Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 3.djvu/323

Rh scientiously in the real business of life. His learning was profound and extensive, beyond that of his compeers; and, in forcible, manly, and persuasive eloquence at the Scottish bar, he had no competitor. Yet with all this vast and visible superiority, he was never dogmatical. His was not the paltry ambition that could gratify itself by uttering tiny conceits or sparkling witticisms; nor did he ever, like too many who have shone in his profession, attempt to dispose of an unnianageable subject by heaping upon it a mountain of words, or enveloping it in a whirlwind of bombast and nonsense; every thing like artifice he held in abhorrence; and truth and justice being at all times the objects he aimed at, the law of kindness was ever on his lips, and an impress of candour and sincerity gave an oracular dignity to every sentiment which he uttered. Of tho volume of inspiration, which he could consult with advantage in the original tongues, he was a diligent student; and that he had experienced its transforming influence in no mean degree was evident from the tone of his mind, and the whole tenor of his life and conversation. Like another of Scotland's most eminent benefactors, John Knox,—with whom alone, from the magnitude and for the difficulty of his services, though they were considerably dissimilar, he deserves to be compared—he probably felt himself called upon rather for active personal exertion than for those efforts of mind, which can be well and successfully made only in the seclusion of the closet, and through the medium of the press; of course his writings are not numerous, but they exhibit, particularly his Thoughts on Religion, Natural and Revealed, strong traces of a pure, a pious, and an original mind. In private life he was every thing that is amiable—as a husband and a father, affectionately tender—as a friend, generous in the extreme, often distressing hiniself that he might fully and seasonably perform the duties implied in the character. His neighbours he was always ready to oblige; and merit of every description found in him a prompt, a steady, and a disinterested patron. He was sprung from a family whose hospitality had been proverbial for ages; and when his health, which was generally delicate, and his numerous avocations would permit, few men could enjoy a bottle and a friend with a more exquisite relish. To be of his party, in these moments of relaxation, was a felicity eagerly coveted by the greatest and the wittiest men of his age; and to sum up all in one word, such was the sterling worth of his character, that he was universally feared by the bad, and as universally loved by the good of all parties."

FORBES,, an eminent prelate, was by birth laird of Corse and O'Neil, in Aberdeenshire, and descended from Sir Patrick Forbes, (third son of James, second lord Forbes,) armour-bearer to king James II., from whom, in 1482, he got a charter of the barony of O'Neil. From the saine branch of the noble family of Forbes are descended the Forbeses, baronels of Craigievar, and the Forbeses, earls of Granard, in Ireland. The subject of this nenioir was born in 1564, and received the rudiments of his education under Thomas Buchanan (nephew of the author of the History of Scotland), who was then schoolmaster of Stirling. He next studied philosophy under Andrew Melville at Glasgow, and when that eminent reformer and learned man was removed to be principal of St Andrews, Forbes followed him thither, and was his pupil in Hebrew and theology. Such was the progress he made in these studies, and such his gravity, wisdom, and blamelessness of life, that at an uncommonly early age he was solicited to become a professor in the college. His father, however, suddenly recalled his son, in order that he might settle in life as a country gentleman; and he soon after married Lucretia Spens, daughter of David Spens of Wormiston, in Fife. He lived for some time in rural retirement near Montrose, where his learning and piety attracted a great concourse