of an orator addressing his audience. The language which he then, and indeed generally, uttered is very full and harmonious, con- taining many Greek and Latin radicals, and with inflections also much resembling those of the Greek language. I also frequently noticed that he employed the same radical with different inflections; but I do not remember to have noticed his employing two words together, both of which, as to root and inflection, I could pro- nounce to belong to any language with which I am acquainted. G. Macdonald's tongue is harsher in its syllables, but more grand in general expression. The only time I ever had a serious doubt whether the unknown sounds which I heard on these occasions were parts of a language, was when the Macdonalds' servant spoke during the first evening. When she spoke on subsequent occasions, it was invariably in one tongue, which not only was perfectly dis- tinct from the sounds she uttered at the first meeting, but was satisfactorily established to my conviction, to be a language." "One of the persons thus gifted, we employed as our servant while at Port Glasgow. She is a remarkably quiet, steady, phlegmatic person, entirely devoid of forwardness or of enthusiasm, and with very little to say for herself in the ordinary way. The language which she spoke was as distinct as the others; and in her case, as in the others (with the exceptions I have before mentioned), it was quite evident to a hearer that the language spoken at one time was identical with that spoken at another time." Perhaps it ought to be added that when Mary Campbell's written-tongue (for she wrote as well as spoke) was submitted to the examination of Sir George Staunton and Samuel Lee, they pronounced it no tongue at all (Hanna, Chalmers, vol. Ill, p. 266).
57. Mrs. Oliphant, Life, p. 430.
58. Ibid.
59. Ibid., p. 431.
60. Ibid.
61. Reminiscences, p. 252.
62. The British Weekly, January 18, 1889. We have purposely drawn these descriptions from the more sympathetic sources. We must add, however, that the more competent the observer was the less favorable was the impression made upon him. J. G. Lockhart writes to "Christopher North," in 1824 {Christopher North, A Mem- oir of John Wilson, by his daughter, Mrs. Gordon. Am. ed., New York, 1863, p. 271): "Irving, you may depend upon it, is a pure humbug. He has about three good attitudes, and the lower notes of his voice are superb, with a fine manly tremulation that sets women mad, as the roar of a noble bull does a field of kine;
IRVINGITE GIFTS 297
but beyond this he is nothing, really nothing. He has no sort of real earnestness; feeble, pumped-up, boisterous, overlaid^stuff is
his staple;1 he is no more a Chalmers than is a Jeffrey." That
is a vignette from a competent hand of Irving as a preacher, in the first flush of his popularity in London— before the arrival of the "gifts." And here, now, is a full-length portrait, from an equally competent hand, of a service ten years afterwards (spring of 1833), at Newman Street. It is taken from the intimate journal of Joseph Addison Alexander {The Life of Joseph Addison Alexander, D.D., by Henry Carrington Alexander, New York, 1870, vol. I, pp. 289 ff .) :
"After breakfast, having learned that Edward Irving was to hold a meeting at half-past eleven, we resolved to go; but without expecting to hear the tongues, as they have not been audible of late. Mr. Nott, who had called before breakfast, conducted us to Newman Street, where Irving is established since he left the house in Regent Square. As we walked along we saw a lady before us arm in arm with a tall man in black breeches, a broad-brimmed hat, and black hair hanging down his shoulders. This, Mr. Nott informed us, was Irving himself with his cara sposa. We followed them to the door of the chapel in Newman Street, where Mr. Nott left us, and we went in. The chapel is a room of moderate size, seated with plain wooden benches, like our recitation rooms. The end opposite the entrance is semicircular, and filled with amphi- theatrical seats. In front of these there is a large arch, and immedi- ately beneath it a reading-desk in the shape of an altar, with a large arm-chair beside it. From this point there are several steps de- scending toward the body of the house, on which are chairs for the elders of the church. I mention these particulars because I think the pulpit and its appendages extremely well contrived for scenic effects.'. . .