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those mathematical studies on which the elements of his subsequent 

 distinction rested. Although intended for the Church, circum- 

 stances threw him into the totally different career of managing an 

 extensive flax and spinning concern. But even the engrossing na- 

 ture of commercial industry could not wean him from scientific 

 pursuits, and on the dissolution of the company he devoted himself 

 exclusively to mathematical investigation. He passed to London, 

 and was appointed Professor in the Military College of Sandhurst, 

 which he retained until ill health, occasioned by his untiring re- 

 searches, obliged him to resign. His merits were so well recog- 

 nized that he received the retiring pension, although he had not 

 served the time required by the War Office. Subsequently a royal 

 pension was conferred upon him, and at the same time he received 

 the honour of Knighthood of the Guelphic Order of Hanover. 



" Sir James Ivory was elected by this Academy an honorary 

 member on the score of his eminent mathematical discoveries. 

 These it is unnecessary to detail. They embraced the solution, in 

 abstract mathematics and in physical astronomy, of problems of 

 the greatest difficulty and importance ; and the Royal Society of 

 London sufficiently indicated their opinion of his merits by award- 

 ing to him at different periods the Royal and the Copley medals. 



" Mr. Allan Cunningham, although occupying a totally different 

 field of intellectual exertion from that trod by Ivory, and cultivating 

 rather the faculties of imagination and invention than those of 

 logical thought, is also an example of learning, pursued as an en- 

 joyment in the first instance to relieve the weary practice of a 

 mechanical trade, and finally adopted as a profession. Born in 

 Scotland, he was early apprenticed to a stone-mason, for whom he 

 worked many years. His mind, imbued with the traditions and 

 tales of the Border district in which he resided, soon applied its 

 vigorous though somewhat rugged poetic faculties to their arrange- 

 ment ; and although it is said that many of the traditions he has 

 rendered popular, had their first origin in his own fertile brain, yet 

 there is no doubt but that his verses have preserved a great body of 

 popular Scottish story, that otherwise might have been lost. Would 

 that the abundant sources of poetical composition which the earlier 

 chronicles of this country present were similarly utilized. The 



