LIFE AS AN UNDERGRADUATE AT CAMBRIDGE
From this point forward the sketch of Forbes's life can be given almost
entirely in the words of those who knew him at Cambridge.
A writer in the Christ's College Magazine for the Lent term 1904 says:
'Many older friends will always think of him in his attic rooms, where
he began to make his mark in our College society upon his first coming
up. Only two other Freshmen had rooms in College, and Robinson's rooms
became at once a centre for his year, and later a meeting-place where
the gulfs between higher and lower years were bridged over. A little
older than most men of his year, he was considerably their senior in
character and in intellect. He showed at once the qualities which he
retained to such a unique degree in later years--an inexhaustible power
of making friends with all sorts and conditions of men, and an
insatiable interest in all sides of College life; the most serious
things were from the first not beyond his comprehension, and the most
trivial did not appear to bore him, even when their freshness had worn
off. His love of books was catholic; he possessed a great many and
read them {11} to his friends. At the College Debate, of which he
became secretary and president in his second year, he was a frequent
and fluent speaker, with a remarkable command of language, though
sometimes his eloquence was more than half burlesque. His powers of
thought and real strength in argument were more often displayed in
private discussions, where irony and humour hardly veiled the depth of
earnestness below.'
[Illustration: Forbes Robinson (1887)]
During his first three years at Cambridge he read for the Theological
Tripos. In the course of his first year he was elected a scholar of
his College. At the beginning of his second year he won his first
University distinction, the Carus prize for the Greek Testament. The
other University prizes which he gained were the Jeremie prize for the
Septuagint in 1889, the Burney prize essay in 1891, the Carus prize for
Bachelors, the Hulsean prize essay, and the Crosse University
Scholarship in 1892. He took his degree in the first class of the
Theological Tripos in 1890, and obtained a second class in the Moral
Science Tripos of 1891. The year which he spent in reading moral
science he afterwards looked back upon as one of the most useful in his
life. After he had been reading for some time in view of this Tripos,
he wrote to a friend: 'I have come to the conclusion that I know
nothing, and am an awful fool into the bargain. . . . The subject is
so utterly fresh to me, so completely unlike theology of any sort at
Cambridge, that I find it hard to do anything at it. In fact, I
chucked it up for about ten days in the middle of the term, and
determined to have nothing more to {12} do with it; but after that rest
I thought better and renewed the study. It is an excellent training
for the mind. I never distinctly remember thinking at all before this
term.'
Having learnt to _think_ himself, his desire was to help others by
teaching them to think. One who came under his influence several years
later says of him: 'I owe so much to him in every way. Above
everything else he taught me to _think_. I remember so well the first
time I went to him with a difficulty. I expected him to solve it for
me, instead of which, at the end of half an hour, I still found that I
had to think it out for myself. It was a revelation to me, and has
helped me in my dealings with men.' The same friend writes: 'I may
mention a conversation I once had with him. He had in front of him the
answers to some Theological Tripos papers. He took up two of them and
compared the answers given to the same question by the two men. The
answer required was a translation of a passage of Greek with notes.
And, as far as I can remember, his words were these: "Now, W----, this
man has passed over the real difficulty. As far as I can tell, he has
not even noticed that there is a difficulty. I have given him two
marks out of a possible ten. This other man has seen the difficulty
and grappled with it. His solution is without doubt incorrect, but
that is quite immaterial. Result, eight marks out of ten." I cannot
but think that this attitude of mind was largely the secret of his
influence.' In another case, when urging a man to attempt some
independent investigation of the Synoptic problem, he said; {13} 'Your
conclusions may be wrong, but you can correct them, and it will teach
you to think.'
One who was an undergraduate with Forbes says of him: He 'did not take
a prominent part in religious movements in the College, such as the
College prayer meeting or Bible readings, though he was occasionally
present at them. In chapel his reverence was quiet, though in no way
obtrusive. I think that by not identifying himself with any particular
religious party he had greater influence with those men whose minds ran
in very different grooves. I always felt when in his company that I
was conversing with one vastly superior to myself in intellectual
powers, and yet he never appeared conscious of it himself. It is
surprising how considerate he was of the feelings of others. I
remember a large print of Pope Leo XIII. which used to hang in his
rooms as an undergraduate, which delighted his gyp, who was a Romanist,
but scandalised his Protestant friends. I begged earnestly for a copy
of one of his prize essays, which had been printed though not
published. He at first consented, but almost immediately asked me to
return it, saying that he did not wish it to go out to the world as
expressing his matured views. He then asked me to accept instead a
small booklet, which he said I should find useful to have in visiting.
