HINDOO ALGEBRA. 269 



counsel may still be valuable. ( Some friends of education/ 

 he says, * have advised that the Hindoos should be fully Ramchun- 

 instructed in English ideas and methods, and made the 

 media through which the mass of their countrymen 

 should receive ideas in their own language.' This plan 

 has not succeeded, and a deeper knowledge of the psycho- 

 logical aspects of national character might have predicted 

 the result. c My conviction,' my husband says, ' is that 

 the Hindoo mind must work out its own problem, and 

 that all we can do is to set it to work that is, to pro- 

 mote independent speculation on all subjects by previous 

 encouragement and subsequent reward.' Ramchundra 

 had a stronger leaning to geometry than could have been 

 expected by a person whose sole knowledge of the native 

 mind was derived from the Vija Ganita, but he had not 

 the power in geometry which he had in algebra. ( Should 

 this preface,' the writer says, ' fall into the hands of some 

 young Hindoos who are systematic students of Mathe- 

 matics, I beg of them to consider well my assertion that 

 their weak point must be strengthened by the cultivation 

 of pure geometry. Euclid must be to them what Bhascara 

 or some other algebraist has been to Europe.' It may be 

 that the prevalence of algebraic thought among the 

 Hindoos naturally accompanies their power of compu- 

 tation, and their love of symbolism (without beauty 

 of external form) shown in the mythology and astro- 

 nomy ; while the mathematical reasoning of the Greeks 

 fell, as might naturally be expected from their love of 

 symmetry and proportion in form, into a geometrical 

 method. 



At this time, Lord Brougham being Lord Rector of Offer of 

 the University of Edinburgh, the degree of LL.D. was Edinburgh 

 offered to my husband. He appreciated the honour, but 

 declined it with thanks, saying to me that it did not suit 

 him : he e did not feel like an LL.D.' 



The International Statistical Congress was held in 

 London in 1860, and he joined a Committee for the 



