For this reason only I beg leave most respectfully to
decline the honor of Knighthood at the present time.
I have only to add that my services will always be at the command of
the Government in any scientific subject in which I can be of the
smallest use.
I am, my dear Sir,
Your very faithful Servant,
G.B. AIRY.
_The Right Honorable T. Spring Rice_.
* * * * *
"In brief revision of the years from 1827 to 1835 I may confine myself
to the two principal subjects--my Professorial Lectures, and my
Conduct of the Cambridge Observatory.
"The Lectures as begun in 1827 included ordinary Mechanics, ordinary
Hydrostatics and Pneumatics (I think that I did not touch, or touched
very lightly, on the subjects connected with the Hydraulic Ram), and
ordinary Optics (with a very few words on Polarization and
Depolarization). In 1828 the two first were generally improved, and
for the third (Optics) I introduced a few words on Circular
Polarization. I believe that it was in 1829 that I made an addition
to the Syllabus with a small engraving, shewing the interference of
light in the best practical experiment (that of the flat prism); and I
went thoroughly into the main points of the Undulatory Theory,
interference, diffraction, &c.
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