of him in The Times (May 10, 1879) states that he had himself
been appointed by that body. His scientific treatises and
memoirs are very numerous ; and, besides discharging the duties
of his own Professorship, he acted for some years as deputy
Professor of Natural Philosophy.

Thomas James Main (for whom see also Hagle xiv, 103)
became in 1839 Professor of Mathematics at the Royal Naval
School, Portsmouth, where he taught, acting also as chaplain
of H.M.S. Excelleni, until October 1873. Canon Griflin, in the
notice referred to, writes as follows : " It is not too much to
say that he was the originator of the present course of higher
studies for officers of the navy." He was joint-author of a
VOL. XX. 4 Z



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714 Ohiitiary.

treatise on the Marine SUam Engine, which "has continued
(1885) to be a leading book on the subject." Mr Griffin also
speaks of bis 'genial manners/ his kindliness and courtesy.
In 1870 he entered a son» Edmund Lee Main (since deceased),
under Dr Parkinson. His death took place on Dec. 28, 1885.

Robert Main, his senior by ten years (born 1808), served
under Airy at Greenwich from 1835 to i860, when he became
Radcliffe Observer at Oxford, a post which he held till his death
May 9, 1878. Besides other astronomical works — including a
treatise on Practical and Spherical Astronomy ("1863). which is
still one of the best on that subject — he published in 1 870 a
catalogue of 2386 stars, and was engaged on a fuller catalogue
at the time of his death. The Dictionary of Biography tells us
that he was "a fair classical scholar, and read fluently nine
foreign languages." He also published various sermons. He
is further described as a man of considerable conversational
powers.

In 1 86 1 no small stir had arisen at Oxford and elsewhere
about the (Rinous Essays and JRcviews. And Mr Robert Main,
with another man of science, George Phillips, Reader in
Geology, was requested by Mr James Parker to join seven pro-
fessed theologians in rebutting the supposed attack upon the
faith. Mr Main contributed to the work {Replies to Essays and
Jieviews, 1862) a letter addressed to the publisher in which he
deals with Mr C. W. Goodwin*s Essay on the • Mosaic cosmo-
gony.' The volume has a preface signed * S.O.,' who pleads
' diocesan engagements ' as an excuse for not having read any
of the essays which it contains. The book is further remarkable
for the language its authors use with regard to men, one of
whom, as younger readers m^y not be aware, was no less a
person than the present Archbishop of Canterbury. '* The only
unity of purpose," says one writer, "seems to be that of a
deliberate attack upon our most holy faith.'* Yet, on the whole,
Dr Temple is let off rather lightly. Dr Goulbnrn speaks of
"the dreadfully unsafe statements into which a very good and
able man may be driven ; " while Mr Robert Main seems to
have the future Primate chiefly in view when he speaks of
** some whose chief fault is that they are in bad company."

Mr Robert Main married Mary Kelland, the sister of his
friend and contemporary at Queens'. The Kellands were an
old Devonshire family, Mrs Main is said to have been a person



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Obituary, 715

of the utmost refinement of manner and character, and to have
known Greek enough to read the New Testament in the
original.

Philip Thomas Main was the second of three brothers,
all of whom were sent to Merchant Taylors' School, then
situated in Laurence Pountney Lane. Dr J. A. Hessey, the
author of Sunday : its origin, history and present obligation (1861),
was Head Master, and taught Classics and Hebrew. The
mathematical master was the Rev J. A. L. Airey, afterwards
Rector of St Helen's, Bishopsgate. Another master was John
Bathurst Deane, called 'Serpent* Deane, from his book on the
Worship of the Serpent^ a work which is still met with in book-
sellers' lists and keeps up its price. Did he claim kindred with
Henry Deane (or Dene), Archbishop of Canterbury, for whose
life he collected materials (used by Hook), and with Richard
Deane the regicide, * major-general and general-at-sea* under the
Commonwealth, whose life he wrote ? ** Airey,'* says an old
pupil (Mr H. J. Sharpe), "was a splendid master, and gave us
all an interest in our work which, 1 think, none of us ever lost."
Among his pupils at St John's alone were A. Freeman and H. J.
Sharpe. fifth and sixth Wranglers respectively in 1861, who both
became Fellows; C H. H, Cheyne, eighteenth Wrangler in the
same year, author of a Treatise on the Planetary Theory^ grandson
of Hartwell Home,* author of the Introduction ; Philip Main in

1862 ; and Alfred Marshall, now Professor of Political Economy,
who was second Wrangler in 1865. Main was a favourite pupil
of Airey's, who said that he had ' an intellect like a needle.'
He left school a fair classic and a good French scholar, as well
as a promising mathematician.

