SIMSON. 511 



kindliness of his disposition, as well as from his very 

 universal information, he was ever a most welcome 

 member of the circles which he frequented. He lived 

 in his college chambers to the last, but received his 

 friends occasionally at a neighbouring tavern, where a 

 room was always kept at his disposal. He attended a 

 club near the college, and in good weather its mem- 

 bers dined every Saturday at Anderston, a suburb of 

 Glasgow. In these meetings his chair was always 

 reserved for him, being left vacant when he happened 

 to be absent. It is also said to have been his habit to 

 sit covered. He was fond of playing for an hour or 

 two in the evening at whist, and of calculating chances, 

 at which he generally failed ; but he was on the whole 

 a good player, though he was not very patient of his 

 partner's blunders, nor always bore a bad hand of such 

 partner with philosophic meekness. He was fond of 

 music, and sometimes would sing a Greek ode to a 

 modern air. Professor Robison says he twice heard 

 him sing in this manner " a Latin hymn to the Divine 

 Geometer," and adds, that the tears stood in his eyes 

 as he gave it with devotional rapture. His voice was 

 fine, says the Professor, and his ear most accurate. 

 That he did not always interrupt his geometrical 

 meditations in the hours of relaxation is very plain, not 

 only from the singular anecdote already related of his 

 discovery of porisms, but from the date of " Ander- 

 ston " attached to some of his solutions, indicating that 

 they had occurred to him while attending the Saturday 

 meetings of the club in that suburb. In all his habits 

 he was punctual and regular, even measuring the 

 exercise which he took by the number of paces he 



