Note 165 — Chapter VI · UNDERGRADUATE LIFE AT CAMBRIDGE—OCTOBER 1850 TO JANUARY 1854—Æt. 19-22.

At the same time, it is not to be supposed that Maxwell was ever completely identified with any particular school of religious opinion. He was too much “the heir of all the ages,” and, as he himself expressed it, “his faith was too deep to be in bondage to any set of opinions.” Scottish Calvinism was the theological system which had most historical interest for him, and most claim on his hereditary piety. He was learned in the writings of Owen and Jonathan Edwards. But that which his latest pastor has called “his deep though simple faith,” was not enclosed in any system. Even his youthful training (which in the case of one so loyal is not to be disregarded) was favourable to a comprehensive view of Christianity. Beginning with the Bible, which he knew by heart from a child, Presbyterian and Episcopalian influence had been blended as we have already seen. Hence, when he went to Cambridge, there was nothing strange to him in the service of the English Church. His mind was always moving (elle planait, as the French would say), above and “beyond these voices,” yet they were not indifferent to him.

It is to be regretted that a letter on the Parties in the Church of England, written to his father in 1852, has not been found. His general approval of Hare’s sermons, and his remarks on the Maurician controversy, indicate the direction which his thoughts on this subject must have taken. His interest in sermons, good and bad, was like Macaulay’s interest in novels, or Charles Lamb’s in old plays. Years after this, on board a friend’s yacht one Sunday, he gave a sort of impromptu exposition of a chapter in the Book of Joshua, shouting up his remarks from below, which struck those who heard it as full of originality and wisdom.