FORMAL LOGIC. 161 



DEAR SIR WILLIAM, Your letter of the 13th inst., which I 1847. 

 have read with astonishment, shows me the propriety of abstain- Hamilton 

 ing from correspondence npon the subject in question. When 

 my paper appears, which I expect it will do in a few days, I 

 shall have the honour of requesting your acceptance of some 

 copies, that you may be able to put them into the hands of those 

 with whom you may think proper to advise. 



I will not further allude to the hasty manner in which you 

 have expressed your suspicions of an odious charge, except to 

 state that it does not diminish the sincere respect with which I 

 subscribe myself 



Your most obedient servant, 



A, DE MORGAN. 



These few lines show the temper in which the contro- 

 versy began. I purposely refrain from attempting to 

 record in detail the arguments used on both sides. The 

 statement appended to the Formal Logic will give to 

 inquirers a full insight into my husband's reasons for 

 believing himself the originator of those Logical pro- 

 cesses which he claimed as his own. So far as the dis- 

 cussion assumed a personal character it is his biographer's 

 duty to record it; but the questions raised were of too 

 technical a nature to be dealt with in a work like the 

 present, even if I were competent to discuss them. Besides 

 the statement in the Formal Logic, Mr. De Morgan made 

 some mention of the controversy in the Budget of Paradoxes. 



Sir William returned, unread, the copy of the Formal 

 Logic which Mr, De Morgan presented to him ; but in 

 the year 1852 controversial warmth must have abated, 

 for books and courteous letters were then exchanged 

 between the Logicians. 



I cannot deny that he rather enjoyed such encounters, 

 but no one ever engaged in them with less feeling of 

 personal animosity. It was like a game of chess a pas- 

 sage of arms. But he did full justice to Sir William's 

 splendid metaphysical powers, and says, in reference to 

 the controversy, ( of which I suppose that the celebrity of 

 my opponent, and tbe appearance of parts of it in a 



M 



