4 MEMOIR OF AUGUSTUS DE MORGAN. 



1820. was at this school from the age of fourteen to sixteen and a 

 half, and at this period of his life his mathematical powers 

 were first developed. It was strange that among so many 

 teachers the germ of mathematical ability should have 

 been so long unnoticed. It could not be quite latent or 

 quite unformed in the brain of a boy of fourteen ; it can 

 only be supposed that the routine of school teaching 

 smothered and hid it from observation. Education means 

 drawing out ; it often is keeping in, and it is well when 

 it is no worse. In this case it was good for the pupil 

 and for mathematics that the early germ should be left 

 to its own resources of natural growth, uncrippled and 

 undistorted by mistaken systems of teaching. It was 

 accidentally developed, and indeed made known to its pos- 

 sessor by the observation of a dear old friend, Mr. Hugh 

 Standert, of Taunton. Seeing the boy very busy making 

 a neat figure with ruler and compasses, and finding that 

 the essence of the proposition was supposed to lie in its 

 accurate geometrical drawing, he asked what was to 

 be done. Augustus said he was drawing mathematics. 

 ( That's not mathematics,' said his friend ; ' come, and I 

 will show you what is.' So the lines and angles were rubbed 

 out, and the future mathematician, greatly surprised by 

 finding that he had missed the aim of Euclid, was soon 

 intent on the first demonstration he ever knew the mean- 

 ing of. I do not think, from what I have heard him say, 

 that Mr. Standert was instrumental in further bringing 

 out the latent power. But its owner had become in some 

 degree aware of the mine of wealth that only required 

 working, and as some mathematics was taught at Mr. 

 Parsons' school, the little help that was needed was soon 

 turned to profit. He soon left his teacher behind, and 

 from that time his great delight was to work out ques- 

 tions which were often as much his own as their solu- 

 tion. 



I can only find one little mention of his first going to 

 his school in his own handwriting. In a letter to Dean 



