LORD KELVIN.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 813, 10 May 1910, Page 4

LORD KELVIN.

GREAT AS A WORKER: GREATER AS A MAN. In - til o new Life of Lord Kelvin, we get a glimpse of Thackeray and some interesting statements, about the great scientist's religious .beliefs, and lis love of music. • : ■ v "Thackeray, a shrewd jndge of ■ character, dined twice at the Professor's house when he visited • Glasgow on his second lecturing tour," says the "Glasgow Herald," 'and afterwards we-find Dr. Brown (author of .'Rab and His Friends'), writing to Miss Jessie Crnm, sister of Mrs; Thomson: — "' I knew Thackeray would go to yonr lieait —he was delighted with your William Thomson; he said he was an angel, and better, and must have wings under' his flannel waistcoat. I Baid he had, for I had seen them!'

"That is a delightful' tribute to the charm of the young professor, and it is true of Lord Kelvin as an old man. After his hard fight ,in controversial argument with Huxley, .tlie latter said' of him, ' Gentler Icnight never broke a lance.' Great indeed was Kelvin as a' worker, but to those who knew he was still greater- as a man. The volumes now published will enable others to learn something '.of ■ his magnetic. personality, and it is the greatest compliment we can pay to Professor Silvanus Thompson to sav that he has succeeded in presenting flie real Kelvin fco the public, and has made "him live once more in these pages. Professor -Thompson says:— "'The love of < music was a ruling passion : with Lord Kelvin all, his' life, and .at-seasons when sailing was impracticable music formed almost his sole source of recreation. In his last years he still lovod, when in London, to go to. the opera, particularly if one of his old favourite masterpieces was to be performed. For the. modern developments of music, particularly of German music, he had little liking.' "In religious matters Lord Kelvin was, if not an orthodox believer, a devout Christian. Professor Thompson quotes an intimate friend as saying that Lord Kelvin was sincerely religious and sincerely ■ a . Christian—' meaning by Christianity the religion taught. By, Christ rather than the religion taught by the Churches.' .He seems to have regarded difference .of'. sects ..as. mere .matters of form,.. $<$ means, a 'rigid' Sabbatarian,'' .'.'Tiavin'g' .'"no, .objection ■ tb. lighter occupations; and. even occupying himself with- scientific, 'calculations on Sundays.' - ' ; , ,'.

' "On' Hie other haiidi ."oho"evening, when hfs l 'sister, Mrs. King; 'read from Darwin's works the passage in which he' ei- 1 presses" his disboiief in Divine [revelation and in any .evidence of .'design, he pronounced such views' .utterly unscien-' tific, and vehemently maintained thatour power of discussing and speculating about' atheism and materialism was enough to cjjsprove them;' Evolution, he' declared, would not in the' least degree explain the great mystery of nature and creation. If all things originated in asingle germ, then that germ contained in it all tho marvels of creation—physical, intellectnal, and spiritnal—to bo afterwards developed.. It was - impossible that atoms of dead-matter sliould come tpgetlien so as- to make life.' _ - ' "Lord ' Kelvin's views on religion brought him ■ into conflict on several occasions with ' agnostic" opinion,-but'ho. never seems-'to liava wavered in his belief in a Creative Power -and in:an overruling Providence."