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DEMONOLOGY (L1alµwv, demon, genius, s...
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See also:DEMONOLOGY (L1alµwv, demon, See also:genius, spirit) , the See also:branch of the See also:science of religions which relates to superhuman beings which are not gods. It deals both with benevolent beings which have no circle of worshippers or so limited a circle as to be below the See also:rank of gods, and with malevolent beings of all kinds. It may be noted that the See also:original sense of " demon " was a benevolent being; but in See also:English the name now connotes malevolence; in See also:German it has a neutral sense, e.g. Korndamonen. Demons, when they are regarded as See also:spirits, may belong to either of the classes of spirits recognized by See also:primitive See also:animism (q.v.); that is to say, they may be human, or non-human, separable souls, or discarnate spirits which have never inhabited a See also:body; a. See also:sharp DEMONOLOGY 5 distinction is often See also:drawn between these two classes, notably by the Melanesians, the See also:West Africans and others; the Arab See also:jinn, for example, are not reducible to modified human souls; at the same See also:time these classes are frequently conceived as producing identical results, e.g. diseases. Under the See also:head of demons are classified only such spirits as are believed to enter into relations with the human See also:race; the See also:term therefore includes (I) human souls regarded as genii or familiars, (2) such as receive a cult (for which see ANCESTOR See also:WORSHIP), and (3) ghosts or other malevolent revenants; excluded are souls conceived as inhabiting another See also:world. But just as gods are not necessarily spiritual, demons may also be regarded as corporeal; vampires for example are sometimes described as human heads with appended entrails, which issue from the See also:tomb to attack the living during the See also:night watches± The so-called Spectre See also:Huntsman of the See also:Malay See also:Peninsula is said to be a See also:man who scours the See also:firmament with his See also:dogs, vainly seeking for what he could not find on See also:earth-a See also:buck See also:mouse-See also:deer pregnant with male offspring; but he seems to be a living man; there is no statement that he ever died, nor yet that he is a spirit. The See also:incubus and succubus of the See also:middle ages are some-times regarded as spiritual beings; but they were held to give very real See also:proof of their bodily existence. It should, however, be remembered that primitive peoples do not distinguish clearly between material and immaterial beings. Prevalence of Demons.—According to a conception of the world frequently found among peoples of the See also:lower cultures, all the affairs of See also:life are supposed to be under the See also:control of spirits, each ruling a certain See also:element or even See also:object, and them-selves in subjection to a greater spirit. Thus, the See also:Eskimo are said to believe in spirits of the See also:sea, earth and say, the winds, the clouds and everything in nature. Every See also:cove of the seashore, every point, every See also:island and prominent See also:rock has its See also:guardian spirit. All are of the See also:malignant type, to be propitiated only by acceptable offerings from persons who See also:desire to visit the locality where it is supposed to reside. A rise in culture often results in an increasein the number of spiritual beings with whom man surrounds himself. Thus, the Koreans go far beyond the Eskimo and number their demons by thousands of billions; they fill the See also:chimney, the See also:shed, the living-See also:room, the See also:kitchen, they are on every shelf and See also:jar; in thousands they waylay the traveller as he leaves his See also:home, beside him, behind him, dancing in front of him, whirring. over his head, crying out upon him from See also:air, earth and See also:water.
