Two conservative writers died last week, James Q. Wilson and Andrew Breitbart. To my knowledge, I never read a word of Mr. Breitbart's, which seems to have been extremely provocative. (In fact, Mr. Breitbart's writings, by most third-party accounts, seem consistent with what I had expressed in my About page about many blogs: they are "vapid billboards of arrogance; a number are myopic delivery systems of cookie-cutter ideology.") I can probably count on one hand the number of articles by Mr. Wilson that I read, which, because of their depth of thought, always seemed to require more than one reading. From what I can gather from media reports, the two men both had, in their own ways, sharp minds and were able to communicate clearly to others their views. These are admirable traits, whatever one's views happen to be. But Professor Wilson intrigues me. He seems distinct, or, better, distinguished.
Reflections on James Q. Wilson's life, both his professional output and his personal character, inevitably return not just to what he wrote and taught but how he did it: with kindness, fairness, exacting intellectual rigor, diplomacy, and contagious enthusiasm. Consider this contribution by Harvey Mansfield in today's Wall Street Journal and Saturday's WSJ editorial (log in may be required). He may have been pointed in his critiques, but his incisiveness was winsome. In part this was because his drive for practical virtue, both to promote it and to embody it, was so apparent to others.
