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Rh dead" could not "suffer to pass unchallenged." There is, I submit, no color of reason in such a complaint, and it would never, I am persuaded, have been made had not Principal Shairp and his colleagues found themselves in possession of a document which, though published a dozen years ago by Principal Forbes, was never answered by me, and which, in the belief that I am unable to answer it, is now reproduced for my confutation.

The document here referred to appeared soon after the publication of the "Glaciers of the Alps" in 1860. It is entitled "Reply to Professor Tyndall's Remarks in his Work on the 'Glaciers of the Alps, relating to Rendu' s 'Théorie des Glaciers.'" It was obviously written under feelings of great irritation, and, longing for peace, the only public notice I took of it at the time was to say that "I have abstained from answering my distinguished censor, not from inability to do so, but because I thought, and think, that within the limits of the case it is better to submit to misconception than to make science the arena of personal controversy." My critics, however, do not seem to understand that, for the sake of higher occupations, statements may be allowed to pass unchallenged which, were their refutation worth the necessary time, might be blown in shreds to the winds. Of this precise character, I apprehend, are the accusations contained in the republished essay of Principal Forbes, which his friends, professing to know what he would have done were he alive, now challenge me to meet. I accept the challenge, and throw upon them the responsibility of my answer. . ..

Having thus disposed of the two really serious allegations in the reply, I am unwilling to follow it through its minor details, or to spend time in refuting the various intimations of littleness on my part contained in it. The whole reply betrays a state of mental exacerbation which I willingly left to the softening influence of time, and to which, unless forced to it, I shall not recur.

The biographer who has revived this subject speaks of "the numerous controversies into which he" (Principal Forbes) "was dragged." I hardly think the passive verb the appropriate one here. The following momentary glimpse of Principal Forbes's character points to a truer theory of his controversies than that which would refer them to a "drag" external to himself:

"The hasty glance," says this biographer, "which I have been able to bestow upon his less scientific letters has shown me that Forbes attached great importance to mere honorary distinctions, as well as the opinion of others regarding the value of his discoveries. It has opened up a view of a, to me, totally unexpected feature of his character." This is honest, but that the revelation should be "unexpected" is to me surprising. The "love of approbation" here glanced at was in Principal Forbes so strong that he could not bear the least criticism