374 MEMOIR OF GEORGE WILSON. CHAP. XII. 



delivered a funeral sermon in the Music Hall. This hall 

 was chosen on account of its size, yet many had to leave 

 unable to gain admittance. A sketch of George Wilson's 

 life followed the sermon, with an attempt to account for the 

 homage shown to him in his death by those among whom 

 his life had been spent. 1 



Another friend, Professor MacDougall, has endeavoured 

 to account for the intensity of the mourning as follows : 



" The stroke was felt in a very peculiar manner by the 

 community of Edinburgh, to whom Dr. Wilson was endeared 

 by special ties. He had grown up and attained to distinc- 

 tion among them, had always been looked upon by them as 

 one of themselves, and his rising reputation and influence 

 were regarded by his fellow-citizens with a just pride and 

 satisfaction. He had interested himself actively in what- 

 ever tended to their instruction or improvement, yet always 

 in such a way as to disarm the hostility of contending 

 parties, and to place high above suspicion his own spotless 

 integrity, his comprehensive sympathies, and his extraordi- 

 nary firmness and candour. His voice had been ever ready 

 to instruct or delight his townsmen. His personal character, 

 too, had been felt to be an invaluable power for good among 

 them, and good of the highest kind ; for it was scarcely 

 possible to avoid receiving an enhanced impression of the 

 reality and beauty of genuine religion, when it was seen 

 embodied in a living character of such piety and buoyant 

 energy, such lofty aspiration combined with true humility, 

 such generosity, and delicacy, and tenderness, with un- 

 bending truth and integrity of principle, in short, such a 

 general grace and loveliness, united with such masculine 

 determination, activity, and force. It was a community 



i This Sermon was afterwards published by Messrs. A. ajjd C. Black, 

 Edinburgh. 



