28 



MEMOIR OF AUGUSTUS DE MORGAN, 



1828. 



Letter to 

 Mr. Frend. 



Appoint- 

 ment 



tament, and other gentlemen nominally churchmen, but 

 whose religious views were known to vary from strict 

 orthodoxy to the widest latitudinarianism. 



The appointment to the Mathematical Professorship 

 pleased some of Mr. De Morgan's Cambridge friends, who 

 spoke and wrote of it as a boon to the London University 

 and to himself. It would be untrue to say that all his 

 friends rejoiced in it, for his own family and near rela- 

 tions, who had anticipated a brilliant success for him at 

 the Bar, felt that to take a position as yet doubtful, with 

 a greater doubt of fitting remuneration, was really a 

 sacrifice on his part. My father shared in this feeling, 

 and, in reply to the expression of it, Mr. De Morgan 

 wrote : 



6 You seem to fancy that I was going to the Bar from 

 choice. The fact is, that of all the professions which are 

 called learned, the Bar was the most open to me ; but my 

 choice will be to keep to the sciences as long as they will 

 feed me. I am very glad that I can sleep without the 

 chance of dreaming that I see an " Indenture of Five 

 Parts," or some such matter, held up between me and the 

 Mecanique Celeste, knowing all the time that the dream 

 must come true.' 



One false step due to the tendency in young asso- 

 ciations to frame constitutions before their needs are 

 known, was the appointment of a Warden for the new 

 University. The next error arose from the same cause, 

 and showed the inability of the governing body to per- 

 ceive what was due to men of worth and education, if 

 they meant such men to give them the weight of their 

 character and influence. As a good friend to the new 

 College wrote to Mr. De Morgan, speaking of two influen- 

 tial members of Council : ' A. believes that the University 

 depends on the Professors, B. that the Professors depend 

 on the University.' Unfortunately the A.s were in the 

 minority. 



Mr. De Morgan received the official notice of his 



