Clerk Maxwell, as he is usually called, because he was the representative of a younger branch of the well-known Scottish family of Clerk of Penicuik, was born in Edinburgh, June 13th, 1831. As with nearly every other person who reaches distinction in after-life, there are stories told of his precociousness which probably have more meaning in this case than in most others, since they exhibit real traits that were characteristic of the man. As a child, it is said that he was never satisfied until he had found out for himself everything that he could about anything that attracted his attention. He wanted to know where the streams of water came from, where and whence all the pipes ran, and the course of bell-wires and the like. His frequently repeated question was, "What's the go o' that." If an attempt were made to put him off with some indefinite answer, then he would insist, "But what's the particular go of it." This was probably the most prominent trait in his after-life. General explanations of phenomena that satisfied other men never satisfied him. He was a nature student from the beginning, and even as a boy he devised all sorts of ingenious mechanical contrivances. Pet animals were his special delight, but for experimental purposes always, and his selection of pets would probably have startled some people. He received his early education at the Edinburgh Academy, and his university education at the University of Edinburgh, where he graduated in 1850. His liking for mathematics, which had already been very strongly exhibited, led him, at the age of nineteen, to go to Cambridge. Here, for a term or two, he was a student at Peterhouse, but afterwards found a more sympathetic place for his mathematical tastes at Trinity. He took his degree at Cambridge in 1854, though only with the rank of second wrangler, Routh being senior. In the more serious and more exacting examination for the Smith's Prize, he was declared equal with the senior wrangler. His mathematical talents had developed very early, and it is not surprising that the rest of his life should have been devoted mainly to the teaching of mathematics and in investigations connected with applied mathematics. It was not success at the university that determined his career, for he had shown his marvelous mathematical ability much earlier than that, and had given some astonishing examples of his power to treat complex scientific problems in mathematical journals.