248 MEMOIR OF GEOKGE WILSON. CHAP. VI. 



CHAPTEK VI. 



LOSS OF HEALTH -PUBLIC LECTURES ON CHEMISTRY -- 

 INVALID LIFE. 



'' As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten." 



MERCIFULLY is the future bidden from human eyes, else 

 would the few days of country life by which George Wilson 

 expected to " gain time in the end " have been very differently 

 anticipated. It may be that compassionating angels watched 

 with wistful eyes his departure from home, but love infinitely 

 more deep and tender than theirs was even now preparing the 

 furnace, by means of which the process of refinement was to be 

 carried on. Half of his life is now past ; in almost unbroken 

 health have the years fled, while his soul has been clothing 

 itself with the beautiful garments of wisdom and knowledge. 

 Hitherto all has been preparatory, and friends look forward 

 with abounding hope to his opening career. 



" If God grant me health and leisure, my most urgent needs, 

 I shall not despair : " thus have we seen the desires of his heart 

 expressed ; yet these were the very things to be denied, while 

 many other precious gifts could only, from the absence of these, 

 1 K> ] mrtially turned to account. 



In allusion to this period of his life, Dr. Cairns says : l ~ 

 " Ardent in temperament, buoyant with youth, and elastic in 

 body as in mind, with gay humour, keen repartee, flashing 

 fancy, and profuse literary as well as scientific faculty, under 

 the presidency of a clear judgment and a strong will, he seemed 



1 ' Macmillan's Magazine,' January 1860. 



