312 MEMOIR OF GEORGE WILSON. CHAP. VII. 



work till four P.M., driving out, when the day is fine, for one or 

 two hours. The interval between four and six is spent how 

 do you think ? in sleeping, positively in slumbers, so wearied 

 am I with my day's work. At six I descend again, and remain 

 till nine or ten, and when I come up again, some talk with 

 Mary, a glance at an 'Athenaeum,' and I am ready for bed. 

 For the last six weeks I have scarcely got so much as the news- 

 papers read, and have been thankful to secure a chapter of the 

 Bible, and leave all else unread. Much of this labour has been 

 spent on mere drudgework analysis of soils, wheat, etc. But 

 the chief cause of such working has been the great question of 

 transmutation, at which I may, without any exaggeration, say I 

 have laboured night and day, and laboured, I am sorry to say, 

 to very little purpose. Two of his [Dr. Brown's] cousins, and 

 Mr. Goodsir, besides myself, are conjointly working at the repe- 

 tition of his experiments It is a period of great anxiety 



to us all, convinced as we are that nothing but the fullest con- 

 firmation of his views will obtain for him the chair Pray 



for us, my dear friend, that we may be kept from falling. You 

 comfort me greatly by the thought that you pray for me. I am 

 calm, contented, and cheerful, labouring with a peace I never 



knew before Oh ! my dear prediger, spirits of wine at 



2 Jd. per bottle (quart, eh ?). The statement affected me more 

 than all about the professors and metaphysiker" To a sister 

 he writes about the same time : " I am better, not yet able to 

 use my leg again, but very busy. I compose a great many 

 rhymes to keep us in good humour down stairs. These you 

 shall be favoured with when you come : they are not carriage- 

 able articles. I have got Jamaica soils to analyse at present, 

 and I am seeking for pounded missionaries, and crystallized 

 tears of emancipation -seeking negroes. I have found some of 

 the latter, very like chucky stones." 



" January 28, 1844. 



" I was at church yesterday, and heard a very pleasant sermon. 

 Had it been bad, even very bad, I should have been thankful, 

 but it was the very opposite. We have got James safely among 

 us, and I hope he will improve on our hands. For improvement 

 there is great need, as he is wofully thin and pale, and sorely 



