52 Sketch of the Life of the late Professor Edward Forbes. 



of the Koyal Physical Society, remarks : " I trusted to have had 

 the honour of resigning the chair to a gentleman (Prof. E. 

 Forbes) who, fifteen years ago, was one of the most active and 

 zealous members of the Royal Physical Society ; and who had, 

 since that time, achieved for himself in natural science in gene- 

 ral, and in geology in especial, a reputation co-extensive with 

 the civilized world. But, alas ! Death reigns. This distin- 

 guished man, in the full blow of his fame, and in the mature 

 prime of vigorous manhood, has passed suddenly away ; and 

 wherever in either hemisphere physical science is cultivated, or 

 the by-past history of our globe excites its legitimate interest, 

 his early death will be felt and deplored as a heavy loss. The 

 spoiler has broken abruptly off many a train of ingenious 

 thought, cut short many a course of sedulous inquiry, arrested, 

 just ere its formation, many a profound induction, and scat- 

 tered vhoards of unrecorded knowledge, the adequate re-gather- 

 ing of which many years to come may fail to witness. But our 

 idle regrets can neither restore the dead nor benefit the living. 

 Let us rather manifest our regard for the memory of our illus- 

 trious brother — taken so unexpectedly from among us — by 

 making his disinterested devotion to science our example, and 

 by striving to catch the tone of his frank and generous spirit. 

 And seeing how very much he succeeded in accomplishing 

 within the limits of a life that has, alas ! fallen short by more 

 than thirty years of the old allotted term, let us diligently carry 

 on, in the love of truth, our not unimportant labours, remem- 

 bering that much may be accomplished in comparatively brief 

 space, if no time be lost, and that to each and all that ^ night 

 Cometh' at an uncertain hour, under whose dense and unbroken 

 shadow no man can work.'' 



Mr. James Wilson writes : " We should seek in vain to 

 express the full measure of grief, we may say dismay, with 

 which the unlooked-for death of this distinguished naturalist 

 has filled all hearts. While his friends were in the first freshness 

 of their elation at the prospect of the long and bright career 

 which lay before him, and rejoiced in the force and efficiency 

 of that impulse about to be given to the earnest study of the 

 wonderful and manifold works of creation, this most skilful and 

 accomplished interpreter has been suddenly removed from 

 us, and his place now knows him no more for ever. Such dis- 

 pensations are indeed inscrutable mysteries, and cannot be seen 

 through even by those whose eyes are not bedimmed with tears. 

 But, may all of us, and more especially the widow and the 

 fatherless, bear in mind that 'the Lord reigneth.' He gives 

 and He takes away, and let us bless His name, even amid the 

 bitterness of unavailing sorrow." 



