Nov. 9, 1871} 



NATURE 



29 



working life of nearly eighty years, and, though within 

 the last few years his memory for immediate events 

 and persons ' was rapidly decaying, the other in- 

 tellectual powers seemed as strong as ever. The 

 series of publications which constitute the real re- 

 cord of his life commenced in 1813 with the preface to 

 the Transactions of the Analytical Society, a small club 

 established by Babbagc, Herschel, Peacock, and several 

 other students at Cambridge, to promote, as it was 

 humorously expressed, the principles of pure D-ism, that 

 is, of the Leibnitzian notation and the methods of Trench 

 mathematicians. Until 1822 Mr. Ijabbage's writings con- 

 sisted exclusively of memoirs upon mathematical subjects, 

 which, however little read in the present day, are yet of 

 the highest interest, not only because they served to 

 awaken English mathematicians to a sense of their back- 

 ward position, but because they display the deepest insight 

 into the principles of symbolic methods. His memoir 

 in the " Cambridge Philosophical Transactions" for 1826, 

 "On the Influence of Signs in Mathematical Reasoning" 

 may be mentioned as an admirable example of his mathe- 

 matical writings. In this paper, as in many other places, 

 Mr. Babbagc has expressed his opinion concerning the 

 wonderful powers of a suitable notation in assisting the 

 human mind. 



As early as 1812 or 18 13 he entertained the notion of 

 calculating mathematical tables by mechanical means, 

 and in 1819 or 1820 began to reduce his ideas to practice. 

 Between 1820 and 1822 he completed a small model, and in 

 1823 commenced a more perfect engine with the assistance 

 of public money. It would be needless as well as im- 

 possible to pursue in detail the history of this under- 

 taking, fully stated as it is in several of Mr. Babbage's 

 volumes. Suffice it to say that, commencing with 1,500/., 

 the cost of the Difference Engine grew and grew until 

 17,000/. ofpublic money had been expended. Mr. Babbage 

 then most unfortunately put forward a new scheme for an An- 

 alytical Engine, which should indefinitely surpass in power 

 the previously-designed engine. To trace out the intricacies 

 of negotiation and misunderstanding which followed would 

 be superfluousand painful. The result was that the Govern- 

 ment' withdrew all further assistance, the practical en- 

 gineer threw up his work and took away his tools, and 

 Mr. Babbage, relinquishing all notions of completing the 

 Difference machine, bestowed all his energies upon the 

 designs of the wonderful Analytical Engine. This great 

 object of his aspirations was to be little less than the mind 

 of a mathematician embodied in metallic wheels and 

 levers. It was to be capable of any analytical operation, 

 for instance solving equations and tabulating the most 

 complicated formula;. Nothing but a careful study of the 

 published accounts can give an adequate notion of the 

 vast mechanical ingenuity lavished by -Mr. Babbage upon 

 this fascinating design. Although we are often without 

 detailed explanations of the means, there can be little 

 doubt that everything which Mr. Babbage asserted to be 

 possible would have been theoretically possible. The 

 engine was to possess a kind of power of prevision, and 

 was to be so constructed that intentional disturbance 

 of all the loose parts would give no error in the final 

 result. 



Although for many years Mr. Babbage entertained the 

 intention of constructing this machine, and made many 

 preparations, we can hardly suppose it capable of prac- 

 tical realisation. Before 1S51 he appears to have de- 

 spaired of Its completion, but his workshops were never 

 wholly closed. It was his pleasure to lead any friend or 

 visitor though these rooms and explain their contents. 

 No more strange or melancholy sight could well be seen. 

 Around these rooms in Dorset Street were the ruins of a 

 life time of the most severe and ingenious mental labours 

 perhaps ever exeited by man. The drawings of the ma- 

 chine were alone a wonderful result of skill and industry ; 

 cabinets full of tools, pieces of mechanism, and various 



contrivances for facilitating exact workmanship, were on 

 every side, now lying useless. 



Mr. Babbage's inquiries were not at all restricted to 

 mathematical and mechanical subjects. His work on 

 the '• Economy of Manufactures and Machinery," first 

 published in 1832, is in reality a fragment of a treause on 

 Political Economy. Its popularity at the time was great, 

 and, besides reprints in America, translations were 

 published in four Continental languages. The book 

 teems with original and true suggestions, among which we 

 find the system of Industrial Partnerships now coming 

 into practice. It is, in fact, impossible to overpraise the 

 work, which, so far as it goes, is incomparably excellent. 

 Having assisted in founding the Statistical Society of 

 London in 1834, Mr. Babbagc contributed to their Trans- 

 actions a single paper, but as usual it was a model re- 

 search, containing a complete analysis of the operations 

 of the Clearing House during 1839. It was probably the 

 earliest paper in which complicated statistical fluctuations 

 were carefully analysed, and it is only within the last few 

 years that bankers have been persuaded by Sir John 

 Lubbock to recognise the value of such statistics, and no 

 longer to destroy them in secret. In this, as in other 

 cases, many years passed before people generally had any 

 notion of the value of Mr. Babbage's inquiries ; and there 

 can be little doubt that, had he devoted his lofty powers 

 to economic studies, the science of Political Economy 

 would have stood by this time in something very different 

 from its present pseudo-scientific form. 



Perhaps the most admirable of all his writings was the 

 Ninth Bridgewatcr Treatise, an unexpected addition to 

 that well-known series, in which Mr. Babbage showed the 

 bearing of mathematical studies upon theology. This is 

 one of the fev/ scientific works in which the consistency 

 of natural laws with breaches of continuity is clearly put 

 forth. That Power which can assign laws can set them 

 aside by higher laws. Apart from all particular theologxd 

 inferences, there can be no question of the truth of the 

 views stated by Babbage ; but the work is hardly more 

 remarkable for the profundity of its philosophy than for 

 the elevated and eloquent style in which it was written, 

 although as usual an unfinished fragment. 



Of all Mr. Babbage's detached papers and volumes, it may 

 be asserted that they will be found, when carefully studied, 

 to be models of perfect logicalthought and accurate expres- 

 sion. There is, probably, not a sentence ever penned by 

 him in which lurked the least obscurity, confusion, or con- 

 tradiction of thought. His language was clear, and lucid 

 beyond comparison, and yet it was ever elegan', and rose 

 at times into the most unaffected and true eloquence. We 

 may entertain some fear that the style of scientific writing 

 in the present day is becoming bald, careless, and even 

 defective in philosophic accuracy. If so, the study of Mr. 

 Babbage's writings would be the best antidote. 



Let it be granted that in his life there was much to cause 

 disappointment, and that the results of his labours, how- 

 ever great, are below his powers. Can we withhold our 

 tribute of admiration to one who throughout his long life 

 inflexibly devoted his exertions to the most lofty subjects ? 

 Some will cultivate science as an amusement, others as a 

 source of pecuniary profit, or the means of gaining popu- 

 larity. Mr.- Babbage was one of those whose genius urged 

 them against everything conducive to their immediate 

 interests. He nobly upheld the character of a discoverer 

 and inventor, despising any less reward than to carry out 

 the highest conception which his mind brought forth. 

 His very failures arose from no want of industry or .-.bility, 

 but from excess of resolution that his aims should be at 

 the very highest. In these money-making days can we 

 forget that he expended almost a fortune on his task ? If, 

 as people think, wealth and luxury are corrupting society, 

 should they omit to honour one of whom it may be truly 

 said, in the words of Merlin, that the single wish of his 

 heart was " to give them greater minds " ? 



