MEMOIR OF AUGUSTUS DE MORGAN. 



1827. 



Music. 



London 



University, 



scenery in England than which he could not picture 

 to himself something infinitely grander. He was proud 

 of his birth in the sacred city of Madura, and at one 

 time longed to visit his native country, and fancied 

 that every one had the same instinctive desire. Luckily, 

 his doing so when young was prevented by the defect 

 of sight which justified his mother in refusing a cadet- 

 ship for him. 



During the ten years which preceded our marriage, 

 his delightful flute, accompanied by my sister on the 

 piano, was a great pleasure to us. I lost the gratification 

 of accompanying him then, and it was afterwards a 

 sorrow to me that I was not a musician. Our acquaint- 

 ance began just before he became a candidate for the 

 Professorship of Mathematics, but he, like my father, 

 took an interest in the foundation of the new University, 

 of which, indeed, my father had been one of the first 

 projectors. 



It has been observed that when the time is ripe for 

 bringing forward any measure, ideas come at the same 

 time to more than one mind fitted to receive them, and it 

 is often difficult to find the author of the first suggestion. 

 This is especially true in the case of the foundation of 

 large institutions. In what follows I do not mean to 

 assert that my father was the first suggester of a college 

 or university in .London, but, being one of the few persons 

 now living who can remember the beginning of University 

 College and the expressed designs and hopes of its 

 founders, I venture to give, more in detail than the scope 

 of a biography would justify, a short account of its origin; 

 and in thus contributing my share of its history I must 

 speak of that part which I best remember. 



About or before the year 1820, some liberal-minded 

 men, after long pondering on the disabilities of Jews and 

 Dissenters in gaining a good education, came to the con- 

 clusion that as the doors of the two Universities were 

 closed against them, the difficulty could best be met by 



