154 LIFE OF GEORGE WILSON. CHAP. VII. 



Recovery proceeded favourably, so that in six weeks the 

 wound had closed all but one small aperture, and he was 

 able to move about a little on crutches. " He came forth 

 with a spirit strengthened from heaven, to bear the life -long 

 burden of a feeble body, and to accept life on the most 

 disadvantageous terms as a blessed and divine ministry. 

 The inward man had gained infinitely more than the out- 

 ward man had lost ; and, with all his originally noble 

 qualities exalted, there was found a humility, a gentleness, 

 a patience, a self-forgetfulness, and a dedication of life to 

 Christian ends and uses, which henceforth made every place 

 and work sacred." l 



What has been truly called " his unconquerable gaiety of 

 heart," is seen in one or two notes written in the first few 

 weeks after the amputation. The first two are addressed to 

 James Russell, who was giving expression to his sympathetic 

 love in all kinds of presents, to cheer or amuse the patient. 

 One of these was an accordion, which he fancied might help 

 to beguile the tedious hours of convalescence. The first 

 letter is merely dated " Friday," but it is evidently written 

 about the close of January : 



" MY DEAR JAMES, Your kind letter demands something 

 more than a mere statement in Jessie's bulletin concerning 

 me. I could write you a whole folio of news from the world 

 of pain, so far as intellectual capacity is concerned, or even 

 physical strength, but I have to lie in such a constrained 

 twisted posture, propped up by pillows, and what not, that 

 I can hold the pen for only a short period at a time. But 

 I can at least tell you, that my case proceeds steadily, to 

 my own comfort and surprise, and to the satisfaction of the 

 doctors. I am now lifted out of the region of acute suffering, 

 into that of dogged endurance of quite bearable pain, and 

 1 " Macmillan's Magazine," January 1860. 



