tale.fyi

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Inhalt
  1. Dedication To Victor Emmanuel II, King of Italy.
  2. Preface
  3. I My Ancestors Traced his descent, through ages dark, From cats that caterwauled in Noah’s ark. Salmagundi, 4to, 1793 Value of a celebrated Name—My Ancestors—Their Ante-Mosaic origin—Flint-workers—Toolmakers—Not descended from Cain—Ought a Philosopher to avow it if he were?—Probability of Descent from Tubal Cain—Argument in favour, he worked in Iron—On the other side, he invented Organs—Possible origin of my Name—Family History in very recent times.
  4. II Childhood “The Prince of Darkness is a gentleman.” Hamlet Early Passion for inquiry and inquisition into Toys—Lost on London Bridge—Supposed value of the young Philosopher—Found again—Strange Coincidence in after-years—Poisoned—Frightened a Schoolfellow by a Ghost—Frightened himself by trying to raise the Devil—Effect of Want of Occupation for the Mind—Treasure-trove—Death and Nonappearance of a Schoolfellow.
    1. Earliest Recollections
  5. III Boyhood Taken to an Exhibition of Mechanism—Silver Ladies—School near London—Unjustly punished—Injurious Effect—Ward’s Young Mathematician’s Guide—Got up in the Night to Study—Frederick Marryat interrupts—Treaty of Peace—Found out—Strange Effect of Treacle and Cognac on Boys—Taught to write Sermons under the Rev. Charles Simeon.
  6. IV Cambridge Universal Language—Purchase Lacroix’s Quarto Work on the Integral Calculus—Disappointment on getting no explanation of my Mathematical Difficulties—Origin of the Analytical Society—The Ghost Club—Chess—Sixpenny Whist and Guinea Whist—Boating—Chemistry—Elected Lucasian Professor of Mathematics in 1828.
  7. V Difference Engine No. I “Oh no! we never mention it, Its name is never heard.” Difference Engine No. 1—First Idea at Cambridge, 1812—Plan for Dividing Astronomical Instruments—Idea of a Machine to calculate Tables by Differences—Illustrations by Piles of Cannonballs.
    1. Explanation of the Difference Engine
      1. VI
      2. VII Difference Engine No. II Difference Engine No. 2 —The Earl of Rosse, President of the Royal Society, proposed to the Government a Plan by which the Difference Engine No. 2 might have been executed —It was addressed to the Earl of Derby, and rejected by his Chancellor of the Exchequer.
      3. VIII Of the Analytical Engine Man wrongs, and Time avenges. Byron —The Prophecy of Dante Built Workshops for constructing the Analytical Engine —Difficulties about carrying the Tens —Unexpectedly solved —Application of the Jacquard Principle —Treatment of Tables —Probable Time required for Arithmetical Operations —Conditions it must fulfil —Unlimited in Number of Figures, or in extent of Analytical Operations —The Author invited to Turin in 1840 —Meetings for Discussion —Plana, Menabrea, MacCullagh, Mosotti —Difficulty proposed by the latter —Observations on the Errata of Astronomical Tables —Suggestions for a Reform of Analytical Signs.
      4. IX Of the Mechanical Notation Art of Lettering Drawings —Of expressing the Time and Duration of Action of every Part —A New Demonstrative Science —Royal Medals of 1826.
      5. X The Exhibition of 1862 “En administration, toutes les sottises sont mères.” Maximes, par M. G. De Levis “An abject worship of princes and an unaccountable appetite for knighthood are probably unavoidable results of placing second-rate men in prominent positions.” Saturday Review, January 16, 1864 “Whose fault is this? But tallow, toys, and sweetmeats evidently stand high in the estimation of Her Majesty’s Commissioners.” The Times, August 13, 1862 Mr. Gravatt suggests to King’s College the exhibition of the Difference Engine No. 1, and offers to superintend its Transmission and Return —Place allotted to it most unfit —Not Exhibited in 1851 —Its Loan refused to New York —Refused to the Dublin Exhibition in 1847 —Not sent to the great French Exhibition in 1855 —Its Exhibition in 1862 entirely due to Mr. Gravatt —Space for its Drawings refused —The Payment of Six Shillings a Day for a competent person to explain it refused by the Commissioners —Copy of Swedish Difference Engine made by English Workmen not exhibited —Loan of various other Calculating Machines offered —Anecdote of Count Strzelecki’s —The Royal Commissioners’ elaborate taste for Children’s Toys —A plan for making such Exhibitions profitable —Extravagance of the Commissioners to their favourite —Contrast between his Treatment and that of Industrious Workmen —The Inventor of the Difference Engine publicly insulted by his Countrymen in the Exhibition of 1862.
      6. XI The Late Prince Consort “Suum cuique.” Count Mensdorf mentions to the Duke of Wellington his wish to see the Difference Engine —An appointment made —Prince Albert expresses his intention of accompanying his uncle —Time of appointment altered —Their visit, accompanied by the Duke of Wellington —Portrait of Jacquard —Anecdote of Wilkie —Afghanistan arms —Extract from the Author’s work on the Exhibition of 1862.
