314 MEMOIR OF JOHN WILSON. 



"27 Lower Belgrave Place. 

 11th September, 1828. 



" My dear Friend : — I have cut and cleared away right and 

 left, and opened a space for your very beautiful poem, and now it 

 will appear at full length, as it rightly deserves. Will you have 

 the goodness to say your will to the proof as quickly as possible, 

 and let me have it again, for the printer pushes me sorely. 



" You have indeed clone me a great and lasting kindness ; you 

 have aided me, I trust effectually, in establishing my Annual Book,* 

 and enabled me to create a little income for my family. My life 

 has been one continued struggle to maintain my independence and 

 support wife and children, and I have, when the labor of the day 

 closed, endeavored to use the little talent which my country allows 

 me to possess as easily and as profitably as I can. The pen thus 

 adds a little to the profit of the chisel, and I keep head above water, 

 and on occasion take the middle of the causeway with an inde- 

 pendent step. 



" There is another matter about which I know not how to speak ; 

 and now I think on't, I had better speak out bluntly at once. My 

 means are but moderate ; and having engaged to produce the liter- 

 ature of the volume for a certain sum, the variety of the articles has 

 caused no small expenditure. I cannot, therefore, say that I can 

 pay you for Edderline's Dream ; but I beg you will allow me to lay 

 twenty pounds aside by way of token or remembrance, to be paid 

 in any way you may desire, into some friend's hand here, or remit- 

 ted by post to Edinburgh. I am ashamed to offer so small a sum 

 for a work which I admire so much ; but what Burns said to the 

 Muse, I may w T ith equal propriety say to you : — 



" ' Ye ken — ye ken 

 That strong necessity supreme is 

 'Mang sons of men.' 



" Now, may I venture to look to you for eight or ten pages for 

 my next volume on the same kind of terms ? I shall, with half-a- 

 dozen assurances of the aid of the leading men of genius, be able to 

 negotiate more effectually with the proprietor ; for, when he sees 

 that Sir Walter Scott, Professor Wilson, Mr. Southey, Mr. Lock- 

 hart, and one or two more, are resolved to support me, he will com- 

 prehend that the speculation will be profitable, and close with me 



* The Anniversary. 



