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





very core. Withdraw this, and little else is left. The 

 domestic feelings occupy but a small niche apart, and 

 do not really colour and rule the life. In the other kind 

 of man affection is central and paramount, the mental 

 and scientific habits, whatever they be, seem external 

 powers or capacities, clothed as it were upon the deeper 

 affections which are the truer self. To this latter kind 

 Forbes belonged. 



Though he had completed the college course at that 

 time usual for Scottish students, he entered on another 

 session of attendance in November 1829; a second 

 course of Natural Philosophy, a second of Chemistry, 

 and a course of Scottish Law. His professors during 

 this year were therefore Leslie, Hope, and Bell. But, 

 while attending these classes, his own private studies and 

 pursuits were coming more and more into prominence. 

 In his astronomical journal the following entry occurs : 



'December 3lst, 1829. This is the last night of the 

 year, and in revising the fifth year of this work I begin 

 to be sensible that its style has considerably changed. I 

 begin to be sensible that astronomical calculations are, 

 as Dr. Brewster says, a great absorber of time, every 

 spare moment of which 1 have devoted to original re- 

 searches during the past year ; and the quantity I have 

 written is very great. 



'My diminishing periods of leisure must curtail my 

 astronomical calculations, which I must, however, always 

 value for the many happy years they have occupied, and 

 the relief in periods of distress which I hope they will 

 long continue to afford. But I am led to more original 

 fields, and I hope to prosecute practical astronomy with 

 my other pursuits. Having the means of making good 

 observations in geology, I hope to continue those labours 

 which have occupied a good many pages of this work in 

 the two past years. My visit to Dr. Brewster I look ii| on 

 as one of the happiest points in my life, and the account 

 of it, which I have just read over, as one of the most 

 interesting parts of this work. 



' I shall now as formerly carry on the notes of my 



