162 JAMES CLERK MAXWELL. [CHAP. VI. 



influences. He knew that he was involuntarily 

 different with different men, and there are curious 

 traces in his correspondence of the struggle to make 

 the highest use of social circumstances. Those who 

 saw him about this time after an interval were struck 

 by a marked change in his countenance, which, as 

 compared with the Edinburgh days, had very dis- 

 tinctly gained in manliness and gravity, and showed 

 a certain massiveness in its proportions which they 

 had not previously noticed. His dark brown eye 

 seemed to have deepened, some parts of the iris being 

 almost black. A slight contraction of the chest, and 

 a stature which, although above the average, was not 

 tall enough to carry off the weight of his brow, made 

 him less handsome standing than sitting. But his 

 presence had by this time fully acquired the unspeak- 

 able charm for all who knew him, which made him 

 insensibly become the centre of any circle, whether 

 large or small, consisting of his friends or kindred. 

 His hair and incipient beard were raven black, with 

 a crisp strength in each particular hair, that gave 

 him more the look of a Nazarite than of a nineteenth 

 century youth. His dress was plain and neat, only 

 remarkable for the absence of everything adventitious 

 (starch, loose collars, studs, etc.), and an "aesthetic" 

 taste might have perceived in its sober hues the effect 

 of his marvellous eye for harmony of colour. 1 



1 He was the first who spoke to me (about 1865) of the principles 

 of coloured glass, which have since become fashionable ; observing 

 that it should be rich in sea-green, and not, " like the banners of the 

 Assyrian, gleaming with purple and gold." In his critical studies of 



