268 JAMES CLEKK MAXWELL. [CHAP. IX. 



(what would Stokes say ?) to the science of experimenting 

 accurately. 



I got a glorified top made at Aberdeen. I think you 

 saw the wooden type at Cambridge. I have made it the 

 occasion of a short screed on rotation coming out in the 

 Eoy. Soc., Edinburgh, presently. 



Last week I brewed chlorophyll (as the chemists word 

 it), a green liquor, which turns the invisible light red. My 

 pot of all the winter spinach that remained was portentous, 

 so I exhibited the optical effects, which were allowed to be 

 worth the potful. 



My last grind was the reduction of equations of colour 

 which I made last year. The result was eminently satisfac- 

 tory. 



To K. B. LITCHFIELD, Esq. 



Glenlair, 29th May 1857. 



It is with a profound feeling of pity that I write to a 

 denizen of Hare Court after participating in the blessings of 

 this splendid day. We had just enough of cloud to prevent 

 scorching, and the grass seemed to like to grow just as 

 much as the beasts to eat it. 



I have not had a mathematical idea for about a 

 fortnight, when I wrote them all away to Prof. Thomson, 

 and I have not got an answer yet with fresh ones. But 

 I believe there is a department of mind conducted inde- 

 pendent of consciousness, where things are fermented and 

 decocted, so that when they are run off they come clear. 



By the way, I found it useful at Aberdeen to tell the 

 students what parts of the subject they were not to 

 remember, but to get up and forget at once as being rudi- 

 mentary notions necessary to development, but requiring to 

 be sloughed off before maturity. 



I have no one with me but the domestics and dog. The 

 valley seems deserted of its gentry ; but we have one gentle- 

 man from Dumfriesshire, who is living in a hired house, and 

 building with great magnificence an Episcopal Chapel in 

 Castle-Douglas at his own expense. His own house is 20 

 miles off, a capital place, and this is perhaps the least 



