11 



bidden paths of science. When he was only sixteen he began to keep a 

 record, entitled " Ideas of Inventions ;" because, as he expressed it, so 

 many more ideas, chiefly mechanical, occurred to him than he could pos- 

 sibly execute ; and, in order to remember these, he " resolved to write 

 them down, taking most special care to distinguish between what were ori- 

 ginal and the parts which were borrowed." About the same time he began 

 a journal of personal observations in astronomy, which he continued, with 

 scarce an interruption, for seven years. He then also began to keep a 

 meteorological journal, in which he recorded all his observations on the 

 temperature and state of the atmosphere, with speculations as to their 

 causes. The two last, especially, were continued for years. These were 

 his real and earliest educators in science. By these he trained himself to 

 be the patient and accurate observer which he ultimately became. 



Thus entirely home-trained, and, indeed, self-educated, young Forbes 

 entered Edinburgh University in Session 1825-26, and joined the Classes of 

 Latin and Chemistry. About the close of.his first year at College he entered 

 on another phase of his self-education, which was destined to have important 

 results. He commenced an anonymous correspondence on scientific matters 

 with the late Sir David Brewster. The lad of seventeen wrote to the then 

 renowned man of science, offering him for insertion in his well-known c Phi- 

 losophical Journal' a paper containing an attempt to account for the appa- 

 rently infinite number of the stars. The paper was not only inserted, but 

 the following words were annexed to it : "We should be glad to hear again 

 from the author of this article, and, if possible, learn his address." The first 

 part of this request was readily complied with. For several years hardly 

 a Number of the journal appeared without some paper either of original 

 observation, experiment, or cautious speculation from the young votary of 

 science. The latter part of the request he was more slow to meet ; all the 

 communications still bore the original signature, or "A" — a disguise which 

 the author's modesty induced him to assume, and which Sir David tried to 

 pierce for some years in vain. Those who are best versed in these subjects 

 will, I believe, most appreciate the natural insight, careful toil, and patient 

 observation embodied in those papers, written at seventeen, with none to 

 help or consult with, indeed, in the utmost secrecy. Towards the end of 

 1826 the young student's College course was interrupted (but his philoso- 

 phical correspondence was not) by a year spent in Italy with his father and 

 family. With his passion for science in no degree abated, he entered into 

 all that Italy contains to feed the imaginative and historic mind, almost as 

 fully as if he had been exclusively a scholar or man of letters — so early 

 appeared that fine blending of literary taste with scientific exactness which 

 in after years lent to his lectures and his writings so great a charm. The 

 ' Philosophical Journal ' contained some fruits of his Italian experiences, in 

 what Sir David styles " A's very excellent set of observations," made at 

 Rome, on the climate of Naples, and on the phenomena of Mount Vesu- 

 vius. These three papers appearing in successive Numbers of the Journal, 



