ALEXANDER WILSON. xxxi 



if possible, after the verdict had been pronounced : it was, however, 

 carried into execution in the most private and gentle manner, a 

 very few of his intimate friends only seeing him burn the obnoxious 

 pamphlet in question. In those his evil days, he seems to have 

 been carried off by the persuasions of his companions, or, as he 

 says, " led astray " by his too keen " imagination," without con- 

 sidering the pain or injury he inflicted on the objects of his satire, 

 or the evil consequences it might bring upon himself. His future 

 opinions were very different. In a copy of his poems, in possession 

 of Mr Ord, his able editor, there is written by himself, — " I pub- 

 lished these poems when only twenty-two, an age more abundant 

 in sail than ballast. Reader, let this soften the rigour of criticism 

 a little. — 1804." In a letter to his father of a later date, he says, 

 " In youth I had wrong ideas of life ; imagination too often led 

 me astray. You will find me much altered from the son you knew 

 me in Paisley, more diffident of myself, and less precipitate, though 

 often wrong." And when copies of these poems were afterwards 

 brought to him, in America, by a friend, he threw them into the 

 fire, saying, " Ay, David,* have you been at all this trouble ? 

 These were the follies of my youth, and I sincerely wish they had 

 never seen the light. Had I taken the advice of our kind and 

 excellent father, I should have done 'well, and saved myself many 

 an uneasy hour." 



After these unfortunate circumstances, we might easily judge, 

 that the keen feelings of our author would not allow him to remain 

 in Paisley, and might fancy him resuming for a time his travelling 

 occupations. His thoughts, however, took a wider range. An 

 honourable fear of ruining his friends actuated him. He could not 

 trust to his own strength of mind to refrain from those satires, for 

 which he was now under bail ; and after using every argument to 

 convince his father and favourite sister, Mary, of the propriety of 

 his intentions, he at last observed, " I am bound now, and cannot 

 ruin Thomas Witherspoon (his security), and I must get out my 

 mind." He imagined, also, that his misfortunes would continue ; 

 and the ideal charms of a free land, and of liberty, drew his atten- 

 tion to a more distant country. His mind had become gradually, 

 but firmly, reconciled to seek a new fortune in America. 



* David Wilson, the poet's half brother. 



