186 Notices of the Life of Professor Wilson. 



On the morning of Tuesday, 22d November, there appeared to 

 be a slight alleviation of symptoms, but it was a temporary rally. 

 Ere long it was evident that he was sinking. He was peaceful 

 and happy, when he breathed his last. 



The respect and affection with which he was regarded were 

 well shown in the public funeral, which was attended by Professors 

 of the University, the Lord Provost, Magistrates, and Council, the 

 Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons, members of the Royal So- 

 ciety, Royal Scottish Society of Arts, Royal Physical Society, 

 Botanical Society, Philosophical Institution, School of Arts, Mer- 

 chant Company, Chamber of Commerce. His friends, the Rev. 

 Dr. Alexander and the Rev. Dr. Cairns, officiated on the occasion. 

 His remains were interred in the Old Calton Burying-ground on 

 28th November, and his funeral sermon was preached by Dr. 

 Alexander, in the Music Hall, to an overwhelming audience, on 

 4th December — the text being, " Blessed are the dead that die in 

 the Lord," Rev. xiv. 13. 



While Wilson's lectures threw a genial light on the facts of 

 science, his writings contributed not less to extend and popularise 

 them. Everything he touched became instinct with life, and was 

 impressed upon the mind of the hearer or reader by associations 

 of the most pleasing and lasting nature. His collected writings 

 will undoubtedly be an important contribution to literature. 



" The effort of his life." Dr. Cairns remarks, " was to render 

 science at once more human and more divine. His heart was 

 strung throughout in sympathy with the touching prayer of the 

 Novum Organon^ that all science may become a healing art ; and 

 his last public office was regarded by hitn with special affection, 

 as ministering to industrial progress and happiness. No scientific 

 writer of our day has so habitually and lovingly quoted the Bible, 

 from his essay on Dalton, whom he represents as proving that 

 God literally ' weighs the mountains in scales, and the hills in a 

 balance,' down to his last paper, which closes with marking the 

 identity of Professor Thomson's astronomical proof of the evanes- 

 cence of the heavens with the words of the 102d Psalm. He 

 hoped to live to write a 'Religio Chemici,' corresponding to Sir 

 Thomas Browne's ' Religio Medici,' and embracing amongst other 

 topics of discussion the doctrine of the resurrection." 



" To have moved, amidst the altitudes and solitudes of science 

 with a humble and loving heart ; to have spoken out words on 



