NATURE 
219 
o 4, 1883] 
Morgan’s exposition combined excellences of the most 
varied kinds. It was clear, vivid, and succinct—rich too 
with abundance of illustration always at the command of 
enormously wide reading and an astonishingly retentive 
memory. A voice of sonorous sweetness, a grand fore- 
head, and a profile of classic beauty, intensified the 
impression of commanding power which an almost equally 
complete mastery over mathematical truth, and over the 
forms of language in which he so attractively arrayed it, 
could not fail to make upon his auditors” (pp. 99, 100). 
His pupils’ affection, the memoir tells us, was not 
gained by any laxity of discipline, for he was strict, 
especially as to quietness and punctuality. 
Such arduous labours as these would amply suffice for 
the generality of teachers, but the remainder of his time 
was occupied with other work hardly less exhausting than 
these. In May, 1828, he was elected a Fellow of the 
Astronomical Society, and in February, 1830, he took his 
place on the Council. In 1831 he was elected Honorary 
Secretary ; in which position he entered with zeal, we are 
told, into every question brought before the Society, and 
his place was not a sinecure. “ It is not easy to say how 
much of the usefulness and prosperity of the Society .. . 
was due to his incessant energy and effort, and to his 
steady judgment at difficult junctures.” Though his con- 
nection with the Society lasted for some thirty years, he 
would never undertake the office of President. “I will 
vote for and tolerate no President but a practical astro- 
nomer. ... The President must be a man of brass—a 
micrometer-monger, a telescope-twiddler, a star-stringer, 
a planet-poker, and a nebula-nabber.’’? He was frequently 
employed as a consulting actuary,? and bestowed also 
much time and labour upon the subject of the decimal 
coinage.! 
Passing from De Morgan’s public labours we hurriedly 
glance at him as a writer, and here we cannot do better 
than quote Prof. Jevons: “From the above enumera- 
tion” of his mathematical ‘and logical writings, “it will 
be apparent that the extent of De Morgan’s literary and 
scientific labours was altogether extraordinary ; nor was 
quality sacrificed to quantity. On the contrary every 
publication was finished with extreme care and accuracy, 
* A student, who joined the class in 1859, has put at our disposal some 
notes he wrote during the session 1859-60: ‘‘ The class begins at 9 o’clock, 
but however early we go the Professor is sure to be there. Only once or 
twice have I been early enough to see him coming. He has a large head, 
bald at the top, and with a tremendous halo of hair round the crown. He 
wears a black cloth suit and a parson’s white neck-cloth. His coat is a 
Swallow-tail, and his trousers, with fob pockets, scarcely reach his boots, of 
Which the laces are often too long. As he shuffles along he seems to be 
counting the flagstones or rails, urged by a sort of centrifugal force to keep 
the outside kerb, as Dr. Johnson used to do. In the lecture-room when the 
bell has rung, he always goes through the same routine at commencing. 
First of all he takes out a large red silk pocket handkerchief, with which he 
wipes his spectacles; he then readjusts them with the bridge upside down, 
and though he has only one eye he can see as keenly as another man with 
both. He then turns back the cuffs of his sleeves, and, after passing his 
fingers through his hair, takes his compasses in hand and looks round the 
room at his class. He has been talking all the time, and by this is fairly 
Taunched on his subject. . . . He often indulges in jokes with manifest 
gusto. The other morning he was illustrating a point, when he said, ‘ This 
reminds me of an anecdote told me once by my old Cambridge tutor, Prof, 
Peacock. He had been for some time striving to instil into the mind of a 
rather obtuse student the difference between 4.x and x4. At last he timidly 
ventured to remark, “‘T think, now, Mr. A., you clearlysee the dilference,’” 
***Ves, I think I do, but between us don’t you think, Professor, it is a need- 
less refinement ?”’ I think the part of his lectures I have most enjoyed has 
been his treatment of the Theory of Probabilities. In this he seemed to 
revel.” Then follow remarks similar to Mr. Taylor’s, and he concludes: 
“No Professor takes more pains with his class, and all thr ugh the session 
he deposits, in the Library, Tracts written by himself on the particular 
branch then in hand.’? We have similar testimony from other quarters. 
