James Clerk Maxwell, on Himself ("a profession was not necessary to a useful life")

JF Ptak Science Books  Quick Post

Around 1870 James Clerk Maxwell--one of the great minds in the history of modern physics--responded to a request by Francis Galton to fill out  a questionnaire for Galton's work on the characteristics of people-of-genius, and published as English Men of Science, their Nature and Nurture (1874).

This is a set of Maxwell's responses about himself, as well as his mother and father: 

Height; Self:- 5 feet 8 inches tall.

• Health 

Self:

Often laid up before aet 19, never since; never had a headache.

Father:

Never had a headache; want of circulation latterly, died aet. 64.

Mother:

Excellent health till aet. 41, she died the year after.

• Mental Peculiarities:

Self:

Fond of mathematical instruments and delighted with the forms of regular figures and curves of

all sorts. Strong mechanical power. Extremely small practical business.

Strongly affected by music when a child, could not tell whether it was pleasant or painful, but rather

the latter; never forget melodies or the words belonging to them and these run through the mind at all times and not merely when the tunes are in fashion; can play on no instrument and never received   instruction in music.

Great continuity and steadiness ; gratitude and resentment weak; pretty strong (note:- the Greek

word = affection, fondness, tenderness or love ); not gregarious; thoughts occupied more with things than with persons, social affections limited in range; given to theological ideas and not reticent   about them; ... constructiveness of imagination; foresight,

Father:

Very great mechanical talent, and good business habits; strongly affected by music; of a mathematical turn of mind. Very steady; much partisanship; very great public spirit; extraordinary constructiveness of imagination; foresight,  

Mother:-

Guided by religious thought and very independent of the exhortations of acquaintances, clerical or lay. Religion was a forbidden subject in her father's family as his mother was a Roman Catholic and all discussion was avoided religiously (note:-  her father was Robert Hodgson Cay, thJudge and friend of Sir Walter Scott, and her grandmother was Frances Hodgson, of Lintz   Switzerland, who was a Roman Catholic.

 

I always regarded mathematics as the method of obtaining the best shapes and dimensions of things; and this meant not only the most useful and economical, but chiefly the most harmonious and the most beautiful.

I was taken to see William Nicol (note:-invented the Nicol Polarizing Prism) and so, with the help of 'Brewster’s Optics'and a glazier's diamond, I worked at polarisation of light, cutting crystals,  tempering glass, etc. I should naturally have become an advocate by profession, with scientific proclivities, but the existence of exclusively scientific men, and in particular of Professor Forbes (note: Professor of Physics at Edinburgh University)  convinced my father and myself that a profession was not necessary to a useful life.

• Education:

At home till 10, exclusively.

School, Edinburgh Academy 10-15, then Edinburgh University and Cambridge University (2nd Wrangler.)

Education included French, German, logic, natural philosophy, chemistry besides mathematics

• Observation:

Encouraged by my father's knowledge of animals & by my relatives' practice of drawing (note:- Jemima Blackburn’ foremost illustrator of the Victorian era and Maxwell’s cousin).

• Merits

Living in a house (note:- 31 Heriot Row, Edinburgh’)where there were many interests & going to a day school

(note:- ‘Edinburgh Academy’) where the boys were seen at a time when they were fresh and active. I had thus two worlds to balance against one another. On the whole I had the greatest freedom possible to a  boy.

Comments

[Jeff Donlan]

Remarkable response, really. Maybe THAT's the mark of genius--having the equanimity to reply to a questionnaire like this, and to do so eloquently. If I didn't run out of the room at first sight, I might start on the questionnaire, but then after the first question, my vision would darken and narrow, my mind would dissolve into blankness, and my face would settle into a scowl of aversion. I wonder, were I to mimic the characteristics he describes, if I might accomplish some tiny fraction of what he did (although I've already exceeded his life span considerably, so maybe I should just enjoy my tea and read about him).