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GEORGE PEACOCK was born at Denton, near Darlington, April 9, 1781. His father, Thomas Peacock, was a clergyman and schoolmaster at that place, and was the author of a manual of arithmetic, The Tutor's Assistant Modernised, which went through several editions, and also of a work on mensuration, The Practical Measurer. Both works were first published about 1810. The son finished his education under the Rev. James Tate, at Richmond, whom he always entertained the highest regard for, and to whom he dedicated the first of his works on algebra in most affectionate terms. He then re-moved to Trinity College, Cambridge, and took the degree of B.A. in 1813 with high distinction, being second on the list of wranglers, and second only to Sir John Herschel. A fellowship, and ultimately a tutorship, followed of course; and about 1817 he took orders. Of his works we shall presently speak separately. He continued to teach in Trinity College until 1839, when he was made Dean of Ely; and thus removed. from a college life when he was close to fifty years of age, he entered on his second career without difficulty from his novelty or hindrance from his previous habits. Once a dean, says one of the journals, he grasped and carried out all that a dean's life ought to be. The restoration of his cathedral and the purification of the town are among the successes which prove at once the goodness of his judgment, and the power which talent, judgment, and character united, gave him over the minds of others. His clerical duties were varied from those of the Lowndean Professorship, to which he was appointed in 1836, by the Standard Scale Commissions (1838, 1843), by the Cambridge Commissions (1850, 1858), by the Prolocutorship of Convocation (1841-47, 1852-57), and by various minor duties. Whenever a man of safe judgment was wanted, who united kindness and courtesy to a clear view of duty and a firm purpose, the government, the clergy, and the university knew where to find him. In the midst of heavy duties, he died on November 8, 1858, of bronchitis. He had suffered for many years under bad health, leading to the frequent interruption of his scientific undertakings. In 1847, he married the sister of Bishop Selwyn. His own father and mother lived to an extreme old age and saw their son in his highest honours. A full detail of his life is given in the Notices of the Royal Society, drawn up, it is believed, by the only person who would omit to name his superior on the Tripos. That one of these men should pay this last tribute to the other was rendered most fitting as well by their early struggle, as by their subsequent association in forwarding many a useful undertaking.
Dr. Peacock had cultivated Continental analysis, then very little known in England, at an early period of his studies Professor Woodhouse, in 1803, had called attention to foreign mathematics, as they were called, in his Principles of Analytical Calculation, a work which was no doubt intended to recommend the change which afterwards followed, but was written by a man who saw that severe examination and discriminating criticism would better advance the object than the eulogium of a partisan. In 1813, there were found in the University a few very young men who had fully mastered the Continental system. Among these were Messrs. Peacock, Babbage, Herschel, and Maule (afterwards Justice). Peacock was distinguished by very extensive reading; his power in this respect was a talent, and a rare one; for when no duty compels, and books are not to be encountered as drudgery, none can bring themselves to face volumes by the hundred except those in whom the memory and the reflective power are so strong that every page is suggestive of comparisons. The young men alluded to formed an Analytical Society, which produced a small volume of Memoirs in 1813; and they proceeded to declare open war upon the studies of the University. A translation of Lacroix's Differential Calculus was prepared (1816), and a volume of examples to accompany it (1820); in the latter, Mr. Peacock had the largest part. In 1817 he was Moderator, and in this capacity he ventured to introduce the new system into the public examinations, his colleagues retaining the old one. This old system made its appearance once again in 1818; in 1819 Mr. Peacock was Moderator, with a colleague of his own sympathy (Mr. Gwatkin), and the change was tally accomplished. All the chief actors in producing it have lived to see their work fully done, and their country in full communication with the rest of the world after more than a century of nearly complete exclusion. Mr. Peacock subsequently published an anonymous Syllabus of Trigonometry and Algebraic Geometry, which was much wanted in the University; indeed, the reformers had kept their eyes too exclusively upon the differential calculus, of which this publication was a kind of confession.
