THE PROFESSOR AND HIS CLASS. 253 



greatest authors, were of the most decided and purely beneficial 

 nature. It has been the fashion in certain quarters to decry his 

 'lectures as loose and declamatory ; but only with those whose judg- 

 ment is based on superficial appearances alone, and who are so 

 destitute of every thing like sympathy, as to be unable to appreciate 

 excellence that squares not in every point with their preconceived 

 idea of it. One indubitable advantage was possessed by all Pro- 

 fessor Wilson's students, who had ' eyes to see and ears to hear,' 

 viz., the advantage of beholding closely the workings of a great and 

 generous mind, swayed by the noblest and sincerest impulses ; and 

 of listening to the eloquent utterances of a voice which, reprobating 

 every form of meanness and duplicity, was ever raised to its loftiest 

 pitch in recommendation of high-souled honor, truth, virtue, dis- 

 interested love, and melting charity. It was something, moreover, 

 not without value or good effect, to be enabled to contemplate, from 

 day to day, throughout a session, the mere outward aspect of one 

 so evidently every inch a man, nay, a king of men, in whom manly 

 vigor and manly beauty of person were in such close keeping with 

 all the great qualities of his soul ; the sight at once carried back the 

 youthful student's imagination to the age of ancient heroes and 

 demigods, when higher spirits walked with men on earth, and made 

 an impression on the opening mind of the most genial and ennobling 

 tendency. 



" The Professor was not generally supposed to devote much time 

 in private to the business details and work of his class. But all 

 who really worked for him soon discovered the utter erroneousness 

 of this supposition. Every essay given in to him, however juvenile 

 in thought and expression, was read by him with the most patient 

 and judiciously critical care. If any essay afforded proof of pains- 

 taking research or of nascent power, its author was at once invited 

 to the Professor's house, to enjoy the benefit of private conversa- 

 tion, and to be encouraged and directed in his studies. I can never 

 forget an evening which I spent alone with him in such circum- 

 stances, when, after discussing the subject and views of some essay 

 that had taken his fimcy, and favoring me with some invaluable 

 hints on these, he launched out into a long and most interest- 

 ing discourse on most of the great men of his time ; and sent me 

 away at a late hour, not only gratified with his noble frankness of 

 nature and manner, but more than ever convinced of his vast and 



