LORD KELVIN 91 



should enter a college until he has reached the age of 

 fifteen or sixteen; William Thomson took the highest 

 prizes in Mathematics and Physics before he reached that 

 age. It may be said that his precocity was phenomenal ; 

 no doubt it was; but it is precisely those boys who are 

 unique and unlike their fellows who are of value to the 

 race, and every chance should be given to exceptional 

 talent. 



Although William Thomson spent six years at Glasgow 

 University, he did not graduate : in those days the aim of 

 a student's ambition was not a degree, but the acquisition 

 of knowledge. Before he had reached the age of seventeen, 

 he went to Cambridge, where he passed four years. There 

 the examination system was in full swing; and to the 

 disgrace of the examiners, Thomson was not the ' Senior 

 Wrangler '; he was not regarded as the best mathematician 

 of his year ; and this, in spite of the remark made by one 

 of his examiners, that ' the Senior Wrangler was not fit 

 to cut pencils for Thomson.' It is known that success in 

 this examination depends largely on rapidity in writing 

 and on accuracy of memory, ratter than on originality ; 

 and the tale is told that on Thomson's ' coach/ or tutor, 

 asking him why he had spent so much time in answering a 

 particular question, he replied that he had to think it all 

 out from first principles. ' But it is a problem of your own 

 discovery/ said the coach. Thomson had to confess that 

 he had quite forgotten his own handiwork, and that while his 

 competitor had learned the answer by heart, Thomson had 

 had to rediscover the solution. However, he was successful 

 in gaining the ' Smith's Prize/ a reward for inventiveness 

 rather than memory. That same year, he was elected 

 Fellow of his College, and had an income of about 200, 

 which enabled him to continue his studies in France. 



While at Cambridge, Thomson was not only a student ; 

 he always took a keen interest in music, and was president 



