328 JAMES CLERK MAXWELL. [CHAP. XI. 



Forbes successively. He was touched by the kind- 

 ness, and travelled a whole day from Galloway to 

 confer with us, but, on mature consideration, re- 

 linquished the idea. 



LETTERS, 1860 TO 1870. 

 To KEV. LEWIS CAMPBELL. 



Marischal College, 

 Aberdeen, 5th January 1860. 



... I have been publishing my views about Elastic 

 Spheres in the Phil. Mag. for Jany., and am going to go on with 

 it as I get the prop ns * written out. I have also sent my 

 experiments on Colours to the Eoyal Society of London, so I 

 have two sets of irons in the fire, besides class work. I 

 hope you get on with Plato, and that your pupils are all 

 Theaetetuses, and that wisdom soaks like oil into their 

 inwards. There is a man here who is striving after a 

 general theory of things, but he has great difficulty in so 

 churning his thoughts as to coagulate and solidify the vague 

 and nebulous notions which wander in his head. He has 

 been applying to me very steadily whenever he can pounce 

 on me, and I have prescribed for him as I best could, and I 

 hope his abstract of his general theory of things will be 

 palatable to the readers of the British Ass. ^Reports for 1859. 



To HIS WIFE. 



Edinburgh, 13th April 1860. 



Now let us read (2 Cor.) chapter xii., about the organisation 

 of the Church, and the different gifts of different Christians, 

 and the reason of these differences that Christ's body may 

 be more complete in all its parts. If we felt more distinctly 

 our union to Christ, we would know our position as members 

 of His body, and work more willingly and intelligently 

 along with all the rest in promoting the health and growth 

 of the body, by the use of every power which the spirit has 

 distributed to us. 



