388 Reviews and Notices of Booh. 



REVIEWS AND NOTICES OF BOOKS. 



Memoirs of George Wilson, M.D., F.R.S.A., Regius Professor of 

 Technology in the University of Edinhurg\ &c. By his 

 Sister, Jesse Aitken Wilson. Edinburgh, Edmonston & 

 Douglas : Montreal, B. Dawson & Son. 



This memoir has been undertaken by its accomplished author- 

 ess at the urgent solicitation of attached friends of George Wilson. 

 Although written by his sister, as a true work of affection, there 

 is yet no such partiality manifested in its pages as the character 

 of the beloved brother will not justify in the estimation even o^ 

 strangers. An honest and earnest attempt has been successfully 

 made throughout truthfully to delineate the character of the man, 

 the Christian, and the philosopher. From the mass of letters 

 which the warmth and generosity of Dr. Wilson's friendship led 

 him to write to his intimate associates, the life, in a great mea- 

 sure, partakes of the character of an autobiography. Nor are these 

 letters mere common-place pieces of correspondence ; they possess 

 all the beauty of the letters of Walpole and the Christian simpli- 

 city of those of Cowper ; they have besides a feature which the 

 familiar productions of neither of these eminent men possess, in 

 any appreciable degree, — they are radiant with the sunshine of a 

 large and happy heart; they have, in short, a fine commingling of 

 literature, science, poetry, and joyous affection. 



There was nothing of what may be styled an eventful kind in 

 the life of this esteemed minister of science. He took no part in 

 any movements of historical importance ; he inaugurated no new 

 era of science ; and while his original investigations were both 

 important and numerous he still cannot be said to have been a 

 ofreat discoverer. What was it then that oiave such a charm to 

 the productions of his pen and to his public and private exposi- 

 tions of science ? It seems to have been the rare combination of 

 poetic genius and careful observation of physical phenomena and 

 their mutual relations, together with a wakeful and Christian phil- 

 anthropy. All his writings thus sparkle with original observations, 

 teem with beautiful and fit analogies, and present fact and truth 



