268 MEMOIR OF GEORGE WILSON. CHAP. X. 



" If all Us Present, all its Past, 



And all its Future them canst see, 

 Must be deciphered, ere at last 



Thou even in part canst hope to be 

 Able to solve the mystery 

 Why one sea- worm to death hath passed, 

 How must it be, when God doth call 

 Him whom He placed above them all?" 



Ah, yes ! we must in patience wait, 



Thou dearly loved, departed friend ! 

 Till we have followed through the gate, 

 Where Life in Time doth end ; 

 And Present, Past, and Future lend 

 Their light to solve thy fate ; 

 When all the ages that shall be, 

 Have flowed into the Timeless Sea. 



The letters to his absent brother give a representation of 

 his life, as once before on their first separation, and to them 

 we shall occasionally refer for information, and for glimpses 

 at passing events. In the opening month of 1855, he 

 writes to Daniel, " The reactionary lassitude following 

 eleven prelections last week, has slowed my brain-engine, 

 and I look at some duties, and with a hardened heart refuse 

 to fulfil them. I made stern resolutions at the beginning of 

 the winter not to overwork myself, or to take extra lectures ; 

 but the art of saying No is not learned in a day, and though 

 I have succeeded in uttering it several times, I could not 

 escape some demands on me." Amongst these demands 

 were three lectures to the Architectural Institute, ' On the 

 Chemistry of Building Materials,' 1 at the request of its 

 members. In the closing lecture a hope is expressed that 

 through the ^instrumentality of the Industrial Museum, the 



1 "Transactions of the Architectural Institute of Scotland for 

 1854-5-" 



