Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 22.djvu/189

 JOHN.] SMITH 173 squares and also of seven squares. This class of representation ceases when the number of squares exceeds eight. The cases of two, four, and six squares had been given by Jacobi and that of three squares by Eisenstein, who had also given without demon- stration some of the results for five squares. Fourteen years later the French Academy, in ignorance of Smith's work, set the demon- stration and completion of Eisenstein's theorems for five squares as the subject of their "Grand Prix des Sciences Mathematiques." Smith, at the request of a member of the commission by which the prize was proposed, undertook in 1882 to write out the demonstra- tion of his general theorems so far as was required to prove the re- sults for the special case of five squares. A month after his death, in March 1883, the prize of 3000 francs was awarded to him. The fact that a question of which Smith had given the solution in 1867, as a corollary from general formulae governing the whole class of investigations to which it belonged, should have been set by the French Academy as the subject of their great prize shows how far in advance of his contemporaries his early researches had carried him. Many of the propositions contained in his dissertation are general ; but the demonstrations are not supplied for the case of seven squares. He was also the author of important papers in which he extended to complex quadratic forms many of Gauss's in- vestigations relating to real quadratic forms. After 1864 he devoted himself chiefly to elliptic functions, and numerous papers on this subject were published by him in the Proc. Land. Math. Soc. and elsewhere. At the time of his death he was engaged upon a memoir on the Thcta and Omega Functions, which he left nearly complete. In 1868 he was awarded the Steiner prize of the Berlin Academy for a geometrical memoir, Sur quclques problemes cubiqucs et biquadra- tiqucs. He also wrote the introduction to the collected edition of Clifford's Mathematical Papers (1882). The three subjects to which Smith's writings relate are theory of numbers, elliptic functions, and modern geometry; but in all that he wrote an "arithmetical" mode of thought is apparent, his methods and processes being arith- metical as distinguished from algebraic. He had the most intense admiration of Gauss. He was president of the mathematical and physical section of the British Association at Bradford in 1873 and of the London Mathematical Society in 1874-76. A memorial edition of his collected mathematical works is being (1887) printed by the Oxford university press. An article in the Spectator of 17th February 1883, written by Lord Justice Bowen, gives perhaps the best idea of Smith's extraordinary personal qualities and influence, his sound judgment, perfect temper, gentle and Lilian wisdom, sweetness of character, delicate gaiety of spirit, and brilliant conversational power, which made him one of the most accomplished and attractive ornaments of any edu- cated company in which he moved. For further details relating to Henry Smith, reference should be made to the Fortnightly Review for May 1SS3 and to the " Mouthly Notices" of the Roy. Ast. Soc., vol. xliv. SMITH, JAMES (1775-1839) and HORACE (1779-1849), sons of an eminent and prosperous London solicitor, were born, the former on 10th February 1775 and the latter on 31st December 1779, both in London. They were joint authors of the Rejected Addresses, described by Horace as " one of the luckiest hits in literature." The occasion of this happy jeu d'esprit was the rebuilding of Drury Lane theatre in 1812, after a fire in which it had been burnt down. The managers had offered a prize of 50 for an address to be recited at the reopening in October. Six weeks before that date the happy thought occurred to the brothers Smith of feigning that the most popular poets of the time had been among the competitors and issuing a volume of unsuccessful addresses in parody of their various styles. They divided the task between them, James taking Wordsworth, Southey, Coleridge, and Crabbe, while Byron, Moore, Scott, and Bowles were assigned to Horace. 1 The parodists were ready with their small volume by October, but they had some difficulty in getting a publisher, although the success of their clever imitations once published was such that seven editions were called for within three months. The Rejected Addresses are the most widely popular parodies ever published in England, and have taken quite a classical rank in that kind of literature. The brothers fairly divided the honours : the elder brother's Wordsworth is evenly balanced by the younger's Scott, 1 The particulars of the authorship are given in the 18th edition (1820), and in the memoir of his brother by Horace prefixed to a col- lection of fugitive pieces (1840). James contributed the first stanza to the imitation of Byron, but otherwise they worked independently. and both had a hand in Byron. A striking feature in the parodies is the absence of malice ; none of the caricatured bards took offence, while the imitation is so clever that both Byron and Scott are recorded to have said in effect that they could hardly believe they had not written the addresses ascribed to them. After this brilliant success James, the elder brother, determined, as he said, " to leave off a winner " and follow Warburton's advice to Anstey: "Young man, you have written a highly successful work ; never put pen to paper again." He was tempted occasionally to transgress this self-denying ordinance, and made another hit in writing Country Cousins, A Trip to Paris, A Trip to America, and other lively skits for Charles Mathews, earning from the comedian the praise of being " the only man who can write clever nonsense." His social reputation as a wit stood high. He was reputed one of the best of conversers in an age when the art was studied, and it was remarked that he held his own without falling into the great error of wits, sarcasm. But for all his good-nature he did not wholly escape the Charybdis of great talkers, the charge of being something of a bore. In his old age the irreverent Eraser's put him in its gallery of living portraits as a gouty and elderly but painstaking joker. He died in London on 26th December 1839. Horace Smith was less timorously careful of his poetical reputation than his elder brother, whom he survived, and, after making a fortune as a stockbroker, followed in the wake of Scott and wrote about a score of historical novels, Brambletye House, Tor Hill, Reuben Apsley, Zillah, The Neio Forest, Walter Colyton, &c. His sketches of eccentric character are brilliant and amusing ; but he was more of an essayist than a story-teller. He began in 1826, when Scott, still retaining his hold on the public, had made suc- cess impossible for imitators with less wealth of historical substance and inferior command of stirring incident. As he went on he encountered such competitors as Bulwer Lytton, Disraeli, Marryat, and Dickens. Still Horace Smith established a fair reputation, and some of his novels may still be found in the smoking-rooms of country houses. He was also a frequent contributor to the Neio Monthly Magazine under the editorship of Campbell. Three volumes of Gaieties and Gravities, published in 1826, contain many witty essays both in prose and in verse, but the only single piece that has taken a permanent place is the " Address to the Mummy in Belzoni's Exhibition." There is more of earnest in this than is generally found in his jesting. In private life Horace Smith was not less popular than his brother, though less ambitious of renown as a talker. It was of him that Shelley said : " Is it not odd that the only truly generous person I ever knew who had money enough to be generous with should be a stockbroker 1 He writes poetry and pastoral dramas and yet knows how to make money, and does make it, and is still generous." Horace Smith died at Tunbridge Wells on 12th July 1849. SMITH, JOHN (1580-1631), usually distinguished as Captain John Smith, some time president of the English colony in Virginia, was the elder son of George Smith, a well-to-do tenant-farmer on the estate of Lord Willoughby d'Eresby at Willoughby near Alford in Lincolnshire. The life of this Virginian hero falls conveniently into five periods. The first of these, 1580-1596, that of his early youth, is thus described by himself in his Travels : " He was born [1580] in Willoughby in Lincolnshire and was a scholar in the two free schools of Alford and Louth. His parents, dying [April 1596] when he was thirteen [or rather fifteen] years of age, left him a competent means, which he, not being capable to manage, little regarded. His mind being even then set upon brave adventures, he sold his satchel,