RELIGION AND POLITICS 37 



study table ; and frequently alongside of it lay the Rev. Edward White's 

 book on Conditional Immortality. I am not aware that he distinctly 

 avowed himself a believer in this doctrine, as Stokes did, but he often 

 expressed the high opinion he held of Edward White and his writings. 

 His reverence for the undoubted essentials of the Christian Faith was deep 

 and unmovable ; and nothing pained him so much as a flippant use of a 

 quotation from the Gospel writings. I have heard him reduce to astonished 

 silence one guilty of this lack of good taste with the remark, "Come now, 

 that won't do; that kind of thing is 'taboo'." 



Tail's general outlook upon human affairs was fundamentally conservative. 

 He had a deep distrust of Mr Gladstone as statesman and legislator. 

 His strong political views did not however in any way interfere with his 

 private friendships ; and he refrained on principle from taking any public 

 part in political discussions. He never failed to give his vote at an 

 election ; and was a consistent supporter throughout of the Conservative 

 and latterly the Unionist Governments. When the South African War 

 broke out he rejoiced to be able to send his son as a Lieutenant of the 

 Black Watch to fight for his country and his Queen. 



But swiftly came the stroke of sorrow as it came to many a family in 

 the dark days of the South African War. Lieutenant F. G. Tait left this 

 land with his regiment on October 24, 1 899 ; on December 1 1 he was 

 wounded at Magersfontein, where the Highland Brigade suffered so terribly ; 

 and after a few weeks in hospital he returned to the front only to meet his 

 death on February 7, 1900, at Koodoosberg. The rumour of the tragic event 

 came first through non-official channels and the uncertainty which hung over 

 it for some days was harder to bear than if the worst had been immediately 

 reported through the War Office. But there was no doubt of it ; and all 

 Scotland mourned the loss of her brilliant soldier golfer as she mourned few 

 others of her warrior sons whose lives were cut short on the African 

 veldt. 



Tail's scientific work practically ended with his son's death. In 

 December 1899 he communicated to the Royal Society a criticism on the 

 "Claim recently made for Gauss to the Invention (not the Discovery) of 

 Quaternions." It is a fitting finish to the publications of one whose con- 

 troversies were always on behalf of others. 



Meanwhile he was editing the second volume of his Scientific Papers, 

 published by the Pitt Press, Cambridge. The Preface to the second volume 