In 1826 he published his historical article on arithmetic in the Encyclopædia Metropolitana, by far the most learned article of the kind that exists: for though Chasles and others have written able and minute dissertations on individual points, there is nothing like a treatment of the whole subject, except the article of which we now speak, which treats details with accurate minuteness and gives an amount of information that would have been thought impossible within the space. This finished work was not undertaken until the publication of the Encyclopædia suggested it, and it was among the earliest appearances of the work.
In 1830 the first of his two works on algebra appeared, which are not to be called first and second editions of one work. The difficulties under which algebra had laboured as to the interpretation of some of its most essential symbols had begun to receive something like a solution; but it was rather a clear glimpse of what was to come than a full attainment There was much need of a philosophical mind which should make the first principles of algebra coextensive with the conclusions founded upon them. Mr. Peacock meditated long upon this subject and produced the first finished effort towards a theory of algebra. He was much assisted by the details which had been published by Argand, Mourey, Buée, and Warren—writers who were all, more or less, possessed by the idea that they were constructing a new algebra, when, in truth, as was first fully seen by Peacock, they were explaining the old algebra. The next work on algebra (two volumes, 1842 and 1845) is a systematic separation of universal arithmetic, or the science of numbers under general symbols, from that higher interpretation of symbols which alone is properly called algebra. The first volume is most admirably fitted to be the introduction of young students into the whole subject of symbolic language.
Between these two works, Dr. Peacock presented to the British Association, in 1834, a report 'On the Recent Progress of Analysis.' This is a critical investigation of those higher difficulties which the student encounters when he carries algebra into the differential calculus. It abounds with cases which are still matters of opinion; but there are very few mathematicians who venture into full discussion of these difficulties, in the elucidation of which lies all our hope of future progress. Many a young analyst will owe his strength to his acquaintance with this vast ground of thought, in which a mind long accustomed to comparison has brought before him at one view the details which, singly and apart, present only difficulty without suggestions of the direction in which to look for light.
The Life of Dr. Young, with the edition of his miscellaneous works (in which he was assisted as to the hieroglyphical portion by Mr. Leitch), occupied Dr. Peacock for many years. The life itself is a very good specimen of judicious biography and of biographical research; while the knowledge to edit the miscellanies of such a varied writer as Young is possessed by very few. Of Peacock it may truly be said that he placed Young's statue on its pedestal.
His observations on the University Statutes, published in 1841, showed that he had deeply studied the university in which he was brought up, and was as ready to aid in corporate amelioration as in the improvement of mathematics.
Dr. Peacock's last writing was a series of short answers to the questions on Decimal Coinage proposed by Lord Overstone, one of Her Majesty's Commissioners on the subject. Dr. Peacock was a strong advocate for this change in coinage: and he had gone deeply into the question, both as a historian of arithmetic and as a member of the Standard Scale Commissions
He was one of the earliest members of our Society, though his residence at Cambridge and Ely prevented him from being a frequent attendant. To this short sketch of his labours the Council may add that any sketch, however short, supersedes the necessity of any description of character. One thing may well be added: A man may have been all that Peacock was and have done all that Peacock did, without possessing that gentleness of nature, kindliness of feeling, courtesy of manners, and benevolence of action, which endeared him to all who came in contact with him.
Dr. Peacock had cultivated Continental analysis, then very little known in England, at an early period of his studies Professor Woodhouse, in 1803, had called attention to foreign mathematics, as they were called, in his Principles of Analytical Calculation, a work which was no doubt intended to recommend the change which afterwards followed, but was written by a man who saw that severe examination and discriminating criticism would better advance the object than the eulogium of a partisan. In 1813, there were found in the University a few very young men who had fully mastered the Continental system. Among these were Messrs. Peacock, Babbage, Herschel, and Maule (afterwards Justice). Peacock was distinguished by very extensive reading; his power in this respect was a talent, and a rare one; for when no duty compels, and books are not to be encountered as drudgery, none can bring themselves to face volumes by the hundred except those in whom the memory and the reflective power are so strong that every page is suggestive of comparisons. The young men alluded to formed an Analytical Society, which produced a small volume of Memoirs in 1813; and they proceeded to declare open war upon the studies of the University. A translation of Lacroix's Differential Calculus was prepared (1816), and a volume of examples to accompany it (1820); in the latter, Mr. Peacock had the largest part. In 1817 he was Moderator, and in this capacity he ventured to introduce the new system into the public examinations, his colleagues retaining the old one. This old system made its appearance once again in 1818; in 1819 Mr. Peacock was Moderator, with a colleague of his own sympathy (Mr. Gwatkin), and the change was tally accomplished. All the chief actors in producing it have lived to see their work fully done, and their country in full communication with the rest of the world after more than a century of nearly complete exclusion. Mr. Peacock subsequently published an anonymous Syllabus of Trigonometry and Algebraic Geometry, which was much wanted in the University; indeed, the reformers had kept their eyes too exclusively upon the differential calculus, of which this publication was a kind of confession.
