74 MEMOIR OF JOHN WILSON. 



Little did these Examiners and admiring friends imagine with 

 what feelings John Wilson had walked into the schools that morn- 

 ing, " in the full conviction that he was to be plucked." Little did 

 they know, as they propounded difficulties in Greek choruses and 

 the Ethics, of the more oppressing thought that had made the last 

 ten nights so dreadful, — " what had happened with regard to her /" 

 Compared with that, what to him was Hecuba, or Antigone either ? 

 On this subject, let it be noted, he did not open his lips to the be- 

 loved friend whom he had expressly summoned, that he might tell 

 him " what had happened." And that sympathizing friend, who 

 had hastened to hear and to console, religiously held his peace, and 

 " could not begin to speak of it, after having seen the state into 

 which it threw him ;" and had to go elsewhere for information. It 

 is altogether a singular exhibition of character on both sides, re- 

 minding one of those old Easterns who sat seven days speechless 

 before their friend, "for they saw that his grief was very great." 



What it was that had " happened with regard to her" to bring 

 him to this state of wretchedness, may be gathered from his own 

 letter, apparently written about the same time, to Findlay : — 



" October 19, 1807. 

 " My dearest Robert : — I have often wished to write to you, 

 hut to such an intimate friend as you I know not how to speak. 

 There is not one ray of hope that I shall ever be able to make my 

 mother listen for a moment to the subject nearest my heart. I 

 know her violent feelings too well ; I even know this, that if I were 

 to acquaint her with my love for Margaret, we never could again bo 

 on the footing of mother and son. 



actor and talents were known to me when I was a tutor at Oxford, and yourself a student there, 

 before I had the pleasure of a personal acquaintance with you; an acquaintance I sought and 

 prized, and have always wished to improve." " Those who, like myself," says Archdeacon 

 l>urney, "loved and admired you at Oxford, would, I am sure, feel pleasure in bearing a just testi- 

 mony to your acuteness of discrimination, your keen spirit of inquiry, your extended reading, 

 your copiousness in illustration, which even then rendered you eminent above your fellows." 

 "The course of studies at Oxford," says Sir Charles E. Grey (formerly of Oriel College, Oxford, 

 afterwards Chief-Justice of Bengal), "had shortly before been placed upon a new and excellent 

 footing; and I shall always consider it a fortunate incident in my life that I fell on that period 

 when all members of the University were full of zeal for the new improvements, and were en- 

 gaging in the course that was opened for them with an ardor which it was not to be hoped could 

 be sustained for many years. With what eagerness and assiduity were the writings of the moral 

 philosophers, orators, historians, and tragedians of Greece and Rome read, and almost learned 

 by heart. The distinguished examination which you passed, the prize which you obtained, and 

 the general reputation which yon acquired, are proofs that you were amongst the most successful 

 students of the day." 



