00 THE LIFE OF JANES D. FORBES. [CHAP. 



scarcely separated from him till tie day of his death. 

 You must not suppose him sad or moody it was not 

 so ; he lived in the very hearts of his children, and it is 

 now, as I look back, that I clearly perceive that as his 

 treasure was not in this world, so neither was his heart. 



1 was educated with my brother Charles at home, my 

 two elder brothers went to school in England. Even 

 when living in Edinburgh we rode out every day to 

 the schoolmaster at Colinton for private lessons, so that 

 we formed no acquaintances even amongst our nearest 

 relatives until we were almost grown up, and literally 

 knew nobody beyond first cousins, and few of them. 

 This was no doubt a great mistake, and you cannot fail 

 to have observed the effects of it in my brothers and 

 sisters as well as myself. In due time I went to College, 

 having been abroad for a year, but my habits were 

 by this time too much formed voluntarily to seek for 

 acquaintances. My single playfellow, Charles, was 

 withdrawn to other employments, and my habits, which 

 were always solitary, became confirmedly so. About my 

 thirteenth year tastes for reading and inquiry had 

 spontaneously developed themselves, without altogether 

 the means of gratification, for our reading was very 

 rigorously regulated, and my first essays in science, 

 which were soon after, were indulged with almost 

 criminal secrecy, and of course, if discovered, shared 

 the usual fate of being laughed at by my brothers. 

 This still more increased my reserve. One friend I took 

 a fancy to at College, but it was not altogether happy ; 

 my reserved manners told too truly then what they have 

 done ever since ; he is now alive and well, but he never 

 knew what I felt for him. When seventeen, I commenced 

 writing anonymously in Brewster's Journal, and soon after 

 went to Italy. My taste for science always grew, but 

 my shyness made me conceal it still more sedulously. 

 For years I made observations every hour of the night 

 on two days without anybody in the house suspecting it, 

 except my brother who slept in the same room ; even he 

 did not know of my printed Essays. I am not going t 



