1842-43. SCHOOL OF ARTS' CLASS. 309 



from the lecture, he lay on the sofa and drank in their beauty. 

 Nothing beautiful was ever lost on him, and knowing this, 

 many loved to minister to his pleasures ; so that in his sitting- 

 room, at every season of the year, there might be found vases of 

 lovely flowers. One of the pupils 1 of the session 1844-45, 

 whose later career has been marked by unusual success, thus 

 speaks of this class : " The students were chiefly artisans, self- 

 educated, though there was a sprinkling of youths of higher 

 ranks in society. They (the latter) were generally very young, 

 I myself only fourteen, and attending the High School classes. 

 The same qualities of head and heart which have subsequently 

 distinguished Professor Wilson among the many eminent pro- 

 fessors of the Metropolitan University, then distinguished him 

 among the teachers of the School of Arts. There was the same 

 power of riveting the attention of his audience, nay, almost fas- 

 cinating them ; the same playful fancy and poetical prose in his 

 prelections ; the same Christian catholicity of heart ; the genial 

 sympathy with the ' pursuit of knowledge under difficulties ; ' 

 the same familiar, homely mode of illustration ; the same apti- 

 tude in experiment ; the same affability to his most humble and 

 obscure student. These qualities combined to render him at 

 once the greatest favourite and the most efficient teacher among 

 his colleagues at the School of Arts. I well remember the 

 enthusiasm which his prelections and experiments stimulated 

 in myself displaying itself in a course of private experiments 

 at home, and leading, at the close of the second session, to a 

 ' Chemical Association,' where a fund was raised for apparatus, 

 papers were read, discussions held, and experiments conducted. 

 More than one of the members of this Association are now well- 

 known citizens or flourishing merchants of Edinburgh." 



This Tuesday evening lecture at the School of Arts was one 

 of the most exhausting duties of the week. "Well, there's 

 another nail put into my coffin," was often a remark made on 

 throwing off his outer-coat on return. A sleepless night almost 

 invariably followed ; and Wednesday came to be recognised as 

 a day when his friends might visit him without fear of disturb- 

 ing literary work, as lassitude forbade any attempt at it. 



1 Dr. Lander Lindsay, Pitcullen House, Perth. 



