tify so high a destination; but even if he had, he would have been compelled to relinquish his views by the death of his mother, which left his father embarrassed with the charge of a young family. Alexander was at this time ten years of age, and although his education had necessarily been restricted to the ordinary branches of writing, reading, and accounts, the judicious and careful
superintendence of his father had even then imbued his mind with a passion for reading, and a predilection for the beauties of nature, which continued to influence his character ever afterwards. In his correspondence at a later period of his life, Wilson often recurs, with expressions of warm-filial gratitude, to the
paternal anxiety with which his early studies were directed, to which he attributed all the eminence and honours he subsequently attained. In a letter,
dated February, 1811, he says:—"The publication of my Ornithology, though it has swallowed up all the little I had saved, has procured me the
honour of many friends, eminent in this country, and the esteem of the public at large; for which I have to thank the goodness of a kind father, whose
attention to my education in early life, as well as the books then put into my hands, first gave my mind a bias towards relishing the paths of literature, and the charms and magnificence of nature. These, it is true, particularly the
latter, have made me a wanderer in life; but they have also enabled me to support an honest and respectable situation in the world, and have been the sources of almost all my enjoyments."
Wilson's father soon married again; and three yean passed away, during which time Alexander seems to have had no other occupation, but reading and roaming about, feeding in solitude habits of reflection, and an ardent poetic temperament, which led him to shun the society of his frolicksome compeers. An American biographer erroneously attributed this disposition for solitary rambling, and his ultimate departure from the paternal dwelling, to the harsh treatment of his stepmother; but it has been clearly proved by subsequent writers, that she discharged her duty towards him with great tenderness and affection; and Wilson himself uniformly speaks of her with great respect.
At the age of thirteen, that is in July, 1779, Wilson was apprenticed for three years to William Duncan, a weaver, who had married his eldest sister. This occupation was quite at variance with his disposition and previous habits; yet he, nevertheless, not only completed his indenture, but afterwards wrought for four years as a journeyman, residing sometimes at Paisley, at other times in his father's house, (who had then removed to Lochwinnoch,) and latterly with his brother-in-law, Duncan, who had shifted his quarters to Queensferry. Having much of his time at his own disposal during the last four years, Wilson gave a loose to his poetical disposition; his relish for the quiet and sequestered beauties of nature, which began to assume almost the character of a passion, he indulged more and more, giving utterance to his feelings in verses chiefly descriptive which, if exhibiting no great power of diction, certainly display an expansion of thought, a purity of taste, and a refinement of sentiment, that are very remarkable in one so young, and so unfavourably circumstanced for the cultivation of literary pursuits. The only explanation which can be given of the fact, is, that he possessed an insatiable thirst for reading; and with that and solitary musings, passed the leisure hours which others generally devote to social amusements. An almost necessary consequent on this gradual refinement and elevation of mind, was, a disgust with the slavish and monotonous occupation of the loom; and the incongruity between his worldly circumstances and the secret aspirations of his soul, frequently occasioned fits of the deepest melancholy. Unlike, however, but too many of the like sensitive character, similarly situated, he never sought relief
