306 THE LAST SUMMERS AND WINTERS. 



the afternoon. P thinks Jukes on the ' Types ' not 



very clear. I have forgot or neglected to bring Dr Gordon 

 with me. I took up ' Cruden ' &c. to my bed-room, in- 

 tending (having a handful) to go down for other things ; 

 but I was much hurried at last, in consequence of staying 

 too long in town on the day of my departure, and having 

 no one to help me. I must not be left to myself again." 



When, on the death of the venerable Professor Jameson, 

 the chair of Natural History was conferred on Mr Edward 

 Forbes, no one rejoiced more heartily than Mr Wilson in 

 the return to Edinburgh University of its gifted alumnus ; 

 and the acqaintance then resumed, in" the course of one 

 short summer, ripened into a warm and affectionate 

 friendship. In the alacrity with which he aided the new 

 professor in the arrangement of the Museum, and in the 

 ardour with which he shared the general impulse given to 

 the cause of the natural sciences, by the accession of a 

 cultivator so distinguished, it almost looked as if Mr 

 Wilson's own youth were renewed. But all the projects 

 and hopes of which Forbes was the mainspring, were 

 doomed to a sudden and overwhelming collapse. The 

 session had scarcely opened, when a feeling of mingled 

 grief and consternation spread through every circle where 

 the import of such tidings could be understood, in the 

 announcement that Edward Forbes was gone. To Mr 



