REASON AND FAITH. 87 



faith, sufficient evidence having been obtained, are shown in 1836. 

 the letter, The two are results of the same mental 

 power, for reason enables us as well to interpret testi- 

 mony as to judge of its value. This only applies to that 

 religion which is of .the head. My husband had a deep 

 instinctive spring of faith in his own soul, but with this, 

 the bond of union between his heavenly Father and him- 

 self, the world had nothing to do. Years after this letter 

 was written, he was supposed to have accepted, on slight 

 and insufficient grounds, facts pronounced unworthy of 

 examination by less profound thinkers. It may be that 

 the time will come when his guarded judgment of these 

 phenomena will be in turn condemned as too cautiously 

 expressed. 1 



Early in 1837, a measure for the abolition of Church 1837. 

 rates, and the application of Church property to meet 

 the expenses for which they were levied, was proposed by 

 the Government. Large calculations were, of course, 

 necessary to show in what way the property could be 

 so managed as to meet the necessities of the Church, 

 without injustice to those dignitaries who were its present 

 holders, and actuaries were engaged to make these calcu- 

 lations, both on the part of the Ministers and on that of 

 the Opposition. Lord Ellenborough, then in office, applied 

 to Mr. De Morgan as follows : 



Mr. Finlaison, not being authorised to communicate with 

 Lord Ellenborough with respect to the details of the new plan 

 for the management of Church property, has had the goodness 

 to recommend to Lord Ellenborough that he should request the 

 assistance of Mr. De Morgan as the ablest of actuaries in the 

 elucidation of the subject, &c. 



A very intricate calculation was gone through involv- 

 ing the values of leases for various terms of years, of 

 the fines levied on change of holder, and of every part of 

 the complicated question. Lord Ellenborough, between 



1 See Preface to From Matter to Spirit. 



