84? Desultory Remarks on Academic and 



ambitious. It is not intended to assert that mathematicians 

 cannot be made without such inducements ; some of our most 

 celebrated ones have been their own tutor; but generally speak- 

 ing, the above is the mode of making mathematicians, and it 

 seems to be in conformity with the maxim, " In ediscendis 

 scientiis exempla plus prosunt quam prsecepta." 



At our colleges and institutions most of our statesmen, 

 lawyers, military men, &c., lay the foundation for their future 

 eminence. It often does happen that even the senior wrangler 

 gains no subsequent distinction ; and we have seen the winner 

 of the wooden spoon afterwards brilliantly work his way up 

 to the bench, and then prove himself to be an ornament, even 

 amongst the most distinguished judges. Let not, therefore, 

 the unfortunate despair ; but, generally, marked success at col- 

 lege or public institutions is a prelude to future eminence, and 

 a very important step towards it. 



But besides the classes just named who are sufficiently af- 

 fluent or fortunate to be placed within the reach of all the ad- 

 vantages of tutors, &c. enumerated above, men who belong to 

 the upper parts of society with respect to pecuniary matters, 

 and who aim at professional distinction, there is another 

 very numerous and important part of Englishmen who must 

 not be overlooked, I mean the middle and lower orders. It 

 will not be disputed that in a national point of view it is highly 

 important that scientific knowledge should be spread as widely 

 as possible among those classes ; it will also, perhaps, be con- 

 ceded that the foundation which they can lay at school is com- 

 monly of a very shallow description ; all must therefore de- 

 pend upon their individual application and talents subsequently 

 exerted. I am fully aware that scientific books adapted for 

 this class of students have been multiplied a hundred fold 

 within the last thirty years. The nation owes the Society for 

 the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, and others of the kind, a 

 deep debt of gratitude for originating the publication of such 

 popularly useful works, and for exciting others to adopt the 

 same laudable course. Every industrious man now, if he 

 have talent, can improve it at a comparatively small expense. 

 Mathematical treatises admirably adapted for the non-acade- 

 mic student are quite within his reach. But notwithstanding 

 the facilities thus afforded to this kind of students, has all been 

 done for him that might have been effected ? I think not. 

 Unless my view of the system pursued at Cambridge, &c. be 

 altogether erroneous, mathematicians are there made, not by 

 merely reading and studying mathematical works, but by ap- 

 plying their readings, and by the encouragements held out at 

 examinations to the most successful competitors. The aca- 



