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 James Clerk Maxwell
 
 
DOCUMENTS
 
Lettere  a  LITCHFIELD, 4 giugno 1856  --- 4 luglio 1856
 
TO R. B. LITCHFIELD, Esq.

                                                                              Trinity, 4th June 1856.

On Thurs. evening I take the North-western route to the North. I am busy looking over immense rubbish of    papers, etc., for some things not to be burnt lie among much combustible matter, and some is soft and good for  packing. 

     It is not pleasant to go down to live solitary, but it would not be pleasant to stay up either, when all one had to do   lay elsewhere. The transition state from a man into a Don must come at last, and it must be painful, like gradual   outrooting of nerves. When it is done there is no more pain, but occasional reminders from some suckers,   tap-roots, or other remnants of the old nerves, just to show what was there and what might have been.
 



TO R. B. LITCHFIELD, Esq.

                                                                           Glenlair, 4th July 1856.

     I have got some prisms and opticals from Edinbro', and I am fitting up a compendious colour-machine capable of    transportation. I have also my top for doing dynamics and several colour-diagrams, so that if I come to    Cheltenham I shall not be empty handed. At the same time I should like to hear from you soon.

     I have been giving a portion of time to Saturn's Rings, which I find a stiff subject but curious, especially the case of    the motion of a fluid ring. The very forces which would tend to divide the ring into great drops or satellites are   made by the motion to keep the fluid in a uniform ring.

     I find I get fonder of metaphysics and less of calculation continually, and my metaphysics are fast settling into the   rigid high style, that is about ten times as far above Whewell as Mill is below him, or Comte or Macaulay below    Mill, using above and below conventionally like up and down in Bradshaw.

     Experiment furnishes us with the values of our arbitrary constants, but only suggests the form of the functions.    Afterwards, when the form is not only recognised but understood scientifically, we find that it rests on precisely the   same foundation as Euclid does, that is, it is simply the contradiction of an absurdity, out of which may we all get   our legs at last!