1844-54- SCIENTIFIC MEMOIRS. 189 



"They give me a very high opinion, not only of Dr. 

 Wilson's talents and learning, but of his taste and power of 

 writing. . . . His severer style is admirable, and nothing 

 can be better than the lucid and energetic brevity with 

 which he abstracts facts and condenses arguments." Those 

 papers were the first expression of that love for biography, 

 afterwards so manifest. "My own favourite study, I will 

 confess," he tells the Rev. Dr. Vaughan, editor of the Re- 

 view, "is scientific history and biography." He had it in 

 contemplation to write the lives of the distinguished chemists 

 of Britain, and of this work these memoirs were to form 

 part ; but the design was never fulfilled, his plans being 

 always more extended than his opportunities of carrying 

 them out. The nucleus of another of his bright visions is 

 to be found in the paper on Chemistry and Natural Theo- 

 logy. The hope of writing a " Religio Chemici," corre- 

 sponding to Sir Thomas Browne's 'Religio Medici/ was 

 indulged for many years ; but " his life bright with rare 

 virtues was the only ' Religio Chemici ' given him to finish. 

 This was higher than the contemplated work." 1 The 

 " British Quarterly Review " was struggling into being when 

 he was requested to contribute to its pages. This organ 

 being the representative of the Congregationalists of Great 

 Britain, he willingly responded, and by his zeal on its behalf, 

 as well as by his articles, he contributed not a little to its 

 success, identifying himself thoroughly with its well-being. 



In the notices called forth by the appearance of its first 

 numbers, we find his paper on Dalton specially mentioned. 

 " The scientific strength of the Review is indicated by a 

 truly admirable paper on the 'Life and Discoveries of 

 Dalton,' in which the atomic theory of that great lawgiver 

 of quantitative chemistry is expounded with a clearness, 

 1 "Macmillan's Magazine," January 1860. 



