CHAP. XIIL] OCTOBER, 1879. 413 



Dr. Paget's report of Maxwell's composure through- 

 out his illness is very strikingly confirmed by his letter 

 to that physician, dated October 3, which is too con- 

 fidential to be inserted here, but consists of a simple 

 unadorned description of the facts of the case, and a 

 request for aid which he knew would be forthcoming. 

 A stranger, in reading that letter, would never divine, 

 and indeed might find it hard to believe, that on the 

 previous day (Oct. 2) the writer had been told by 

 medical authority that he had only a month to live. 

 Yet such is the fact. The words "for I am really very 

 helpless," however touching as a description of his 

 condition, are merely the statement of a reason why 

 some one should be got " officially to help " Maxwell 

 himself, but really and chiefly to do for Mrs. Maxwell 

 what he had done so long as he had any strength in 

 him. Students of history may perhaps recall Nicias's 

 letter to the Athenians: "You should also send 

 a general to succeed me, for I have a disease, and 

 cannot remain ; " 1 but the words of the unfortunate 

 general, " I claim your indulgence/' 2 though dignified 

 enough, are more than Maxwell would have written. 



(2.) The following letter, addressed to me by the 

 Eev. Dr. Guillemard, of the Little Trinity Church, 

 Cambridge, may be left to speak for itself : 



of the brain must have become so reduced, the mind remained per- 

 fectly clear." Dr. Lorraine's remark on Maxwell's personal character 

 expresses the feelings of all, nurses included, that were about Maxwell 

 in his last illness. 



i Thuc. 7, 15. 2 Ibid. 



