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Memoir of Augustus De Morgan

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Memoir of Augustus De Morgan t^/rvoJi ■ ayr' e^M. • MEMOIE OF AUGUSTUS DE MOEGAN UV HIS WIFE SOPHIA ELIZABETH DE MORGAN WITH SELECTIONS FROM HIS LETTERS LONDON LONGMANS, GEEEN, AND CO. 1882 All rights reserved HARVARD COtlEfiE LIBRARY FE8241883 PKEFACE. I 5rBD hardly say that in the following pages I have not attempted a scientific memoir. My object has been to supply that part of my husband's life the material for which would not be within the reach of another biographer. The selection from his letters might have been much larger, if I could in all cases have inserted those of his correspondents. Without these many would have been incomprehensible. As it is, I may have over-estimated the attention which readers will be disposed to give to them. My rule in choosing the letters has been to take those which are moat characteristic of the writer, and in this way to give to readers already acquainted with him through his writings a more familiar knowledge of hiin as a man. His connection with University College, and the events which led to his leaviug it, are necessarily made promi nent. So long a time has elapsed since their occurrence, and I have known so little during that time of the Institu tion, that I cannot even surmise how the present Council would in like circumstances share the convictions or con- 6rm the action of its predecessors. After the lapse of sixteen vears I trust that the narrative will provoke no revival of the somewhat acrimonious controversy which ensued. It might perhaps have been in some ways VI PREFACE. better that Mr. De Morgan should have published a fuller statement of his views at the time, and have thus left less to be done by his biographer. But he had several reasons for not doing this. He refrained partly from reluctance to add to the censures which were being pro nounced on the College, perhaps too emphatically, even by well-wishers, and re-echoed by its enemies with uncon cealed satisfaction ; partly by the feeling that he had made no sacrifice of a pecuniary nature in resigning his Professorship ; but, as I think, chiefly from weariness and disappointment, and from a desire to have done with the Institution as soon as possible. Nothing, not even a dis tinct recantation of the measure which made him leave, would have induced him to resume his chair, for he would have held such a recantation to be but another concession to expediency in deference to the storm unexpectedly raised. Should any portion of what I have written appear un called for, it must be remembered that I could not touch my husband's side of the question without placing the whole before my readers. The insertion of the lengthy justifica tion of the Council by members of the Senate will, I trust, exempt me from the charge of having suppressed arguments on the other side. Sophia Elizareth De Morgan. Cheyne Itoir, Chdtea, 18S2. CONTENTS. SECTION I. From 1806 to 1827. PAQK Place of Birth— Voyage to England — Family — Schools and School Days — Early Religious Teaching — Trinity College, Cam bridge — Reading and Study — Mother's Anxiety — Teachers — College Friends — Choice of Profession — Degree — Lincoln's Inn 1-18 SECTION II. Fkom 1827 to 1831. William Frend — Religious Discussions — Stoke Newington — Can didature for Professorship — University in London — Its Foundation — Its Principle — Opening of Classes — Introductory Lecture — Disagreements between Professors and Council — Paris — Colonel Briggs — East India Service — Dr. Briggs' Ghost Story — Opening of Session — Differences renewed — Letter of Remonstrance — Resignation of Chair . 19-40 section in. From 1831 to 1836. Residence in Guilford Street — Astronomical Society — Efforts to raise Astronomy — Baily — Herschel — Airy — De Morgan elected Hon. Secretary — Astronomical Society's Charter — Captain Smyth — Sir James South — Friendships in Astro nomical Society — Mr. Baily's Houso — Sir James South's Quarrels — Nautical Almanac — Standard Scale — ' Elements of Arithmetic ' - — Charles Butler — Archdeacon Thorp — Book- collecting — Hachette — Amicable Assurance Company — Troughton v. South — Challenges — Maps of the Stare — Return to Mathematical Chair ....... 41-74 Vlll CONTENTS. SECTION IV. PAOI Correspondence from 1831 to 1836 75-84 SECTION V. From 1836 to 1846. Death of his Sister — His Religious Feelings and Opinions — His Mother's Anxieties — Church Rates — Marriage — Friends — Lady Noel Byron — Mrs. Fry — Introductory Lecture — Uni versity of London — 'Theory of Probabilities' — 'Essay on Probabilities ' — Dickens' Works — Women's Rights—' Philo sophers ' — Metaphysics — Lecturing — Distinguished Pupils — Cram — Outbreak of Students — Testimonial — Jewish Pupils — George Long — James Tate — 'Northern Lights' — Francis Baily — The Cavendish Experiment — Blackheath — Death of William Frend — Obituary Notice — Commission on Standard Scale — Standard of Length — Henry Hallam — Birth of George Campbell De Morgan — Dr. Whewell — Cambridge Tracts — ' Differential and Integral Calculus ' finished — Limits and Series — John Stuart Mill — Berkeley's Philosophy — Mill's