not add to his reputation. Wordsworth's whole returns from his literary labours up to 1819 did not amount to £140. Among his subsequent poems were Memorials of a Tour on the Continent, Ecclesiastical Sonnets, and Yarrow Revisited, which appeared in 1835. The tide of popularity had now set in. In 1839, the degree of doctor of laws was conferred upon him by the university of Oxford amid the enthusiastic applause of the crowded theatre. Three years later he was permitted to resign his office of stamp distributor in favour of his second son, and Sir Robert Peel conferred upon him a pension of £300 a-year. On the death of Southey in 1843 he was appointed to the laureateship; and he had the honour of being presented to Her Majesty.

Old age was now creeping upon him. His only daughter had preceded him to the grave; his sister, wife, and two sons survived him, but his sister had been a confirmed invalid since 1832. He died on the 23rd April 1850, in the eightieth year of his age, and was buried by the side of his children in Grasmere churchyard. Like Coleridge and Southey he had long before his death undergone a change both in his religious and political opinions. He became an attached member of the Established Church and a Conservative in politics.

PROFESSOR WILSON.--1785-1854.

JOHN WILSON, professor of moral philosophy in Edinburgh University, and the "Christopher North" of "Blackwood's Magazine," was the son of a wealthy merchant, and was born at Paisley, 18th of May 1785. He commenced his education at a school in Paisley where children of all ranks—as is the custom in Scotland—sat on the same form. At the age of six or seven he was transferred to the care of a clergyman in the neighbouring parish of Mearns, a place he ever afterwards remembered with the greatest affection. His tutor seems to have

been in every way well adapted to develop the physical and intellectual energies of his pupils. He kept them steadily at work for certain hours in the day, but allowed them abundant opportunities to ramble through the woods and glens and neighbouring moorlands. Here young Wilson developed that love for angling which ever afterwards distinguished him.

His father died in 1797, and in the same year he was transferred to the university of Glasgow, and lodged in the house of Dr. Jardine, the professor of logic. His feelings toward his tutor were always full of affection and respect, and his intercourse with Dr. Young, the professor of Greek, was equally friendly, and from his lectures he obtained that insight into the Iliad and Odyssey which he afterwards displayed with so much effect in his brilliant articles on Homer and his Translators. Though carefully attending to the curriculum of the university, Wilson found time to cultivate poetry, and he composed several poems during his residence in Glasgow. When the "Lyrical Ballads" appeared he was one of the few who welcomed the new poet, and he wrote a long letter to Wordsworth, which is remarkable as the production of a boy of only seventeen. He thanks Wordsworth for his poetry, and warmly expresses his admiration, but at the same time points out what he conceives to be its defects; and he especially objects to the "Idiot Boy." "The excessive fondness of the mother," says he, "disgusts us, and prevents us from sympathising with her. We are unable to enter into her feelings; we cannot conceive ourselves actuated by the same feelings, and consequently take little or no interest in her situation." The letter was written in the most respectful terms, and Wordsworth favoured his youthful correspondent with a kind reply.

In 1803, Wilson proceeded to Oxford where he entered Magdalen college. Before leaving Glasgow he had become attached to a young lady who was in every respect worthy of him, but his friends were opposed to the engagement; and after a struggle which lasted some

years, the young lovers parted for ever.

At one time he

seriously thought of joining Mungo Park in his second journey to the interior of Africa, in the hope of forgetting his disappointment in the midst of excitement and adventure, but he was prevailed upon to change his mind. At Oxford he was famous as an athlete, and none could equal him in walking, jumping, or boxing. At the same time he did not neglect his studies; and his oral examination when he took his degree was so 66 very splendid," that the examiners publicly expressed their approbation and thanks. And yet at this very time his mind was so troubled at the opposition which his friends were raising to his engagement that he thought himself quite unequal to the examination, and dreaded its approach. That under such circumstances he should have succeeded so well shows how carefully his great abilities had been cultivated.

