PKEFACE. 



IN a work which has more than one author, it is right 

 to distinguish as far as possible what has been con- 

 tributed by each. 



The first part of this book, then, has been mainly 

 composed by the present writer (who has acted as 

 editor), and the second by Mr. Garnett ; but it is 

 due to Mr. Garnett to add that, while he had the 

 chief share of the labour of collecting materials for 

 the whole biography, and the entire burden of the 

 account here given of Maxwell's contributions to 

 science, the substance of Chapters XL XII. XIII. 

 is also largely drawn from information obtained 

 through him. The matter of whole pages remains 

 almost in his very words, although for the sake of 

 uniformity and simplicity the first person has still 

 been used in speaking of my own reminiscences. 



The narrative of Maxwell's early life has been 

 facilitated (1) by a diary kept by Maxwell's father 

 from 1841 to 1847, and often referred to in these 

 pages as "the Diary ;" (2) by two albums containing 

 a series of water-colour drawings by Maxwell's first 

 cousin, Mrs. Hugh Blackburn (nee Isabella Wedder- 

 burn), the value of which may be inferred from the 



