220 MEMOIR OF GEORGE WILSON. ('IIAP. V. 



the blushes, the sempiternal blushes, which the duties of the 

 dairy and the kitchen imprint on Scottish maidens' cheeks. 

 AYhether I took my place on the floor, enchanted by the tones 

 of two unrosined fiddles, and footed nimbly with un- Cinder- 

 ella-footed dames, and was envied by the rustics for carrying off 

 their sweethearts, and offered to fight them all round, and would 

 have done it (with John Mven's assistance) had not the weep- 

 ing wenches clustered round me and forbade it ; whether I did 

 this or no, modesty and brevity forbid me to mention ; and 

 history reminds me, that when the chronicles of Penicuik come 

 to be written, and the names of her illustrious natives or visi- 

 tors to be marshalled in order, ' I shall strike the stars with my 

 sublime head.' So much for an idle week. Will you, Daniel, 

 at some early time, send me Whately's ' Logic,' which will be 

 of service, and ' Ingram' or any other book on algebra I have 

 left behind me ; they would be of great service, as I have taken 

 out a mathematical class, and begin logic very speedily." 



In the close of October, after alluding to troubles pressing 

 heavily on the family circle, in reference to which he says, 

 " We are men, and will strive to look things in the face ; to bear 

 is to conquer our fate," he goes on to tell Daniel of his imme- 

 diate plans and prospects : " I am sure you will approve of my 

 continuing to study this winter, on the plea of better fitting 

 myself thereby for fruitful work. You may be certain I have 

 convinced myself of this before I thought of classes. Further, 

 you know that I have striven to get a situation and have failed, 

 and at present I would gladly take one could I get it. limiting 

 that gladness, however, by two conditions, the one that it should 

 not take me from Edinburgh, for the sake of Mary, w r ho is still 

 in a very precarious state of health, and, now that Catherine and 

 B. are gone, has no friend near her with whom to commune ; 

 the other, that it should be worth taking, in the sense of lead - 

 ing to something better, for it would be folly for me to take a 

 post which should be trifling, and by consuming my time, pre- 

 vent me from qualifying myself for another and better. But I 

 may perhaps get some Saturday lecturing in the provincial 

 towns about. This I intend, if possible, to obtain. 