Especially complicated was the See also:ancient Babylonian demonology; all the See also:petty annoyances of life—a sudden fall, a headache, a quarrel—were set down to the agency of fiends; all the stronger emotions—love, hate, See also:jealousy and so on—were regarded as the See also:work of demons; in fact so numerous were they, that there were See also:special fiends for various parts of the human body—one for the head, another for the See also:neck, and so on. Similarly in See also:Egypt at the See also:present See also:day the jinn are believed to swarm so thickly that it is necessary to ask their permission before pouring water on the ground, lest one should accidentally be soused and vent his anger on the offending human being. But these beliefs are far from being confined to the uncivilized; See also:Greek philosophers like See also:Porphyry, no less than the fathers of the See also: But it is impossible to do more than See also:deal with a few types, which will illustrate the main features of the demonology of See also:savage, barbarous and semi-civilized peoples. (a) Natural causes, either of death or of disease, are hardly, if at all, recognized by the uncivilized; everything is attributed to spirits or magical See also:influence of some sort. The spirits which cause disease may be human or non-human and their influence is shown in more than one way; they may enter the body of the victim (see POSSESSION), and either dominate his mind as well as his body, inflict specific diseases, or cause pains of various sorts. Thus the Mintra of the Malay Peninsula have a demon corresponding to every See also:kind of disease known to them; the Tasmanian ascribed a gnawing See also:pain to the presence within him of the soul of a dead man, whom he had unwittingly summoned by mentioning his name and who was devouring his See also:liver; the Samoan held that the violation of a See also:food tabu would result in the See also:animal being formed within the body of the offender and cause his death. The demon theory of disease is still attested by some of our medical terms; See also:epilepsy (Gr. ini?tnihs, seizure) points to the belief that the patient is possessed. As a logical consequence of this view of disease the mode of treatment among peoples in the lower stages of culture is mainly magical; they endeavour to propitiate the evil spirits by See also:sacrifice, to expel them by spells, &c. (see See also:EXORCISM), to drive them away by blowing, &c.; conversely we find the See also:Khonds See also:attempt to keep away smallpox ;,v placing thorns and brushwood in the paths leading to places decimated by that disease, in the See also:hope of making the disease demon retrace his steps. This theory of disease disappeared sooner than did the belief in possession; the energumens (Evep'yobuevoL) of the See also:early See also:Christian church, who were under the care of a special clerical See also:order of exorcists, testify to a belief in possession; but the demon theory of disease receives no recognition; the energumens find their analogues in the converts of missionaries in See also:China, Africa and elsewhere. Another way in which a demon is held to cause disease is by introducing itself into the patient's body and sucking his See also:blood; the Malays believe that a woman who See also:dies in childbirth becomes a langsuir and sucks the blood of See also:children; victims of the lycanthrope are sometimes said to be done to death in the same way; and it is commonly believed in Africa that the wizard has the See also:power of killing See also:people in this way, probably with the aid of a See also:familiar. (b) One of the See also:primary meanings of Saloom is that of genius or familiar, tutelary spirit; according to See also:Hesiod the men of the See also:golden race became after death guardians or watchers over mortals. The See also:idea is found among the See also:Romans also; they attributed to every man a genius who accompanied him through life. A Norse belief found in See also:Iceland is that the fylgia, a genius in animal See also:form, attends human beings; and these animal guardians may sometimes be seen fighting; in the same way the Siberian shamans send their animal familiars to do See also:battle instead of deciding their quarrels in See also:person. The animal guardian re-appears in the nagual of Central See also:America (see See also:article See also:TOTEMISM), the yunbeai of some Australian tribes, the See also:manitou of the Red See also:Indian and the See also:bush soul of some West See also:African tribes;among the latter the See also:link between animal and human being is said to be established by the ceremony of the blood See also:bond. Corresponding to the animal guardian of the See also:ordinary man, we have the familiar of the See also:witch or wizard. All the world over it is held that such people can assume the form of animals; some-times the power of the shaman is held to depend on his being able to summon his familiar; among the See also:Ostiaks the shaman's coat was covered with representations of birds and beasts; two See also:bear's claws were on his hands; his wand was covered with mouse-skin; when he wished to divine he See also:beat his See also:drum till a See also:black See also:bird appeared and perched on his hut; then the shaman swooned, the bird vanished, and the See also:divination could begin. Similarly the See also:Greenland angekok is said to summon his torngak (which may be an ancestral See also:ghost or an animal) by drumming; he is heard by- the bystanders to carry on a conversation and obtain See also:advice as to how to treat diseases, the prospects of See also:good See also:weather and other matters of importance. The familiar, who is sometimes replaced by the See also:devil, commonly figured in witchcraft trials; and a See also:statute of See also: In See also:Europe a similar demon is said to be obtainable from a See also:cock's See