6 MEMOIR OF GEORGE WILSON. CHAP. I., 



awake watching for it, pretending to be asleep that he might 

 enjoy it to the full. In the family, this 1 blessing seemed in 

 consequence set apart, as it were, to the twins, and was 

 inseparably associated with them. 



From their earliest years the education of the children 

 was most carefully attended to. Realizing that more is 

 meant by education than the few acquirements merely which 

 so often pass for it, and that in it is included the develop- 

 ment of every faculty of mind and body, the parents en- 

 couraged their children in all pursuits likely to further this. 

 Their individual tastes and powers were carefully watched 

 and elicited, and a kindly confidence was encouraged which 

 bore rich fruit in after years. They lived, moreover, in a 

 moral and religious atmosphere of the healthiest kind ; and 

 the influence exerted on them by this was most powerful. 



About the age of four, each one was sent to an elementary 

 school, and the boys afterwards attended classes taught by 

 Mr. Knight, a teacher well known for his care in laying the 

 solid substratum so often neglected in schools of greater 

 pretension. Subsequently, when George was nine years of 

 age, he was sent to the High School of Edinburgh. 



Many things are to be noted of those early years of his 

 life. An instance of his good feeling may be alluded to, 

 in which is seen the germ of the unselfish consideration 

 for others so manifest throughout life. While at Mr. 

 Knight's he was enjoined to return home immediately after 

 school hours. As this injunction was unheeded day after 

 day, an explanation of his conduct was at last insisted on. 

 With great reluctance he told that a little boy, blind of one 

 eye, was much persecuted by his schoolfellows on account 

 of his infirmity, and not permitted to join in any of their 

 games. Sympathy with him overmastered the fear of 

 parental displeasure, and George had remained each day 



