1836-40.] MISSIONARY PREPARATION. 23 



after him a river which he supposed might be one of the 

 sources of the Nile, and used ever to speak with great 

 respect of the chief achievement of Mr. Young's life — 

 filling houses with a clear white light at a fraction of the 

 cost of the smoky article which it displaced. 



Beyond their own department, men of science are 

 often as lax and illogical as any ; but when scientific 

 training is duly applied, it genders a habit of thorough 

 accuracy, inasmuch as in scientific inquiry the slightest 

 deviation from truth breeds endless mischief. Other 

 influences had already disposed Livingstone to great 

 exactness of statement, but along with these his scientific 

 training may be held to have contributed to that dread of 

 exaggeration and of all inaccuracy which was so marked 

 a feature of his character through life. 



It happened that Livingstone did not part company 

 with Professor Graham and Mr. Young when he left 

 Glasgow. The, same year, Dr. Graham went to London 

 as Professor in University College, and Livingstone, who 

 also went to London, had the opportunity of paying occa- 

 sional visits to his class. In this way, too, he became 

 acquainted with the late Dr. George Wilson, afterwards 

 Professor of Technology in the University of Edinburgh, 

 who was then acting as unsalaried assistant in Dr. 

 Graham's laboratory. Frank, genial, and chivalrous, 

 Wilson and Livingstone had much in common, and more 

 in after years, when Wilson too became an earnest Chris- 

 tian. In the simplicity and purity of their character, 

 and in their devotion to science, not only for its own 

 sake, but as a department of the kingdom of God, they 

 were brothers indeed. Livingstone showed his friendship 

 in after years by collecting and transmitting to Wilson 

 whatever he could find in Africa worthy of a place in 

 the Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art, of which 

 his friend was the first Director. 



In the course of his second session in Glasgow 



