded prosperity, always understood you to be a person of amia- 

 ble and generous feelings and upright intentions. Since you mar- 

 ried, I have known more of you, and of the excellent person to 

 whom you owe no common portion of connubial felicity; and I 

 always believed her to be the tranquil and happy wife of a fond and 

 faithful husband, domestic in his habits, devoted to his children, 

 and peculiarly beloved by his brothers and sisters, and his respect- 

 able and venerated parent. Often have I heard your sisters tall; 

 



