46 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 



As it was decided that I should be a clergyman, it 

 was necessary that I should go to one of the English 

 universities and take a degree ; but as I had never 

 opened a classical book since leaving school, I found 

 to my dismay, that in the two intervening years I had 

 actually forgotten, incredible as it may appear, almost 

 everything which I had learnt, even to some few of 

 the Greek letters. I did not therefore proceed to 

 Cambridge at the usual time in October, but worked 

 with a private tutor in Shrewsbury, and went to 

 Cambridge after the Christmas vacation, early in 

 1828. I soon recovered my school standard of know- 

 ledge, and could translate easy Greek books, such 

 as Homer and the Greek Testament, with moderate 

 facility. 



During the three years which I spent at Cambridge 

 rmy time was wasted, as far as the academical studies 

 were concerned, as completely as at Edinburgh and 

 at school. I attempted mathematics, and even 

 -went during the summer of 1828 with a private 

 tutor to Barmouth, but I got on very slowly. The 

 work was repugnant to me, chiefly from my not 

 being able to see any meaning in the early steps in 

 algebra. This impatience was very foolish, and in 

 after years I have deeply regretted that I did not 

 proceed far enough at least to understand something 

 of the great leading principles of mathematics, for men 

 thus endowed seem to have an extra sense. But I 

 do not believe that I should ever have succeeded 

 beyond a very low grade. With respect to Classics I 

 did nothing except attend a few compulsory college 



