n will be very sorry that he is not here any
more, but every one who _knew_ him will be very thankful that he was
here, and that they had an opportunity of hearing him "think"
sometimes. I recall him most in his own rooms, beginning to talk on
some small matter, and gradually lifting us higher and still higher,
until we all silently listened, following as best we, with our muddier
minds, could; and even when he got beyond us there were still
inspiration and strength to be got from his flashing eyes and
on-rushing earnestness; but if some smaller mind broke in, in a moment
he was down at the level of that mind, half bantering and wholly
sympathising. Nevertheless, some of us have never forgotten the things
he showed us as he led us up, and the possibility of soaring very high
without losing touch with those whose levels are pathetically
human. . . . I do know that he helped {28} me much, and that many
things he said I shall never forget, and thank God for still.'

A Cambridge and international athlete, an intimate friend of Forbes,
writes: 'Though I have lost your brother Forbes, and life will be for
ever poorer to me, I can't thank God enough that I ever knew him and
loved him, and that he called himself my friend. He was so dear to
me--my greatest friend in the world. His goodness and his help to me
in my Cambridge days were wonderful. He altered my life. God has
called him home and to the blessed rest of the children of God, and we
are rich still with his memory and the influence of his beautiful,
patient, Christlike life.'

In another letter he writes: 'The death, or, as I like to think of it,
the passing of Forbes into the Great Beyond has been such a grief to
me. You have no idea what he was to me--a real man "sent from God"
into my life. I could do nothing when I heard the sad, and to me
utterly unexpected, news, but kneel down by my bedside, and weep till I
could weep no more for my beloved friend. I feel so rich and proud to
have had him for my friend, and to have had his love; and so do many
Cambridge men. Oh, but I did so love him! and my prayer now is that
the memory of him with me always may strengthen my weak and feeble
life, and help me to live somewhat more as he lived, very near the
Master.'

He obtained but little help from self-introspection or
self-examination. Thus he writes in one of the letters given later on:
'I am not sure that we cannot learn more about others than we can about
o