CHAP. V.] OPENING MANHOOD 1847 TO 1850. 105 



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CHAPTER V. 



OPENING MANHOOD 1847 TO 1850 JET. 16-19. 



WHEN he entered the University of Edinburgh, James 

 Clerk Maxwell still occasioned some concern to the 

 more conventional amongst his friends by the origin- 

 ality and simplicity of his ways. His replies in ordi- 

 nary conversation were indirect and enigmatical, often 

 uttered with hesitation and in a monotonous key. 1 

 While extremely neat in his person, he had a rooted 

 objection to the vanities of starch and gloves. He 

 had a pious horror of destroying anything even 

 a scrap of writing paper. He preferred travelling 

 by the third class in railway journeys, saying he 

 liked a hard seat. When at table he often seemed 

 abstracted from what was going on, being ab- 

 sorbed in observing the effects of refracted light 

 in the finger-glasses, or in trying some experiment 

 with his eyes seeing round a corner, making invis- 

 ible stereoscopes, and the like. Miss Cay used to 

 call his attention by crying, " Jamsie, you're in a 

 prop." 2 He never tasted wine ; and he spoke to gentle 



1 This entirely disappeared afterwards, except when ironically 

 assumed. It was accompanied with a certain huskiness of voice, 

 which was observed also in later years. 



2 " Prop." here and elsewhere is an abbreviation for " mathematical 

 proposition." 



