BIOGKAPHICAL MEMOIR 



OP 



ROBERT LESLIE ELLIS. 



THE publication in a collected form of the papers which this 

 volume contains is to be regarded, to a certain extent, as a 

 tribute of affection. From this point of view the work would 

 hardly seem to be complete without some notice of the life 

 and character of the author. That he was a man of no ordi- 

 nary attainments, in at least one field of knowledge, will be 

 sufficiently evident to those who know no more of him than 

 they can gather from this portion of his writings ; that he had 

 powers distinct from those of mathematical research, is evident 

 from what he has done as the editor of the philosophical works 

 of Bacon ; but even these published records of his intellect will 

 perhaps fail to convey to readers that impression of remarkable 

 and various ability which was made, I believe, upon all those 

 who were brought into personal contact with him. It may 

 therefore be interesting to the general reader, besides completing 

 the memorial character of the volume, if an attempt be made 

 by one of his contemporaries to give some account of what 

 he was. 



The mere facts of the life are few and simple. The ex- 

 ternal picture of it may be very easily drawn. It was short, 



