FORMAL APPOINTMENT TO PROFESSORSHIP. 29 



appointment on the day of the election, and was informed 1828. 

 at the same time that c a formal certificate of appoint- 

 ment will be prepared, in which the duties of the Pro- 

 fessors will be specified, and they will be required to sign 

 an acceptance of the authority of the Council and of the 

 rules of the University on receiving them.' 



These conditions and obligations were not such as could Undue re- 

 be accepted by men accustomed to academical discipline, Professors! 

 and who knew the value of their work. They were the 

 work of a governing body new to its own duties, and 

 to the claims and rights of those for whom they were 

 composed. But after a strong remonstrance the Pro- 

 fessors were enabled to hold their diplomas on a simple 

 declaration of adherence to the constitution as set forth 

 in the Deed of Settlement. The classes opened on the 

 following November, and on the 5th the Professor of 

 Mathematics gave his introductory lecture, when, as he 

 says, he 'began to teach himself to better purpose than 

 he had been taught, as does every man who is not a fool, 

 let his former teachers be what they may.' l 



This lecture ' On the Study of Mathematics ' takes a introduc- 

 much wider view of that study, and its effects upon the ture. e 

 mind, than its title alone would imply. It is an essay 

 upon the progress of knowledge, the need of knowledge, 

 the right of everyone to as much knowledge as can be 

 given to him, and the place in mental development which 

 the culture of the reasoning power ought to hold. It is 

 not only a discourse upon mental education, but upon 

 mind itself. It was the work of a young man of twenty- 

 two years and four months old, and the earnestness and 

 sanguineness of youth may be seen in the strong deter-. 



1 In this year he published a translation of the first three chap- 

 ters of Bourdon's Algebra. This was afterwards superseded in his 

 class-room by his own Arithmetic and Algebra. In his own copy 

 of Bourdon is inscribed, after his name, 'Aged 22 years and 2 

 months, being the first work he ever published. A, De M., Aug. 26, 

 1846.' 



