Note 275 — III. SERIO-COMIC VERSE.
Reading edition
The occasion of this and of the following poem is fully explained in a note from the Rev. Canon Farrar, which is here subjoined:—
To Prof. Campbell.
30th March 1882.
My dear Sir—I am sorry that the playful nonsense of my undergraduate days should be printed, but if the lines will in the slightest degree help to illustrate the extreme goodness and kind-heartedness of Maxwell, I am content.
The circumstances were these. I went up to Cambridge very ill prepared in mathematics, and my classical work was much hindered by the considerable amount of mathematics required for a “Senior Optime,” at which I aimed. In despair I used to say to Maxwell sometimes that I should be “plucked” in mathematics, which in those days would have prevented my taking classical honours. He, in his ready sympathy, and the kind interest which he showed towards me, took my words d’un trop grand sérieux, and wrote me the poetic apologue, in which he advised me to aim at poetry like a lark, while I left mathematicians to the distinction of being what Carlyle calls the “quickest and completest of vegetables.” The point of his advice was that I should give up the effort to win honour in the Mathematical Tripos, and should be content with the Poll, or ordinary mathematical degree, reserving my strength for the Classical Tripos. I sent him my reply the same day, and I remember he pressed me to let him read it at one of our social meetings—which I absolutely refused to allow him to do. Without this word of explanation the verses would seem too nonsensical.—Yours very truly,
F. W. Farrar.