in.] ORIGIN OF TASTE FOE SCIENCE. 155 



systematic scientific education, in the company 

 of .... and others. Forced back into profes- 

 sional life, special scientific inquiry has not been 

 possible ; but I have had opportunities of aiding 

 the progress of science, which I have endea- 

 voured to make the best of." (a, d,f, h) 



(14) " Largely determined by my service in 

 north polar and equatorial expeditions." (d, h) 



(15) "I am not aware of any innate taste for 

 science. I can only remember in boyhood the 

 influence of the Philosophical Society of .... 

 and of a juvenile philosophical society in which 

 I took interest. My interest in astronomy, es- 

 pecially, was very small indeed, until I was 

 appointed [to the directorship of an obser- 

 vatory]." (d) 



Mathematical Subsection. 



(16) "I always regarded mathematics as the 

 method of obtaining the best shapes and dimen- 

 sions of things ; and this meant not only the 

 most useful and economical, but chiefly the most 

 harmonious and the most beautiful. . I was 



