In the very beginning of science, the parsons, who managed things then, Being handy with hammer and chisel, made gods in the likeness o' men; Till Commerce arose and at length some men of exceptional power Supplanted both demons and gods by the atoms, which last to this hour.
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"The true Logic for this world is the Calculus of Probabilities, which takes account of the magnitude of the probability."
"The first thing that I always do is to try to understand the problem."
"The mathematical difficulties of the subject are so enormous that it is only by great patience and perseverance that we can hope to overcome them."
"If I am not mistaken, there is a good deal of nonsense in the world."
"I have been thinking about the nature of things, and I have come to the conclusion that there is a good deal of it."
From a poem or satirical verse, reflecting a critical view of the historical relationship between religion and science.
Date: Undated, but from his collected works.
GeneralFound in 1 providers: gemini
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This verse traces how humans have explained the world across history. First, priests carved gods in human form to account for nature. Later, as trade and inquiry advanced, remarkable thinkers replaced those gods and spirits with atoms as the fundamental building blocks of reality. The quote sketches a progression from myth to commerce to science, arguing that atomic theory has displaced supernatural explanations and now stands as the enduring account of what the universe is made of.
Maxwell unified electricity, magnetism, and light into four equations and helped pioneer statistical mechanics, work that depended on the atomic hypothesis. A devout Presbyterian with a sharp wit, he wrote light verse poking at science and religion alike. His kinetic theory of gases treated matter as swarms of atoms, so celebrating atoms as the victor over demons and idols matches both his physics and his playful, historically literate voice.
Maxwell wrote in Victorian Britain, where industrial commerce funded laboratories and Darwin, Tyndall, and Huxley were publicly contesting clerical authority over nature. Atomic theory was gaining ground through Dalton, Avogadro, and kinetic gas work, though atoms remained contested until the early 1900s. Geology and biology were dismantling literal Genesis timelines, and debates about materialism versus design filled the periodicals. Maxwell's lines capture that moment when science, backed by industrial wealth, was openly replacing theological cosmology.
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