1 66 MEMOIR OF GEORGE WILSON. CHAP. VII. 



" God bless you, my dear sister, and watch over you. A 

 sense of His infinite willingness and ability to succour us, 

 and a firm, realization of the great truth that His ear is ever 

 open to our prayers, is a precious attainment. For you and 

 for me Jesus Christ died ; to know that, and to make it a 

 wellspring of devout gratitude and obedience, is at once a 

 high duty and a great joy." 



At this time a great sorrow was hanging over George, as 

 indeed over every member of the household. It was the 

 anticipated death of his cousin James Russell. More than 

 once has this name appeared in the preceding pages, and 

 doubtless much may be gathered of him even from these 

 brief notices. He was one who left a profound impression 

 on all who knew, more especially on all who had learned to 

 love him. So much was this the case, that so late as 1864, 

 his brother Alexander refers thus to him in writing to a 

 friend : " my dear brother James, twenty years since gone 

 from us, but living still in our memory and affection, re- 

 taining, as is the privilege of the dead, his ardent youth in 

 our thoughts ; not oldening with time ; not losing, as it rolls 

 on, one of the salient features whereby we knew him, and 

 still know, rather than remember him." Growing up, as 

 James Russell did, from the early age of six, in the same 

 household as George, many of the influences under which 

 the latter was formed also affected him. It is not too 

 much to say of him that he possessed genius of no common 

 order ; this was manifested in various ways. On quitting 

 .the High School of Edinburgh, he left it as its recognized 

 Dux, and at College he was one of Sir William Hamilton's 

 most distinguished students. His love for philosophy was 

 great, and other sympathies were largely developed. He 

 was an excellent classical scholar; had ranged many de- 



