66 JAMES CLERK MAXWELL. [CHAP. IV. 



CHAPTER IV. 



ADOLESCENCE 1844 TO 1847 JET. 13-16. 



THE commencement of the fifth year at the Academy 

 was, for many of us boys, a time of cheerfulness and 

 hope. The long period of mere drill and task- work 

 was supposed to be over. We had learned the 800 

 irregular Greek Verbs, either by our own efforts, or by 

 hearing others say them, and had acquired some 

 moderate skill in Latin verse composition. On enter- 

 ing the rector's class-room, our less mechanical faculties 

 were at once called into play. We found our lessons 

 less burdensome when we had not merely to repeat 

 them, but were continually learning something also in 

 school. And the repetition of Virgil and Horace was a 

 very different thing from the repetition of the rules of 

 gender and quantity. Some foretaste of this more 

 genial method had been afforded us in the previous 

 year, when we had been encouraged to turn some bits 

 of Virgil into English verse. But the change was, 

 notwithstanding, considerable, and it was accompanied 

 with another advance, which for Maxwell was at least 

 equally important, for it was now that we began the 

 serious study of geometry. 



In October 1844 Mr. Clerk Maxwell and his sister, 

 Mrs. Wedderburn, were both far from well, and James 



