cxviii 
LIFE OF WILSON. 
In a poem consisting of more than two thousand lines, it would be strange 
if some touches of excellence could not be found, some passages which prove 
that the author not only possessed poetical ideas, but also was familiar with the 
art of poetical expression. In his description of the calm, smoky, autumnal 
weather, which, in America, is usually denominated the Indian Stimmcv, we 
are presented with a beautiful image, which I do not recollect to have seen 
elsewhere : 
" Slow sailed the thistle-down along the lawn." 
The description of the Dutch farmer, and his habitation, would not disgrace 
the author of Hip Van Winkle. 
In the ciiuuieratiou of the miseries of a country schoolmaster there is much 
truth ; and the picture is vividly and feelingly drawn from nature. Few had 
more experience than Wilson- of the degraded condition of a teacher, when 
under the control of the vulgar and ignorant; a state compared with which the 
lot of the hewer of wood, and drawer of water, is truly enviable. 
The account of dcnhli/ Sciuarcs, the settler, and that of Pat Dougherty, the 
shopkeeper and publican, contain some humor. The latter is a disgusting 
exhibition of one of those barbarians, whom the traveller often meets with in 
the interior of our countr}' ; and whose ignorance, bestiality and vice, have the 
tendency to disabuse one on the subject of the virtue and happiness usually 
attributed to the inhabitants remote from our large cities, which, instead of 
being the only nurseries of corruption, as is believed and affirmed, are the 
great schools wherein science, literature, piety and manners, are most effectively 
taught, and most beneficially practised. 
The sketch of the Indian hunter is entitled to praise, as being vigorous and 
picturesque; and the description of the Bald or Gray Eagles, sailing amid the 
mist of the Cataract of Niagara, is a picture drawn with fidelity — it is poetical 
and sublime. 
After this superficial review of the poems of W^ilson, the question will 
naturally arise, ought we to consider him as one endued with those requisites, 
which entitle his productions to rank with the works of the poets, properly so 
called ? To write smooth and agreeable verses is an art of no very difficult 
purchase; we see it dally exemplified by persons of education, whose leisure 
permits them to beguile a lonely hour with an employment at once delightful 
and instructive. But when one considers the temporary nature of the great 
mass of these fugitive essays, that they are read and remembered just so long 
as is the ephemeral sheet, or magazine, the columns of which they adorn ; one 
can form no high expectations of the long life of that poetry which seldom rises 
beyond mediocrity, which sometimes sinks greatly below it; and which is 
indebted, in no small degree, to the adventitious aid of a name, resplendent in 
another walk of literature, for that countenance and support, which its own 
intrinsic merits, singly, could never claim. 
I am aware that these brief observations on the poetry of Wilson, are not 
calculated to give pleasure to those of his friends, who have been in the habit 
of regarding him as one possessing no small claim to the inspiration of the 
Muses. But let such remember the determination of a profound critic, that 
