198 MEMOIR OF JOHN WILSON. 



" In the second place, I say it is false that Mr. P. lent his support 

 to the Review in order to give credit and currency to its alleged 

 infidel principles. 



"And, finally, it is false that the writings which he has contributed 

 to it have had any tendency to support those principles, or are in- 

 tended to counteract the lessons which he once taught from the 

 pulpit." 



It is much to be regretted that my father's reply to this letter is 

 not extant. What it may have been can only be conjectured. I 

 can have no doubt that he would not attempt to justify the malig- 

 nant article. But he was not a man to abandon his associates even 

 when he disagreed with them. He had cast in his lot with Black- 

 wood and its principles, and was resolved to stand by them at all 

 hazards. 



CHAPTER IX. 



ANN STREET. MORAL PHILOSOPHY CHAIR. 



1820. 



An eventful life seldom falls to the lot of the man of letters. His 

 vicissitudes and excitements are for the most part confined to an 

 arena in which he figures little before the public gaze. In this 

 sense Wilson's life was uneventful ; but the constitution of his na- 

 ture, both physical and mental, made it impossible that it should 

 ever become uninteresting or monotonous. It may be said that he 

 threw himself into the very heart of existence, and found in the 

 lowliest things on earth a hidden virtue that made them cease to be 

 vulgar in his eyes. For fundamentally, though that I know is not 

 the general opinion, he was as much a philosopher as a poet, and 

 had that true instinct, that electric rapidity of glance, that enables 

 a man to penetrate through the forms of things to their real mean- 

 ing and essence. And when free from the bias of passion or preju- 

 dice, his judgment was most accurate. Caprice or change in regard 

 to principles, or persons, or tastes, was no part of his character. 



