436 THE LIFE OF JAMES D. FORCES. [CHAP 



With aims so high, and so unflinchingly pursued, it 

 could not be but that Forbes, in acting publicly with 

 other men, should meet with mucR to thwart and disap- 

 point him. These things, from his earnest and anxious 

 temperament, he no doubt felt severely. It was not in 

 his nature to take things easily. He could not, like some 

 men, pass off a serious matter with a humorous jest. In 

 his pursuit of public objects, those who worked with him 

 may sometimes have felt as if his demands on them were 

 exacting. But none could ever say that he asked for any 

 labour or sacrifice in others, of which he had not first 

 set the example. And so it came to pass, that however 

 much some may have felt the strain which his rigorous 

 pursuit of duty imposed, and however widely others may 

 have differed from his views of duty, all were compelled 

 to accord him sincerest respect, I had almost said reve- 

 rence, for the purity of his motives and the elevation 

 of his aims. The example of high moral purpose and 

 energy which he left behind, will survive in all who 

 witnessed it, as a salutary and bracing memory. 



But if the course of public life did not always run 

 smooth with Forbes any more than with other men, he 

 found, when College meetings and business were over, 

 abundant comfort and refreshment in the quiet of his 

 home. His children had reached that age at which they 

 could be more or less companions to him. And his 

 necessary abstinence from dining out left his evenings 

 the more free to enjoy the society of his family circle. 

 A high authority at St. Andrews used to announce that 

 it was one of the first duties, whether of Principal or 

 Professor, to receive and reciprocate hospitalities. Even 

 had Principal Forbes agreed with this dictum, his health 

 would not have allowed him to carry it out on so large a 

 scale as the author of the saying might have approved. 

 But in a quiet and informal way he and his amiable 

 family to dinner or in the evening gladly welcomed 

 friends and neighbours who appreciated that refined and 

 unceremonious intercourse. 



The correspondence given above forms the best nar- 



