MATHEMATICS MADE ATTRACTIVE.

TO THE EDITORS OF THE CRIMSON:-

In reading last week's Advocate, I met with an earnest remonstrance against the neglect of mathematics among the undergraduates, coupled with an appeal to the instructors to make it more attractive; and it seemed to me that the causes of the unpopularity of our advanced mathematics, as laid down by the correspondent, were hardly satisfactory. In a measure, this unpopularity may be attributed to the way in which mathematics is taught, or to the well-grounded belief that in this department there are no soft electives, but I think it is mainly due to the fact that Calculus and Analytic Mechanics belong to the field of special study, and are not among the elements of a "liberal education." Were Mathematics 11 made ever so attractive, no one but the specialist would indulge in the festive Quaternions.

When undergraduates remind us of "the generally acknowledged value of mathematics in mental discipline," we are inclined to quote Macaulay: "'Discipline' of the mind! Say, rather, starvation, confinement, torture, annihilation! I feel myself becoming a personification of algebra, a living trigonometrical canon, a walking table of logarithms. All my perceptions of elegance and beauty gone, or at least going. At the end of the term my brain will be 'as dry as the remainder biscuit after a voyage.'" Many, I fancy, can sympathize with him when he says he got "a headache daily, without acquiring one practical truth or beautiful image in return."

D.