* A list of the offices he held is given (p. 270). 
3 He was never connected with any office, but his advice was sought by 
Professionals whenever there arose a “‘ nodus vindice dignus.”’ 
4 A full account of his work in this direction occupies pp. 235-255 of the 
Memoir. 
and no writer can be more safely trusted in everything 
which he wrote. It is possible that his continual efforts 
to attain completeness and absolute correctness injured — 
his literary style, which is wanting in grace ; but the esti- 
mation in which his books are held is shown by the fact 
that they are steadily rising in market price. Apart from 
his conspicuous position as a logical and mathematical 
discoverer, we may conclude that hardly any man of 
science in recent times has had a more extensive, though 
it may often be an unfelt influence, upon the progress of 
exact and sound knowledge.” 
His love of books was intense :! “the most worthless 
book of a bygone day is a record worthy of preservation.” 
Evidences of his minute acquaintance with all sorts of 
out-of-the-way works present themselves in almost all 
his writings, but are especially conspicuous in that won- 
drous repertory of wit and wisdom, the “ Budget of 
Paradoxes.’? De Morgan’s peculiar dislike of conven- 
tional titles, ‘which are not what they seem to be,” led 
him to decline the honorary degree of LL.D. of the Uni- 
versity of Edinburgh, and accounts for his not allowing 
his name to be put up for the F.R.S.2. ‘* Whether / 
could have been a Fellow, I do not know ; as the gentle- 
man said, when asked whether he could play the violin, 
‘I never tried.’” In fact, as he writes in the “ Budget,” 
he was a man who could not groove. 
The last occurrence connected with science which gave 
him pleasure was the foundation of the London Mathe- 
matical Society.* The idea of having such a society 
occurred to his son George and Mr. A, C. Ranyard, and 
on their mentioning the matter to Prof. De Morgan, he 
at once gave in his adhesion to their proposition, and 
with the countenance thus extended by himself and other 
leading mathematicians who were got together in reply to 
a circular issued by the two founders, the Society started 
into existence. Prof. De Morgan was the first president, 
and delivered at the first public meeting (January 16, 
1865) an interesting and characteristic address. He 
continued to take a warm interest in the meetings (being 
a vice-president for the last time in the session 1869-70) 
until November 26, 1868, after which date severe illness 
prevented his further attendance.* The end came on 
March 18, 1871, “just after midnight he breathed his 
last.” > 
In the Vacation of 1837 De Morgan married Sophia 
Elizabeth, daughter of William Frend. This gentleman 
was a member of the old Mathematical, and subse- 
quently of the Astronomical Society, had been Second 
Wrangler, and a Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge. 
He sacrificed good prospects as a clergyman to his con- 
scientious scruples about the doctrines of the Established 
Church, and was at this time Actuary of the Rock Life 
t He loved to surround himself, as far as his means allowed, with curious 
and rare books. He revelled in all the mysteries of watermarks, title-pages, 
colophons, catch-words, and the like; yet he treated bibliography as an 
important science. 
2 Why he did not care to “shine in the dignity of F.R.S.”—See 
“Budget of Paradoxes,” p. 18. 
3 There is a new Mathematical Socicty, and I am, at this present writing, 
its first president. We are very high in the newest developments, and bid 
fair to take a place among the scientific establishments.””. Then in contrast 
with the old Mathematical Society, “‘ But not a drop of liquor is seen at 
our meetings, except a decanter of water: all our heavy is a fermentation 
of symbols ; and we do not draw it mild,”—‘‘ Budget of Paradoxes,” p, 
ay In the recent Presidential Address it was announced that a ‘‘ De Morgan 
Memorial Medal,’’ of the value of £10 would be awarded triennially by 
the Society. The first award to be made in November, 1884. 
5 Monthly Notices, ‘‘at one o'clock in the afternoon.” 
