FRANCIS BAILY'S DEATH. 117 



and give a far less literal assent to the New Testament 1843. 

 narrative than either my great-uncle, my father, or my 

 husband, remain in the Church with a belief that their 

 moral influence will be of greater use than their intel- 

 lectual scruples. In this case the possibility of the Church 

 becoming too broad to hold together is not felt to be an 

 evil, as even should it through this cause die a natural 

 death, its work will have been well done. Mr. De Morgan 

 felt that the profession of belief of every clergyman im- 

 plies so absolute and entire an adhesion of the whole 

 soul to the doctrine which he undertakes to preach, that 

 should that animus be altered, membership, in the sight of 

 God, has ceased with it; and the outward and visible sign 

 can really stand for nothing when its inward and spiritual 

 essence is gone. But he judged no one rigorously but 

 himself, though he was happy in knowing that he had 

 been connected with the memories of men of worth and 

 learning, who never hesitated when their choice lay be- 

 tween truth as it appeared to them and any other con- 

 sideration. 



Shortly before Edward's birth we lost our old friend 1844 - 

 Francis Baily. Early in this year his usually fine robust 

 health had given way, and a disease of the kidneys, pro- 

 bably the remote result of the shock given to the brain by 

 his accident, declared itself. He lingered some weeks, 

 always cheerful and hopeful, but perfectly ready for what- 

 ever turn his illness might take. His friends were less 

 prepared to lose him than he was to go. His death 

 occurred in June, and was a loss to Science l which could 

 not well at that time be filled up. Sir John Herschel 

 wrote that he was a man sui generis; and the letters 



1 I have throughout this memoir used the word science in reference 

 to Mathematics and Logic, and those branches of knowledge in which 

 processes of reasoning are applied to subjects of observation. This is 

 the older meaning of the word. It is generally, though of course not 

 exclusively, ^used now to express knowledge gained by observation 

 alone. I remember the" time when, in preference to Dalton's atomic 

 theory, it was said that chemistry had_6eco*ne a Science, 



