NAMES OF CONSTELLATIONS. 69 



selves to allusions' without reference to time, system, or 1836. 

 symbol, with the ancient names, all of which bear some 

 reference to the religions and philosophies of the earliest 

 times, and furnish a key to some of the deepest mysteries 

 of past ages. 



The death of one of my sisters in March 1836, while Death^oi 

 we were at 31 Upper Bedford Place, called out all our sister. 

 friend's sympathy and kindness. He had a very affectionate 

 regard for her, and his warm-hearted friendship was deeply 

 felt by my family in this time of sorrow. 



We left London in the autumn, to spend some months 

 in the west of England. Mr. De Morgan undertook to 

 forward letters, and in many other ways to give that 

 useful help which those at home can always render to the 

 absent. This occasioned frequent communications ; and 

 in allusion to my own love for the country being about 

 equal to his for town, his letters contained many ironical 

 contrasts between our desolate condition in Devonshire 

 and his own enviable life in empty London. Part of this 

 time he was confined to the house by an illness which, 

 however, was not dangerous, and which did not interfere 

 with his writing. This illness occurred in August, and 

 prevented his visiting us at Clifton during the Bristol 

 meeting of the British Association. 



Before the end of this year he again took his place as 

 Professor of Mathematics in University College. In October 

 1836, Mr. White, his successor, who had been spending Death of 

 the vacation in the Channel Islands, ventured, with his White, 

 wife and child, to cross from Guernsey to Jersey in a small 

 sailing boat. The sea was unusually rough, and the re- 

 monstrances of the boatmen were unheeded. The boat 

 capsized, and all on board were lost. This grievous event 

 took place at the end of the College vacation. The classes 

 were to open immediately, and the Mathematical chair in 

 some respects the most important of all, as, independently 

 of its own importance, that of Natural Philosophy de- 

 pended on it was without a Professor, and the difficulty of 



