XXII 



the Theory of Numbers, the Theory of Partitions, and Universal 

 Algebra. A splendid record for five years. 



His address before the University, on Commemoration Day, 

 February 22, 1877, was most eloquent, and had an extraordinary 

 effect upon his hearers, amongst whom 1 was James Russell 

 Lowell. After some remarks concerning the work of the University 

 and his own share therein, he discoursed upon the difficulty created 

 by the contending claims of teacher and investigator. He said that 

 the solution lay in the never-to-be-forgotten words, which had 

 recently been addressed to him, " The University desires from you 

 your best and highest work." He went on to observe on the re- 

 ligious and other disabilities under which students in English 

 universities had suffered, and brought into contrast the freedom in 

 American and German universities. He spoke with as much 

 warmth as power for, as he said, the subject came home to him. 

 For some time he held his audience spell-bound. His speech was never 

 liner than when under the influence of passion, and he abandoned 

 himself to a torrent of words. Those competent to form an opinion 

 believe that there was within him the material of a great orator. 



The following remarks by some of his pupils in Baltimore are of in- 

 terest as showing his character and method of lecturing. 



Dr. E. W. Davis states : 



" Sylvester's methods ! he had none. ' Three lectures will be 

 delivered on a New Universal Algebra,' he would say ; then ' the 

 course must be extended to twelve.' It did last all the rest of that 

 year. The following year the course was to be * Substitution Theory,. 

 by Netto.' We all got the text. He lectured about three times, 

 following the text closely, but stopping sharp at the end of the 

 hour. Then he began to think about Matrices again. ' I must give 

 one lecture a week on these,' he said. He could not confine himself 

 to the hour nor to the one lecture a week. Two weeks passed and 

 Netto was forgotten entirely and never mentioned again." 



Mr. A. S. Hathaway says : 



" I can see him now, with his white beard and few locks of grey 

 hair, his forehead wrinkled o'er with thoughts, writing rapidly his 

 figures and formulas on the board, sometimes explaining as he wrote 

 while we, his listeners, caught the reflected sounds from the board.. 

 But stop, something is not right; he pauses, his hand goes to his 

 forehead to help his thought ; he goes over the work again, em- 

 phasizes the leading points, and finally discovers his difficulty. 

 Perhaps it is some error in his figures, perhaps an oversight in the 

 reasoning. Sometimes, however, the difficulty is not elucidated, and 

 then there is not much to the rest of the lecture. But at the next 

 lecture we would hear of some new discovery that was the outcome 

 of that difficulty, and of some article for the journal that he had 



