Memoir of Edward Forbes, F.R.S., late Regius Professor of Natural History in the University of Edinburgh / by George Wilson and Archibald Geikie.

Date:
1861
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Memoir of Edward Forbes, F.R.S., late Regius Professor of Natural History in the University of Edinburgh / by George Wilson and Archibald Geikie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    The loss sustained by the death of [this great Naturalist] was aggravated to those who knew him, by the consideration of how much of his knowledge had perished with himself, and, notwithstanding all that he had written, how much of the light collected by a life of experience and observation was now com- pletely extinguished. It is, indeed, melancholy to reflect, that with all who make proficiency in the sciences, founded on nice and delicate observation, something of this sort must invariably happen. The experienced eye, the power of perceiv- ing the minute differences and fine analogies which discriminate or unite the objects of science, and the readiness of comparing new phenomena with others already treasured up in the mind, these are accomplishments which no rules can teach, and no precepts can put us in possession of. This is a portion of know- ledge which every man must acquire for himself, and which nobody can leave as an inheritance to his successor. It seems, indeed, as if Nature had in this in stance admitted an exception to the rule, by which she has ordained the perpetual accumulation of knowledge among civilized men, and had destined a considerable portion of science continually to grow up and perish with the individual.”—Play- fair's Biographical account of Dr. Hutton, Works, vol. iv. p. 33.