ags, and
ever shivering over the fireless chimney. Ascending this stair, the
voice of joy bursts on my ear--the bridegroom and bride, surrounded by
their jocund companions, circle the sparkling glass and humorous joke,
or join in the raptures of the noisy dance--the squeaking fiddle
breaking through the general uproar in sudden intervals, while the
sounding floor groans beneath its unruly load. Leaving these happy
mortals, and ushering into this silent mansion, a more solemn--a
striking object presents itself to my view. The windows, the furniture,
and everything that could lend one cheerful thought, are hung in solemn
white; and there, stretched pale and lifeless, lies the awful corpse,
while a few weeping friends sit, black and solitary, near the breathless
clay. In this other place, the fearless sons of Bacchus extend their
brazen throats, in shouts like bursting thunder, to the praise of their
gorgeous chief. Opening this door, the lonely matron explores, for
consolation, her Bible; and in this house the wife brawls, the children
shriek, and the poor husband bids me depart, lest his termagant's fury
should vent itself on me. In short, such an inconceivable variety daily
occurs to my observation in real life, that would, were they moralised
upon, convey more maxims of wisdom, and give a juster knowledge of
mankind, than whole volumes of Lives and Adventures, that perhaps never
had a being except in the prolific brains of their fantastic authors."

At a subsequent period he retraced his steps, taking with him copies of
his poems to distribute among subscribers, and endeavour to promote a
more extensive circulation. Of this excursion also he has given an
account in his journal, from which it appears that his success was far
from encouraging. Among amusing incidents, sketches of character,
occasional sound and intelligent remarks upon the manners and prospects
of the common classes of society into which he found his way, there are
not a few severe expressions indicative of deep disappointment, and some
that merely bespeak the keener pangs of the wounded pride founded on
conscious merit. "You," says he, on one occasion, "whose souls are
susceptible of the finest feelings, who are elevated to rapture with the
least dawnings of hope, and sunk into despondency with the slightest
thwartings of your expectations--think what I felt." Wilson himself
attributed his ill fortune, in his attempts to gain the humble patronage
of the