68 EARLY LIFE. 



used to correspond with him on mathematical sub- 

 jects, and I remember his letters in answer to mine 

 from the north, observing that " I was as usual on 

 our common subject, when in my aphelion." I re- 

 collect when we were volunteers together in an 

 artillery- corps. He was particularly diligent in super- 

 intending our ball-practice, and on the first occasion 

 of it, received great delight from the accidental suc- 

 cess of his old pupil in levelling the gun, which shot 

 through the centre of the target. " You see," he said, 

 to those about him, " how we mathematicians carry 

 the day." He would not allow it to be, as I admitted, 

 a mere chance, and did not approve of my modesty 

 being displayed to the detriment of science. The last 

 time we met was in 1816 at Eome, where we passed 

 part of the winter, the famous year when all the 

 heads of London society were there Jerseys, Hamil- 

 tons, Devonshires, Cowpers, Barings, Kings, Vernons, 

 Westmorlands. 



In 1794-5 I was led away for a few weeks from 

 the calculus by the interest I took in a problem pro- 

 posed by the Academy of Sciences at Berlin for a 

 prize the deflection of a projectile from the vertical 

 plane; and a solution having occurred to me, or a 

 supposed solution, I drew up a paper (or memoir) and 

 sent it. I never received the acknowledgment of 

 it, and very properly ; for I am certain, from what I 

 recollect of it, that the demonstration was wrong, 

 at least was inadequate, though I believe the theory 

 was correct, which ascribed the deflection to the 



