72 JAMES CLERK MAXWELL 



methods of Physical Science is an essential part of a mathe- 

 matical and scientific education, we may be asked whether we 

 are not attributing too much importance to science altogether 

 as part of a liberal education. 



"Fortunately, there is no question hero whether the 

 University should continue to be a place of liberal education, 

 or should devote itself to preparing young men for particular 

 professions. Hence, though some of us may, I hope, see reason 

 to make the pursuit of science the main business of our lives, 

 it must be one of our most constant aims to maintain a living 

 connexion between our work and the other liberal studies of 

 Cambridge, whether literary, philological, historical, or 

 philosophical. 



"There is a narrow professional spirit which may grow up 

 among men of science just as it does among men who practise 

 any other special business. But surely a University is the 

 very place where we should be able to overcome this tendency 

 of men to become, as it were, granulated into small worlds, 

 which are all the more worldly for their very smallness T Wo 

 lose the advantage of having men of varied pursuits collected 

 into one body if we do not endeavour to imbibe some of the 

 spirit even of those whose special branch of learning is different 

 from our own.' 1 



Another expression of his views on the position of 

 Physics at the time will be found in his address to 

 Section A of the British Association, when President 

 at the Liverpool meeting of 1870. 



