CHAP. XIII.] IMPRESSION AT CAMBRIDGE. 421 



up greatly to James Forbes, and desired that I should 

 be like him. My father died before my marriage, and 

 before I had been actually elected Professor at Aberdeen. 

 He had been greatly interested in the sending in of offers of 

 application. He much wished me to have a Scottish Pro- 

 fessorship, that I might have the long vacation free for living 

 at home. 



" My interest is always in things rather than in persons. 

 I cannot help thinking about the immediate circumstances 

 which have brought a thing to pass, rather than about any 

 will setting them in motion. What is done by what is 

 called myself is, I feel, done by something greater than my- 

 self in me. My interest in things has always made me 

 care much more for theology than for anthropology ; states 

 of the will only puzzle me. I cannot ascribe so much to a 

 depraved will as some people do, though I do to a certain 

 extent believe in it. Much wrong-doing seems to be no 

 more than not doing the right thing ; and that finite beings 

 should fail in that does not seem to need the supposition of 

 a depraved will." On my saying that, though the immedi- 

 ate cause of the miseries of the world is oftener folly than 

 wickedness, yet men's folly can frequently be traced back to 

 past misdoing on their part, he warmly assented, and then 

 added in a different strain : " They were foolish because they 

 did not ask for wisdom, not, of course, absolute wisdom, 

 but the wisdom needed for the moment. 



" I have been thinking how very gently I have been 

 always dealt with. I have never had a violent shove in all 

 my life. 



" The only desire which I can have is like David to serve 

 my own generation by the will of God, and then fall asleep." 



The unexampled impression which his death pro- 

 duced at Cambridge was due to other causes besides 

 his scientific eminence. Those who lived so near to 

 him, though they saw little of him, could not fail to 

 have some feeling of the man. Some rumours of his 