also:egg. In See also:South Africa and See also:India, on the other See also:hand, the magician digs up a dead-body, especially of a See also:child, to secure a familiar. The evocation of spirits, especially in the form of See also:necromancy, is an important branch of the demonology of many peoples; and the peculiarities of See also:trance See also:medium-See also:ship, which seem sufficiently established by modern See also:research, go far to explain the See also:vogue of this See also:art. It seems to have been See also:common among the See also:Jews, and the case of the witch of See also:Endor is narrated in a way to suggest something beyond See also:fraud; in the See also:book of magic which bears the name of Dr Faustus may be found many of the formulae for raising demons; in See also:England may be mentioned especially Dr See also:Dee as one of the most famous of those who claimed before the days of modern spiritualism (q.v.) to have intercourse with the unseen world and to summon demons at his will. Sometimes the spirits were summoned to appear as did the phantoms of the Greek heroes to See also:Odysseus; some-times they were called to enter a crystal (see CRYSTAL-GAZING); sometimes they are merely asked to declare the future or communicate by moving See also:external See also:objects without taking a visible form; thus among the Karens at the See also:close of the See also:burial ceremonies the ghost of the dead man, which is said to hover See also:round till the See also:rites are completed, is believed to make a See also:ring See also:swing round and snap the See also:string from which it hangs. (d) The See also:vampire is a particular form of demon which calls fo7 some See also:notice. In the Malay Peninsula, parts of See also:Polynesia, &e., it is conceived as a head with attached enerails, which issues, it may be from the grave, to suck the blood of living human beings. According to the Malays a penanggalan (vampire) is a living witch, and can be killed if she can be caught; she is especially feared in houses where a See also:birth has taken place and it is the See also:custom to hang up a bunch of See also:thistle in order to catch her; she is said to keep See also:vinegar at home to aid her in re-entering her own body. In Europe the See also:Slavonic See also:area is the See also:principal seat of vampire beliefs, and here too we find, as a natural development, that means of preventing the dead from injuring the living have been evolved by the popular mind. The See also:corpse of the vampire, which may often be recognized by its unnaturally ruddy and fresh See also:appearance, should be staked down in the grave or its head should be cut off; it is interesting to See also:note that the cutting off of heads of the dead was a See also:neolithic burial rite. (e) The vampire is frequently blended in popular idea with the See also:Poltergeist (q.v.) or knocking spirit, and also with the See also:werwolf (see See also:LYCANTHROPY). (f) As might be expected, See also:dream demons are very common; in fact the word " nightmare " (A.S. See also:mar, spirit, See also:elf) preserves for us a See also:record of this form of belief, which is found right down to the lowest planes of culture. The Australian, when he suffers from an oppression in his See also:sleep, says that Koin is trying to throttle him; the Caribs say that Maboya beats them in their sleep; and the belief persists to this day in some parts of Europe; horses too are said to be subject to the persecutions of demons, which ride them at night. Another class of nocturnal demons are the incubi and succubi, who are said to See also:consort with human beings in their sleep; in the See also:Antilles these were the ghosts of the dead; in New See also:Zealand likewise ancestral deities formed liaisons with See also:females; in the Samoan Islands the inferior gods were regarded as the fathers of children otherwise unaccounted for; the See also:Hindus have rites prescribed by which a See also:companion nymph may be secured. The question of the real existence of incubi and succubi, whom the Romans identified with the fauns, was gravely discussed by the fathers of the church; and in 1418 See also:Innocent VIII. set forth the See also:doctrine of lecherous demons as an indisputable fact; and in the See also:history of the See also:Inquisition and of trials for witch-See also:craft may be found the confessions of many who See also:bore See also:witness to their reality. In the See also:Anatomy of See also:Melancholy See also:Burton assures us that they were never more numerous than in A.D. 1600. (g) Corresponding to the See also:personal tutelary spirit (supra, b) we have the genii of buildings and places. The Romans celebrated the birthday of a See also:town and of its genius, just as they celebrated that of a man; and a snake was a frequent form for this kind of demon; when we compare with this the South African belief that the See also:snakes which are in the neighbourhood of the See also:kraal are the incarnations. of the ancestors of the residents, it seems probable that some similar idea See also:lay at the bottom of the See also:Roman belief; to this day in European See also:folklore the See also:house snake or See also:toad, which lives in the cellar, is regarded as the " life See also:index " or other self of the See also:father of the house; the death of one involves the death of the other, according to popular belief. The See also:assignment of genii to buildings and See also:gates is connected with an important class of sacrifices; in order to provide a tutelary spirit, or to appease chthonic deities, it was often the custom to sacrifice a human being or an animal at the See also:foundation of a See also:building; sometimes we find a similar guardian provided for the frontier of a See also:country or of a tribe. The house spirit is, however, not necessarily connected with this idea. In See also:Russia the domovoi (house