162 THE LIFE OF JAMES D. FORBES. [CHAP. 



and though the progress of the theory is slow, it seems 

 to be solid, and the answers I have given have been 

 generally well received. Several of these I have em- 

 bodied in supplementary letters published, or to be 

 published, in the Edin. Phil. Journal, which I hope you 

 may have leisure to look at. The most interesting cir- 

 cumstance occurred to me, however, two days ago. I 

 called at Bex on M. de Charpentier, who, you are aware, 

 is old, and is usually supposed to be sufficiently wedded 

 to his own opinions, and last year I found him quite 

 indisposed to admit the smallest scepticism as to the truth 

 of his dilatation. Now, however, he received me with 

 great warmth, and told me that he had read my book and 

 visited the Mer de Glace, and he believed that every 

 fact admitted of being as well explained by my theory 

 as by his ; that, moreover, he expected soon to be able 

 to announce his entire conversion. He even presented 

 me with a book inscribed from " son bientot convert! 

 serviteur et ami S. de Charpentier."' 



The substantial merits of Forbes' book of 'Travels 

 through the Alps of Savoy ' will be discussed in another 

 part of this work. Only one word concerning it which 

 occurs in Canon Kirigsley's Miscellanies may here be 

 given : 



* We have heard Professor Forbes' book on Glaciers 

 called an Epic Poem, and not without reason. But 

 what gives that noble book its epic character is neither 

 the glaciers, nor the laws of them, but the discovery of 

 those laws ; the methodic, truthful, valiant, patient battle 

 between man and nature, his final victory, his wresting 

 from her the secret which had been locked for ages in 

 the ice-caves of the Alps, guarded by cold and fatigue, 

 danger and superstitious dread.' 



By the end of August he was so far restored as to be 

 able to go on by easy stages towards his beloved Alps. 

 A month was spent among them partly in showing to 

 Mrs. Forbes the more accessible of his favourite haunts, 

 partly in cany ing forward some of his old work at 



