MEMOIR OF EATON HODGKIXSON. 205 



To the severe treatment wliicli lie here suffered, his cousin, ]\rrs. Thompson, 

 attriljutes the nervous tremor of his hancls and speech which continued with him 

 throuo-li life, and was a serious impediment to his success. The Rev. Mr. Littler 

 was a very severe disciplinarian, and if a boy could not learn he tried to flog it 

 into him; and younijf Hodi^'kinson, owing- to his inaptitude for languages, having 

 received a sound thrashing for not having learned his lessons perfectly, was 

 removed from the grannnar school and placed in a private school in Northwich 

 of far less pretensions, but more in unison with his aspirations. 



This private school, to which he w'as removed because he did not show a 

 decided taste for the study of languages, was conducted by Mr. Shaw, a gen- 

 tleman of superior mathematical attainments, and possessing great tact in teach- 

 ing and in the general management of boys. It was at this school that Mr. 

 llodgkinson finished his youthful education. He obtained a good degree among 

 his school-fellows, and a distinguished position in the afiections of his master. 

 The instructions of Mr. Shaw in mathematical subjects were fully appreciated 

 by Hodgkinson, and consequently he made rapid advances in the various studies 

 to which his attention was directed. Here he laid the foundation of that math- 

 ematical knowledge which he afterwards applied with singular success to the 

 extension and development of the theory and practice of the strength of mate- 

 rials. The bias of Mr. Hodgkinson's niinjl at this period, and the position in 

 which his mother was left, seemed to require a reconsideration of his future. Ho 

 was now growing in stature as well as in knowledge, and his mother found him 

 very useful to her in the outdoor work on the farm ; therefore it was deemed 

 desirable to abandon the idea, once strongly entertained, of prosecuting her son's 

 education with a view of entering the church, and to allow him to devote his 

 attention and energies to the skilful management of farming. 



Mr. Hodgkinson therefore gave up all thoughts of the church, and Latin, 

 Greek, and Hebrew were changed for more congenial subjects of study. He 

 commenced at once his career as a Cheshire farmer ; but although he felt it a 

 duty to assist his dear mother, and meet her wishes to the best of his ability, 

 still he made Imt little progress in his new vocation. Farming, which had been 

 thrust upon him by sheer necessit}', was not suited to his genius ; but he pur- 

 sued it for a time as a paramount duty, from which his conscientious devoted- 

 ness to his mother and sisters would not allow him to escape. The seeds of 

 pin-e and mixed science, which had been -thrown broadcast into his youthful 

 mind by Mr. Shaw, were now beginning to germinate, and to rise from their 

 latent state into full and sensible existence, creating, as tlu\v advanced to matu- 

 rity, new wants and fresh desires, which could not be gratiliedby farming or the 

 society of a Cheshire village. The fruit thus developed at the viHage school 

 indicated, with unerring certainty, a different direction from Cheshire farming or 

 the church. His mother saw this, and she was ready to bend to circumstances 

 whicli she could not successfully resist. Hence he persuaded her to give up her 

 farm in Cheshire, and embark her small capital in a pawnbroking business at 

 Sal ford, Manchester. Their friends advised this step, as the best to promote 

 the interests of the family and satisfy, the thirst of Mr. Hodgkinson for scientific 

 kiunvledge and society. The family, therefore, moved from Great lUidworth, 

 Clieshire, to Salford, Manchester, in the year ISll, when Mr. Hodgkinson was 

 about 22 years of age. This step was the turning-point of his career, and but 

 for this in all probability he would have past a life of inglorious ease in a Che- 

 shire village, unknown as a cultivator of matliematical and physical science. 



His residence in Manchester was soon productive of iuqK)rtant consequences; 

 his habits of thought became tixed, and the line of scientilic inquiry in which ho 

 was to advance was not long left indeterminate. ^lauchester at tliis period was 

 in its youthful vigor; it contained n)en of great intellectual endowments, each 

 anxious to distinguish himself in some department of useful knowledge; among 

 these the" names of Dalton, Henry, and several others stand out pre-eminent. 