spirit) is an important personage in folk-belief; he may object to certain kinds of animals, or to certain See also:colours in See also:cattle; and must, generally speaking, be propitiated and cared for. Corresponding to him we have the drudging goblin of English folklore. (h) It has been shown above how the animistic creed postulates the existence of all kinds of local spirits, which are sometimes tied to their habitats, sometimes See also:free to wander. Especially prominent in Europe, classical, See also:medieval and modern, and in See also:East See also:Asia, is the spirit of the See also:lake, See also:river, See also:spring, or well, often conceived as human, but also in the form of a See also:bull or See also:horse; the term Old Nick may refer to the water-horse Nok. Less specializedin their functions are many of the figures of modern folklore, some of whom have perhaps replaced some ancient goddess, e.g. Fran Holda; others, like the Welsh Pwck, the See also:Lancashire boggarts or the more widely found See also:Jack-o'-See also:Lantern (Will o' the Wisp), are sprites who do no ,more harm than leading the wanderer astray. The See also:banshee is perhaps connected with ancestral or house spirits; the Wild Huntsman, the See also:Gabriel hounds, the Seven Whistlers, &c., are traceable to some actual phenomenon; but the See also:great See also:mass of See also:British goblindom cannot now be traced back to savage or barbarous analogues. Among other local sprites may be mentioned the kobolds or spirits of the mines. The fairies (see See also:FAIRY), located in the fairy knolls by the inhabitants of the Shetlands, may also be put under this head. (i) The subject of plant souls is referred to in connexion with animism (q.v.); but certain aspects of this phase of belief demand more detailed treatment. Outside the European area vegetation spirits of all kinds seem to be conceived, as a See also:rule, as anthropomorphic; in classical Europe, and parts of the Slavonic area at the present day, the tree spirit was believed to have the form of a See also:goat, or to have goats' feet. Of special importance in Europe is the conception of the so-called " corn spirit "; W. Mannhardt collected a mass of See also:information proving that the life of the corn is supposed to exist apart from the corn itself and to take the form, sometimes of an animal, sometimes of a man or woman, sometimes of a child. There is, however, no proof that the belief is animistic in the proper sense. The animal which popular belief identified with the corn demon is sometimes killed in the spring in order to mingle its blood or bones with the See also:seed; at See also:harvest-time it is supposed to sit in the last corn and the animals driven out from it are sometimes killed; at others the reaper who cuts the last See also:ear is said to have killed the " See also:wolf " or the " See also:dog,?" and sometimes receives the name of " wolf " or " dog " and retains it till the next harvest. The corn spirit is also said to be hiding in the See also:barn till the corn is threshed, or it may be said to reappear at midwinter, when the See also:farmer begins to think of his new See also:year of labour and harvest. Side by side with the conception of the corn spirit as an animal is the anthropomorphic view of it; and this element must have predominated in the See also:evolution of the cereal deities like See also:Demeter; at the same time traces of the association of gods and goddesses of corn with animal embodiments of the corn spirit are found. (j) In many parts of the world, and especially in Africa, is found the conception termed the " otiose creator "; that is to say, the belief in a great deity, who is the author of all that exists but is too remote from the world and too high above terrestrial things to concern himself with the details of the universe. As a natural result of this belief we find the view that the operations of nature are conducted by a multitude of more or less obedient subordinate deities; thus, in Portuguese West Africa the Kimbunda believe in Suku-Vakange, but hold that he has committed the See also:government of the universe to innumerable kilulu good and bad; the latter kind are held to be far more numerous, but Suku-Vakange is said to keep them in order by occasionally smiting them with his thunderbolts; were it not for this, man's See also:lot would be insupportable. Sometimes the gods of an older See also:religion degenerate into the demons of the belief *hich supersedes it. A conspicuous example of this is found in the attitude of the See also:Hebrew prophets to the gods of the nations, whose power they recognize without admitting their claim to reverence and sacrifice. The same tendency is seen in many early missionary See also:works and is far from being without influence even at the present day. In the folklore of European countries goblindom is peopled by gods and nature-spirits of an earlier heathendom. We may also compare the See also:Persian devs with the Indian devas. See also:Expulsion of Demons.—In connexion with demonology mention must be made of the custom of expelling ghosts, spirits or evils generally. Primitive peoples from the Australians upwards celebrate, usually at fixed intervals, a See also:driving out of hurtful influences. Sometimes, as among the Australians, it is merely the ghosts of those who have died in the year which are thus driven out; from this custom must be distinguished another, which consists in dismissing the souls of the dead at the close of the year and sending them on their See also:journey to the other world; this latter custom seems to have an entirely different origin and to be due to love and not fear of the dead. In other cases it is believed that evil spirits generally or even non-personal evils such as sins are believed to be expelled. In these customs originated perhaps the scapegoat, some forms of sacrifice (q.v.) and other cathartic ceremonies.
