MacTutor
George Boole
Times obituary
One of those men known to a limited circle, but within that circle the object of an affectionate respect approaching to veneration, died suddenly on Friday last. The Professorship of Mathematics which Dr. Boole held in Queen's College, Cork, would not of itself make the holder celebrated, and the works which he published from time to time dealt with such abstruse questions of mathematical and metaphysical inquiry that they could be appreciated only by a few. Those who were capable of understanding their value held them in the highest estimation and will look upon the premature death of their author as a grave loss to the world of thought The yet smaller number who were admitted to the privilege of Professor Boole's friendship will grieve that they have been separated from one, intercourse with whom was a source of instruction and delight, whose far-reaching powers of thought were exercised on the most subtle problems of philosophy with a precision and energy rarely shown in any inquiry, who united to the extent of his mathematical learning a breadth of culture which preserved him from the dangers of isolated studies, and who threw over all the charm of an unconscious simplicity before which pretension was abashed.
The earlier years of Professor Boole's life were spent in the neighborhood of Lincoln, and it was during his residence at Lincoln that he first became known by his contributions to the Cambridge and Dublin Mathematical Journal. The great abilities shown in those papers led to high expectations of his future career, and these expectations were further heightened by the publication of The Mathematical Analysis of Logic. Those who took an interest in the progress of mathematical studies were, therefore, sincerely gratified when they heard, little more than 10 years since, that Mr. Boole, although not a member of any university, had been chosen to be the Professor of Mathematics at Cork. The post was one which Mr. Boole was eminently fitted to adorn, and, at the same time, it gave him better opportunities of pursuing his favorite studies. Soon after his appointment he received the honorary degree of LL.D. from the University of Dublin; and in 1854 he published the first fruits of his professoriate in An Investigation of the Laws of Thought, on which are founded the Mathematical Theories of Logic and Probabilities. The subject of this volume was continued in a memoir in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, "On the Combination of Testimonies and of Judgment," and soon afterwards, when he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, he resumed the subject in a paper "On the Theory of Probabilities," read before the society on June 19, 1862, and since published in the Philosophical Transactions. In the meantime, he wrote his work on Differential Equations, which has become a class-book in the University of Cambridge. He was engaged in the preparation of a second edition of this work at the time of his death, and he spent part of his last summer vacation in London ransacking the treasures of the Royal Society and the British Museum so that his book might be as perfect as possible.
An untimely death has put a stop to his labours. They were undertaken in pure love of science, and with no thought of winning honor and renown; but their value was recognized throughout the kingdom, and by most mathematicians upon the Continent. But Professor Boole, though devoted student of exact science, recognized the limits of scientific method. Nowhere are these limits defined with greater clarity than in his work on the Laws of Thought, which has sometimes been deemed an undue extension of mathematical processes. He himself delighted equally in mathematics, poetry, and metaphysics, and the range of high knowledge was in each of the widest order. His acquaintance with the literature of the modern world was singularly extensive. He was a great lover of Dante, and it may not be deemed trifling to mention that he admired the Paradiso more than the Inferno; and if the breadth of his culture was great, no one can read The Laws of Thought without being struck by the profoundly religious spirit in which he worked at his favorite studies. But the quality which, perhaps, most marked him out from his fellows was an intellectual modesty such as he once described as "inseparable from a pure devotion to truth." It was not that he was unduly shy or retiring, but that he appeared absolutely insensitive to his claims upon the attention of others. Death has checked the development of his character here, but the memory of his gifts and graces will be jealously preserved by those he has left behind, and most of all by a widow and children now sorrowing. The immediate cause of his death was an effusion upon the lungs.
______________________________
TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES.
Sir, In the very interesting notice of the late Professor Boole by your Dublin correspondent, in The Times of this day's date, there is a slight error, which I should be obliged if you would correct. Instead of "three infants," his young widow is left with five, all of them girls, the eldest of whom is not yet nine years old, and the youngest a baby in arms. Being the uncle of Mrs. Boole, my statement may be depended upon as the correct one.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
GEORGE R. OAKLEY.
14, Princes Street, Leicester, January 23.
______________________________
THE LATE PROFESSOR BOOLE, F.R.S.
