m 
 

 
 UN 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 CALIFORNIA. 
 
 i88 
 
m K:%:V-- 
 
WORKS ON MENTAL PHILOSOPHY 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 WILLIAM BLACKWOOD & SONS. 
 
 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. By Sir WILLIAM HAMILTON, 
 
 Bart. Edited by the Rev. H. L. HANSEL, B.D., LL.D., Dean of St Paul's; 
 and JOHN VEITCH, M.A., Professor of Logic and Rhetoric in the University 
 of Glasgow. Fourth Edition, Revised. Two Volumes, Octavo, 24s. 
 
 LECTURES ON LOGIC. By Sir WILLIAM HAMILTON, Bart. 
 
 Edited by the Rev. H. L. HANSEL, B.D., LL.D., Dean of St Paul's ; and JOHN 
 VEITCH, Professor of Logic and Rhetoric in the University of Glasgow. Second 
 Edition. Two Volumes, Octavo, 24s. 
 
 in. 
 
 DISCUSSIONS ON PHILOSOPHY AND LITERATURE, 
 
 EDUCATION AND UNIVERSITY REFORM. By SIR WILLIAM HAM- 
 ILTON, BART. Third Edition. Octavo, 21s. 
 
 INSTITUTES OF METAPHYSIC : The Theory of Knowing 
 and Being. By JAMES F. FERRIER, B.A. Oxon., Professor of Moral Philo- 
 sophy and Political Economv, St Andrews. Second Edition. Crown Octavo, 
 10s. 6d. 
 
 LECTURES ON GREEK PHILOSOPHY AND OTHER PHI- 
 LOSOPHICAL REMAINS OF JAMES F. FERRIER, B.A. Oxon., LL.D., 
 Professor of Moral Philosophy, &c., in the University of St Andrews. Edited 
 by Sir ALEX. GRANT, Bart., LL.D., and Professor LUSHINGTON. With a Bio- 
 graphical Memoir. Two Volumes, Post Octavo, 24s. 
 
 LECTURES ON GREEK PHILOSOPHY, being the First Volume 
 
 of the above. Sold separately, price 12s. 
 
 VII. 
 
 SPECULATIVE PHILOSOPHY: An Introductory Lecture, de- 
 livered at the Opening of the Class of Logic and Rhetoric, Nov. 1, 1864. By 
 JOHN 'VEITCH. M.A., Professor of Logic and Rhetoric in the University of 
 Glasgow. Is. 
 
 vm. 
 
 DESCARTES ON THE METHOD OF RIGHTLY CONDUCT- 
 ING THE REASON, AND SEEKING TRUTH IN THE SCIENCES : with 
 his Meditations, and Selections from his Principles of Philosophy. In One 
 Volume, 4s. 6d. 
 
 A DISCOURSE ON ETHICS 'OF THE SCHOOL OF PALEY. 
 
 By WILLIAM SMITH, Author of < Thorndale.' Octavo, 4s. 
 
 ON THE INFLUENCE EXERTED BY THE MIND OVER 
 
 THE BODY, IN THE PRODUCTION AND REMOVAL OF MORBID 
 AND ANOMALOUS CONDITIONS OF THE ANIHAL ECONOHY. Bv 
 JOHN GLEN, M.A. Crown Octavo, 2s. 6d. 
 
 XI. 
 
 THORNDALE; or, The Conflict of Opinions. By WILLIAM 
 SMITH, Author of 'A Discourse on Ethics,' &c. Second Edition. Crown 
 Octavo, 10s. 6d. 
 
 XII. 
 
 GRAVENHURST ; or, Thoughts on Good and Evil. By WILLIAM 
 SMITH, Author of ' Thomdale/ &c. In Crown Octavo, 7s. 6d. 
 
PREPARING FOR PUBLICATION, 
 
 SYMBOLISM ; or, Mind, Matter, and Language, as the necessary 
 Elements of Thinking and Reasoning. By JAMES HAIG, M. A. 
 
 ii. 
 
 SKETCHES OF THE HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS THOUGHT 
 IN ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. By JOHN TUL- 
 LOCH, D.D., Principal and Professor of Theology, St Mary's College, St 
 Andrews. 
 
 in. 
 
 THE RELATIONS OF THE SCIENCES TO ONE ANOTHER, 
 AND TO PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, AND MORALITY. By the REV. 
 ROBERT FLINT, Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of St 
 Andrews. 
 
 WILLIAM BLACKWOOD & SONS, Edinburgh and London. 
 
MEMOIR 
 
 OP 
 
 SIR WILLIAM HAMILTON, BART. 
 
;.Armytage 
 
 LWOOD & SOWS, EDINBtTHGH &LO.NDON . 
 
MEMOIR 
 
 OF 
 
 SIR WILLIAM HAMILTON, BART. 
 
 PROFESSOR OF LOGIC AND METAPHYSICS IN THE 
 UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN VEITCH, M.A. 
 
 PROFESSOR OF LOGIC AND RHETORIC IN THE UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW 
 
 [UNIVERSITY 
 
 WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS 
 
 EDINBURGH AND LONDON 
 
 MDCCCLXIX 
 
E 
 
 THE following Memoir was undertaken at the request 
 of the family of Sir William Hamilton. I have been 
 furnished by them with the private letters and docu- 
 ments of which use has been made in this volume. I 
 am also mainly indebted to the members of the family 
 for the facts relating to Sir William's private life as 
 here recorded. To the same source, especially to Mr 
 Hubert Hamilton, I owe numerous suggestions, which 
 have served to make the Memoir more complete than 
 it would otherwise have been. 
 
 To others besides the members of Sir William's 
 family I am under obligations for materials supplied. 
 These will be found duly acknowledged in the course 
 of the Memoir. Where it appeared fitting, I have given 
 narrative and description of facts and circumstances 
 in the language of those communicating them, believing 
 that the impressions of a man's personality are usually 
 best conveyed in the words of those who felt them. 
 
 The present Work professes to be merely biographical. 
 It was, at the same time, impossible, from the nature 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 of the life portrayed, to do justice to the man without 
 a general reference to his philosophical opinions. 1 
 have also thought it right to point out, in the interest 
 of historical truth, what appear to me to be incorrect 
 representations of certain of Sir William Hamilton's 
 philosophical doctrines. It was, however, no part of 
 my design to expound his Philosophy, far less to 
 attempt a critical estimate of it. I have sought only 
 to portray the man as he lived, thought, taught, and 
 wrote. 
 
 J. VEITCH. 
 
 THE COLLEGE, GLASGOW, 
 April 1869. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 EARLY PERIOD BOYHOOD : 1788-1807. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Birth Parentage Glasgow of last century The College The Hamiltons of 
 Airdrie Dr Robert Hamilton His grandfather, Dr Thomas Hamilton 
 His father, Dr William Hamilton His mother Boyhood and earliest edu- 
 cationHis brother, Thomas Hamilton Dr Dean and school at Bromley 
 Enters the College of Glasgow Dr Sommers of Midcalder Character at 
 this period Notice of his brother Pursues his arts studies at Glasgow 
 Professors of the period Letters of Dr Sommers Attends medical classes 
 Taste for collecting books Goes to Edinburgh to pursue his medical 
 studies Letters to his mother, . . . . ' . ' . 1-27 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 OXFORD PERIOD : 1807-1811. 
 
 Goes to Oxford as Snell Exhibitioner Letters to his mother Oxford friends 
 and associates Alexander Scott John Gibson Lockhart Letters of Lock- 
 hart about Hamilton Impressions he made at Oxford Mr Christie's remi- 
 niscencesMr Traill's reminiscences Catches the tutor eavesdropping 
 The mulberry -tree exploit His Oxford life and studies What influence 
 the place had upon him The list of books given up by him for the final 
 examination Character of his examination As given by Dr Jenkyns, Mr 
 Villers, Rev. Alexander Nicoll His own reference to it, . . 28-61 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 EDINBURGH PERIOD AT THE BAR : 1811-1820. 
 
 Abandons medicine for the law Visits to Oxford Illness and death of his 
 friend A. Scott Notice of Scott Researches into his own connection with 
 the family of Preston Passes advocate Assumes the baronetcy of Preston 
 Sketch of the House of Preston His experience at the bar Knowledge 
 of law Amount of employment Literary tastes The Advocates' Library 
 
Vlll CONTENTS. 
 
