Prof. Boole^s Account of the late John Walsh of Cork. 353 



-iI'Mr. Walsh continued to pursue his avocation as a writing- 

 master in Cork until the year 1845, when a paralytic seizure 

 threw him almost helpless upon the charity of those who had 

 known him in better days. Among his papers is a subscription- 

 list, testifying that the appeal made for him to the benevolence 

 of his fellow-citizens was not unheard. I have however been 

 informed upon credible authority, that the first use which Mr. 

 Walsh made of the sum put into his hands was to rush into 

 print. It will not be surprising to learn that about this period 

 he was for some time confined in the city jail for debt, and that 

 shortly after he was an inmate of the Union. For the particulars 

 of this part of Mr. Walshes life I am indebted chiefly to Mr. K., 

 who, with a zeal and fidelity of which there are not many exam- 

 ples, continued to retain his former relation to his old, and one 

 would think, helpless instructor. In the solitary prison-cell, 

 or surrounded by paupers in the crowded Union, poor Walsh 

 might still enjoy the satisfaction of descanting upon his favourite 

 topics to his one remaining pupil. It is a happy circumstance, 

 that, never having married, he had no family cares to weigh 

 upon his spirits. What time poor Walsh spent in the Union 

 in this his first visit to it I have not ascertained; but before 

 long he was removed, chiefly through the benevolent interces- 

 sion of Dr. Finn, one of the physicians of the North In- 

 firmary, to that Institution, where he remained for some months. 

 It is not improbable that at this period his disease may have 

 been accompanied by cerebral excitement, for he is described 

 as having been a rather intractable patient. Peculiar notions 

 which he had formed on the subject of religion led him to 

 attempt to convert some of his fellow-patients to the same 

 views. I have been informed by one of the physicians who was 

 then in attendance at the infirmary, that he would rise at night 

 from his bed, and addressing the other patients, declaim in the 

 most earnest manner against the belief in the immortality of the 

 soul. The particular argument upon which he relied is stated 

 in a paper which a short time before he had printed under the 

 title of Metalogia. It is, in his own words, as follows : — 



" The Deity is coeternal with Time and Space, and has all 

 his attributes infinite. He cannot confer any of these attributes 

 on thinking beings ; for if the Divine Being could confer any 

 one of his attributes, viz. immortality, for example, therefore 

 inductively he could confer all his attributes on mankind, and 

 make them coequal to himself in every respect, which would be 

 contradictory and absurd. Therefore, &c.^^ In the same paper, 

 which is interesting as being probably his last performance, he 

 thus defines the science of Metalogia, and describes its claims : 

 " Metalogia, which signifies beyond reason, is the name I have 



