194 MEMOIR OF GEOKGE WILSON. CHAP. IV. 



my peers now for welcome and assistance ; and trusting to 

 enthusiasm and perseverance, I do hope for a name and a fame 

 among them, worthy of myself, and of us all." A pen-and-ink 

 portrait of George, taken by an artist friend, accompanies this 

 letter, of which he says : " How like you the enclosed likeness 

 of your loving and loved brother ? I shall here tran- 

 scribe for your quiddity book, if they are worthy of it, some 

 lines I wrote on Sunday to a Polyanthus, which mother loved. 



" How the rich cups of that so lovely flower 



Lift to the heavens their purple velvet leaves, 

 That every petal freshened by the shower 



Which falls in dewdrops, from its slanting eaves, 

 May feel the warm sap through its vessels run, 

 In glad obedience to the glowing sun ! 



" Each fragrant chalice breathes upon the air 



A scent more sweet than censer ever flung 

 In clouds of incense, blinding all the glare 



Of garish candles, when the mass was sung : 

 * The long-drawn aisle,' and the cathedral's gloom, 

 Ne'er felt the richness of such rare perfume. 



" With forms more graceful, and with vestments clad, 



Such as the haughty prelate never wore, 

 They give to God an adoration glad, 



That well might teach us all our souls to pour 

 In high-souled, earnest, heaven-uplifted prayer, 

 To Him who doth for all his children care. 



" We are all pretty well. Mary not so well as she was ; but 

 some cold east winds having blown by, I look for her soon being 

 better again. Write to mother soon. She tells me I am not 

 improved by my visit to London, which of course means, I am 

 worse. Don't you earn this character." 



The next letter to Daniel gives a choice specimen of the fun 

 ever ready to brim over on the slightest occasion. The British 

 Association met that year in Birmingham, and the possibility of 

 attending its meetings is alluded to. 



" Is not this letter- writing a poor, lean, meagre apology for 

 talking and laughing, and looking happy and looking sour, and 

 being merry, and being perverse, and sitting side by side, and 

 drinking and smoking, and seeing each other's faces, and watching 

 eyebrows going up, and eyes sparkling, and brows knitting, and 



