10 THE LIFE OF JAMES D. FORBES. [CHAP. 



miniature waterfalls, damming burns, and leaping drains, 

 little less formidable in proportion to his size than the 

 glacier crevasses in after years. Meanwhile his early 

 education was carried on along with that of his brother 

 Charles (nearly three years older) in the school-room at 

 Colin ton, under the care of their sisters' governess, who 

 had acted a mother's part by them all, ever since the 

 loss of their own ; and when arrived at the age of man- 

 hood he never forgot what he owed her. A keen sense 

 of gratitude and a tenacious memory of past kindnesses 

 were marked features in his character. And there was 

 little in the recollection of his childhood to mar those 

 pleasing impressions. Gentle and docile, he was seldom 

 in fault ; and that inborn love of truth, perhaps his most 

 distinguishing moral characteristic through life, was con- 

 spicuous from earliest infancy. No childish excuse or 

 prevarication ever passed his lips ; in the minutest 

 detail he was accuracy itself; James's word was never 

 questioned. 



His brother Charles and he shared the same lessons 

 and the same sports. They were not brothers only, but 

 bosom friends, scarcely ever parted for a day, till the 

 marriage of the elder of the two ; and even then the tie 

 remained unbroken till severed by death. They both 

 acquired the rudiments of their classical education from 

 the village schoolmaster, Mr. Hunter, the simple warm- 

 hearted tutor, who afterwards gloried in having had the 

 smallest share in the instruction of such a pupil. 



Many were the early indications of the bent of his 

 future genius, such as keeping, while quite a child, a 

 constant watch over the variations of the thermometer 

 and barometer, with such a singular delight in the study 

 of the almanack, that it went in the family by the 

 appellation of c James's red brother.' 



In order to beguile the long winter evenings, and to 

 afford his children a rational amusement at home, Sir 

 William had fitted up a room with chemical apparatus, 

 an air-pump, and an electrical machine, which no doubt 

 must have had considerable effect in stimulating the 



