118 MEMOIR OF AUGUSTUS DE MORGAN. 



1844. which passed among his friends contain a repetition of 

 this feeling, with an expressed determination to do by 

 their united effort what he had done for so many years. 

 This refers especially to the Astronomical Society, of 

 which he had long been President, and the members of 

 which found it difficult to appoint a successor. Mr. Airy, 

 Sir J. Herschel, Mr. Sheepshanks, and Mr. De Morgan 

 composed his epitaph. It was, I think, drawn up in the 

 first instance by Sir J. Herschel or Mr. De Morgan, and 

 carefully revised and altered by the others. 1 



standard Mr. Sheepshanks, who had accurate knowledge and 



experience of scientific instruments, undertook to complete 

 the construction of the Standard of Length. In a letter 

 to my husband he says : 



I think Airy's paper on the supports of the standard scale 

 should be printed forthwith. . . . This naturally leads me to 

 the final clause, the inscription Regula mensurarum in perpetuutn 

 Baily's definita. One would not (where Baily is concerned) even in a 

 epitaph. Latin epitaph (and the language and mode of employment are 

 not mendacious) use exaggerations. When I undertook the 

 scale I hoped and believed a good deal was done ; but when I got 

 from Airy a precis of facts I found that it was chiefly of a nega- 

 tive character, viz., that our scale had changed its form, &c., 

 and the only positive advance (beyond preparation) was, that 



1 There is a bust of Francis Baily in the apartments of the Astro- 

 nomical Society in Burlington House. If the time should ever come 

 when observations of the form and size of the different parts of the 

 head and face are systematically made with a view to determine the 

 elements of character, any conclusion drawn from this bust would be 

 a great injustice to our dear old friend. It was taken from the por- 

 trait, which is weak and inadequate, and has exaggerated these 

 defects. While it was in progress. Mr. Baily the sculptor asked my 

 husband and myself to see the clay model at his studio. He invited 

 criticism, and at my suggestion added so much to the forehead that it 

 bore a strong likeness to the subject ; and Miss Baily when she saw 

 it burst into tears, exclaiming, ' It's himself.' But the sculptor after- 

 wards found that the penthouse brow and large forehead were not 

 * ideal ' enough. He said his work had been spoiled, removed all the 

 added clay, and left the weak and characterless head which professes 

 to be a likeness of Francis Baily. 



