180 JAMES CLERK MAXWELL. [CHAP. VI. 



are commonly supposed to be " Tabooed " by the orthodox. 

 Sceptics pretend to have read them, and have found certain 

 witty objections and composed several transcendental argu- 

 ments against " Hebrew 0' Clo'," which too many of the 

 orthodox unread admit, and shut up the subject as haunted. 

 But a Candle is coming to drive out all Ghosts and Bugbears. 

 Let us all follow the Light. 



To Miss CAY. 



8 King's Parade, 23d March 1852. 



I received yours (of the 18th I suppose) on Saturday, 

 and began to muse on the difference of our modes of 

 life : your sickness my health ; your kind dealings with 

 neighbours our utter independence of each other; you 

 visit without seeing people we see without visiting each 

 other; you hear all about people's families and domestic 

 concerns we do not, but we know exactly how everybody 

 is up in his different subjects, and what are his favourite 

 pursuits for the time. 



The Little-go is now going on, so I am taking my 

 Easter vacation at this time. I do nothing but the papers 

 in the Senate-house, and then spend the day in walks and 

 company, reading books of a pleasant but not too light 

 kind, lest I should be disgusted with recreation. 



I find myself quite at grass, and am sure that in 10 

 days I will be reading again as if I had been rusticated for 

 a year. 



I never did such a feat as get up at 5 in the morning. 

 I get up at 6.30 for chapel in winter, and read in the day- 

 time, but I have now begun my summer practice of sleeping 

 in the mornings and reading at night, save when I get up 

 on a fine day to take a walk in the morning, which makes 

 me idle all day, and is sometimes agreeable. 



I met old Isaac Taylor in his son's rooms some time 

 ago. He began by speaking of the weather in a serious 

 way, and went on to his Manchester concerns, effective 

 motives to work, actual methods adopted, and so got into 

 the merits of socialism, joint-stock workmen's associations, 