 Political views State of Scotch politics ' Edinburgh Review ' His re- 
 lations to the political parties of the times a barrier to professional advance- 
 ment Edinburgh society in 1812 and subsequent years The old and the 
 new literary impulses Sir Walter Scott Francis Jeffrey His relations 
 with Jeffrey Dr Thomas Brown Sketch of Hamilton's appearance at this 
 time by De Quincey His intercourse with strangers Intimacy with Lock- 
 hart * Blackwood's Magazine ' His brother, Captain Thomas Hamilton 
 First visit to Germany, 1817 The noted poodle Hermann Second visit to 
 Germany, 1820 Systematic study of German commenced Zeal for the in- 
 terests of the Advocates' Library Letter on the subject to the Members 
 of the Faculty, ........ 62-95 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 AT THE BAB, AND IN THE UNIVERSITY : 1820-1829. 
 
 Sir William a candidate for Moral Philosophy Chair Supported by Mr Dugald 
 Stewart His testimonials Election turns on political considerations 
 Letter of Lord A. Hamilton Probable character of his ethical teaching 
 Letter of Dr Parr Chair of Civil History vacant Appointment of Hamil- 
 ton Subjects of his lectures At St Andrews in summer of 1823 Small 
 commonplace-book His studies at this period Modern Latin poets, Buch- 
 anan, Balde, and others Papers read before Eoyal Society on Greek verb 
 Phrenology His investigation of its pretensions Conclusions regarding the 
 cerebellum Animal magnetism and mesmerism His friends R. P. Gillies 
 Thomas Carlyle's reminiscences Captain Hamilton Sir William's repu- 
 tation for reading, and readiness to impart information Death of his mother 
 His marriage, ........ 96-137 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE ' EDINBURGH REVIEW : ' 1829-1836. 
 
 Period after marriage Friends Personal and social characteristics 'Edin- 
 burgh Review ' and its new editor First article contributed to the ' Review,' 
 on the ' Cours de Philosophic ' of M. Cousin General aim and character of 
 the contribution M. Cousin's interest in the author Correspondence be- 
 tween Cousin and Hamilton Article on Perception Letter of the author 
 regarding it to M. Cousin Articles on Logic On the ( Epistolse Obscuro- 
 rum Virorum 'On the State of the English Universities in 1831 Subse- 
 quent articles On Oxford On Right of Dissenters to Admission into the 
 English Universities On Patronage and Superintendence of Universities 
 generally Influence on public opinion of articles on Oxford Lord Radnor 
 and his Bill in the House of Lords Oxford Commission of 1850 Testi- 
 monies of Rev. S. H. Johnson, Rev. A. P. Stanley, Rev. F. D. Maurice- 
 Article on the Patronage and Superintendence of Universities Its influence 
 Further contributions to the 'Review' Review of Cousin on German 
 schools On the Study of Mathematics Letter of Mr Napier Made Soli- 
 citor to Teind Court Letter from Professor Mylne- Physiological experi- 
 ments, . . . . . . 138-182 
 
CONTENTS. IX 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 APPOINTMENT TO LOGIC CHAIR, AND COMPOSITION OP LECTURES : 1836-1839. 
 
 Resignation of Dr Ritchie University patronage in Edinburgh Candidates 
 for the Logic Chair Correspondence between Professor Pillans and M. 
 Cousin Letter of Sir William to M. Cousin Reply and testimonial 
 
 : Opposition to Sir William His declinature to canvass Alleged obscurity 
 of his writings Theological objection Result of the election Preparation 
 of lectures Introductory lecture Lectures of first session on Metaphysics 
 How composed Commencement of edition of Reid Lectures of second 
 session on Logic Place of the lectures as an exposition of the author's 
 philosophical doctrines Their general characteristics and influence Tes- 
 timony of Rev. Dr Cairns Correspondence with M. Cousin Controversy 
 with Town Council about fees and senior class, . . . 183-246 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 IN THE LOGIC CHAIR : 1839-1844. 
 
 Work of the class Record of honours Mechanical contrivances in connection 
 with the class Relations with his colleagues Graduation in arts Exa- 
 mination for honours Reid Fund Elected Member of the Institute of 
 France Letters to Lord Melbourne and Lord Advocate Rutherfurd His 
 brother's death Pamphlet on the Disruption controversy Theological in- 
 terest Dr Cairns's reminiscences of intercourse with Sir William Corre- 
 spondence with Cousin, . . . . . . 247-277 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 ILLNESS, AND LAST YEARS OP LIPE ' 1844-1856. 
 
 Illness Dr Maclagan's notes Effect on his health Mind unimpaired Soli- 
 citude of his friends Conduct under his illness Application for a pension 
 And result Completion of Reid's Works Contemplated Works on Logic 
 and Luther Correspondence with Dr Cairns Domestic life and habits 
 Mr Baynes's reminiscences of conversations Letters to Lieutenant Hamil- 
 ton in India Researches in connection with Luther The ' Discussions ' 
 Letters relative to them Tests in the Scottish universities Visits of 
 strangers Editing of Stewart's Works Letters from home Last illness 
 General remarks, . . . 278-374 
 
 CONCLUDING CHAPTER. 
 
 READING, COMMONPLACE-BOOK, AND LIBRARY. 
 
 Importance attached to reading by Hamilton Reading and non-reading phi- 
 losophersLeibnitz and Hamilton Relation between his reading and 
 thinking Value of historical knowledge in his time Characteristics of his 
 reading The Large Commonplace- Book Works of reference Bibliogra- 
 phies Formation of library Mechanical skill Sizing Contents of library 
 Acute dicta General remarks Fellowship Bust, . ; . 375-430 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 NOTE A. 
 
 ON THE REVIEW OF COUSIN, AND ALLEGED CONTRADICTION IN SIR W. 
 
 HAMILTON'S PHILOSOPHY, ...... 404-420 
 
 NOTE B. 
 ON THE INFLUENCE OF SIR W. HAMILTON'S WRITINGS IN AMERICA, . 421-428 
 
 NOTE C. 
 SIR W. HAMILTON ON HUME, LEIBNITZ, AND ARISTOTLE, . . 429-448 
 
 INDEX, . 419 
 
E K E A T A. 
 
 Page 91, line 19, for " Dante " read Boccaccio. " 
 
 103, 32, for "They" read "The Faculty." 
 
 107, ,, 34, after "been" insert "among." 
 
 ,, 135, ,, 13, after "was," delete comma. 
 
 ,, 185, ,, 18, after "man," delete comma. 
 
 291, note, line 6, for "Thompson," read Thomson. 
 
 332, line 32, after "rental" insert colon. 
 
X CONTENTS. 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 NOTE A. 
 
 ON THE REVIEW OF COUSIN, AND ALLEGED CONTRADICTION IN SIR W. 
 
 HAMILTON'S PHILOSOPHY, ...... 404-420 
 
 NOTE B. 
 ON THE INFLUENCE OF SIR W. HAMILTON'S WRITINGS IN AMERICA, . 421-428 
 
UNIVERSITY 
 
 ME M IE 
 
 OF 
 
 SIR WILLIAM HAMILTON 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 EARLY PERIOD BOYHOOD : 1788-1807. 
 
 BIRTH PARENTAGE GLASGOW OP LAST CENTURY THE COLLEGE THE 
 HAMILTONS OP AIRDRIE DR ROBERT HAMILTON HIS GRANDFATHER, 
 DR THOMAS HAMILTON HIS FATHER, DR WILLIAM HAMILTON HIS 
 MOTHER BOYHOOD AND EARLIEST EDUCATION HIS BROTHER, THOMAS 
 HAMILTON DR DEAN AND SCHOOL AT BROMLEY ENTERS THE COL- 
 LEGE OP GLASGOW DR SOMMERS OF MIDCALDER CHARACTER AT 
 THIS PERIOD NOTICE OP HIS BROTHER PURSUES HIS ART STUDIES 
 AT GLASGOW PROFESSORS OP THE PERIOD LETTERS OP DR SOM- 
 MERS ATTENDS MEDICAL CLASSES TASTE FOR COLLECTING BOOKS 
 GOES TO EDINBURGH TO PURSUE HIS MEDICAL STUDIES LETTERS 
 TO HIS MOTHER. 
 
 WILLIAM HAMILTON was bom on the 8th of March 1788, in 
 the College of Glasgow. His father was Dr William Hamil- 
 ton, Professor of Anatomy and Botany in the University. Of 
 him we shall presently have occasion to speak at length. 
 
 His mother was/Elizabeth, daughter of Mr William Stirling, 
 merchant, whose /amily had for several generations been settled 
 in Glasgow, where they occupied an influential position. They 
 traced their descent from the Stirlings of Bankeir and Lettyr, 
 and through them claimed to represent the distinguished house 
 of Cadder, oldest of the name of Stirling. I I 
 
 A // 
 
2 PARENTAGE GLASGOW. 
 
 William was the eldest surviving child of his parents, a 
 brother and sister having died in infancy. The only other 
 issue of the marriage was a son, Thomas, afterwards Captain 
 Thomas Hamilton, and well known as the accomplished 
 author of ' Cyril Thornton ' and other works. 
 
