1832-37. CLASSES ATTENDED. 65 



This is the last entry for the year 1835. The quotations are 

 given, not for their intrinsic merit, but chiefly as showing the 

 metaphysical bent of his mind at that age. Like the glass win- 

 dow of a bee-hive, the journal reveals the workings that produce 

 the beautiful results, permitting us to hear him thinking, as it 

 were. The comments on 1 Cor. xv. derive interest from their 

 being the first evidence of his pondering the subject of the 

 Eesurrection, which in after life was so reverently and earnestly 

 studied. In some points regarding the resurrection-body, his 

 views were different from any he met with, and he frequently 

 expressed, up to within a few weeks of his death, a purpose of 

 extending those of them already committed to writing, and em- 

 bodied in an Address to Medical Students. The reading aloud 

 of this chapter at his own funeral service had a touching signi- 

 ficance for those of his friends present who knew his special love 

 for it, and to whom it seemed inseparably associated with him. 1 



The Session of 1835-36 found him attending the lectures of 

 Professors Alison, Home, and Syme, on the Institutes of Medi- 

 cine, the Practice of Medicine, and Clinical Surgery, with those 

 of Mr. Lizars on Anatomy. Attendance on the hospital wards 

 was also continued as before. 



In May, the pleasures of botany were renewed under Profes- 

 sor Graham. As a boy we have seen the attractions this science 

 had for him, but many occupations had placed it beyond his 

 reach for years. The blank page of a note-book for botanical 

 extracts gives this entry : 



" May 1 5th, 1836, Sunday. An annular eclipse of the sun 

 took place this day : the next day I commenced my botanical 

 studies seriously. G-. WILSON, Monday, 16th." 



1 The following fragments of conversation are preserved on this subject. They 

 are written in pencil, as, owing to his mother's inability to hear his voice unless 

 raised to a high pitch, it was often his custom thus to converse with her : "I have 

 thought a good deal about the resurrection-body. It is every way a great mystery. 

 Our bodies will not be like that of Lazarus, the old body over again ; nor like that 

 after Christ's resurrection, but rather in degree like his after his ascension. . . . The 

 Saviour said he was not a spirit, but had flesh and bones, and he ate before his dis- 

 ciples after his resurrection ; yet the hands were still pierced, and the spear-wound 

 leading to the heart remained." 



E 



