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



'EDINBURGH, Jan. 23, 1845. 



* ... There is no question that my powers of 

 resisting the tear and wear of work have much dimi- 

 nished, and I have very carefully set bounds to my 

 ambition and my anxieties. The great tranquillity of 

 my life has been of the most marked benefit, and I am 

 much improved indeed since the session began, and 

 the mechanical act of speaking does not now fatigue 

 me at all. 



' I have lately been reading Wilkie's Life with great 

 pleasure. He was really a fine character from first to 

 last and his sketches of Art, of Italy, and of the Holy 

 Land carry one on with unabated interest. I have now 

 begun Horner's Life, which I find a very different com- 

 position indeed. The half of the first volume which I 

 read, I find dull, pompous, and without any freshness of 

 character or alleviation of adventure, a boy thinking 

 as if he were a man, and treating all men past and 

 present as his equals at most. ... Do you hear any- 

 thing of this marvellous new invention of multiplying 

 books, prints, deeds, bank-notes, signatures, and all inde- 

 finitely, and almost for nothing ? You, who are a man 

 about town, and frequenting the Clubs and Westminster 

 Hall, ought to send the poor country mouse all that is 

 worth knowing in the world/ 



Again he thus writes to the same trusted friend from 

 his final Edinburgh home : 



1 3 PARK PLACE, February 13th, 1845. 



4 ... No external spectator can know what it costs 

 me to purchase health at the expense of every exciting 

 occupation. I have sacrificed my own researches, and 

 can write but very little on any subject which interests 

 me without a headache and other unpleasant feelings. 

 But I really enjoy our most tranquil life and the lighter 

 occupations, such as copying my foreign sketches, re- 

 vising my notes on Naples and Sicily, and arranging my 

 books and minerals. We never go out in the evening 

 anywhere, and we have no rattle of carriages nor per- 



