376 Mary Somerville. 



thoughts on religion; and in her last years especially she 

 reflected much on that future world which she expected 

 soon to enter, and lifted her heart still more frequently 

 to that good Father whom she had loved so fervently 

 all her life, and in whose merciful care she fearlessly 

 trusted in her last hour. 



My mother's old age was a thoroughly happy one. She 

 often said that not even in the joyous spring of life had 

 she been more truly happy. Serene and cheerful, full 

 of life and activity, as far as her physical strength 

 permitted, she had none of the infirmities of age, except 

 difficulty in hearing, which prevented her from joining 

 in general conversation. She had always been near- 

 sighted, but could read small print with the greatest 

 ease without glasses, even by lamp-light. To the last her 

 intellect remained perfectly unclouded ; her affection for 

 those she loved, and her sympathy for all living beings, 

 as fervent as ever ; nor did her ardent desire for and 

 belief in the ultimate religious and moral improvement 

 of mankind diminish. She always retained her habit of 

 study, and that pursuit, in which she had attained such ex- 

 cellence and which was always the most congenial to her, 

 Mathematics delighted and amused her to the end. 

 Her last occupations, continued to the actual day of her 

 death, were the revision and completion of a treatise, 

 which she had written years before, on the " Theory 

 of Differences" (with diagrams exquisitely drawn), and 

 the study of a book on Quaternions. Though too 

 religious to fear death, she dreaded outliving her intel- 

 lectual powers, and it was with intense delight that she 

 pursued her intricate calculations after her ninetieth 

 and ninety-first years, and repeatedly told me how she 

 rejoiced to find that she had the same readiness and 



