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



The outward work which Principal Forbes did in the 

 world has, it is hoped, been sufficiently set forth in the 

 foregoing pages and those which are to follow. His 

 character, as that appeared to men, if it does not shine 

 out in the narrative and letters already given, would not 

 be made clearer by any condensed estimate of it. None 

 such shall here be attempted. It is probably true of 

 most men, but of Principal Forbes it was more than 

 usually true, that his moral nature and his mental were 

 entirely of a piece. The basis of both was thoroughness : 

 it did not seem possible for him to do anything slightly 

 or carelessly, or by halves. Akin to this was his defi- 

 niteness and exactness of thought, which, as has been 

 said, is a special form of the love of truth. Springing 

 from this fundamental root were three qualities which 

 especially distinguished him method, perseverance, and 

 conscientiousness. In the manner in which he thought 

 out any subject, in which he carried on any work, in 

 which he wrote, arranged his materials, and preserved 

 them afterwards in short, in the orderliness of his 

 whole life method was so conspicuous that it could no 

 farther go. 



Then whatever may have been his natural endowments, 

 their power was doubled by his perseverance. As long 

 as health and strength lasted, his tenacity of purpose 

 was carried to an extent that must have severely taxed 

 his bodily frame ; and when health failed, and the body 

 could no longer second the mind's requirements, this 

 power of active perseverance was turned into its passive 

 form of silent endurance. 



These same qualities, seen on their moral side, became 

 conscientiousness so rigorous, and carried into such small 

 details, as to seem to some over-anxious and excessive. 

 So straight did he go to what he believed was the right 

 in the pursuit of this so entire was his disregard of con- 

 sequences so little did he shrink from opposition, keenly 

 though he felt it, that, as Bishop Forbes has said, this 

 amounted in him to a very chivalry of duty-doing. To 

 those who met him only in work and business he seemed 



