264 PETER GUTHRIE TAIT 



a rapid rotation round a horizontal axis. The direction of deviation from the vertical 

 depends on the direction of rotation.... These effects are commonly attributed to some 

 accidental peculiarity in the form of the paper..." So writes Maxwell in the Cam. and 

 Dud. Math. Jour. (May, 1854) and proceeds to give an exceedingly simple and beautiful 

 explanation of the phenomenon. The explanation is, of course, of a very general 

 character, for the complete working out of such a problem appears to be, even yet, 

 hopeless ; but it is thoroughly characteristic of the man, that his mind could never bear 

 to pass by any phenomenon without satisfying itself of at least its general nature and 

 causes. 



Similar in character to the quotations just given are the following culled 

 from a series of articles and reviews which appeared in Nature between 1875 

 and 1887, all dealing with the life and work of Sir George Stokes. The 

 earliest article formed the fifth of the Nature series of Scientific Worthies 

 (Nature, July 15, 1875). 



GEORGE GABRIEL STOKES. 



A great experimental philosopher, of the age just past, is reported to have said, 

 " Show me the scientific man who never made a mistake, and I will show you one who 

 never made a discovery." The implied inference is all but universally correct, but now 

 and then there occur splendid exceptions (such as are commonly said to be requisite to 

 prove a rule), and among these there has been none more notable than the present 

 holder of Newton's Chair in Cambridge, George Gabriel Stokes, Secretary of the Royal 

 Society. 



To us, who were mere undergraduates when he was elected to the Lucasian 

 Professorship, but who had with mysterious awe speculated on the relative merits of 

 the men of European fame whom we expected to find competing for so high an 

 honour, the election of a young and (to us) unknown candidate was a very startling 

 phenomenon. But we were still more startled, a few months afterwards, when the new 

 Professor gave public notice that he considered it part of the duties of his office to 

 assist any member of the University in difficulties he might encounter in his mathematical 

 studies. Here was, we thought (in the language which Scott puts into the mouth of 

 Richard Cceur de Lion), " a single knight, fighting against the whole mle of the 

 tournament." But we soon discovered our mistake, and felt that the undertaking was 

 the effect of an earnest sense of duty on the conscience of a singularly modest, but 

 exceptionally able, and learned man. And, as our own knowledge gradually increased, 

 and we became able to understand his numerous original investigations, we saw more 

 and more clearly that the electors had indeed consulted the best interests of the 

 University ; and that the proffer of assistance was something whose benefits were as 

 certain to be tangible and real as any that mere human power and knowledge could 

 guarantee. 



And so it has proved. Prof. Stokes may justly be looked upon as in a sense one 

 of the intellectual parents of the present splendid school of Natural Philosophers whom 



