v.] PROFESSORIAL LIFE. 95 



expect that, however this business may turn out, I shall 

 find myself on the same footing as ever with him/ 



If this amiable expectation was not exactly fulfilled, 

 it is pleasing to know that after a few years the old 

 intimacy was resumed, their correspondence renewed, 

 and that their friendship continued steadfast till the close 

 of their lives. 



Me -an while, when, during the preparation for his first 



; 's course, he found himself in need of a counsellor, 



he was obliged to turn, not as of old to Brewster, but to 



some one of his many scientific friends at Cambridge or 



in London. Chief among these was Dr. Whewell. 



Forbes had hardly set himself to write his lectures 

 before he found the urgent want of simple text-books 

 in some of the most important departments of Physics. 

 This want was the more felt, because he knew that text- 

 books used at Cambridge would be useless for his class at 

 Edinburgh, owing to the then low state of mathematical 

 knowledge among Scottish students. In this strait, he 

 turned at once to invoke the aid of Dr. Whewell : 



1 March Zlst, 1833. 



'. . . It is most urgently pressed' upon me during 

 my present laborious task of writing lectures, upon 

 micu I have been six weeks at work, that the diffi- 

 culty lies, not so much in that of the subject, as in the 

 very elementary manner in which it must be taught, 

 the state of preparation here being low to a degree which, 

 with your high academic notions, fostered by the spirit 

 of your noble university, must appear almost incredible. 

 From the moment of starting for the Chair, I resolved 

 that, should I be successful, I should make a sacrifice, 

 at least a probable sacrifice, of my popularity, to an 

 avour to raise the stain lard of science, and to rescue 

 the noblest walks of learning from the exclusive domi- 

 nion of the penny literature. ... In introducing into 

 my lectures a cautious mixture of pure d in<.nMiati..n 

 with experiment and mllaferal illustration, I have felt 

 that all my labours are likely to be rendered useless for 



