FORBES LOVES THE ATTICS. 107 



humble part ; and conscious that such examples of 

 " feasts of reason and Sowings of soul " can have no 

 revival to him on this side of the Stygian shore, 

 claims indulgence for looking back upon them, much 

 as the Eastern traveller homeward bound casts a 

 lingering view upon the classic lands disappearing 

 below the horizon, and bids them a last adieu. 



Edward Forbes, when cruising in the Mediter- 

 ranean on board of Her Majesty's ship " Beacon," from 

 April 1841 to November 1842, wrote to Goodsir from 

 various parts of the Eastern Archipelago, noting the 

 droll creatures brought up by the dredge, and adding 

 in one of his letters — " I often wished that you had 

 been with me, as the structure of many of these un- 

 presentable creatures would require your hand and 

 knife to work them out." Nor did Forbes forget " the 

 Brethren," to whom he sent love and greetings in every 

 letter. Neither the ruined cities of Lycia, nor dredging 

 the iEgean, nor contemplating the classic and biblical 

 lands of the East, could efface his love for " the Order," 

 and the delights of Edinburgh. Thus he wrote from 

 the coast of Asia Minor — " I often heartily wish myself 

 once more sitting over a tumbler of toddy, munching 

 a Finnan baddy in our palace in Lothian Street." 

 What charms existed in that top flat of a dingy 

 thoroughfare compared with Eastern skies, Alpine 

 scenery, and the grand historical? Forbes heart was 

 responsive to its pole; humanity carried the day, and 

 Goodsir's attic and social intercourse stood forth as 

 palatial and glorious! (hi his return Forbes visited 



