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



he had completed his twentieth yesfr was very unusual, if 

 not unprecedented. 



It is thus that Dr. Brewster introduced James 

 Forbes : 



c Mr. Forbes has a family claim of an irresistible kind ; 

 but, even if he were the son of a peasant, his learning, 

 his intuitive genius, and his absolute devotion to science 

 entitle him to the warmest reception which the Koyal 

 Society can give him. He will be one of its greatest 

 ornaments. I must also assure you that for years he has 

 been an anonymous correspondent of mine, and that I 

 promised solely from his talent to recommend him, 

 when I did not know whether he was the son of Sir W. 

 Forbes or of a peasant. He is also a travelled person, 

 and has surveyed with a scientific eye the classical and 

 volcanic wonders of Italy. If you can find men of his 

 stamp, you will do well to secure them/ 



'April I9th t 1829. This day is the last of another 

 3^ear. It carries me from my teens, from the important 

 season of youth between twelve and twenty. I trust I 

 am indeed entering on a new way of life. May God 

 apply these serious recollections to my heart ! ' 



In the same month he notes that he shook hands with 

 Dr. Brewster for the first time at the Eoyal Society. In 

 August of the same year (1829), Forbes visited Dr. 

 Brewster at his villa of Allerly, a little above Melrose, 

 and on the opposite bank of the Tweed. Journeys in 

 those days were not made so easily as now, and therefore 

 young persons valued them more highly, and were all the 

 more deeply impressed by them. 



It was his first intercourse with a philosopher of kin- 

 dred talents, and his first sight of the Vale of Tweed 

 and its ruined abbeys. The conversations he had with 

 Dr. Brewster and the new sights he saw all round equally 

 delighted him. 



' We drove to Abbotsford ; unfortunately did not find 

 Sir W. Scott at home, but saw the lobby, a perfect picture 

 of the wonderful owner's mind. I was extraordinarily sorry 



