To know [Dr. Whyte] was to know what the Covenanters were like in their most splendid hours. This may seem to lay too much stress on the sternness of him. He could be stern certainly, and then if you were its object you felt a gale of wind blowing that you were not likely to forget, but it was a face far more often lit up by delight in something fine that he had discovered; and wherever there were fine things he was the man to dig them up. He came to announce his discoveries with greater joy on his face than I think I have ever seen on the face of any other man. The fervor of his face, the beneficence of it, they will shine on like a lamp. His greatest genius lay in “uplift.” He uplifted more men and women than any other Scotsman of his time.
