CHAP. I.] 



BIRTH AND PARENTAGE. 



ceived a wish to reside upon their estate, and began 

 to form plans for doing so ; and they may be said 

 to have lived thenceforth as if it and they were made 

 for one another. They set themselves resolutely to 

 the work of making that inheritance of stony and 

 mossy ground to become one of the habitable places 

 of the earth. John Clerk Maxwell had hitherto 



appeared somewhat indolent ; and there was a good 

 deal of inertia in his composition. But the latent 

 forces of his character were now to be developed 



He was one of a race * in whom strong individuality 

 had occasionally verged on eccentricity. For two 

 centuries the Clerks had been associated with all that 

 was most distinguished in the Northern kingdom, 

 from Drummond of Hawthornden to Sir Walter 

 Scott. Each generation had been remarkable for the 

 talents and accomplishments of some of its members ; 

 and it was natural that a family with such ante- 



1 The note appended to this chapter contains a sketch of the family 

 history of the Clerks and Maxwells, which those who believe in 

 heredity, as Maxwell did, will do well to read. 



