JAMES CLERK MAXWELL 



AND MODERN PHYSICS. 



CHAPTER I. 



EAIILY LIFE. 



" ONE who has enriched tho inheritance left by 

 Newton and has consolidated the work of Faraday 

 one who impelled the mind of Cambridge to a 

 fresh course of real investigation has clearly earned 

 his place in human memory." It was thus that 

 Professor Lewis Campbell and Mr. ( Jarnett began in 

 1.SS2 their life of James Clerk Maxwell. The years 

 which have passed, since that date, have all tended to 

 strengthen the beliet in the greatness of Maxwell's 

 work and in the fertility of his genius, which has 

 inspired the labours of those who, not in Cambridge 

 only, but throughout the world, have aided in de- 

 veloping tho seeds sown by him. My object in the 

 following pages will be to give some very brief 

 account of his life and writings, in a form which may, 

 I hope, enable many to realise what Physical Science 

 owes to one who was to me a most kind friend as well 

 as a revered master. 



The Clerks of Penicuik, from whom Clerk Maxwell 

 was descended, were a distinguished family. Sir John 

 Clerk, tho great-great-grandfather of Clerk Maxwell, 



