308 JAMES CLERK MAXWELL. [CHAP. X. 



doubt will add to your happiness, while at the same time I 

 do not fear its abstracting you from science. 



Your notice of Saturn will be very acceptable. But it 

 should not run to too great a length, as the 1 9th will probably 

 be our last meeting, and is always a crowded billet. Give me 

 an idea of the least time requisite to give an idea of your 

 subject ; and more particularly try to send me a piece of the 

 MS., so that I may legally hold it as a MS. delivered, and 

 take precedence of some trivial communications of which I 

 stand rather in dread. 



I duly received the Top. I suppose it is all right, but 

 my energies have been absorbed in Electrical experiments 

 merely for lecture, and which have been very heavy upon 

 me. I ought to have paid for the Top ere now, but I will 

 soon. 



We saw the Eclipse very badly, and it seems that in 

 England it was no better. I had arranged to give a tele- 

 graphic account to R Soc. last night, from no less than 3 

 points on the central line. . . . 



To EEV. LEWIS CAMPBELL. 



Glenlair, Springholm, 

 'Dumfries, 28th April 1858. 



... I wish you great joy, now and always ! I hope to 

 certify myself ere long what sort of " friend's wife " I am to 

 have. I have faith already, but sight is better, and you 

 will have some pleasure in getting my verdict, though you 

 don't need anything of the kind. 



I have been very happy in observing the very admirable 

 frame of mind in which all my friends seem disposed to 

 regard my affairs, and yet I would rather that their opinions 

 and sentiments had a more distinct basis of observation. 

 But I suppose they observe me, and see I am "all right and 

 no mistake." . . . 



I tell you this . . . because you are our friend for 

 better for worse. 



I shall bring you a small pen-wiper that Katherine made 

 for you the last day I was in Aberdeen. If you are careful 



