May 4, 18S3.] 



SCIENCE. 



363 



much attracted toward the stud^' of metaph^-s- 

 ics as toward mathematics, but hardly as much 

 as to physics. As he grew older, the stud^- of 

 phj-sics seemed to him more fruitful than that 

 of mental philosophy. 



His method of studying mathematics is often 

 alluded to in his letters. Thus, in a letter to a 

 friend, written at the age of sixteen, he says, 

 "I read Newton's Fluxions in a sort of way, 

 to know what I am about in doing a prop. 

 There is no time of reading a book better than 

 when you need it, and when you are on the 

 point of finding it out for yourself, if you were 

 able." Again, in another letter, in speaking 

 of the division of liis time : " Then I do props, 

 chief!3- on rolling curves, on which subject I 

 have got a great problem divided into orders, 

 genera, species, varieties, etc." He continu- 

 ally talks of doing ' props,' and apparently had 

 a uunibcr upon which his mind was continually 

 exercised. Nor was his method of studying 

 physics less suggestive. In a letter dated Glen- 

 lair, Jul}' 5, C, 1848, we read, " I have regu- 

 larly- set up shop now, above the wash-house 

 at the gate, in a garret. I have an old door 

 set on two barrels and two chairs, of which 

 one is safe, and a skylight above, which will 

 slide up and down. On the door (or .table) 

 there is a lot of bowls, jugs, plates, jam-pigs 

 (jars), etc., containing water, salt, soda, sul- 

 phuric acid, blue vitriol, plumbago ore, also 

 broken glass, iron and copper wire, copper and 

 zinc plate, beeswax, sealing-wax, cla.y, rosin, 

 charcoal, a lens, a Smee's galvanic apparatus, 

 and a countless variety of little beetles, spi- 

 ders, and wood-lice, which fall into the differ- 

 ent liquids, and poison themselves. ... I am 

 making copper seals, with the device of a bee- 

 tle. First I thought a beetle w'as a good con- 

 ductor : so I embedded one in wax (not at all 

 cruel, because I slew him in boiling water, in 

 which he never kicked), leaving his back out; 

 but he would not do. Then I took a cast of 

 him in sealing-wax, and pressed wax into the 

 hollow, and black-leaded it with a brush ; but 

 neither would that do. So at last I took my 

 fingers and rubbed it, which I find the best 

 way to use the black lead. Then it coi)pered 

 famously. I melt out the wax with a lens, 

 that being the cleanest way of getting a strong- 

 heat : so I do most things with it that need 

 heat." He was busy at tliis age with experi- 

 ments on polarized light and on colors. '• I 

 have got plenty of unannealed glass of differ- 

 ent shapes ; for I find window-glass will do 

 very well, made up in bundles. I cut out tri- 

 angles, squares, etc., with a diamond, about 

 eight or nine of a kind, and take them to the 



kitchen, and put them on a piece of iron ia 

 the fire one by one. When the bit is red-hot, 

 I drop it into a plate of iron sparks to cool ; 

 and so on till all are done." 



The years he spent in the University of Edin- 

 burgh were full of what might be called original 

 work. He studied under Professor Forbes and 

 Professor Ivelland, and worked, " without any 

 assistance or supervision, with physical and 

 chemical apparatus." In 18u0 he left Edin- 

 burgh for Peterhouse college, Cambridge, and, 

 after a short residence in this college, lel't it for 

 Trinity-, in the exi)eclation that the larger col- 

 lege would afford him ampler opportunities for 

 self-improvement. His tutor says of him in 

 1853, "It appears impossible for Maxwell to 

 think incorrectly- on ph3'sical sul)jects." He 

 looked upon him as a gi-eat genius, with all its 

 eccentricities, and prophesied that one da^- he 

 would shine as a light in physical science. 

 Tills impression was shared, apparently, by 

 students who were the friends of Maxwell. He 

 seemed at this period to be in great spirits, 

 and to thoroughly enjoy his college-life. At 

 no time a narrow specialist, he opened his 

 mind, while at Cambridge, to all the intellec- 

 tual influences of the place. He became one 

 of the club known as the 'Apostles.' He 

 sought the society of classical men as well 

 as that of the mathematicians. His progress 

 at the university was watched by his father 

 wdth keen and sj'mpathetic interest. In a 

 letter he writes, "Explain the pendulum ex- 

 periment to me. You used often to speak of 

 the retardation of the rotation of the earth by 

 the friction of the tides. What is the phos- 

 phate of lime theory of mental progress?" 

 And again: "Do 3'ou like the trig, lectures 

 A? Tacitus is not new to yon. His style 

 must be congenial to a deep, half-sentence 

 lecturer. You seem to have great gayeties 

 with college parties with scientific dons. Do 

 j'ou take note of Stokes's exi)eriments on the 

 bands of the spectrum? Will the}' be suitable 

 for repetition in the garret of the old house? " 



The intimacy of the father and son, touched 

 upon here and there in the life of the sou, was 

 a beautiful one. Blaxwell's nature was capa- 

 ble of great devotion, and his feelings were 

 exquisitely sensitive to kindness. His love for 

 animals was but one expression of this abun- 

 dant humanit)'. The editor of his life saj's, 

 "In the autumn of 1850 the neighboring estate 

 of Upper Corsock had been let" to a shooting- 

 party, one of whom remarked to me, what a 

 pity it was that young Mr. Clerk Maxwell was 

 ' so little suited for a country life.' I clearly 

 recollect his look of exulting mirth wlien this 



