LIFE OF WILSON. 
xii 
pected; it was the vehicle of sentiments which were in unison 
with his sanguine temperament; he had early imbibed a love 
of virtue, and it now assumed a romantic cast by assimilation 
with the high-wrought efforts of fancy, combined with the me- 
lody of song. 
After an apprenticeship of about five years, Wilson became 
his own master; and, relinquishing the occupation of weaving, 
he resolved to gratify his taste for rural scenery, by journey- 
ing into the interior of the country, in the capacity of a pedler. 
He was now about eighteen, full of ardour and vivacity; had a 
constitution capable of great exertion; and a mind which pro- 
mised resources amid every difficulty. Having been initiated 
in the art of trading, he shouldered his pack, and cheerfully 
set out in quest of riches. In a mind of a romantic turn, Scot- 
land affords situations abundantly calculated to arouse all those 
associations which the sublime and beautiful in nature inspire. 
Wilson was an enthusiast; and the charms of those mountains, 
vallies, and streams, which had been immortalized in song, 
filled his soul with rapture, and incited some of the earliest ef- 
forts of his youthful muse. 
To him who would accumulate wealth by trade, the muses 
must not be propitious. That abstraction of mind from world- 
ly concerns which letters require, but ill qualifies one to de- 
scend to those arts, which, in order to be successfully prac- 
tised, must be the unceasing objects of solicitude and attention. 
While the trader was feasting his eyes upon the beauties of a 
landscape, or enditing an elegy or a song, the auspicious mo- 
ment to drive a bargain was neglected, or some more fortunate 
rival was allowed to supplant him. From the habit of survey- 
ing the works of nature arose an indifference to the employ- 
ment of trading, which became more disgusting at each inter- 
view with the muses; and nothing but the dread of poverty in- 
duced him to conform to the vulgar avocations of common life. 
Burns was now the favourite of the public; and from the un- 
exampled success of this humble son of genius, many aspired 
to the honours of the laurel, who otherwise would have con- 
