136 THE LIFE OF JAMES 1). FORBES. [CHAP. 



Professor Kelland alludes to thfe encounters which 

 sometimes took place in the Senate when Forbes and 

 Hamilton took opposite sides. Physicists and meta- 

 physicians do not generally think very highly of each 

 other's pursuits. This natural want of sympathy would not 

 be diminished by the disparagement and scorn with which 

 Hamilton spoke and wrote of some of the processes most 

 in favour with mathematicians. But it is needless to 

 revive these buried controversies. The mention, how- 

 ever, of these two colleagues side by side cannot but 

 recall the striking but contrasted appearance of the two 

 men as during these years they passed along the Bridges 

 to and from College. Forbes, with tall, thin, but lathy 

 frame, in the invariable suit of black, and broad white 

 neck-tie, his head stretched forward, his long arm swing- 

 ing resolutely by his side, strode rapidly along like one 

 bent on some determined purpose from which no man 

 could turn him. An hour or two later, coming the same 

 way, might be seen Sir W. Hamilton ; under one arm 

 his lecture portfolio, the other hand thrust deep into 

 his pocket, hat pushed well back, and exposing a noble 

 breadth of forehead, prone in meditation, from beneath 

 which looked out those large brown eyes so loaded with 

 intellect that the youth on whom they were turned almost 

 shrank beneath them, oppressive as they were with their 

 weight of thought. A third there was, an elder colleague 

 of these two, tall, and still erect, broad-breasted, with 

 an herculean frame, now become massive, almost portly, 

 moving no longer with the restless step of youth, but 

 with the firm, measured tread of ripe middle age. In 

 that well-known countenance, so vivid, yet so benign ; 

 the eagle eye, with its fire mellowed, but not abated ; 

 the long golden hair, just faintly silvered, streaming back 

 over his shoulders, as if the wind and no hand of art had 

 shed it there, all who turned to look on him and who 

 did not ? saw for once before them the embodied ideal 

 of an inspired poet. Such was the look these three col- 

 leagues wore to the eyes of their admiring students, all 

 of whom could appreciate their striking outward appear- 



