70 JAMES CLERK MAXWELL 



"There is no more powerful method for introducing know- 

 ledge into the mind than thit of presenting it in as many 

 different ways as we can. When the ideas, after entering 

 through different gateways, effect a junction in the citadel of 

 the mind, the position they occupy becomes impregnable. 

 Opticians tell us that the mental combination of the views of 

 an object which we obtain from stations no further apart thin 

 our two eyes is sufficient to produce in our minds an impression 

 of the solidity of the object seen ; and \\M tind that this im- 

 pression is produced even when we are aware that we are 

 really looking at two flat pictures placed in a stereoscope. It 

 is therefore natural to expect that the knowledge of physical 

 science obtained by the combined use of mathematical analysis 

 and experimental research will bo of a more solid, available, 

 and enduring kind than that possessed by the mere mathe- 

 matician or the mere experimenter. 



" But what will be the effect on the University if men 

 pursuing that course of reading which has produced so many 

 distinguished Wranglers turn aside to work experiments t 

 Will not their attendance at the Laboratory count not merely 

 as time withdrawn from their more legitimate studies, but as 

 the introduction of a disturbing element, tainting their mathe- 

 matical conceptions with material imagery, and sapping their 

 faith in the formula* of the text-books? Resides this, we have 

 already heard complaints of the undue extension of our studies, 

 and of the strain put upon our qmstionists by the weight of 

 learning which they try to carry with them into the Senate- 

 House. If we now a>k them to get up their subjects not only 

 by books and writing, but at the same time by observation and 

 manipulation, will they not break down altogether? The 

 Physical Laboratory, we are told, may perhaps be useful to 

 those who are going out in Natural Science, and who do not 

 take in Mathematics, but to attempt to combine both kinds of 

 study during the time of residence at the University is more 

 than one mind can bear. 



u No doubt there is BOUIO reason for this feeling. Many of 

 us have already overcome the initial difficult to* of mathe- 

 matical training. When wo now go on with our study, we feel 



