by R. D. Collison Black
© Oxford University Press 2004 All rights reserved
Jevons, William Stanley (1835-1882), economist and philosopher of science
by R. D. Collison Black
© Oxford University Press 2004 All rights reserved
Jevons, William Stanley (1835-1882), economist and philosopher of science, was born on 1 September 1835 at 14 Alfred Street, Liverpool, the ninth of the eleven children (of whom only six survived beyond infancy) of Thomas Jevons (1791-1855), iron merchant and inventor, and his wife, Mary Anne Jevons (1795-1845), daughter of William Roscoe of Liverpool and his wife, Jane Griffies. His parents were both Unitarians and had many connections in the nonconformist community of the north of England, which played so large a part in the economic and social development and the intellectual life of Victorian Britain.
Boyhood and youth in Liverpool and London, 1835-1853
Jevons had the advantage of being born into a family that at the time was happy, cultured, and well-to-do. Thomas Jevons was then a partner in the firm of Jevons & Son, iron merchants, which his father, William Jevons, had founded soon after coming to Liverpool from Staffordshire, where the Jevons family originated, in 1798. His business provided Thomas Jevons with the means to keep his family in comfort, but he also found time to exercise his talents as an inventor (he built the first iron boat to sail on salt water) and as an author of pamphlets on such diverse topics as the criminal law and the corn laws. Jevons learned much from his example, and also from that of his mother, who was not only a talented poet, but also much more widely learned than most women of her time. His formal education was entrusted to a governess until he reached the age of ten. Then in January 1846 he was sent to the Liverpool Mechanics' Institute High School, but in 1847 his father moved him to a private school, Mr Beckwith's. It was from here that Jevons went to University College School, London, in the autumn of 1850.
Before this, there had been serious changes in the circumstances of Jevons's immediate family. His mother died in 1845 and her death seems to have contributed towards unbalancing the mind of his elder brother Roscoe (1829-1869), who suffered a nervous breakdown in 1847 and spent the rest of his life in mental hospitals. Roscoe Jevons had shown much promise at school and Jevons greatly looked up to him; in a sense the intensity with which he worked during his own lifetime may be regarded as an attempt to take Roscoe's place, to compensate for what he might have achieved.
Soon after these sorrows troubles of another kind came to Jevons's family. In January 1848, after the railway construction boom had ended in the commercial crisis of 1847, the firm of Jevons & Son went into bankruptcy. Thomas Jevons was forced to sell the family home and take a post as manager of the Liverpool branch of another firm of iron merchants; he did not retrieve his fortune before his death in 1855 and his family were left in straitened circumstances.
Nevertheless, Jevons was able to go to London as planned. He first attended University College School in 1850-51, then moved to University College itself for the following two academic years. In these he studied mathematics under Augustus de Morgan and chemistry under A. W. Williamson and Thomas Graham. In his spare time long walks through the commercial and manufacturing districts of London and visits to the Great Exhibition aroused an interest, which never left him, in what he termed 'the industrial mechanism of society'. Yet at this time experimental science was his prime concern, and seemed likely to remain so. In October 1851 he had gone to live with his aunt Mrs Henry Roscoe in Camden Town; her son Henry Enfield (Harry) Roscoe had already decided to make chemistry his career and was acting as lecture assistant to Williamson. When Jevons won the silver medal for chemistry in 1852 and the gold medal in 1853, Harry Roscoe came to expect that his cousin would follow him in making his scientific career in chemistry. At this stage Jevons had no intention of staying on even to complete his degree in 1853-4, but he did intend to look for a place in some manufacturing firm using chemical processes in Liverpool and to carry on his scientific and literary studies in his spare time.
In the summer term of 1853 Williamson and Graham unexpectedly offered to recommend Jevons for the post of assayer at the first branch of the Royal Mint, which was about to be opened in Sydney, Australia. Not yet eighteen, Jevons was at first inclined to refuse, thinking himself unequal to such a responsible position; but, for financial reasons, his father urged him to take it. So Jevons accepted and began to train as an assayer, first under Thomas Graham and later at the Paris mint. He had also to plan his own assay office, purchase the equipment for it, and engage an assistant before finally sailing for Sydney, where he arrived on 6 October 1854.
