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



( 



reading some notes of my grandmother's in her old 

 Bible connected with this day. I have gone through 

 the whole of the prayers intended for the past week 

 written last year, and with great advantage, for the 

 carelessness incident upon travelling had made me 

 forget much of the duty I owed to the kind Protector 

 of my often dangerous path. My self-examination 

 had been degenerating, my serious reading grown more 

 scanty. 



' Soon our parting from Colmton House will be among 

 past events God strengthen me 1 ' 



'November l&th, 1830. Kind, excellent Mr. Mac- 

 kenzie died on the 16th September. How much I owe 

 to that excellent man ! How sincerely I loved him God 

 only knows. Eulogy were vain ! 



'Entering now upon another winter, and relaxed by 

 two months of varied excursion, I have commenced 

 the delightful and engrossing studies which have now, 

 blessed be God ! become my principal and legitimate 

 employment, untrammelled by jarring occupations and 

 conscientious scruples. 



' I have recommenced the study of higher analysis, and 

 have far advanced with Boucharlat's " Integral Calculus." 

 Feeling the necessity of gaining a more practical 

 knowledge of what I have gone over, I have commenced 

 the Differential in Lardners work. I have begun ex- 

 periments on heat, which occupy a good deal of my time 

 and thought ; studying and analysing Leslie on that 

 subject, and reading Thomson, Prevost, Pictet, &c., on 

 the same. 



' A paper for Brewstcr's Journal on the sympiesometer 

 has occupied, and will continue to do so, a good deal of 

 time and study. 



' When I view my situation at this moment, it is one of 



freat comfort and satisfaction, what a year or two ago 

 could not have dreamt of relieved from all but the 

 toils I delight in, receiving frequent assurances of the 

 goodwill and support of those most in my own line of 

 study. The fears are for my simplicity and steadiness of 



