They point but to despair.

Thus doom'd to ceaseless, hopeless love,
I haste to India's shore;
For here how can I longer stay,
And call thee mine no more?

Now, Mary, now the struggle 's o'er;
And though I still must love,
Yet, Mary, here we meet no more,
Oh, may we meet above!

[47] This song was addressed to a young lady to whom the author was
attached, and who had agreed to marry him on an improvement in his
worldly circumstances. A desire speedily to gain her hand is said to
have been the cause of his proceeding to the West Indies. The prediction
in the song was sadly realised.

WILLIAM MOTHERWELL.

William Motherwell was born in High Street, Glasgow, on the 13th October
1797. For thirteen generations, his paternal ancestors were owners of
the small property of Muirsmill, on the banks of the Carron,
Stirlingshire. His father, who bore the same Christian name, carried on
the business of an ironmonger in Glasgow. His mother, whose maiden name
was Elizabeth Barnet, was the daughter of a prosperous farmer in the
parish of Auchterarder, Perthshire, from whom she inherited a
considerable fortune. Of a family of six, William was the third son. His
parents removed to Edinburgh early in the century; and in April 1805, he
became a pupil of Mr William Lennie, a successful private teacher in
Crichton Street. In October 1808, he entered the High-school of
Edinburgh; but was soon after placed at the Grammar-school of Paisley,
being entrusted to the care of an uncle in that place. In his fifteenth
year, he became clerk in the office of the Sheriff-clerk of Paisley, and
in this situation afforded evidence of talent by the facility with which
he deciphered the more ancient documents. With the view of obtaining a
more extended acquaintance with classical literature, he attended the
Latin and Greek classes in the University of Glasgow, during the session
of 1818-19, and had the good fortune soon thereafter to receive the
appointment of Sheriff-clerk-depute of the county of Renfrew.

From his boyhood fond of literature, Motherwell devoted his spare hours
to reading and composition. He evinced poetical talent so early as his
fourteenth year, when he produced the first draught of his beautiful
ballad of "Jeanie Morrison." Many of his earlier sketches, both in prose
and verse, were inconsiderately distributed among his friends. In 1818,
he made some contributions in verse to the