In Australia, 1854-1859
At first, Jevons had difficulty in finding a place to live and work; the new mint building was not ready until June 1855, and there were problems about the terms of his remuneration. In time all these problems were overcome and after April 1856, when the first rush of coining at the mint was over, Jevons found himself settled in a well-paid post with easy duties, which gave him ample leisure to explore his new surroundings and follow his own interests. His study of things Australian came to include the country's botany, geology, geography, and social and economic organization; but first and foremost came meteorology. As early as January 1855 Jevons had begun to take regular meteorological observations twice daily in Sydney and from September 1856 his meteorological reports were published weekly in The Empire newspaper. Ultimately he incorporated the mass of data he had accumulated into a major study--'Some data concerning the climate of Australia and New Zealand', published in Waugh's Australian Almanac (1859).
While Jevons continued to devote much of his time to meteorology and geology throughout his years in Australia, in 1856 and 1857 he began to take an interest in philosophy and political economy. He read a variety of economic works in these years--Smith, Malthus, Mill, and Whately among others--and in his private journal accounts of his excursions around New South Wales came to be interspersed with reflections on aspects of moral philosophy. At the same time the interest that he had displayed in London in the 'industrial mechanism of society' was kindled afresh by observation of the problems arising in Sydney and throughout the colony as a result of the gold discoveries and the flood of immigrants they had produced. He sought to develop his observations of Sydney into a social survey, classifying inhabitants by social class and businesses by their products, and also contributed to contemporary debates about railway construction and operation, and official policy on the sale of public lands. So in the middle years of his time in Australia his interests shifted, gradually but fundamentally, from the study of nature to the study of man, which by 1859 he saw as 'surely a work worth a lifetime, and one not excelled in usefulness or interest by any other' (Papers, 2.362).
Jevons had been in Australia only three months when he wrote in his private journal that he was 'perfectly decided ... to be at home again in from 5 to 10 years' (Papers, 1.110). He enjoyed Australian life and left vivid records of it in his journals, letters, and photographs; but once he had realized clearly what he wanted to do with his life he was equally clear that to do it he must sacrifice the comfortable circumstances which he had, return to London, and live frugally on the savings he had accumulated while he laid the foundations for his future career by acquiring further knowledge and at least completing the degree course which he had left unfinished in 1853. Hence when, in December 1858, he was offered a partnership in an assaying business in Melbourne which might have paid twice as much as his substantial salary from the Sydney mint, Jevons refused it. He resigned his position at the mint and left Sydney in March 1859. After taking time to see as much of the world as he could on his way home, he arrived back in Liverpool on 17 September 1859.
A London student again, 1859-1863
Jevons's family doubted the wisdom of his decision to abandon a lucrative position and prospects and come home with no settled plan beyond completing his university studies--not surprisingly, for his father's death in 1855 left the responsibility of supporting his brothers and sisters mainly on Jevons's shoulders. Already he had supplied the funds to allow his younger brother Tom (1841-1917) to finish his own degree at University College, London. Now in October 1859 Jevons himself re-enrolled there, and Tom and his two sisters Lucy (1830-1910) and Henrietta (1839-1909) came to live with him in lodgings in Paddington. The next three years were a time of financial anxiety for Jevons, but also a time of great academic achievement. At first he felt himself to be working 'against such great odds in mathematics, Latin and Greek' (Papers, 2.406) that he had no time to devote to other parts of the final year course. Nevertheless, in October 1860 he passed the BA degree examinations in the first division and decided to go on to take courses for the MA degree in mental philosophy and political economy. This involved two further years of intense study at higher levels, but in June 1862 he was awarded the degree with a gold medal in his chosen subjects. Yet he did much more in these three years than amply satisfy the requirements for a primary and a higher degree; he also began to develop significant new ideas of his own, first in political economy and later in logic. The mental discipline of college courses seemed to enable him to develop and bring to fruition the ideas that he had begun to form in Australia. In June 1860 he wrote to his brother Herbert that 'in the last few months I have fortunately struck out what I have no doubt is the true theory of Economy' (ibid., 2.410) but he postponed any attempt to publish this until 1862.
