In private life this eminent man was distinguished by the suavitj' and simplicity of his manners, by his elegant tastes, and domestic virtues*.
Mr. James Ivory was the son of Mr. James Ivory, watchmaker in Dundee, and Avas born in that town in the year 1765. He re- ceived his elementary education at the public schools of Dundee, and in the year 1779, M'as sent to the University of St. Andrews, where, in the period of four years, he went through a course of Languages, Science and Philosophy, entitling him to the Degree of Master of Arts, which was afterwards conferred on him. While at this University he was distinguished for his attainments in Mathe- matics, to the study of which branch of science he had, even at this early period of his life, particularly applied himself, under the able instruction of the Rev. John West, at that time assistant to the Pro- fessor in the University. It reflects equal credit upon the pupil and the instructor, that for this gentleman Mr. Ivory ever after en- tertained the highest regard.
Being intended for the Church of Scotland, he now commenced his studies in theology, and in the prosecution of them remained two years at St. Andrews, after the completion of his course of Phi- losophy. He then removed to the University of Edinburgh ; and it is not a little remarkable that he should have done so v/ith Leslie, wdio had been his fellow-student at St. Andrews. At Edinburgh, he received his third year's theological instruction, necessary, by the regulations of the Scottish church, to qualify him for admission as a clergyman. His studies in divinity were not, however, prosecuted farther ; for immediately on leaving the University of Edinburgh, he was, in 1786, appointed assistant-teacher in an academy then instituted in his native town of Dundee, for the purpose of instruc- tion in mathematics and natural philosophy. Having remained in this situation three years, he entered upon a totally different career, becoming a partner in, and the manager of a Flax-spinning Com- pany, Avhich had its mills at Douglastown in Forfarshire, and which assumed the name of James Ivory and Company.
Though now engaged in commercial and manufacturing pursuits, Mr. Ivory still devoted every moment of leisure to his favourite object, the prosecution of mathematical investigations. Living in a secluded part of the country, he was debarred from the advantages of access to libraries and the society of men of science, which a more favoured locality might have afforded him ; but this obstacle to the enlargement of his knowledge was overcome by the force of his genius and his powers of application. With a sound knowledge of the geometry of the ancient and of the modern mathematics of his own country, he had already possessed himself of the methods and discoveries of the continental mathematicians, at that time almost wholly unknown in Britain ; and he early led the way in that path which he afterwards followed with unrivalled success.
- An excellent account of the life and writings of Sir Charles Bell will be found in Pettigrew's Medical Portrait Gallery, vol, iii.
