X 
LIFE OF WILSON. 
rials of his early life do not inform me. It appears that he was 
initiated in the elements 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 reason to believe that he never afterwards resumed the 
study. His early productions show that his English education 
had not only been greatly circumscribed, but very imperfect. 
He wrote, as all self-taught authors write, carelessly and incor- 
rectlj^; his sentences, constructed by the ear, often displease 
one by their gross violations of the rules of grammar; an essen- 
tial 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 govern- 
ment 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 
educated 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 
tendency to fix a disposition somewhat impetuous and waver- 
ing; and the useful knowledge acquired thereby he was ena- 
bled, at a subsequent period of life, to turn to account, when 
mental exertion, even with superior resources, would have 
availed him but little. 
The scheme of being taught a trade met with little or no op- 
position from the subject of this memoir, his father’s house no 
longer afibrding him that pleasure which it had done during 
the life of her who had given him existence. Some difference 
had arisen between him and his step-mother; whether from 
