72 Mc'jnoir of the late Francis Baily, Esq., F.B.S., Sfc, 



liis powers, and on which they could be, on the whole, most 

 availably and usefully employed. Both in his public and 

 private capacity he was liberal and generous in the extreme, 

 and both his purse and his influence were ever ready, whether 

 to befriend merit, or to promote objects of public, and espe- 

 cially of scientific utility. 



To term Mr. Baily a man of brilliant genius or great in- 

 vention, would in effect be doing him wrong. His talents were 

 great, but rather solid and sober than brilliant, and such as 

 seized their subject rather with a tenacious grasp than with a 

 sudden pounce. His mind, though perhaps not excursive, 

 was yet always in progress, and by industry, activity, and 

 using to advantage every ray of light as it broke in upon his 

 path, he often accomplished what is denied to the desultory 

 efforts of more imaginative men. Whatever he knew he knew 

 thoroughly, and enlarged his frontier by continually stepping 

 across the boundary and making good a new and well-marked 

 line between the cultivation within and the wilderness without. 

 But the frame of his mind, if not colossal, was manly in the 

 largest sense. Far-sighted, clear-judging, and active ; true, ster- 

 ling, and equally unbiassed by partiality and by fear ', upright, 

 undeviating, and candid, ardently attached to truth, and deem- 

 ing no sacrifice too great for its attainment; — these are quali- 

 ties which throw what is called genius, when unaccompanied, 

 or but partially accompanied, with them, quile into the shade. 

 In speaking of his conduct with respect to this Society, and 

 the infinite obligations we owe to him, we must regard him in 

 the first place as the individual to whom, more than to any 

 other, we owe the titles of a parent and a protector, and our 

 early consolidation into a compact, united, and efficient body. 

 As Secretary pro tempore, the draft of our Rules and the first 

 Address explanatory of our objects, circulated at the com- 

 mencement of our existence, were entirely, or in great measure, 

 prepared by him; and, governed by these rules, with hardly 

 any change, we have continued to flourish for twenty-four 

 years, which is the best test of their adaptation to our pur- 

 poses. As I have already stated, he acted as Secretary du- 

 ring the first three years of our existence, during which period 

 the business of our meetings and of our council was brought 

 into that systematic and orderly train of which the benefit has 

 never since ceased to be felt. On retiring from this office he 

 was elected Vice-President, and on the next biennial demise 

 of the chair he became our President, an office which he after- 

 wards filled for three subsequent periods of two years, inclu- 

 ding that of his lamented death. Altogether, during eight 

 years as President and eleven as Vice-President, he filled the 



