CHAPTER XIV - LAST ESSAYS AT CAMBRIDGE

Summary

After Maxwell's return to Cambridge in 1871, several of those who had been “Apostles” together in 1853-7, revived the habit of meeting together for the discussion of speculative questions. This club of elder men (άνδρῶν πρεσβντέρων ἑταιρία), which included such men as Dr. Lightfoot, now Bishop of Durham, and Professors Hort and Westcott, was christened Erănus (see p. 366), and three of Maxwell's contributions, dated by himself, have been preserved. It seems advisable to print these entire,—although not even chips from his workshop, but rather sparks from the whetstone of his mind,—since what he thought worthy of detaining the attention of such listeners in those ripe years cannot fail to be of interest to many readers.

Does the progress of Physical Science tend to give any advantage to the opinion of Necessity (or Determinism) over that of the Contingency of Events and the Freedom of the Will?

11th February 1873

Æt 41.

The general character and tendency of human thought is a topic the interest of which is not confined to professional philosophers. Though every one of us must, each for himself, accept some sort of a philosophy, good or bad, and though the whole virtue of this philosophy depends on it being our own, yet none of us thinks it out entirely for himself.