John looked over, from where he’d resumed his place by the door. “That’s-very interesting. It may present a solution for us as well.”
Dr. Comber cocked his head. “How so? I see no prospect of royal favor for a similar thing here, nor donors in the offing wealthy enough to endow a small faculty. If we can gain a professorship of mathematics, we’ll be doing well.”
“I mean, their college itself may be an answer for us. If all we can teach toward this curriculum is a few courses in mathematics and physics, it doesn’t mean our efforts are wasted for not completing the whole. Students could begin here, and go on to finish their studies there, for as long as it takes us to catch up. And soon there would be Englishmen with degrees in engineering and experimental sciences, who could return here to work and teach.”
“Move the first spoonful, eh?”
Richard tapped his fingers on the table. “I think that might well be an answer to one of their great difficulties as well. They’re practically crippled, when it comes to giving instruction in Latin. It handicaps them, and remedying that will take many years. And where in the world can they find able scholars, who can rapidly absorb abstruse knowledge printed only in English, and who are accomplished in Latin?”
“Ah, of course. Where else but here? If there’s one thing a Cambridge M.A. knows how to do, it’s learn difficult material quickly.”
“Exactly. They’ve already welcomed Pell and me. They’d be ecstatic to receive more.”
“So, you two describe a way forward that might fall within our means. Ingenious.”
“You’re considering it, then?”
“As I said at the beginning, it’s much too soon for that. But I believe what I will do now is open a correspondence of my own with John Pell. I need a feel for what’s happening there. I wonder if there’s anyone there from Oxford? Probably. Perhaps I’ll write to this Mrs. Reardon as well.” He shook his head. “Women in the colleges. New mothers founding them. Well, we must get accustomed to the idea, it seems. It’s a strange world.” He came to his feet. “But we must continue this later, as time for Hall approaches. For now, I’ll leave you to your discussions. I thank you both for your thoughts.”
John moved to close the windows as Dr. Comber left. The brief warm spell was over.
John Rant was feeling like a fish out of water. This was his first time at a meeting of the major fellows of the college. Dr. Comber hadn’t really explained why he wanted him there, but presumably it would become clear in due course. He listened closely and kept silence.
James Duport was holding forth. “Yes, I know he’s a fine scholar, and well regarded. But he hasn’t completed the scholarly work we expect of a candidate for the M.A. and makes no pretense of doing so. How can you possibly speak of giving it to him?
It would devalue the university’s name, besides flouting our statutes.”
Herbert Thorndike’s posture and tone dripped exasperated patience. “Not the ordinary M.A. The honorary one. A case like this is the reason we have it in our statutes.”
“The sheepskin given to the favored by unwritten royal command? I know of no such interest in Leamington’s case.”
“No, the honorary degree conferred by the grace of the master and fellows of Trinity College. To recognize scholarly achievement outside the ordinary course of things. Don’t say it’s unheard of. It’s just seldom heard of. You do understand why he’s chosen not to pursue the M.A., I hope?”
“His ill health? I sympathize, but that doesn’t alter the case.”
“That, and the simple reality that one more scholar intimately familiar with the abstruse minutiae of Aristotle’s cosmos would make very little difference to the world, while the same time spent in teaching advanced calculus and experimental physics will be of enormous value to our future. Logically, Newtonian mechanics fills the same place in the curriculum as astronomy. In fact, Newton’s laws are chiefly the harvest of the last century’s astronomical measurements. I venture to suggest that our curriculum itself may soon come to greatly resemble Leamington’s studies. Or at least it should.”
“Aristotle’s works are the very core of a Cambridge education, Thorndike. They have been since the earliest days.”
“As I recall, you were present at the Foucault pendulum demonstration. You can still say that, after seeing that effect? As if that weren’t enough, the experiment to measure the gravitational constant should have driven the final nail into Aristotle’s coffin. It showed universal gravitation in the most direct and unmistakable manner. It demolished any need to imagine crystalline spheres to carry the planets around.”
“Well, there was no public demonstration of that. Just an exhibit of the apparatus and the reading of a report. And why was the supposed experiment done in the middle of the night? Eh? Tell me that.”
“ Why? Because we were measuring minuscule forces! The ground vibrations from a passing oxcart would be enough to disturb the torsion balance. What, do you think John’s technique was faulty, or that he couldn’t compose an accurate report of what happened during the experiment? If you think that, come into what we laughingly call a laboratory and run the damn experiment yourself! We can put the apparatus into your hands in an hour.”
Dr. Comber raised his hand. “Heated words will do us no good. The question is whether we shall pass this grace.”
Thorndike took a deep breath. “Your pardon. I apologize for the outburst. But I stand by the invitation. As Leamington continually reminds us, science progresses by repeatable experiment. The proper way to challenge a scientific result is in the laboratory. Any conclusion may be challenged in that manner.”
Duport wasn’t done. “Speaking of that, I believe I heard it said that it was you and Rant who did all this, wasn’t it? Leamington had little or no hand in it? So why are we discussing an honorary degree for him?”
“Rant, and the others who were in the class from the beginning. I’ve only audited physics since the pendulum demonstration, and joined the probability lectures. John did most of the design of the apparatus, and supervised its construction. It was he who made the decision to send for piano wire, and Thomas Crosfield who devised the adjustable fluid damper. But, Leamington is a teacher, wouldn’t you agree?”
“Well, yes.”
“So what was he supposed to do, carry on everything himself, or teach others to do it?”
“By that reasoning, to teach. Certainly.”
“And has he?”
Dr. Comber cleared his throat. “Thank you. Let us return to the main business. The donors are growing impatient. They question whether we can make a firm commitment to a regimen of mathematics and science on which an engineering curriculum could be built. There are veiled hints of endowing a chair of physics at Oxford if we don’t satisfy them soon, rather than a chair of mathematics here.”
Thorndike snorted. “I wish no ill to our brothers at Oxford, but you may readily guess my preference between those alternatives.” That brought a few dry chuckles from around the table. “If we confer the honorary degree, we do two things. We do justice for meritorious scholarship, and we take a clear public stand. We commit ourselves to the future instead of the past.”
Thomas Randolph spoke for the first time, chin propped on interlaced fingers, in measured cadence to match. “There is a tide in the affairs of men, which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries.”
“A quotation from Shakespeare is something I’d expect from you, though not necessarily that one. But I couldn’t imagine anything more apt. Much hangs on what we do now.”
“I merely amused myself paraphrasing your words.”
Duport had been staring at his hands. Now he looked up again. “You witnessed this gravity measurement, Master Thorndike? You vouch for the report?”
“Of course. I followed the design of the apparatus from the beginning, and checked the math myself. Not that there’s anything complicated about it.”