&c.

THE return of the annual season for taking A. B. degrees, has led me into a train of thinking, productive of so strong and forcible conviction to my own mind, that I wish to lay the result before others also. In so doing, I am aware that I am adopting a measure, pregnant perhaps with important consequences, likely to excite clamour and ill-will from some, and to be received with jealousy by others; to be railed at by the violent, and deprecated by the timid; which must encounter the prejudices of some, the distrust of others, and the criticisms of all. For all this I am perfectly prepared; because I know that this collision of opinions is most advantageous to the cause of truth, and because, having myself no end to gain, no party to serve, and no ambition to gratify, I consider free, public and unrestricted discussion, as advantageous and even necessary to the objects of my inquiry. That inquiry, I hope myself to pursue with temper and moderation, and if it should excite anger or asperity on the part of my antagonists, I trust I shall neither resent nor retaliate. Indeed it is not very likely that I shall reply. I am too much engaged with other concerns to take an active part in controversy, and the end I propose will be sufficiently answered in having thus opened the way to dis'cussion. Others may carry it on, and in an University containing so great a number of able men, it is not very probable that the question will soon be suffered to fall asleep.

The inquiry which I wish to make, and to see pursued, is this, Why is the examination for degrees, why are the honors, and, generally speaking, the rewards and patronage of the University, confined so exclusively to mathematical pursuits?

Mathematics are, no doubt, a high and important branch of study. They are a science closely concerned in the investigation of abstract truth, requiring intensity of attention, accuracy of research, acuteness of application, and severity of judgment; they are intimately connected with the most useful arts, and with the sublimest speculations; with those inventions which give man power over the world in which he is placed, and with those discoveries which elevate him to the knowledge and contemplation of the worlds beyond and around him. With this admission, cordially and willingly made, no man can fairly accuse me of depreciating

or undervaluing the importance of mathematical studies, although still make it a question why they should be so exclusively pursued. Let us come at once from speculations to facts.

I may

On an average for the last three years, 146 men enter the senatehouse annually, at the usual degree time.'

Of these, 52 obtain honors: of whom 19 are wranglers, or proficients in mathematics; 19 are senior optimés, or second-rate mathematicians; 14 are junior optimés, or smatterers.'

What are the remaining 94? What have they to show for an education of three years and a quarter, at an expense which cannot be short of 7007.? What have they got in religion, ethics, metaphysics, history, classics, jurisprudence? Who can tell? for, except the short examination of one day in Locke, Paley, and Butler, in the senate-house, the University must be supposed to know nothing of their progress in these things. Their University examination for their degree is in mathematics, and if they have got four books of Euclid (or even less), can answer a sum in arithmetic, and solve a simple equation, they are deemed qualified for their degree, that is, the University pronounces this a sufficient progress, after three years and a quarter of study.

So much for the Ioxλol, the vulgus ignobile of the mathematical students, among whom I include what are commonly called gulph men-that is, men who can answer and will not, and who are therefore entitled to no distinction in the view now taken of an University examination.

Let us look back to those distinguished with academic honors. Of the junior optimés, do any bring their reading in mathematics to after use?

Of the senior optimés, do any two in each year keep up or pursue their mathematical learning, so as to make farther proficiency in it after they have taken their degree?

Of the wranglers, do many of the lower wranglers, and all, or nearly all the higher, pursue their mathematical studies farther than to qualify for fellowship examination, which at some Colleges, as at Trinity for instance, is partly mathematical? In fact, do more than two-thirds of the wranglers pursue their mathematical studies after they have taken their degrees?

If they do not, then all the fruits of three years and a quarter's study, and all the expenses of 146 men, amounting to above

It is evident, that if I had taken into account either the year 1818, or the present enormously large year, the result of these calculations would have been far more striking in my favor; but I seek truth, and do not wish merely to make out a case.

2 I use plain terms, without intending to convey any reproach. In an inquiry of this sort, we must look to facts, not compliments.

100,000%., are concentrated, as far as any literary benefit results from them, in about a dozen or fifteen individuals.'

Of these individuals I cannot be supposed to speak or think disrespectfully, when I ask, of what use to them are their mathematics, without the walls of the University, in common life?

How many Cambridge mathematicians distinguish themselves by bringing their mathematics to bear upon the useful arts?

Is it true that they, generally speaking, turn their mathematics to any account, except that of speculative amusement, or academic contention ?

They may be, and no doubt they often are, very ingenious and acute men, but does that ingenuity and acuteness, for the most part, tell, to any great moral, or political, or social purpose?

Are not, in fact, the greater number of calculations and combinations by which mathematics are brought to bear upon the arts, made by men who have not received an academic education?

Are not practical mathematics the great source of useful inventions; and are not the Cambridge mathematics almost exclusively speculative?

Take a junior or senior optimé, or even a wrangler, into an irregular field with a common land-surveyor, and ask them severally to measure it; which will do it soonest and best?

Let one of each of these academic graduates and a practical sailor be sailing towards an unknown coast; which will soonest make a correct observation ?

