94 MEMOIR OF AUGUSTUS DE MORGAN. 



1838. be) to-morrow;' and on the first day of the publication 

 we had read and commented on it. ' Punch ' about that 

 time was in the meridian, and Mrs. Caudle's Curtain 

 Lectures threw terrible weapons into the hands of hus- 

 bands. Accordingly, these last were read to me with a 

 view to my improvement, the reader dwelling with special 

 emphasis on any of Mrs. Caudle's most outrageous sayings 

 which were supposed to be particularly suitable to the 

 case. He said, ' Every man's mother is Mrs. Nickleby, 

 and every man's wife is Mrs. Caudle. 5 We had more 

 time in the vacations, but I was afterwards always parted 

 from him for a few weeks in the autumn, as it was neces- 

 sary to take the children out of town for health. 



He seldom entered into any serious discussion, but 

 liked to tell of any interesting fact which he had come 

 across in his investigations either in reading or thinking ; 

 and many valuable bits of knowledge, which were after- 

 wards expanded and published, were talked of first in 

 this way. Matters of less importance, obscure deriva- 

 tions of words, and unsuspected translations, the origin 

 of old customs, versions of nursery rhymes, and, above 

 all, riddles, good and bad, were generally welcome, 

 ideas about I must not conceal the fact that in the earlier part of 

 his life he held man-like and masterful views of women's 

 powers and privileges. Women, he thought, ought to have 

 everything provided for them, and every trouble taken off 

 their hands ; so the less they meddled with business in any 

 form the better. But these very young notions gave way, 

 as he saw more of life, to wiser and more practical ones. 

 He found that women were not utterly helpless, and his 

 love of justice, combined with his better opinion of their 

 powers, made him quite willing to concede to them as 

 much as he would have desired for himself, namely, full 

 scope and opportunity for the exercise of all their faculties. 

 This was shown by his giving lectures gratuitously in the 

 Ladies' College for the first year after its foundation, arid 



