306 MEMOIR OF AUGUSTUS DE MORGAN. 



1861. amount of mention of Bacon on every possible subject ? I never 

 said he did not know Bacon ; I only said he could not be proved 

 to have known of his existence. Nor can he. I think he has 

 taken such pains not to be known to know him as cannot be 

 attributed to accident. 



I am glad to hear there are logicians at St. John's. It is a 

 college at which more pains are taken to make the men write 

 for ' circle ' in their writing out than to prevent their reasoning in 

 a circle. There is no attention given to writing in. Neverthe- 

 less, St. John's has preserved the shadow of a teacher of logic. 

 When I published my syllabus last year, I sent a copy to every 

 college in Cambridge, directed 'to the Tutor in Logic,' just to 

 make them stare. I got an answer from St. John's from Mr. 

 Mayor, who acknowledged the title. 



It is not examination that is wanted, but good teaching and 

 example. A paper of logic conundrums would be just as useful 

 - as one of those fearful mathematical papers, to prepare for which 

 private tutors drill men in passing examinations. Thank Heaven 

 that I was at Cambridge in the interval between two systems, 

 when thought about both was the order of the day even among 

 undergraduates. There are pairs of men alive who did each 

 other more good by discussing x versus dx, and Newton versus 

 Laplace, than all the private tutors ever do. With kind re- 

 membrances to Lady Affleck, 



I am yours very truly, 



A. DE MORGAN. 



From Professor Alexander Bain. 1 



University, Aberdeen, Feb. 7, 1861. 



DEAE ME. DE MOEGAN, As two copies of your paper on the 

 ' Logic of Relations ' have reached me, I beg to return you one of 

 them, and to thank you for the other. I am very much inte- 

 rested with this new subject which you have entered upon, being 

 convinced that the greatest omission both in logic and psychology 

 is the not seeing how far the principle of relativity goes. So far 



1 This letter was given to me by Professor Alexander Bain. I have 

 departed from the general rule of not giving letters to my husband in 

 the correspondence, because in this instance the value of his own to 

 general readers is greatly enhanced by being accompanied by that to 

 which it is a reply. I wish it had always been possible to give both 

 sides of the correspondence, but this would have rendered it too volu- 

 minous. S. E. DE M. 



