even the rigour of their mathematical forms does not preserve from
violation. We must ascribe to them an authority, the essence of which
does not consist in power, a supremacy which the analogy of the
inviolable order of the natural world in no way assists us to
comprehend."

***

Introductory Lecture on Experimental Physics.

James Clerk Maxwell


The University of Cambridge, in accordance with that law of its
evolution, by which, while maintaining the strictest continuity
between the successive phases of its history, it adapts itself with
more or less promptness to the requirements of the times, has lately
instituted a course of Experimental Physics. This course of study,
while it requires us to maintain in action all those powers of
attention and analysis which have been so long cultivated in the
University, calls on us to exercise our senses in observation, and our
hands in manipulation. The familiar apparatus of pen, ink, and paper
will no longer be sufficient for us, and we shall require more room
than that afforded by a seat at a desk, and a wider area than that of
the black board. We owe it to the munificence of our Chancellor,
that, whatever be the character in other respects of the experiments
which we hope hereafter to conduct, the material facilities for their
full development will be upon a scale which has not hitherto been
surpassed.