xlviii 
MEMOIR OE 
passage, I would again wing my way across the western 
waste of waters to the peaceful and happy regions ot 
America. What has become of David, that I never heat 
from him ? Let me know, my dear father, how you Hvft 
and how you enjoy your health at your advanced age. ^ 
trust the publication I have now commenced, and which 
has procured for me reputation and respect, will also 
enable me to contribute to your indepeudenee and comfort, 
in return for what I owe to you. To my stepmother, 
sisters, brothers, and friends, I bog to be remembered 
affectionately.” 
In the latter part of September, 1808, Wilson set om 
on a journey to the eastward, to exhibit his book, and 
procure subscribers; and, during the succeeding wmtef 
and spring, he visited the Southern States. This wa* 
almost a renewal of the adventures of his youth, when he 
traversed Scotland with the prospectus of his poems! 
and, from his journal, which he kept as formerly, >* 
appears that the treatment he met with was scarcely 
more encouraging; and that the character of the mah 
himself had experienced no other change than may b« 
attributed to the prudence and firmness of maturer year* 
and to his enlarged acquirements. Amid numberless 
disappointments which he again experienced, his ardoid 
continued unabated ; and, as this part of his history cal' 
be best told by a series of extracts from his own letter* 
we proceed to lay these before our readers. In a lette* 
to a friend, dated Koston, October, 1808, he says,— 
“ I have purposely avoided saying any thing, eitbf 
good or bad, on the encouragement I have met witl^ 
I shall only say, that among the many thousands wb" 
have examined my book, — and among these were 
of the first character for taste and literature, — I ha* 
heard nothing but expressions of the highest admirati 
and esteem. If 1 have been mistaken in publishing ' 
work too good lor the comitry, it is a fault not likely 
