lib CHARLES BABBAGE. 



some tram of inquiry. In far the largest number of instances the subject 

 might be trivial, but still work of inquiry was always going on. 



" The difficulty consisted in adapting the work to the state of the body. 

 The necessary training was difficult. Whenever at night I found my- 

 self sleepless and wished to sleep, I took a subject for examination that 

 required little mental effort, and which also had little dependence on 

 worldly affairs by its success or failure. 



'■ On the other hand, when I wanted to concentrate my whole mind 

 upon an important subject, I studied during the day all the minor acces- 

 sories and after 2 o'clock in the morning I found that repose which the 

 nuisances of the London streets only allow from that hour until 6 in the 

 morning. 



" At first I had many a sleepless night before I could thus train myself. 



" I believe my early perception of the immense power of signs in aiding 

 the reasoning faculty contributed much to whatever success I may have 

 had. Probably a still more important element was the intimate con- 

 viction I possessed that the highest object a reasonable being could pur- 

 sue was to endeavor to discover those laws of mind by which man's in- 

 tellect passes from the known to the discovery of the unknown. " 



In perusing the writings of Mr. Babbage, one is constantly struck 

 with the philosophical nature of his mind. His style is not only preg- 

 nant with thought, but, like Montaigne's, is perpetually shaping itself 

 into ai30thegms. " Men," he writes, when managing an election contest, 

 " will always give themselves tenfold more trouble to crush a man 

 obnoxious to their hatred, than they will take to serve their most 

 favored allj. " 



Again, speaking of Dr. Lardner, who had candidly admitted that 

 some of those doctrines he had once supported further information had 

 shown him were erroneous, our author says, " Nothing is more injurious 

 to the progress of truth than to reproach any man who honestly admits 

 he has been in error. " 



In order to put down street organ-grinders, with whom he had life- 

 long quarrels, he proposes to himself to act upon this principle: \Ho make 

 it more unprofitahle to the offender to do the wrong than the righf^ 



" It requires considerable training to become an accurate witness of 

 facts. No two persons, however well trained, ever express in the same 

 form of words the series of facts they have both observed." 



" Once, at a large dinner party, Mr. Eogers, author of 'Italy' and 

 other poems, was speaking of an inconvenience arising from the custom, 

 then commencing, of having windows formed of one large sheet of glass. 

 He said that a short time ago he sat at dinner with his back to one of 

 these single panes of plate-glass ; it appeared to him that the icindow was 

 tcide open^ and such was the force of the imagination that he actually 

 caught cold. 



"It so happened that I was sitting just opposite to the poet. Hear- 

 ing this remark, I immediately said, Dear me, how odd it is, Mr. Rogers, 



