XXxii PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



James David Forbes, late Principal of the University of St. An- 

 drews, in Scotland, was born in Edinburgh on the 28th of April, 

 1809. His mother died shortly after his birth, of consumption ; and 

 the boy's delicacy was such, that his father, Mr. WilKam Forbes, of 

 Pitsligo, thought it well to discourage rather than to stimulate his 

 love for knowledge, mathematical studies being especially forbidden. 



But nature was stronger than paternal solicitude ; and natural 

 genius made such good use of all available opportunities for study 

 that in 1833, at the early age of 24, Mr. Forbes was appointed Pro- 

 fessor of Natural Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh, an 

 of3.ce the duties of which he performed with great distinction for 

 twenty- six years, though in the latter part of that period impeded 

 by failing health. In 1859 Professor Forbes was appointed Prin- 

 cipal of the United Colleges of St. Salvador and St. Leonard in the 

 University of St. Andrews, and held these oflices until his lamented 

 death on the 31st of December, 1868. 



Principal Forbes attained high distinction as an original investi- 

 gator in several branches of physics, while, to the general public, he 

 was widely known and deservedly famed as the writer who had 

 brought the grand and profoundly interesting aspects of the Alpine 

 world before their minds with a power and distinctness which no 

 one since the days of Saussure had approached, when the * Travels 

 in the Alps ' were published. 



My friend and colleague Mr. Geikie, F.E-.S., has given so admirable 

 an account of Principal Forbes's relation to geological science, that I 

 venture to reproduce what he has said on this occasion : — 



Principal Forbes was born in Edinburgh just twelve years after 

 the death of the great Hutton, only seven years after the publication 

 of the ' Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory ;' and he was already 

 a boy of ten when Playfair died. Many of his friends had been 

 personally acquainted with these philosophers ; and the memory of 

 the fierce Plutonian and Neptunian war was still fresh in their minds 

 when he began to give himself to scientific pursuits. These early 

 influences are traceable all through his life. He was profoundly 

 impressed with the originality and truth of the views propounded by 

 Hutton and illustrated by Playfair. He speaks with enthusiasm 

 of the " precious lessons " which one of his friends had drawn from 

 the lips of Playfair and of Hall. I shall never cease to remember 

 with gratitude that it was he who introduced me when a boy to the 

 writings of these masters. He used to speak of Playf air's * Illustra- 

 tions of the Huttonian Theory ' as one of the best books ever written 

 upon the first principles of geological science. 



Principal Forbes studied geology under Jameson, from whom he 

 acquired a love for the mineralogical side of the science, and retained 

 it to the last. Moreover his own predominant tendency towards 

 physics tinged even his geological studies. Hence we find him rising, 

 on the one hand, from a contemplation of the phenomena of glaciers 

 to a philosophical investigation of the laws under which these phe- 

 nomena occur — on the other, from the mere observation and collec- 

 tion of rocks and minerals to the natural philosophy of the operations 

 by which they were produced* 



