224 Memoir of Mr Gregory. 



clear memory, that he had pleasure in conversing with him, 

 as with an equal, on subjects of history and geography. In 

 his case, as in many others, ingenuity in little mechanical con- 

 trivances seems to have preceded, and indicated the develope- 

 ment of a taste for abstract science. 



Two years of his life were passed at the Edinburgh Acade- 

 my ; when he left it, being considered too young for the Uni- 

 versity, he went abroad and spent a winter at a private aca- 

 demy in Geneva. Here his talent for mathematics attracted 

 attention ; in geometry, as well as in classical learning, he had 

 already made distinguished progress at Edinburgh. 



The following winter he attended classes at the University 

 of Edinburgh, and soon became a favourite pupil of Professor 

 Wallace's, under whose tuition he made great advances in 

 the higher parts of mathematics. The Professor formed the 

 highest hopes of Mr Gregory's future eminence: those who 

 long afterwards saw them together in Cambridge, speak with 

 much interest of the delighted pride he shewed in his pupil's 

 success and increasing reputation. 



In 1833, Mr Gregory's name was entered at Trinity Col- 

 lege in the University of Cambridge, and shortly afterwards 

 he went to reside there. He brought with him a very unusual 

 amount of knowledge on almost all scientific subjects : with 

 Chemistry he was particularly well acquainted, so much so 

 that he had been at Cambridge but a few months when it was 

 proposed to him by one of the most distinguished men in the 

 University to act as assistant to the professor of Chemistry ; 

 which for some time he did. Indeed, it is impossible to doubt 

 that, had not other pursuits engaged his attention, he might 

 have achieved a great reputation as a chemist. He was one 

 of the founders of the Chemical Society in Cambridge, and 

 occasionally gave lectures in their rooms. 



He had also a very considerable knowledge of botany, and 

 indeed of many subjects which he seemed never to have stu- 

 died systematically : he possessed in a remarkable degree the 

 power of giving a regular form, and, so to speak, a unity to 

 knowledge acquired in fragments. 



All these tastes and habits of thought, Mr Gregory culti- 

 vated, to a certain extent, during the first years of his resi- 



