184 MEMOIR OF GEORGE WILSON. CHAP. VIII. 



you any objection to our doing so now 1 ' I at once said, 

 'No;' and he offered up (what Scotch prayers on such 

 occasions are not always) a brief, expressive, singularly ap- 

 propriate prayer, in which he prayed for me as a chemist. 1 

 cannot tell you how I was touched. I said in my secret 

 heart, ' Til give him another lecture for that.' We chemists 

 are generally held to be men who, provided we can tell ink 

 from blacking when asked, do not require moral characters. 

 No doubt, we get our share of the prayers for all sorts and 

 conditions of men, but I want something more. The day 

 I hope will come when, without cant, or formality, or hypo- 

 crisy, a class and its teacher will together ask God's 

 blessing on their work before they begin. If we can't be 

 Christians in all our daily work, of what worth is our Chris- 

 tianity ? " It may be imagined what excitement such a 

 lecture occasioned amongst the inhabitants of the close or 

 wynd in the High Street of Edinburgh, in which it was held. 

 Going down on one of the evenings, an hour previous to 

 the opening of the door, to make preliminary arrangements, 

 the lecturer found little boys endeavouring with intense 

 curiosity to peep through every crevice of door or window. 

 Seeing him enter elicited from one the pathetic petition, 

 " Eh, man ! will ye no let us in ? " but a more shrewd com- 

 panion observed, " That's no a man ; that's a gentleman ! " 

 In due time they did get in, and next day were overheard 

 by the assistants who came to remove the apparatus used, 

 dilating to their companions at the mouth of the close, on 

 the wonders they had seen. " And, man ! " said one, " he 

 fired a glass pistol fu' o' naething ; an' he set up a balloon, 

 an' they were a' haddin' on t' it ! ! ! " The description of the 

 explosion George ever remembered with keen zest. 



Many and various were the contributions to science 

 during the years of which we speak. A list of them will be 



