16 THE LIFE OF JAMES I). FORBES. [CHAP. 



of barometer and thermometer, and took an interest in 

 meteorology, which has been continued till now. 



All these employments occupied no small share of my 

 time and thoughts between my twelfth and sixteenth 

 years, and served to give habits of industry, facility of 

 writing, and of recollecting what I read. Of sermons I 

 wrote plenty : but that is too ordinary to deserve notice. 

 I may here mention that from 1821 (but probably a 

 good deal earlier) I was enthusiastically attached to the 

 English Church as a profession, and I was only withdrawn 

 from it by my father's expressed wish in 1824, that I 

 should follow the profession of the Bar. I may be 

 allowed to say that my father was wrong. Had I been 

 brought up at Cambridge, I should have done well : as 

 it turned out, a kind Providence provided for me well. 

 But it is another instance that it is usually well to allow 

 a boy to follow his bent, when it takes any steady 

 direction. 



The following reminiscences occur in one of his journals : 

 '18171818, living at Colinton House. Began Latin 

 early in 1 8 1 7. In September was reading Phaedrus with 

 my father. April 181 8, began lessons with Mr. Hunter, 

 schoolmaster at Colinton, reading Caesar. My brother 

 Charles was also instructed by him. I remained sincerely 

 attached to this worthy man till his death, which took 

 place somewhere about 1840, I think/ Ideas of Inven- 

 tions. ' 2nd June, 1825 : My reason in making this little 

 book is, that so many more ideas (chiefly mechanical) 

 occur to me than I can properly execute, that, in order 

 to keep them accurately in memory, I shall write them 

 down here, taking the most special care to distinguish 

 which are truly original, and what parts are borrowed, 

 and from what sources/ Here follow suggestions for 

 'A Pluviometer or Rain Gauge. A Universal Balance. 

 A Velocipedometer. A Machine for finding a hea- 

 venly Body by its Arc of Right Ascension and Declina- 

 tion. Barometer by compression. Anemometer/ 



The above extracts clearly exhibit the two dominant 



