In addition, he was the author of a number of books and articles. Of the former, the first, published in 1856, was on the dynamics of a particle; and afterwards there followed a number of treatises on
thermodynamics, heat, light, properties of matter and dynamics, together with a volume of popular lectures on Recent Advances in Physical Science. With Lord Kelvin, he collaborated in writing the well-known
Treatise on Natural Philosophy. "Thomson and Tait", as it is familiarly called (" T and T' " was the authors' own formula), was planned soon after Lord Kelvin became acquainted with Tait, on the latter's appointment to his professorship in Edinburgh, and it was intended to be an all-comprehensive treatise on physical science, the foundations being laid in
kinematics and
dynamics, and the structure completed with the properties of
matter, heat, light, electricity and
magnetism. But the literary partnership ceased in about eighteen years, when only the first portion of the plan had been completed, because each of the members felt he could work to better advantage separately than jointly. The friendship, however, endured for the remaining twenty-three years of Tait's life. Tait collaborated with
Balfour Stewart in the
Unseen Universe, which was followed by
Paradoxical Philosophy. It was in his 1875 review of
The Unseen Universe, that William James first put forth his
Will to Believe Doctrine. Tait's articles include those he wrote for the ninth edition of the
Encyclopædia Britannica on light, mechanics, quaternions, radiation, and thermodynamics, and the biographical notices of Hamilton and James Clerk Maxwell. ==Death==