In 1826 he published his historical article on arithmetic in the Encyclopædia Metropolitana, by far the most learned article of the kind that exists: for though Chasles and others have written able and minute dissertations on individual points, there is nothing like a treatment of the whole subject, except the article of which we now speak, which treats details with accurate minuteness and gives an amount of information that would have been thought impossible within the space. This finished work was not undertaken until the publication of the Encyclopædia suggested it, and it was among the earliest appearances of the work.
In 1830 the first of his two works on algebra appeared, which are not to be called first and second editions of one work. The difficulties under which algebra had laboured as to the interpretation of some of its most essential symbols had begun to receive something like a solution; but it was rather a clear glimpse of what was to come than a full attainment There was much need of a philosophical mind which should make the first principles of algebra coextensive with the conclusions founded upon them. Mr. Peacock meditated long upon this subject and produced the first finished effort towards a theory of algebra. He was much assisted by the details which had been published by Argand, Mourey, Buée, and Warren—writers who were all, more or less, possessed by the idea that they were constructing a new algebra, when, in truth, as was first fully seen by Peacock, they were explaining the old algebra. The next work on algebra (two volumes, 1842 and 1845) is a systematic separation of universal arithmetic, or the science of numbers under general symbols, from that higher interpretation of symbols which alone is properly called algebra. The first volume is most admirably fitted to be the introduction of young students into the whole subject of symbolic language.
Between these two works, Dr. Peacock presented to the British Association, in 1834, a report 'On the Recent Progress of Analysis.' This is a critical investigation of those higher difficulties which the student encounters when he carries algebra into the differential calculus. It abounds with cases which are still matters of opinion; but there are very few mathematicians who venture into full discussion of these difficulties, in the elucidation of which lies all our hope of future progress. Many a young analyst will owe his strength to his acquaintance with this vast ground of thought, in which a mind long accustomed to comparison has brought before him at one view the details which, singly and apart, present only difficulty without suggestions of the direction in which to look for light.
The Life of Dr. Young, with the edition of his miscellaneous works (in which he was assisted as to the hieroglyphical portion by Mr. Leitch), occupied Dr. Peacock for many years. The life itself is a very good specimen of judicious biography and of biographical research; while the knowledge to edit the miscellanies of such a varied writer as Young is possessed by very few. Of Peacock it may truly be said that he placed Young's statue on its pedestal.
His observations on the University Statutes, published in 1841, showed that he had deeply studied the university in which he was brought up, and was as ready to aid in corporate amelioration as in the improvement of mathematics.
Dr. Peacock's last writing was a series of short answers to the questions on Decimal Coinage proposed by Lord Overstone, one of Her Majesty's Commissioners on the subject. Dr. Peacock was a strong advocate for this change in coinage: and he had gone deeply into the question, both as a historian of arithmetic and as a member of the Standard Scale Commissions
He was one of the earliest members of our Society, though his residence at Cambridge and Ely prevented him from being a frequent attendant. To this short sketch of his labours the Council may add that any sketch, however short, supersedes the necessity of any description of character. One thing may well be added: A man may have been all that Peacock was and have done all that Peacock did, without possessing that gentleness of nature, kindliness of feeling, courtesy of manners, and benevolence of action, which endeared him to all who came in contact with him.
George Peacock's obituary appeared in Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society 19:4 (1859), 125-128.