1854. DEATH OF EDWARD FORBES. 401 



the sadness and dismay with which his unlooked-for death has 

 filled us. . . . He was a man of genius, and united to it so much 

 good sense, prudence, discretion, kindliness, gentleness, and 

 geniality, that he was very largely and widely honoured and 

 loved. I loved him far better than I ever told him ; but he 

 credited me, I believe, with great affection. To myself the loss 

 is irreparable. Short-sighted mortals that we are, he and I had 

 been arranging all sorts of conjoint labours, and this is the end 

 of it ! With nearly every one there is the feeling that he was 

 taken away, not from the evil to come, but from the good that 

 he would have done." That Edward Forbes reciprocated this 

 admiration may be gathered from his saying of George Wilson, 

 " How sad to see so splendid a jewel in such a shattered 

 casket !" To Dr. Cairns, George speaks of the loss as a great 

 personal grief. " His death takes another idol away." While 

 to another he writes, " I feel as if all the brave and young and 

 fair were dying, and a mere wreck like me allowed to float on. 

 Let us not, however, my dear friend, think of satisfying God by 

 our works. I try to live as a dying man (which I am), with 

 faith in a living Saviour, whose finished work leaves me nothing 

 to do in the way of meritorious labour, though it lays on me the 

 greatest obligation to work for Him and do His will. It is a 

 blessed thing to know Christ, as one not ashamed to count the 

 meanest of us His brethren, who has promised to exalt us to a 

 share in His glory, and invites us all to come unto Him and find 

 rest. He is a far more gracious Master to us than any of us 

 are to ourselves, and His service is perfect freedom." 



His cousin, Alexander, had lost a boy of five years on the 

 passage out to Australia ; he died in sight of land, and the first 

 possession of his parents in the new country was a little grave. 

 His beauty and winning ways had made Harry deeply loved by 

 all who knew him and his death was regarded as no common 

 loss. On learning his bereavement, George writes to the sor- 

 rowing father : " Scarcely am I. home from Eothesay before 

 we are all startled by the unlooked-for decease of my young, 

 brave, frank, and skilled colleague, Dr. Eichard Mackenzie, who 

 had volunteered to accompany the troops to the East, and 

 perishes of cholera after winning the utmost esteem and gratitude 



2 c 



