MASTERS OF TRINITY

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 66, 14 September 1940, Page 19

MASTERS OF TRINITY

SCIENCE AND LETTERS

(Written for the "Evening Post" by ' . A.M.)

This is not the place to discuss the record of the late Sir J. J. Thomson as a scientist, but I think x it comes within the scope of "The Bookman" to say something about him as Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. If surprise was felt at the appointment of a scientist as head of this famous seat of learning, that was a measure of the weight of the classical and "humani- i ties" tradition in English university life. Really there, was nothing strange Iferi Thomson's appointment. Not only i lid he represent the new learning • with which Cambridge has been so ; jrilliantly and imperishably identified, 3 >ut Trinity itself has a glorious tradit ion of scientific discovery. It was Newton's college and Rutherford's. TBie choice of Thomson, a reviser of olid conceptions of matter, symbolised tbje breaking down of old conceptions of; education and the broadening of university study. Up to the seventies ttie Master of Trinity had to be a clergyman of the Established Church. si J. Thomson was the first lay Master. ' Trinity dominates Cambridge in size as Christ Church does Oxford, only :more so. It is the largest college in the two universities, and its roll of great is perhaps unequalled. (If any Oxford man wants to call me out over •this, I'll be prepared to apologise.) Architecturally it is magnificent. The Great Court is the most splendid' in .Cambridge, and the library is one of .'Wren's greatest works. The post of Master of Trinity is not only the outstanding one in Cambridge; it enjoys more prestige than any similar position in the British Commonwealth. Most other heads of colleges are elected by the Fellows, but the Master of Trinity is appointed by the Crown, and when he takes office it is with elaborate ceremonial somewhat similar to the enthronement of a bishop. It is noteworthy that while Cambridge is admittedly the leading University centre in England for scientific study and research, it has a long roll of illustrious writers. Indeed. 1 .have' heard a Cambridge man argue that it Vras far superior to Oxford in the production of poets. And perhaps no college in Cambridge-has such a record in both fields as Trinity. The poets of that' college include Dryden, Byron, Tennyson, Macaulay, and Fitzgerald, the translator of Omar, and at one time there were together as students at Trinity Tennyson, Arthur Hallam, Thackeray, Fitzgerald, Lord Houghton, and Spedding, the Baconian scholar. Appropriately enough, the bust of Newton in Trinity produced one of the finest marriages between poetry and science in literature, Wordsworth's Newton with his prism and silent face, The marble index of a mind for ever [Voyaging through strange seas of thought, alone. Among the famous manuscripts in the Trinitx Library are "Lycidas,".. "•Esmond," and "In Memoriam." . Sir J. J. Thomson, explorer of the atom, had a predecessor of the same name, Dr. W. H. Thompson, who was Master more than fifty years ago. •Thompson was master of something else—irony and epigram, and some of his achievements in these lines may keep his name green for centuries. Indeed, if you are looking for literary immortality, it may be wiser to coin good epigrams, and get them into print, than to write a poem or a novel. Those who have read G. W. E. Russell's "Collections and Recollections" may remember that Thompson of Trinity was the author of the much-quoted "We are none of us infallible, not even the youngest of us." They may recall, tfto, the passage from a sermon on the parable of the Talents preached to an assembly that , with good reason regarded itself as the cleverest in Europe. "%t would be obviously superfluous in 3 congregation such as this which I now address to expatiate on the responsibility of those who have five or even two talents. I shall therefore confine my observations to the more ordinary case of those of us who have one talent." Russell, however, does not mention what I think is the best of Thompson's efforts, an epigram that is worth a place in a world collection. A distinguished Cambridge man, Jebb, professor of Greek, was a bit of a dandy, and Thompson said of him: "The time he can spare from the adornment of his person he devotes to the neglect of his duties." J. J. Thomson had no pretension to being literary, but that did not prevent him from writing a book about his life ("Recollections and Reflections ) that is marked by simplicity and clarity of style and modesty. - Perhaps it Slped him. The book has its special *ppeal for the scientifically minded, but it; is also interesting for the light it throws on university life and on some 6f the many distinguished people jfhomson met. One passage may be Quoted. He tells how he made it a rule when he was teaching physics to gather his students, who came from j many countries, round him for afternoon tea, and encouraged them to talk &bout everything except physics, the subject on which they were engaged all day. This was an hour for relaxation. "The habit of talking shop is very easy to acquire but very hard to cure" and if it is not cured one loses the power of taking part in general conversation. This illustrates one ol the virtues of the English university system at its best—the free play of jnind on mind—and contains an excellent rule of life. I