PRESIDENCY OF ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY. 137 



this time, because the real working men had done their 1846. 

 parts so long and so thoroughly in the face of many em- 

 barrassments caused by the more officious but less prac- 

 tical members, that their time of rest was overdue. 



My husband never slackened in his exertions. What r ^[ d ^ c 

 others could not do he undertook ; but when in this year to M r . De 

 the place of President was vacant, and there were good 

 reasons outside of the working part of the Council and 

 one or two turbulent spirits within which made it neces- 

 sary that a liseful President should be secured by those 

 who could work with him, my husband was entreated, as 

 he had been before, to take the chair. His reasons for 

 refusal will be found in his letters to Sir J. Herschel and 

 Mr. Sheepshanks. The latter, who had the organ of 

 firmness fully developed, but who considered himself 

 ' anything but obstinate,' replied to the programme and 

 refusal thus : 



DEAR DE M., One evening after supper John Hind of Sydney 

 addressed Whewell thus : * I don't quite hear what you say, but 

 I beg to differ entirely with you.' Now I have heard and do 

 understand all that you say, and more that you would say, and 

 I differ with you. But I have given up trying to convince 

 people against their will, ' 'cos I never found no good come of it.' 

 So, just beholding your countenance as your wife painted it 

 (decidedly obstinate if wrong, which most people are who are re- 

 solute when right), I give up all hope that my first best mode 

 of combination will answer. I see and have seen for a long 



time a little cloud or two rising. Poor S has risen and 



pelted, and is, I suppose, now exhausted. We have excellent 

 men, who don't understand or make allowances for others (I ex- 

 cept self and you), and we have no sufficient bond of union. 



If you and others can prevail on Herschel, well and good. 

 You certainly can do a good deal as Vice, though by no means 

 so much as if you were President. I shall look twice before I 

 consent to continue Secretary, not merely for the trouble which 

 this occasions to a man disliking all work (except such as he 

 takes a whim to do), living forty miles from town, but really 

 because a more methodical and resident person is actually re- 

 quired just to keep things in order. 