Mahi was entered on July 7 1858 under Mr France. His
private tutor was Mr Parkinson. In 1859 he became Bell
Scholar, and Scholar of the College in i860. After taking his
degree as sixth Wrangler in 1862, he was elected a Fellow in

1863 at the same time with Ludlow, Hiern, Laing,t Torry,t
Sephtonf and Graves.

In 1852 — the Natural Sciences Tripos, having been estab-
lished in the previous year, and the medical school beginning,

• B.D. 1829. One of the best known of our ' ten year men.'

t Second, fourth, and fifth Wranglers in Main's year. Mr Torry tells me

that the four never came out twice in the same order in the College cxami-

nfitions.



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7 1 6 Obiiuary,

uiulcr Mr Humphry's fostering care, to show signs of growth—
Mr Liveing took a house (that now occupied by Messrs. Headly
and Edwards, ironmongers) in Slaughter-house Lane (now
Corn Exchange Street), and there at his own expense fitted up
a chemical laboratory. In 1853, ^^ ^^ instance of Mr Bateson,
our late Master (then Bursar), and after consultation with Mr
Liveing, who got out the plans, St John's College established
the first public laboratory in Cambridge. Mr Liveing now
became ' Lecturer in the Natural Sciences and Superintendent
of the Laboratory.' When appointed Professor of Chemistry in
1 86 1, he lectured in a room provided by the University; but
gave his practical demonstrations in the College Laboratory, and
held his lectureship till 1865. He informs me that, without this
double help from the College, he could not at that time have
carried on his University work. However, in 1865 ^ University
laboratory, though of a somewhat makeshift sort, was estab-
lished, and the Professor then resigned his work in College.
In 1866 Mr Main, who had for some time been working under
him, became his successor. It is interesting to note that an
earlier pupil of the Professor's in the College, and one of the
most zealous, was Mr J. E. Gorst, now Sir John Gorst, one
of our Representatives in Parliament.

Main had already assisted his father in the production of his
Practical and Spherical Astronomy (1863). He also wrote an
elementary Plant Astronomy and edited, after Evans, certain
sections of the Principia, Both these works have passed through
several editions and are still used by men reading for the
Mathematical Tripos.

On his appointment to the Laboratory Main had found his
life's work. To this, with unflagging energy, though, as it soon
appeared, with impaired physical strength, he henceforth devoted
himself. For many years his classes were large, his outside
pupils numerous, and his hours of work long. In 1893 part of
the lecture-work^ was committed to his pupil, Mr E. H. Acton,
who soon after became a Fellow of the College, and was ap-
pointed College lecturer. On the lamented death of the latter
in 1895, b© was succeeded by Mr R. H. Adie of Trinity. Main,
however, retained to the last the office of * Superintendent of the
Laboratory,' and devoted the closest attention to its affairs.

* Main " used to give a general course of lectures, which he amplified in
a special class held for the Natural Sciences Tripos.*'



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Obituary, 7 1 7

One who was a pupil during his two last years of teaching
speaks of the 'graphic and original manner' in which Main
illustrated his subject : how ** he set his face against burdening
the memory with a number of disconnected facts, and en-
deavoured always to make clear the underlying theory;"
** insisted on care in the minuiia of manipulation ; " and *' was
always accessible in his rooms to those who sought advice."
He adds : ** Mr Main was the embodiment of all that was kind
to me. I owe to him not only the thanks of a student to his
teacher, but also that of a young man to an elder, who would
enter into his difficulties ; advise and always cheer.*'

When the new College Statutes came into operation in 1883,
he was on the point of attaining a place on the Seniority. He
now came upon the new College Council, and remained an
active and influential member of it till his resignation in 1894.

He acted as examiner for medical degrees and in the
Natural Sciences Tripos on several occasions ; and also served
on the Board for Natural Science, and on that for Physics and
Chemistry, as well as on the Syndicate for State Medicine.
He was appointed a member of the Board of Electors to the
Jacksonian Professorship on the nomination of the General
Board of Studies, and to the Downing Professorship of Medicine
on the nomination of the. Senate.

