DISCURSIVENESS IN STUDY. 15 



These had not even the effect of making him dismiss the 1825. 

 matter from his mind, for during the whole of his college 

 life his mind was actively employed on questions con- 

 nected with theology and philosophy. He never saw the 

 gospel in any other light than as a professing declaration 

 of God's love and mercy, but it was some time before he 

 was convinced of its historical truth and supramundane 

 origin. 



In 1825 Mr. De Morgan was again high in his class. 

 He had had an illness, perhaps from reading too much 

 and too late at night ; and his mother, whose gratification 

 was damped by her great anxiety about his health, writes 

 to him : 6 You are much higher than I expected from 

 your humble account of yourself, and I rely on your letting 

 me know if you should suffer materially.' In April Schoiar- 

 a Trinity scholarship was awarded him. After this time 

 some friends must have made his mother anxious by 

 accounts of his general and discursive reading, for she 

 writes : ' I have heard of you lately as a man who reads 

 much, but who is not likely to do much, because he will not 

 conform to the instructions of those who could assist him.' 

 The indocility to which she refers consisted in extensive 

 Mathematical reading beyond the bounds marked out by 

 his tutors, and in the study of Metaphysics, Mental Philo- 

 sophy, and even Theology. Berkeley's writings attracted 

 him strongly; the immateriality of Berkeley's doctrine 

 being suited to a mind instinctively resting upon a 

 spiritual Father, and believing that we depend on His 

 sustaining power as well for absolute existence as for 

 support and guidance through life. It is far from im- 

 probable that Berkeley's speculations, falling in in a great 

 degree with his own, gave a strong bias to his subsequent 

 thoughts on metaphysical questions. 



He never forgot what he owed to his teachers in the 

 University. These were, as entered in his own book, his 

 college tutor J. P. Higman, Archdeacon Thorp, G. B. 

 Airy, A. Coddington, H. Parr Hamilton (Dean of Salis- 



