34 JAMES CLEKK MAXWELL 



are blessings that come once in a lifetime. One of these ia the 

 reverence with which we look up to greatness and goodness in 

 a college friend above us, beyond its, far out of our mental or 

 moral grasp, but still one of us, near to us, our own. You 

 know, in part at least, how in this case the promise of youth 

 was more than fulfilled, and how the man who, but a fortnight 

 ago, was the ornament of the University, and shall I be 

 wrong in saying it /almost the discoverer of a new world of 

 knowledge, was even more loved than he was admired, retain- 

 ing after twenty years of fame that mirth, that simplicity, that 

 child-like delight in all that is fresh and wonderful which we 

 rejoice to think of us some of the surest accompaniment of 

 true scientific genius. 



"You know, also, that lie was a devout as well as thought- 

 ful Christian. I do not note this in the triumphant spirit of a 

 controversialist. 1 will not for a moment assume that there is 

 any natural opposition between scientific genius and simple 

 Christian faith. I will not compare him with others who have 

 had the genius without the faith. Christianity, though she 

 thankfully welcomes and deeply pri/es them, does not need 

 now, any more than when St. Paul first preached the Cross at 

 Corinth, the speculations of the subtle or the wisdom of the 

 wise. If I wished to show men, especially young men, the 

 living force of the Gospel, I would take them not so much to 

 a learned and devout Christian man to whom all stores of 

 knowledge were familiar, but to some country village where 

 for fifty years there had been devout traditions and devout 

 practice. There they would see the Gospel lived out ; truths, 

 which other men spoke of, seen and known ; a spirit not of 

 this world, visibly, hourly present ; citizenship in heaven daily 

 assumed and daily realised. Such characters I believe to bo 

 the most convincing preachers to those who ask whether 

 Revelation is a fable and God an unknowable. Yes, in most 

 cases not, I admit, in all simple faith, even peradventure 

 more than devout genius, is mighty for removing doubts and 

 implanting fresh conviction. JHit having said this, we may 

 well give thanks to God that our friend was what he was, a 

 firm Christian believer, and that his powerful mind, after 