Besides these services to his College and to the University,
Main threw himself from the first into the cause of women's
education at Cambridge. Professor W. H. H. Hudson, who
has himself taken so active a part in that movement, informs
me that Main's name was on * the General Committee of
Management of the Lectures for Women' as early as Dec. 1869.
When the 'Association for promoting the Higher Education
of Women* was formed, he lectured on Chemistry as soon as
any lectures were required. When the Newnham Hall Company
and the Association were amalgamated into Newnham College,
Main was one of those who signed the Articles of Association,
and was a member of the first Council. This was in 1880. He
continued on the Council till 1887, and was afterwards on it for
1891-92. As Treasurer of the Association from 1873, and after-
wards of the Hall, Professor Hudson tells me that Main
contributed liberally to the building of the three Halls at
Newnham.

The following extract is from the Memoir 0/ Anne J. Clough,



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7i8 Obituary,

the first Principal of Newnham, by her niece, Miss B. A.
Clough (p. 170):

"St John's College, even as early as 1871, permitted one of its Fellows
«nd Lecturers, Mr Main, to give instruction to women students in the chemical
laboratory of the College, and this Mr Main constantly did, usually at an
early hour, such as 8.30 a.m., before demonstrations for undergraduates began.
This continued till the Newnham laboratory was built in 1879."

Mrs Latham who, as Miss Bernard, was Principal of Girton
from 1875, has had the kindness to give me the following infor-
mation as to his work there ;

" When I came to Girton he was already lecturing there, and had been
from the time the College was started in 1873.... He retained (after the
appointment of a resident lecturer) the general direction of the work in his
department, and gave the advanced teaching as long as his health allowed ;
indeed, I am afraid he often strained his own strength to help us. At the
beginning we had only a small room for a laboratory, and he was subjected to
every possible inconvenience, except ungrateful pupils. Then when we built
a laboratory, he advised us about every detail of its arrangement and fitting
up, and the arrangements he made have turned out adequate in all particulars.

'< I remember occasions when I took pupils of his to his rooms for their
coaching when he was too ill to come over to us, and the Tripos examination
was at hand, and Mr Main was not willing that his pupils should miss any
help he could give them, or be more anxious about their examination than
could be helped. But you will not be surprised at any self-denying kindness
on his part, nor that his memory is very piesent to me."

Such, in brief outline, was Main's work as a teacher. An
appreciation of his original scientific work is reprinted from the
Cambridge Review at the end of this notice.

Reference has been made more than once to Main's ill-
health. He had long suffered from emphysema of the lungs, to
which, in fact, with some secondary causes, his death was due.
In spite of this ailment and of the severe illnesses through which
his almost proverbial * vitality' (aided by the skill and care of
his old friend. Professor Bradbury) so often brought him. Main's
energy suffered little diminution,* while his buoyancy, vivacity,
and enjoyment of life were unabated to the last. An excep-
tionally trying illness at Brighton in the Christmas vacation had
greatly weakened him. He returned from another visit to
Brighton on Friday April 28 with a slight cold as it seemed.



* ue, so far as teaching was concerned. The margin of strength avail-
able for original work was doubtless considerably reduced.



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Ohituafy. "7 1 9

After a few days' illness death came in his gentlest form on
Friday, May 5. Mrs Main, widow of his brother and school-
fellow, Robert.* was with him at the last.

Spartam nactus es : hanc exorna. Main's Sparta was the
Laboratory, nor did he ever seek any other* He was, in truth,
the most contented of men. He was none of those who put
the wage before the work, or who give much thought to the
wage.f His income from the Laboratory, when the expenses of
maintenance and attendance had been defrayed, could never
have been large, not to speak of the help occasionally given
from his modest means to promising students who had
need.

Main's was not a combative nature, and strategy was never
in his line. Into the politics of the place he never, I think,
threw himself with ardour. Yet if a cause which he deemed
important was in question^, he would take his part in the fray:
he was no Gallio. Neither were his recreations of the strenuous
sort. In his younger days he once performed the feat of walking
to London in a day, but for many years vigorous exercise of
any kind was out of the question. He was a great reader.§
Besides keeping abreast of the literature of his own subject, he
generally had some lighter work and a graver one (on another
subject than his own) on hand together. Jane Austen was a
favourite, and latterly Rudyard Kipling. In biography he had



* Late assistant Accountant General at the Admiralty.

t An almost classical illustration of this frame of mind is found in Antedates
of the Life of Richard fVatson, Bishop of Llandaff {ed, 1817), p. 10:

** I returned to College in the beginning of September with a determined
purpose to make my Alma Mater the mother of my fortunes. That I well
remember was the expression I used to myself as soon as I saw the turrets of
King's College Chapel, as I was jogging on a jaded nag between Huntingdon
and Cambridge."

