200 JAMES CLERK MAXWELL. [CHAP. VII. 



provision of suitable literature for the consumption of 

 Sam Murdoch and Sandy Fraser is a frequent topic of 

 correspondence between him and his father. 



How earnestly he now set himself to make the 

 most of life in a religious sense appears from a sort of 

 aphorism on conduct which he wrote down originally 

 for his own use, and afterwards communicated as a 

 parting gift to his friend Farrar (now Canon of West- 

 minster), who was about to become a master at Marl- 

 borough School. As a record of the spirit in which 

 Maxwell entered at three-and-twenty on his independ- 

 ent career, this fragment 1 is of extraordinary value. 



He that would enjoy life and act with freedom must 

 h a ve the work of the day continually before his eyes. Not 

 yesterday's work, lest he fall into despair, nor to-morrow's, 

 lest he become a visionary, not that which ends with the 

 day, which is a worldly work, nor yet that only which re- 

 mains to eternity, for by it he cannot shape his actions. 



Happy is the man who can recognise in the work of 

 To-day a connected portion of the work of life, and an 

 embodiment of the work of Eternity. The foundations of 

 his confidence are unchangeable, for he has been made a 

 partaker of Infinity. He strenuously works out his daily 

 enterprises, because the present is given him for a possession. 



Thus ought Man to be an impersonation of . the divine 

 process of nature, and to show forth the union of the infinite 

 with the finite, not slighting his temporal existence, remem- 

 bering that in it only is individual action possible, nor yet 

 shutting out from his view that which is eternal, knowing 

 that Time is a mystery which man cannot endure to 

 contemplate until eternal Truth enlighten it. 



1 An autograph copy was found amongst his papers. Another 

 copy, together with the interesting fact mentioned above, determining 

 the date, has been supplied by Canon Farrar's kindness. 



