402 MEMOIR OF GEORGE WILSON. CHAP. X. 



of the Highland soldiers, and risking his life at the battle of the 

 Alma. The shock of that is scarcely past, before we are plunged 

 into new and deeper grief by the death, after a very short illness, 

 of Edward Forbes, in the very height of his glory and usefulness ; 

 and I am in tears for the loss of that beloved friend, when your 

 letter arrives with its afflicting news. ... I have given up 

 making idols ; they are all taken away. Harry I thought of 

 as full of life and energy ; and destined, with that remarkable 

 mechanical genius of his, to become great, and good, and famous, 

 long, long after I had found rest in the grave. He was so beau- 

 tiful the most beautiful boy I ever saw so loving, so lovable, 

 what had Death to do with him ? Was I not here and others, 

 who had digged for death as for hidden treasure, and could even 

 rejoice at the prospect of going to be with Christ, which for us 

 is far better than a dying life here : that he should be summoned 

 and we left ! I have asked myself the same question regarding 

 the death of Mackenzie, and still more regarding the loss of 

 Edward Eorbes, whose death is universally felt to be a public 

 calamity. But I can find no answer, and expect none on this 

 side the grave. I am learning, I hope, more and more to trust 

 God, and to put faith in Christ ; and to leave these, and a thou- 

 sand other black mysteries to be explained, if God please, 

 hereafter, and if it does not so please him, to be left unex- 

 plained." 



" I have agreed very reluctantly," he tells his brother Daniel, 

 " to write Edward Forbes's life. I have been so importuned to 

 become his biographer, that I have assented. I loved him very 

 dearly, and knew him well, and the task is in that respect very 

 welcome ; but I had labours of my own to work out which must 

 be put aside. 1 I enclose some verses on his loss, which embody 

 two ideas of his own applied to plants and animals." The verses 

 alluded to appeared in ' Blackwood's Magazine' for March 1855, 

 with a short explanatory preface : 



i " I hope I shall live to write Edward Forbes's Life," is an expression in a letter 

 about this date. But this hope was only partly fulfilled. The amount of labour 

 demanded from him by the duties of the subsequent years, left almost no leisure for 

 ' literary work. Every attempt was made to get on with it, but at his death it was 

 left unfinished. Arrangements have been made, however, for its early completion, 

 and we trust it will very shortly be given to the public. 



