Wilse is considered Østfold county's first significant cultural researcher and one of the fathers of Norwegian village history.

[5] Wilse graduated from the theology program at the University of Copenhagen in 1756, and then, freed from "academisk Tvang, men blot [av] Lyst og [ved] Leilighed"[6] (academic drudgery, but only [out of] joy and [with] opportunity), he devoted himself to mathematics and physics.

He worked as a private instructor for the Russian ambassador in Copenhagen and the timber merchant Peder Mossencrone in Halden, among other engagements, until he received a master's degree in philosophy in 1768.

The drink leads him directly into a future in which the cultivated land in Spydeberg has increased, and diligent hermits plant forests in Norway's mountains.

Philoneus sees a harmonious society in which reason, diligence, and zeal prevail, with singing shepherds and newly cultivated fields.

Inside Mjærskau Hill he sees medals, paintings, and monuments describing important measures that were taken: the establishment of a factory in a place with rich deposits of clay, and charity houses where the poor were put to work spinning and producing matches.

In a concise manner, he formulated the first detailed system of symbols to record the weather over a certain period in a tabular form.

In 1784, as he wrote, he was allernaadigſt gratis aflagt med Character af Profeſſore Theologiæ Extraordinario 'became an extraordinary professor of theology free of charge'.

[13] This entire work was translated into Danish and published by S. Poulsens Forlag in Copenhagen from 1790 to 1798 under the title Reiſe-Jagttagelser i nogle af de nordiſke Lande, med Henſigt til Folkenes og Landenes Kundſkab (Travel Observations in Some of the Nordic Countries, with Regard to the Knowledge of Peoples and Countries).