106 JAMES CLERK MAXWELL. [CHAP. V 



and simple in exactly the same tone. On the other 

 hand, his teachers Forbes above all had formed the 

 highest opinion 1 of his intellectual originality and 

 force ; and a few experienced observers, in watching 

 his devotion to his father, began to have some inkling 

 of his heroic singleness of heart. To his college com- 

 panions, whom he could now select at will, his quaint 

 humour was an endless delight. His chief associates, 

 after I went to the University of Glasgow, were my 

 brother, Kobert Campbell (still at the Academy), P. 

 G. Tait, and Allan Stewart. 2 Tait went to Peter- 

 house, Cambridge, in 1848, after one session of the 

 University of Edinburgh ; Stewart to the same College 

 in 1849 ; Maxwell did not go up until 1850. 

 16-19. These three years November 1847 to October 

 1850 were impartially divided between Edinburgh 

 and Glenlair. He was working under but slight 

 pressure, and his originality had the freest play. His 

 studies were multifarious, but the subjects on which 

 his thoughts were most concentrated during these 

 years were 1. Polarised light, the stereoscope, etc. ; 

 2. Galvanism ; 3. Kolling curves ; 4. Compression of 

 solids. That he early felt the necessity of imposing 

 a method on himself will appear from the letters. 

 His paper on Rolling Curves was read before the 

 Edinburgh Royal Society on February 19th, 1849, by 

 Professor Kelland (for it was not thought proper for 



1 Forbes's certificate at the end of the second year goes beyond 

 the merely formal language of such documents : " His proficiency 

 gave evidence of an original and penetrating mind." 



2 Allan Stewart, Esquire of Innerhadden, Perthshire, C.E. JEq. 9th 

 Wrangler, 1853. 



