50 JAMES CLERK MAXWELL. [CHAP. III. 



his tunic in rags and "wanting" the skirt; his neat 

 frill rumpled and torn ; himself excessively amused 

 by his experiences, and showing not the smallest sign 

 of irritation. It may well be questioned, however, 

 whether something had not passed within him, of 

 which neither those at home nor his schoolfellows 

 ever knew. 



The nickname of " Dafty " which they then gave 

 him clung to him while he remained at school, and he 

 took no pains to get rid of it. His " quips and 

 cranks " were taken for " cantrips," his quick, short, 

 elfin laughter (the only sign by which he betrayed his 

 sensitiveness), was construed into an eldritch noise. 

 Never was cygnet amongst goslings more misconstrued. 

 Within the class-rooms things were not much more 

 prosperous at first. Our master, Mr. A. N. Carmichael, 

 was a good and experienced teacher, and an excellent 

 scholar, in a dryish way. He was the author of the 

 Edinburgh Academy Greek Grammar and of an 

 Account of the Irregular Greek Verbs, which has now 

 been superseded, but was justly respected in its day. 

 He was a good disciplinarian ; but those junior classes 

 of sixty and upwards were too large and miscellaneous 

 for real teaching. He had an eye for talent, too. where 

 it was shown. But his first business was to hear our 

 tasks, and to let us take places in the class in propor- 

 tion to the accuracy and readiness with which we said 

 them. Maxwell did not at once enter into the spirit 

 of this contest, in which the chief requisites, next to 

 average talent and intelligence, were push and promp- 

 titude. His first initiation in Latin had not been 



