He returned to England in the year 1775, and soon after the university of Oxford conferred upon him the degree of doctor of laws. After his return, he published, conjointly with his son, a bo tanical work in Latin, containing the characters of a number of new genera of plants, which had been discovered by them in the course of their circumnavi gation.
An account of the voyage having been published in English and German by young Forster, in which the father was supposed to have had a considerable share, though he had entered into an en gagement not to publish any thing sepa parately from the authorized narrative, they not only incurred the displeasure of government, but gave offence to the prin cipal friends by whom they had been pa tronised. This work abounded with re flections injurious to the government in whose service they had been, and unfa vourable to the navigators who had con ducted the expedition. They were therefore treated with so much coolness, that they both determined to quit Eng land.
Fortunately for Forster, after strug gling some time with poverty and mis fortunes in London, he was invited to Halle, in 1780, to be professor of natural history ; he was also appointed inspector of the botanical garden; and as this office was connected with the faculty of medi cine, he next year got the degree of doc tor of medicine.
The loss of his son George, who died at an early period of life, made a deep impression on Forster, whose health was already in a declining state ; and in the spring of the year 1798, his case was so desperate, that he expressed himself as a dying man in a letter to his friend Har sten, dated Halle, April 14. He did not long survive this letter, dying on the 9th of December, 1798, at the age of sixty nine years and some months.
Forster is represented as a man of highly irritable and quarrelsome disposi tion, of which he is said to have given instances during his round the world ; and which, added to a total want of prudence in common affairs, in volved him, notwithstanding his talents, in perpetual difficulties.
The following character of him, by his friend the celebrated Kurt Sprengel, of Halle, exhibits him in a more favourable point of view : "To a knowledge of books, in all branches of science, seldom to be met with, he joined an uncommon fund of practical observations, of which he well knew how to avail himself. In natural history, in geography, both phy sical and moral, and in universal history, he was acquainted with a vast number of facts, of which he who draws his infor mation from works only has not even a distant idea. This assertion is proved in
the most striking manner by his ' Obser vations made in a Voyage round the World.' Of this book it may be said, that no traveller ever gathered so rich a treasure on his tour. What person of any education can read and study this work, which is unparalleled in its kind, without discovering in it that species of instructive and pleasing information which most interests man, as such ? The uncommon pains which Forster took in hisliterary compositions, and his conscien tious accuracy in historical disquisitions, are best evinced by his' History of Voya ges and Discoveries in the North,' and likewise by his excellent archeological dissertation ' On the Ilysstis of the An cients.' Researches such as these were his favourite employment, in which he was greatly assisted by his intimate acquaint ance with the classics. Forster had a predilection for the sublime in natural history, and aimed at general views, rather than detail. His favourite author therefore was Buffon, whom he used to recommend as a pattern of style, espe cially in his Epoques de Is Nature,' his 'Description of the Horse, Camel, &c.' He had enjoyed the friendship of that distinguished naturalist, and he likewise kept up an uninterrupted epistolary in tercourse with Liimmus, till the death of the latter. Without being a stickler for the forms and ceremonies of any parti cular persuasion, he adored the Eternal Author of All, who exists in the great temple of nature, and venerated his wis dom and goodness with an ardour and a heart-felt conviction, that, in his opinion, alone constituted the criterion of true re ligion. He held in utter contempt all those, who, to gratify their passions, or imitate the prevailing fashion, made a jest of the most sacred and reputable feelings of mankind. His moral feelings were equally animated; he was attracted with irresistible force by whatever was true, good, or excellent. Great charac ters inspired him with an esteem which he sometimes expressed with incredible ardour." His works, besides those above men tioned, are, for the most part, compila tions and translations. He was the author also of several papers published in the "Philosophical Transactions," the " Me moirs of the Academy of Sciences" atPe tersburgh, and those of other learned so, cieties.