FORSTER. 



place, however, he left soon after, and 

 returned to London, where he resided in 

 very confined circumstances till the year 

 1772, when he was engaged to go out as 

 naturalist with captain Cook, who was 

 then ready to proceed on his second 

 voyage round the world. Forster, at this 

 time, was forty-three years of age, and 

 was accompanied by his son George, then 

 Seventeen. 



He returned to England in the year 

 1775, and soon after the university of 

 Oxford conferred upon him the degree of 

 doctor of laws. After his return, he 

 published, conjointly with his son, a bo- 

 tanical work in Latin, containing the 

 characters of a number of new genera of 

 plants, which had been discovered by 

 them in the course of their circumnavi- 

 gation. 



An account of the voyage having been 

 published in English and German by 

 young Forster, in which the father was 

 supposed to have had a considerable 

 share, though he had entered into an en- 

 gagement not to publish any thing sepa- 

 parately from the authorized narrative, 

 they not only incurred the displeasure of 

 government, but gave offence to the prin- 

 cipal friends by whom they had been pa- 

 tronised. This work abounded with re- 

 flections injurious to the government in 

 whose service they had been, and unfa- 

 vourable to the navigators who had con- 

 ducted the expedition. They were 

 therefore treated with so much coolness, 

 that they both determined to quit Eng- 

 land. 



Fortunately for Forster, after strug- 

 gling some time with poverty and mis- 

 fortunes in London, he was invited to 

 Halle, in 1780, to be professor of natural 

 history ; he was also appointed inspector 

 of the botanical garden ; and as this office 

 was connected with the faculty of medi- 

 cine, he next year got the degree of doc- 

 tor of medicine. 



The loss of his son George, who died 

 at an early period of life, made a deep 

 impression on Forster, whose health was 

 already in a declining state ; and in the 

 spring of the year 1798, his case was so 

 desperate, that he expressed himself as a 

 dying man in a letter to his friend Har- 

 sten, dated Halle, April 14. He did not 

 long survive this letter, dying on the 9th 

 of December, 1798, at the age of sixty- 

 nine years and some months. 



Forster is represented as a man of 

 highly irritable and quarrelsome disposi- 

 tion, of which he is said to have given 

 several instances during his voyage round 



the world ; and which, added to a total 

 want of prudence in common affairs, in- 

 volved him, notwithstanding his talents, 

 in perpetual difficulties. 



The following character of him, by his 

 friend the celebrated Kurt Sprengel, of 

 Halle, exhibits him in a more favourable 

 point of view: "To a knowledge of 

 books, in all branches of science, seldom 

 to be met with, he joined an uncommon 

 fund of practical observations, of which 

 he well knew how to avail himself. In 

 natural history, in geography, both phy- 

 sical and moral, and in universal history, 

 he was acquainted with a vast number of 

 facts, of which he who draws his infor- 

 mation from works only has not even a 

 distant idea. This assertion is proved in 

 the most striking manner by his * Obser- 

 vations made in a Voyage round the 

 World.' Of this book it may be said, 

 that no traveller ever gathered so rich a 

 treasure on his tour. What person of 

 any education can read and study this 

 work, which is unparalleled in its kind, 

 without discovering in it that species of 

 instructive and pleasing information 

 which most interests man, as such ? The 

 uncommon pains which Forster took in 

 hisliterary compositions, andhis conscien- 

 tious accuracy in historical disquisitions, 

 are best evinced by his * History of Voya- 

 ges and Discoveries in the North,' and 

 likewise by his excellent archaeological 

 dissertation * On the Byssus of the An- 

 cients.' Researches such as these were his 

 favourite employment, in which he was 

 greatly assisted by his intimate acquaint- 

 ance with the classics. Forster had a 

 predilection for the sublime in natural 

 history, and aimed at general views, 

 rather than detail. His favourite author 

 therefore was Buffon, whom he used to 

 recommend as a pattern of style, espe- 

 cially in his 'Epoques de la Nature,' his 

 ' Description of the Horse, Camel, &.c.' 

 He had enjoyed the friendship of that 

 distinguished naturalist, and he likewise 

 kept up an uninterrupted epistolary in- 

 tercourse with Linnaeus, till the death of 

 the latter. Without being a stickler for 

 the forms and ceremonies of any parti- 

 cular persuasion, he adored the Eternal 

 Author of All, who exists in the great 

 temple of nature, and venerated his wis- 

 dom and goodness with an ardour and a 

 heart -felt conviction, that, in his opinion, 

 alone constituted the criterion of true re- 

 ligion. He held in utter contempt all 

 those, who, to gratify their passions, or 

 imitate the prevailing fashion, made a 

 jest of the most sacrad and reputable 



