depth and more or less character. If character were the only one of
these two things to be considered in the case of Mr. Wilson's writings,
one might with little or no hesitation predict that the best of them
would long remain classics. They are full of character, of a high and
fine character. They have a tone peculiar to themselves, like a man's
voice, which is one of the most unmistakable properties of a man. It
would be no reflection on an author to say that his point of view in
fundamental matters had changed in the course of thirty or forty years;
but the truth is that with reference to his great political ideal Mr.
Wilson's point of view has not widely changed. The scope of his survey
has been enlarged, he has filled up the intervening space with a
thousand observations, he sees his object with a more penetrating and
commanding eye; but it is the same object that drew to itself his
youthful gaze, and has had its part in making him

"The generous spirit, who, when brought
Among the tasks of real life, hath wrought
Upon the plan that pleased his boyish thought."

The world, in time, will judge of the amount of knowledge and the degree
of purely intellectual force that Mr. Wilson has applied in his field of
study. A contemporary cannot well pronounce such a judgment, especially
if the province be not his own.

In the small space at my disposal I shall try, first, to say what I
think is the political conception or idea upon which Mr. Wilson has
looked so steadily and with so deep emotion that he has made of it a
poetical subject. And then I shall venture to distinguish those
processes of imagination, that artistic method, which we call style, by
which he has elucidated its meaning for his readers so as to win for it