In 1860-61 Jevons again found time and energy to do independent research, now in applied economics, on a problem that had perennial fascination for him--the movement of time series and the causes of periodic fluctuations in them. He devoted immense labour to collecting data on movements of prices and other variables over time and presenting them in diagrams. His first plan was to publish a 'statistical atlas' of some thirty diagrams, but no publisher would undertake the risk and he had eventually to confine himself to having two diagrams published in June 1862 at his own expense--he could afford no more. To section F of the British Association, meeting at Cambridge in September 1862, he sent two papers which summarized and commented on his work of the past two years. One was a 'Notice of a general mathematical theory of political economy' in which he set out in formal terms his 'true theory of Economy' begun in 1860. In this shape, with its emphasis on 'the springs of human action--the feelings of pleasure and pain' and the fact that 'consumption of successive equal increments [of a good] does not usually produce equal increments of pleasure, but the ratio of utility on the last increment usually decreases as some function of the whole quantity consumed'--it owed much to what Jevons had learned about Bentham's utilitarianism in his philosophy courses and about the infinitesimal calculus in his mathematics courses. The other was 'On the study of periodic commercial fluctuations', in which he urged that 'all commercial fluctuations should be investigated according to the same scientific methods with which we are familiar in other complicated sciences' and drew attention to some of the information about such fluctuations that could be derived from his published diagrams. The papers made no stir and Jevons was particularly disappointed by the lack of interest in his new mathematical theory of economy. He put it aside for the moment and went on with his statistical research and with studies in logic. In this latter field he was now developing his own system and beginning to think 'that in the principle of sameness I have found that which will reduce the whole theory of reasoning to one consistent lucid process' (Papers, 1.186). In his statistical studies Jevons had been struck, when compiling tables of prices since 1844, by their almost universal increase since 1853. There was much debate at the time as to whether the increased gold supplies since 1849 had or had not led to a change in its value in terms of other commodities, and Jevons now decided to tackle this problem by quantitative methods. He published the results in April 1863 in a 73-page pamphlet, A Serious Fall in the Value of Gold Ascertained. It was destined to become a classic, a model for future applied economic research, but it sold only seventy-four copies and its author had no regular source of income.
Jevons had now to face up to a dilemma. He could either give up time-consuming original research and devote himself to writing 'light, easy pieces' for the London literary reviews, for which he had little enthusiasm or talent, or devote himself to the research for which he had both talent and enthusiasm--if there was some way of combining it with other work that would give him a regular income. University teaching was the obvious answer, but in the England of 1863 university posts were not numerous and most of them were at Oxford or Cambridge, where assent to the doctrines of the established church was still a requirement for those appointed. Apart from University College itself, the only academic institution at which a nonconformist could be appointed was Owens College, Manchester. 'Cousin Harry' Roscoe had indeed been appointed to its chair of chemistry in 1857; at Christmas 1862 he had mentioned to Jevons that a junior tutorship was available there and suggested that he apply for it. Jevons had not done so because he thought then that he might still make a living from literary work of some sort in London, but in April 1863 he changed his mind and after a visit to Manchester to discuss the matter with the principal of Owens College, J. G. Greenwood, he decided to take the post.
In Manchester, 1863-1876
Owens College was to provide Jevons with the secure base from which he could build a national and international reputation in his chosen fields; but initially his position as tutor offered onerous duties, poor pay, and doubtful prospects. His work involved teaching day students in groups of six or eight for two or three hours each day, as well as giving 'general assistance' in all the subjects offered by the college. Although he also taught four evening classes to earn more money, his income in his first year in post was less than £100. With this hard year's work over, Jevons returned to London, to the reading-room of the British Museum, to spend the summer 'often writing for 5 or 6 hours at a stretch' (Papers, 1.200), compiling material on 'the question of the exhaustion of Coal, which I look upon as the coming question' (ibid., 3.58).