Build a bridge across the Thames; who will do it best, Mr. Rennie (supposing him still alive), or a committee of senior wranglers?

If it should happen that in these cases the practical mathematicians would have the advantage, may it not be said, that our mathematics are more for show than use?

It may be urged, that we point out the principle, and leave to others the practice. This may be very true; but I believe the laugh would be a good deal against the speculative academic, who was beaten by the practical clown; and though I admit that ridicule is no test of truth, there would, in this case, be a good deal of reason on its side. I can see no grounds for neglecting practice, because we understand theory, and if we profess to make mathema

It is evident that this calculation is greatly under-rated. 700l. is, I fear, considerably under the average amount of the total expenses of an University education, and there are a considerable number of men who take their degrees at bye-terms, very few indeed of whom ever think of reading more than is absolutely necessary for their degree, which is, I will not say how much. A nearer calculation would be, to allow at least 8001. for the expenses of education, and to add 24 men to the average above-mentioned, making the whole number 170, the sum total of whose expenses therefore is 136,000l.

tics our prime pursuit, surely we ought to comprehend not only their principles but also their application.

Enough of this.-Let me be permitted to make a few observations on the examination itself, especially that which respects the higher class of honors.

Ever since the days of Samson, riddles have been thought a great test of the acuteness of the human mind. After the time that he puzzled the Philistines, the sphinx puzzled the Thebans, and the Queen of Sheba tried to puzzle Solomon. And, in conformity with this custom, in which sacred and profane histories alike concur, after a lapse of between three and four thousand years, the examiners in the senate house still propose riddles to their exami

nants.

What is the greater part of that examination but a set of mathematical conundrums, in which each examiner tries to display his ingenuity by quibbling subtleties, by little niceties, and knackeries, and tricks of the art, which are for the most part exceedingly clever, and exceedingly unprofitable, and which bear a close, I may say a very close affinity to those hair-breadth theological and metaphysical distinctions, which baffled, and perplexed, and expended in the most abstruse and idle speculations, the intellectual faculties of schoolmen and Aristotelians in the middle ages?

Alas! all their labors are now considered but idle paradoxes and waste of pains.

What will future ages say of our own?

Stultus labor est ineptiarum.

We have even deserted the track of geometry, and forsaken the path our mighty master trod. In that very University whose pride it was to have produced that man who surpassed the race of mankind in intellect, his own labors are neglected, and his own gigantic discoveries no longer occupy that proud and pre-eminent station which is due to their intrinsic merit, and to his immortal name, to national honor, and to academic veneration. A new fashion in mathematics is introduced, and one, which in some respects seems less calculated to attain the end for which mathematical studies are supposed to be pursued, by detracting from the closeness of geometrical investigation.

Venimus ad summum fortuna. We can go no farther in the old school. We must have new refinements, new quirks, new capriccios of ingenuity, to satisfy the restless impatience of ambitious minds. We must gain distinction by a new track; the vetus orbita will serve no longer; it is too much worn; a man is buried in the ruts, and cannot rise out from them to any eminence of distinction. We must, from time to time, strike out a new path, in which the

love of novelty and the love of fame, those two bright coursers of etherial breed, may bear us above the heads of our contemporaries.

But there is one melancholy fact; a certain indication of incipient decay in any people, is when their refinements begin to be excessive. As soon as the true and legitimate standard of taste and judgment, either in morals or science, is exceeded, it is even more difficult to retrograde towards perfection than it was before to ascend to it. It is hard, indeed, to save ourselves, when, having climbed up the mountain on one side, we have begun to topple down the precipice on the other.

There is another point well deserving our consideration, on which I have not yet touched. Suppose mathematics not to be the exclusive branch of academic examination in this University, would there be any deficiency of great and eminent mathematicians? I cannot conceive, that were a fair and due degree of honor given to mathematical pursuits, without an exclusive preference, there would be any want of persons sufficiently inclined to cultivate and excel in them. I do not know, and I do not believe, that in the days of Barrow, Newton, and Cotes, the same exclusive attention was paid to mathematics as at the present time, nor do I conceive that any modern names can be disgraced by a comparison with these. The same stimulus which was then sufficient to produce a Newton, would always operate to produce one, although there were no exclusive preference given to mathematics, and no exclusive rewards.

A university is a society of students in all and every of the liberal arts and sciences. How then can that society deserve the name, which confines its studies, almost entirely to one? This exclusive preference militates against the very spirit of our institution, and certainly damps the ardor and cramps the genius of many a man who might excel in classical or metaphysical pursuits, by compelling him to adopt a course of study for which he has neither talent nor inclination, but in which he is compelled to delve and toil, if he wishes to attain any academical reward.

Such an one hath the curse of Adam entailed upon him with bitter severity:

In the sweat of his brow doth he eat bread.

In truth, it is a known and acknowledged fact, that the severity of the senate-house examination, and the dryness of mathematical pursuits, induces many men, even after one or two years' trial, or even more, and after having with infinite toil and labor made some progress on their cheerless way, to abandon all competition for mathematical honors, and content themselves with barely getting their degree.