power over the intricate and abstruse branches of mathematics to which he gave his main affections, and to find his equal we should have to look among veterans whose names will for ever be identified with these subjects. Such was his prodigious grasp over the phantoms that people these remoter regions of thought, that while little more than a boy he seemed fit to take his place among the masters of these studies. And there can be no doubt that, if the innate restlessness of his nature would have permitted him to accept the quiet of a mathematician's life, he might have left behind him what would have entitled him to take rank as one of our greatest mathematicians. But it is hard to forego the pleasure of using powers which one is conscious of possessing, and the temptation to which the versatility of his mind subjected him was wellnigh fatal to his reputation as a specialist. Every now and then something would turn his energy into these lines, and he would show by some fragment what magnificent work he was capable of doing; but it was for a long time doubtful whether he would ever do justice to himself in this respect, and by more continuous application to some special subject produce results worthy of his powers. As time went on, however, this changed; during the last few years there were fewer signs of the old desultoriness, and both in his 'Elements of Dynamic' and his various mathematical papers there were abundant traces of the concentration of effort which alone was needed to secure success. But, alas! this was only too speedily succeeded by the leisure of the sick-bed. Perhaps it was the feeling of decaying strength which first made Professor Clifford limit the sphere of his efforts, and seek to finish some of his many projects, instead of forming new ones. Whether this was so or not, it was not the less a gain to the world, though even now what we possess should be considered only as indications of what his powers would have been when fully developed. Few, if any, have done such brilliant work and yet died leaving us to feel that it must be taken only as the promise, and not as the measure, of their powers.
"But what the mathematical world lost in this want of specialization of Professor Clifford's powers was gained by the general educated public. His powers as a scientific expositor were as remarkable as his mathematical abilities. His talent did not lie in experimental illustration; on the contrary, he seldom, if ever, resorted to it. Nor did he ever condescend to the nurse-like prattle by which some scientific lecturers make themselves comprehensible to the meanest intellects—but to those only. There was not a sentence, or a scientific statement, in one of Professor Clifford's lectures of which he need have been ashamed in an address to the most scientific or learned society."