(N. W. T.)
DE See also:MORGAN, See also:AUGUSTUS (1806-1871), English mathematician and logician, was See also:born in See also:June 18o6, at See also:Madura, in the See also:Madras See also:presidency. His father, See also:Colonel See also: In 1825 he gained a Trinity scholarship. De Morgan's love of wide See also:reading some-what interfered with his success in the mathematical tripos, in which he took the See also:fourth place in 1827. He was prevented from taking his M.A. degree, or from obtaining a fellowship, by his conscientious objection to See also:signing the theological tests then required from masters of arts and See also:fellows at Cambridge.
A career in his own university being closed against him, he entered See also:Lincoln's See also:Inn; but had hardly done so when the See also:establishment, in 1828, of the university of See also:London, in See also:Gower See also:Street, afterwards known as University College, gave him an opportunity of continuing his mathematical pursuits. At the early age of twenty-two he gave his first lecture as See also:professor of mathematics in the college which he served with the utmost zeal and success for a third of a century. His connexion with the college, indeed, was interrupted in 1831, when a disagreement with the governing body caused De Morgan and some other professors to resign their chairs simultaneously. When, in 1836, his successor was accidentally drowned, De Morgan was requested to resume the professorship.
In 1837 he married See also:Sophia See also: De Morgan's writings, however excellent, give little idea of the perspicuity and elegance of his viva voce expositions, which never failed to See also:fix the See also:attention of all who were worthyof See also:hearing him. Many of his pupils have distinguished them-selves, and, through'See also:Isaac See also:Todhunter and E. J. See also:Routh, he had an important influence on the later Cambridge school. For See also:thirty years he took an active See also:part in the business of the Royal Astronomical Society, editing its publications, supplying obituary notices of members, and for eighteen years acting as one of the honorary secretaries. He was also frequently employed as consulting actuary, a business in which his mathematical See also:powers, combined with sound See also:judgment and business-like habits, fitted him to take the highest place.
