Only at the beginning of the nineteenth century did new Continental ideas concerning mathematics become understood in Britain. These ideas encompassed mathematical abstraction, and also a belief that pure mathematics was worthy of study and research in its own right, without reference to its utility; British mathematicians who endorsed and acted on this belief became known as 'pure mathematicians'. Abstract symbolism in algebra, which relied on logic for the cogency of a demonstration, was opposed to the British tradition in which mathematical truth was assured by the manner in which mathematical entities and processes reflected those of nature, and so traditionalists believed that the role of mathematics as the provider of eternal, irrefutable truths was being undermined. Consequently pure mathematicians had an uphill task in asserting the independence of pure mathematics, for they were opposing Victorian utilitarian ideals. In this respect, the situation of pure mathematicians was similar to that of the classicists; but the fortunes of the classics declined in the latter half of the Victorian era, whereas pure mathematics gained in strength, a circumstance that needs explaining.