EARLY LIFE. 6/ 



excellence, may remember my reference to a still 

 nobler oration in the Duke of York's case in 1809, 

 which no less accomplished judges than Windham, 

 Canning, and Dudley, each severally assured me was 

 one of the most powerful that they ever heard. One 

 great merit of Kadnor's eloquence was its being so 

 plainly produced by strong and honest feelings. It 

 proceeded manifestly from the speaker's heart, and it 

 went direct to the hearts of his hearers.* 



In 1794, on an exercise which I gave in, the Pro- 

 fessor (Playfair) desired me to wait till the class rose, 

 and then he said that I had hit upon the Binomial 

 Theorem, asking me by what steps I had been led to 

 it ? I of course answered, as was the fact, that it had 

 been by induction. But he said, " This piece of good 

 fortune ought to make you fonder of the mathematics 

 than ever ; " and as I wished to master the Fluxional 

 Calculus, which he had done no more than explain 

 the nature of, in that course, I desired to know what 

 he would recommend me to read with that view. He 

 said there were two works, either of which deserved 

 to be studied, La Caille and Bezout, but he preferred 

 the latter, t I set to work with that, and in a few 

 months showed him that I had profited by the study. 

 My intimacy with Playfair continued all his life. I 



* See Appendix VIII. 



f Nicolas Louis De Lacaille, who died in 1762, author of a host of 

 books on astronomy, mensuration, and the higher mathematics. 

 Etienne Bezout, author of ' LaTheoriegenerale des equations algebriques,' 

 and of several other books chiefly directed towards the mathematical 

 training of the several branches of the French military and naval force. 