Before going to Manchester the previous autumn Jevons had completed his first book on formal logic--Pure Logic, or, The Logic of Quality apart from Quantity--which he described as 'the same as Boole's in some ways but free from all his false mathematical dress' (Papers, 3.13). Published in December 1863, its compilation had given Jevons great intellectual satisfaction, but by August 1864 it had sold only four copies. Still without secure or well-paid employment, he was now determined to produce a work that would establish him as a nationally recognized author. In the book which resulted, The Coal Question, Jevons's main argument was not that Britain's coal reserves would soon be exhausted, but that the rapid expansion of her population and industry in the nineteenth century had produced an increase of coal consumption at a rate of some 3.5 per cent per annum--a rate that, if long maintained, must compel the extension of mining to either poorer or deeper seams and hence greatly increase the cost of coal. In so far as Britain's industrial position and progress were based on cheap coal they were bound to be seriously affected within about fifty years. Even thus carefully stated the thesis was challenging enough, yet when it appeared in April 1865 The Coal Question was not an immediate success. Jevons continued his tutoring at Owens and in May 1865 was appointed to what he called 'a small Professorship' of political economy and logic at Queen's College, Liverpool. Despite the impressive title, this was really a part-time evening lectureship, which he held for only one year, 1865/6. In that same year Jevons was asked to act as substitute lecturer in political economy in place of R. C. Christie and took over the logic and philosophy class on the illness of A. J. Scott, having resigned his tutorship in order to do so.
Scott's death in January 1866 precipitated a reorganization of posts in Owens College, and a new chair of logic, mental and moral philosophy, and political economy was created. When it was advertised Jevons became doubtful of gaining the appointment, although he was obviously a strong candidate for it. He became increasingly fearful that all the work and sacrifice which, since 1859, he had put into equipping himself to be a social scientist might prove to have been in vain. Then in April 1866 John Stuart Mill commended The Coal Question to his fellow MPs in a speech in the House of Commons, and endorsed Jevons's own suggestion for 'compensating posterity for our present lavish use of cheap coal' by reduction of the national debt. W. E. Gladstone, then chancellor of the exchequer, followed up this suggestion in his budget speech in May and subsequently called Jevons to Downing Street to discuss it. Soon some of the newspapers were reporting a 'coal panic' and the last copies of the first edition of Jevons's book were selling out. By 31 May he had not only achieved his ambition to become a nationally known writer; he could also record in his journal that he had been 'finally and positively appointed' to the new chair at Owens College.
With his position thus secured Jevons, for the first time since leaving Australia, was assured of sufficient earnings to allow him to contemplate marriage. On 19 December 1867 he married Harriet Ann Taylor (1838-1910), third daughter of John Edward Taylor, founder of the Manchester Guardian; they had three children, one son and two daughters. He took a house at 36 Parsonage Road, Withington, Manchester, where their family life proved happy and Jevons found relaxation in gardening in summer, skating in winter, and music at all times. As an established professor, his work at Owens College became 'more easy, familiar and congenial' but, although his students thought highly of his courses, he himself never liked lecturing.
Jevons gave both day and evening classes in logic and political economy, but as courses at Owens College were then related specifically to the examinations of the University of London, he did not have the opportunity either to enlarge the scope of teaching as he would have wished or to develop the abilities of his better pupils and introduce them to more advanced work. As regards research, the changes that the years 1866-7 brought in his professional and domestic circumstances made no difference to Jevons; he continued to work as hard as ever and in this his wife supported and helped him.
