xxxvm CHARLES CARDALE BABINGTON. 



that if he had succeeded to an earldom or a dukedom, it would 

 have given him far less pleasure than his election as Fellow of the 

 College, with which his life for more than half a century had been 

 identified. 



The second trait of which I would speak was his unflagging 

 industry. Up to the close of his life he could not endure an hour 

 of idleness : waste of time, whether it took the form of aimless 

 frivolity, or of dislike of work, provoked his gentle spirit to undis- 

 guised impatience. His own success in life, and his distinguished 

 reputation, were largely due to his never wasting a single day. He 

 could heartily endorse BufFon's famous definition, that genius is a 

 long patience : and when we remember the spirit of consecration 

 which he brought to all his work, we may truly say that he was a 

 perpetual witness to the truth of the motto, ' Laborare est orare.' 



II By H. R. Francis, Esq.* 



When I wish to arrange and put into shape my recollections 

 of Professor Babington — and the wish comes to me very frequently 

 — though my shallow smattering of popular science places me in 

 one sense quite beyond all hope of comprehending the range of his 

 scientific attainments, I find myself dealing with a character which 

 was deeply interesting in a moral point of view. I can see that 

 there must have been essentially kindred spirits among the very 

 foremost of our scientific men. Faraday, for instance, must have 

 had the same divine gift of feeling all his intellectual powers as 

 something not his own, but given him in trust, as talents for the 

 profitable employment of which he would be held responsible on 

 the Great Day of Account. But Professor Babington was the only 

 man of that rare and exalted stamp with whom I could claim a 

 certain intimacy. And I always felt that his simple sense of 

 stewardship over all his mental stores was at once a rare and 

 beautiful thing. He seemed to have no need for bewildering him- 

 self with nice items of debt and credit, with "the lore of nicely 

 calculated less or more." All that he knew, all that he was, seemed 

 to be held by him in trust, not so much from a strict calculation of 

 duty, as from a loving instinct of usefulness, coupled with a sense 

 of gratitude for being permitted to be an instrument of good. 



So again, were I questioned as to his moral and religious views, 

 I could not pretend to analyse or separate them. I should find 

 myself carried back to the comprehensive simplicity of the Saviour's 

 teaching; to the "first and great commandment," which was the 

 mainspring of my friend's blameless life, and to "the second, like 



* Son of Philip Francis, of St. John's (son of "Junius"), B.A. 1790, M.A. 

 1794. Henry Ralph Francis, of St. John's, B.A. 1834, M.A. 1837. Elected 

 Foundation Fellow 6 April, admitted 7 April 1835. On the 19th March 1839 Benj. 

 Morgan Cowie, now Dean of Exeter, succeeded to his fellowship. He became 

 District Court Judge of Sydney, N.S.W., 28 Jan. 1848. 



