414 JA.MES CLERK MAXWELL. [CHAP. XIII. 



Cambridge, 19th May 1881. 



MY DEAR SIR I shall disappoint you very much in 

 my reminiscences of Maxwell. I never was an INTIMATE 

 FRIEND of his, though we were always on the very best terms, 

 and met not unfrequently, and he was most constant and 

 assiduous in his attendance at church, and interested in all 

 church matters. 



But I knew very little about his inner self before I was 

 summoned to his dying bed ; and he had been brought very 

 low physically, before his return to Cambridge, and was un- 

 equal to much continuous thought or conversation. He 

 welcomed me warmly whenever I visited him, joined 

 fervently in all acts of prayer, listened with a most intel- 

 ligent interest to all I read, either out of the Bible (which he 

 knew well-nigh by heart) or out of any of our great devotional 

 writers in prose or poetry ; was especially fond of any new 

 hymns, and frequently capped such by reciting from his 

 wonderful memory some parallel passages of his favourite 

 old authors, specially George Herbert. 



His faith in the grand cardinal verities was firm, simple, 

 and full ; and he avowed it humbly but unhesitatingly, with 

 the deepest gratitude for the revelation of the truth in 

 Jesus. I do not think he had any doubts or difficulties to 

 cloud his clear mind or shake his peace. 



He was calmly and serenely resigned to the will of God, 

 and bowed in meek acquiescence before what he believed to 

 be the Word of God. 



I never saw a sign of impatience or fretfulness under all 

 his long suffering, or heard an approach to a murmur. His 

 one and only care was for his wife. It was a grand sight to 

 see him day by day girding himself calmly and resolutely for 

 the last struggle, and he passed through it undismayed. I 

 wish I had preserved any of his last words : they have passed 

 away from my shallow memory. Yours very truly, 



W. H. GUILLEMARD. 



I am also permitted to insert the following more 

 circumstantial account, which was written by Dr. 



