4:52 MEMOIR OF JOHN WILSON. 



how much pleasure and how much pride I felt when I learned he 

 had given me so conspicuous a mark of his esteem. 



" With many thanks for your congratulations, believe me, yours 

 most truly, ' T. B. Macatjlat."* 



This autumn my father's hand ceased forever from work. 

 Writing had now become a painful exertion, and nothing shows it 

 more than his manuscript. The few notes he wrote at this time to 

 his son Blair, and now lying before me, are almost undecipherable, 

 the characters evidently written by a weak and trembling hand. 

 There is nothing of moment in any of them ; but as they refer to 

 the work which occupied him at that time, I subjoin them with feel- 

 ings of painful interest, as the last words his hand ever transcribed.! 



Few as the words of these notes are, we can perceive that his 

 work is one of much interest to him, and that he is bestowing the 

 usual care on its preparation. 



There is only one passage which I shall make use of from these 

 last articles, the Dies Boreales. Not because it is so beautiful in 

 itself, but by reason of the tender character of the subject. That 

 deep and lasting love which the grave did not destroy — the lost 

 image of his wife — was an ever present theme for the exercise of 

 his soul's submission. Tempered though his sorrow was, he carried 

 it in the recesses of his heart perpetually, and his last thoughts 

 have been embalmed in this fine passage. The forlorn and widow- 

 ed heart speaks in every word : 



" When the hand of Death has rent in one moment from fond 



* Besides the laudatory critique of the Lays of Ancient Borne in Blackwood, for December, 

 1842, my father, unless I am misinformed, had once more at least acted a generous part to a 

 political opponent, by reviewing " Croker's Criticisms" on Macaulay's England, in two letters 

 addressed to the editor of the Scotsman, April 18th and 2Sth, 1S49, signed Aliquis. 



" July 22d. 



t " My Dear Blair :— I took from Gloucester Place three volumes of Milton, of which one 

 is the second volume of ' Paradise Lost,' 4th edition, Thomas Newton. It contains the first six 

 books, and the note and letter. The first volume must contain the first six. Can you get it for 

 me, and send it out without delay per train ? Tours affectionately, J. Wilson. 



" I want to have Addison's Essay on ' Paradise. Lost.' " 



" Woodburn. 



"My Dear Blair:— Tour active kindness has done all that could be done about Milton. 

 Look in my room for ' Payne,' Knight's ' Principle of Taste,' and for Karnes's ' Elements.' 



u Tours affectionately, J.Wilson." 



" Woodburn, Thursday Afternoon. 

 "My Dear Blair:— Call at Blackwood's on your way to College (on Saturday), and ask John 

 or the Captain if they have a parcel for me at Woodburn from the printer's in the evening; if 

 10, you may stay and bring it by railway, the latest one going. 



" Tours affectionately, J. Wilson." 



