The Late George Boole, LL.D., D.C.L.

Abstract

‘It has often been observed that the biography of eminent literary men presents but few objects of general interest. The progress of their lives seems only measured by the order of their attainments and productions. From these we estimate the gradual rise and advance of mind and character, through every successive change from the nursery to the grave’. So, upwards of thirty years ago, George Boole expressed himself in a lecture of the genius and discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton. The remark is as correct regarding himself as of any other of those gifted spirits who have given new thoughts to their age, or flashed the fresh light of vigorous and original minds upon the mysteries of life and nature. Few lives have been passed so uneventful and incidentless, and fewer still have been so successful in shedding the subtle radiance of intelligence down into the deep places of the soul, or more prolific in casting off those seeds of thought which multiply as the years increase, and grow with the ages. Of the possibilities enclosed within his own spirit, the best uses, we may be sure, have been made. Comparatively early as was the age at which ‘Death touched him, and he fell asleep’, we dare not call his demise premature, however inscrutable the purpose of it, since Heaven willed it, and it came to pass.

‘The unity of the forms of thought in all the applications of reason, however remotely separated, will one day be matter of notoriety and common wonder; and Boole’s name will be remembered in connection with one of the most important steps towards the attainment ofthat knowledge’.—Professor Augustus De Morgan.