XXX 
LIFE OF 
follow up those better resolves. He was recommended to qualify 
himself for a clerk to some mercantile establishment. A letter 
from Mr Gavin, Commercial Academy, Paisley, to whom he applied 
for instruction in some of the branches necessary for his occupation, 
will best shew the state of his mind at this time: — “Wilson 
came to my school, and requested that he might be taught some 
branches of arithmetic, in which he was deficient, in order, he 
said, to qualify him to become a clerk to some merchant or 
manufacturer. I cheerfully undertook to teach him all I knew, 
and he sat down at a desk, apparently in good earnest. Before 
to-morrow, another thought had struck him, — he never returned 
to school.” * He tried it again, while on a journey, at Callander, 
but with no better success. He records the circumstance himself 
in a letter to Mr Brodie : — “ Having agreed with the town school- 
master,” he says, “ I accordingly went, purchased a slate, and set 
seriously about it. Two days elapsed ; I persevered ; but the 
third day gave it up.” Thus, a mind, too roving for a respectable 
and stable business, led him into the society of those companions, 
whose temporary applause made him forget the precepts of his 
father, afterwards so strongly impressed upon his mind.”f 
The west country was now in such a state as to require the more 
immediate attention of government. The general depression of 
trade, occasioned by the wars incident to the French Revolution, 
threw into comparative idleness many of the young operatives, 
who began so openly to promulgate revolutionary principles, and 
sentiments of discontent against the steadier manufacturers, who 
would not yield to all their unreasonable demands, that many of 
them became “ marked men,” and were obliged to remain in tem- 
porary concealment, or entirely to leave their country. It was 
Wilson’s misfortune to have formed an intimacy with some of these, 
who, knowing his talents, prevailed upon him to revile and satirize 
the conduct of those who were most offensive to their views of 
liberty, or of propriety of conduct as masters. Wilson himself, 
well acquainted with all the circumstances regarding these matters 
* Letters of Senex, p. 42. 
f When his satirical productions first gained notice, his father was repeatedly 
heard to say, — “ Sandy, I see you have some talent about you, but my advice 
is, never to use it to wound the feelings of others.” 