At the end of 1866 Jevons had begun 'thinking about logic again seriously' and considered grafting some developments on to the modified version of Boole's system that he had published in 1863. In the next two months the idea that 'the great and universal principle of all reasoning' was the substitution of similars became central to his thinking. With this in mind he decided to 'produce a work which will not only embody a new and luminous system but will be readable and read by many' (Papers, 1.209-10). In 1868 he planned out the work and chose its title, The Principles of Science. It proved a massive undertaking, one to which, as he had foreseen, the best years of his life were given; it was not published until 1874. Meanwhile in 1869 he published The Substitution of Similars, a short work presenting the essence of his system of logic as he now saw it 'to the judgement of those interested in logical science'. In The Principles of Science that system was set in the wider context of the philosophy of science, or, as it was then called, the philosophy of inductive investigation. Jevons argued that the processes of induction were necessarily founded in formal logic, which, unlike Boole, he saw as more fundamental than mathematics. He contended that 'there is no such thing as a distinct method of induction as contrasted with deduction ... induction is simply an inverse employment of deduction' (Principles of Science, 1874, viii). Hence he sided with his precursor William Whewell against J. S. Mill in advocating what has come to be called the 'hypothetico-deductive' method. But he followed David Hume in holding that no inductive inference could be certain; it is only possible to use the theory of probability to assign probabilities to particular hypotheses and provisionally accept the most probable. For its time The Principles of Science was a remarkable achievement, anticipating the approach of more recent works on the philosophy of science and showing Jevons's ability not only to think through the principles of reasoning, but to illustrate their application in a wide range of natural sciences, with which he displayed impressive familiarity.
It is not surprising that it should have taken Jevons six years to construct and complete a work involving such depth of analysis and such breadth of subject matter. What is remarkable is that in all but one of these six years he was publishing numerous articles and books--on other aspects of logic, on economics, and on problems in other sciences as varied as chemistry and astronomy. From his thinking on the processes of logical inference he developed the idea that these might be performed mechanically. As early as 1865 he was trying to build a 'reasoning machine, or logical abacus' (Papers, 4.69), which evolved through several stages into a 'logical piano' or logical machine which he demonstrated before the Royal Society in January 1870. He thought it 'quite as likely to be laughed at as admired' (Letters and Journal, 250), but it was later to be recognized as one of the forerunners of twentieth-century computers, and is preserved in the History of Science Museum at Oxford.
In 1870 also Fleeming Jenkin, then professor of engineering at University College, London, had published an article on 'The graphic representation of the laws of supply and demand' in Recess Studies. It contained no reference to Jevons's 'Brief account of a general mathematical theory of political economy' of 1866, although Jevons had earlier sent Jenkin a copy. This seems to have been the deciding factor in leading Jevons to turn aside from his work on logic and philosophy of science to spend the winter of 1870-71 in writing up a full version of the theory which he had published in summary in 1862 and 1866 in a form that would compel attention. The result was The Theory of Political Economy (1871), the book that was to ensure for Jevons a prominent place in the history of economic thought. Comparatively short and lucidly written, it sharply attacked the classical theory of value of the 'Ricardo-Mill school', and offered in its place the challenging view that 'value depends entirely upon utility', asserting boldly that 'Economy, if it is to be a science at all must be a mathematical science' (Theory of Political Economy, 1871, 2-3). English economists received the book with little interest at first, but in continental Europe it attracted more attention and from it Jevons gained international recognition as an economic theorist.
The years of intense effort that Jevons put into the production of his two most original and famous works had other and more dangerous results for him personally. By Christmas 1871 he was already having symptoms of nervous exhaustion and at Easter 1872 his doctor prescribed a complete rest from work. In the academic year 1872/3 the college allowed him to employ a deputy to give his evening lectures, but he was still not sufficiently recovered to resume all his classes in 1873/4 and offered to resign his post. The council of Owens College was very reluctant to accept his resignation and agreed to give him leave of absence. From 1873 to 1876 Jevons went through a period of hesitation and doubt as to whether he should leave Manchester. He felt a strong sense of obligation to Owens College, which had made his career possible, but while he continued research and publication in both economics and logic he found teaching a growing burden. He was attracted again by the idea of living 'quietly and economically in or near London', using the resources of London libraries and attending the meetings of the Royal Society, which had elected him to its fellowship in 1872, and the Political Economy Club, of which he had become an honorary member in 1874. The balance shifted in favour of London in 1875, when the authorities of University College made it clear to Jevons that he could have first refusal of the chair of political economy there, left vacant by the death of J. E. Cairnes. Although the salary attached to the London post was considerably less than Jevons was paid at Manchester, it also involved much lighter teaching duties. So Jevons finally decided formally to apply for it, was appointed in December 1875, and began teaching there in October 1876.
