504 MEMOIR OF GEORGE WILSON. CHAP. XIT. 



which he made to science was also laid as an offering on the 

 altar of religion. He did not, as is too common with men of 

 science, content himself with merely making his obeisance to 

 religion, and then passing by on the other side to prosecute an 

 independent course. Religion went with him all along his 

 path, and it was on her head he sought to place the crown that 

 science had enabled him to win. It was his daily endeavour to 

 make all his work bear on the glory of his God and Saviour, to 

 turn all into a solemn liturgy that should rise up as incense 

 before God. And in this he so succeeded, that his whole soul 

 came to be pervaded with Christian influences ; and religious 

 thoughts and feelings flowed unbidden, and with the most per- 

 fect naturalness, into all his discourses and writings." l 



Another friend 2 has endeavoured to account for the intensity 

 of the mourning : " The stroke was felt in a very peculiar man- 

 ner by the community of Edinburgh, to whom Dr. Wilson was 

 endeared by special ties. He had grown up and attained to 

 distinction among them, had always been looked upon by them 

 as one of themselves, and his rising reputation and influence 

 were' regarded by his fellow- citizens with a just pride and satis- 

 faction. He had interested himself actively in whatever tended 

 to their instruction or improvement, yet always in such a way 

 as to disarm the hostility of contending parties, and to p]ace 

 high above suspicion his own spotless integrity, his comprehen- 

 sive sympathies, and his extraordinary firmness and candour. 

 His voice had been ever ready to instruct or delight his towns- 

 men. His personal character, too, had been felt to be an in- 

 valuable power for good among them, and good of the highest 

 kind; for it was scarcely possible to avoid receiving an en- 

 hanced impression of the reality and beauty of genuine religion, 

 when it was seen embodied in a living character of such piety 

 and buoyant energy, such lofty aspiration combined with tine 

 humility, such generosity, and delicacy, and tenderness, with 

 unbending truth and integrity of principle, in short, such a 

 general grace and loveliness, united with such masculine deter - 



i < Funeral Sermon,' by W. L. Alexander, D.D., pp. 26-28. A. and C. Black, Edin- 

 burgh. 2 Professor MiicDougall. 



