116 MEMOIR OF AUGUSTUS DE MORGAN. 



1843. aforesaid, among his earlier studies, and his absolute con- 

 viction, or, as he said, consciousness, of the fatherly care of 

 God was directly opposed to the scepticism (I use the 

 word as expressing doubt, not disbelief) of one whose work 

 in many directions he valued highly. He wrote with 

 great respect of Mr. Mill's Logic, and the essay on 

 Liberty had his cordial admiration. The essay on 

 Comte, too, he thought very valuable. His own ideas 

 about this great fabricator of society may easily be con- 

 jectured. I should like to give them in his own words, 

 but can only remember their import. Just in proportion 

 to the strength of that part of a system which is founded 

 on the principle of love to the neighbour is the weakness 

 of that part of it which sets aside the Divine Disposer of 

 events, and puts an arbitrary classification in place of the 

 na.tural order of the world. I hope I have not mis- 

 represented the principles of Comtism ; T know, however, 

 that this fairly represents my husband's interpretation of 

 them. 



Our third son, Edward, was born about Midsummer in 

 this year. His father gave him his second name, Lindsey, to 

 perpetuate that of my mother's uncle, Theophilus Lindsey, 

 a good man, and one of the earliest English Unitarians who, 

 like my father, seceded from the Church, and Avho gave 

 up the lucrative living of Catterick, in Yorkshire, where 

 he was much beloved, because he could not conscientiously 

 carry on the duty in accordance with prescribed doctrines. 

 Such secessions, united with such strong religious belief, 

 do not often happen in these days ; but we cannot judge 

 of the motives of those who do not feel them to be neces- 

 sary for conscience' sake. Many distinguished clergymen 

 who hold the doctrines of Christianity far more loosely, 



find their proper places, there will be an end to these confusions, 

 which result from the various ways in which the great subject is 

 looked at by speculators whose mental eyes are differently placed in 

 relation to it. This is only saying that the true knowledge of words 

 will be the true knowledge of things. 