 The name which the subject of our memoir received in 
 baptism, and which he continued to use for some time, was 
 William Stirling. As he grew up, however, he omitted Stir- 
 ling, and continued to the end of his life to write merely 
 " W. Hamilton." In this trifling circumstance there appears 
 something of his characteristic distaste for the superfluous in 
 expression. In the postscript of a letter to his mother from 
 Edinburgh, 8th March 1807, he says: "You need not direct 
 to me by my full names ; you may always omit Stirling. It 
 is nonsense having three long names." 
 
 The city of young Hamilton's birth, boyhood, and education, 
 had not in 1788 attained to anything like its present magni- 
 tude. Though the tide of its commercial greatness had un- 
 mistakably set in, Glasgow still retained many of the character- 
 istics of an ancient university town. The " tobacco lords," as 
 its first traders of note were called, from the article they im- 
 ported, had no doubt developed a great commerce from 1707 
 until the breaking-out of the American war. They had amassed 
 large fortunes ; they occupied a marked place in the social 
 life of the city ; and they appeared very conspicuously on the 
 streets in their picturesque costume of scarlet cloak, curled 
 wig, cocked-hat, and gold-headed cane recalling the princely 
 exclusiveness and splendour of the past days of Venice and 
 Genoa.* But the University still held its place as the pecu- 
 liar boast and ornament of the city ; and there subsisted much 
 intercourse and cordiality between the citizens and the pro- 
 fessors of the College, as was shown by their fusion in the social 
 clubs of the period. Wealthy and important as might be many 
 of the newly-risen commercial aristocracy, the historical lustre 
 of the University was still that by which Glasgow was best 
 * See Strang's Clubs of Glasgow, p. 34. 
 
THE COLLEGE. 3 
 
 and most widely known ; and in spite of a system of profes- 
 sorial patronage, whose commonest results were nepotism and 
 the preference of the obscure local candidate, the names of its 
 past and existing professors especially Carmichael, Hutche- 
 son, Adam Smith, Moore, Black, Eeid, Cullen, Thomas and 
 William Hamilton had made the University respected in 
 Scotland, and not unknown in England and on the continent 
 of Europe. 
 
 The houses in the Professors' Court, in one of which young 
 Hamilton was born that now marked No. 1 flank the north 
 side of the College, and were built for the most part between 
 1720 and 1730. To the east of them lay an open space of 
 forty acres, forming the College gardens and grounds, through 
 which the historic Molendinar wended its way. In front is the 
 College itself, commenced in 1632 and completed in 1662 
 a fine specimen of the modification of classical architecture 
 which prevailed in Scotland at that period, and replete with 
 interesting and inspiring associations. Towards the end of last 
 century it was but partially surrounded by the houses of the 
 city, and to the east commanded views of outlying green fields 
 and rising grounds. The edifice was fresher in appearance, too, 
 than now ; for the eighty years that have since elapsed had 
 not contributed their quota of smoke and atmospheric impurity 
 to dim roof and tower. Its immediate surroundings were also 
 of a different character; the High Street and the adjoining local- 
 ities, less densely peopled than now, were the places of busi- 
 ness, and even of residence, of many of the principal merchants 
 and shopkeepers ; and from the College to the Cross tower the 
 ancient thoroughfare looked quaint and picturesque, with crow- 
 stepped gables abutting on the line of vision, such as may still 
 be seen along the quays of Antwerp and in the streets of Ghent. 
 
 Among the advantages which the College is said to have 
 possessed in 1794 is that of " local situation, in the neighbour- 
 hood of an industrious city, and at some distance from the 
 capital, by which it is not exposed to the dissipation arising 
 from a number of amusements, nor too remote from the topics 
 
4 THE HAMILTONS OF AIKDR1E. 
 
 of speculation, suggested by the progress of philosophy and 
 the interesting business of society." * 
 
 In 1788, and for some years afterwards, Thomas Reid was 
 still alive in a green old age, Professor of Moral Philosophy, 
 though the duties of the Chair were discharged by an assist- 
 ant. Occupying one of the official residences, the figure of 
 the venerable originator of that line of speculation which 
 William Hamilton was destined to take up, recast, and am- 
 plify, was to be met with in the College quadrangle, where his 
 appearance had been a familiar sight for more than a quarter 
 of a century. 
 
 Dr William Hamilton, the father Professor of Anatomy 
 and Botany was sprung from a good old Scottish stock. He 
 was a cadet of the Hamiltons of Airdrie, near Glasgow ; they 
 again were a branch of the Hamiltons of Preston and Fingal- 
 ton, and the tradition was that since the extinction of the 
 direct male line of that more ancient house they were entitled 
 as its representatives to bear its title and honours. No at- 
 tempt had, however, been made to prove this claim, which 
 was of the less importance as it did not include the lands of 
 Preston, these having been disposed of by their last owner. 
 Meanwhile the embarrassed circumstances of the successive 
 proprietors of Airdrie had compelled them gradually to part 
 with the whole of the estate. The head of the family at the 
 time we speak of was Dr Hamilton's cousin, Eobert Hamilton, 
 who might have been thought likely to restore it to its former 
 position, having realised a considerable fortune as a mer- 
 chant in China. This cousin, however, died unmarried on his 
 way home in 1799, and left the bulk of his means to the 
 University of Glasgow. The traditional connection of the 
 family of Airdrie with that of Preston was destined to influ- 
 
 * 'Statistical Account of the University of Glasgow,' attributed to Dr 
 Thomas Eeid. "Local situation" is, it is to be feared, not now one of the 
 attractions of the College ; but there is a probability that the plea will be again 
 available through the munificence of the citizens, when, with mingled feelings 
 of complacency and regret, the alumni of the University will abandon local 
 associations for present amenity. 
 
THE HAMILTONS OF AIKDRIE. 5 
 
 ence the imagination of young William Hamilton ; and it was 
 left to him, as we shall see, to trace the precise descent, 
 and assume the hereditary honours, of the historical house of 
 Preston. 
 
 The Hamiltons of Airdrie could boast of not undistinguished 
 members. The first of the line, John, second son of Sir Kobert 
 Hamilton of Preston, was slain at Flodden ; the third, Gavin, 
 gallantly espoused the interests of the unfortunate Mary, and 
 was engaged in the capture of the King's party in Stirling 
 (1571). Another Gavin, the fifth of the family, accompanied 
 William Duke of Hamilton, and his kinsman, Sir Thomas 
 Hamilton of Preston, in the disastrous expedition into Eng- 
 land under Charles II. in 1651, and involved his estate by 
 his exertions in the cause of the Covenant and the King. 
 His second son, William, acquired a high reputation among 
 his contemporaries for theological erudition as Professor of 
 Divinity in the University of Edinburgh, and died in the 
 office of Principal of that seat of learning in 1732. His 
 elder son, Eobert, sympathising with his kinsman, Sir Eobert 
 Hamilton of Preston, in his hostility to the religious persecu- 
 tion of the Government, took part in the western rising of 
 1679, and was made prisoner at Both well Bridge. 
 
 This Eobert Hamilton was the laird of Airdrie when the 
 extinction of the direct line of the Preston family took place, 
 by the death without issue in 1701 of Sir Eobert Hamilton, 
 the Covenanting leader at Drumclog. 
 
 Eobert Hamilton had a son named William, who succeeded 
 him in the estate, and was minister of Bothwell. The eldest 
 son of the minister of Bothwell also a Eobert Hamilton 
 studied medicine and graduated M.D. in Glasgow. He rose to 
 be Professor of Anatomy (1742-56), and exchanged this Chair 
 for that of the Practice of Medicine (1757-66). With Dr Eobert 
 Hamilton commenced the connection of the family with the pro- 
 fession of medicine and its close relationship to the University 
 of Glasgow, which subsisted down to the end of the century. 
 
 The ' Glasgow Journal ' of the 4th May 1747, informs us 
 
6 DR ROBERT HAMILTON. 
 
 that, " Oil Monday last Dr Eobert Hamilton, Professor of 
 Anatomy and Botany in the University of Glasgow, was 
 married to Miss Molly Baird, a beautiful young lady with a 
 handsome fortune/'* " I lived this winter [1743-44] in Glas- 
 gow," says the Eev. Dr Carlyle in his Autobiography, " in the 
 same house with Dr Eobert Hamilton, Professor of Anatomy, 
 an ingenious and well-bred man ; but with him I had little 
 intercourse, except at breakfast now and then, for he always 
 dined abroad. . . . After Dr Eobert Hamilton's death, which 
 was premature, a younger brother succeeded him in the ana- 
 tomical Chair, who was very able.-)- He dying young also, his 
 son was advanced, who was said to have surpassed all his pre- 
 decessors in ability. They were descended from the family of 
 Hamiltons of Preston, a very ancient branch of Duke Hamil- 
 ton's family." Some unfortunate speculations in which Dr 
 Eobert Hamilton engaged, obliged him to alienate a great 
 part of what still remained of the family estate, and the 
 last fragment of the property was sold during the minority 
 of his eldest son. 
 
