Washington sentinel. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1855, 1854-04-20
Loss TO LITERATURE--DEAT H OF
PROFESSOR WILSON

Loss TO LITERATURE--DE ATH OF
PROFESSOR WILSON.
But few days have passed since the Eng
fish papers informed us Of the death of Sergeant
Talfourd, eminent in law, politics, and litera-
ture. The announcement of his death has been
quickly followed by that of the death ofanother
eminent man of letters, Professor John Wilson,
better known as Christopher North. The New
York Courier and Enquirer thus speaks of
him:
"DEATH OF PROFESSOR WILsON.-The Arctic
brings us the sad news that this eminent man
of letters died on the Sd of the present month.
Who ever thought while reading Black,cood
that Kit North could die? That part of him
self which he put on paper breathed the full
ness of life and vigor. Rarely have periodical
papers appeared which commanded attention
and admiration so nearly universal. Who that
numbers thirty years, and makes any pretence
to be a reading man, would willingly own that
he has not delighted in Christopher North and
his crutch, his tales which are criticisms and
his criticisms which are tales, his sporting adj
ventures which are but occasions for philoso-
phic musings, and his merry social parties
where the jokes are food for thought? To read
Maya fifteen or twenty years ago was to enjoy
| such things as these; and even more recently
the old man eloquent has given proof that his
| eye was not dim nor his natural strength
abated
| "The Dies Borealis were different from but
not inferior to the Noctes Ambrosiane.
professor Wilson's character as a writer
was but an exponent of his personal traits.
His writings were remarkable for their large
and generous style of viewing and handling
every subject of which they treated. The man
did not seem to have narrow view or petty
feeling. His criticism, though it detected the
minutest beauties, was of the higher kind and
when directed to the works of great men, was
always sympathetic in its tone You felt that
he and they saw things upon the same plane.
His lighter moods-if any could be lighter,
where nohe were heavy--were full of exuberant
spirits, which impressed his reader with the
idea that they were the overflow Of strong
and excitable, though healthy nature; and 50
they were. In person he was very tall, athletic,
with fine presence, and a countenance equally
capable of expressing wrath or jovial good ma
ture; and that presence and that visage he
showed to his readers in the pages Of Black
Goods Magazine. A fine portrait of him was
recently exhibited here in the picture called
Waller Scott and has Friends at Abbotstord.
In that he is leaning over the chair Of Crabbe,
the poet. tits needless to say that he and Scott
were fast friends; they were Of one kidney.
PAISLEY, in Scotland, is the birthplace Of
| Professor Wilson. His father was q manufac-
turer of that city, and, being engaged in lu-
crative business, became possessed of large
wealth. The son was born in the year 1888,
and commenced his collegiate education at the
early age of thirteen, when he was entered at
the Glasgow university. In his eighteenth
year he proceeded to Oxford, and became
gentleman commoner Of Magdalen college,
where heshortly afterwards gained the Newdi
gate prize for an English poem Of sixty lines
After leaving Oxford he resided for time on
the banks of Lake Windermere, where he pur-
chased an estate near the home Of Wordsworth;
but from this spot he was driven by the re
verses of fortune. After pursuing the usual
course of study, he became member of the
Scotch bar. In the year 1918 he was elected
t. the chair Of moral philosophy in the univer
sity of Edinburgh, and commenced that series
of papers in Blackwoods Magazine, which has
done SO much to give literary character to that
periodical, and made his own fame world
wide"