XXII 
LIFE OF 
supply. He possessed, however, no “ scheming foresight,” and 
sometimes allowed himself to be so hard run as to be unable to 
procure paper and other writing materials, and the same cause also 
sometimes produced a scantiness in his wardrobe. An anecdote 
of his resources, upon an occasion which would have given great 
annoyance to many, was thus related to me by one of his best 
friends. Wilson was fond of music and dancing, and, in the latter 
branch, bore the character of a neat and light performer. In those 
days, the fashionable ball-dress among persons in his sphere of life 
was knee-breeches, white stockings, and black gaiters, or, as they 
are called, kutikens. Being one evening invited to a ball given 
by some young companions, he found himself reduced to a single 
pair of wdiite thread stockings, rather the worse for wear, and not 
improved in purity of colour. Knowing that he was looked up to 
as a pattern for neatness, and unwilling to be disappointed, he 
chalked the upper parts of his stockings, and finished the deception 
by painting upon the lower part a pair of black gaiters. He spent 
the evening to his satisfaction, and returned to his home undis- 
covered. 
A continuance of this unsettled life threw him into ill health, 
and a state of great mental despondency. Of the depressing effects 
of the latter he was fully aware. In a letter to Mr Crichton, he 
says, “ Among the many and dismal ingredients that embitter the 
cup of life, none affect the feelings or distress the spirit so deeply 
as despondence.” In another, written nearly a year after, he 
appears to have been really ill,* and still more diseased in mind ; 
yet amidst the distresses which he thought were crowding round 
him, and the sorrows which came 
Not single spies, 
But in battalions ! 
lie never loses sight of the consolations he expected to receive 
from his religion, and endeavoured, as he elsewhere expresses 
himself, 
To lift bis thoughts from things below, 
And lead them to divine.f 
* His complaint was an inflammatory cold, which threatened to fix upon 
his lungs. 
f Hymn VI. Poems, p. 110. 