 Dr Thomas Hamilton, the younger brother here referred to, 
 and grandfather of the subject of this memoir (born 1st Octo- 
 ber 1728, died 2d August 1781), held the Chair of Anatomy 
 and Botany, afterwards occupied by his son, from 1757 to 
 1781. His wife was Isobel, daughter of the Eev. Dr William 
 Anderson, at one time Professor of Church History in the 
 University of Glasgow. She survived her husband, and died 
 in November 1795. 
 
 The name of Dr Thomas Hamilton is traditionally associated 
 with that of Dr Cullen as one of the founders of the medical 
 school of Glasgow, and one of the great advancers of medical 
 science in Scotland during last century. Joseph Black, and 
 the two Hunters, William and John, were also his intimate 
 
 * Quoted in ' Notices of the Literary History of Glasgow/ Maitland Club 
 Pub. xiv. p. 9 ; * Old Glasgow and its Environs,' by Senex (Robert Reid). 
 
 f The younger brother succeeded on the appointment of Dr R. Hamilton to 
 the Chair of Practice of Medicine. 
 
DE THOMAS HAMILTON. 7 
 
 friends. He was assumed as a partner in practice by Dr John 
 Moore (the father of the distinguished soldier, Sir John Moore), 
 a man of considerable literary and professional distinction in 
 last century, and still known to those interested in literary 
 history as the author of * Zeluco ' and other works. Dr 
 Thomas Hamilton joined to his capacity for his profession 
 certain liberal tastes and accomplishments. We find his name, 
 along with those of Joseph Black, James Moor, Dr Leechman, 
 and others, in the list of members of a literary society that 
 met weekly in connection with the University. 
 
 His genial nature, vivacity, and genuine humour seem, 
 moreover, to have made him as notable socially as he was dis- 
 tinguished professionally. With the rapid influx of commer- 
 cial prosperity into the city during last century, there arose a 
 fuller tide of social life, which showed itself in the formation 
 of a series of clubs. These clubs, containing generally repre- 
 sentatives both of the College and the commerce of the city, 
 appear to have been instituted with a certain vague purpose 
 of literary cultivation, but in the course of their existence 
 they certainly did much more for the worthy end of good- 
 fellowship than for literature. Dr Thomas Hamilton was a 
 foremost member in succession of two of them the Ander- 
 ston and the Hodge Podge. The former, which was the 
 oldest and the most distinguished of all, originated with no 
 less a person than Eobert Simson, the celebrated Professor of 
 Mathematics, and the restorer of ancient geometry. Simson 
 presided over it until his death in 1758, preserving unimpaired 
 " his ardour in study, his relish for social relaxation, and his 
 amusing singularities of humour."* The Anderston Club met 
 in a hostelry, in what was then a suburban village of that 
 name, every Saturday at two o'clock, when dinner was served. 
 In such a reunion, for Simson was a man of high classical 
 culture, and was nearly as familiar with Greek poetry as with 
 Greek geometry, the banquet of hen broth was no doubt 
 well seasoned with Attic salt. Around the president there 
 
 * Stewart's Account of Reid, p. 10. 
 
8 DR THOMAS HAMILTON. 
 
 assembled weekly such accomplished associates as Dr James 
 Moor, the Professor of Greek ; George Kosse, the Professor of 
 Humanity, "a very Cicero in Eoman literature ;" Drs Cullen, 
 Thomas Hamilton, and Adam Smith. 
 
 There seem to have been no limits to the topics of con- 
 versation and discussion, except the bonds of good-fellowship. 
 The Hodge Podge, which was apparently of a freer and less 
 classical type than the Anderston, was enlivened by the wit and 
 pleasantry of Dr John Moore, then a young man, who, as poet- 
 laureate of the Club, has left us sketches of its character, and 
 a graphic limning of its principal members, among others 
 of Dr Thomas Hamilton as he appeared in hours of social 
 relaxation : 
 
 " A club of choice fellows each fortnight employ 
 An evening in laughter, good humour, and joy ; 
 Like the national council, they often debate, 
 And settle the army, the navy, and state. 
 
 In this Club there's a jumble of nonsense and sense, 
 
 And the name of Hodge Podge they have taken from thence ; 
 
 If, in jumbling verses, this ditty I frame, 
 
 Pray be not surprised if a Hodge Podger I am. 
 
 If you choose to know more of this merry class, 
 Like the kings in Macbeth they shall one by one pass : 
 The man that can't bear with a good-humoured rub, 
 I am sure is not worthy a place in this Club. 
 
 He who leads up the van is stout Thomas * the tall, 
 Who can make us all laugh, though he laughs at us all ; 
 But entre nous, Tom, you and I, if you please, 
 Must take care not to laugh ourselves out of our fees." 
 
 Dr William Hamilton was born on the 31st July 1758. 
 He held the Chair of Anatomy and Botany from 1781 to 1790. 
 He died in 1790, before completing his thirty-second year; 
 "his constitution, somewhat enfeebled by early and intense 
 application to study, being worn out with the toil of business 
 and thought in which he was continually engaged." f The 
 
 * Dr Thomas Hamilton. 
 
 t See Account of Professor William Hamilton in the ' Transactions of the 
 Royal Society of Edinburgh, 1792,' by Dr Robert Cleghorn of Glasgow. 
 
DR WILLIAM HAMILTON. 9 
 
 reputation which, at the close of his brief career, Dr Hamilton 
 left behind him, sufficiently shows to what distinction he might 
 have been expected to attain had longer life been granted him. 
 William Hamilton, being but two years old at his father's 
 death, retained only one or two childish recollections of him. 
 We are fortunate, however, in possessing a short sketch by 
 him of his father, drawn apparently from the information of 
 those who had known him, and from a biographical memoir 
 in the ' Transactions of the Eoyal Society of Edinburgh ' for 
 1792. This fragment was part of a memoir of his brother, 
 which fraternal regard induced him to commence shortly after 
 Captain Hamilton's death, but which was never completed. 
 
 "His [Captain Thomas Hamilton's] father, William, was 
 Professor of Anatomy and Botany in the University of Glas- 
 gow; who survived the birth of his second son only two 
 months. Though cut off prematurely- 1 almost, indeed, in the 
 outset of his career (he died in his thirty-second year) no 
 one, perhaps, ever departed more respected and beloved. After 
 pursuing his liberal and professional studies in the Universities 
 of Glasgow and Edinburgh, he completed his medical educa- 
 tion in London under the celebrated William Hunter. By this 
 great anatomist he was treated almost with paternal kindness ; 
 was received into his house, and intrusted with the care of 
 the anatomical department of his school but this expressly on 
 the ground of merit ; for after the warmest praises of his head 
 and heart, he assures his father that ( he has profited more for 
 the time than any young man I ever knew/ With an ardent 
 love of his profession, distinguished talents, an appearance and 
 manners the most engaging, and supported by the Hunters 
 and others of the highest medical influence in the metropolis, 
 his ultimate success in London, the great field of professional 
 ambition, seemed almost assured. But though London remained 
 always the ulterior goal, he was induced to establish his repu- 
 tation and commence his professional career in Glasgow, where 
 his connections promised him a more immediate introduction 
 to practice ; and, in his twenty-third year, he was nominated 
 
10 DR WILLIAM HAMILTON. 
 
 by the Crown to the Chair of Anatomy as his father's suc- 
 cessor William Hunter, who was consulted on the occasion, 
 declaring to the Chancellor that ' it was the interest of Glasgow 
 to give him, rather than his to solicit, the appointment/ Here 
 his success was decided and immediate, both as professor and 
 as practitioner. The medical, and, in particular, the anatomi- 
 cal, school of the University continued steadily to increase ; 
 and such, notwithstanding his youth, was the general confi- 
 dence placed in his prudence and skill that, though he died at 
 a period of life when few, even the most successful, are beyond 
 the first steps of their ascent to medical practice, he had 
 already for years stood at the head of his profession. As an 
 author, besides some occasional papers of great merit, he pub- 
 lished nothing, having occupied himself in preparing the ma- 
 terials for those systematic works he had in view." 
 
