108 MEMOIR OF AUGUSTUS DE MORGAN. 



1839. the progress of the experiment, and my husband's visits 

 were frequent to the little room in which the world was 

 weighed. 



The Life of Maskelyne, from which the mention of 

 my husband's suggestion is taken, is one of a series of 

 lives o2 Astronomers written by him for the Gallery of 

 Portraits, published by C. Knight two or three years 

 before this time. They are those of Bradley, Delambre, 

 Descartes, Dollond, Euler, Halley, Harrison, W. Herschel, 

 Lagrange, Laplace, Leibnitz, and Maskelyne. They are 

 bound up together, and illustrated in his own way, under 

 the title of ' Mathematical Biography, extracted from the 

 Gallery of Portraits, by Augustus De Morgan, H.O.M.O. 

 P.A.U.C.A.R.U.M. L.I.T.E.R.A.R.U.M.' The letters of 

 his literary tail were only B.A., F.R.A.S., besides those 

 expressing membership of one or two lesser Scientific 

 societies. On account of the declaration of belief at that 

 time required by the University he never took his M.A. 

 degree. 



In November our eldest son, William Frend De 

 Morgan, was born. 



We had spent five weeks at Boulogne in the summer. 

 I hoped that, as my husband always liked the sea, 

 a French watering-place would be less irksome to him 

 than English country or sea -coast ; but he soon got tired 

 of it, and felt glad to get back to his work. 



1840. He bore a few weeks at Blackheath next year with 



equanimity. He was near the Observatory, and Mr. and 

 Mrs. Airy were good neighbours, so were Mr. (afterwards 

 Lord) Wrottesley and Mrs. Wrottesley, the former being 

 , on the Council of the Astronomical Society, and, be- 

 sides his other excellent social qualifications, being a 

 good musician. My husband liked the steamboats, of 

 which he made much use ; but the heath, which he called 

 desolation, was a trial to him. After this summer he 

 begged me to take the children without him ; and I found 

 that this arrangement, which I disliked, was the best. 



