28 JAMES OLERK MAXWELL 



CHAPTER II. 



UNDERGRADUATE -LIFE AT CAMBRIDGE. 



MAXWELL did not remain long at Pcterhouse; before 

 the end of his first term he migrated to Trinity, and 

 was entered under Dr. Thompson December 14th, 

 1850. He appeared to the tutor a shy and dilKdcnt 

 youth, but presently surprised l>r. Thompson by 

 producing a bundle of papers copies, probably, of 

 those he had already published and remarking, 

 "Perhaps these may show that. I am not until to 

 enter at your College." 



The change was pressed upon him by many 

 friends, the grounds of the advice being that, from 

 the large number of high wranglers recently at 

 Peterhousc and the smallness of the foundation, the 

 chances of a Fellowship there for a mathematical 

 man were less than at Trinity. It was a step ho 

 never regretted ; the prospect of a Fellowship had 

 but little influence on his mind. He found, however, 

 at the larger college ampler opportunities for self- 

 improvement, and it was possible for him to select his 

 friends from among men whom he otherwise would 

 never have known. 



The record of his undergraduate life is not very 

 full ; his letters to his father have, unfortunately, 

 been lost, but we have enough in the recollections of 

 friends still living to picture what it was like. At 

 first he lodged in King's Parade with an old Edin- 

 burgh school fellow, C. II. Robertson. He attended the 