 Dr Hamilton's early and strong predilection for the study of 
 anatomy had been for some not obvious reason discouraged by 
 his father. The enthusiasm of the youth was not, however, to 
 be checked, and he seems to itave given himself to the study 
 with an all-absorbing devotion. Dr William Hunter, writing 
 of him in 1778, said, "Of all the young men I have ever 
 known, he appears to me to be one of the most promising, 
 cheerful, amiable, modest, ingenious, and keen and persever- 
 ing in the pursuit of knowledge." All the notices which 
 refer to him point him out as a' man who inspired strong 
 affection by his singularly pure, warm, and generous nature, as 
 well as admiration for his remarkable professional skill. A 
 sagacious and most accurate observer, particularly noted for 
 the calmness and skill of his surgical operations ; with an ex- 
 treme sensibility to suffering, which manifested itself in his 
 countenance, and the sympathy and tenderness of his manner 
 towards his patients, he was drawn to his profession both by a 
 scientific and a human interest. A regular and temperate life 
 enabled him to indulge a marked taste for general knowledge, 
 to which he usually allotted some hours of each day. In the 
 father of the author of ' Cyril Thornton/ we should not omit 
 
DE WILLIAM HAMILTON. 
 
 to notice that he had inherited no small share of the 
 of " stout Thomas the tall," a humour so quick and kindly as 
 to present to him only the grotesque side of the small, though 
 often irritating, disagreeables of life, and thus turn them into 
 sources of pleasantry for himself and his friends. The pre- 
 mature death of one who had united so many of the best qual- 
 ities of head and heart was naturally deeply lamented in the 
 city. When his funeral passed along, many among the crowd, 
 as was noted by an eyewitness, were observed to shed tears. 
 
 " As a lecturer," says Dr Cleghorn, " Dr Hamilton was re- 
 markably free from pomp and affectation. His language was 
 simple and perspicuous, but so artless that it appeared flat to 
 those who place the beauty of language in the intricacy of man- 
 agement, or the abundance of figures. His manner of speaking 
 corresponded with his style, and was such as might appear 
 uninteresting to those who think it impossible to be eloquent 
 without violent gestures and frequent variations of tone. He 
 used merely the tone of ordinary conversation, as his preceptor, 
 Dr Hunter, did before him, aiming at perspicuity only, and 
 trusting for attention to the importance of the subjects he 
 treated. These he selected with great judgment. Holding in 
 contempt all hypotheses unsupported by fact, and inapplicable 
 to the improvement of practice omitting or passing slightly 
 over facts remarkable for curiosity more than utility he 
 demonstrated with great distinctness and precision those parts 
 which it is necessary to know accurately ; accompanying his 
 demonstrations with specimens of morbid parts, and with 
 every remark, physiological and practical, which he was able 
 to collect from extensive reading, and careful reflection on his 
 own part." * 
 
 Dr Hamilton was buried in the cathedral of his native city, 
 where there is a monument to his memory. The epitaph 
 fittingly closes with the words : 
 
 Heu ! tales terris quod monstrant fata, nee ultra esse sinunt.f 
 
 * Account, p. 28, 29. f Altered from Virgil, .En. vi. 869. 
 
12 HIS MOTHER MRS HAMILTON. 
 
 William Hamilton was thus, by His birth and immediate 
 descent, closely connected with the life and habits of a Scot- 
 tish university, and with the profession of medicine, circum- 
 stances which naturally affected the tenor of his subsequent 
 life and studies. 
 
 Having lost his father when he himself was scarcely 
 two years old, the charge of his education devolved en- 
 tirely on his mother. His father left no near relations, but 
 the boy grew up among a large circle of connections on the 
 mother's side, with most of whom he remained intimate 
 during life. Mrs Hamilton was of a family noted for good 
 looks, and her own appearance was handsome and striking. 
 In figure she was stately, with fine eyes, though her face 
 was somewhat spoiled by traces of smallpox. As is not 
 unfrequently the case with distinguished sons, William resem- 
 bled his mother in appearance, and probably, also, in cer- 
 tain mental peculiarities. She was a woman of considerable 
 strength of character, well read, and of cultivated mind, but 
 with more natural ability than careful early education. She 
 was warmly affectionate, very much attached to her children, 
 and solicitous, even to an extreme, about their education, 
 health, and general welfare. There was withal, in her strong, 
 kindly, even indulgent nature, a degree of severity that occa- 
 sionally amounted to harshness. The attachment between 
 her eldest son and herself was exceedingly deep, and no son 
 could cherish greater regard or a more loyal affection for a 
 mother than he did through life. 
 
 As a child, William took great delight in the natural and 
 graphic picturing of the ' Pilgrim's Progress/ and in the scenes 
 of the Apocalypse the two books which, above all others, had 
 a charrn for him. He read the ' Pilgrim's Progress ' in an old 
 copy, with illustrations of what would now be called a sen- 
 sational type. This childish predilection has some interest 
 as indicating a taste for the marvellous and highly coloured in 
 romance which remained with him through life. In subsequent 
 years he would find relaxation from the severity of abstract 
 
EARLY BOYHOOD AND EDUCATION. 13 
 
 thought in the ' Arabian Nights/ and would readily abandon' 
 a schoolman for Mrs Kadcliffe, and the hard dry precision of 
 the ' Organon' for the weird story of 'Frankenstein/ At a 
 somewhat later period of his childhood he is known to have 
 read with lively interest the ' Ancient History ' of Kollin, and 
 the ' Natural History ' of Buffon. 
 
 The reminiscences of his early boyhood are few, and not in 
 any way singular. There was, apparently, no remarkable in- 
 tellectual precocity about him; a young lad, with an overflow- 
 ing, healthy boyishness, loving pets of all kinds dogs, birds, 
 &c. intensely; fond of active outdoor sports; given decidedly 
 to practical jokes and fun; and remembered chiefly by a 
 cousin who, as a girl, was one of the circle of his early 
 associates for the kindness, protection, and generosity which 
 the strong bold boy used to extend to the little and weak 
 ones among his companions. A youth, in fine, with an 
 untold and ever-increasing amount of vital force about him, 
 which had not yet found a precise outlet, and which its pos- 
 sessor did not very well know how to relieve himself of, a 
 very difficult fellow for elderly ladies to manage, as his aunts 
 discovered when he and his brother were occasionally left in 
 their charge. 
 
 His mother usually at this time divided the year between 
 the country and the town, and his earlier education was thus 
 partly private and partly public. " In the summer," to use 
 Sir William's own words in the notes for a memoir of his 
 brother, "he [Thomas] and his brother [himself], after they 
 had outgrown the control of female discipline, were placed 
 under a domestic tutor. In the winter they also attended the 
 Glasgow public schools/' 
 
 The elder brother appears about this time to have been at 
 school, under Mr Angus, a well-known teacher of English, in 
 Glasgow. In 1797 he entered the Grammar-school, joining 
 the fourth or lowest class under Mr James Gibson, whose 
 duty it was, according to the arrangements of the period, to 
 carry his pupils through a four years' course of classical study. 
 
14 AT SCHOOL IN ENGLAND. 
 
 The dux of the class in the years 1797 and 1798 was James 
 Watson, afterwards Doctor of Medicine, who still survives. 
 In 1799 and 1800 the dux was Hugh Stewart. The younger 
 brother entered the Grammar-school in his ninth year, and 
 joined the class of the Rev. Daniel Macarthur. William must 
 have made at an early age respectable progress in his classical 
 studies, as he attended the junior Latin and Greek classes of 
 the University when only twelve years old (1800). 
 
 In October 1801 both brothers were removed to school in 
 England William being in his thirteenth, and Thomas in 
 his eleventh year. They were first of all placed in a school 
 at Chiswick, kept by the Eev. Dr Home, a man of some re- 
 putation. Here, however, they remained only till the Christ- 
 mas vacation, after which Thomas was placed at the school 
 of the Rev. Dr Scott of Hounslow, while William was re- 
 moved to the school of the Rev. Dr Dean at Bromley. Dr 
 Scott's reputation, more especially as a classical scholar and 
 disciplinarian, was deservedly high. At Hounslow Thomas 
 continued for three years ; and " here obtaining what in his 
 earlier career he mainly stood in need of a firm, steady, and 
 unavoidable control he made rapid progress in all his studies, 
 particularly in languages."* 
 
 William, the gownsman of twelve, as he himself used 
 laughingly to relate in after years, felt not unnaturally con- 
 siderable disappointment and indignation at being removed 
 from college and sent back to school. But maternal authority 
 was judicious and inexorable, and there was nothing for it but 
 submission. He remained under the care of Dr Dean at 
 Bromley from Christmas 1801 to Midsummer 1803, when 
 he returned to Scotland, much more capable, no doubt, both 
 from age and attainments, of entering with profit on his uni- 
 versity course than when he left home. 
 