      7. XII Recollections of the Duke of Wellington Official visit to see the Difference Engine in 1829 —Extract from a letter from the late General Sir William Napier —Loss of the troopship Birkenhead —The Author accompanies the Duke to the Exhibition of 1851 —Fixed in the crowd, the Duke plays with a child of two years old —The late Countess of Wilton asks a question about the Difference Engine —The Author’s explanation —The Duke’s remark —Sketch of one portion of the Duke’s intellectual character —University Addresses —The Duke helps a dumpy fellow to see the Queen —The Author saves a Master of Arts from hanging —The Duke and the Ninth Bridgewater Treatise —The Duke an economist of time —Character of the French Marshals.
      8. XIII Recollections of Wollaston, Davy, and Rogers Secretaryship of Royal Society —Mr. Murray of Albemarle Street —Remark on The Decline of Science —Dr. Somerville —Explanation of a Job of Sir Humphry Davy —History of the Thaumatrope —Introduction to Mr. Rogers —The Poet nearly run over —Anecdote of the Economy of Manufactures —Teaches the Author how to live forever —Rapidity of composition amongst Poets —Different effects of Imagination in the Poet and the Philosopher —Consultation about the Author’s unwritten Novel.
        1. The Thaumatrope
      9. XIV Recollections of Laplace, Biot, and Humboldt My First Visit to Paris —Anecdote of the fifty-two Eggs —Mistake about Woodhouse —Fourier —Biot —Drawings of the Difference Engine —Strong characteristic of Humboldt’s mind —English Clergyman at Paris —Great Meeting of Philosophers at Berlin, 1828 —Introduces the Author to Magnus and Derichlet —Puts the Englishman upon the Dining Committee —Conversation in the Linden Walk —Humboldt’s study —Various members of the family of Bonaparte —Lucien and his Children —Louis, the King of Holland —Joseph, the King of Spain —His second Daughter married to a Son of Louis —Their taste —Drawings and Lithographs —Her Death.
        1. Alexander Humboldt
        2. Of the Bonaparte Family
      10. XV Experience by Water Shooting Seabirds —Walking on the Water —A Screw being loose —The Author nearly drowned —Adventure in the Thames Tunnel —Descent in a Diving-bell —Plan for Submarine Navigation.
      11. XVI Experience by Fire Baked in an Oven —A Living Volcano —Vesuvius in action —Carried up the Cone of Ashes in a Chair —View of the Crater in a Dark Night —Sunrise —Descent by Ropes and Rolling into the great Crater —Watched the small Crater in active eruption at intervals —Measured a Base of 330 feet —Depth of great Crater 570 feet —Descent into small Crater —A Lake of red-hot Boiling Lava —Regained the great Crater with the sacrifice of my Boots —Lunched on Biscuits and Irish Whisky —Visit to the Hot Springs of Ischia —Towns destroyed by Earthquake —Coronets of Smoke projected by Vesuvius —Artificial Mode of producing them —Firedamp visited in Welsh Coal-mine in company with Professor Moll.
        1. Baked in an Oven
        2. A Living Volcano
        3. Hot Springs
        4. Earthquakes
        5. Fire Damp
      12. XVII Experience Amongst Workmen Visit to Bradford —Clubs —Cooperative Shops —The Author of the Economy of Manufactures welcomed by the Workmen —Visit to the Temple of Eolus —The Philosopher moralises —Commiserates the unsuccessful Statesman —Points to the Poet a Theme for his Verse —Immortalises both.
      13. XVIII Picking Locks and Deciphering Interview with Vidocq —Remarkable Power of altering his Height —A Bungler in picking Locks —Mr. Hobbs’s Lock and the Duke of Wellington —Strong belief that certain Ciphers are inscrutable —Davies Gilbert’s Cipher —The Author’s Cipher both deciphered —Classified Dictionaries of the English Language —Anagrams —Squaring Words —Bishop not easily squared —Lesser Dignitaries easier to work upon.
        1. Deciphering
      14. XIX Experience in St. Giles’s Deep-snow —Beggar in Belgravia wanted work —He said he was a Watchmaker —Gave his address —It was false —Met him months after —The same story —The same untruth —Children hired for the purpose of Begging —Cellar in St. Giles’s —Inquired for a Poor Woman and Child —Landlady told me of a Man almost starving in her back kitchen —He turned out to be an accomplished Swindler —Potboys —Caught him at last —Took him to Bow Street.
      15. XX Theatrical Experience The Philosopher in a Tableau at the Feet of Beauty —Tableau encored —Philosopher at the Opera of Don Juan —Visits the Waterworks above and the dark expanse below the Stage —Seized by two Devils on their way up to fetch Juan —Cheated the Devils by springing off to a beam at an infinite distance, just as his head appeared to the Audience through the trapdoor —The Philosopher writes a Ballet —Its rehearsal —Its high moral tone —Its rejection on the ground of the probable combustion of the Opera-house.
