'
On another occasion his father is said to have asked the boy, 'What
sort of things, do you think, are most alike?' The delicate,
blue-eyed boy, after a short pause, replied, 'The leaves of the same
tree are most like each other.' 'Gather, then, a handful of leaves of
that tree,' rejoined the philosopher, 'and choose two that are
alike.' The boy failed; but he hid the lesson in his heart, and his
thoughts were revealed after many days. These incidents may be
trifles; nor should we record them here had not John Herschel
himself, though singularly reticent about his personal emotions,
recorded them as having made a strong impression on his mind. Beyond
all doubt we can trace therein, first, that grasp and grouping of
many things in one, implied in the stone as the oldest of things;
and, secondly, that fine and subtle discrimination of each thing out
of many like things as forming the main features which characterized
the habit of our venerated friend's philosophy."
John Herschel entered St. John's College, Cambridge, when he was
seventeen years of age. His university career abundantly fulfilled
his father's eager desire, that his only son should develop a
capacity for the pursuit of science. After obtaining many lesser
distinctions, he finally came out as Senior Wrangler in 1813.
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