 Only two of his letters written from Bromley have been 
 preserved. From these w gather that Dr Dean's pupil did 
 not greatly like the school-life there, and was not very well 
 * MS: notice of Captain Hamilton by Sir "William. 
 
LETTER FROM BROMLEY. 15 
 
 pleased to stay in England. The cause of these feelings was 
 probably in a great measure home-sickness. He writes a 
 great many letters to his friends, recurs fondly to his pet dogs, 
 Cato and Fanny, and is far from being satisfied with Dr 
 Dean's habit of reading the letters he received. The follow- 
 ing affords us a glimpse of his school-life at Bromley. In it 
 we have an indication of a constitutional shyness, and shrink- 
 ing from public appearances, which remained with him more 
 or less through life : 
 
 BROMLEY, 18th November 1802. 
 
 DEAR MOTHER, I hope that you have got my last letter. Public 
 night will be in about a month hence. I intend to ask Mr Dean 
 not to insist on my speaking, as I hate and execrate it. I hope you 
 will let me have the allowance, for I can buy all my own things 
 very well. I hope everybody and everything is well with you. I 
 don't know how it is, but I like to write letters to you. I have 
 written in [all] about ten letters to know if Cato received the collar 
 which I sent to him. Tell me if you have had much fruit in the 
 orchard of Bindmuir. I intend to write this the longest letter I 
 ever wrote. Give my love to Andrew Stirling and everybody else. 
 
 I hope Andrew Buchanan is well. I am very anxious to know 
 where I am to stay this Christmas holidays, but pray don't speak 
 about this on any .'."*. I hate England worse and . . . 
 [part torn off]. I have not heard anything from Tom. Will you 
 write me once a-week, and I will be much obliged to you 1 I want 
 a box to put things in, and I have a cargo of books which will be 
 spoiled in my desk, as I don't use them ; therefore, dear mother, if 
 you would have the goodness to let me have one it would not cost 
 more than half a guinea ; and you also promised me one before you 
 left London, if you remember right. When will you send me 
 Burns's book ? . . . I am, dear mother, your affectionate son, 
 
 W. HAMILTON. 
 
 The tone of dissatisfaction with Bromley, apparent in his 
 letters, brought down on the writer a sharp rebuke from his 
 mother. We find her writing to him, on the 22d January 
 1803, in these terms : 
 
 " I hope to have the satisfaction to hear that you will attend to 
 all that I have said in my late letters, that you will weigh its import- 
 
16 DR, SOMMERS -t>F MIDC ALDER. 
 
 ance, and that you will strive more than ever to do your duty, and 
 submit cheerfully to what I require. Do this heartily and cordially, 
 and I shall then perhaps think of seeing you soon in the spring." 
 
 At Midsummer 1803 he left Bromley and returned to Scot- 
 land, with the view of entering the University of Glasgow. 
 The period that intervened before the opening of the College 
 session was spent at the manse of Midcalder, a secluded 
 spot near the foot of the Pentland Hills, about twelve miles 
 from Edinburgh. Here he resided under the care of the 
 esteemed minister of the parish, the Eev. John, afterwards 
 Dr, Sommers. During this and the two following summers 
 the period of the College vacation he, along with his 
 brother, some of his cousins, and other boys, enjoyed the 
 advantage of the minister's guidance and superintendence in 
 their studies. Dr Sommers was a man of very considerable 
 accomplishments, and of excellent sense and tact in dealing 
 with boys. To his instructions, and the pervading spirit of 
 the quiet country manse, the two youths owed much, both in 
 the way of education and in the general growth of character. 
 To the worthy clergyman " they," says Sir William, speak- 
 ing of himself and his brother " (in common with his other 
 pupils) remained in after life ever warmly and gratefully 
 attached."* 
 
 The two brothers who were thus placed together in the quiet 
 seclusion of a Scottish manse were contrasted both in appear- 
 ance and character. The elder, though he had not yet reached 
 his full development, was powerful in frame, while the younger, 
 who grew up an exceedingly handsome man, was of lighter and 
 more graceful make, and rather stooping in figure. The elder, 
 whose character was naturally more fully formed, had greater 
 strength of resolution than his brother, and a certain under- 
 current of sedateness. The younger brother was of a highly 
 volatile temperament, and abounded in fun and mischief. 
 
 William, however, was not without his dash of genuine boy- 
 ishness. He is remembered by some who knew him at the 
 * MS. notice of Captain T. Hamilton by Sir \V. Hamilton. 
 
LIFE AT MIDCALDEft. 17 
 
 manse "as a wild boy and fond of sport" quick-tempered, 
 yet warmly affectionate. His spirits were extremely buoyant 
 his love of outdoor pastimes unbounded ; and speedily the 
 lead among the boys of the manse was spontaneously and 
 cheerfully accorded to him, on account of the generous in- 
 spiration which he threw into all the sports of the place, as 
 well as of his indisputable superiority in all feats of physical 
 strength and dexterity whether running, leaping, swimming 
 in the Calder, or daringly diving into the linn pool of a wood- 
 land burn, " the glory of headers." 
 
 " If touched by him, 
 
 The inglorious football mounted to the pitch 
 Of the lark's flight, or shaped a rainbow curve, 
 Aloft, in prospect of the shouting field." 
 
 His interest in the manse and its inmates continued after he 
 ceased to be under Dr Sommers's care. While in Edinburgh 
 in 1806-7 he made frequent runs out to Midcalder, and he gen- 
 erally spent part of the long vacation there during the Oxford 
 period of his life. He was* cherished in the memory of the boys 
 as the soul of the athletic Sports of the place, and his arrival 
 was always hailed with the greatest enthusiasm. In particular 
 his feats of bodily strength excited the wondering admiration of 
 the inmates of the manse. One of them relates that Hamilton 
 has taken him upon his right hand, and allowed him to stand 
 upon it as he held it out. Another of them remembers the 
 kindly interest which the Oxonian took in the younger boys 
 and their concerns. His sonorous reading of Homer, on one 
 occasion, entranced a little fellow who knew no Greek. Ob- 
 serving the attention and eagerness of the youngster, who 
 sat spellbound by his side, Hamilton took the trouble to teach 
 him to repeat four or five of the odes of Anacreon. 
 
 The following is his first letter from Midcalder to his 
 mother : 
 
 MIDCALDER, 1803. 
 
 DEAR MOTHER, . . . Mother, you have lost your wager, 
 for I asked Mr Sommers and Mr Cruickshanks both, who both wore 
 
18 NOTICE OF HIS BROTHER. 
 
 astonished at me asking such a question, as any child of ten years 
 old knows that the sun is nearer us in winter than in summer ; but 
 to convince you still more, I, when I was looking over a French 
 geography, saw this, which I shall copy to you : " En hiver le soleil 
 est plus pres de nous qu'en e"te" de plus d'une million de lieues ;" 
 which, for your information for perhaps you have forgot your 
 French is this, " In winter the sun is nearer to us than in sum- 
 mer "by more than a million of leagues." So, if you please, you 
 may enclose the half-crown with the rest in my box, remembering 
 to pay the carriage, for I am growing poorer, having only lls. I 
 had forgot I wrote Tom with the letter before the last. ... 
 Your affectionate son, W. S. HAMILTON. 
 
 After spending the latter portion of the summer at Mid- 
 calder, William," along with his brother, entered the Univer- 
 sity of Glasgow in session 1803-4. The younger brother 
 attended as a regular student the Arts classes for three 
 winters. "In his academical career," to borrow the words 
 of the MS. notice already referred to, " he was more 
 remarkable for ability than application, and the honours 
 he carried off were in general those won by vigorous rather 
 than continued effort. In the ' Blackstone examination ' of 
 his first year he distinguished himself by giving up an un- 
 precedented complement of Latin authors, trusting, it must 
 be confessed, to his general command of the language to 
 carry him over more than one which he had never read. 
 His powder of Latin composition, both in verse and prose, 
 which he owed in part to his English education, enabled him 
 to obtain some easy triumphs in the language classes; in 
 that^of logic, the excellence and irregularity of his English 
 essays obtained for him both the praise and the reprobation 
 of the venerable professor. At this period he and another 
 able and somewhat idle student were drawn together by a 
 secret affinity of genius, and became inseparable companions. 
 Their different destinations soon divided them, and they hardly 
 ever met again in after life. This was Michael Scott, the 
 author of ' Tom Cringle's Log/ &c." 
 
