LITERARY AND DOMESTIC LIFE. 429 



"which comes the story, the jest, the speaking evidence of the man. 

 Better is it to be silent forever than destroy the meaning of such 

 Avords. Wilson's conversational powers, his Avit, his humor, cannot, 

 save in general terms, be described. I humbly confess my own un- 

 fitness for such an undertaking ; and I have not been able to meet 

 Av r ith any one Avho by faithful repetition can give me aid in this Avay. 

 I doubt very much if there is one alive who could. Mr. Lockhart 

 Avas the only person, who, had he survived to do honor to his friend, 

 might, from the clearness of his perceptive qualities, the pungency 

 of his wit, and the elegance of his language, have done him justice. 



Tavo friends have sent me their reminiscences of social meetings 

 with him about this time. One of them says : — 



"During his last five or six years, in common, I believe, Avith the 

 rest of the world, I saAV him in society very rarely. It Avas said 

 that he came to be fond of solitude, and much to dislike being in- 

 truded on. I remember Lord Cockburn giving a picturesque ac- 

 count of an invasion of his privacy. It Avas something, so far as I 

 can recall the particulars, in this way. There was a party which it 

 was supposed he should have joined, but he did not. They forced 

 their way to his den, and, he being seated in the middle of the 

 room, walked round and round him in solemn, silent, and Aveird-like 

 procession, he equally silent and regardless of their presence, only 

 showing, by a slight curl of the comer of his mouth, that he Avas 

 internally enjoying the humor of the thing. 



" The last time I met him in society was an occasion not to be 

 easily forgotten. It was one of those stated evening receptions 

 (Tuesdays and Fridays) Avhich brightened the evening of Jeffrey's 

 life. Nothing Avhatever now exists in Edinburgh that can convey 

 to a younger generation any impression of the charms of that circle. 

 If there happened to be any stranger in Edinburgh much worth 

 seeing, you were sure to meet him there. The occasion I refer to 

 was dealt with exactly as the reception of a distinguished stranger, 

 though he was a stranger living among ourselves. There came a 

 rumor up-stairs that Professor Wilson had arrived, and a buzz and 

 expectation, scarcely less keen among those Avho had never met him, 

 than among others who wondered Avhat change the years since they 

 had last met him in festivity had wrought. I could see none. He 

 was on abstinence regimen, and eschewed the mulled claret conse- 

 crated to those meetings, but he was genial, brilliant, and even 



