xvi BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR 



sympathy oppressed him painfully. He once described to me 

 the forcible manner in which he was affected in College Chapel 

 by those words of the Psalm, " I had no place to flee unto, and 

 no man cared for my soul." This melancholy feeling, which 

 sometimes assumed a very painful intensity, was no doubt con- 

 nected with the weak state of his bodily health, and the highly 

 nervous temperament which naturally belonged to him : it was 

 the source of much suffering, I fear, even in that period which 

 preceded the most distressing portion of his life. 



Ellis was to be seen sometimes at the debates of the 

 Union Society, but he seldom took any part in them. On one 

 or two occasions, however, when domestic troubles had arisen, 

 and squabbles of a somewhat personal kind ran high, he stood 

 up as a pacificator ; he was heard with marked respect, and his 

 suggestions were readily adopted. 



In January, 1840, he passed his examination for B.A. 

 degree. In consequence of complaints which had been made 

 of the coldness of the Schools, in which the Candidates for 

 Mathematical Honours were then examined, the examination 

 took place for two or three years in the Lecture Rooms of 

 Trinity College. The difficulty was afterwards solved by the 

 proper warming of the Senate-House. When we visited the 

 rooms on the day before the Examination to inspect our places, 

 I found that the alphabetical arrangement of names combined 

 with the conditions imposed by the length of the tables had 

 brought Ellis and myself almost immediately opposite to each 

 other, and I was rather pleased with the thought of seeing him 

 in actual work. He however made a special request that his 

 seat might be changed, (I do not exactly know why,) and was 

 allowed to be placed in a different room ; so that I saw nothing 

 of him during the examination. 



Those who knew anything of the relative powers of the 

 men of the year had no doubt as to which place Ellis must 

 occupy, if only his health should enable him to do himseir 



