274 JAMES CLERK MAXWELL. [CHAP. X. 



CHAPTEE X. 



ABERDEEN MARRIAGE 1857 TO 1860, ^ET. 26-29. 



THE Glenlair letters of 1857 (see last chapter) suffi- 

 ciently indicate Maxwell's mental condition in the 

 interval between his first and second sessions at Aber- 

 deen. His expansive sociable spirit is putting forth 

 fresh feelers, and he has made a new beginning in his 

 observation of man in society. But he has not yet 

 recovered from the loss of the preceding year, and 

 those who read between the lines cannot fail to trace 

 here and there a touch- of sadness peering from 

 beneath the habitual buoyancy of his style. 



In September of this year another loss re- 

 newed the feeling of desolation which had haunted 

 him since his father's death. His friend Pomeroy, 

 whom he had nursed in illness, and of whose career in 

 India he had augured so highly, was carried off by a 

 second attack of fever, caused by a hurried journey 

 during the first outbreak of the Mutiny. Maxwell's 

 letters to Mr. Litchfield show how keenly he felt this 

 blow, and what deep thoughts on human life and 

 destiny were once more stirred up in him. 



His original work on electricity was now for a 

 while interrupted by another laborious task, which 