De Morgan's mathematical writings contributed powerfully towards the progress of the science. His See also:memoirs on the " Foundation of See also:Algebra," in the 7th and 8th volumes of the Cambridge Philosophical Transactions, contain some of the most important contributions which have been made to the See also:philosophy of mathematical method; and Sir W. Rowan See also: It is distinguished by a See also:simple yet thoroughly philosophical treatment of the ideas of number and magnitude, as well as by the introduction of new abbreviated processes of computation, to which De Morgan always attributed much See also:practical importance. Second and third See also:editions were called for in 1832 and 1835; a See also:sixth edition was issued in 1876. De Morgan's other principal mathematical works were The Elements of Algebra (1835), a valuable but some-what dry elementary See also:treatise; the See also:Essay on Probabilities (1838), forming the Io7th See also:volume of See also:Lardner's Cyclopaedia, which forms a valuable introduction to the subject; and The Elements of Trigonometry and Trigonometrical See also:Analysis, preliminary to the See also:Differential Calculus (1837). Several of his mathematical works were published by the Society for the See also:Diffusion of Useful Know-ledge, of which De Morgan was at one time an active member. Among these may be mentioned the Treatise on the Differential and Integral Calculus (1842) ; the Elementary Illustrations of the Differential and Integral Calculus, first published in 1832, but often See also:bound up with the larger treatise; the essay, On the Study and Difficulties of Mathematics (1831); and a brief treatise on Spherical Trigonometry (1834). By some See also:accident the work on See also:probability in the same series, written by Sir J. W. Lubbock and J. Drinkwater-See also:Bethune, was attributed to De Morgan, an See also:error which seriously annoyed his See also:nice sense of See also:bibliographical accuracy. For fifteen years he did all in his power to correct the See also:mistake, and finally wrote to The Times to disclaim the authorship. (See Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. See also:xxvi. p. 118.) Two of his most elaborate See also:treatises are to be found in the See also:Encyclopaedia See also:metropolitan, namely the articles on the Calculus of Functions, and the Theory of Probabilities. De Morgan's See also:minor mathematical writings were scattered over various See also:periodicals. A list of these and other papers will be found in the Royal Society's See also:Catalogue, which contains See also:forty-two entries under the name of De Morgan. In spite, however, of the excellence and extent of his mathematical writings, it is probably as a logical reformer that De Morgan will be best remembered. In this respect he stands alongside of his great contemporaries Sir W. R. Hamilton and See also:George See also:Boole, as one of several See also:independent discoverers of the all-important principle of the quantification of the predicate. Unlike most mathematicians, De Morgan always laid much stress upon the importance of logical training. In his admirable papers upon the modes of teaching arithmetic and See also:geometry, originally published in the Quarterly See also:Journal of Education (reprinted in The Schoolmaster, vol ii.), he remonstrated against the neglect of logical doctrine. In 1839 he produced a small work called First Notions of See also:Logic, giving what he had found by experience to be much wanted by students commencing with See also:Euclid. In See also:October 1846 he completed the first of his investigations, in the form of a See also:paper printed in the Transactions of the Cambridge Philosophical Society (vol. viii. No. 29). In this paper the principle of the quantified predicate was referred to, and there immediately ensued a memorable controversy with Sir W. R. Hamilton regarding the See also:independence of De Morgan's See also:discovery, some communications having passed between them in the autumn of 1846. The details of this dispute will be found in the original See also:pamphlets, in the See also:Athenaeum and in the appendix to De Morgan's Formal Logic. Suffice it to say that the independence of De Morgan's discovery was subsequently recognized by Hamilton. The eight forms of proposition adopted by De Morgan as the basis of his system partially differ from those which Hamilton derived from the quantified predicate. The general character of De Morgan's development of logical forms was wholly See also:peculiar and original on his part. See also:Late in 1847 De Morgan published his principal logical treatise, called Formal Logic, or the Calculus of Inference, Necessary and Probable. This contains a reprint of the First Notions, an elaborate development of his doctrine of the See also:syllogism, and of the numerical definite syllogism, together with chapters of great See also:interest on probability, See also:induction, old logical terms and fallacies. The severity of the treatise is relieved by characteristic touches of See also:humour, and by See also:quaint anecdotes and allusions furnished from his wide reading and perfect memory. There followed at intervals, in the years 185o, 1858, 186o and 1863, a series of four elaborate memoirs on the " Syllogism," printed in volumes ix. and x. of the Cambridge Philosophical Transactions. These papers taken together constitute a great treatise on logic, in which he substituted improved systems of notation, and See also:developed a new logic of relations, and a new onymatic system of logical expression. In 186o De Morgan endeavoured to render their contents better known by See also:publishing a See also:Syllabus of a Proposed System of Logic, from which may be obtained a good idea of his symbolic system, but the more readable and interesting discussions contained in the memoirs are of See also:necessity omitted. The article " Logic " in the English Cyclopaedia (186o) completes the list of his logical publications.
