The Sun.
London, England, 1826-05-24 00:00:00

CAMBRIDGE MATHEMATICS.

For some years past Cambridge has present.
ed a orange contest between the analytical and
geometrical methods of mathematical investigation,
and there has resulted, in the -University system, ail
ill digested tni*turc of the two.' Under certain limi-
tations, the student is albwed to use
.geometry or
analysis, according as either method-may, in any parti,
cular case, bestsuit his convenience.

Ceteris paribus, however, the aspirants to Univer-
sity fame and' emolument rare understood to march
with the greater chance of success , under the
banners of geometry. The; geometrical system ranks
(with few exceptions> ALL the age
.and experience
of the University among its supporteri, 'and from time
to time recruits its ranks with such 'students as may ba
content to sacrifice at every turn that which appears the
better to that which is the more expedient—the method
which presents itself as the more, simple ,and elegant,
to that which is the more concise and convenient,,
There is one department, however,.. of his, reading,
in which • the 'course to be adopted_ by the.student
ceases to be optional t
..He is required to give the
demonstrations of Newton, according to the very
letter of the Principia: - This we consider to be
great and most pernicious error. .We yield to
none, in admiration .of the stupendous. atehieve-
ments of that ,- great man iw physical science.
Through the haze of preposterous , theory, he be..
held it a confusion of phenomena, irreconcileable
and detached, or holding among themselves relations
still more perplexing than -their disagreement—facts
that, in the very pride of disorder, laughed all hw:-.
mony. to scorn, and seemed to mock at the trammels
of a system.—At Newton's fiat there was light.
He threw into this chaos the active principle of an,
universal gravitation,, and diffusing over it the splen-
dour of a sublime geometry ; the' universe shone forth
a perfect system of order, harmony, and beauty.
It is now a century and a half since ha
thus sent forth that system which has prevailed
in philosophy, and gave laws to the intellectual
world, and from that period a decline in mathe-
matical learning has been 'apparent amongst us—
a decline, we conceive, mainly. attributable to the
causes we have stated at the .beginning of this article.
Whilst our mathematicians have been gazing on the
apotheosis of Newton, their more active continental
rivals have caught up his .mantle.
Mathematical - learning flourishes exclusively in.
France. At an expenditure less than the single.
mathematical patronage. of our University of Cain,
bridge, France has called 'forth a. host of talent whose

labOiirs• have reared that intellectual edifice, which in
the progress of science will probably alone..remain, un-
rivalled and tinsinpessed.....a conspicuous anommicnt to
the transcendent mathematical genius of our times.
• . It is under these circumstances, with groat pleasure,.
that we observe, just now a strung re-action at Cam-
bridge, in favour of analytical methods..
Within the last two or three years several valuable
works on analysis: have issued from the University
press, and others are, we believe, on :the, eve of pub.
lication. Mr.-Airy, of Trinity:. College, lies lately
produced, an elementary work on Physical Astronomy,,.
in which he 'has, treated the subject with .greet. power
.end originality: . • . .. , , -
. This gentleman has very early acquired, a. consider-
able fame as a mathemetietan, but he owes 'to himself
and to the public a full vindication of this fame. Other
than elementary works are expected of him. We look
beck with considerable interest on the time we devoted
to mathematical speculation at Cambridge; and,',con-
sidering, as we do, a great public interest, involyed
in' the system of instruction pursued in that. University,
We shall, from time to time, take an opportunity of
adverting to it. • • . . ,
, . .