v.J PROFESSORIAL LIVE. 107 



almost incessant labour, a share of bodily and mental 

 vigour which has enabled me to pass, with comparative 

 ease and credit, through the first session of my profes- 

 sorial career. I have had the happiness to satisfy my 

 friends, and to have my toils more than rewarded by 

 the zeal and application and gratitude of my pupils. I 

 desire to acknowledge God as the source of all this good 

 fortune, and to bless Him that I am yet spared to pursue 

 the course in which He has so parentally guided and 

 strengthened my exertions. Having attained the summit 

 of my wishes in a worldly point of view, I hope that 

 I could now, with a reasonable share of resignation, say 

 if required, Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart 

 in peace/ 



The life of most Scottish Professors ,^as then as now 

 divided into six months of unbroken work in College 

 and six months of vacation. To strangers unac- 

 quainted with the ways of Scotland and the habits 

 of its students, so long a vacation appears a strange 

 anomaly. But there are reasons enough grounded in 

 our social facts and habits which have justified it for 

 generations, and which satisfied the late University 

 Commissioners when they carefully inquired into all the 

 bearings of this question. It must not be supposed that 

 these six months are either to student or Professor 

 times of idleness. The former is often employed in some 

 useful work for self-support, as well as in carrying on 

 his College studies. The latter, when he has recruited 

 himself after the toils of the session, finds full employ- 

 ment in preparing new lectures or recasting old ones 

 for the approaching session. Besides this, whatever 

 Scottish Professors have done for Science, Philosophy, or 

 Literature, has been the fruit of their summer leisure. 



No man ever employed his summers more methodically 

 and energetically than Professor Forbes. I n< !<<<!, it 

 is probable that the world has received fully as much 

 advantage from what In achieved during his summers 

 as from his regular winter labours. 



