SIR GEORGE DARWIN 165 



William Thomson is, it is most grand that you 

 should have staggered him so quickly, and 

 that he should speak of your 'discovery, etc.'... 

 Hurrah for the bowels of the earth and their 

 viscosity, and for the moon and for the Heavenly 

 bodies, and for my son George (F.R.S. very 

 soon)....^ 



The bond of pupil and master between George 

 Darwin and Lord Kelvin, originating in the years 

 1877-8, was to be a permanent one, and developed, 

 not merely into scientific co-operation, but into a 

 close friendship. Sir Joseph Larmor has recorded* 

 that George's "tribute to Lord Kelvin, to whom he 

 dedicated Volume I of his Collected Papers^... gave 

 lively pleasure to his master and colleague." His 

 words were : 



Early in my scientific career it was my 

 good fortune to be brought into close personal 

 relationship with Lord Kelvin. Many visits 

 to Glasgow and to Largs have brought me to 

 look up to him as my master, and I cannot find 

 words to express how much I owe to his friend- 

 ship and to his inspiration. 



During these years there is evidence that he 

 continued to enjoy the friendship of Lord Rayleigh 

 and of Mr. Balfour. We find in his diary records 



' Emma Darwin, A Century of Family Letters, 1915, Vol. 11., 

 P- 233. 



^ Nature, December 12, 1912. 



' It was in 1907 that the Syndics of the Cambridge University 

 Press asked George to prepare a reprint of his scientific papers, 

 which were published in five volumes. George was deeply gratified 

 at an honour that placed him in the same dass as Lord Kelvin; 

 Stokes, Cayley, Adams, Clerk Maxwell, Lord Rayleigh, and other 

 men of distinction. 



