GLASGOW COLLEGE. 15 



at least, among men. The aspect and the character of Wilson have 

 sometimes suggested to the imagination those blue-eyed and long- ' 

 haired Norsemen, who made their songs amid the smiting of 

 swords, who were as swift of foot and strong of arm as they were 

 skilled in lore and ready in counsel, fierce to their enemies, tender 

 and true to their friends. And this little incident reminds one 

 more of what we read in Sagas of that passionate vehemence of 

 theirs, than any thing we are accustomed to now-a-days. 



After the death of his father, he appears to have gone immedi- 

 ately to Glasgow University, where he entered as a student in the 

 Latin class for the session of 1 '797-' 98, attending other classes in 

 due course down to 1803. During those years he resided in the 

 family of Professor Jardine, the same prudence which had dictated 

 the choice of his earlier instructors being here again conspicuous, 

 and the results not less satisfactory. His life in Glasgow was a 

 happy one ; and, under the combined influences of admirable pro- 

 fessorial instruction and a free enjoyment of good society and 

 innocent pleasures, his character developed by natural and insensi- 

 ble transition from boyhood to youth, from the period of school 

 lessons and " Muckle-mou'd Meg " to that of essay-writing and 

 speech-making, of first love and "lines to Margaret." 



Of the various professors under whom he studied, there were two 

 who won his special love and lifelong veneration : these were Jar- 

 dine and Young.* When the relationship between pupil and teacher 

 has been cemented by feelings of respect and affection, the influence 

 obtained over the young mind is one that does not die with the 

 breaking of the ties that formally bound them. Of this Wilson's 

 own experience as a professor afforded him many a delightful illus- 

 tration. To Jardine, in the first place, as not only his teacher, but 

 his private monitor and friend, he owed, he has himself said, a deep 

 debt of gratitude. He is represented as having been " a person 

 who, by the singular felicity of his tact in watching youthful minds, 

 had done more good to a whole host of individuals, and gifted in- 

 dividuals too, than their utmost gratitude could ever adequately 

 repay. They spoke of him as of a kind of intellectual father, to 

 whom they were proud of acknowledging the eternal obligations of 

 their intellectual being. He has created for himself a mighty family 

 among whom his memory will long survive ; by whom, all that he 



* The former was Professor of Logic, the latter of Greek. 