Writings — Comte's System — Birth of Edward Lindsey De Morgan — Death of Francis Baily — His Epitaph — His Bust — Richard Sheepshanks — Micrometer Observations — Removal from Gower Street to Camden Street — Incapacity of a Professor — Class taken by Mr. De Morgan — Students' Gift — Malby's Globes — Mr. John Taylor's Astronomy and Work on the Pyramid — Old Mathematical Society — Historical Society of Science — Rev. Samuel Maitland — The Easter Question — Lord Brougham — Discovery of Neptune — Recep tion of Discovery 85-138 SECTION VI. Correspondence from 1836 to 1846 13&-156 SECTION VII. From 1846 to 1855. Formal Logic — Dr. Whewell — Cecil Monro's Remarks — Rev. Dr. Logan — The Hamilton Controversy — Mr. Herbert CONTENTS. IX FAGB Spencer — Berkeley's Metaphysics — Professor Boole — His System of Logic — Psychology — Chief Baron Pollock — Intro ductory Lecture — Our Competitive Examination — Opinions of Friends — Astronomical Society — Admiral Smyth — Presi dency — Royal Society — Acquaintance and Friends — Ladies' College — Over-teaching — Sir Rowland Hill — Postage — Museum Catalogue — Guglielmo Libri — Libri accused of Theft — De Morgan's Advocacy — Death of Thomas Galloway — Obituary Notice — Address on Negro Slavery — Cambridge Examinations — Physiology — Vivisection — University College — Dr. Peene's Legacy — Letter of Remonstrance to Council — Our Eldest Child's Death— City of London School— Death of Richard Sheepshanks— His Funeral — Anne Sheepshanks — Memoir — Table-turning — Mr. Faraday's Lecture on Mental Training — De Morgan's Criticism — Mr. Faraday's Indi cator ' . 157-193 SECTION VIII. Correspondence from 1846 to 1855 194-232 SECTION IX. From 1856 to 18C5. His Mother's Death— Her Sons — Accident to Shoulder — Decimal Coinage — History of the Movement — Government Commis sions — Decimal Association — Deputation to Mr. Gladstone — Deputation to Board of Trade — Debate on Question — Sum mary in ' Westminster Review ' — Articles in ' Companion to the Almanac ' — Lecture on Coinage — Lord Overstone's Questions — Replies — Death of Mr. William Brown— Memoir of Newton — Brewster's Life of Newton — The Kaleidoscope — M. Biot — Catherine Barton — Lord Halifax — Article for ' Companion to Almanac' rejected — Savings Bank — Public Playgrounds — Rev. David Laing — Letter of Charles Dickens— Removal to Adelaide Road — Cab Drivers— Drinkwater Bethune — Ram- chundra — Hindoo Algebra — Non-acceptance of LL.D. Degree — International Statistical Congress — Retirement from Astronomical Society — Farewell Letter — Death of Biot — Foundation of Mathematical Society — Death of George Campbell De Morgan 233-286 SECTION X. Correspondence from 1850 to 1866 287-335 X CONTENTS. SECTION XI. PA BE From 1866 to 1871. .University College — Chair of Mental Philosophy — Rev. J. Mar- tineau — Unitarians on Council — Report of Senate — Requisi tion to Council — Appointment of Mr. Croom Robertson — Letter of Resignation — Acceptance of Resignation — Statement of Fifteen Professors to Proprietors — Annual Meeting — De Morgan's Last Visit to College — Letters of Old Pupils — H. C. Robinson— His Books — His Breakfasts— Death of George Campbell De Morgan — Mathematical Society — Ulnoss and Removal to Merton Road — Latest Occupation and Interests— Greek Testament — The Free Christian Union — Christian Belief — Rationalism — Prayer— Death of Christiana De Morgan— Last Hours— Death— Extract from Will . 336-368 SECTION XII. Correspondence from 1867 to 1870 369-WX) O List of Writings 401 Index 117 MEMOIE OF AUGUSTUS DE MORGAN. SECTION I. Augustus DE Morgan was born in the year 1806 at 1806. Madura, in the Madras Presidency. His father Lieu tenant-Colonel De Morgan had held appointments, some of them staff situations, at several stations in India ; and at the time of his fifth child's birth had chosen Madura in preference to Vellore on account of its comparative quietness. This choice was fortunate, for the battalion of Colonel De Morgan's regiment commanded by Colonel Fanshawe was at Vellore during the time of the mutiny of the native troops ; and thus escaped the terrible out break in which several English officers lost their lives, and Colonel Fanshawe was murdered. Even at the quieter stations there was cause for alarm from the general disaffection of the native troops, and my hus band's mother told how she, being then near her con finement, saw Colonel De Morgan, when the sentries were changed, creep out of bed to listen to the Sepoys, that he might learn if any plot were in agitation, about which information might be given with the pass word. When Augustus was seven months old his father and Voysge to mother came to England with three children, two ^*" daughters and the infant. They sailed in the Duchess B 2 MEMOIR OF AUGUSTUS DE MORGAN. 1807. of Gordon, one of a convoy of nearly forty ships. The Commodore, Captain (afterwards Admiral) Sir John Beau fort, was on friendly terms with my husband in after life. But Mr. De Morgan had no suspicion of having sailed under his convoy until after Mrs. De Morgan's death, when the notice of it was found in her journal. When Admiral Beaufort heard of this he wrote, in a letter dated Oct.
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