1S17-32. ' JUVENILE SOCIETY.' 1 7 



in a cabinet with glass doors, which your mother kindly gave 

 up to us, and a scientific newspaper in MS. was written by, and 

 circulated amongst, the members. I remember that Daniel con- 

 trived and executed an allegorical heading for this paper which 

 was much thought of ; and many items of news which found a 

 place in its columns, I can recall as if I had read it yesterday. 

 In it, also, we recorded the results of our Saturday excursions 

 into the country, the plants and animals noticed, with any facts 

 as to their habits and peculiarities. 



" I do not think that at this time George had any fancy for 

 chemical research. Chemistry was becoming popularized then, 

 long before either Botany or Zoology, but it was to these latter 

 branches, so far as I know, that his taste for inquiry was first 

 directed. I owe him a debt of obligation for first affording me 

 the pleasure of reading the ' Pilgrim's Progress,' though at that 

 period neither of us thought of anything but the story : I re- 

 member quite well the look of the copy which he lent me ; a 

 rather thin old-fashioned octavo in calf. As years wore on, I 

 became rather an ardent collector of plants and insects, for 

 which George did not care much, so that our paths diverged a 

 little, and we were not so often together on Saturdays. But 

 until we left the High School, our friendship remained un- 

 broken, and I can testify to George having been a very general 

 favourite." 



Mr. Alexander Sprunt, of Wilmington, North Carolina, an- 

 other school-fellow, speaks of contemporaneous events : 



" During the period of our High School curriculum great 

 questions were occupying the public mind, and startling events 

 taking place in Europe, the final struggle of the Poles, the 

 French three days of July, the Eeform movement, etc. On all 

 such questions George Wilson took the extreme liberal side. 

 The subject of the immediate or gradual emancipation of the 

 negro slaves in the colonies was keenly discussed about that 

 time. Some of us being related to families of the colonists, 

 were familiar with the arguments for a gradual abolition of 

 slavery. George was an unremitting advocate of immediate 

 emancipation." 



B 



