86 JAMES CLERK MAXWELL. [CHAP. IV. 



the day," etc., it was thought desirable that we should 

 have lessons in "Physical Science." So one of the 

 classical masters gave them out of a text-book. The 

 sixth and seventh classes were taught together ; and 

 the only thing I distinctly remember about these 

 hours is that Maxwell and P. G. Tait seemed to know 

 much more about the subject than our teacher did. 



Maxwell and Tait were by this time acknowledged 

 as the two best mathematicians of the school, and it 

 was already prophesied that Tait, who was about 

 fifteen, would some day be a Senior Wrangler. The 

 two youths had many interchanges of ideas, and Pro- 

 fessor Tait remembers that Maxwell had by this 

 time proved, by purely geometrical methods, that 

 the central tangential section of a " tore," or anchor- 

 ring, is a pair of intersecting equal and similar curves, 

 probably circles. 



This is referred to in the following extract from 

 Professor Tait's admirable summary : 



When I first made Clerk Maxwell's acquaintance about 

 thirty-five years ago, at the Edinburgh Academy, he was a 

 year before me, being in the fifth class while I was in the 

 fourth. 



At school he was at first regarded as shy and rather 

 dull. He made no friendships, and he spent his occasional 

 holidays in reading old ballads, drawing curious diagrams, 

 and making rude mechanical models. This absorption in 

 such pursuits, totally unintelligible to his schoolfellows 

 (who were then quite innocent of mathematics), of course 

 procured him a not very complimentary nickname, which 1 

 know is still remembered by many Fellows of this Society. 

 About the middle of his school career, however, he surprised 

 his companions by suddenly becoming one of the most 



