XIV 
LIFE OF WILSON. 
At a school in Paisley, Wilson wast aught the common rudi- 
ments of learning. But what proficiency he made, whether he was 
distinguished from his schoolmates or not, my memorials of his early 
life do not inform me. It appears that he was initiated in the ele- 
ments of the Latin tongue ; but having been removed from school 
at the age of twelve or thirteen, the amount of knowledge acquired 
could not have been great ; and I have i-eason to believe that he 
never afterwards resumed the study. His early productions shoAv 
that his English education had not only been greatly cireumscribed, 
but very imperfect. He wrote, as all self-taught authors write, care- 
lessly and incorrectly; his sentences, eonstructed by the ear, often 
displease one by their gross violations of the rules of grammar, an 
essential part of learning to which he never seriously applied him- 
self, until, after his arrival in America, he found it necessary to 
qualify himself for an instructor of youth. 
Wilson’s father, feeling the want of a helper in the government 
of an infant family, again entered into the matrimonial state. The 
maiden name of this second wife was Brown. 
It was the intention of the father that Alexander should be edu- 
cated for a physician; but this design was not relished by the son, 
who had, through the impertinent interference of some persons, 
imbibed some prejudices against the profession, which were the 
cause of the project’s being abandoned. 
It being the wish of the step-mother that the boy should be 
put to a trade, he was accordingly apprenticed to his brother-in-law, 
William Duncan, who then resided in Paisley, to learn the art of 
weaving. That this determination was the result of good sense 
there can be no doubt ; the employment had the tendeney to fix 
a disposition somewhat impetuous and wavering ; and the useful 
knowledge acquired thereby he was enabled, at a subsequent period 
o 1 e, to turn to account, when mental exertion, even with supe- 
nor resources, would have availed him but little. 
