388 SCIENCE IN SHORT CHAPTERS. 



gentleman; but, even admitting this, the contrast between 

 the two philosophers is as great as could well be found be- 

 tween any two men following the most widely divergent 

 studies or professions. 



Those who would reply that mathematics and geology 

 are such different studies have only to go a little further 

 back on the death-roll, and they will find the name of De 

 Morgan, a pure mathematician, like Babbage. He was a 

 man of exuberant fun and humor, and so far from hating 

 music of either a humble or pretentious character, was a 

 highly accomplished musician, both theoretical and practi- 

 cal, and if we are to believe confidential communications, 

 one of his favorite instruments was the penny whistle, on 

 which he was a most original and peculiar perfojmer. 



I had not intended to reprint the above, which was writ- 

 ten just after the death of Murchison and Babbage, but the 

 comments that have recently followed the death of Darwin 

 induce me to do so. 



Many have expressed their surprise at the unanimous 

 expressions of Darwin's friends concerning the geniality of 

 his disposition, his gentleness, cheerfulness; his genuine 

 humility and simplicity of character. 



A third type of character is here presented, and that 

 which corresponds most correctly with the true ideal of a 

 modern philosopher, also represented by that great- master 

 of experimental science, Faraday. In both of these there 

 was the full measure of Murchison's amiability, but with- 

 out the courtly polish of the ex-soldier. Philosophic med- 

 itation and close application to original research may, and 

 often does, induce a certain degree of shyness due to a con- 

 sciousness of the social disqualification which arises from 

 that inability to fulfil all the demands for small attentions 

 which constitute conventional politeness; a disability due 

 to habits of consecutive thought and mental abstraction. 



A sensitive and amiable man would suffer much pain on 

 finding that he had neglected to supply the small wants of 

 the lady sitting next to him at a dinner party, and would 

 withdraw himself from the risk of repeating such unwit- 

 ting rudeness. This holding back from ordinary society, 

 though really due to a conscientious sense of social duty 



