488 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



are forthcoming as required. Eminent among these is the subject of 

 the present sketch, who has come over from England to lecture upon 

 astronomical subjects. Ten years ago he was unknown, but within 

 that time he has won a prominent position both as an investigator of 

 celestial phenomena, and as an eloquent and instructive writer upon 

 the most modern phases of the science. Of his wonderful industry 

 and remarkable versatility the following sketch will furnish abundant 

 evidence, but we were hardly prepared to expect that Mr. Proctor 

 would sustain his eminent reputation in the new field of popular lect- 

 uring, yet such is the fact. He is an easy and fluent extemporaneous 

 speaker, enthusiastic over his themes, and wielding his large resources 

 of knowledge with the utmost facility and readiness. Dealing with 

 the sublimest of all subjects in its latest and most novel aspects, he 

 carries his audience with him, and occupies their attention so com- 

 pletely that they lose the sense of time, and reach the close of a long 

 lecture under the impression that it is but fairly begun. 



Richard Aothony Proctor was born at Chelsea, March 23, 1837, 

 and is consequently not yet thirty-seven years of age. He was edu- 

 cated in his boyhood chiefly at home, being delicate in health. He 

 was a diligent reader, his tastes inclining to history, literature, and 

 theology, more than to mathematics or the sciences. He showed a 

 great liking for the construction of maps, and still regards charting 

 not only as an important aid in scientific investigation, but as a very 

 instructive mental exercise. At the age of twelve he began to read 

 Euclid in school, and at once took to geometrical study. At thirteen 

 his father died, and the boy soon after left school. He was now a 

 ward in chancery; and it affords a good illustration of the system 

 attacked by Dickens in " Bleak House " that, although there was not 

 any " suit " properly so called, Mrs. Proctor was engaged for three or 

 four years in an expensive series of legal processes, the sole object 

 of which was to assign to her formally on behalf of her children the 

 proceeds of a certain estate of which they were heirs. 



In 1854 young Proctor obtained a clerkship in a bank to aid him 

 in getting the means of going to the university, as he was designed 

 for a clergyman in the English Church. But little time was allowed 

 for study; but when, in 1855, he went to King's College, London, he 

 succeeded in taking first place in seven subjects — classics, mathemat- 

 ics, history, literature, divinity, French, and German. In 1856 he en- 

 tered St. John's College, Cambridge, where he distinguished himself in 

 mathematics. In 1857 he lost his mother, for whose sake alone he had 

 valued college successes ; and he no longer pursued his mathematical 

 studies, though he remained at Cambridge, and took the degree of 

 B. A. in 1860. 



Although he went into the Cambridge Senate House for examina- 

 tion, after two years of mathematical idleness, and without any ac- 

 quaintance with the higher and more important branches of mathemati- 



