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Hereditary Genius
17
are ranged by the examiners in strict order of merit. About the first forty of
those who take mathematical honours are distinguished by the title of
wranglers, and it is a decidedly creditable thing to be even a low wrangler;
it will secure a fellowship in a small college. It must be carefully borne in
mind that the distinction of being the first in this list of honours, or what is
called the senior wrangler of the year, means a vast deal more than being
the foremost mathematician of 400 or 450 men taken at hap-hazard. No
doubt the large bulk of Cambridge men are taken almost at hap-hazard. A
boy is intended by his parents for some profession; if that profession be
either the Church or the Bar, it used to be almost requisite, and it is still
important, that he should be sent to Cambridge or Oxford. These youths
may justly be considered as having been taken at hap-hazard. But there are
many others who have fairly won their way to the Universities, and are
therefore selected from an enormous area. Fully one-half of the wranglers
have been boys of note at their respective schools, and, conversely, almost
all boys of note at schools find their way to the Universities. Hence it is that
among their comparatively small number of students, the Universities
include the highest youthful scholastic ability of all England. The senior
wrangler, in each successive year, is the chief of these as regards
mathematics, and this, the highest distinction, is, or was, continually won by
youths who had no mathematical training of importance before they went to
Cambridge. All their instruction had been received during the three years of
their residence at the University. Now, I do not say anything here about the
merits or demerits of Cambridge mathematical studies having been directed
along a too narrow groove, or about the presumed disadvantages of ranging
candidates in strict order of merit, instead of grouping them, as at Oxford, in
classes, where their names
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