368 THE LIFE OF JAMES I). FORBES. [CHAP. 



The following letters give some of the subjects which 

 were engaging his thoughts at this time : 



To DR. SYMONI>S. 



EDINBURGH, January 1st, 1857. 



' New Year's Day I was resolved should not pass with- 

 out conveying to you from myself more particularly 

 Alicia having already written my sincerest and warmest 

 good wishes for health and prosperity for you and yours, 

 both for the present and many future years ; and may 

 you long enjoy in their fullest extent those domestic 

 pleasures and consolations for which you are so pre-emi- 

 nently fitted, and which, I may add, the arduous nature of 

 your professional duties render a necessity not a luxury. 

 Sympathy and support at home, so needful to all of us, 

 are more peculiarly earned by those who spend their days 

 in the immediate service of their fellows, and more than 

 this, who relieve by actually sharing with them their 

 sufferings, anxieties, and cares. All this I had in my 

 mind to say at this time. Your truly kind remembrance 

 of us all in your letter to Alicia, received this morning, 

 brings it still more readily before me.' 



To the Same. 



'EDINBURGH, January 3rd, 1857. 



* ... I was very much obliged to you indeed for 

 mentioning the article in the Saturday Review, on 

 Glaciers, which might otherwise have escaped me. I 

 am inclined to think that probably it was written by 

 Mr. Alfred Wills, a young barrister in London, whose 

 very pleasant narrative of his Swiss adventures forms one 

 text of my article for the Quarterly. If it be so, our 

 mutually speaking well of one another has at least been 

 without collusion. The title of his very pleasant little 

 book is " Wanderings in the High Alps." 



6 Regarding Mr. Tyndall and his theory, I have received 

 no such precise information as to enable me to speak 

 confidently about it ; but I do not, as yet, expect that it 

 will be found materially at variance with anything that 

 I have advanced. Almost all that is mentioned in the 



