Constitutionally delicate, Agnes Clerke from her earliest years, as so often is to be noticed in cases of frail health, found her chief delight in literary study and in music. From quiet talks often enjoyed with her in her later life, it was clear that the thoughtfulness of Agnes Clerke, and her liking for probing difficult problems, must have developed early.
This is not the place for enlarging upon the family influences of her home life, but it should be said that these were truly fostering, and that she was a devoted and loving daughter, to whom the parental sympathy, strongly given on both sides, was at once inspiration and joy. Mrs. Clerke was a remarkable woman, with rare powers of insight and of capacity for love. Her conversational powers were of a high order, as was her musical ability. Those privileged to be present at her afternoon gatherings will not easily forget their pleasures; and intimate friends will long remember the charms of her music. Her rendering of old Irish airs on Ireland’s national instrument—the harp—was delightful; and so indeed was her piano-playing. She told me one day near the close of her life, when near her eightieth birthday, that she practised on her instruments every day. This was interesting; and showed that power of persevering work—even under the natural disabilities of age—which was a marked feature in her daughter Agnes.
The bust, a photograph of which is here reproduced, was executed in Rome when Mrs. Clerke was about fifty years of age.
In considering the fostering influences of Agnes Clerke’s home life, that of her only brother, Aubrey St. John Clerke, should be mentioned.
Mr. Clerke won the first gold medal of Trinity College, Dublin, in Mathematics at his Degree examination in 1865, and was awarded a studentship of £100 a year for seven years—the highest honour obtainable at the Degree examination. He also won the second gold medal conferred by the University for Experimental and Natural Science.
Mr. Clerke has told me—what indeed I always believed—that although not professing to be a mathematician, his sister’s perception of mathematical truth was singularly clear; and I feel sure that her brother’s mathematical powers and knowledge of Natural Science were a great advantage to her, for the helpfulness of thorough sympathy is very great. In her later life she took lessons in mathematics, and expatiated to me on the pleasure she felt in them. Not that she aimed at making herself a mathematician; she was too wise to so err. Her object was simply to go far enough to enable her to do better her own particular work. No one that I have known—man or woman—better understood that the half may be better than the whole; that the art of doing, consists, greatly, in—not doing. She could renounce. And in these days great renunciation is necessary if useful work is to be done.
In 1861 the Clerke family moved to Dublin, and in 1863 to Queenstown. The winters of 1867 and of 1868 were spent at Rome; those of 1871 and 1872 at Naples; and the next four winters at Florence—the summers of 1874-76 being passed at the Bagni di Lucca. Both sisters profited to the full from this sojourn in Italy, as their subsequent writings show; but Agnes at Florence worked specially hard, reading constantly in the Public Library there, and always, I believe, with one great object before her.
It is a question of much interest to examine into the early leanings and aspirations of those who distinguish themselves later, and Agnes Clerke early determined her life work. Before leaving Skibbereen, about the age of fifteen, she had clearly before her the intention of writing a history of Astronomy, and it is thought, had actually written a few chapters. Her first article accepted for the Edinburgh Review, is in harmony with the above facts.
Agnes Clerke’s first wish to examine into Science generally, was roused by the perusal of Joyce’s Scientific Dialogues; but as regards Astronomy, Sir John Herschel’s Outlines was her earliest guide—and I can imagine how much this really great book was to her, from my own early use of it.