 The inclination of the younger brother was towards the 
 
AT GLASGOW COLLEGE. 19 
 
 army as a profession ; but this was opposed by his mother. 
 He accordingly entered a mercantile house, first in Glasgow, 
 and then in one of its branches in Liverpool. But for com- 
 mercial life he had no taste or aptitude; and after a short trial 
 of it, he was at length allowed to follow the bent of his inclina- 
 tion and enter the army. In 1810 he obtained, by purchase, 
 a commission in the 29th Eegiment, and had hardly joined 
 when it was ordered out to Portugal, where he was immedi- 
 ately engaged in active service. In the battle of Albuera in 
 the following May, the most sanguinary engagement which 
 occurred during the war, the 29th was the leading regiment, and 
 suffered in proportion. In this action a musket-bullet passed 
 through his thigh, and for a time his life was in serious 
 danger.* After being a second time in the Peninsula, and 
 also, on occasion of the war with the North American States, 
 in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, his regiment was sent to 
 France as part of the army of occupation. About 1818 he 
 retired on half-pay, after which he lived chiefly in or near 
 Edinburgh, and devoted himself to literature. 
 
 The elder brother having, before his removal to school in 
 England, attended the junior Latin and Greek classes at the 
 University, now, as a second-year student, joined the senior 
 classes in those departments, and also the classes of Logic and 
 Moral Philosophy. The Faculty of Arts in Glasgow at this 
 period possessed several distinguished names. The Latin Chair 
 was filled by Professor Eichardson, whose predilection, how- 
 ever, was more towards polite letters than accurate scholar- 
 ship. According to Captain Hamilton, speaking from his 
 own early impressions in 'Cyril Thornton/ " Eichardson's 
 mind was thoroughly imbued with the beauties of Eoman 
 literature, and he was happy in the mode of communicating 
 his instructions. ... In the ' Characters of Shake- 
 speare's Plays' he has left behind him a work which may 
 serve as a model of elegant and philosophical criticism, and 
 which, notwithstanding all that has since been written on the 
 * Sir W. Hamilton's notes. 
 
20 PROFESSORS OF THE PERIOD. 
 
 subject, still maintains its place in our literature."* The Greek 
 Chair was occupied by John Young, a man of fine taste and 
 ardent genius, in whom a verse or phrase of a Greek poet 
 would suddenly enkindle a flame of enthusiastic eloquence. 
 The younger of the two brothers appears to have been won- 
 derfully impressed by the powers of the Greek Professor. 
 Kef erring to his early enthusiasm ^for Young, he says : "He it 
 was who made the strongest and most vivid impression on my 
 youthful mind, and it is his image which is still imprinted 
 there the most deeply and inefifaceably. That he was a pro- 
 found and elegant scholar, I believe, has never been denied. 
 No master ever ruled with more despotic sway the minds of 
 his pupils. None ever possessed the art of communicating 
 his knowledge so beautifully and gracefully, of transferring 
 the glowing enthusiasm of his own mind into that of his 
 audience. . . . Nothing could be more captivating than 
 the eloquence with which he treated of the liberty, the litera- 
 ture, and the glory of ancient Greece, while tears of enthu- 
 siasm rolled down his cheeks. He was naturally a great and 
 effective orator ; and had his powers been called into action 
 in a different field, he might have added something to our 
 scanty and imperfect records of national eloquence. It has 
 always seemed to me that his mind bore some resemblance to 
 that of Burke. . . . Like Burke, he felt all the influence 
 of the spells he cast on others, and his own heart trembled at 
 the images of dread or beauty which he conjured up from the 
 depth of his imagination.'^ That the elder brother caught some- 
 thing of Young's spirit, and imbibed from him a taste for the 
 study of the Greek language and literature, we may infer from 
 what he says in his letters from Oxford. J The Chair of Logic 
 was occupied by George Jardine, whose teaching, though not 
 dealing much with the proper questions of philosophy, was well 
 
 * Cyril Thornton, vol. i. chap. vii. t Ibid. 
 
 J The epitaph on the monument to Professor Young in the Cathedral of 
 Glasgow was, at the request of his family and friends, composed by Sir 
 William Hamilton, in 1824. *, 
 
AT MIDCALDER. 21 
 
 fitted to awaken and discipline the powers of young minds, 
 and afford general education and culture. Professor Jardine's 
 careful practical training, especially in the composition of 
 essays and exercises, gave a distinctive character and reputa- 
 tion to the Logic Chair in Glasgow for more than a quarter of 
 a century. Hamilton always referred to Professor Jardine 
 with respect, and acknowledged with gratitude the benefit he 
 had derived from his instructions. When he himself was 
 appointed to the Chair of Logic in Edinburgh, his early class 
 arrangements were, to some extent, professedly modelled on 
 those of his former teacher.* In the Chair of Moral Philo- 
 sophy, vacated by Eeid in 1796, James Mylne discoursed 
 with clearness and force of a sensational philosophy and an 
 utilitarian ethic. Mylne was an able expounder of the doc- 
 trines he taught, and by him Hamilton was first introduced 
 to the theories of Condillac and De Tracy. 
 
 In the classes of Logic and Moral Philosophy Hamilton was 
 greatly distinguished, having in each carried off the highest 
 honour of the year, which was then, as now, awarded by the 
 votes of the members of the class. 
 
 In the summer of 1804, after leaving College, we find him, 
 as usual, residing at Midcalder. In the following letter of Dr 
 Sommers to his mother, we have a glimpse of the character of 
 the young student, and of the nature and order of the studies 
 which he pursued in the holidays. These seem to have been 
 chiefly supplementary to the work at College: 
 
 MIDCALDER, 21st May 1804. 
 
 DEAR MADAM, . . . As he [Andrew Stirling] is further 
 advanced in figures than William, I am persuaded that it will be a 
 material- advantage to make him exert himself to get up with him ; 
 and William has no small share of emulation about him, although I 
 have not yet been able to make him give his whole mind to this 
 study. 
 
 In his other studies he seems to have much more pleasure. 
 Andrew and he are, for some time at least, to go on together accord- 
 
 * See Lectures, vol. i. p. 389. 
 
22 STUDIES AT MIDCALDER. 
 
 ing to the following arrangement. From 7 to 9 in the morning 
 they are to read history; from 10 to 11 translate English into 
 French ; from 1 1 to 1 write English exercises, and improve them- 
 selves in adding and multiplying with facility and exactness ; and 
 from 6 till near 8 in the evening they are to be employed with Mr 
 Cruickshanks in arithmetic, till such time as he thinks they are 
 sufficiently qualified for bookkeeping. 
 
 There is one thing I have had occasion to speak about more than 
 once, and that is their extravagance in clothes and needless absurd 
 expenses. You may therefore, if you think proper, say that no- 
 thing of that kind will be attended to without my approbation and 
 consent. 
 
 They have forgot their French very much, and we have been 
 revising it. 
 
 William, I see, is very anxious to become his own master, which 
 has rendered it necessary for me to be excessively pointed and strict 
 in everything I require of them all. 
 
 He, in particular, is very much inclined to be idle, although more 
 studious than at first. I have no doubt whatever that in a short 
 time I shall have no reason for complaint on that head. . . . 
 
 I remain, most respectfully, dear madam, your most obedient 
 servant, J. SOMMERS. 
 
 Dr Sommers has recorded his final impressions of his young 
 charge in the following letter, written in 1820, on occasion of 
 Sir William's unsuccessful candidature for the Moral Philo- 
 sophy Chair in the University of Edinburgh : / 
 
 " For some time during the early part of his life I was in- 
 trusted with the superintendence of his education, both before 
 and after he commenced his academical career in the Univer- 
 sity of Glasgow ; and it was during the time of his residence 
 with me that he began his first essays on subjects of philosophy, 
 in which, even at that early period, I could not fail to discover 
 striking marks of an acute and vigorous understanding. My 
 expectation of his rising to future distinction in literary attain- 
 ments was fully realised ; and during the progress of his studies 
 at the University, his efforts were frequently rewarded by his 
 obtaining the first prizes in the philosophical classes at Glas- 
 gow. From my intimate knowledge of Sir William's studies 
 
COMMENCES THE STUDY OF MEDICINE. 23 
 
 at that period, as well as from my subsequently having had 
 the best opportunities of attending to his progress in literary 
 pursuits, it is doing him no more than justice to say, that I 
 consider his talents and attainments to be of the highest order ; 
 and that for perseverance and depth of research into any sub- 
 ject that has occupied his mind, as well as for ingenuity of 
 conception, I have perhaps never met with any one that 
 equalled, and certainly have never known any one that ex- 
 celled, him. . . ' '* ; 
 
 "Kespecting his moral and religious conduct, so far as I 
 know, it has uniformly been such, even from his earliest years, 
 as would do honour to the purest heart, and such as the most 
 scrupulous could not fail to approve." 
 
