258 JAMES CLERK MAXWELL. [CHAP. IX. 



prescribed system, to determine the order in which the 

 parts of his subject shall be developed. His selection 

 of topics is not dominated by the Final Examination. 

 This peculiarity of his position was fully appreciated 

 by Clerk Maxwell, whose experience of the course in 

 Edinburgh under Forbes, gave him a " standpoint " 

 from which to arrange his great fund of scientific 

 acquirement in presenting it to his students. 



Had Maxwell the qualities of a teacher ? That he 

 was not on the whole successful in oral communica- 

 tion is an impression too widespread to be contra- 

 dicted without positive proof. Yet his letters bear 

 .sufficient evidence that in many respects he had a 

 true vocation as an educator. The combination of 

 keen sympathy with native authority and dignity, the 

 intense interest in his subject, his endless power of 

 taking trouble, his philanthropic enthusiasm, his criti- 

 cal study of mankind, his wide range of language and 

 ideas, must have enabled him to make his mark as a 

 public teacher, either at Aberdeen or Cambridge, if he 

 had remained long enough at either place to wear off 

 some superficial impediments, to adapt his methods to 

 his environment, and to effect a thorough understand- 

 ing with his pupils. As it was, his lectureship at 

 Trinity lasted only for a year, and in the Scotch 

 university he had only taught for three short sessions 

 when Marischal College was on the point of being 

 suppressed, and his reputation as a teacher was, under 

 these circumstances, brought into comparison with 

 that of others whose strength lay in exposition. To 

 those who know what is implied in academical con- 



