CHAP, in.] "OLD 31" EDINBURGH ACADEMY. 61 



10th July 1844. 



DEAR FATHER Excuse me on account of being so loner 

 of writing, because of my being totally employed about pre- 

 parations of verses, English and Latin. I made four lines of 

 Latin one week, for which I got the play from ten ; but I am 

 not going to try for the prize, as when I lithp in numberth 

 it ith but a lithp, for the numberth do not come even with 

 the help of Gradus ; but I am making English ones on the 

 apparition of Creusa to ^Eneas in the end of the second 

 book. Besides this, I am preparing the biography, 1 and 

 have been making a list of the kings of Israel and Judah. I 

 have been going to Cramond and playing with the boys 

 every Saturday ; they went to Eayhills on the ninth. 

 Booking 2 is grown fine and warm now. 



father ! can it be that souls sublime 

 return to visit our terrestrial clime ? 3 



Your obt. servt. and son to you, 



JAMES CLERK MAXWELL. 



I have been wavering about 14 for a good while in the 

 Latin. 



HOLIDAYS AT GLENLAIR 1842 to 1844. 



We can readily imagine the sense of enlargement 

 and release with which the boy went home to Grlenlair 

 after his first long sojourn in Edinburgh. The 



Now, every letter received from James is recorded in the Diary, and 

 the only such entry between the limits of June 7-26 is on June 21st. 

 " THE THREE PAIRS OF DOVES ALL SITTING. Kecd. letters from Mrs. 

 Wed. and James." It was a two-days' post. The letters dated July 

 10 was received on July 12. The " Verses on Laocoon" point to the 

 same date. The translation from Virg. Mn. i. 159-169, which cer- 

 tainly preceded them, was given in on May 10, 1844. 



1 i.e. Scripture History. 2 * Bathing. 



3 From the poem on ",Creiisa." 