      16. XXI Electioneering Experience The late Lord Lyndhurst candidate for the University of Cambridge —The Philosopher refuses to vote for him —The reason why —Example of unrivalled virtue —In 1829 Mr. Cavendish was a Candidate for that University —The Author was Chairman of his London Committee —Motives for putting men on Committees —Of the pairing Subcommittee —Motives for Voting —Means of influencing Voters —Voters brought from Berlin and from India —Elections after the Reform Bill, 1832 —The Author again requested to be Chairman of Mr. Cavendish’s Committee —Reserves three days in case of a Contest for Bridgenorth —It occurs, but is arranged —Bridgenorth being secure, the Author gets up a Contest for Shropshire —Patriotic Fund sends £500 to assist the Contest —It lasts three days —Reflections on Squibs —Borough of Finsbury —Adventure in an Omnibus —A judicious Loan —Subsequent invitation to stand for Stroud —Declined —Reflections on improper influence on Voters.
      17. XXII
        1. Dramatis Personæ
        2. Scenes, etc., Extracted
          1. Act I
            1. Scene I
            2. Scene IV
            3. Scene V
            4. Scene VI
            5. Scene VII
            6. Scene IX
            7. Scene X
            8. Scene XI
          2. Act II
            1. Scene I
            2. Scene IV
            3. Scene VI
            4. Scene VIII
            5. Scene XII
      18. XXIII Experience at Courts Pension to Dr. Dalton —Inhabitants of Manchester subscribe for a Statue by Chantrey —The Author proposed that he should appear at a Levee —Various difficulties suggested and removed —The Chancellor approves and offers to present him —Mentions it to King William IV —Difficulties occur —Dalton as a Quaker could not wear a Sword —Answer, he may go in his Robes as Doctor of Laws of Oxford —As a Quaker he could not wear Scarlet Robes —Answer, Dalton is afflicted with Colour-blindness —Crimson to him is dirt-colour —Dr. Dalton breakfasts with the Author —First Rehearsal —Second Rehearsal at Mr. Wood’s —At the Levee —The Church in danger —Courtiers jealous of the Quaker —Conversation at Court sometimes interesting, occasionally profitable.
      19. XXIV Experience at Courts The Author invited to a Meeting at Turin of the Philosophers of Italy, 1840 —The King, Charles Albert —Reflections on Shyness —Question of Dress —Electric Telegraph —Theory of Storms —Remark of an Italian Friend in the evening at the Opera —Various Instruments taken to the Palace, and shown to the young Princes —The Queen being absent —The reason why —The young Princes did great credit to their Governor —The General highly gratified —The Philosopher proposes another difficult question —It is referred to the King himself —An audience is granted to ask the King’s permission to present the woven Silk Engraving of Jacquard to Her Majesty —Singular but Comic Scene —The final Capture of the Butterflies —Visit to Raconigi —The Vintage.
      20. XXV Railways Opening of Manchester and Liverpool Railway —Death of Mr. Huskisson —Plate-glass Manufactory —Mode of separating Engine from Train —Broad-gauge Question —Experimental Carriage —Measure the Force of Traction, the Vertical, Lateral, and End Shake of Carriage, also its Velocity by Chronometer —Fortunate Escape from meeting on the same Line Brunel on another Engine —Sailed across the Hanwell Viaduct in a Wagon without Steam —Meeting of British Association at Newcastle —George Stephenson —Dr. Lardner —Suggestions for greater Safety on Railroads —George Stephenson’s Opinion of the Gauges —Railways at National Exhibitions.
      21. XXVI Street Nuisances Various Classes injured —Instruments of Torture —Encouragers; Servants, Beer-shops, Children, Ladies of elastic virtue —Effects on the Musical Profession —Retaliation —Police themselves disturbed —Invalids distracted —Horses run away —Children run over —A Cabstand placed in the Author’s street attracts Organs —Mobs shouting out his Name —Threats to Burn his House —Disturbed in the middle of the night when very ill —An average number of Persons are always ill —Hence always disturbed —Abusive Placards —Great Difficulty of getting Convictions —Got a Case for the Queen’s Bench —Found it useless —A Dead Sell —Another Illustration —Musicians give False Name and Address —Get Warrant for Apprehension —They keep out of the way —Offenders not yet found and arrested by the Police —Legitimate Use of Highways —An Old Lawyer’s Letter to The Times —Proposed Remedies; Forbid entirely —Authorize Police to seize the Instrument and take it to the Station —An Association for Prevention of Street Music proposed.
      22. XXVII Wit Poor Dogs —Puns Double and Triple —History of the Silver Lady —Disappointed by the Milliner —The Philosopher performs her functions —Lady Morgan’s Criticism —Allsop’s Beer —Sydney Smith —Toss up a Bishop —Lady M — — and the Gipsy in Spain —Epigram on the Planet Neptune —Epigram on Henry Drummond’s attack upon Catholics in the House of Commons —On Catholic Miracles.
