212 MEMOIR OF GEORGE WILSON. CHAP. V. 



CHAPTER V. 



WORKING IN HOPE. 



" The subtile chymic can divest 



And strip the creature naked, till he find 



The callow principles within their nest : 

 There he imparts to them his mind, 

 Admitted to their bed-chamber, before 



They appear trim and drest 

 To ordinary suitors at the door." 



HERBERT. 



WHEN the weary climber of Alpine steeps lias reached the 

 summit to which his toilsome efforts have long been directed, it 

 is often but to see before him heights still more inaccessible, 

 defying, yet tempting him to scale them. The past is as nothing 

 compared with what is to be accomplished, and only a stout 

 heart and manly purpose will avail. So with the student when 

 the labours of years are crowned with success ; the end is but a 

 new beginning, and the goal is harder to be won than in his 

 first career. But, happily, all looks bright in the future to youth- 

 ful eyes, and hope gives strength to do what to faint hearts would 

 be impossible. In the ' Life' of Dr. Keid we find George Wilson's 

 own experience of this time : " There are few periods," he says, 

 " more happy in a young doctor's life than those which imme- 

 diately succeed his graduation. The most diligent student is 

 thankful to escape from the irksomeness of a round of college, 

 hospital, or dispensary duties, which occupy nearly the whole 

 day, during an almost unbroken session of ten months. It can 

 rarely happen that each of the sciences which occupy the atten- 

 tion of the medical student is equally interesting to him, and 

 there must always, in a large school of medicine, be some 



