SIR DAVID BREWSTER. 49 



practised hand that the instrument was adjusted through which we 

 had our first view of two of the most beautiful sights that the 

 telescope reveals to us — Jupiter with his belts and retinue of 

 attendant moons, and Saturn with his rings ; and very patient and 

 good-natured and kindly were his replies to our eager questionings 

 with regard to the nature of the wonders then first opened to our 

 gaze. Sir David, if forced into it, could fight, and never turned 

 his hack on an assailant. If you hit him, he hit again, and he 

 always hit severely ; but he was, notwithstanding, a man of kindest 

 heart and most amiable disposition, and it would be difficult to 

 meet with any one more cheerful or courteous or pleasant within 

 the circle of his own family and in his daily intercourse with his 

 acquaintances and friends. Requiescat in pace : he was in truth a 

 great man. Not often does it happen that in the same country, 

 and within so short a time of each other, two such stars so large 

 and lustrous as Faraday and Brewster have disappeared from the 

 firmament of science. A century may elapse ere the thrones they 

 have left vacant shall again be adequately filled. There is some- 

 thing extremely beautiful and affecting in one of Sir David 

 Brewster's last utterances upon earth. On the morning of his 

 death. Sir James Simpson, standing by his bedside, remarked that 

 it had been given to him to show forth much of God's great and 

 marvellous works ; and the dying philosopher solemnly and quietly 

 replied, " Tes, I have found them to be great and marvellous, and 

 I have found and felt them to be His." 



