522 THE LIFE OF JAMES D. FORBES. [APPEND. 



From the first I naturally bestowed a close attention on publi- 

 cations which promised to revive the then flagging interest in 

 the Theory of Glaciers, which had been with me, between the 

 years 1841 and 1851, matter of laboiious study. I could not 

 fail to observe that Professor Tyndall, in the warmth of pursuit 

 incident to a new inquiry, had not, in the first instance, ap- 

 prehended the full import of what had been done or asserted 

 by me, and that he not unnaturally attached great, and I might 

 think undue, importance to the observations which two or three 

 brief though actively employed visits to the glaciers had enabled 

 him to make. Perhaps I also thought that Professor Tyndall 

 unnecessarily enhanced the distinctions which he conceived to 

 exist between his view sand my own, even where he had ade- 

 quately studied the latter. 



Although, therefore, in the different memoirs above referred to, 

 criticisms appeared on what I had discovered, or believed that I 

 had discovered and although I considered these to be more or 

 less unfounded, and, moreover, that much which was substantially 

 mine was not attributed to me, I steadily avoided entering into 

 any controversy on the subject. 



A strong belief in the eventual justice awarded in such cases, 

 though it may be temporarily or locally withheld, sustained me 

 in this course. I contented myself with reprinting in a separate 

 volume those scattered papers in which from time to time I de- 

 veloped my Theory subsequently to the publication in 1843 of my 

 Travels in tJie Alps of Savoy. I only omitted those which were 

 directly controversial; but 1 did not suppress a single word or sen- 

 tence which could possibly be held as open to criticism, either on 

 the ground of inconsistency of opinion or of misinterpretation of 

 fact. A copious index was added to facilitate reference. I intro- 

 duced this compilation 1 by a prefatory note, showing the bearing 

 of these expositions of my views upon certain speculations of 

 Professor Tyndall. This preface was anxiously worded so as (I 

 trust) to give no just offence, and it could scarcely be deemed 

 polemical. 



Perhaps I should not have thought myself warranted in now 

 departing from my previous course in this ma.tter, but should 

 have left any outstanding differences between Professor Tyndall 

 and myself to be calmly decided by an impartial public, had 

 it not been for one section of his new work, which is headed 



IlEXDU'S THEORY. 2 



1 The title was, Occasional Papers on the Theory of Glaciers, now 

 Collected. A. and C. Black : Edin. 1S59. 



2 Pages 299 to 308 of tlie Glaciers of the Aljx. 



