the elements of algebra and geometry. The year following,
Mrs. Smith moved to Oxford, and placed Henry under the
care of Rev. Mr. Highton, who was not only a sound scholar,
but an exceptionally good mathematician. The year following
Mr. Highton received a mastership at Rugby with a boarding-
house attached to it (which is important from a financial point
of view) and he took Henry Smith with him as his first boarder.
Thus at the age of fifteen Henry Smith was launched into the
life of the English public school, and Rugby was then under the
most famous headmaster of the day, Dr. Arnold. Schoolboy life
as it was then at Rugby has been depicted by Hughes in "Tom
Brown's Schooldays."

Here he showed great and all-around ability. It became
his ambition to crown his school career by carrying off an
entrance scholarship at Balliol College, Oxford. But as a sister
and brother had already died of consumption, his mother did
not allow him to complete his third and final year at Rugby, but
took him to Italy, where he continued his reading privately.
Notwithstanding this manifest disadvantage, he was able to
carry off the coveted scholarship; and at the age of nineteen
he began residence as a student of Balliol College. The next
long vacation was spent in Italy, and there his health broke
down. By the following winter he had not recovered enough
to warrant his return to Oxford; instead, he went to Paris,
and took several of the courses at the Sorbonne and the Collége
de France. These studies abroad had much influence on his
future career as a mathematician. Thereafter he resumed his
undergraduate studies at Oxford, carried off what is considered
the highest classical honor, and in 1849, when 23 years old,
finished his undergraduate career with a double-first; that is,
in the honors examination for bachelor of arts he took first-class
rank in the classics, and also first-class rank in he math matics.

It is not very pleasant to be a double first, for the outwardly
envied and distinguished recipient is apt to find himself in the
position of the ass between two equally inviting bundles of hay,
unless indeed there is some external attraction superior to both.
In the case of Smith, the external attraction was the bar, for

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