GLASGOW COLLEGE. 17 



panding voice, when he began to touch upon this more majestic 

 key, that I dropped for a moment all my notions of the sharp phi- 

 lologer, and gazed on him with a higher delight, as a genuine lover 

 of the soul and spirit which has been clothed in the words of an- 

 tiquity. 



" At the close of one of his fine excursions into this brighter field, 

 the feelings of the man seemed to be rapt up to a pitch I never be- 

 fore beheld exemplified in any orator of the Chair. The tears 

 gushed from his eyes amidst their fervid sparklings, and I w T as more 

 than delighted when I looked round and found that the fire of the 

 Professor had kindled answering flames in the eyes of not a few of 

 his disciples."* 



It may be seen from these sketches what manner of men had the 

 moulding of that young taste in its perception of the good and 

 beautiful. Nor could his mind fail to have been ennobled by such 

 training. It was the means of encouraging him to cultivate the lit- 

 erary taste, which, in addition to the more severe routine of his 

 studies, aided to make his memory a storehouse of knowledge, 

 rendering him even as a boy one of the most desirable companions 

 with his seniors. 



Of the characteristic mixture of work and play which enabled him 

 to be both an active and distinguished student, and a vivacious racer 

 and dancer, there is fortunately some slight record extant under his 

 own youthful hand, in the pages of a little brown memorandum- 

 book, in which he carefully noted the chief transactions of each day 

 from the 1st of January to the 26th of October, 1801. A very in- 

 teresting and curious relic it is, if only for the light it throws on 

 that beautiful portrait by Raeburn, now in the National Gallery, 

 Edinburgh, which has probably disappointed so many people as a 

 representation of young Christopher North. That slender youth, 

 so tidily dressed in his top-boots and well-fitting coat, with face so 

 placid, and blue eye so mild, looking as if he never could do or say 

 anything outre or startling, — can that be a good picture of him we 

 have seen and heard of as the long-maned and mighty, whose eyes 

 were " as the lightnings of fiery flame," and his voice like an organ 

 bass ; who laid about him, when the fit was on, like a Titan, break- 

 ing small men's bones ; who was loose and careless in his apparel, 

 even as in all things he seemed too strong and primitive to heed 



* Peter's Letters. 