It contained the verses called "The Old, Old Story." He also gave me a
copy of the "Practice of the Presence of God," by Brother Lawrence.'
Before he decided to read for the Moral Science Tripos he had thought
of going in for the Semitic Languages Tripos. With this object in view
he {14} commenced the study of Syriac. Finding that the best Syriac
grammar was written in German and had not been translated, he decided
to learn German also. He was advised that Switzerland was a suitable
place in which to study German, and accordingly, after taking his
degree, he started in the summer of 1890 for Switzerland. The two
following letters are inserted in order to illustrate his sense of
humour, as well as to describe the way in which he spent this summer.
He eventually returned from Switzerland, having made more progress in
Syriac than in German, but without having obtained any great knowledge
of either language. Soon after his return he decided to commence the
study of Moral Science instead of the Semitic languages.
_To H. M. S._
'Habkern: July 1890.
'A few days after I got to Switzerland, by dint of incessant inquiries
and correspondence I found out the name of a pastor who lived in a
sufficiently healthy place and who talked German. So I girded up my
loins and went to visit him. "Sprechen Sie Englisch, mein Herr?" I
asked. "Nein" was the reply. As I scarcely knew a word of German I
was in a considerable fix. But I found out that the Pfarrer spoke
"Lateinisch" and could read English a little when it was written. So I
went up to his study and we got paper and pencil and began. I tried to
tell him in a mixture of broken English and dog-Latin that I intended
to give him the honour of my company. He said he would be pleased to
take me "en pension." He then {15} asked how much I wished to pay. I
hadn't for the life of me an idea of what I ought to pay. "Ut tibi
optimum videtur," I said. But he made me fix my price. Then, when I
had fixed it, I had to turn it into Swiss money. The good Pfarrer was
so pleased with the honour of my company that he took me for less than
I asked. Our greatest difficulty next arose: How was my luggage to be
conveyed the five miles from the nearest town up a steep hill? Latin,
French, English, German, failed to make me understand the situation.
At last I took in the Pfarrer's meaning. I was to send it by the
milkman after leaving it at a certain hotel. "Ja," I cried in an
ecstasy of joy, at last grasping his meaning, "Ja, ich mittam der
Gepäck von der milkman." I arrived the next day. I found the Pfarrer
knew Latin, Greek (but he pronounces both quite differently from me),
German, French, Russian, Syriac, Hebrew, and a little English. His
usual custom is to address me in German. If I fail to understand, he
tries Latin and intersperses his remarks with Greek and Hebrew. So my
great difficulty is first of all to find out what language he thinks he
is speaking in.
'Yesterday we were sitting, smoking and drinking, in the village
"Wirthshaus" among the natives of the place, the Pfarrer addressing me
in Latin, the villagers staring at his learning in adoration and
astonishment, and laughing at my attempts at German. The landlord came
up to me when I arrived and sent in a bottle of wine for me, refusing
to be paid for it, for he said that the natives of Interlaken fleeced
the English; but when Habkern was for once honoured by the {16}
presence of one, the people were not going to treat him in the same way.
'It is curious how the Pfarrer goes and sits and drinks and gossips in
the "Wirthshaus," even on Sunday, I think. Last Sunday they had a
country dance, and very curious and pretty was the scene--the
old-fashioned wooden room--the odd national dress of the women--the
curiously cut brown clothes of the men--the thick boots--the fiddlers
raised above the rest--the quaint urn with its inscriptions above--the
gaping crowd of villagers. Then the church is strange--very rude and
simple, all whitewashed. The women sit on one side, the men on the
other. They stand to pray and hear the text, and sit to sing and hear
the sermon. The organ and font are placed at one end. The elders
stand below the organ, the Pfarrer is lost in the far distance, right
up in a big pulpit. The "Predigt" or sermon is everything. They have
one written prayer before and one after the "Predigt." The people
never say "Amen" or anything--only sing. They sing so slowly that,
although I had only been with the Pfarrer three days, I could almost
sing and look out the words in the dictionary at the same time! I talk
German with every one who will talk with me. So well did I spin yarns
when I had been in the country three or four days, that with a mixture
of Latin and German I managed to make a German use strong language at
some of my tales, which he was pleased to think were not exactly true.
Reflecting on the situation afterwards, I remembered that I had told
him, among other things, that I had walked nearly fifty "stunden" {17}
in a day. His language was awful. I found afterwards that "stunde"
was not, as I had supposed, an English "mile," but an English "hour."
