NIMRO&S NORTHERN TOUR. 239 



without a smile, as it would have been to have read two pages 

 of his Nodes without a laugh. And herein consists the charm 

 of his pen. For my own part, at least, I have avoided that sort 

 of reading which cherishes evil passions, and all your metaphy- 

 sical controversy, which ends but in disappointment and dissatis- 

 faction. I likewise despise the dreams of our modern epicureans, 

 who describe man as a sort of beast by nature, and only superior 

 to other beasts by being more prone to mischief than they are ; 

 as well as your misanthropical scribblers, who represent human 

 nature as a vile composition of selfishness, malignity, and pride. 

 What, for example, did the satires of Swift do for society ? I 

 am unable, from my own experience, to answer that question, as 

 I was not born when they appeared ; but in my humble opinion, 

 their tendency was to set the two sexes by the ears, if not to 

 disunite society altogether, and to make every man discontented 

 with, if not suspicious of, his neighbour. The writings of Pro- 

 fessor Wilson have been of quite an opposite nature. Their 

 tendency has been to put mankind in good conceit with them- 

 selves and with others, by amusing tales, from which instructive 

 morals are drawn ; and the resources of wit, and the taste of 

 the scholar, are all turned to good account, when placed in array 

 before the artless simplicity, and unsophisticated logic of the 

 various characters he draws. They have likewise other charms 

 in my eyes. The stimulus of immediate sympathy is present 

 throughout all of them which I have read, and the personal 

 character of the man may almost be known by the perusal of his 

 works. Then again, the Professor is a sportsman. His poem of 

 " The Angler's Tent" confirms this fact ; and the scene it pre- 

 sents of the happy party assembled in it, as well as the beau- 

 tiful descriptions of nature throughout the whole, exhibit in a 

 strong light the influence of that philanthropic feeling which I 

 have unhesitatingly ventured to ascribe to him. 



But the " smile " I had nearly forgotten to mention by what 

 that pleasing sensation was produced, during my visit to the 

 Professor, in his sanctum. " Many thanks for the handsome 

 present of game you sent me from Keith Hall," said the Professor 

 to me. " You must thank Lord Kintore," was my reply, "for to 

 him are you indebted for it ; for taking me into his game larder, 

 previously to my departure, he told me to select what pheasants 

 and hares I might like to send to my friends at Edinburgh 

 mentioning yourself as one. But," continued I, " one of my 

 friends to whom I sent a similar basket to your own, was very 

 near coining short of it ; for having been taken, by mistake, to 

 a person of the same name, residing in the same street, one half 

 of it had found its way to the spit before the error was detected." 



