Passages from the Life of a Philosopher

Passages from the Life of a Philosopher
By Charles Babbage.

Table of Contents

Titlepage
Imprint
Epigraph
Dedication
Preface
Frontispiece
Passages from the Life of a Philosopher

I: My Ancestors
II: Childhood

Earliest Recollections

III: Boyhood
IV: Cambridge
V: Difference Engine No. I

Explanation of the Difference Engine
Of the Mechanical Arrangements Necessary for Computing Tables by the Method of Differences
Description of the Existing Portion of Difference Engine No. 1

VI: Statement Relative to the Difference Engine, Drawn Up by the Late Sir H. Nicolas from the Author’s Papers
VII: Difference Engine No. II
VIII: Of the Analytical Engine
IX: Of the Mechanical Notation
X: The Exhibition of 1862

Circumstances Connected with the Exhibition of the Difference Engine No. 1 in the International Exhibition of 1862
List of Mechanical Notations Proposed to Be Lent for the Exhibition

XI: The Late Prince Consort
XII: Recollections of the Duke of Wellington
XIII: Recollections of Wollaston, Davy, and Rogers

The Thaumatrope

XIV: Recollections of Laplace, Biot, and Humboldt

Alexander Humboldt
Of the Bonaparte Family

XV: Experience by Water
XVI: Experience by Fire

Baked in an Oven
A Living Volcano
Hot Springs
Earthquakes
Fire Damp

XVII: Experience Amongst Workmen
XVIII: Picking Locks and Deciphering

Deciphering

XIX: Experience in St. Giles’s
XX: Theatrical Experience
XXI: Electioneering Experience
XXII: Scene from a New Afterpiece, Called “Politics and Poetry;” or, “The Decline of Science”

Dramatis Personæ
Scenes, etc., Extracted

Act I

Scene I
Scene IV
Scene V
Scene VI
Scene VII
Scene IX
Scene X
Scene XI

Act II

Scene I
Scene IV
Scene VI
Scene VIII
Scene XII

XXIII: Experience at Courts
XXIV: Experience at Courts
XXV: Railways
XXVI: Street Nuisances
XXVII: Wit
XXVIII: Hints for Travellers
XXIX: Miracles
XXX: Religion
XXXI: A Vision
XXXII: Various Reminiscences

On Preventing the Forgery of Banknotes
An Émeute
Letters of Credit
The Speaker
Ancient Music

XXXIII: The Author’s Contributions to Human Knowledge

Of the Part Taken by the Author in the Formation of Various Scientific Societies
Calculus of Functions
Political Economy

Division of Labour
Cost of Any Article
Principles of Taxation
Monopoly
Miracles

XXXIV: The Author’s Further Contributions to Human Knowledge

Of Glaciers
Of the Causes of the Transformation of Condensed Snow Into Transparent Ice
Book and Parcel Post
Submarine Navigation
Difference Engine
Explanation of the Cause of Magnetic and Electric Rotations
Mechanical Notation
Occulting Lights
Night Signals
Sun Signals
Zenith-Light Signals
Greenwich Time Signals
Geological Theory of Isothermal Surfaces
Games of Skill
Problem of the Three Magnetic Bodies

XXXV: Results of Science

Registrar-General of Births, Deaths, etc.
Commissioners of Railways

XXXVI: Agreeable Recollections

Conclusion

Appendix

Miracles
Religion
Addition to the Chapter on Railroads

List of Mr. Babbage’s Printed Papers
Endnotes
List of Illustrations
Colophon
Uncopyright

Imprint

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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

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