CHAP. VII.] BACHELOR-SCHOLAR. 197 



CHAPTEE VII. 



BACHELOR-SCHOLAR AND FELLOW OF TRINITY 



1854 TO 1856 JET. 22-24. 

 " In the Main of Light." 



JAMES CLERK MAXWELL'S position as Second Wrangler 

 and equal Smith's Prizeman, gave deep satisfaction 

 to his friends in Edinburgh. Any lurking wish that 

 he had been Senior was silenced by the examples of 

 William Thomson and Charles Mackenzie, as others 

 have been since consoled with the examples of 

 Maxwell and Clifford. His father was persuaded by 

 Miss Cay to sit for his portrait to Sir John Watson 

 Gordon, as a gift of lasting value to his son. James 

 was not indifferent to these reflex aspects of his 

 success ; but the chief interest of the moment to him 

 undoubtedly was that he was now free to prosecute 

 his life-career, and to use his newly-whetted instru- 

 ments in resuming his original investigations. His 

 leisure was not absolute, for he took pupils as a 

 matter of course, and the Trinity Fellowship was only 

 to be gained by examination. But his freedom was 

 as great as he himself desired, and it is a fact worthy 

 of attention from "researchers," that Maxwell, with 

 his heart fully set on physical inquiries, engaged of 



