do a few questions in the subject itself, and make some slight application of it in other branches.

As my Mathematics began to feel a little less shaky, and the desire of working up my Classics increased, and the pace of the men about me carried me along, and my health was decidedly improving, I now attempted a "spirt," or what was one for me. Beginning with five hours and a half, I put on an extra half hour to my working time every three or four days until I had reached seven hours, at which point I remained for a week, and then suddenly gave way, broke down all at once, and was obliged to lie idle and recruit for some days. After that, I did not attempt more than five hours a-day till the Mathematical Examination, till then also I bid goodbye to my Classics. This was about the end of the Long, and the beginning of our last Undergraduate term. It was not an unpleasant life after all, that last Long; a good grievance which always gives one something to talk about, delightful weather, pleasant rides, occasional cobblers, and the mild excitement, like an innocent sort. of gambling, which a man feels when working to save himself in one Examination and gets credit in another.

'EN EYPOY 'AKMḤ.

λεύσσων δ' εἴ που γνοίη στατὸν εἰς ὕδωρ.

SOPHOCLES' PHILOCTETES.

Seeing if by any possibility he knew his Hydrostatics.

VERY FREE TRANSLATION.

BUSY time indeed is the term before going out to the "Questionists Candidates for Honors." Ants, bees, boat-crews spirting at the Willows, jockeys nearing the post and getting the last half inch out of their nags (though this last simile is perhaps more appropiate to the private tutors than to their pupils), are but faint types of their activity. They even break in upon their cherished hours of exercise. Lucky is the man who lives a mile off from his private tutor, or has rooms ten minutes' walk from chapel; he is sure of that much constitutional daily. They have little appetites for their not very tempting dinners, and grudge themselves their usual hours of sleep. The Classical men are rather the busiest; they have a double burden to undergo, and a most critical achievement before them-to get up Mathematics enough to pass, without sacrificing the time necessary to keep up their Classics to the proper point-the minimum of knowledge in the one case, the maximum of acquisition in the other. Of those raræ aves who are aiming, and with a fair prospect, at success in both Triposes, one hardly knows what to think. The reported saying of a distinguished Judge, who had himself taken the highest Honors of his year, in reference to a young relative of his then reading double,

"that the standard of a Double First was getting to be something beyond human ability," seems hardly an exaggeration. We must suppose such men to be so strongminded and hard-headed that they make their Classical reading an amusement and relaxation after their Mathematical work. But the mere and single Mathematician has anything but a holiday; indeed, as all his interests. are concentrated in the approaching examination, he is the most anxious about the immediate result. To one danger Mathematicians are more exposed than either Classical or Double men-disgust and satiety arising from exclusive devotion to their unattractive studies. A high Wrangler once told me, just before the examination, that he felt like wishing he had never opened a Mathematical book, and that he never wanted to see the inside of one again, so sick did he feel of the whole business. This was only a temporary state of mind, for he resumed his books in a few months, and ultimately became Lecturer in his College. This, of itself, shows how fatiguing the final spirt must be, when it could thus disgust a man with what was his favorite pursuit and final profession.

Some previous remarks may have tended to give the impression that the standard of the Mathematical Tripos is throughout a low one. I hasten to disabuse the reader of any such misconception. The standard of the lower places is low, because the last class has become in a great measure a pass Class for the Classical men, and the lower half of the second Class has not quite escaped the same fate; but to be among the first twenty or twenty-five Wranglers a man must have read Mathematics professionally, besides possessing a good natural capacity for them; and to stand among the best eight or ten he must be remarkably clever at Mathematics,

with considerable industry and a good memory into the bargain. As expressed by numbers, the disparity between the top and bottom of the scale is not so enormous, the Senior Wrangler having perhaps 3,000 or 3,500 marks to the Spoon's 200; but the actual disproportion in knowledge is much greater, because, from the shortness of the time allowed, the highest men, rapid as their pace is, seldom have time to do all they know. And now comes an important question. When we speak of a standard as high or low, we have necessarily before our minds some test of comparison, and the one most naturally presenting itself in the present case is the standard of Mathematical attainment in other institutions renowned for their Mathematical teaching. How, for instance, would the Cantabs compare with the pupils of the Polytechnic? It is rather a delicate query for any one to answer, but especially for a Non-Mathematical man, who can only form an opinion of his own through inquiries from others, and comparison of their answers. A Cambridge man, who was Sixth Wrangler, once said publicly (in the columns of the Times) that perhaps the first eight or ten men on the Tripos might be considered respectable Mathematicians in France, and all the others would be laughed at; but what data he had for this opinion, or what qualification for judging beyond the fact of having been a high Wrangler himself, I was never able to ascertain. Another, who also stood high in Mathematics, and was a Fellow of Trinity, who had lived some time in France, was acquainted with several French savans, and had witnessed examinations at several French schools, went so far on the other tack as to maintain that one of the first eight or ten Senior Optimés would be a high man at the Polytechnic. These are the extreme opinions, somewhere between

which the truth probably lies. A gentleman of the highest Mathematical attainments, who has had an extensive foreign scientific correspondence, and wrote in Continental scientific journals when a mere youth, assured me, as the result of his experience abroad, that the standard was nearly equal in the two places; that a high Senior Optimé would be a respectable man at the Polytechnic, and a high Wrangler a very good man; that the best man of the Polytechnic might be Senior Wrangler, and vice versa. The unmathematical reader may perhaps be disposed to accept this opinion as that of a man having some authority; the scientific one may form an idea of the Cambridge standard for himself in a very simple way. A set of Mathematical Tripos papers (those for the year 1845) will be found in the Appendix. Let him study these, bearing in mind the limited time allotted to each paper, so limited that he can scarcely appreciate its shortness without the actual experiment of writing one or two of them out; * and then consider that it is an ordinary thing for a man among the first ten Wranglers to floor the bookwork of the first four days; that it is not unusual for a man among the first six to do as many as twelve problems on one paper; that the Senior Wrangler of that very year did all the bookwork except three questions, and more than forty problems out of sixty, clearing nineteen on one paper in three hours-and he then will have some little notion of the extent of preparation and competition.

It usually happens that the Senior Wrangler is a long way ahead of the year, the opposite of what is observable in the Classical Tripos, where there are gener

* Many of the high men write out their bookwork from memory faster than an ordinary person conld copy the formulæ from a book placed before him.