xlvi 
LIFE OF WILSON. 
By and by, when fair Aurora 
Bids the drowsy fogs to fly, 
And the glorious god of Flora 
Rises in a cloudless sky, 
“ Then, in whirling chariot seated. 
With my friend I’ll gladly go : 
With his converse richly treated — 
Happy to be honoured so.” 
The inconveniences of his situation, as teacher of a country 
school, determined Wilson to endeavour after some employment 
more congenial to his disposition ; and that would enable him to 
attain to that distinction, as a scholar, which he was anxious to me- 
rit. He consequently directed his views to the “ Literary Maga- 
zine,” conducted by C. B. Brown, a monthly publication of some 
note, as a suitable vehicle for the diffusion of those productions 
which he hoped would arrest the attention of the public. In this 
magazine appeared his “ Rural Walk,” and his Solitary Tutor;” 
but it does not appear that their author received any other reward 
for his well-meant endeavours than the thanks of the publisher. 
He was flattered, it is true, by a republication, in the Port Folio, of 
the “Rural Walk,” with some “commendations of its beauties;^ 
but I must confess that my perspicacity has not enabled me to de- 
tect them. 
The then editor of the Port Folio, Mr. Dennie, enjoyed the 
reputation of being a man of taste and judgement; and the major 
part of his selections should seem to prove that his character, in 
these respects, was well founded. But with regard to the poem in 
question, I am totally at a loss to discover by what principles of 
criticism he judged it, seeing that his opinion of it will by no means 
accord with mine. The initial stanza, which is not an unfair spe- 
cimen of the whole, runs thus ; 
