330 MEMOIR OF GEORGE WILSON. CHAP. Xl. 



But now these pleasures had to be foregone, and the 

 evening spent in bed, where, surrounded by books and 

 writing materials, he carried on his literary work for five or 

 six hours consecutively. Special calls were attended to as 

 before, but all available time was spent in a recumbent pos- 

 ture, with application of lotions. At the close of December 

 he tells his brother : " I have no news to send you of a 

 stirring sort. The winter hitherto has been more than 

 ordinarily monotonous : much of it spent in bed, and much 

 of it in doing work with an effort. This morning I am 

 somewhat seedy, in consequence of an hour and three- 

 quarters' lecture last night at Leith. 



" I was induced to give it to help the funds of a Free 

 Church, presided over by one of those pre-eminently good 

 and lovable men, to whom less good and lovable people 

 cannot say No, and who should be taken periodically before 

 a magistrate and cautioned against asking favours from their 

 brethren. Returning from this lecture I speculated, as I 

 suppose you do on such occasions, as to the good such 

 prelections do. In this case I had the comfort of knowing 

 that I had helped to raise 5o/. for the cause a consolation 

 seldom to be had. The ordinary result I take to be such 

 as was experienced by a young minister lecturing on astro- 

 nomy in the south country to an audience of shepherds, etc. 

 He had dilated pretty largely on the immense distances 

 which separate the heavenly bodies from each other ; and 

 when his lecture was over, a friend heard two of the shep- 

 herds discussing its merits: 'Jock! d'ye believe a' the 

 minister said 1 ?' To which Jock replies (more Scottico), 

 1 Div ye ? ' and Tarn emphatically answers, ' No ae word ! ' 



" I am going off to Bridge of Allan for three or four days 

 next week, in hope that it will set me up a bit, and enable 



