X PREFACE. 



presented so many attractions to his wife as well as to himself that he was easily induced 

 to relinquish his prospects at the bar. He had been married to Frances, daughter of 

 Robert Cay of N. Charlton, Northumberland, a lady of strong good sense and resolute 

 character. 



The country house which was their home after they left Edinburgh was designed 

 by John Clerk Maxwell himself and was built on his estate. The house, which was named 

 Glenlair, was surrounded by fine scenery, of which the water of Urr with its rocky and 

 wooded banks formed the principal charm. 



James was born at Edinburgh on the 13th of June, 1831, but it was at Glenlair 

 that the greater part of his childhood was passed. In that pleasant spot under healthful 

 influences of all kinds the child developed into a hardy and courageous boy. Not 

 precociously clever at books he was yet not without some signs of future intellectual 

 strength, being remarkable for a spirit of inquiry into the causes and connections of the 

 phenomena around him. It was remembered afterwards when he had become distinguished, 

 that the questions he put as a child shewed an amount of thoughtfulness which for his 

 years was very unusual. 



At the age of ten, James, who had lost his mother, was placed under the charge of 

 relatives in Edinburgh that he might attend the Edinburgh Academy. A charming account 

 of his school days is given in the narrative of Professor Campbell who was Maxwell's 

 schoolfellow and in after life an intimate friend and constant correspondent. The child is 

 father to the man, and those who were privileged to know the man Maxwell will easily 

 recognise Mr Campbell's picture of the boy on his first appearance at school, the home- 

 made garments more serviceable than fashionable, the rustic speech and curiously quaint 

 but often humorous manner of conveying his meaning, his bewilderment on first undergoing 

 the routine of schoolwork, and his Spartan conduct under various trials at the hands of 

 his schoolfellowa They will further feel how accurate is the sketch of the boy become 

 accustomed to his surroundings and rapidly assuming the place at school to which his 

 mental powers entitled him, while his superfluous energy finds vent privately in carrying 

 out mechanical contrivances and geometrical constructions, in reading and even trying his 

 hand at composing ballads, and in sending to his father letters richly embellished with 

 grotesquely elaborate borders and drawings. 



An event of his school-days, worth recording, was his invention of a mechanical method 

 of drawing certain classes of Ovals. An account of this method was printed in the 

 Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and forms the first of his writings 

 collected in the present work. The subject was introduced to the notice of the Society 

 by the celebrated Professor James Forbes, who from the first took the greatest possible 

 interest in Maxwell's progress. Professor Tait, another schoolfellow, mentions that at the 

 time when the paper on the Ovals was written, Maxwell had received no instruction in 

 hematic* beyond a little Euclid and Algebra. 



