1818.] Lord Woodhouselee. 427 



and, even if it could have been executed, there were still fewer 

 readers who could preserve any continuity of interest in a pro- 

 gress so eccentric, or be able to make perpetual transitions from 

 the subtleties of metaphysics to the details of husbandry, or 

 from the refinements of philosophical criticism to the technical 

 questions of Scotch law. The emblem of Lord Karnes's genius 

 was not that of the Ganges or the Indus, which roll forward 

 their condensed streams, and fill the eye of the spectator with 

 their simple and increasing majesty ; but that of the Rhine or 

 the Nile, which divide the volume of their waters into innume- 

 rable branches, and, while they fertilize a wider surface, yet 

 perplex the eye that labours to number and pursue them. What 

 fidelity and affection could do upon a subject so difficult, Lord 

 Woodhouselee, I apprehend, has done. He has given the por- 

 trait of Lord Karnes, with all his various and characteristic 

 features ; — he has surrounded him with Ins contemporaries, and 

 sketched out, in many pleasing and interesting details, the lite- 

 rary history of the age in which he lived ; — and his work, like 

 those of Plato and of Xenophon, will descend to posterity with 

 an interest which no other can now possess, that of being exe- 

 cuted from the living subject, and of blending the veneration of 

 the disciple with the fidelity of the historian. 



In the year 1811, Lord Woodhouselee was appointed to the 

 Justiciary Bench, on the elevation of the Lord Justice-Clerk 

 Hope to the President's chair. 



Although Lord Woodhouselee was now advancing in age, and 

 his strength declining, yet the publication of the Memoirs of 

 Lord Karnes did not put a period to his literary activity. It 

 was now too late, indeed, for him to resume any of the literary 

 projects which he had once hoped to accomplish : but he re- 

 turned willingly to another occupation, with which he had always 

 intended to close his literary career. This was the revision of 

 his lectures upon history. In the composition of these lectures, 

 the best years of his life had been employed, and at the distance 

 of time that had intervened, he was now able to review them 

 with the eye of impartial criticism, and to make such additions 

 or alterations as might better tit them for that general usefulness 

 for which they were originally intended. To this pleasing occu- 

 pation all his remaining seasons of leisure were devoted; and 

 with the usual cheerfulness of his temper, he flattered himself 

 that he might be able to accomplish a revision of the whole of 

 the lectures that composed his Academical Course. As the 

 first great subject of these lectures related to Grecian History, 

 he now began anew the study of the Greek historians ; and as 

 his views included the history of science, of literature, and of the 

 fine arts, he was led insensibly to the study of the moralists, the 

 orators, and the poets of that interesting period. So fascinating 

 to his mind was the occupation, that, in the course of a few va- 

 cations, he was able to compose anew the whole of hia lectures 



5 



