176 THE LIFE OF JAMES D. FORBES. [CHAP 



travels. I trust 1 shall be delivered from the snare of a 

 penurious and money-loving old age ; but the night 

 cometh, and professional men, especially professors, should 

 retire ere they manifestly decline/ 



The following letters will serve to trace the course of 

 his life from October 1845 to April 1846, when another 

 College session closed. 



To M. DE CHARPENTIER. 



* EDINBURGH, October 20^7*, 1845. 



' How many changes and reverses have you undergone 

 since you did me the favour of commencing your long 

 and interesting letter of April and May last ! First, 

 your inflammatory rheumatism, and walking on crutches ; 

 then your annoyance through the unhappy political move- 

 ments of Switzerland ; then your recovery; then the 

 attack of small-pox. Next I heard of you at the meeting 

 at Geneva, and, most recently of all, of your being dis- 

 covered by Studer, quite well and hearty, at Ivrea in 

 Italy! Truly, truly this is quite a phantasmagoria of 

 situations ; and I cannot sufficiently congratulate you 

 that the bad news has been chased away by so good. . . . 



* Your account of your rencontre with M. de Buch on 

 the way to Milan afforded me many days' entertainment, 

 which was not diminished by the fact that very soon 

 after receiving your letter I met M. de Buch at the 

 meeting of the British Association at Cambridge, in June, 

 when he voluntarily gave me his version of the same 

 memorable journey, and his discussions with you. 

 T had hardly expected that M. de Buch would have 

 honoured me with any notice when we met, as I had 

 heard of his rooted aversion to all authors on glaciers; 

 but as I sat beside him at dinner at the Master's of 

 Trinity College table, when he found that I carefully 

 avoided any allusion to glaciers or my book, he spoke of 

 both very good-naturedly and in flattering terms, and we 

 are the very best of friends. Baron Ettingshausen, who 

 has made a splendid survey of Etna, was there, and we 

 had a full description of " Erhebungs-cratere." ' 



