42 MEMOIR OF AUGUSTUS DE MORGAN. 



from the state of depression and inactivity described by 

 Sir John Herschel. The work, however, had not been 

 uninterrupted, and the difficulties attending their task 

 were increased by some injudicious persons who liked 

 better to attack old errors and abuses than to work 

 harmoniously with those whose only aim was to introduce 

 better methods and measures. 



This was inseparable from a condition of reconstruction 

 the same spirit of change and reconstruction that was 

 at work in the political world and the obstacles thrown 

 in the way of reform by men whose efforts went either 

 in the wrong direction or too far in the right direction, 

 were not felt only in science. Of this time my husband 

 wrote some years after : c I first began to know the Scien- 

 tific world in 1828. The forces were then mustering for 

 what may be called the great battle of 1830. The great 

 epidemic which produced the French Eevolution, and 

 what is yet (1866) the English Reform Bill, showed its 

 effect on the scientific world.' The nature and extent of 

 the scientific works begun before this time and carried 

 out to completeness during the half -century which fol- 

 lowed, can be but slightly mentioned. Mr. Francis Baily 

 had effected the improvement in the ' Nautical Almanac,' 

 and compiled the Society's ' Catalogue of Stars.' Sir 

 John Herschel was engaged on his c Catalogue of Double 

 Stars,' to complete which he left England for the Cape of 

 Good Hope nearly three years later. The Royal Observa- 

 tory, Greenwich, was in full operation, under the direction 

 of Professor, now Sir George Airy. Astronomy was 

 rapidly approaching that height on which it now stands, 

 and the efforts of the Astronomical Society a body of 

 men working with earnestness and unanimity did much 

 to raise it to its present state. 



Mr. De Morgan was elected honorary secretary in 

 1831. He entered with zeal into every question brought 

 before the Society, and his place was not a sinecure. It 

 is not easy to say how much of the usefulness and pros- 



