388 THE LIFE OF JAMES I). FORBES. [CHAP- 



whether it be the fatigue of an exhausted army, the 

 visitation of cholera, or the breaking of a bank.' 



In the autumn of 1859, an important event took 

 place, which turned the remainder of Forbes' life into a 

 new and unlooked-for channel. The Principalship of the 

 United College, in the University of St. Andrews, became 

 vacant by the transference of Sir David Brewster from 

 that post, which he had held for more than twenty years, 

 to the Principalship of Edinburgh University. 



Forbes was induced to offer himself for the vacancy, 

 and his eminent achievements in science as well as his 

 long and faithful service in his own University deter- 

 mined Sir Cor ne wall Lewis, then Home Secretary, to 

 recommend him for the appointment. This choice is 

 the more honourable to the justice and impartiality of 

 Sir C. Lewis, that Forbes not only had no personal 

 Acquaintance with him, but, in as far as he belonged to 

 any political party, it was to the one which opposed the 

 ministry then in power. Others of the then ministers 

 interested themselves in Forbes' promotion, his some- 

 time student and faithful friend, the Duke of Argyll, 

 and Mr. Gladstone. Besides these public men, Forbes* 

 colleagues in his own college, as well as his many friends 

 and former pupils, rejoiced, not only because it placed 

 him in the position which he desired, but because in 

 his appointment they saw an act of public justice done. 



It is clear that ever since his illness the duties of his 

 Professorial chair must have been a burden. To appear 

 each day at a stated time, to lecture for an hour to a 

 large class, to see students afterwards and answer 

 questions, to prepare experiments or superintend their 

 preparation, and to look over masses of examination 

 papers these duties, which effectually task a man in the 

 prime of vigour, fall too heavily on one who feels that 

 life within him bangs by but a slender thread. All this, 

 no doubt, Forbes felt from the close of 1851 till the end 

 of his Professorial work. The change from the daily 

 class-room to his own study for there a large part of his 



