308 The late Professor Edward Forbes. 



have changed tropical into arctic climates, land into sea, and sea 

 into land, rendering their existence impossible. Each species, it- 

 self an aggregate of mortal individuals, came thus from the hands 

 of God, inherently immortal ; and when he saw fit to remove it, it 

 was slain through the intervention of such changes, and replaced 

 by another. The longevity, accordingly, of the existing races can, 

 according to this view, be determined (in so far as it admits of 

 human determination at all) only by a study of the physical altera- 

 tions which await the globe ; and every organism has thus, through 

 its connection with the brethren of its species, a retrospective and 

 prospective history, which must be studied by the naturalist who 

 seeks fully to account even for its present condition and fate. 



Those canons were applied by Edward Forbes to the humbler 

 creatures ; he was unfailing in urging that the destinies of man 

 are guided by other laws, having reference to his possession in- 

 dividually of an immaterial and immortal spirit. 



The following lines, embodying these ideas, contemplate his 

 death, solely as it was a loss to his fellow-workers left behind 

 him : their aim is to whisper patience, not to enforce consola- 

 tion. 



Thou Child of Genius ! None who saw 



The beauty of thy kindly face, 

 Or watched those wondrous fingers draw 

 Unending forms of life and grace, 

 Or heard thine earnest utterance trace 

 The links of some majestic law, 

 But felt that thou by God wert sent 

 Amongst us for our betterment. 



And yet He called thee in thy prime, 



Summoned thee in the very hour 

 When unto us it seemed that Time 

 Had ripened every manly power : 

 And thou, who hadst through sun and shower, 

 On many a shore, in many a clime, 

 Gathered from ocean, earth, and sky, 

 Their hidden truths, wert called to die. 



We went about in blank dismay, 



We murmured at God's sovereign will ; 

 We asked why thou wert taken away, 

 Whose place no one of us could fill : 

 Our throbbing hearts would not be still ; 

 Our bitter tears we could not stay : 

 We asked, but could no answer find ; 

 And strove in vain to be resigned. 



