Lord Rayleigh. 431 



it appears that these manifestations had attracted his notice 

 from undergraduate days at Cambridge, and had continued 

 to be among his active interests, with the result that they 

 remained to him an unsolved enigma, paradoxical but not on 

 that account to be neglected by inquirers. The same caution 

 seems to have affected his physical work, in inhibiting dis- 

 cussion of problems depending on disconnected and shifting 

 hypotheses : in treating of molecular physics his main 

 weapon was general dynamical reasoning, far reaching 

 principles of the strict classical type, and their statistical 

 application. Though he may fail to attain to the desired 

 goal, he is not under temptation to bridge the discrepancy 

 by unproved suggestion : the analysis may be supplanted by 

 a better one for the purpose in hand, but it retains the 

 character of a true investigation and an addition to real 

 knowledge. Molecular thermodynamics and theory of 

 radiation are prominent, but special hypotheses and models 

 of molecular structure are largely avoided, even where they 

 would not imply discordance with normal dynamical theory. 

 In subjects so well founded in many respects as the electron 

 theory, he has refrained from giving public expression to his 

 thoughts, perhaps in part for similar reasons, but possibly 

 also from a sense that the problems belonged to others. He 

 was gentle in criticism, and most anxious that ability, of 

 whatever kind, should not be discouraged or overlooked. 



To his scientific friends he was most hospitable, although 

 he shrank from prominence at public functions. There are 

 probably few men of eminence in physical science that have 

 visited this country without a stay at Terling : his colleagues 

 nt home were glad to recognize in him their ideal repre- 

 sentative in the welcoming and entertainment of fellow 

 workers from other lands. 



The relations with his neighbours in Essex were simple 

 and cordial. He discharged the work of the high office of 

 Lord Lieutenant of the County for about ten years, until he 

 found that the social and administrative duties interfered 

 too much with his own proper sphere. All through the later 

 years his neighbours in the county have been consciously 



