COMPETITIVE EXAMINATIONS. 57 



become of cramming and coaching 9 1 If any supplementary 1832. 

 teaching is needed, it should be only to explain difficulties 

 in the lectures, not to introduce new subjects. 



At another time Dr. Thorp writes from Cambridge : 



Believe me, ray dear friend, I fully sympathise in the pleasure 

 you derive from reading classics in your own way only and for 

 information, and would like nothing better than to keep pace 

 with you in studying Aratus, Theon, and Euclid in the original ; 

 though I doubt whether young men would be made better mathe- 

 maticians, or as good classics or logicians hereby, as by the study 

 of authors more remarkable for system, and for the perfection of 

 language and of art. . . . You should come down and see us 

 oftener, to prevent your losing the knowledge of our streets. 

 Our streets, however, are not much more changed than our ways. 

 Have you seen our Trinity lecture-rooms, which we built at a Trinity 

 cost of 4,OOOZ. (besides a hole in the tutor's pocket, which a 

 tutor in ancient times little thought of), and without asking any- 

 body ? It would make you a scholar to see the men going in 

 crowds every morning to be taught by fourteen tutors (that is 

 our number : I have got four, viz., myself, Martin, Law, and 

 John Wordsworth, on my side), each of whom gives two, and 

 some three lectures a day. 



I rejoice to think that we have so much in common as 1, some 

 affection for the University ; 2, something to do with preparing 

 young men for it ; and 3, some contempt for ' politics and stuff".' 

 But, believe me, it gives me sincere pleasure to see a few friendly 

 and familiar lines from, one whom, though I have no right to claim 

 much merit for which was his fault, not mine I am not a little 

 proud to speak of as my old pupil. Ever, dear De Morgan, 



* Your attached friend, 



1 T. THORP.' 



This letter is dated 1833. 



1 During the time in which this has been written, several cases 

 have occurred which sadly confirm my assertions. One will suffice. 

 A young man, a very high wrangler, full of intellectual power and 

 aspiration, was obliged to give coaching lessons to undergraduates. 

 The exhaustion which followed his taking his degree and his subsequent 

 hard work led him to recruit his strength with stimulants, first opium, 

 then liquor. He drank himself to death. Had he not done so, in all 

 probability he would have been a victim to disease in some other 

 form, the result of exhausted vitality. This would have been less dis- 

 graceful perkaps, but equally lamentable. 



