50 Memoir of the late Francis Baily, Esq.f F.R,S., ^c. 



recommended it for general use. He did more, he carried 

 out the idea into a wide and most useful field ; and in the 

 Catalogue of the Astronomical Society he has put the astro- 

 nomical world in possession of a power which may be said, 

 without exaggeration, to have changed the face of sidereal 

 astronomy, and must claim for him the gratitude of every ob- 

 server. It detracts nothing from the merit of Mr. Baily, or 

 from his claim to be considered the author of this precious 

 work, that the numerical computations were chiefly executed 

 by Mr. Stratford, and the expenses borne by the Astronomical 

 Society. The conception was all his own, and the work pre- 

 faced, explained, and superintended, in every stage of its pro- 

 gress, by himself alone. The gold medal of this Society was 

 awarded to him for this useful work. 



On the 22nd of February, 1821, Mr. Baily was elected a 

 Fellow of the Royal Society. He was also a Member of the 

 Linnaean and Geological Societies, but I am unable to state 

 the precise date of his election in either. 



In 1 825 he retired from the Stock Exchange, after a career 

 in which his consummate habits of business, his uprightness, 

 intelligence, and prudence, had established his fortune, and 

 might, if continued, have led him on to any eminence of 

 worldly wealth. But there was that in his disposition which 

 the mere acquisition of wealth could not satisfy. All thai he 

 had before done for his favourite science seemed only prepa- 

 ratory to what he might do; and with the best years of his 

 hitellectual life before him, and with objects worthy of his 

 efforts now opening to his view in that direction, he resolved 

 henceforward to devote himself to their pursuit, though at the 

 sacrifice of prospects whose attractions always prove irresist- 

 ible to minds of a lower order. In thus calmly measuring the 

 relative woi'th of intellectual and worldly pursuits, and stop- 

 ping short in the full career of success, when arrived at a point 

 which his undazzled judgement assured him to be the right 

 one, he afforded an example of self-command as uncommon 

 as it was noble. In the satisfaction which the decision af- 

 forded him, and the complete fulfilment of those aspirations 

 which led him to form it, we have one proof (if proofs be 

 wanting) how entirely a well-chosen and elevated scientific 

 pursuit is capable of filling that void in the evening of life, 

 which often proves so intolerably irksome to men who have 

 retired early from business from mere love of ease or indo- 

 lence. On no occasion did he ever appear to regret the sacri- 

 fice he had made, or even to regard it as a sacrifice. 



No desire of listless ease or self-indulgence, however, could 

 by possibility have mixed with Mr. Baily 's motives in taking 



