CHAP. IV.] ADOLESCENCE 1844 TO 1847. 69 



ing " in spite of P ; or in a quieter mood he would 



tell the story of Southey's Thalaba, or explain some 

 new invention, which I often failed to understand. 

 Our common ground in those days was simple geo- 

 metry, and never, certainly, was emulation more at one 

 with friendship. But whatever outward rivalry there 

 might be, his companions felt no doubt as to his 

 vast superiority from the first. He seemed to be in 

 the heart of the subject when they were only at the 

 boundary ; but the boyish game of contesting point 

 by point with such a mind was a most wholesome 

 stimulus, so that the mere exercise of faculty was a 

 pure joy. With Maxwell, as we have already seen, 

 the first lessons of geometry branched out at once 

 into inquiries which soon became fruitful. 



" Meantime, the rural ditties were not mute." 1844-46. 



^.13-1 



Besides a serio-comic impromptu on the grievance of 

 a holiday task, and other effusions concerning in- 

 cidents of our school life, there was a romantic ballad 

 written about Christmas 1844 or 5, and in July 1845 

 the prize for English verse was gained by the poem 

 on the death of the Douglas, to which he refers in one 

 of his letters to Miss Cay. 1 



But a prize of more consequence was the mathe- 1845. 



JEt, 1 4. 



1 His turn for versifying may be traced back to his twelfth year, 

 when, in one -of his quaint letters to his father, there occur some lines 

 (profusely illustrated) on the death of a goldfinch : 



" Lo ! Ossian makes Comala fall and die, 

 Why should not you for Kichard Goldie cry," etc. 



And in September 1843, as above mentioned, he wrote for the Archers 

 in the " Happy Valley " a page and more of spirited verse. 