The untimely death of Professor Boole has naturally awakened much sympathy. After many years spent in hard study, a position which enabled him to pursue his research in higher mathematics and philosophy without being distracted by petty and ignoble cares. He sought neither honor nor renown, but his distinguished abilities were solemn on the Continent, and the greatest hopes were entertained of his future career when he passed away suddenly in the prime of life. The colleagues of Professor Boole at Cork, desirous of testing their respect for his memory, have proposed to find a scholarship in Queen's College, Cork, to bear his name; and, without undervaluing the motive of such a proposition, many of the friends of Dr. Boole, both in England and Ireland, have felt that there were other objects which deserved prior attention They remembered the difficulties which surrounded his distinguished career and the slender endowment of the Chair of Mathematics at Cork, and they felt anxious for the widow and children who have been bereaved by his death. In addition to this, the bestowal of posthumous honours assorted ill with the simplicity of Professor Boole's character. Further inquiry has unhappily shown that the anxiety of Dr. Boole's friends was too well founded. His wife, the companion of her husband's scientific as of his literary studies, is now in the most precarious state of health, mainly induced by the severe blow she has received, and for her and her five young children little or no provision has been made. The admirers of Professor Boole are not without hope that some grant for his widow and orphans may be obtained from the Civil List, but any such help must be tardy and will, too probably, be very limited. To relieve the pressing necessities of Mrs. Boole's situation and to save the orphans from destitution, a subscription has been opened, to which contributions are earnestly requested. Donations will be received at Cambridge by Mr. I. Todhunter, F.R.S., St. John's College, and in London by Leonard H. Courtney, Chapel Inn. The following sums have already been received: "Earnest," 5L.; Mr. I. Todhunter, F.R.S., 10L. 10s.; Mr. Leonard H. Courtney, 5L. 5s.
___________________
TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES
Sir,
As an intimate friend of the late Professor Boole and a near relative of his widow, I think it my duty to relieve his memory from an imputation that would rest upon it if certain statements which have appeared in your columns during the past week, in reference to the circumstances in which he left his family, were allowed to pass without comment. These statements were inserted without the sanction or knowledge of Mrs. Boole or any member of her family, and are exaggerated and untrue. The communication of your Dublin correspondent, in particular, evidently came from a source almost more uninformed than to the facts of the case. It is true, and could not be otherwise, that Dr. Boole, during his short life and with his moderate income, was unable to make anything like an adequate provision for the future maintenance of his family. But the expressions "without provision whatever for their support" and "in a state of spiritual destitution" deployed by your correspondent imply a degree of improvidence utterly at variance with the character of the man who took every precantion that duty and affection dictated to provide against the possibility of such a state of things existing, however short might be his summons from world,
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
John Ryall, Vice-President of the Queen's College, Cork
1, Feb
One of those men known to a limited circle, but within that circle the object of an affectionate respect approaching to veneration, died suddenly on Friday last. The Professorship of Mathematics which Dr. Boole held in Queen's College, Cork, would not of itself make the holder celebrated, and the works which he published from time to time dealt with such abstruse questions of mathematical and metaphysical inquiry that they could be appreciated only by a few. Those who were capable of understanding their value held them in the highest estimation and will look upon the premature death of their author as a grave loss to the world of thought The yet smaller number who were admitted to the privilege of Professor Boole's friendship will grieve that they have been separated from one, intercourse with whom was a source of instruction and delight, whose far-reaching powers of thought were exercised on the most subtle problems of philosophy with a precision and energy rarely shown in any inquiry, who united to the extent of his mathematical learning a breadth of culture which preserved him from the dangers of isolated studies, and who threw over all the charm of an unconscious simplicity before which pretension was abashed.
The earlier years of Professor Boole's life were spent in the neighborhood of Lincoln, and it was during his residence at Lincoln that he first became known by his contributions to the Cambridge and Dublin Mathematical Journal. The great abilities shown in those papers led to high expectations of his future career, and these expectations were further heightened by the publication of The Mathematical Analysis of Logic. Those who took an interest in the progress of mathematical studies were, therefore, sincerely gratified when they heard, little more than 10 years since, that Mr. Boole, although not a member of any university, had been chosen to be the Professor of Mathematics at Cork. The post was one which Mr. Boole was eminently fitted to adorn, and, at the same time, it gave him better opportunities of pursuing his favorite studies. Soon after his appointment he received the honorary degree of LL.D. from the University of Dublin; and in 1854 he published the first fruits of his professoriate in An Investigation of the Laws of Thought, on which are founded the Mathematical Theories of Logic and Probabilities. The subject of this volume was continued in a memoir in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, "On the Combination of Testimonies and of Judgment," and soon afterwards, when he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, he resumed the subject in a paper "On the Theory of Probabilities," read before the society on June 19, 1862, and since published in the Philosophical Transactions. In the meantime, he wrote his work on Differential Equations, which has become a class-book in the University of Cambridge. He was engaged in the preparation of a second edition of this work at the time of his death, and he spent part of his last summer vacation in London ransacking the treasures of the Royal Society and the British Museum so that his book might be as perfect as possible.
