290 JAMES CLERK MAXWELL. [CHAP. X. 



the particles. I send you two or three old printed lines 

 marked, relating to this point. To those who disown the 

 definition or description as imperfect, I have nothing to urge, 

 as there is then probably no real difference between us. 



I hang on to your words because they are to me weighty, 

 and where you say, " I for my part can not realise your dis- 

 satisfaction with the law of gravitation, provided you conceive 

 it according to your own principles," they give me great 

 comfort. I have nothing to say against the law of action of 

 gravity. It is against the law which measures its total 

 strength as an inherent force that I venture to oppose my 

 opinion ; and I must have expressed myself badly (though I 

 do not find the weak point) or I should not have conveyed 

 any other impression. All I wanted to do was to move 

 men (not No. I. but No. II.) from the unreserved acceptance 

 of a principle of physical action which might be opposed to 

 natural truth. The idea that we may possibly have to con- 

 nect repulsion with the lines of gravitation force (which is 

 going far beyond anything my mind would venture on at 

 present, except in private cogitation), shows how far we may 

 have to depart from the view I oppose. 



There is one thing I would be glad to ask you. When 

 a mathematician engaged in investigating physical actions 

 and results has arrived at his conclusions, may they not be 

 expressed in common language as fully, clearly, and definitely 

 as in mathematical formulae ? If so, would it not be a great 

 boon to such as I to express them so ? translating them out 

 of their hieroglyphics, that we also might work upon them 

 by experiment. I think it must be so, because I have 

 always found that you could convey to me a perfectly clear 

 idea of your conclusions, which, though they may give me no 

 full understanding of the steps of your process, give me the 

 results neither above nor below the truth, and so clear in 

 character that I can think and work from them. If this be 

 possible, would it not be a good thing if mathematicians, work- 

 ing on these subjects, were to give us the results in this 

 popular, useful, working state, as well as in that which is 

 their own and proper to them ? 



