sweetness, faintness, or roughness of their tones." So many elements, therefore, enter into what is called style, that it is quite absurd to endeavour to graft its excellence by means of text-books and special directions. Grammatical rules may thus be taught; but the characteristic in style is innate. The difference between that of Dante and Metastasio, Burke and Cobbett, Johnson and Goldsmith, is analogous to that between their respective characters. Perspicuity is generally conceded to be its first essential quality; yet even this is dependent on clearness of ideas and strength of personal conviction. Vague notions and an irresolute purpose tincture the expression as well as the consciousness. So greatly, indeed, do moral traits influence the modes of speech and writing, that the reader or auditor of nice ear and discriminating judgment, can often infer the disposition and ruling tendency of an individual from his style; whether he has simplicity or ostentation of character, whether reckless or methodical, distinguished by fidelity or tact, geniality or reserve, strength or infirmity of purpose, may be discerned by his manner of using language.

The Magazine-Writer.

WILSON.

IF we compare the repast of a band of hunters or pioneers with the arts of gastronomy obtainable at a Parisian restaurant of the first order, we have a view of the refinements of which the process of physical nourishment is susceptible, analogous to what has taken place in the "feast of reason and the flow of soul," as they are displayed in literature. The rude yet wholesome banquet of the student of antiquity, slowly digging roots from the field of knowledge, through the medium of some antiquated tome written in a style and language wholly foreign to his ordinary life and associations, and the by-way refreshment cultivated taste affords the epicurean leterato of the nineteenth century, are as diverse in the facility with which they are acquired, and in comparative delicacy and versatility, as the primitive and the artistic resources of gastronomy. One of the most popular forms in which literary recreation and enlightenment has been thus dispensed, is that of periodicals. They originated in the versatile demands of

the mental appetite, growing out of increased leisure and wider cultivation, and in their very fragility, variety, and winsome arts, have not only met a conscious want, but reflected the opinions and modified the taste of the age.

In the brilliant galaxy of names memorably associated with magazine literature, perhaps no single one represents more completely the peculiar combination of talent requisite for its felicitous exercise, than Christopher North. In its palmy days, Blackwood's Magazine realized an ideal, in its kind, rarely quite equalled, and never surpassed by subsequent or contemporary rivals; and this it accomplished in spite of the opposing influence of party views, and the violation of many chivalric principles and social amenities. This triumph was owing chiefly to the fertile resources and varied aptitude of Wilson, whose mind, temperament, and disposition, singularly fitted him to exemplify the capabilities of a periodical writer. It is usual to consider the aim and the qualities of such a vocation superficial, though brilliant. Such an estimate may apply to certain special phases of magazine literature, but not to the art considered as a whole, and embracing all the features involved in the term. needed, in the first place, a good quirements, a latent mine of good sense, a wellbalanced philosophical mind, a large fund of literary knowledge, accurate and profound yet available; a just insight, and a comprehensive view-not

For this there is

basis of solid ac

less than wit, fancy, and all the light artillery of popular writing. There must be also genuine enthusiasm to give vitality to lucubrations that are destined to find their way into general circulation; a sense of the beautiful to lend a charm to style; and, above all, an excellent address, which alone imparts the ease and attractiveness which make literature social in its tone-a quality essential to the species we are considering. These requisites belong, in large measure and in an extraordinary degree, to Christopher North. His nom de plume is far more of a reality to his familiar readers than the actual person of many less vigorous and genial companions.

In this very ability to actualize himself in writing, not only as a man entertaining certain opinions, but as a boon-companion, tasteful caterer, and jovial host at the feast of letters, we have the best evidence of his natural fitness for the office he assumed. The professorship of Moral Philosophy which he has satisfactorily filled to successive classes, for so long a period, in Edinburgh, is sufficient testimony, independent of that his writings afford, of that extent and solidity of attainment we have designated as a requisite basis for a permanently successful magazinist; while the more facile graces that render the weapons in the armoury of learning and reflection easy to wield, and yet efficient in scope and aim, we not only trace in the fruits, but recognise in the very nature of Christopher North. The central principle of his genius, the secret charm whereby he

filled the throne of magazine literature, is zest. This quality he imparted to the effusions of his pen by virtue of his own intense relish of nature and letters. He is a born sportsman, with the instinct for game in his very blood; accordingly he loves the freedom and excitement derivable from earnest pursuit, from contact with the influences of nature, and from the exhilaration of success. The characteristics of the sportsman he exhibits not less in writing than in hunting. He is often as boisterous, jovial, and spirited over a new poem or an old reminiscence, as in a shooting-jacket, on a moor, in the bracing winds of autumn; in the former case, too, he follows a scent with as keen pertinacity, and as reckless a step, his eye steadily fixed on the game, sometimes to glorify, and at others to contemn it. Instead of the contemplative air of the student, he exhibits the qui vive, bustling ways of a man of the world, halloos after a poet not less than after a stag, and, what is most noticeable, gives his readers a distinct notion of his flavour, as well as of his anatomy. Hence the criticisms of Christopher North have been justly, and were once almost uniquely termed eloquent. Their rhetoric is not sustained as in those of Macaulay, they have not the refined acuteness of Hazlitt, nor are they so profusely sprinkled with wit as those of Sidney Smith; but they have the more widely appreciated quality of zest, and infect the reader, if he has a spark of enthusiasm, or the slightest intellectual appetite,