44 JAMES CLERK MAXWELL 



In November ho writes : " I have been lecturing 

 two weeks now, and the class seems improving; and 

 they come and ask questions, which is a good sign. 

 I have been making curves to show the relations of 

 pressure and volume in gases, and they make tho 

 subject easier." 



Still, he found time to attend Professor Willis's 

 lectures on mechanism and to continue his reading. 

 4i I have been reading," he writes, "old books on 

 optics, and find many things in them far better than 

 what is new. The foreign mathematicians are dis- 

 covering for themselves methods which were well 

 known at Cambridge in 1720, but are now forgotten." 



The "Poisson" was read t 1^'p ' lim w * lt ' 1 ^ lls 

 own views on electricity, which were rapidly maturing, 

 and the first of that great scries of works which has 

 revolutionised the science was published on December 

 10th, 1855, when his paper on " Faraday's Lines of 

 Force" was read to tho Cambridge Philosophical 

 Society. 



The next term found him back in Cambridge at 

 work on his lectures, full of plans for a new colour 

 top and other matters. Karly in February he received 

 a letter from Professor Forties, telling him that the 

 Professorship of Natural Philosophy in Marischal 

 College, Aberdeen, was vacant, and suggesting that 

 he should apply. 



He decided to be a candidate if his father 

 approved. "For my own part," he writes, "I think 

 the sooner I get into regular work the better, and 

 that the best way of getting into such work is to 

 profess one's readiness by applying for it." On the 



