46 



JAMES CLERK MAXWELL. [CHAP. III. 



passing through an alien medium its rays were often 

 refracted and disintegrated. The crowd of " aimless 

 fancies," whose influence upon his life he so touch- 

 ingly deprecated at a later time, 1 were now most 

 importunate ; and, bright and full of innocence as 

 they were, they produced an effect of eccentricity 

 on superficial observers which he afterwards felt to 

 have been a hindrance to himself. His mother's 

 influence, had she lived, would have been most valu- 

 able to him at this time. 



The journey from Glenlair had been broken at 

 Newton 2 and at Penicuik, where a halt of some days 

 was made. It was the middle of November, and a 



' 



season of snow and frost. Soon after dusk on the 18th 

 10, ' of November, the whole family party, including the 



1 In the poem written after his father's death in 1856. 

 2 Above, p. 4. 



