230 MEMOIR OF JOHN WILSON. 



what precise position towards the rest of the human race the youth 

 of Edinburgh may now claim, but it appeared to me, when I came 

 among them at the time I speak of, that they considered it beyond 

 any kind of question that they were superior to all the rest of the 

 world. To one coming from the common hard drudgery of our 

 classes in the North, where we did our work zealously enough, with 

 plenty of internal rivalry, but thought no more of claiming fame 

 outside the walls than any body of zealous mechanics, it was a great 

 novelty to get among a community, where the High School dux of 



18 — , or the gainer of the gold medal in the class, was pointed 



out to you; nay, further, to meet with lads of your own standing, 

 who were the authors of published poems, had delivered great and 

 telling speeches at the Speculative, or had written capital articles 

 in the Edinburgh Literary Journal, or the University Album. 

 Whether it were the inheritance of the long hierarchy of literary 

 glory which Edinburgh had enjoyed, or arose from any other cause, 

 this phenomenon was marvellous to a stranger, and rather disa- 

 greeably marvellous, because a youth coming into all this brilliant 

 light, out of the Boeotian darkness of Aberdeen, was conscious of 

 being contemplated with compassionate condescension. We had, 

 however, at the University of Edinburgh at that time, a consider- 

 able body of Aberdonians, pretty compactly united. At our head 

 was William Spalding, the first among us in learning and accom- 

 plishments, as well as in the means of using them. He well justified 

 our expectations by his subsequent career, sadly impeded as it was 

 by bodily ailments, which brought it to an untimely close. I have 

 got into an episode in mentioning him here, but it is not entirely 

 inappropriate, for the Professor was, as I believe he has been in 

 many other instances, the first who, from a high place, took notice 

 of Spalding's capacity. 



" Well, emboldened and elated, I suppose, by being brought 

 into social equality with them, it came to pass that, in our after- 

 dinner talk, I threw down the gauntlet to the representatives of 

 young Edinburgh then present, and stood for the equality, at least, 

 if not the superiority of Aberdeen in all the elements of human 

 eminence. In such a contest, a good deal depends on the number 

 of names, in any way known to fame, that the champion remembers ; 

 and Aberdeen possessed, especially if one drew on the far past, a 

 very fair stock of celebrities. As I was giving them forth, amidst 



