Astley Cooper always spoke of his sojourn in Scotland with satisfaction and gratitude: not only on account of the solid acquisition of professional knowledge which he had made there, and the generous cordiality and confidence with which he had been treated by both professors and students; but also of the social pleasures which he had enjoyed, in such few intervals of relaxation as his ravenous love of study permitted. He was, we repeat, formed for society. We have ourselves frequently seen him, and regard him as having been one of the handsomest and most fascinating men of our time. Not a trace was there in his symmetrical features, and their gay, frank expression, of the exhausting, repulsive labour of the dissecting-room and hospital. You would, in looking at him, have thought him a mere man of pleasure and fashion; so courtly and cheerful were his unaffected carriage, countenance, and manners. The instant that you were with him, you felt at your ease. How such a man must have enjoyed the social circles of Edinburgh! How many of its fair maidens' hearts must have fluttered when in proximity to their enchanting English visitor! Thus their views must have been darkened by regret at his departure. And let us place on record the impressions which the fair Athenians produced upon Astley Cooper. "He always spoke of the Edinburgh ladies with the highest encomiums; and used to maintain that they possessed an affability and simplicity of manners which he had not often found elsewhere, in conjunction with the superior intellectual attainments which at the same time generally distinguished them."[60] But, in justice to their southern sisters, we must hint, though in anticipation, that he twice selected a wife from among them.
Printed by William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Critical and Miscellaneous Essays, iii. 205, 206.
[2] Critical and Historical Essays, iii. 446, 447.
[3] Ibid., iii. 144-146.
[4] Critical and Historical Essays, iii. 141, 142.
[5] History, i. 610, 611.
[6] Vol. i. p. 127, 128.
[7] The Physical Atlas: A series of Maps and Notes on the Geographical Distribution of Natural Phenomena. By Alexander Keith Johnston, Geographer in Ordinary to Her Majesty, &c. Folio.