in.] COLLEGE COURSE, 1829. 49 



Evening of the same day. 



1 .... that I could indeed have that " habitual 

 remembrance of the reality and eternal duration of a 

 future state" which I have prayed for every morning. 

 Shall I never, but in exalted moments of love and hope, 

 attain any tolerably practical conviction of the great 

 truth ? I feel it almost presumptuous to resolve again. 

 I now resolve to devote a more divided time before going 

 to bed for reading the Bible, which shall include a short, 

 hut clear, self-examination. And on every Sunday I 

 will, with devout deliberation, turn my thoughts to this 

 day, to inquire how far its grief and contrition have 

 worked any good. By the renewed assistance of God's 

 grace, I trust in almighty power that my efforts may 

 not continue to be nearly vain.' 



For several years the recurrence of this anniversary 

 fills his journals with the most passionate outpourings of 

 grief. No abridgment, nothing but the sight of the 

 journals themselves could give any notion how deep 

 and how enduring that grief was. Strong as were 

 his leanings towards scientific discovery, earnest as his 

 devotion to it was, these his ruling intellectual tenden- 

 cies were weak to sway him compared with his home 

 affections. The former habits, much as he clung to them, 

 he could suspend whenever duty or a higher impulse 

 seemed culling him to do so. Science was an instrument 

 ould wield, and again lay down ; a garment he could 

 put nil', when the proper time came. These first affections 

 f, his own proper being, and he could no more 

 them aside than he could suspend his own identity 

 or the beating of his own heart. 



As the sequel of this memoir will be mainly occupied 



with his doings as a man of . it is well that this 



;M be understood once for all by those who wish to 



v what manner of man .lanp-s Forbes was. In this 



respect almost all m-n fall into one of two kinds. In 



th- intc'llretual or j.K.f. ,->ional inte-re.-t is so 



lit that it ) ihe 