      23. XXVIII Hints for Travellers New Inventions —Stomach Pump —Built a Carriage —Description of Thames Tunnel —Barton’s Iridescent Buttons —Chinese Orders of Nobility —Manufactory of Gold Chains at Venice —Pulsations and Respirations of Animals —Punching a Hole in Glass without cracking it —Specimen of an Enormous Smash —Proteus Anguineus —Travellers’ Hotel at Sheffield —Wentworth House.
      24. XXIX Miracles Difference Engine set so as to follow a given law for a vast period —Thus to change to another law of equally vast or of greater duration, and so on —Parallel between the successive creations of animal life —The Author visited Dublin at the first Meeting of the British Association —Is the Guest of Trinity College —Innocently wears a Waistcoat of the wrong colour —Is informed of the sad fact —Rushes to a Tailor to rectify it —Finds nothing but parti-colours —Nearly loses his Breakfast, and is thought to be an amazing Dandy —The Dean thinks better of the Philosopher, and accompanied him to Killarney —The Philosopher preaches a Sermon to the Divine by the side of the Lake.
      25. XXX Religion “Before thy holy altar, sacred Truth, I bow in manhood, as I knelt in youth; There let me bend till this frail form decay, And my last accents hail thine opening day.” The à priori proof of the existence of a Deity —Proof from Revelation —Dr. Johnson’s definition of Inspiration —Various Meanings assigned to the word “Revelation” —Illustration of transmitted Testimony —The third source of proof of the existence of a Deity —By an examination of His Works —Effect of hearing the Athanasian Creed read for the first time.
      26. XXXI
      27. XXXII
        1. On Preventing the Forgery of Banknotes
        2. An Émeute
        3. Letters of Credit
        4. The Speaker
        5. Ancient Music
      28. XXXIII The Author’s Contributions to Human Knowledge Scientific Societies —Analytical Society —Astronomical Society —Grand Duke of Tuscany, Leopold II —Scientific Meeting at Florence —Also at Berlin —At Edinburgh —At Cambridge —Origin of the Statistical Society —Statistical Congress at Brussels —Calculus of Functions —Division of Labour —Verification part of Cost —Principles of Taxation —Extension to Elections —The two Pumps —Monopoly —Miracles.
        1. Calculus of Functions
        2. Political Economy
          1. Division of Labour
          2. Cost of Any Article
          3. Principles of Taxation
          4. Monopoly
          5. Miracles
      29. XXXIV The Author’s Further Contributions to Human Knowledge Glaciers —Uniform Postage —Weight of the Bristol Bags —Parcel Post —Plan for transmitting Letters along Aerial Wires —Cost of Verification is part of Price —Sir Rowland Hill —Submarine Navigation —Difference Engine —Analytical Engine —Cause of Magnetic and Electric Rotations —Mechanical Notation —Occulting Lights —Semi-occultation may determine Distances —Distinction of Lighthouses numerically —Application from the United States —Proposed Voyage —Loss of the Ship and Mr. Reid —Congress of Naval Officers at Brussels in 1853 —My Portable Occulting Light exhibited —Night Signals —Sun Signals —Solar Occulting Lights —Afterwards used at Sebastopol —Numerical Signals applicable to all Dictionaries —Zenith Light Signals —Telegraph for Ships on Shore —Greenwich Time Signals —Theory of Isothermal Surfaces to account for the Geological Facts of the successive Uprising and Depression of various parts of the Earth’s Surface —Games of Skill —Tit-tat-to —Exhibitions —Problem of the Three Magnetic Bodies.
        1. Of Glaciers
        2. Book and Parcel Post
        3. Submarine Navigation
        4. Difference Engine
        5. Explanation of the Cause of Magnetic and Electric Rotations
        6. Mechanical Notation
        7. Occulting Lights
        8. Night Signals
        9. Sun Signals
        10. Zenith-Light Signals
        11. Greenwich Time Signals
        12. Geological Theory of Isothermal Surfaces
        13. Games of Skill
        14. Problem of the Three Magnetic Bodies
      30. XXXV Results of Science Board of Longitude —Professorship of Mathematics at the East India College —Professorship of Mathematics at Edinburgh —Secretaryship of the Royal Society —Master of the Mint —Ditto —Ditto —Registrar-General of Births, Deaths, and Marriages —Ditto —Commissioner of Railways —Ditto —Ditto Abolished.
        1. Registrar-General of Births, Deaths, etc.
        2. Commissioners of Railways
      31. XXXVI
        1. Conclusion
      32. Appendix
        1. Miracles
        2. Religion
        3. Addition to the Chapter on Railroads
      33. List of Mr. Babbage’s Printed Papers
      34. Endnotes
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Passages from the Life of a Philosopher