A London professor and literary man, 1876-1882
The University College chair was not the only one that Jevons might have taken in 1875. At the time when his appointment to it had just been finalized W. B. Hodgson, professor of political economy in the University of Edinburgh, suggested privately that Jevons might become his successor there 'in a little time'. It was a tempting suggestion, for the Edinburgh chair carried twice the salary of that at Owens, and when Jevons went to Edinburgh to receive an honorary LLD in April 1876 he was impressed by the 'nice position' that Scottish professors enjoyed. Yet he did not seriously think of changing his decision, for it still seemed to him that in trying to accomplish what he had set out to do 'one labours under disadvantages in not living, like most of the political economists and literary men, in London' (Papers, 4.134). So in October 1876 he and his family left Parsonage Road, Withington, for Branch Hill, Hampstead. What Jevons was seeking was time and freedom to write and publish, which London and the University College post seemed to offer, but he certainly did not treat it as a sinecure. In the first year in which he held it he doubled the number of lectures from that previously offered and attracted a much increased number of students to his class. In the following year he reverted to the former practice of lecturing once a week, but even so it was not long before he felt the old tension between the demands of teaching and those of writing beginning to recur. In the spring of 1878 his health was again threatened by overwork; he did not reduce his commitments to write, but found lecturing and examining an increasing burden. In October 1880 he decided to resign his professorship, and appointed a substitute for the rest of the academic year. Explaining his decision to Robert Harley, he wrote 'you will perhaps feel it difficult to understand what a millstone upon my health and spirits the work of lecturing has been ... I find that the pressure of literary work leaves me no spare energy whatever' (Papers, 5.116). So Jevons became what he had originally intended to be in his graduate student days--a London-based economist and logician who wrote as a freelance, a 'literary man'.
Last years, death, and reputation
In fact the breakdown in his health in 1872-4, whatever its other consequences, had never stemmed the flow of Jevons's research and writing. In economics and logic he continued to develop the ideas that he had already published; a new edition of The Principles of Science was called for in 1877 and of The Theory of Political Economy in 1879. While he made no fundamental changes in either, Jevons revised each book thoroughly and discussed criticisms of them in new prefaces. New ideas were not lacking either; from 1875 onwards he was concerned with a new hypothesis to explain those 'great commercial fluctuations, completing their course in some ten years' which he had already remarked upon in A Serious Fall in the Value of Gold in 1863. Fascinated, as always, by periodicity, it seemed to him that the relation between these and the decennial sunspot cycle must be more than coincidental and he devoted much thought to seeking to explain the linking mechanism that he felt must exist between them. He was convinced of the validity of his hypothesis, but subsequent research has not confirmed it. This was by no means his only concern during these London years; he contributed to the debate on the then vexed question of bimetallism and also wrote on a variety of aspects of social and economic policy. His last book, The State in Relation to Labour (1882), displayed his continuing adherence to Benthamite utilitarianism as a touchstone in such questions.
In logic, Jevons had long planned to produce a book detailing his criticisms of J. S. Mill's approach to the subject, but in 1877 he decided instead to publish these in the form of a series of articles in the Contemporary Review (1877-9). Much of his time was also taken up in writing textbooks for students, mainly in logic but also in economics. His dislike of lecturing was not due to any lack of teaching ability: he had a talent for writing clear elementary outlines of his specialities, exemplified by his Primer of Logic (1876) and Primer of Political Economy (1878), which were used by many generations of students in many countries.
Even after he had divested himself of all other commitments, Jevons's constant problem was still to find time and strength for all the projects he wished to carry out. He planned a Principles of Economics to supplement his Theory of Political Economy; significantly, he gave it the subtitle 'A treatise on the industrial mechanism of society'. By 1882 he had sketched out its contents and drafted a number of chapters, but was still preoccupied with the completion of papers more urgently required--such as one for that year's social science congress, on the employment of married women in factories--and still trying to do more than his weakened health would allow. August 1882 found him taking a holiday with his wife and children at Bulverhythe, near Hastings. On 13 August he unwisely decided to go swimming, apparently suffered a heart attack brought on by the shock of the unusually cold sea, and drowned. He was buried five days later in Hampstead cemetery.