X Though in 1897 opposed to the granting of degrees to women, Main
was one of the twenty-one well-known members of the Senate (among them
Professors Adams, Cayley and Kennedy, Dr Bateson and Mr Coutts Trotter),
who sent out the < wliip ' of February 16 1881, just before the vote of Feb. 24
which admitted women to the University examinations.

§ Professor W. H. H. Hudson says Main belonged to * a little society * —
of which Fawcett, R. C. Jebb, A. Marshall and he himself were members —
< that used to meet on Sunday evenings to discuss some book which we were
to read in the meanwhile.'



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720 Obituary.

been reading Basch's Bismarck and Bismarck's Bismarck^ as be
distinguished them. Of Trevelyan's American Rtvolution some
sixteen pages remained unread. Piiilosophical and even theo-
logical questions had a great attraction for him. In particular,
discussions relating to the Apostolic age and the ' higher
criticism ' of the New Testament greatly interested him. The
essential and deepening seriousness and reverence of his nature
and his historic and philosophic sense rendered merely destruc-
tive criticism and all negative dogmatism increasingly distasteful.
He had lately been reading a book by Professor William James
of Harvard entitled The Will lo Believe and olher Essays in
Popular Philosophy. Like that eminent psychologist, and unlike,
I think, most students of physical science, he leaned to the
doctrine of free-will — to the belief, as Professor Sidgwick puts
it, '• that I can now choose to do what I so conceive (i>. as
right and reasonable), however strong may be my inclination to
act unreasonably, and however uniformly I may have yielded to
such inclinations in the past*' — a doctrine which, as Mill,
himself a determinist, admits, *' has given to its adherents a
practical feeling much nearer to the truth than has generally
(I believe) existed in the mind of necessarians." A book of
philosophy which he highly prized was The Thoughts of Marcus
Aurelius — that Imiiatio of antiquity — * the high-water mark,' as
it has been called, 'of unassisted morality.' Main would not
allow that happiness is * our being's end and aim.' Yet
happiness, like pleasure and even health, is perhaps oftenest
found of them that sought her not. And Main's life was, I
am persuaded, a very happy one.

Main had his limitations. Natural scenery did not, I think,
move him strongly. Perhaps his inability to do much walking
or to bear the fatigue of travel may have had much to do with
this. He did not greatly affect poetry, though lately he had
taken up Chaucer. Nor did he seem to care much for any
but the simplest music. Yet many years ago, when a plaintive
melody reached us through an open church-door, he proposed
that we should analyse the precise quality of feeling expressed
and heightened by the strain. Oratory he was apt to identify
with * sophistical rhetoric' But once when I prevailed on him to
go and hear Canon Liddon at St Mary's, he came back charmed
with the great preacher's chaste and silvery eloquence.

A great source of happiness was his capacity for friendship.



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Ohituary. 721

Among thos6 he loved most in days gone by were Henry
Fawcett, W. K. Clifford, and Miss Clough * To the last he
had his litlle group of old and attached friends ; and, while he
clung to the old, he was eminently capable of making new.
But besides this inner circle Main knew a great many people.
His social gifts were considerable, and the afternoon tea gave
him an opportunity for that light and easy flow of conversation
in which he delighted. Main's wit is hard to describe. He
was no great raconteur. There was as little of self-assertion or
effort after display in his talk as of self-seeking in his life.
He had no cynicism or ill-nature in his composition. His
wit and pleasantry bubbled up as from a fountain of mirth and
gladsomeness within. The eye gleamed and the jest was come
and gone before one was aware.

Main's interest in things was fresh to the last. Less than
a week before his death he was speaking of the delightful letters
he had received from Ernest Foxwell in far Tokio. The return
of a friend from a visit to Pompeii set him reflecting how
little we really know of the daily life of the ancients. What
book should be read on the subject ? The last bit of * business*
he did was to send in his contribution towards the presentation
portrait now being painted of our esteemed President.