Charles Babbage

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“I’m a philosopher. Confound them all—
Birds, beasts, and men; but no, not womankind.”

Don Juan

“I now gave my mind to philosophy: the great object of my ambition was to make out a complete system of the universe, including and comprehending the origin, causes, consequences, and termination of all things. Instead of countenance, encouragement, and applause, which I should have received from everyone who has the true dignity of an oyster at heart, I was exposed to calumny and misrepresentation. While engaged in my great work on the universe, some even went so far as to accuse me of infidelity;—such is the malignity of oysters.”

Autobiography of an Oyster deciphered by the aid of photography in the shell of a philosopher of that race—recently scalloped

Dedication

To Victor Emmanuel II, King of Italy.

Sire,

In dedicating this volume to your Majesty, I am also doing an act of justice to the memory of your illustrious father.

In 1840, the King, Charles Albert, invited the learned of Italy to assemble in his capital. At the request of her most gifted Analyst, I brought with me the drawings and explanations of the Analytical Engine. These were thoroughly examined and their truth acknowledged by Italy’s choicest sons.

To the King, your father, I am indebted for the first public and official acknowledgment of this invention.

I am happy in thus expressing my deep sense of that obligation to his son, the Sovereign of united Italy, the country of Archimedes and of Galileo.

I am, Sire,
With the highest respect,
Your Majesty’s faithful Servant,

Charles Babbage.

Preface

Some men write their lives to save themselves from ennui, careless of the amount they inflict on their readers.

Others write their personal history, lest some kind friend should survive them, and, in showing off his own talent, unwittingly show them up.

Others, again, write their own life from a different motive—from fear that the vampires of literature might make it their prey.

