CHAP. IX.] DEATH OF HIS FATHER. 247 



CHAPTEK IX. 



DEATH OF HIS FATHER PROFESSORSHIP AT ABERDEEN 



1856, IBS 1 / MT. 24-25. 



" And yet thy heart 

 The lowliest duties on herself did lay." 



SOON after his return to Cambridge in February 1856 

 (after seeing his father comfortably established in 

 Edinburgh), Maxwell heard from his old friend Pro- 

 fessor Forbes that the Chair of Natural Philosophy at 

 Marischal College, Aberdeen, was vacant, and he 

 shortly afterwards became a candidate. He had 

 never contemplated a life of entire leisure, but it may 

 seem strange that Cambridge, where besides his lec- 

 tureship he had various philanthropic interests, should 

 not have afforded him a sufficient field for regular 

 work. He foresaw that the Scotch, appointment 

 would please his father, and that the arrangement of 

 session and vacation time would enable him to spend 

 the whole summer uninterruptedly at Glenlair. Some 

 expressions in his letters also seem to indicate that he 

 rather shrank from the prospect of becoming a Cam- 

 bridge " Don." He had observed the narrowing 

 tendencies of college life, and preferred the rubs of 

 the world. 



