400 
THE GEOLOGIST, 
talent, but it has been continued and finished by a young author of no slight 
merit and of rising fame, Mr. Archibald Geikie. We all know Mr. Geikie's 
pretty " Story of a Boulder we know, too, the good work he has lately been 
doing with Murchison amongst the Scottish highlands ; and we know, from 
other works and other labours, that Mr. Geikie can both write well and ucork 
well too. Forbes' Life by Wilson and Geikie must have many readers if the 
book stood alone on its literary merits ; but when it has so wide-spread an 
interest as is still felt throughout our own land and abroad in the short and, 
so to speak, unfinished life of its amiable and accomplished subject, it is one 
that is sure to be generally read. 
Whenever a great man dies, we all want to know something about him. 
Perhaps it is that we want to know how he became so much esteemed. Per- 
haps we silently, although it may be hopelessly, hope to be eminent too. Is 
it a lesson how to be so that we try to learn from the records of t.ie lives of 
others ? God grant it may, and that the pattern in every case may be as 
worthy as Forbes' of imitation. 
"Edward Forbes was born in 1815, and died in 1854. The years of his 
life were thii-ty-nine : the years of his public labours as nearly as may be 
twenty-five. Into that quarter of a century he crowded more work than most 
men accomplish even when their span of days stretches beyond the allotted 
three score years and ten; and yet his work was but half done. He was cut 
otf in the midst of his days, with his powers, so far as others could discern 
them, but partially evolved, and his piu'poses but half fulfilled." 
The most beautiful of many others, " Douglas Bay lies embedded, like a 
crescent moon, in the south-west shore of the Isle of Man. The tip of either 
horn is a headland, the southern one crowned by a lighthouse. As it flits 
past, the crescent opens, and reveals all the objects which it defends from the 
open sea. In the centre of the bay a peculiarly picturesque tower of refuge 
stands on a reef, a beacon and shelter for the sailor. On the south-western 
curve of the crescent lies the town of Douglas, dear to us as the birthplace of 
Edward Forbes. Its foundations are laid in the delta of a small river, but it 
has climbed the heights encircling the bay, and spread itself gracefully over 
the gentle terraces and broad undulations which overlook the sea. The more 
stately eminences are occupied by stately castellated buildings : and behind all 
the lofty domes of Smaefell and the sister hills stand in array against the hori- 
zon. And, besides sand and fern, headland and haven, here and there, as the 
island passes before him, valleys opening on the sea allow the spectator to gaze 
far inland. The brooks that make them green are seen glittering in the sun, 
with the flicker of the leaves, whose shadows marble their waters. The white 
smoke of hidden cottages rises like a veil in front of the purple hiUs. The 
fragrance of wild flowers comes down the breezes, and the tinkling of sheep- 
bells, and the low murmurs of distant waterfalls. An island so varied and so 
beautiful was the befitting birthplace and cradle of one destined in future life 
to prove himself alike naturalist, artist, philosopher. While yet a child, the 
wild plants of its valleys had made him a botanist, and the spars and fossils of 
its shores had taught him somethiug of geology. But the sea had the chief 
charm for him, and in the bays of Douglas and Ramsay he caught, whilst yet 
a youth, the first glimpse of those ocean revelations which have made him 
famous." 
Edward Forbes was the second but eldest surviving child of Edward Forbes, 
Esq., of Oakhill and Cronkbane, near Douglas, by Jane, daughter and heiress 
of William Teare, Esq., of the Corvalla and Ballaby, Ballaugh, Isle of Man. 
His great-grandfather, David Forbes, was implicated in the Jacobi^ troubles 
of 1745. 
The immediate paternal ancestors of Edward Forbes were characterized by 