Throughout his logical writings De Morgan was led by the idea that the followers of the two great branches of exact science, logic and mathematics, had made blunders,—the logicians in neglecting mathematics, and the mathematicians in neglecting logic. He endeavoured to reconcile them, and in the attempt showed how many errors an acute mathematician could detect in logical writings, and how large a See also: Among De Morgan's See also:miscellaneous writings may be mentioned his Explanation of the Gnomonic See also:Projection of the See also:Sphere, 1836, including a description of the maps of the stars, published by the Useful Know-.ledge Society; his Treatise on the Globes, See also:Celestial and Terrestrial,1845, and his remarkable Book of Almanacks (2nd edition, 1871), which contains a series of thirty-five almanacs, so arranged with indices of reference, that the See also:almanac for any year, whether in old See also:style or new, from any See also:epoch, ancient or modern, up to A. D. 2000, may be found without difficulty, means being added for verifying the almanac and also for discovering the days of new and full See also:moon from 2000 B. C. Up to A. D. 2000. De Morgan expressly draws attention to the fact that the See also:plan of this book was that of L. B. Francoeur and J. See also:Ferguson, but the plan was developed by one who was an unrivalled See also:master of all the intricacies of chronology. The two best tables of logarithms, the small five-figure tables of the Useful Knowledge Society 1839 and 1857), and Shroen's Seven Figure-Table (5th ed., 1865), were printed under De Morgan's superintendence. Several works edited by him will be found mentioned in the British Museum Catalogue. He made numerous See also:anonymous contributions through a long series of years to the Athenaeum, and to Notes and Queries, and occasionally to The See also:North British Review, See also:Macmillan's See also:Magazine, &c. Considerable labour was spent by De Morgan upon the subject of decimal coinage. He was a great See also:advocate of the See also:pound and mil See also:scheme. His See also:evidence on this subject was sought by the Royal See also:Commission, and, besides constantly supporting the Decimal Association in periodical publications, he published several See also:separate pamphlets on the subject. One marked characteristic of De Morgan was his intense and yet reasonable love of books. He was a true bibliophile and loved to surround himself, as far as his means allowed, with curious and rare books. He revelled in all the mysteries of watermarks, See also:title-pages, colophons, catch-words and the like; yet he treated bibliography as an important science. As he himself wrote, " the most worthless book of a bygone day is a record worthy of preservation; like a telescopic See also:star, its obscurity may render it unavailable for most purposes; but it serves, in hands which know how to use it, to determine the places of more important bodies." His evidence before the Royal Commission on the British Museum in 185o (Questions 5704*-5815,* 6481-6513, and 8966-8967), should be studied by all who would comprehend the principles of bibliography or the art of constructing a catalogue, his views on the latter subject corresponding with those carried out by See also:Panizzi in the British Museum Catalogue. A See also:sample of De Morgan's bibliographical learning is to be found in his See also:account of Arithmetical Books, from the Invention of See also:Printing (1847), and finally in his See also:Budget of Paradoxes. This latter work consists of articles most of which were originally published in the Athenaeum, describing the various attempts which have been made to invent a perpetual See also:motion, to square the circle, or to trisect the See also:angle; but De Morgan took the opportunity to include many curious bits gathered from his extensive reading, so that the Budget, as re-printed by his widow (1872), with much additional See also:matter prepared by himself, forms a remarkable collection of scientific See also:ana. De Morgan's See also:correspondence with contemporary scientific men was very extensive and full of interest. It remains unpublished, as does also a large mass of mathematical tracts which he prepared for the use of his students, treating all parts of mathematical science, and embodying some of the matter of his lectures. De Morgan's library was See also:purchased by See also:Lord See also:Overstone, and presented to the university of London.
In 1866 his life became clouded by the circumstances which led him to abandon the institution so long the See also:scene of his labours. The refusal of the See also:council to accept the recommendation of the See also:senate, that they should appoint an eminent Unitarian See also:minister to the professorship of logic and See also:mental philosophy, revived all De Morgan's sensitiveness on the subject of sectarian freedom; and, though his feelings were doubtless excessive, there is no doubt that gloom was thrown over his life, intensified in 1867 by the loss of his son George See also: See also:Faraday. and Sir I. Newton he entertained a confident belief in See also:Providence, founded not on any tenuous inference, but on personal feeling. His hope of a future life also was vivid to the last.
It is impossible to omit a reference to his witty sayings, some specimens of which are preserved in Dr See also:Sadler's most interesting See also:Diary of See also: Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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