JAMES CLERK MAXWELL. [CHAP. VI. 



Kev. C. B. Tayler, rector of Otley, in Suffolk, 

 who had been touched with Maxwell's kindness to his 

 nephew. Here he found himself for the first time in 

 the midst of a large and united English family, and in 

 his half-speculative, half- emotional way, was contrast- 

 ing what he saw with the experience of an only son, 

 when he was suddenly taken ill. The long continuous 

 strain of the past months had been too much for him, 

 and indeed it appears that even in the early spring 

 he had been physically below par. 1 The illness is 

 described by Mr. Tayler as a sort of brain fever, and 

 he was disabled by it for more than a month. The 

 Taylers nursed him as they would have nursed a son 

 of their own, and Maxwell, in whom the smallest 

 kindnesses awakened lasting gratitude, was profoundly 

 moved by this. He referred to it long afterwards as 

 having given him a new perception of the Love of 

 God. One of his strongest convictions thenceforward 

 was that " Love abideth, though Knowledge vanisli 

 away." And this came to him at the very height 

 of the intellectual struggle. 2 



1 See the letter of 2d February 1853, in which his father refers 

 to Miss Cay's advice that he should take wine. 



2 At the same time, it is not to be supposed that Maxwell was 

 ever completely identified with any particular school of religious 

 opinion. He was too much " the heir of all the ages/' and, as he him- 

 self expressed it, " his faith was too deep to be in bondage to any set of 

 opinions." Scottish Calvinism was the theological system which had 

 most historical interest for him, and most claim on his hereditary 

 piety. He was learned in the writings of Owen and Jonathan Edwards. 

 But that which his latest pastor has called " his deep though simple 

 faith," was not enclosed in any system. Even his youthful training 

 (which in the case of one so loyal is not to be disregarded) was favour- 

 able to a comprehensive view of Christianity. Beginning with the 



