362 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. I., No. IS. 



Bat I am making English ones on tlie appari- 

 tion of Creasa to Aeneas. 



" O father! can it bo that souls sublime 

 Return to visit our terrestrial clime?" 



Tlie stoiy of liis school-j'ears, told in his life, 

 is of great interest to the American boj" who 

 has been fitter! for college at the old Latin 

 school in Boston, or at the ordinaiy American 

 aeadem}-. Writing Latin verses was a marked 

 feature of the academy at Edinburgh. This 

 practice is comparatively unknown in our 

 schools and academics. Tlie present writer 

 remembers that the subject of geometrj' was 

 finished, so to speak, in the Boston Latin school 

 in 18G3, in about three months. In the Scot- 

 tish academj' the boy's mind was evidentlj' 

 allowed to rest upon the subject much longer, 

 and he was stimulated to do problems of a 

 more or less inventive kind. It was said of 

 Maxwell at the age of fifteen, that, from " some 

 mathematical principle, he would start off to a 

 joke of Martinns Scriblerus, or to a quotation 

 from Dryden, interspersing pnns and other 

 outrages on language of the wildest kind, hum- 

 ming and hawing in spite of P ; or, in a 



quieter mood, he would tell the story of 

 Sonthe3''s Thalaba, or explain some new in- 

 vention." This seems to show that the Scotch 

 boy had a wider intellectual atmosphere around 

 him than falls to the lot of the average Amer- 

 ican bo3'. But Maxwell, it maj- be remarked, 

 was not an average vScottish boj'. At the 

 age of fourteen he gained the prize for Eng- 

 lish verse, for a poem on the death of the 

 Douglas, and also the mathematical medal. 



At the age of fourteen he was much attracted 

 to the subject of decorative painting, espe- 

 cially to the attempts of those who sought to 

 reduce beauty in I'orm and color to mathemati- 

 cal principles, and often discoursed upon the 

 Greek patterns and on the forms of Etruscan 

 urns. The consideration of this subject led him 

 to contrive inethods of drawing a perfect oval, 

 and ovals in general. His lather, who had 

 watched his son's intellectual development with 

 sympathetic interest, took his son's ovals to 

 Professor James O. Forbes, of the University of 

 Edinburgh, who thought that the simplicity and 

 elegance of the boy's method entitled it to be 

 brought before the Koyal soeiet}-. In the diaty 

 of tlie father we read, " JSI. G. — Royal society 

 with James. Professor Forbes gave account 

 of James's ovals. Met with vei'y great attention 

 and approbation generally." From this time 

 the boy cvidcntlj- studied geometry by the in- 

 ventive method, to which the father of Mr. 

 Herbert Spencer has deservedly called atten- 

 tion. 



Maxwell entered the University of Edinburgh 

 at the age of sixteen. It is said of him at that 

 time, that the originalitj' and simplicity of his 

 waA's occasioned some concern to his conven- 

 tional friends. He had a rooted objection to 

 the vanities of starch and gloves. While at 

 table he had an abstracted manner, as if occu- 

 pied in studying the effects of refracted light 

 in the glasses, or in devising some curious 

 way of viewing objects. His aunt used to 

 recall his attention b}' crying, ' Jamsie, ^"ou're 

 in a prop' (mathematical proposition). His 

 teachers had Ibrmed the highest opinion of 

 his intellectual powers ; and his companions 

 enjoyed his quaint humor, and began to ap- 

 preciate his high moral qualities, which were 

 exemplified by his deep reverence Jbr higher 

 thing's, and his devotion to friends and to those 

 who were suffering. 



Between the ages of sixteen and nineteen 

 he studied at the University of Edinburgh. 

 His studies were multifarious ; but he was 

 especially interested in polarized light, the 

 stereoscope, galvanism, rolling curves, and 

 the comparison of solids. His paper on roll- 

 ing curves was presented to the Edinburgh 

 Eo^'al society, Feb. 19, 1849, by Professor 

 Kelland ; "for it was not thought proper 

 for a boj' in a round jacket to mount tlie ros- 

 trum there." A paper on the equilibrium 

 of elastic solids was also presented in the 

 spring of 18.50. It is related of him at this 

 time, that he was regarded as a discoverer in 

 natural philosophj', and a veiy original worker 

 in mathematics. He is said to have felt the 

 importance of cultivating the senses, and to 

 have regarded dulness in that respect as a bad 

 sign in any man. It is curious to notice, that 

 he took great interest in the lectures of Sir Wil- 

 liam Hamilton on metaphysics. The views of 

 the latter on the inferiority of the study of math- 

 ematics as a means of discipline to the study of 

 philosophj' and the classics, apparently did not 

 diminish Maxwell's interest in the lecturer. 

 The editor of the life of Maxwell remarks, in 

 regard to Maxwell's interest in the lectures of 

 Hamilton, " This is perhaps, the most striking 

 example of the effect produced by Sir William 

 Hamilton on powerful young minds, — an eftoct 

 which, unless the best metaphysicians of the 

 subsequent age are mistaken, must be out of 

 all proportion to the independent value of his 

 philosoi)liy." 



It is a noticeable peculiaritj' of great mathe- 

 maticians, that their latter j-ears are much 

 given to metapli^-sics. With Maxwell, how- 

 ever, the reverse was true. AVhilc at the 

 University of Edinburgh, he seemed to be as 



