APPENDIX. 521 



The beauty of Dr. Wilson's discourses and writings depended 

 not a little on his religion, and on his fine aesthetic taste. His 

 quotations from the Holy Scriptures, and references to spiritual 

 things, were frequent, not in the form of a pious deduction 

 dragged in uncomfortably at the end of a lecture, but as the 

 natural reflections of a mind thoroughly embued with the love 

 of God and man, and accustomed to refer every good gift to the 

 Father of Lights. In his addresses to medical or other students, 

 he delighted to draw attention to the great facts of the spiritual 

 world; but his ' Chemical Final Causes' 1 is the only one of his 

 scientific writings which has a deliberately theological character. 

 In it he attempts to add to the ever-accumulating proofs of de- 

 sign, by showing especially that phosphorus, nitrogen, and iron, 

 are the best adapted of the known elements for the purposes 

 they are required to fulfil in animal organisms. 



As to Dr. Wilson's aesthetic taste, he was an instance that a 

 chemist is not one (to quote his own humorous description 2 ) 

 whose " vocation has been to prowl around, like a very demon, 

 seeking what of the poet's property he might lay hands on and 

 devour ; to prove himself a man of the earth, earthy alike by 

 profession and by relish for the work of a disenchanter, to whom 

 a mystery is interesting only because it may be explained, and 

 an object beautiful because the cause of its beauty may be dis- 

 covered." The popular impression about some chemists, that 

 " the aquafortis and the chlorine of the laboratories have as 

 effectually bleached the poetry out of them, as they destroy the 

 colours of tissues exposed to their action," certainly never arose 

 from an acquaintance with Dr. Wilson. In his writings there 

 is often a rhythmical charm and balance of expressions which 

 suit well with the poetic quotations in which he sometimes 

 freely indulges. As instances, I take almost at random from 

 his discourse on the Progress of the Telegraph : " We nicely 

 discuss whether telegram is a proper word or not, and invoke 

 the heroes of Homer to side with us for or against a term which 

 would have tried every Greek tongue in its utterance and vexed 

 every Greek ear in its hearing ; and all the while the bees who 



1 ' Edin. Univ. Essays/ 1856. 



2 In 'The alleged Antagonism between Poetry and Chemistry.' 



