CORRESPONDENCE, 1867-70. 377 



appeared to restore the lungs, but the laryngeal affection came 1867. 

 on slowly, and ended this world for him without any great 

 suffering, he being perfectly satisfied until within forty-eight 

 hours in fact, until he began to wander that he was as strong 

 and well as need be the phrase he used when he could not rise 

 in his bed. 



I bear it well, and so does my wife. Many condoling friends 

 have found out that the great and special force of the blow is 

 that he was the son who was to follow in my footsteps, and had 

 made some beginning. To which I assent ; but, truth to speak, 

 I did not remember this until I was told, nor did it produce any 

 effect. I am peculiar, I suppose. I remember with satisfaction 

 that he and a young fellow-student were the projectors of the 

 Mathematical Society, which seems to have taken firm root ; but 

 this is only the general love of memorial which belongs to our 

 nature. Any other instance would do as well. A strong and 

 practical conviction of a better and higher existence does much 

 better for every purpose, and reduces the whole thing to emigra- 

 tion to a country from which there is no way back, and no mail 

 packets, with a certainty of following at a time to be arranged 

 in a better way than I could do it. 



Our kind regards to Lady Herschel and the family. You 

 have been through the same Valley of the Shadow, and know all 

 about it. 



Yours sincerely, 



A. DE MORGAN. 



To Miss Sheepshanks. 



91 Adelaide Road, July 23, 1868. 



MY DEAR Miss SHEEPSHANKS, All are at Esher, and I have 1868. 

 sent your letter down there. 



.... The Bishops of Oxford and Cape Town are a pair of 

 opposites : C. T. foolish, and believed to be sincere ; O. sharp, 

 and suspected of a sort of slyness. Colenso won my good opinion 

 before he became a heretic when he would have got it of course 

 by showing that he understood one part of the New Testament 

 which it is a rule to hide under the cushion. What did the Gentile 

 and Jewish converts do who had several wives ? Did they break 

 their contract with all but one ? There would have been a rule 

 laid down if they had, and a controversy. They kept their wives, 

 St. Paul ordaining that only the husband of one wife should be a 