An untimely death has put a stop to his labours. They were undertaken in pure love of science, and with no thought of winning honor and renown; but their value was recognized throughout the kingdom, and by most mathematicians upon the Continent. But Professor Boole, though devoted student of exact science, recognized the limits of scientific method. Nowhere are these limits defined with greater clarity than in his work on the Laws of Thought, which has sometimes been deemed an undue extension of mathematical processes. He himself delighted equally in mathematics, poetry, and metaphysics, and the range of high knowledge was in each of the widest order. His acquaintance with the literature of the modern world was singularly extensive. He was a great lover of Dante, and it may not be deemed trifling to mention that he admired the Paradiso more than the Inferno; and if the breadth of his culture was great, no one can read The Laws of Thought without being struck by the profoundly religious spirit in which he worked at his favorite studies. But the quality which, perhaps, most marked him out from his fellows was an intellectual modesty such as he once described as "inseparable from a pure devotion to truth." It was not that he was unduly shy or retiring, but that he appeared absolutely insensitive to his claims upon the attention of others. Death has checked the development of his character here, but the memory of his gifts and graces will be jealously preserved by those he has left behind, and most of all by a widow and children now sorrowing. The immediate cause of his death was an effusion upon the lungs.
______________________________
TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES.
Sir, In the very interesting notice of the late Professor Boole by your Dublin correspondent, in The Times of this day's date, there is a slight error, which I should be obliged if you would correct. Instead of "three infants," his young widow is left with five, all of them girls, the eldest of whom is not yet nine years old, and the youngest a baby in arms. Being the uncle of Mrs. Boole, my statement may be depended upon as the correct one.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
GEORGE R. OAKLEY.
14, Princes Street, Leicester, January 23.
______________________________
THE LATE PROFESSOR BOOLE, F.R.S.
The untimely death of Professor Boole has naturally awakened much sympathy. After many years spent in hard study, a position which enabled him to pursue his research in higher mathematics and philosophy without being distracted by petty and ignoble cares. He sought neither honor nor renown, but his distinguished abilities were solemn on the Continent, and the greatest hopes were entertained of his future career when he passed away suddenly in the prime of life. The colleagues of Professor Boole at Cork, desirous of testing their respect for his memory, have proposed to find a scholarship in Queen's College, Cork, to bear his name; and, without undervaluing the motive of such a proposition, many of the friends of Dr. Boole, both in England and Ireland, have felt that there were other objects which deserved prior attention They remembered the difficulties which surrounded his distinguished career and the slender endowment of the Chair of Mathematics at Cork, and they felt anxious for the widow and children who have been bereaved by his death. In addition to this, the bestowal of posthumous honours assorted ill with the simplicity of Professor Boole's character. Further inquiry has unhappily shown that the anxiety of Dr. Boole's friends was too well founded. His wife, the companion of her husband's scientific as of his literary studies, is now in the most precarious state of health, mainly induced by the severe blow she has received, and for her and her five young children little or no provision has been made. The admirers of Professor Boole are not without hope that some grant for his widow and orphans may be obtained from the Civil List, but any such help must be tardy and will, too probably, be very limited. To relieve the pressing necessities of Mrs. Boole's situation and to save the orphans from destitution, a subscription has been opened, to which contributions are earnestly requested. Donations will be received at Cambridge by Mr. I. Todhunter, F.R.S., St. John's College, and in London by Leonard H. Courtney, Chapel Inn. The following sums have already been received: "Earnest," 5L.; Mr. I. Todhunter, F.R.S., 10L. 10s.; Mr. Leonard H. Courtney, 5L. 5s.
___________________
TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES
Sir,
As an intimate friend of the late Professor Boole and a near relative of his widow, I think it my duty to relieve his memory from an imputation that would rest upon it if certain statements which have appeared in your columns during the past week, in reference to the circumstances in which he left his family, were allowed to pass without comment. These statements were inserted without the sanction or knowledge of Mrs. Boole or any member of her family, and are exaggerated and untrue. The communication of your Dublin correspondent, in particular, evidently came from a source almost more uninformed than to the facts of the case. It is true, and could not be otherwise, that Dr. Boole, during his short life and with his moderate income, was unable to make anything like an adequate provision for the future maintenance of his family. But the expressions "without provision whatever for their support" and "in a state of spiritual destitution" deployed by your correspondent imply a degree of improvidence utterly at variance with the character of the man who took every precantion that duty and affection dictated to provide against the possibility of such a state of things existing, however short might be his summons from world,
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
John Ryall, Vice-President of the Queen's College, Cork
1, Feb
