322 JAMES CLERK MAXWELL. [CHAP. XI. 



have the effect of leading the mind to dwell on the 

 permanent aspects of thought as well as of things, 

 thus reinforcing the instincts of conservatism. No 

 mind ever delighted more in speculation, and yet 

 none was ever more jealous of the practical applica- 

 tion or the popular dissemination of what appeared to 

 him as crude and half-baked theories about the highest 

 subjects. He preferred resting on the great thoughts 

 of other ages, though no man knew better wherein 

 they (and scientific theories likewise) fell short of 

 certainty ; and while he was anything rather than a 

 formalist or a dogmatist, and still clung to the belief 

 that love remains while knowledge vanishes away, he 

 was the enemy of indefiniteness and indifferentism, as 

 well as of a style of preaching which, as he used to 

 say, " dings ye wi' mere morality." His theological 

 attitude, which it would be rash to develop further 

 here, is indicated to some extent in his letter to Bishop 

 Ellicott, and in his reply to the Secretary of the 

 Victoria Institute, both of which will be found in 

 Chapter XII (pp. 393, 404). 



But he was far, indeed, from judging men by their 

 opinions. "I have no nose for heresy," he used to 

 say. His sympathy pierced beneath the outer shell 

 of circumstance and association, and he hardly ever 

 failed to discover what was best and strongest in those 

 with whom he had to do. 



His kindly relations with his neighbours and with 

 their children may be passed without further notice 

 after what has been said above. But it may be men- 

 tioned that he used occasionally to visit any sick 