Wilson, on the death of his father, came into the possession of a fortune of £50,000. He was therefore in affluent circumstances. On completing his university career, in 1807, he retired to Elleray, a beautiful spot which he had purchased on the banks of Lake Windermere. He now made the acquaintance of Wordsworth, Coleridge, Southey, and De Quincey, who were all living in the neighbourhood, and he devoted his leisure to preparing a volume of poems for the press. Many, however, were the pleasant days spent by himself and his friends in excursions among the hills and valleys of the lake district. Fishing was of course a favourite amusement; and by day and night his skiff, manned by his faithful Billy Balmer, might be seen gliding over the waters of Windermere. Four years full of vigorous life and enjoyment assuaged the sorrow which he had felt in parting for ever from his beloved Margaret, and in 1811 he married Miss Jane Penny, the daughter of a wealthy Liverpool merchant. In the year following appeared his first poem, the Isle of Palms, and the success which it met with encouraged him to continue his devotion to the muses. But in the midst of his happiness a sudden calamity fell

upon him. His large fortune was in the hands of his uncle, who acted as trustee, and Wilson one day discovered that, either through misfortune or treachery, every farthing of his fortune had been spent, and he was reduced at once from affluence to poverty. He did not offer, however, one word of complaint, and not only did he bear patiently his own loss, but generously assisted in contributing to the support of his faithless kinsman.

This change of fortune compelled him to leave his pleasant abode at Elleray and to remove with his family to Edinburgh, where he resided for several years under his mother's roof. He had some years before this formed a resolution to join the Scottish bar, and it was now more important than ever that he should adopt some profession. He was accordingly admitted among the advocates of Edinburgh in 1815. He obtained a few briefs, though he jocularly admitted that he scarcely knew what to do with them; and when at length he obtained regular employment in literature the bar was abandoned. In June of this year he paid a visit to the abode of Hogg the Ettrick Shepherd, with whom he ever afterwards kept up the closest intimacy; and in July ho and Mrs. Wilson started from Edinburgh on a pedestrian tour through the Western Highlands. They visited Loch Katrine and the Trossachs, and proceeded thence by Loch Lomond to Inveraray. They next visited Loch Awe, with its well-wooded shores and beautiful islands, and spent some days in the secluded vale of Glen Orchy. Thence they proceeded to Loch Etive, and through Glencoe to Ballahulish, traversed the moor of Rannoch, and so by Dunkeld returned to Edinburgh. On one occasion Mrs. Wilson walked twenty-five miles in one day, and the total distance travelled over in the course of their seven weeks' tour was about 350 miles. Wilson's powers as a pedestrian were almost incredible. It is stated that while he and his wife were staying in Glen Orchy he started off one morning for a day's fishing at a loch some thirteen miles distant. When he reached the loch he found that the top of his fishing-rod had been left behind.

A

Nothing daunted, he walked back, got his rod, breakfasted, and again started. He reached the loch a second time, and fished during the whole of the long summer day, and in the evening started homewards. Passing near a farm-house, he called for some refreshment. bottle of whisky and a gallon of milk were produced. He emptied half the whisky into a bowl, filled it up with milk, and drank it at one draught to the astonishment of his hostess. But he poured the remainder of the whisky into the bowl, filled up with milk as before, and Idrank that also. He then proceeded homeward, and completed a journey of about seventy miles.

In 1816 appeared the City of the Plague and some minor poems. Its reception was altogether favourable, and it was recognised as showing a marked increase of poetical ability. But circumstances now occurred which decided Wilson to abandon poetry and devote himself to periodical literature. In the year 1817, Jeffrey, in a very friendly letter, asked him to become a contributor to the "Edinburgh Review," and the result was an eloquent article on the poetry of Byron. But in this same year Mr. Blackwood had started his magazine, and to this periodical Wilson soon began to devote all his energies. The earlier numbers of "Blackwood" were remarkable for their vigour, ability, and humour, but also for their bitter personality and invective. The publisher himself acted as editor, but two of the chief contributors were Wilson and John Gibson Lockhart, the son-in-law and biographer of Scott. These two, under a host of signatures, some fictitious and others the names of real persons, wrote a number of papers which attracted universal attention. The signature of Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, was often attached, much to his own mystification, to papers written either by the "Leopard" or the "Scorpion," as Wilson and Lockhart were respectively termed among their friends. Other occasional contributors to the new magazine were Sir Walter Scott, Sir David Brewster, De Quincey, and Hogg.

In 1820, the chair of moral philosophy in the University