86 MEMOIR OF AUGUSTUS DE MORGAN. 



1836. and dutiful help to his family, as one perhaps doomed to 

 endless torment, because, using the power of head and inte- 

 grity of heart which made him so dear to them, he rejected 

 some orthodox creed, and the belief that his Father in 

 heaven was more cruel and unjust than any earthly father. 

 After his sister's death, his mother wrote to him with 

 painful earnestness on this subject, begging him to read 

 some writings left by his sister. His reply shows both 

 what he thought of the question and what he felt on the 

 sorrowful occasion which called it forth. 1 



From this letter it may be gathered that his opinions 

 at this time were Unitarian, according to the meaning 

 originally given by that word, and to the belief held by 

 those who first bore the name. 2 There is now so much 

 confusion of ideas as to this, that it is necessary for 

 me to say what I mean in calling my husband a Unitarian. 

 He believed that Jesus Christ, the Son of God by the 

 gift of the Holy Spirit without measure, was, as to his 

 nature, a man like ourselves, except in His power of receiv- 

 ing the Spirit of God. That His divinity was not, like 

 that of the Father, the Source of all things, underived and 

 self -existent. That the Father spoke through Him by the 

 same Spirit, sending the message and the means of redemp- 

 tion or bringing back erring man to God. That the 

 mission was attested by His words and miraculous works, 

 and that He rose from the dead, and was seen to rise to 

 Heaven, from whence He sends the Spirit to those who are 

 able to receive it. 



Mr. De Morgan never joined any religious sect, but I 

 think he had most respect for the Unitarians, as being 

 most honest in their expression of opinion, and having 

 most critical learning. The writer's belief in the supremacy 

 of reason to sift and interpret revelation, and his implicit 



1 See correspondence following this section. 



2 When a proposal was made to require the insertion in the census 

 return of the various religious denominations, he declared that he 

 should describe us as ' Christians unattached.' 