I have frequently had applications to write my life, both from my countrymen and from foreigners. Some caterers for the public offered to pay me for it. Others required that I should pay them for its insertion; others offered to insert it without charge. One proposed to give me a quarter of a column gratis, and as many additional lines of eloge as I chose to write and pay for at ten-pence per line. To many of these I sent a list of my works, with the remark that they formed the best life of an author; but nobody cared to insert them.

I have no desire to write my own biography, as long as I have strength and means to do better work.

The remarkable circumstances attending those Calculating Machines, on which I have spent so large a portion of my life, make me wish to place on record some account of their past history. As, however, such a work would be utterly uninteresting to the greater part of my countrymen, I thought it might be rendered less unpalatable by relating some of my experience amongst various classes of society, widely differing from each other, in which I have occasionally mixed.

This volume does not aspire to the name of an autobiography. It relates a variety of isolated circumstances in which I have taken part—some of them arranged in the order of time, and others grouped together in separate chapters, from similarity of subject.

The selection has been made in some cases from the importance of the matter. In others, from the celebrity of the persons concerned; whilst several of them furnish interesting illustrations of human character.

I

My Ancestors

Traced his descent, through ages dark,
From cats that caterwauled in Noah’s ark.

Salmagundi, 4to, 1793

Value of a celebrated Name—My Ancestors—Their Ante-Mosaic origin—Flint-workers—Toolmakers—Not descended from Cain—Ought a Philosopher to avow it if he were?—Probability of Descent from Tubal Cain—Argument in favour, he worked in Iron—On the other side, he invented Organs—Possible origin of my Name—Family History in very recent times.

What is there in a name? It is merely an empty basket, until you put something into it. My earliest visit to the Continent taught me the value of such a basket, filled with the name of my venerable friend the first Herschel, ere yet my younger friend his son, had adorned his distinguished patronymic with the additional laurels of his own well-earned fame.

The inheritance of a celebrated name is not, however, without its disadvantages. This truth I never found more fully appreciated, nor more admirably expressed, than in a conversation with the son of Filangieri, the author of the celebrated Treatise on Legislation, with whom I became acquainted at Naples, and in whose company I visited several of the most interesting institutions of that capital.

In the course of one of our drives, I alluded to the advantages of inheriting a distinguished name, as in the case of the second Herschel. His remark was, “For my own part, I think it a great disadvantage. Such a man must feel in the position of one inheriting a vast estate, so deeply mortgaged that he can never hope, by any efforts of his own, to redeem it.”

Without reverting to the philosophic, but unromantic, views of our origin taken by Darwin, I shall pass over the long history of our progress from a monad up to man, and commence tracing my ancestry as the world generally do: namely, as soon as there is the slightest ground for conjecture. Although I have contended for the Mosaic date of the creation of man as long as I decently could, and have even endeavoured to explain away1 some of the facts relied upon to prove man’s long anterior origin; yet I must admit that the continual accumulation of evidence probably will, at last, compel me to acknowledge that, in this single instance, the writings of Moses may have been misapprehended.

Let us, therefore, take for granted that man and certain extinct races of animals lived together, thousands of years before Adam. We find, at that period, a race who formed knives, and hammers, and arrowheads out of flint. Now, considering my own inveterate habit of contriving tools, it is more probable that I should derive my passion by hereditary transmission from these original toolmakers, than from any other inferior race existing at that period.

Many years ago I met a very agreeable party at Mr. Rogers’ table. Somebody introduced the subject of ancestry. I remarked that most people are reluctant to acknowledge as their father or grandfather, any person who had committed a dishonest action or a crime. But that no one ever scrupled to be proud of a remote ancestor, even though he might have been a thief or a murderer. Various remarks were made, and reasons assigned, for this tendency of the educated mind. I then turned to my next neighbour, Sir Robert H. Inglis, and asked him what he would do, supposing he possessed undoubted documents, that he was lineally descended from Cain.

Sir Robert said he was at that moment proposing to himself the very same question. After some consideration, he said he should burn them; and then inquired what I should do in the same circumstances. My reply was, that I should preserve them: but simply because I thought the preservation of any fact might ultimately be useful.

