CHAPTEK I. 



INTRODUCTORY BIRTH AND PARENTAGE. 



ONE who has enriched the inheritance left by Newton 

 and has consolidated the work of Faraday, one who 

 impelled the mind of Cambridge to a fresh course of 

 real investigation, has clearly earned his place in 

 human memory. 



But there was more in James Clerk Maxwell than 

 is implied in any praise that can be awarded to the 

 discoverer, or in the honour justly due to the educa- 

 tional reformer, much, indeed, which his friends feel 

 they can but partly estimate, and still less adequately 

 describe. 



We have, notwithstanding, undertaken this im- 

 perfect Memoir of him, in which the purpose of this 

 First Part will be to trace the growth from childhood 

 to maturity, and to record the untimely death, of a 

 man of profound original genius, who was also one of 

 the best men who have lived, and, to those who knew 

 him, one of the most delightful and interesting of 

 human beings. 



If I can bring before the reader's mind, even in 



shadowy outline, the wise and gentle but curiously 



B 



