Negotiating “the world’s slippery path”

Abstract During the course of his life, James Joseph Sylvester repeatedly experienced a sense of sliding on “the world’s slippery path” (letter 7), but his footing seemed perhaps most unsure in the years prior to 1850 as he sought to establish himself professionally while pursuing his mathematical interests. The balance proved difficult to strike for a number of reasons. First and foremost, the twentiethcentury concept of a “professional mathematician” as someone who earns a living by proving theorems did not exist in Victorian Britain. The universities had mathematics chairs, fellows, and tutors, but undergraduate teaching exclusively defined these positions. Moreover, as a Jew and thereby a non-Anglican, Sylvester could not subscribe to the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England and so was ineligible for any degree from or post associated with an Anglican institution. How, then, could he make his way doing what he did best, namely, mathematics? The answer was unclear, and he took a number of false steps in trying to find it.