238 MEMOIR OF JOHN WILSOX. 



one, for the attendant darted forward. It was, in fact, in obedience 

 to a sign by a guest that he was wanted, but it came in immediate 

 response to a thoroughly unconventional designation, — Beelzebub, 

 Mephistophiles, or something of that sort ; and the fun was en- 

 hanced by the man's solemn unconsciousness that he had been the 

 object of a logical experiment. 



" But to come back to the class. It was one that must have 

 been somewhat memorable to the Professor himself, when he looked 

 back upon it in after years. Not only was his son John in it, but 

 it included John Thompson Gordon and William Edmondstoune 

 Aytoun, so that unconsciously the Professor was instructing the 

 future husbands of his daughters. There were others to give it 

 interest and repute — as Archibald Swinton, now Professor of Civil 

 law ; the clever Pole I have already referred to ; John Walker Ord, 

 who showed poetic powers which promised a considerable harvest ; 

 and Thomas Todd Stoddart, who had won laurels, and thoroughly 

 enjoyed them, too, in his published poem of ' The Death Wake.' 



" The powers of Wilson, as an instructor and a public speaker, 

 will, of course, be described by others. I may simply say that 

 attendance at his class, at the same time that it was an act of duty, 

 rewarded the student with what duty seldom brings, the enjoyment 

 of an oration alive with brilliant and powerful eloquence. 



" Saturday was a great day of enjoyment of a more egotistic kind. 

 Then he spoke on the essays he had received. He gave us a breadth 

 of topics, and allowed us wonderful latitude in the handling of them 

 — but he certainly read them all — and what a mass of trash he must, 

 have thus perused! In criticising them, he was charitable and 

 cordial to the utmost stretch of magnanimous charity. I can hardly 

 say what an exciting thrill it imparted to the youth to hear his own 

 composition read out from that high place, and commented on with 

 earnestness, and not without commendation. The recollection of 

 these days sometimes also recalls Boswell's garrulous account of his 

 first symposium with Johnson. ' The Orthodox and High Church 

 sound of The Mitre ; the figure and maimer of the celebrated 

 Samuel Johnson ; the extraordinary power and precision of his 

 conversation, and the pride arising from finding myself admitted 

 as his companion, produced a variety of sensations, and a pleasing 

 elevation of mind beyond what I had ever before experienced.' 

 But our elevation proceeded from entirely intellectual sources, 