But I keep on talking. I have come to the conclusion that the way to
learn a language is to argue in it. Accordingly I do so. I have tried
to convince them that the order of bishops is semi-apostolic, and that
if St. Paul did not actually wear a surplice himself, his successors
shortly afterwards did.
'One other thing, if you ever reply to this letter: would you copy out
a few of the most thickly marked lines in the "Grammarian's Funeral" in
my edition of Browning? They are always in my mind, but I can't quite
recollect how they go. There is no poem I like so much as that. I
would send you some butterflies, but I daren't kill them. Some of us
may have once been butterflies: as M. Arnold says,
'What was before us we know not,
And we know not what shall succeed.'
_To H. M. S._
'Habkern: August 1890.
'There is a French pensionnaire staying here, the same as I am. He is
very polite, but his tastes are diametrically opposite to mine. He
likes wine, walking, women, smoking, painting, violin and piano
playing, dogs, and the like.
'He asked me whether I liked the French. I told him "No," and gave him
a good many reasons. He abhors the Germans. I told him I thought the
Germans were a fine race. I'm occupying my time {18} in sleeping,
arguing, observing the natives, and reading a Tauchnitz edition of
"Martin Chuzzlewit," which is good, though already a young girl of
seventeen has been introduced, very beautiful and all the rest, and I'm
afraid she won't be poisoned, but marry a certain young man already
introduced. I'd give a good deal to be able to write a novel in which
all the young ladies tumbled out of windows, six stories high, and were
picked up dead. I think I must try and write one. Shall I dedicate it
to you? The heroine will be a plain old lady with white curls, close
on sixty-five, without any money, but with a certain amount of
intellect. There will be no marriages, but suicides and murders if
necessary.
'I'm inventing a German word of 1,000 letters. It is to be divided
into some 150 or 200 compartments. After each compartment there is
five minutes for refreshments. After about the 500th letter there will
be half an hour allowed for dinner. After the 600th letter or so there
will be a notice to the effect that no person with a weak heart may
proceed further without consulting a medical man. After about the
980th there will be a notice forbidding any one to go further until
their family doctor is in attendance. I have thought of the groundwork
of the word--the finished word I'm going to send to M----, as he has
the strongest constitution of any one I know. Then I shall get Duke
Bismarck to patent it; after which I shall take out a professorship on
the strength of it at Berne. It will, of course, be the "Hauptsache"
of my existence.'
{19}
Forbes was far from being an athlete, but in 1891, shortly before his
ordination, he accomplished the feat of walking with two athletic
friends from London to Cambridge in a day, a distance of more than
fifty miles. The following description is by Mr. A. N. C.
Kittermaster, who was one of his companions.
_Walk from London to Cambridge._
Some of us had read that Charles Kingsley had walked from London to
Cambridge; so we determined to follow in his footsteps. We were a
party of three--Forbes Robinson, D. D. Robertson, and myself. We spent
the previous day at the Naval Exhibition, the night at the Liverpool
Street Hotel, and at 4.30 A.M. of Tuesday, August 25, 1891, we started
on our fifty-mile trudge. We walked steadily, at first over immense
stretches of pavement, till we reached Ware, twenty-one miles out.
There we had breakfast or lunch of huge chops at 10.15. After that we
took the road again, and did not call a halt of any length till we had
put another twenty miles behind us. The day was fine but dull, and we
were not troubled by the heat. At the fortieth milestone it began to
appear doubtful whether we should all reach the journey's end. I have
an entry in my diary: 'At 40 Robertson bad, I worse, Deanlet (_i.e._
Forbes) quite fit.' So at Foulmire, nine miles from Cambridge, we
stopped for tea. By this time I was in a state of temporary collapse,
but I remember the other two during tea carried on an animated
discussion upon the creation as described in Genesis. We all felt
better after the {20} rest and covered the last stage fairly easily,
arriving at Christ's at 9.30 P.M. We had a meal in Forbes's rooms,
fought our battles over again, and retired to rest about midnight.
The thing which remains with me best is the amazing ease with which
Forbes accomplished the journey. It is a matter of common experience
that prolonged physical effort reacts on the mind; conversation becomes
difficult, and cheerfulness forced. I must say that in my case the
thought which for a considerable period occupied my mind was how I was
to get to the end. But it was not so with Forbes. He travelled
lightly, talking happily on all subjects the whole day. It seemed to
make little difference to him whether he took food or no, and he was as
willing to stop at every place of refreshment we suggested as to march
the whole day without a meal.
{21}