LIFE OF WILSON. 
clxxxi 
acquaintance, that many of the poems he had written were com- 
mitted to the flames, without a moment’s consideration, because 
the subject had lost its interest with himself.” The writer thus 
gravely accounts for this conduct: “This instability of conduct 
was, no doubt, the result of untoward circumstances, operating 
upon a mind ardent in the pursuit of something yet undefined, or 
uncertain of the path it should follow, to attain that eminence and 
independence after which it so ardently aspired.” Would it not 
be a more rational supposition, that, as he advanced in knowledge, 
he was taught to reject what he could not but be convinced was 
unworthy of the public eye.? If we may form a conjecture of what 
was destroyed by what was sanctioned by his own act of publica- 
tion, there is certainly no cause to mourn the loss ; and one can 
hardly forbear wishing that the whole had met a similar fate. 
Of all the poetical productions of Wilson, written while in 
Scotland, his tale of “Watty and Meg” is the only one that has 
obtained popularity. In Cromek’s “ Select Scottish Songs” it is 
that his task was never accomplished. How he could admit such productions as “ The Wasp’s 
Revenge,” and the “ Verses on the Death of a Favourite Spaniel,” one may well inquire. 
That Wilson himself entertained a mean opinion of his boyish publication, I am authorized 
to assert from the circumstance, that, though possessing a copy, he would never allow me to 
read it, notwithstanding I frequently urged him to grant me this favour. 
An itinerant Scotchman once called upon Wilson’s executors with a request that he might 
be allowed the privilege of printing an edition of his poems, urging, in justification of the propo- 
sition, his peculiar fitness, by his knowledge of the Scottish dialect^ for extending the fame of 
the author of the American Ornithology ! It is needless to add that this poor schemer was 
dismissed with the reply, that the fame of Wilson did not stand in need of his assistance. 
It is much to the honour of the American press that it has abstained from re-printing the 
work which, with unfeigned sorrow, I have been compelled, by a sense of duty, to animadvert 
so severely upon. But I must confess that when a brother weaver, Robert Tannahill, was in- 
troduced to our notice, I trembled for the fate of Wilson. 
As has been stated, Wilson’s poem of the “ Foresters” was first published in the Port 
Folio. Shortly after the decease of its author, a very modest and honest gentleman, living in 
Pennsylvania, undertook its republication ; and actually took out a copy-right for the same. 
That the poem was re-printed needs not excite our wonder; but that its sale should have been 
monopolized by a patent, is a trick of trade well worthy of remark. 
2 Z 
VOL. IX. 
