I did, however, learn something at this school, for I observed a striking illustration of the Economy of Manufactures. Mr. Simeon had the cure of a very wicked parish in Cambridge, whilst my instructor held that of a tolerably decent country village. If each minister had stuck to the instruction of his own parish, it would have necessitated the manufacture of four sermons per week, whilst, by this beneficial interchange of duties, only two were required.
Each congregation enjoyed also another advantage from this arrangement—the advantage of variety, which, when moderately indulged in, excites the appetite.
CHAPTER IV. CAMBRIDGE.
Universal Language — Purchase Lacroix’s Quarto Work on the Integral Calculus — Disappointment on getting no explanation of my Mathematical Difficulties — Origin of the Analytical Society — The Ghost Club — Chess — Sixpenny Whist and Guinea Whist — Boating — Chemistry — Elected Lucasian Professor of Mathematics in 1828.
MY father, with a view of acquiring some information which might be of use to me at Cambridge, had consulted a tutor of one of the colleges, who was passing his long vacation at the neighbouring watering-place, Teignmouth. He dined with us frequently. The advice of the Rev. Doctor was quite sound, but very limited. It might be summed up in one short sentence: “Advise your son not to purchase his wine in Cambridge.”
Previously to my entrance at Trinity College, Cambridge, I resided for a time at Totnes, under the guidance of an Oxford tutor, who undertook to superintend my classical studies only.
During my residence at this place I accidentally heard, for the first time, of an idea of forming a universal language. I was much fascinated by it, and, soon after, proceeded to write a kind of grammar, and then to devise a dictionary. Some trace of the former, I think, I still possess: but I was stopped in my idea of making a universal dictionary by the apparent impossibility of arranging signs in any consecutive {26} order, so as to find, as in a dictionary, the meaning of each when wanted. It was only after I had been some time at Cambridge that I became acquainted with the work of “Bishop Wilkins on Universal Language.”
Being passionately fond of algebra, I had instructed myself by means of Ward’s “Young Mathematician’s Guide,” which had casually fallen into my hands at school. I now employed all my leisure in studying such mathematical works as accident brought to my knowledge. Amongst these were Humphrey Ditton’s “Fluxions,” of which I could make nothing; Madame Agnesi’s “Analytical Institutions,” from which I acquired some knowledge; Woodhouse’s “Principles of Analytical Calculation,” from which I learned the notation of Leibnitz; and Lagrange’s “Théorie des Fonctions.” I possessed also the Fluxions of Maclaurin and of Simpson.
Thus it happened that when I went to Cambridge I could work out such questions as the very moderate amount of mathematics which I then possessed admitted, with equal facility, in the dots of Newton, the d’s of Leibnitz, or the dashes of Lagrange. I had, however, met with many difficulties, and looked forward with intense delight to the certainty of having them all removed on my arrival at Cambridge. I had in my imagination formed a plan for the institution amongst my future friends of a chess club, and also of another club for the discussion of mathematical subjects.
〈PURCHASE THE WORK OF LACROIX.〉