touch of a genius superior to his own, but still James Hogg, in real flesh and blood, might have sat for the portrait. An attempt has been made recently, by a well-qualified hand, to detach from all superfluous matter what has been called the "Comedy of the Noctes;" but we doubt whether readers in any quantity will ever attempt to thread the long-drawn mazes, and go masquerading into the abodes of a worn-out fashion of life, too recent to be picturesque, too far off to be sympathetic. And apart from the Noctes Wilson cannot be fully known; though the wonderful wealth of his criticism and the sports and descriptions of Christopher North will give a far better idea of his character than either the poetry or the romantic and sentimental fiction which he has left behind him. After all the others had faded, -when Scott was gone, and little Jeffrey, and even the great preacher Chalmers, who divided the sufrages of the city with them,-Wilson still remained, the last great relic of that tide of intellectual power which had swept over Edinburgh. Loosely clad and largely made, with flowing locks and a majestic presence, his recollection is still fresh in the minds of many. But this recollection has carried us far beyond our immediate theme. The "scorpion who delighteth to sting the faces of men was John Gibson Lockhart, the future sonin-law of Scott, and for a long time after a power in literature. The description here given of him is sufficiently candid, supplied as it was by a friendly hand, and it proves that keen and bitter wit was even then allowed to be his most striking characteristic. It is curious that a man with so many qualities, who proved himself afterwards in his Life of Scott so capable of truly comprehending real moral excellence, and in some of his novels so sensible of many of the most tragic emotions of the mind, should impress his associates chiefly with those stinging powers. He was a contributor to the new Magazine for a number of years, until he was transplanted to London and became the editor of the Quarterly Review. His novels have not kept much hold upon the public mind, but they are none of them without merit. Valerius is one of the most successful of the two or three studies of the life of the early Christians in Rome which have appeared from time to time; and the very curious, tragic, and painful book called Adam Blair is one that nobody who has read it will easily forget. The Ettrick Shepherd, to whom we have already referred as, in his glorified conception, the hero of Wilson's great work, was a diffuse and unequal writer, but is remembered chiefly as the author of a most delicate and visionary piece of verse much unlike his rustic personality and the general level of his productions. The description of "Bonnie Kilmeny," from the "Queen's Wake," a poem a poem full of fine passages, of which this is the especial gem, is quoted in every collection of poetry, and it seems unnecessary to repeat it here. It is by far the highest note that Hogg ever attained. Whether he had actually any share in the production of the new Magazine it is difficult to say, since Wilson has so connected him with its history as to make it impossible to sever him from the band of writers who brought it forth. Other names of more note and influence than that of the Shepherd figure in the list. Sir William Hamilton, the future philosopher, was present at the uproarious sitting during which the Chaldee Manuscript was produced, and composed one of the verses so much to his own satisfaction as to fall from his chair exhausted with laughter after the exertion. Thus Edinburgh was once more the scene of one of the great events of modern literary history. All the magazines of more recent days are the followers and offspring of this periodical, so audacious in its beginning, so persistent and permanent in its influence and power. The success of the new organ of opinion was immediate. "Four thousand of this cruelly witty magazine," writes Mrs. Grant, "are sold in a month, at which I do in wonderment abound, as a great many are sold in London, where, I should suppose, our localities could be little understood, and certainly nothing could be more local. . . . It is supported by a club of young wits, many of whom are well known to me; who, I hope, in some measure fear God, but certainly do not regard man." It is curious, however, to find that upon the vexed question of the time-the poetry of Wordsworth and Coleridge, the new Magazine, though its chief contributor had been supposed to belong to the "Lake School" of poets, was in no respect more clear-sighted or more liberal than Jeffrey, their arch-enemy, had been. The assault upon Coleridge in the first number is far more fiery and furious than anything Jeffrey ever wrote; and the series of articles which followed upon Leigh Hunt and the "Cockney School" embody a literary mistake as grievous as was ever committed. "I propose," says the contemptuous critic, addressing Leigh Hunt by name, "to relieve my main attack upon you by a diversion against some of your younger and less - important auxiliaries-the Keatses, the Shelleys, and the Webbes." For a magazine which shortly afterwards treated with judicial dignity the shortcomings and blunders of Jeffrey, this slip was terrible enough. In after days, however, Wilson's delicate and enthusiastic criticism did much to gain for Wordsworth the popular appreciation which was so slow to come. WILLIAM GIFFORD, born 1756; died 1826. Published The Baviad, 1794. The Mæviad, 1795. Edited The Anti-Jacobin, 1797-98. Quarterly Review, 1808 to 1824. GEORGE CANNING, born 1770; died 1827. Published little except the poetry in the Anti-Jacobin. JOHN HOOKHAM FRERE, born 1769; died 1846. Published Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin. Whistlecraft (Prospectus and Specimen of our intended National work), 1817. Metrical Translation of the "Birds "" and "Acharnians" of Aristophanes. FRANCIS JEFFREY, born 1773; died 1850. Editor of the Edinburgh Review from 1803 to 1829, in which innumerable critical articles were published; afterwards collected in four vols., 1824. SYDNEY SMITH, born 1771; died 1845. Published Contributions to Edinburgh Review, from 1802. Peter Plymley's Letters, 1807. Various political pamphlets. HENRY BROUGHAM, born 1778; died 1868. Published Mathematical and Scientific Papers, 1796-1798. Discourses on Paley's Natural Theology, 1835. Lives of Men of Letters and Science, 1840. Political Philosophy, 1840. Analytical View of Newton's Principia, 1855. Speeches, Collected, etc. etc. His own Life and Times (incomplete), 1871. JOHN WILSON, born 1785; died 1854. Published Isle of Palms, 1812. City of the Plague, 1816. Lights and Shadows of Scottish Life, 1822. (Several of these were originally published in Black wood's Magazine.) The Trials of Margaret Lyndsay, 1823. The Foresters, 1824. The Recreations of Christopher North, 1842. He was the chief contributor to (though never editor of) Blackwood's Magazine, from 1817 almost to the end of his life. |