But he could not withdraw
his thoughts from his Lunar Theory, and he still continued to struggle
with the difficulties of the subject, and was constantly scheming
improvements. His private accounts also now gave him much
trouble. Throughout his life he had been accustomed to keep his
accounts by double entry in very perfect order. But he now began to
make mistakes and to grow confused, and this distressed him
greatly. It never seemed to occur to him to abandon his elaborate
system of accounts, and to content himself with simple entries of
receipts and expenses. This would have been utterly opposed to his
sense of order, which was now more than ever the ruling principle of
his mind. And so he struggled with his accounts as he did with his
Lunar Theory till his powers absolutely failed. In his Journal for
this year there are various entries of mental attacks of short
duration and other ailments ascribable to his advanced age.
The last printed "Papers by G.B. Airy" belong to this year. One was
the Paper before referred to "On the establishment of the Roman
dominion in England": another was on the solution of a certain
Equation: and there were early reminiscences of the Cambridge Tripos,
&c.
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