168 JAMES CLERK MAXWELL. [CHAP. VI. 



of phenomena or of abstract ideas, he was most eager 

 to rebound towards the contemplation of the whole of 

 things, and that which gives unity to the whole. Yet 

 no mind could be more averse from " viewiness," or 

 more determined to bring every statement to the test 

 of fact. 



The brief remainder of that Easter vacation was 

 spent at Birmingham with his friend Johnson Gedge, 

 a scholar of Trinity, whose father was the headmaster 

 of King Edward's School. The exactions of Trinity 

 and Hopkins had only left him a few days of holiday, 

 and these were passed in the manner already men- 

 tioned, 1 in viewing the manufactures of Birmingham. 

 Mr. Clerk Maxwell's own delight in such things pre- 

 vented him from realising how laborious a programme 

 he had suggested for the interval between two long 

 spells of severe head-work. Yet in the midst of it 

 Maxwell seems to have found time to contribute an 

 elaborate piece of humorous correspondence to the 

 King ^Edward's School Chronicle. 



When working hardest he was never a recluse, 

 nor was he ever more sociable than in his third year 

 at college. He seems to have had some difficulty even 

 in avoiding supper parties, and one of his most 

 brilliant metaphysical jeux d' esprit purports to be a 

 mode of escaping from them. To the names already 

 mentioned as amongst his intimate friends, those of 

 Farrar 2 and Butler 3 are now added. Besides the 



1 Above, p. 7, note 1. 



2 The Rev. F. W. Farrar, D.D., Canon of Westminster. 



3 The Rev. H. Butler, D.D., Head-Master of Harrow. 



