become an object of universal admiration. Later still he exercised a like stimulating influence as professor at Oxford. An international fund is being raised to commemorate his eminent services to mathematical science by the foundation of a Sylvester medal and prize to be awarded triennially by the council of the Royal Society.
Sylvester's writings, when collected in a succession of quarto volumes, will, it is estimated, cover some 2,500 pages. They are scattered through journals and volumes of transactions covering sixty years. Among these are the ‘Philosophical Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society,’ the ‘Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences,’ the ‘Cambridge and Dublin Mathematical Journal,’ the ‘Philosophical Magazine,’ the ‘American Journal of Mathematics,’ the ‘Quarterly Journal of Mathematics,’ the ‘Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society,’ and the ‘Messenger of Mathematics,’ in which last appears his latest paper, dated 12 Feb. 1897, and annotated less than three weeks before his death.
Many a single memoir from the series would have made him eminent. A few deal with the geometry of motion and other subjects near the region of applied mathematics. But most of his prolonged researches deal with pure analysis, and in particular with the theories of algebraical form and of numbers. Working side by side, though not in actual collaboration, with his friend, Professor Cayley, he shared the work of raising from its foundations the vast modern edifice of invariant algebra, while his skill and brilliant intuition enriched the science of number with a body of doctrine on partitions the wealth of which is hardly yet fully estimated. All he touched retains the impress of his personality. The form in which English mathematicians accept the invariant theory, for instance, is the form in which he presented it to them; and the terminology which he introduced—and his new terms were legion—is that which has become permanently established in the language.
Sylvester had a keen interest in all scientific work, and a genuine love of literature. He was specially interested in the structure of English verse, and in 1870 published ‘The Laws of Verse,’ an attempt to illustrate from his own and others' verse the principles of ‘phonetic syzygy.’ The volume is chiefly valuable for the light it throws on his personality. His own verses showed great ingenuity and invention in language, but lacked simplicity and clearness. His poetical work was seen at its best in some translations from the German. As a young man he was a devoted student of music, and at one time he took lessons in singing from Gounod. His nature was very sensitive, but he was always happy when at work or when sharing the enthusiasm of some younger student. He was keen and vivacious in conversation, and, until health failed, he thoroughly enjoyed society.
In person he was below the middle height, with a large and massive head, regular features, and fine grey eyes, which lit up and gave distinction to his face. His portrait, by A. E. Emslie, hangs in the hall of St. John's College, Cambridge. A medal struck in his honour when he left Baltimore gives his portrait in relief. An engraving appeared in ‘Nature’ on 3 Jan. 1889.
[Writings; List of works, with references, in the Cat. of Scientific Papers prepared by the Royal Soc.; The Laws of Verse, 1870; Biographical Notice with notices of his work (written in his lifetime), by Cayley in Nature, 1889, xxxix. 219; Obituary notice by Major MacMahon, R.A., in the Proc. of the Royal Soc.; Johns Hopkins Univ. Circulars, January 1884; The Teaching and Hist. of Mathematics in the United States by Florian Cajori, M.S., Bureau of Education: Circular of Information, No. 3, 1890, pp. 261, &c.; An Address commemorative of Prof. J. J. Sylvester, by Fabian Franklin, Ph.D., delivered at a memorial meeting at the Johns Hopkins Univ. Baltimore, 2 May 1897; obit. notices in the Times, 16 March 1897; Nature, 25 March 1897, lv. 492; Oxford Mag. 5 May 1897; the Eagle (magazine of St. John's College, Cambridge), June 1897; Science (New York), 11 April 1897; List of honours, see Royal Soc. List of Members, 30 Nov. 1896.]
SYLVESTER, JOSUAH (1563–1618), poet, translator of Du Bartas, born in 1563 in the Medway region of Kent, was the son of Robert Sylvester, a clothier. His mother was the daughter of John Plumbe of Eltham, and sister of William Plumbe (1533–1593) of Eltham, and latterly of Fulham, a substantial man, who married, as his first wife, Margaret, daughter of Sir Thomas Neville, knt., and widow of Sir Robert Southwell (cf. Harl. MS. 1551, f. 39; Faulkner, Fulham, p. 91). Both of Josuah's parents having died when he was young, he seems to have been in some measure adopted by his uncle, William Plumbe, and ‘the Honorable Mary Nevil,’ to whom he originally dedicated his ‘Automachia,’ was in all probability a kinswoman of his uncle's first wife. When he was ten years old he was sent to the select school of Adrian à Saravia [q. v.] at Southampton, among his contemporaries being Sir Thomas Lake [q. v.] and Robert Ashley [q. v.] There he acquired a sound knowledge of French,
