242 PETER GUTHRIE TAIT 



" The progress of science, therefore, so far as we have been able to follow it, has 

 added nothing of importance to what has always been known about the physical 

 consequences of death, but has rather tended to deepen the distinction between the 

 visible part, which perished before our eyes, and that which we are ourselves, and to 

 show that this personality, with respect to its nature as well as to its destiny, lies quite 

 beyond the range of science." 



In his letters to Tait, Maxwell let his humour play round the curious 

 speculations and metaphysics of the authors of The Unseen Universe and of 

 The Paradoxical Philosophy. For example, at the end of the letter of 

 Sept. 7, 1878, from which quotations have already been given {pp. 151-2), 

 Maxwell remarked : 



"It is said in Nature that U.U. is germinating into some higher form. If you 

 think of extending the collection of hymns given in the original work, do not forget 

 to insert 'How happy could I be with Ether.'" 



After the publication of Paradoxical Philosophy, he sent Tait " A Para- 

 doxical Ode" consisting of three stanzas, said to be "after Shelley." 

 The movement of the verses, the rhythm and the rhyming, strongly suggest 

 portions of Prometheus Unbound, although the imitation is not quite accurate 

 as to form. With marvellous ingenuity has Maxwell woven into his verses 

 much that characterised not only the speculations of The Unseen Universe 

 but also certain features of Tail's scientific work in relation to the classifica- 

 tion of knots. The verses are given here as they appear in the original 

 draft which was pasted into Tail's Scrap Book. It differs in slight details 

 from ihe version published in Maxwell's Life. 



TO HERMANN STOFFKRAFT, PH.D. 



A PARADOXICAL ODE. 



(After Shelley) 



I. 



My soul's an amphicheiral knot 1 



Upon a liquid vortex wrought 

 By Intellect in the Unseen residing, 



While thou dost like a convict sit 



With marlinspike untwisting it 

 Only to find my knottiness abiding, 



1 An amphicheiral knot is a knot which can be changed into its own mirror reflexion 

 amphicheiral similarity is the similarity between a right and a left hand. See Tait " On Knots " 

 (Trans. R.S.E., 1876-7; Sci. Pap., Vol. i, pp. 288, 314, etc.). 



