Reviews and Notices o/BooJcs* 389 



in tlieir relations to human welfare. He died at a time when his 

 mental powers had attained a ripeness, and his scientific know- 

 ledge a fulness, that gave promise of bold incursions into the 

 secret treasures of nature. We can conceive of him, as standing 

 on the boundless shores of truth, and prepared, from the utmost 

 limits of discovery, to penetrate with unwearied ardour into the 

 yet unknown, that he might bring to light some new glories of 

 the Divine wisdom by which the sum of human happiness might 

 be increased. Those who love the beautiful in literature and 

 science and who can appreciate manly Christian gentleness will 

 find in this volume a rich repast. 



We might quote many choice paragraphs from the pages of 

 this memoir, but we confine ourselves to the following from the 

 " Estimate by Dr. J. H. Gladstone " contained in the appendix, 

 commending our readers to this delightful volume itself for a com- 

 plete delineation of George Wilson's life and character. 



AS A TECHNOLOGIST. 



" Long before Dr. Wilson's appointment as Eegius Director 

 of the Industrial Museum of Scotland, he had, in his laboratory 

 practice, been led to investigate several of the chemical arts. He 

 had even published papers bearing more or less on some of them, 

 as, for instance, that already referred to, which elucidated the 

 theory of bleaching. Bat when his mind was specially turned to 

 the subject of Technology, he put all his heart into it. It appealed 

 at once to his intellectual and his moral nature : there was a vast 

 range of inquiry, not too profound ; and what was better still, 

 that inquiry had a direct bearing on the happiness of his fellow- 

 men. In the formation of the Industrial Museum he worked hard ; 

 and those who have enjoyed the advantage, as I have, of being 

 conducted by him through the rich stores in readiness for the 

 future building, can alone appreciate the care and thought which 

 must have guided him in the selection and arrangement of such 

 varied materials. Most wonderful and refreshing too was it to 

 behold the enthusiasm with which he bore his feeble body over a 

 manufactory, peeping into every process, collecting samples, and 

 gathering the workmen around him, who always seemed delighted 

 to tell him all they knew, or to listen to his kind and instructive 

 remarks. His technological course, too, was largely attended, 

 and in his inaugural lecture for 1855^ he explained the nature of 



1 * What is Technology ? ' Sutherland & Knox. 



