Non- Academic Mathematics and Mathematicians. 91 



There is another point to which I wish to call the attention 

 of gentlemen who have the guidance, or who feel an interest 

 in the progress of the non-academic student ; I mean an ap- 

 parently increasing partiality for mathematical essays or me- 

 moirs. In dealing with this subject I wish to speak very care- 

 fully. I very readily grant that any one who reads a memoir 

 in a foreign language, sees its utility to the English student, 

 and knows that it is not to be found in English books, becomes 

 a benefactor to science if he puts it in an English dress, states 

 its origin, and gives it circulation. Nor must those ingenious 

 essays, intended to illustrate intricate subjects, or to simplify 

 difficult ones, when executed by competent persons, be under- 

 valued ; each and all of these labourers in the vineyard of 

 science will, it is hoped, go on and prosper. But there are 

 essay-writers of another kind ; I mean those who crib scraps 

 from French or other foreign works, cook them up in English 

 fashion and pass them for their own. They steal the offspring 

 of others' brain, darken its features by some disguising expla- 

 nation, and then, gipsy-like, wish it to be taken for their own. 

 To pass off" a cribbed article as an original one, a clap-trap no- 

 tation must be particularly accommodating; that hocus pocus 

 disguise must be of great assistance ; of course it is elegant be- 

 cause it mystifies, and it is convenient because a small number 

 only know what it conceals. Mr. Davies's opinion upon such 

 articles may be seen in different parts of the sixth volume of 

 the Mathematical Repository ; he there promises a dissertation 

 on an inquiry into the principles which should regulate our 

 judgement in deciding upon mathematical plagiarism, with 

 examples from a certain class of mathematical writers in this 

 country. I have not yet seen the dissertation, but it is likely 

 to prove a very interesting vade mecum to the whole race of 

 problem-solvers. 



But admitting that mathematical essays, illustrations, me- 

 moirs, or whatever name they are called, are really authentic 

 and genuine, perhaps it may be doubted whether they are so 

 generally useful to the reader, particularly to the self-taught 

 student, as the old-fashioned mathematical problem, question, 

 or, if you please, mere deduction for exercise. An article il- 

 lustrating a difficult point or putting a subject in a new light 

 may be valuable; it may evince originality and talent, and if 

 it formed part of a treatise on the subject would add to its 

 value ; but it is very possible that the subject is more interest- 

 ing to the writer than it is to readers generally ; it may be on 

 some recondite topic that few understand and fewer still care 

 about ; in such cases, if the articles have any tendency at all, 

 it is more to the glorification of the writers than to general 

 use, whereas a problem is something like a challenge to the 



