iii 



the general opinion of my friends in England that I am inexcusably 

 imprudent in resigning £630 per annum. . . . But I ask, is 

 everything to be swamped with gold ? Because I have a surety of an 

 easy well-paid post here, am I to sacrifice everything that I really 

 desire, and that will I think prove a really useful way of spending 

 life?" 



Returning to England, he went on with his studies at University 

 College, won various distinctions in his classes, and in 1860 proceeded 

 to the degree of B.A. at London University. Two years later he 

 graduated as Master of Arts with the Gold Medal in the branch 

 of Logic, Philosophy, and Political Economy. Shortly after taking his 

 B.A. degree he began to write for Watts's Chemical Dictionary. His 

 articles, eight in number, relate to Clouds, Gold Assay, and Instruments 

 employed in Chemical Analysis ; they occupy altogether nearly sixty 

 closely printed pages of the work. To the National Review (1861) he 

 contributed an article on "Light and Sunlight " ; and to the London 

 Quarterly Review (1862) an article on the " Spectrum." Meanwhile 

 his thoughts seem to have been turning from the physical to the 

 mental sciences, and to questions in economics. 



At the Cambridge Meeting of the British Association in 1862, Mr. 

 Jevons communicated to the Statistical Section two papers, abstracts 

 of which were printed in the Report, one entitled " On the Study of 

 Periodical Commercial Fluctuations," and the other, " Notice of a 

 General Mathematical Theory of Political Economy." About the 

 same time he prepared two charts or diagrams published by Stanford, 

 showing — (1.) The weekly accounts of the Bank of England, the 

 quantity of notes in circulation, and the minimum rate of discount 

 since 1844 ; and (2.) The price of the funds, the price of wheat, and 

 the rate of discount since 1731. The diagrams represent to the eye 

 and to the mind all the useful results of tables containing no fewer 

 than 125,000 figures, which Mr. Jevons had compiled with great care 

 and labour. When engaged on this work he was much struck with 

 the enormous rise of prices about the year 1853, and was in con- 

 sequence led to suspect a serious depreciation of the standard of value. 

 Grappling with the difficulties of the inquiry, he examined with care 

 the various causes of fluctuation in prices, seeking to distinguish 

 between the temporary and the permanent. His views on the subject 

 were embodied in an essay entitled " A serious Fall in the Value of 

 Gold ascertained, and its social Effects set forth." In these papers will 

 be found the germs of ideas and methods more fully developed in some 

 of his later writings. 



In 1863 Mr. Jevons received an appointment in connexion with 

 Owens College, Manchester. That institution was then in its 

 infancy, but full of vigorous life, and growing rapidly in strength and 

 stature. Increasing demands were made upon the time of the 



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