CHAP. VI.] SCHOLAR OF TRINITY. 165 



running header from the bank, turning a complete somersault 

 before touching the water. 1 



If shortly described, he might be said to combine a 

 grand intellect with childlike simplicity of trust. He was 

 too deep a thinker to be sceptical, but too well read not to 

 feel for others' difficulties. All his experiments led him to 

 greater reverence for the Great First Cause, heartily agreeing 

 with Young's Night Thoughts, "An undevout astronomer 

 is mad." 



In the course of the winter he was elected a 

 member of the Select Essay Club, the creme de la 

 creme of Cambridge intellects, familiarly known 

 (because limited to the number twelve) as " the 

 Apostles." His contributions to this famous associa- 

 tion still remain, 2 and present a curious reflection of 

 the contemplative activities of his mind, which is far 

 indeed from being engrossed with mere mathematics, 

 but is rather, in the language of Plato, "taking a 

 survey of the universe of things," iracrav irdvrwv fyva-uv 

 p6vvci)jj,evr) ra>v ovrcov e/cd&Tov 6\ov. Yet amidst this 

 speculative ardour, and even wildness, we trace the 

 persistence of certain root-ideas, and are often re- 

 minded of his intention (expressed with curious self- 

 directed irony in 1850), "to read Kant's Kritik with 

 a determination to make it agree with Sir William 

 Hamilton." 3 



His coming of age, June 13, 1852, had been 

 celebrated with a few quiet words in his fa-ther's 



1 Professor Tait says, "He used to go tip on the pollard at the 

 bathing-shed, throw himself flat on his face in the water, dive and 

 cross, then ascend the pollard on the other side, project himself flat 

 on his lack in the water. He said it stimulated the circulation !" 

 2 See chap. viii. 3 P. 135. 



