102 THE LIFE OF JAMES D. FORMES. [CHAP. 



funds, no power. In short, you must never think of the 

 University when you come here, nor compare it in the 

 remotest degree with Oxford and Cambridge. I assure 

 you you are proceeding on a fallacy. . . . My dear friend 

 you are a Scotsman, and though a deserter, you should 

 not quite desert what is due to your country. Only 

 look back and remember what Scotland did for the 

 Association. Was there any talk of Dublin then ? My 

 dear Murchison, do not commit yourself. I daresay you 

 think I am mad. . . / 



A few months later we find him writing, through M. 

 de la Kive, of Geneva, the following invitation to his 

 foreign friends to attend next year's meeting, which had 

 now been secured for Edinburgh : 



* August 26th, 1833. 



* ... The scientific meeting is to take place next 

 year at Edinburgh, and I do earnestly hope that my 

 Swiss friends will come en masse in September 1834. 

 Pray present my warmest invitation to the whole of 

 them. In particular my best respects and grateful recol- 

 lections to M. de la Kive-Boissier, and to M. Gautier, 

 who, I hope, are quite well. 



* I am exceedingly occupied with my preparation for 

 iny winter's course, which must be my excuse for this 

 short letter. I have been almost obliged to give up 

 correspondence altogether. . . / 



Even in the press of immediate work his thoughts 

 turned at times to the scenes of his foreign travels, as 

 is seen by the following letter addressed to Mr. William 

 Burr : 



'September th, 1833. 



'I think it would really be most interesting if you 

 could prepare a correct sectional plan of the Cloaca 

 Maxima of Ancient Eome. As you know, I have in 

 vain sought in different books for it ; and now the more 

 regret that when in Eome I omitted what I intended 

 to do, namely, to make a sketch by actual measurement. 



