vi.] PROFESSORIAL LIFE. 137 



ance, little as they might sympathise with their inner 

 man. It is not often that one University at the same 

 time possesses three such representatives. 



Before Forbes had completed his third professorial 

 ion, his eminence as a lecturer and his growing 

 reputation as a discoverer had so awakened the enthu- 

 siasm of his students, that they publicly expressed their 

 .pa thy with him in his researches, and their pride 

 in his achievements, by presenting to him the following 

 address : 



1 UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH, February 16th, 183G. 



4 The students in the Natural Philosophy Class in this 

 I'liiversity beg to convey their congratulations to Pro- 

 fessor Forbes on the well-merited honour which he 

 received last night as the successful demonstrator of the 

 polarization of heat. The students would express their 

 attachment to Professor Forbes as to an excellent and 

 amiable teacher, their personal interest in his scientific 

 -uits, and their personal pride in the successful results 

 of these. That he has not only succeeded in displaying 

 ] polarization and depolarization of heat, but that he 

 also detected signs of its circular polarization, 

 stnmgly excite their expectation that the evidences of 

 interference will not long remain undetected by the 

 <!] irate and judicious experimentalizing for which Pro- 

 >r Forbes is so justly celebrated. They hope to see 

 tlii- undulatory theory of heat as fully demonstrated as 

 thr u inhibitory theory of light, and Professor Forbes' 

 name raised to the highest eminence among the philo- 

 rs of the day.' 



However cordial may be a professor's relations with his 

 whole class, there will always be some with whom, either 

 i circumstances or from congeniality of pursuits, the 

 : course of the class-room will lead on to closer friend- 

 ship. Of such intimate student friends Forbes had a 

 lly number; and I ran ivmrmbrr the peculiar t< n- 

 LC88 with which, either in public addresses or in 

 itc conversation, he alluded to these in later life. 



