Nov. 13, 1879] 



NATURE 



45 



in August, 1S77. He was Fellow of the Royal Societies 

 of London and Edinburgh, and of the Cambridge Philo- 

 sophical Society, and a large contributor to the Trans- 

 actions of each of these. In 1873 he was created 

 Honorary LL.D. of Edinburgh, and on June 21, 1876, 

 he received the honorary degree of D.C.L. at Oxford. 



In 1S60 the Rumford Medal of the Royal Society was 

 awarded to Prof. Clerk Maxwell " for his Researches on 

 the Composition of Colours, and other Optical papers." 

 In his address on the presentation of the medal, Major- 

 General Sabine alluded to Prof. Maxwell's calculation 

 showing the connection of the "mechanical strains to 

 which elastic solids are subjected under certain con- 

 ditions with the coloured curves which those solids exhibit 

 in polarised light.'' He then alluded to the colour-top 

 of Prof Maxwell, and the colour-equations obtained 

 from it, as well as the light it throws upon colour-blind- 

 ness, concluding with these words : — " These researches for 

 which the Rumford medal is awarded lead to the remark- 

 able result that to a very near degree of approximation 

 all the colours of the spectrum, and therefore all colours 

 in nature, which are only the mixtures of these, can be 

 perfectly imitated by mixtures of three actually attainable 

 colours, which are the red, green, and blue, belonging re- 

 spectively to three particular points of the spectrum." 



While Professor of Physics at King's College, Lon- 

 don, Maxwell was engaged as a member of the 

 British Association Committee in the determination of 

 the Absolute Unit of Electrical Resistance, and it was 

 the comparison of electrical units which attracted a great 

 part of his attention during his tenure of his Cambridge 

 Professorship. He always spo e very highly of Faraday's 

 "Experimental Researches," which he read very early in 

 life, and to which he attributed some of his most useful 

 ideas on electricity and electro-magnetism. In Clerk 

 Maxwell Faraday found a mind constituted after the 

 same plan as his own, but with the advantage of a 

 mathematical training, which has made Prof. Maxwell 

 capable of interpreting Faraday's bold realisations to the 

 mathematical world. For Clerk Maxwell's own views of 

 Faraday the reader may be referred to the article " Fara- 

 day," in the ninth edition of the " Encyclopaedia Bri- 

 tannica." 



It is impossible in a sketch like this to give anything 

 but the most superficial view of a character so noble in 

 all its aspects as that of Clerk Maxwell. As a professor 

 he was wonderfully admired by those who were truly his 

 disciples. He had not the power of making himself 

 clearly understood by those who listened but casually to 

 his pithy sentences, and consequently he was not a so- 

 called popular lecturer; nor was he a most suc.essful 

 teacher of careless students. But when he had those 

 about him who could enter into his mind, and, receiving 

 the golden truths from his lips, could alloy them in such 

 a way as to make them acceptable to the ordinary stu- 

 dent, no better teacher could be desired, even for the most 

 elementary instruction. His wonderful imagination was 

 of great value, not only in supplying illustrations for 

 didactic purposes, but in suggesting analogies and opening 

 up new fields for research. 



The pages of Blackwood's Magazine can testify to his 

 talents as a poet ; his sense of humour and his ready wit 

 formed remarkable features in his character, in fact he 

 seldom talked for many minuus without provoking at 

 least a smile. (Some of the reviews lately contributed by 

 him to Nature may serve as illustrations.) He was well 

 versed in all the literature of the day. and seemed to have 

 investigated on his own account every system of philoso- 

 phy. He took great interest in passing 'events, though he 

 never indulged in political discussions. As an experi- 

 mentalist he was too well known to require description ; 

 in that region of science which was his par excellence, 

 viz., the domain of Molecular Physics, he stands without 

 a rival. But there were other sides of his civ. racier which 



outshone even his scientific attainments. Such complete 

 unselfishness and tender consideration as he exhibited for 

 those around him, and especially for those under his 

 control, are seldom to be met with. During the eight 

 years that he held the chair of Physics in Cambridge, he 

 never spoke a hasty word, even to his attendants. His 

 self-sacrificing devotion to those he loved was the marvel 

 of his friends. Though he never entered into theological 

 controversy, and only occasionally in his scientific writings 

 indicated in a sentence or two the side he took in ques- 

 tions which have recently been brought prominently before 

 the public by some of the more popular men of science, 

 those who had an opportunity of seeing into his home-life 

 knew him to be an earnest Christian. About three weeks 

 ago he remarked that he had examined every system of 

 Atheism he could lay hands on, and had found, quite inde- 

 pendently of any previous knowdedge he had of the wants 

 of men, that each system implied a God at the bottom to 

 make it workable. He went on to say that he had been 

 occupied in trying to gain truth, that it is but little of truth 

 that man can acquire, but it is something to " know- 

 in whom we have believed." His simple Christian faith 

 gave him a peace too deep to be ruffled by bodily pain 

 or external circumstances, and left his mind free to the 

 last to contemplate all kinds of questions of general 

 interest. One day not long before his death he had been 

 puzzling himself for some time in vain endeavours to 

 discover why Lorenzo (" Merchant of Venice," Act v. scene 

 [), whose character was at least far from noble, says to 

 Jessica — 



" Look how the floor of heaven 

 Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold : 

 There's not the smallest orb which thou beholdst 

 But in his motion like an angel sings, 

 Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins ; 

 Such harmony is in immorlal souls ; 

 But whilst this muddy vesture of decay 

 Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it.' 



We may quote one other example illustrating how the 

 speculative character of his mind remained to the last. 

 About five or six days before his death, when he was 

 suffering from such extreme weakness that he could say 

 very little, after lying motionless with his eyes closed for 

 sometime, he presently looked up and remarked, "' Every 

 good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comcth 

 down from the Father of lights, with whom is no vari- 

 ableness, neither shadow of turning.' Do you know that 

 is a hexameter ? 



' nacra docrts ayaQrj Kai naif Soiptjixa TfAetoj',' 



I wonder who composed it." 



His knowledge of hymns and hymn-writers was very 

 extensive, and he took great pleasure during his illness in 

 reciting from memory some of his favourites among the 

 writings of Richard Baxter, George Herbert, and others. 



To attempt to give any adequate idea of his contri- 

 butions to science in a sketch like the present would be 

 but to mislead the reader. His great work on " Electricity 

 and Magnetism," the second edition of which is now in the 

 press, is the admiration of mathematical physicists. More 

 generally known are his treatise on the Theory of Heat, 

 and his little text-book entitled "Matter and Motion" 

 which was published by the S.P.C K. (One of his earliest 

 papers on the "Theory of Rolling Curves," was com- 

 municated to the Royal Society of Edinburgh by 

 Professor Kelland, and read on February 19, 1849, 

 when Clerk Maxwell was an Edinburgh student barely 

 eighteen years of age. His paper on the "Equilibrium of 

 Elastic Solids," above alluded to, was read before the 

 same society on February 18, 1850. His paper on the 

 "Transformation of Surfaces by Bending" was read 

 before the Cambridge Philosophical Society on March 

 '3, 1854, about two months after taking his degree. This 



