XXXlll 



school. Even in his own path, his reading was very much directed to the 

 subjects of his subsequent career ; and he had no motive to seek univer- 

 sity honours as a means of success in hfe. Accordingly, in the Tripos of 

 1825, he obtained no higher place than that of first of the senior Optimes, 

 though his power and reading as a mathematician were well known*. 

 This commencement was of a character which lasted. Sir John Lubbock 

 was throughout life engaged in following up a special scientific pursuit, 

 which was his main business as an investigator, as it had been his main 

 study at the University. 



On leaving college he spent a short time in travelling, and on his return 

 commenced a life of business as a partner in his father's house, and a life 

 of scientific inquiry. He joined the Astronomical Society in 1828, and our 

 Society in 1829. In this year he was also a member of the committee for 

 the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, on which he worked for many years. 

 The establishment of the * British Almanac' in 1827 owed much to his 

 superintendence ; and this work stimulated his attention to the theory of 

 the tides. In the ' Companion' for 1830 appears his first scientific writ- 

 ing, a descriptive memoir on the tides. It is the most precise account of 

 the existing state of the subject ; its history has dates, and its explana- 

 tions have formulse. Mr. Lubbock was the colleague of Whewell and 

 others in calling attention to the necessity of observation of the tides. In 

 1834 the Royal Medal was awarded to him for his researches on the subject. 



In 1833 he married a daughter of Lieut. -Col. Hotham. He was the 

 first Vice- Chancellor of the University of London, a Treasurer of the Great 

 Exhibition of 1851, a Visitor of the Greenwich Observatory, and a member 

 of various scientific commissions. He was Treasurer and Vice-President 

 of the Royal Society from 1830 to 1835, and again from 1838 to 

 1845. At his father's death he was left the only working partner; and 

 his reign of sole management included the panics of 1847 and 1857. 

 His entrance into the house was marked by the panic of 1825, in which 

 the firm weathered with honour a run of unprecedented severity ; the 

 severest competitive examination, says one of the journals, which a bank 

 ever stood. Sir J. Lubbock never liked business, but he attended to it 

 with perfect regularity. His early mornings and evenings were devoted 

 to science, but not without exciting remark. In the day which has 

 gone by, a man of business, or a professional man, was required to abstain 

 from everything useful in private life or ornamental in society. He might 

 spend leisure in sporting, in cards, in smoking, in eating and drinking, or 

 in talking politics ; but not in promoting science, nor in any unselfish 

 addition to social pleasure. He might listen to music, but woe to the banker 

 or the physician who should sing or play the violin in company. Sir J. 

 Lubbock is one of an eminent band who have driven this paltry prejudice 



^' It is necessary to explain to those who are not connected with Cambridge that 



this triple superlative, First Senior Opt i me, means the head of the seco7id class of 

 imiversity honours. 



VOL. XT. d 



