ix 



raaticians, nor as a mathematician, but as an economist, wishing to 

 convince other economists that their science can only be satisfactorily 

 treated on an explicitly mathematical basis. One who is both a 

 mathematician and an economist bears the following testimony, as 

 discriminating as appreciative, to the value and importance of Jevons' 

 work in this branch of knowledge. 



"Mr. Jevons," writes Professor A. Marshall, "was an economist of 

 the highest order. In his ' Theory of Political Economy ' he explains 

 the nature of economic quantities, and their relation to one another. 

 Work of this kind involves no startling discovery, but its effect is 

 much greater than appears at first sight. It makes us master of our 

 thoughts, and founds new empires in science. A small part of his 

 work, which was warped by his antipathy to Ricardo, will probably 

 die away. A small part also will lose lustre when Cournot's appli- 

 cations of mathematics to economics are better known. For indeed 

 Jevons was, as he frankly confessed, not a skilled mathematician. 

 Truly mathematical as is the tone of his best work, he was not at his 

 ease when using mathematical formulae. But the great body of his 

 work is unaffected by these blemishes ; the lapse of time will but add 

 to its lustre, and it will probably be found to have more truly con- 

 structive force than any, save that of Ricardo, that has been done 

 during the last hundred years. His contributions to statistics were 

 widely known. The pure honesty of his mind, combined with his 

 special intellectual fitness for the work, have made them models for all 

 time. But it is in his essays on the applications of economics to the 

 theory of governmental action that his full greatness is best seen. 

 There is no other work of the kind which is to be compared to them 

 for originality, for suggestiveness, and for wisdom. Almost every one 

 of them contains some great new practical truth which the world is 

 beginning to recognise, though but few persons know their obligations 

 to him." 



" Money and the Mechanism of Exchange " made its appearance in 

 1875, forming part of the International Scientific Series. In this 

 work Jevons expounded the nature and functions of money, the 

 principles of circulation, the various forms of credit documents, and 

 the elaborate mechanism by which money exchanges are facilitated, 

 adding some important historical notes and a discussion of certain 

 technical points connected with the subjects treated of in the main 

 body of the volume. 



Jevons' connexion with Owens College extended over a period of 

 thirteen years, during which the Institution steadily advanced in 

 reputation and renown. Much of its progress was due no doubt to 

 the liberality of its friends, but more perhaps to the genius and 

 labours of its professors, and among these Jevons held a conspicuous 

 place. In its new buildings and with its new constitution, the College 



