THE DEATH OF FORBES. 167 



George Wilson into the field as the biographer ; but it 

 is incumbent to state that Goodsir meant to write the 

 life of Forbes, and that Mr. David Forbes, F.R.S., ap- 

 proved of his doing so. Goodsir was by no means 

 pleased with Dr. Wilson s part in the matter, inde- 

 pendent of the greater objection in his mind to a 

 chemist exprofesso being the biographer of a naturalist ; 

 and the recollection of Professor John Reid's life, 

 treated from a theological quite as much as from a 

 physiological point of view by Wilson, did not improve 

 his feelings quoad the life of Forbes. 



His holidays — however paradoxical or absurd it 

 may appear to apply such a term to hard labour — were 

 spent in working from 10 a.m. till 5 p.m. in the 

 University Museum. In 1860 — during the vacation 

 from August till November — he laboured incessantly, 

 and used to say to his assistant he was never so happy 

 as when in the museum, and mentioned his special 

 pleasure in working with Professor Hyrtl at Vienna, 

 where there was no interference with his time or his 

 thoughts. A holiday time was quite an incongruity 

 with a man, like Goodsir, of large solicitude for the 

 progress of his science — a science linked, as he viewed 

 it, with the interests of his species as well as the 

 groundwork of his own aspirations. To his vision know- 

 ledge was never "enough and to spare," but scant)', if 

 1 1 ni infinitesimal, compared with the wants of humanity 

 and the aims of philosophy. Tims, in the autumn 

 of 18.">:!, when suffering from marked physical in- 

 tiiiiiii ies, and the more depressed feeling of banishment 



