SKETCH OF SIR DANIEL WILSON. 261 



powers. The attraction which drew the biographer to his sub- 

 ject was doubtless the similarity of archeological and poetical 

 tastes. Early in life he had published like Chatterton, under an 

 assumed name a little volume of verse, entitled Spring Wild 

 Flowers : Poems, by Wil. D'Leina, of the Outer Temple. By re- 

 quest of the publisher, the collection was reprinted in 1875, with 

 the author's name, and with a modestly deprecatory preface, in 

 which he solicits indulgence for these " sins of his youth." But 

 an impartial critic would find nothing to offend and much to be 

 admired in the volume. Caliban : The Missing Link, appeared 

 in 1873, a genial, half-humorous, and wholly shrewd and happy 

 commentary on Shakespeare, Darwin, and Browning, full of keen 

 suggestions, which the admirers of those famous authors would 

 do well to study with care. The vivid recollections of his early 

 home appeared in his Reminiscences of Old Edinburgh, published 

 in 1875, in two charming volumes of mingled history, description, 

 and gossip, beautifully illustrated by pen-and-ink sketches from 

 the author's hand, in his peculiarly vivid and animated style. 

 Among other claims which may be made for this work is that of 

 being the best commentary (next to Scott's own) on the famous 

 " Scotch novels " of the author's illustrious townsman. 



For a time the duties of the presidency interrupted Sir Daniel's 

 authorship. But in 1891 appeared a volume on Left-handedness, 

 comprising, as a reviewer remarked, " a careful and comprehen- 

 sive discussion of the origin and nature of the prevailing distinc- 

 tion between the uses of the two hands and the consequences which 

 follow this distinction." Sir Daniel was himself left-handed ; but, 

 like other eminent men who have been subject to this apparent 

 disability including a personage no less distinguished than the 

 illustrious artist and mechanician, Leonardo da Vinci he was 

 able to convert it into an advantage by the simple process of cul- 

 tivating the use of his right hand, and thus making himself am- 

 bidexterous. He was accustomed to write with his right hand 

 and draw with his left ; and both his handwriting and drawing 

 were of unusual excellence. This volume was followed in 1892 

 by his latest work and, as it proved, a posthumous publica- 

 tion entitled The Lost Atlantis and other Ethnographic Stud- 

 ies. This was a collection of essays on various ethnological 

 and archaeological subjects, reprinted from the Transactions of 

 scientific societies, and chiefly from those of the Royal Society of 

 Canada. The volume of four hundred pages comprises only eight 

 essays, but each of them, as a reviewer has said, " is a complete 

 monograph on the special subject to which it relates ; and every 

 subject has its peculiar interest and value to students of history 

 and the science of man." These subjects comprise, besides the 

 well-known Atlantis legend, The Vinland of the Northmen, Trade 



