THE “RECREATIONS OF CHRISTOPHER NORTH” and the “Noctes Ambrosianæ” are choice examples of a style which cannot obtain except when the “Republic of Letters” is dominated by an aristocracy which recognizes no one who cannot translate a quotation from Horace at sight. This applies especially to the “Noctes Ambrosianæ,” a charming book for all who do not feel under compulsion to share their literary delights with the world at large. The “Recreations of Christopher North” consists of essays published originally in the Reviews and is somewhat more popular in its general style; but, except in his tales and poems, Prof. Wilson writes less to teach the unlearned than for the sake of fellowship with those who do not need to be taught. Born at Paisley, Scotland, May 18th, 1785, he was graduated in 1807 from Magdalen College, Oxford. In 1820 he became professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh, a position he retained for many years. It gave him ample leisure which he employed in contributing to Blackwood’s, the Quarterly and other periodicals. Maginn, Hogg, and others were associated with him in the production of the “Noctes Ambrosianæ,” a series of papers which ran in Blackwood’s from 1822 to 1835. Some of Prof. Wilson’s tales were received with great favor and are still to be found in every representative collection of Scottish stories. He died at Edinburgh, April 3d, 1854.