Notices respecting New Books. 141 



gory in starting the 'Cambridge Mathematical Journal,' and edited 

 the third and fourth volumes of that periodical. In conjunction 

 with Mr. Spedding and Mr. D. D. Heath, he undertook the task of 

 bringing out a new edition of Lord Bacon's works ; the portion 

 comprising the philosophical works fell to his share. In the autumn 

 of 1849, after vacating his fellowship, he left England, apparently 

 with the intention of ultimately settling down in a warmer climate. 

 After a short stay at Nice he went on to Mentone, where he slept in 

 a damp bed ; on the evening of the next day but one he was seized 

 by a rheumatic fever. For some days the attack seemed fatal, but 

 unhappily for him it was otherwise ordered. He continued for nearly 

 ten years, literally dying by inches. All this time his nervous sys- 

 tem seems to have been undergoing a process of slow disorgani- 

 zation. He was a cripple from the time of the fever, and his 

 remaining bodily powers failed one by one during the ensuing years. 

 His mental powers, however, continued bright to the end ; and as 

 he found some relief in the society of intellectual friends, he returned 

 to the neighbourhood of Cambridge, where he passed the last six 

 years of his life. His religious feelings, originally strong, were 

 deepened by his sufferings, which he bore very meekly ; and though 

 longing for death, he was content to wait till it came. Dr. Good- 

 win has recorded many interesting recollections of his last years ; 

 but on them we must not dwell. He was, it is said, a man of some- 

 what reserved manners, but in the company of friends showed great 

 conversational powers; he seems to have been eminently a "full 

 man," and what he had to say was expressed in singularly clear 

 and appropriate diction. The portrait prefixed to the volume is 

 stated by Mr. Walton to be copied from an admirable likeness ; to 

 those who remember Mr. Ellis it may seem that it fails to render 

 adequately the palid hue of sickliness with which his face was marked 

 even in the days of his comparatively good health. This paleness 

 was in strong contrast with the extreme blackness of his hair ; and 

 the general impression of sickliness was heightenedj^y a feebleness 

 of gait quite remarkable in a man so young. We may also notice 

 that the artist has not rendered, or rather has disguised the receding 

 character of the lower part of his face, and the thinness of his face 

 generally. His countenance was marked by rare intellectual beauty ; 

 and this is adequately rendered. Resemblance of character and fea- 

 ture between persons in no wise connected is always to be understood 

 with great abatement ; that premised, we may say that he seems to 

 us to have borne in both respects considerable likeness to Pascal : 

 the early tendency towards mathematical studies, the clearness 

 of expression and subtilty of thought, the deep religious feeling, the 

 early closing in of a melancholy latter life, were the same in both. 

 Differences in abundance there were — a great difference in power and 

 genius ; but perhaps the most striking point of difference is that sug- 

 gested by Mr. Ellis's own words, " He who loves truth earnestly 

 will be slow to believe that the cause of truth is to be served by 

 irony "*. 



* General Preface, p. 65, Bacon's Works, vol. i. 



