54 JAMES CLERK MAXWELL. [CHAP. III. 



In Edinburgh, as at Glenlair, he was allowed to 

 participate in the amusements of his elders. It is 

 just worth mentioning that his first play was As 

 You Like It, with Mrs. Charles Kean as Eosalind ; and 

 more important to observe that on December 18th, 

 12. 1843, his father took him to a meeting of the Edin- 

 burgh Eoyal Society. 



But at school also he gradually made his way. 

 He soon discovered that Latin was worth learning, 

 and the Greek Delectus interested him, when we got 

 so far. 1 And there were two subjects in which he at 

 once took the foremost place, when he had a fair 

 chance of doing so ; these were Scripture Biography 

 and English. In arithmetic, as well as in Latin, his 

 comparative want of readiness kept him down. 



On the whole he attained a measure of success 

 which helped to secure for him a certain respect, and, 

 however strange he sometimes seemed to his com- 

 panions, he had three qualities which they could not 

 fail to understand agile strength of limb, imper- 

 turbable courage, and profound good nature. Professor 

 James Muirhead remembers him as "a friendly boy, 

 though never quite amalgamating with the rest." 

 And another old class-fellow, the Kev. W. Macfarlane 

 of Lenzie, records the following as his impression : 

 " Clerk Maxwell, when he entered the Academy, was 

 somewhat rustic and somewhat eccentric. Boys 

 called him ' Dafty,' and used to try to make fun of 

 him. On one occasion I remember he turned with 



1 The Academy Greek Rudiments was purchased before leaving 

 Edinburgh for the holidays, July 28, 1842. 