I possess no evidence that I am descended from Cain. If any herald suppose that there may be such a presumption, I think it must arise from his confounding Cain with Tubal Cain, who was a great worker in iron. Still, however he might argue that, the probabilities are in favour of his opinion: for I, too, work in iron. But a friend of mine, to whose kind criticisms I am much indebted, suggests that as Tubal Cain invented the Organ, this probability is opposed to the former one.

The next step in my pedigree is to determine whence the origin of my modern family name.

Some have supposed it to be derived from the cry of sheep. If so, that would point to a descent from the Shepherd Kings. Others have supposed it is derived from the name of a place called Bab or Babb, as we have, in the West of England, Bab Tor, Babbacombe, etc. But this is evidently erroneous; for, when a people took possession of a desert country, its various localities could possess no names; consequently, the colonists could not take names from the country to which they migrated, but would very naturally give their own names to the several lands they appropriated: “mais revenons à nos moutons.”

How my blood was transmitted to me through more modern races, is quite immaterial, seeing the admitted antiquity of the flint-workers.

In recent times, that is, since the Conquest, my knowledge of the history of my family is limited by the unfortunate omission of my name from the roll of William’s followers. Those who are curious about the subject, and are idlers, may, if they think it worth while, search all the parish registers in the West of England and elsewhere.

The light I can throw upon it is not great, and rests on a few documents, and on family tradition. During the past four generations I have no surviving collateral relatives of my own name.

The name of Babbage is not uncommon in the West of England. One day during my boyhood, I observed it over a small grocer’s shop, whilst riding through the town of Chudley. I dismounted, went into the shop, purchased some figs, and found a very old man of whom I made inquiry as to his family. He had not a good memory himself, but his wife told me that his name was Babb when she married him, and that it was only during the last twenty years he had adopted the name of Babbage, which, the old man thought, sounded better. Of course I told his wife that I entirely agreed with her husband, and thought him a very sensible fellow.

The craft most frequently practised by my ancestors seems to have been that of a goldsmith, although several are believed to have practised less dignified trades.

In the time of Henry the Eighth one of my ancestors, together with a hundred men, were taken prisoners at the siege of Calais.

When William the Third landed in Torbay, another ancestor of mine, a yeoman possessing some small estate, undertook to distribute his proclamations. For this bit of high treason he was rewarded with a silver medal, which I well remember seeing, when I was a boy. It had descended to a very venerable and truthful old lady, an unmarried aunt, the historian of our family, on whose authority the identity of the medal I saw with that given by King William must rest.

Another ancestor married one of two daughters, the only children of a wealthy physician, Dr. Burthogge, an intimate friend and correspondent of John Locke.

Somewhere about 1700 a member of my family, one Richard Babbage, who appears to have been a very wild fellow, having tried his hand at various trades, and given them all up, offended a wealthy relative.

To punish this idleness, his relative entailed all his large estates upon eleven different people, after whom he gave it to this Richard Babbage, who, had there been no entail, would have taken them as heir-at-law.

Ten of these lives had dropped, and the eleventh was in a consumption, when Richard Babbage took it into his head to go off to America with Bamfylde Moore Carew, the King of the Beggars.

The last only of the eleven lives existed when he embarked, and that life expired within twelve months after Richard Babbage sailed. The estates remained in possession of the representatives of the eleventh in the entail.

If it could have been proved that Richard Babbage had survived twelve months after his voyage to America, these estates would have remained in my own branch of the family.

I possess a letter from Richard Babbage, dated on board the ship in which he sailed for America.

In the year 1773 it became necessary to sell a portion of this property, for the purpose of building a church at Ashbrenton. A private Act of Parliament was passed for that purpose, in which the rights of the true heir were reserved.

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Passages from the Life of a Philosopher von Charles Babbage. Der Text ist in den USA gemeinfrei, aus der Standard-Ebooks-Ausgabe. Wir liefern ihn aus unserer eigenen Kopie aus; lies auf ihrer Website die vollständige Ausgabe mit Bildern und Typografie.

Gesprochen von Lynne T, amitsharma, Kathleen Moore, realisticspeakers, Ellies, Chris Cartwright, Availle, Gillian Hendrie, Stephen Harvey, Jon Scott Jones, Thomas Trask, Richard Garifo, ChadH94, Jane Bennett, Dale Grothmann, Colleen McMahon, ClaudiaSterngucker und William Allan Jones für LibriVox, ebenfalls gemeinfrei.

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