1815.) Wainewright on Education at Cambridge. 299 
University, the tutors find it necessary to commence at the very 
beginning. ‘The branches of mathematics taught are; geometry, 
trigonometry, algebra, conic sections, fluxions ; and the four mathe- 
matical departments of mechauical philosophy, namely, astronomy, 
optics, hydrodynamics, mechanics.. Professors Vinee and» Wood 
have drawn up text books for these different departments, which 
save a great deal of trouble, both to the tutors and pupils. Finally, 
Newton’s Principia is thoroughly studied and explained. Mr. 
Wainewright explains at considerable length the nature of the 
public examinations which take place before the distribution of 
degrees, shows the prodigious emulation which they excite, and the 
great advantages with which they are attended. I have no doubt 
whatever that these disputations are of considerable service, and 
occasion the acquisition of much useful and important knowledge, 
and the developement of abilities which would otherwise have lain 
dormant. | ; 
The present scarcity of eminent mathematicians in Great Britain 
has been wondered at by some persons, and Mr. Playfair has ascribed 
it to the mode in which mathematics is taught at Cambridge. Mr. 
Wainewright endeavours to refute this opinion. I have no doubt 
myself that it is to be assigned to another cause, or rather toa 
variety of other causes. One cause is the kind of education to which 
those taught in the great grammar schools are exclusively confined. 
I mean Greek and Latin. 1 have met with an excellent classical 
scholar from an English school, near 20 years of age, who could 
not repeat the multiplication table. Unless the drudgery of alge- 
braic calculations is got over at an early age, we can scarcely expect 
the generality of mankind to acquire much dexterity in it; for my 
readers, | presume, are aware that it is in a great measure a mecha- 
nical art. That a knowledge of Greek and Latin is of considerable 
importance to every literary man, is what every person will very 
readily allow. They afford us the finest models of style and compo- 
sition, and furnish much valuable information in history, mathe~ 
matics, and moral philosophy, But to consider a knowledge of 
these languages as constituting the whole of a liberal education, 
appears highly preposterous. A knowledge of arithmetic alone is 
of more real service to every man than all the Greek and Latin 
which the most profound scholar ever possessed. Arithmetic and 
mathematics ought to constitute a part of every school education, as 
well as Greek and Latin, ‘They ought to be as assiduously taught, 
and considered as an equally necessary preliminary to a course at 
the University as Greek and Latin. If this were the case all over 
England, we should soon see a change in the figure we at present 
make as a mathematical nation. Many individuals of the first rate 
mathematical genius, who at present pass through life without being 
aware of their powers, would acquire the requisite preliminary know-~ 
ledge, would become conscious of their qualifications, and would 
proceed the greatest length in that career thus happily opened. I 
peed not say that mathematics constitutes a part of the early educa. 
