The prince of mathematical tutors, Dr. Routh, of Cambridge, received
a well-earned token of respect and admiration this day week, when a portrait of him by Herkomer was presented to Mrs. Routh by a most distinguished company of his pupils. In thirty-one years, Dr. Routh had had the training of no less than twenty-seven Senior Wranglers, and had won their respect as much by his patience and modesty, as by his remarkable grasp of his subject and the lucidity of his teaching. In his speech of thanks, Dr. Routh told a charming story of one of his pupils who, in trying to master hydrostatics, could not understand how it was that any physical body could float. Dr. R,outh's explanation was so much too effectual, that the lad entirely withdrew his objection, but was now, he said, quite unable to understand how any physical body could sink. Obviously that gentleman's real difficulty was of a very common kind,—namely, that he had no idea how deep his confusion went. A man who thought it as difficult to float in water as in air, must have found it as difficult to learn from Dr. Routh as it would have been to learn from Mrs. Marcet's "Conversa- tions on Natural Philosophy."
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