CHAPTER VL 



PROFESSORIAL LIFE (continued}. . 



HAVING so entirely succeeded in his first year's course, 

 Forbes no doubt entered on his second (1834-35) with 

 full confidence that like success would attend his future 

 efforts. Henceforth, session followed session with thnt 

 uniform success and that energy and devotion to his 

 work, which never flagged, as long as health lasted. 

 Nothing can be more uniform than a Professor's winter's 

 course so uniform, that to lookers-on from without 

 it may appear monotonous. But from this it is saved, 

 at least in the case of a vigorous and advancing teacher, 

 by the deeper insight and wider range which he is year 

 by year obtaining in his own field of inquiry. And 

 the sense that the teacher is one who is not merely 

 retailing old knowledge taken from books, but by dint 

 of mature reflection or original research is opening Up 

 fresh fields, and adding something to the store of human 

 thought or knowledge, adds a wonderful charm to all 

 his intercourse with his students. Such a charm gene- 

 ration after generation of students felt, at least those 

 who could appreciate these things, as they sat in the 

 Natural Philosophy Class Room, while Forbes was in his 

 prime. But though such impressions, received in youth 

 from some master of thought or science, are among the 

 most lasting and delightful which men ever partake, they 

 furnish little that can be told in narrative. What these 

 impressions were I shall have occasion to show in the 



