anxiety to know who was the translator; but the translator
having intended not to acknowledge it, kept quiet. He returned to it,
and praising it anew, expressed still more earnestly his desire to know
the author; and so I made myself known, as all _great unknowns_ I think,
with the exception of Junius, are sooner or later destined to do.

"Of the philosophical classes, those that I liked best were the Logic
and Moral Philosophy--particularly the latter. I have often thought that
it is desirable, could it be possibly found practicable, to have all the
teachers of the higher departments of education not merely of high
scholastic acquirements, but of acknowledged genius. Youth reveres
genius, and delights to be influenced by it; heart and spirit are kept
awake and refreshed by it, and everything connected with its
forthgivings is rendered doubly memorable. It fixes, in a certain sense,
the limit of expectation, and the prevailing sentiment is--we are under
the tuition of the highest among those on earth who teach; if we do not
profit here, we may not hope to do so elsewhere. These remarks I make
with a particular reference to the late Professor Wilson, under the
influence of whose genius and generous warmth of heart many have felt as
I was wont to feel. If it brings hope and gladness to love and esteem
the living, it also yields a satisfaction, though mingled with regret,
to venerate the dead; and now that he is no more, I cannot forbear
recording how he treated a man from the mountains who possessed no
previous claim upon his attention. I had no introduction to him, but he
said that he had heard of me, and would accept of no fee for his class
when I joined it; at least he would not do so, he said, till I should be
able to inform him whether or not I had been pleased with his lectures.
But it proved all the same in this respect at the close as it was at the
commencement of the session. He invited me frequently to his house as a
friend, when other friends were to meet him there, besides requesting me
to come and see him and his family whenever I could make it convenient.
He said that his servant John was very perverse, and would be sure to
drive me by like all others, if he possibly could; so he gave me a
watchword, which he thought John, perverse as he was, would not venture
to resist. I thus became possessed of a privilege of which I did not
fail to avail myself frequently--a privilege which might well have been
gratifying