" Cbristopber IRortb" 163 



can appreciate his full worth ; just as it is only those 

 who have heard the voice of a great orator, seen his eyes 

 (lash, watched the changing expressions on his mobile 

 face, who can judge of the true power of his eloquence. 

 The writings of Christopher North to one who never 

 knew him in the flesh must necessarily convey as 

 inadequate an idea of the real force and greatness of 

 the man as the printed speech, bereft of the kindling 

 accessories of voice and eye and gesture, conveys of 

 the fire and spirit of the orator. 



Yet there are many, especially among those who set 

 up to be literary critics, who will not allow that John 

 Wilson deserved his contemporary fame, because the 

 written words he has left behind him fail to satisfy the 

 superfine, critical taste of a generation whose literary 

 standards and methods are wholly different from those 

 in vogue when the " Noctes Ambrosianae " took 

 Edinburgh by storm. I do not assert that John 

 Wilson has any claim to a posthumous fame equal 

 to that which he enjoyed in his lifetime. But I do 

 assert that the fame which his contemporaries awarded 

 him was no more than his due. For, in apportioning 

 that fame, they took into consideration his glorious 

 manhood, his splendid enthusiasm, his infectious animal 

 spirits, his hearty, bracing, health-inspiring love of 

 Nature, his vigorous hatred of humbug and cant, his 

 keen sense of the beautiful in literature and art, the 

 eagle-like sweep of his strong intellect, the torrent-like 

 rush of his fervid eloquence, the deep poetic feeling that 

 runs through his lofty and glowing rhapsodies. If not 

 the greatest of our prose-poets, John Wilson stands at 