Like the author of Alice^ Main was very fond of children,
especially little maids. Many will remember *Dot' and 'Flo,*
the daughters of an old friend and contemporary up here whom
he used to call * the father of my children.' Another of these
playmates he called a Lyra,

"Some five and twenty years ago," writes Professor Hudson, "H. G.
Seeley gave a charming course of lectures to children in Geology. I collected
a party of children, ages from 6 to 14, to go to lecture and have tea in my
rooms. Main and John Mayor usually helped me to entertain the children,
and it was due largely to Main that the entertainments were successful."

I have not spoken of his refinement of manner and urbanity,
his dislike of all intolerance, exaggeration, detraction ; his

♦ In this group I should have mentioned G. R. Crotch, of this College,
the unconventional, 'affectionate and lavishly generous* Under-Librarian
(1868-72) and naturalist (died, a martyr to science, in 1874). See Prothero's
Life of Bradshawy p. 90. Much honourable mention of him also in Darwin's
Descent of Man, in connexion with * the stridulation of beetles.*

In the early seventies Main was a member of the Cambridge * Republican
Club,' to which Fawcett and Clifford also belonged. « Nothing could well be
more harmless than this Club,' says L. Stephen, Life of Fawcett, p. 286.
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T22 Ohttuary.

habit of looking at the bright side, of making the most and
best alike of men and things ; his appreciation of any little act
of kindness; his unfailing patience, cheerfulness, and gaiety^
notwithstanding the ' cross ' of his long malady.

No labourer is sad to end his toilsome day. So the choir sang
over him in the College Chapel ; sang too another hymn, that
was a favourite of his — Out blest Redeemer^ ere he breathed. Then
he was laid by the north wall of the Mill Road Cemetery, near
the grave of Dr Kennedy and that of his younger friend and
colleague in the Laboratory, E. H. Acton. Professor Mayor
and his early friend and contemporary the Master read the
service at the grave*

To those of us who had long and intimately known him, his
loss is irreparable. Something has gone out of our lives.
There will not be another in our time in whom the elements
will be mixed up to so delightful a compound as they were in
him ; nor shall we find another friend so sympathetic and self-
forgetting.

But from every life that has been truly lived there disengages
itself for friend and lover — freed from the accidental imper-
fections and limitations of its mortal state — the 'idea' of the
life, that conoes

apparell'd in more precious habit,
More moving-ddicate and full of life,
Into the eye and prospect of their soul,
Than when it lived indeed.

W. A. C.



Rev Arthur Washington Cornelius Hallbn M.A.

The Rev A. W. Cornelius Hallen Incumbent of St John's
Episcopal Church, Alloa, died at the Parsonage on March 27.
We take the following account of him from The Alloa Journal
of April 1.

*' Though it can be no surprise to our readers to learn, the
regret experienced can be the not less poignant, that a reverend
and most estimable citizen of our good town has just passed
away^ mourned by all who had the pleasure of his friendship
or acquaintance. It is now nearly a year since the Rev A. W
Cornelius Hallen, incumbent of St John's Episcopal Church,



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Obituary. 723

\iras laid aside from active duty by illness, which ultimately
developed into an insidious and incurable disease. Though he
rallied at times, and received the best of medical skill and
advice, the improvement that was manifested was never of long
continuance, and as we have said, it was no surprise to the
community to learn that he peacefully passed to his eternal
rest at his residence, the Parsonage, Grange Place, early on
Monday morning last. Though he was not a native of Alloa,
and indeed not a Scotchman, Mr Hallea has been so long
resident here and has beea so much indentified with some of
the public institutions of the town during the last forty years
almost, that his death cannot but be regarded ia the sense of a
distinct public loss, one, indeed, which, in some respects,
will not be easily filled. He was, we believe, a native of
Gloucestershire, England, being born at the Rectory, Djurseley,
in that county, on the 25th March^ 1&34, so that he had just
completed his 65th year. His father (the Rev Washington
Hallen) was rector of that parish, and he took pains to see that
his son received an education suited to his position in life.
He was accordingly sent first to Gloucester College School,
and afterwards to Peter Blundel's School, Tiverton, Devonshire
(a Grammar School founded in the 1 6th century, and till lately
the most important Public School in the south-west of England),
and latterly at St Ajidrew's College, Harrowweald, Middlesex.
He entered St John's College, Cambridge, in the year 1854,