168 MEMOIR OF AUGUSTUS DE MORGAN. 



1847. and so consider, are justified in presenting it as a type of 



Booief 5 genius, and as a specimen which may give those who are 



not mathematicians a faint notion of an originality of 



speculation which, applied to the progress of science, has 



attained most useful results, and made a lasting name.' l 



My husband's regard for Dr. Boole was founded 

 not only on admiration of his originality and power, 

 but on sympathy with the moral and religious basis of 

 his psychology ; for Dr. Boole, like Mr. De Morgan, 

 believed that every system which rejected the existence of 

 God as a constantly sustaining cause of all mental as well 

 as physical phenomena, was like a consideration of the 

 nature and growth of a tree without reference to the root. 

 They did not often meet, for Dr. Boole's life was passed 

 in Ireland after his appointment to the Mathematical 

 chair in Cork ; but when his visits did occur, they were a 

 real enjoyment to both I believe I may say to all, for I 

 shared in the pleasure of his conversation, ranging as it 

 did over a wide field of thought, and touching poetry 

 and metaphysical as well as mathematical science. My 

 husband was, I believe, instrumental in some degree in 

 obtaining the appointment at Cork, where Sir Robert 

 Kane, who had married our friend Mr. Baily's niece, was 

 Principal. 



sir My husband's friendship with Sir Frederick Pollock, 



Pollock. then Lord Chief Baron, had begun some time before this. 

 Sir Frederick, who had been Senior Wrangler of his year, 

 kept up his mathematics in the midst of his legal avoca- 

 tions. He was a good Mathematician, among other 

 matters interested in the properties of triangles and in 

 magic squares, and, I believe, made some original dis- 

 coveries. He often communicated these to Mr. De Morgan, 

 who occasionally gave him a lift when any stumbling- 

 block came in his way at least, so he told me. He was 

 a most agreeable companion, full of interest in all sub- 

 jects of thought, and of all men I ever knew he seemed to 

 1 From a MS. unpublished paper, drawn up by Mr. De Morgan. 