It was left to his widow and his friends to collect the published and unpublished papers Jevons had left behind and to issue them in a series of volumes: Methods of Social Reform (1883), Investigations in Currency and Finance (1884), Pure Logic and other Minor Works (1890), and The Principles of Economics (1905).
From the time of his graduation as a master of arts of London University until his death Jevons's career lasted just over twenty years. In that time he had achieved what he had planned to do before he left Australia; he had devoted his lifetime to social science and his efforts had earned him a place in its pantheon. Even in his own day Jevons was remarkable as a polymath, but with the passage of time it has become increasingly clear that the true historical significance of his work lies not so much in its scope and depth as in his ability to generate ideas of continuing interest and to raise questions that still stimulate others to further research. As J. M. Keynes remarked, Jevons chiselled in stone where Marshall knitted in wool.
On Jevons's personal qualities, it seems appropriate that the last word should still come from someone who knew him well, Sir Adolphus William Ward, his sometime colleague at Owens College, who thus concluded his account of Jevons's life and work in the Dictionary of National Biography:
Jevons was distinguished by a noble simplicity of disposition. In accordance with this, the keynote to his character, he was pious in the broadest sense of the word, tender-hearted, readily interested in whatever had a real human significance, and, notwithstanding a constitutional tendency to depression, very easily pleased and amused. Both intellectually and morally self-centred, he was entirely free from sordid ambition, and from the mere love of applause. No more honest man ever achieved fame while living laborious days, and striving from his boyhood upward to become 'a powerful good in the world'.
R. D. COLLISON BLACK
Sources
Papers and correspondence of William Stanley Jevons, ed. R. D. Collison Black and R. Könekamp, 7 vols. (1972-81) [with biographical introduction by R. Könekamp]
H. A. Jevons, Letters and journal of W. Stanley Jevons (1886)
J. M. Keynes, 'William Stanley Jevons, 1835-1882: a centenary allocution', Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, 99 (1936); repr. in The collected writings of John Maynard Keynes, 10: Essays in biography (1972)
L. C. Robbins, 'The place of Jevons in economic thought', The Manchester School, 50 (1982)
D. Laidler, 'Jevons on money', The Manchester School, 50 (1982)
S. M. Stigler, 'Jevons as statistician', The Manchester School, 50 (1982)
T. W. Hutchison, 'The politics and philosophy in Jevons's political economy', The Manchester School, 50 (1982)
M. Schabas, A world ruled by number (1990)
R. D. C. Black, 'W. S. Jevons, 1835-82', Pioneers of modern economics, ed. D. O'Brien and J. R. Presley (1981), 1-35
T. Inoue and M. V. White, 'Bibliography of the published works of W. S. Jevons', Journal of the History of Economic Thought, 15 (1993), 122-47
The Times (16 Aug 1882)
The Times (19 Aug 1882)
Archives
JRL, corresp. and papers
Mitchell L., NSW, cash books
Royal Statistical Society, London, statistical papers
U. Glas. L., lecture notes | Bibliothèque Cantonale, Lausanne, Fonds Walras
BL, corresp. with Macmillans, Add. MS 55173
King's AC Cam., letters to Sir Robert Palgrave
priv. coll., Foxwell MSS
RS, corresp. with Sir John Herschel
UCL, letters to C. G. Robinson
Likenesses
photographs, 1851-1858, repro. in R. Könekamp, Papers and correspondence of William Stanley Jevons, ed. R. D. Collinson Black, 7 vols. (1972-81), vol. 2, frontispiece
print, 1858, NPG
Maull & Co., photograph, 1870-79, NPG [see illus.]
photograph, 1878-1880, Hult. Arch.
bust, University of Manchester
engraving, JRL
photograph, JRL
Wealth at death
£6989 10s.: probate, 2 Oct 1882, CGPLA Eng. & Wales
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