Most honourable remembrance. The life and work of Thomas Bayes (Q1409255)

This is indeed a description of the life and work of Bayes complete with commentated reprints of his published works and, partly, manuscripts (on the doctrine of fluxions; on ``semi-convergent'' series; the memoir of 1764-1765 on the doctrine of chances; an ``Item on electricity''; the portion of his notebook devoted to mathematics, electricity, celestial mechanics). Once again Bayes is shown as a mathematician of the highest calibre. Adjoining material includes a discussion of the contemporaneous visitations of the plague. There is so much more pertaining to general history, ethics and theology that the book should have at the very least been separated into two or three parts. Thus, Bayes' theological tract is also reprinted, and with long commentaries. For that matter, Dale confuses his readers with excessive and often unnecessary details (on p. 259 he even discusses whether modesty is a virtue and refers to three sources) but often fails to present concise information. Bayes' biography is too lengthy and meandering; a bibliography of his works as also the history of the Bayes theorem in the 20th century are lacking; Latin passages are sometimes left without translation, but Newton's ``Principia'', whose English text is readily available, is extensively quoted both in Latin and in translation (by whom?) on pp. 224ff., and far-fetched epigraphs, mostly without exact references, are often adduced. It also remains unclear to what extent does this book go further than the author's previous publications on Bayes taken together.