Annual Report of the Council. 239 



and he used to sigh at the gulf of time which separated his 

 own day from that of the possible use of his work in applied 

 science. In one instance, however, Professor Tait of 

 Edinburgh, whilst studying the properties of knots in 

 an attempt to develop in one special direction Lord 

 Kelvin's idea of vortex-atoms, received important aid 

 (of which he made fitting acknowledgment in his papers 

 on the subject) from Mr. Kirkman's already developed 

 results in his Theory of the Polyedra. Mr. Kirkman 

 was the author of the problem of " The Fifteen Young 

 Ladies," a trifle inserted in the Lady's and Gentleman 's 

 Diary for 1850, his solution of which attracted much 

 attention at the time, and since gained for him some 

 reputation. 



Mathematical training, assisted, possibly, by reaction 

 from his early experience of the Methodists, among whom 

 he was brought up, produced, in Mr. Kirkman a habit of 

 thought that demanded strict proof of a proposition before 

 admitting the right in another to assert its truth ; and the 

 right to impose this test was not affected in Mr. Kirkman's 

 mind by the character of the subject under discussion. He 

 became, at an early period of his life, a broad Churchman, 

 and we find him, about 1863/eoming forward in defence of 

 Bishop Colenso, and, later, contributing to the series of 

 pamphlets published in aid of the cause of "Free Enquiry 

 and Free Expression," by Thomas Scott of Ramsgate. 

 Holding the broadest views on the questions of the inspira- 

 tion of Holy Writ and the relaxation of Church of England 

 exclusiveness, his sermons for years principally fell under 

 three heads: 1, Exaltation of St. Paul; 2 and 3, crusades 

 against priest-craft and atheism. The latter years of his 

 life developed increasing vigour in his handling of the 

 last of these three. In fact, he lived and existed to smash 

 the atheists and (which meant much the same thing in his 

 mind) the materialists. Under this head Mr. Kirkman 

 Q 