 In the winter of 1804-5 he again attended College. He 
 appears now to have commenced a course of medical study ; 
 for to the profession of medicine he was probably destined by 
 his friends, and to it he was himself obviously disposed. The 
 taste, however, for philosophical studies, which was partially 
 awakened at Glasgow, and afterwards greatly quickened at 
 Oxford, finally prevailed over his medical predilections. 
 During the session, besides studying mathematics under James 
 Millar, he attended the class of chemistry under Dr Cleghorn, 
 and set about experimenting for himself. In the summer of 
 1805 he commenced the study of botany and anatomy, attend- 
 ing the class of Botany. Part of this summer was spent at 
 Midcalder. 
 
 In 1805-6 he again attended College in Glasgow, continuing 
 his medical studies, and attending, besides, the classes of 
 Natural Philosophy and Chemistry. In the summer of 1806 
 we find him studying at the Infirmary, and attending the class 
 of Botany. 
 
 In 1804 we have the earliest indications of a taste for 
 collecting books, which gained strength with his years, and 
 issued in the bringing together of one of the most valu- 
 able and carefully selected private philosophical libraries in 
 Britain. The books at first purchased by him were neces- 
 
^! TASTE FOR COLLECTING BOOKS. 
 
 sarily a good deal connected with his medical studies. We 
 find at the same time, however, the names of volumes of a 
 more general interest, both philosophical and classical. As 
 throwing light on his early tastes and studies, we give the 
 names of the principal works purchased at this period. In 
 1804 we find the following : Quintilian's Institutes, Stew- 
 art's Outlines of Moral Philosophy, the Encyclopaedia Britan- 
 nica, Monro on the Bones. In 1805 the taste and expenditure 
 increase. We find him now possessing himself of Carn- 
 wath's Memoirs, Buchanan's History, Irish Heraldry, "Udal's 
 History of Mary of Scotland, Bacon's Novum Organum, Spot- 
 tiswood's History, Millar on Fluxions, Euripides, Prints of 
 Trajan's Pillar, Moore's Greek Grammar, Bergman's Chem- 
 ical Essays, Haller's Physiology, Tourneroy's Chemistry, 
 3)uncan's Medical Cases and Lectures, Williams's Eeports, 
 Coke on Lyttleton, Lee's Botany, &c. In 1806 we find 
 Plutarch's Lives, Aristophanes, Harrington's Works, Whar- 
 ton's Works, Machiavelli's Works, Macpherson's Introduction 
 to Scotland, Euddiman's Grammar, Livy, Tacitus, &c. In the 
 purchases of those years are to be included a set of mathe- 
 matical instruments, a botanical case, an electric machine, and 
 chemical apparatus and materials. 
 
 The winter of 1800-7 was spent in Edinburgh, and devoted 
 to the study of medicine. The following letters give an ac- 
 count of his habits and occupations at this period : 
 
 EDINBURGH, Saturday night [November 1806]. 
 
 MY DEAR MOTHER, . . . After walking out to Midcalder, 
 I stayed there till Monday night, when I came in to attend the classes 
 next day. I spent my time very happily .there, and, among other 
 things, employed myself once a- day in swimming in the river. I 
 have advised all the boys to continue the practice every day during 
 the whole year. I, am convinced if people plunged once a-day into 
 the cold bath, colds and consumptions, and all other complaints of 
 that nature, would be rarce aves in terris. It is impossible to ex- 
 press the pleasure it gives you after coming out of the water; you 
 feel a glow of heat warming you to the very bones, which is evinced 
 by smoke and vapour arising from the surface of the body. It is 
 
LETTERS FROM EDINBURGH. 25 
 
 . 
 
 best to ' stay very short in the water. If I was not so completely 
 engaged in the forenoon, or ,if .there were any water near me in 
 Edinburgh, I should assuredly bathe every day, good, bad, or in- 
 different. Mr Bell and some of the boys of Midcalder are fully 
 convinced of the utility of the custom, and are determined to per- 
 severe. The minister, too, was threatening to begin. 
 
 I wholly forgot to remind you in my last letter of the care your 
 duty calls on you to bestow on Vindex ; dumb animals are not 
 able to express their wants, and should therefore be more carefully 
 attended to than human animals. I am afraid the sheet won't hold 
 all I have to say, or I should give you a long string of advices on 
 this subject. . . . 
 
 N/I have been buying a good number of books, but chiefly the 
 books I am immediately needing. From nine in the morning till 
 three in the afternoon I have not a single moment to spare out of 
 one class into another. I keep a regular account of my expenses. 
 I am hesitating whether to enter a member of the Eoyal Medical 
 Society this year or not. I won't, I believe. They have a most 
 elegant building belonging to it. I wish you would write me 
 soon. I suppose you have been busy moving from your house. 
 
 Send me my skates by the first opportunity. 
 
 I am, dear mother, your affectionate son, W. S. HAMILTON. 
 
 [EDINBURGH,] BANK STREET, Saturday [November 1806]. 
 
 MY DEAR MOTHER, I don't wish to be introduced to any more 
 people this winter. I shall be pestered to death with invitations, 
 &c., which cannot be done without loss of time. . . . The 
 books necessary for my studies cost me some money; for example, 
 Fyfe's Compend of Anatomy, being a complete set of anatomical 
 plates, cost me five guineas ; and even here I save two guineas by 
 taking a plain copy and colouring it myself the price of the 
 coloured copy being <7, 7s. You may depend on it I will be 
 as little expense as possible. ... I wish you would give me 
 a genteeler appellation on the back of your next letter. . . . 
 
 I shall now bid you farewell. Your affectionate son, 
 
 "W. S. HAMILTON, Esq. Eemember that. 
 
 EDINBURGH, Friday \2Qth December 1806]. 
 
 MY DEAR MOTHER, ... I have had nothing to say to 
 you this week past, and have been so busy that I have not been in 
 
26 LETTERS FROM EDINBURGH. 
 
 bed before two or half-past it for these six weeks, and am up every 
 morning by a quarter-past eight. . . . I am, &c., 
 
 WM. STIRLING HAMILTON. 
 
 EDINBURGH, S^lnday [26th January 1807]. 
 
 MY DEAR MOTHER, I yesterday received the parcel and letter, 
 and was very sorry to see Tom had had cynanche maligna so ill, 
 though I very much doubt but it was cynanche tonsillaris, or com- 
 mon sore-throat, in which there is no danger, though some pain. 
 
 The grounds on which my opinion rests are: 1st, That as he com- 
 plained of much pain attending it, it looks like cynanche tonsillaris, 
 or common swelled throat, in which there is no danger whatever; 
 2d, As from the frequent attacks he formerly had of this common 
 swelled tonsils, he has induced a diathesis or proneness to repeated 
 attacks of the same complaint. On these grounds there is some 
 reason to think that his complaint was mistaken from not knowing 
 his constitutional diathesis. However, so be it he has recovered, 
 they may have it any way they like. 
 
 Thank you for your lecture on books in your last j however, to 
 ease your mind I must tell you that my purchases are chiefly con- 
 fined to medical and classical books which I immediately want. I 
 have bought most of them at a third or half of their shop price. . . . 
 
 Remember me to all my friends in Glasgow, and my love to 
 Christy.* W. H. 
 
 EDINBURGH, Thursday [January 1807]. 
 
 DEAR MOTHER, ... I do not know whether it was by 
 intention or neglect you directed to me without any adjunct either 
 before or after my name. You'll please to remember, that if you 
 don't give me all my dignities, I shall direct my next letter to 
 you, Elizabeth Hamilton, without any ceremony. With love to all 
 my friends, W. HAMILTON. 
 
 EDINBURGH, Tuesday [April 1807]. 
 
 MY DEAREST MOTHER, I just now received your letter, and lose 
 no time in answering it. I ain much obliged to you for being so 
 gentle with me, as I had just summoned up all my resolution to 
 bear a hearty scold, which would have been the more ungrateful as 
 I had given you some cause for it. I indeed confess that I find 
 I have spent more money than I should, and would have been very 
 
 Miss Mackay, a cousin who lived for many years with his mother. 
 
LETTERS FROM EDINBURGH. 27 
 
 sorry to have laid out so much money on any frivolous or unneces- 
 sary articles; but the money has only changed its shape. What was 
 a little ago bank-notes, is now metamorphosed into the more respect- 
 able appearance of rare and cheap books ; and from the monotonous 
 repetitions, "The Bank of Scot, promise to pay to the bearer on 
 demand," &c., they have now suffered the glorious metamorphosis 
 of being converted into historians, and philosophers, and poets, and 
 orators, and, though last not least, into physicians. 
 
 If I am able I shall be very willing to give you any money I can 
 save when I am at Oxford. I saw Mrs Grey to-day, and am going 
 to-morrow with her to the Abbey (not for debt), and afterwards will 
 dine at her house. 
 
 Hoping to see you soon, I remain, dear mother, &c. 
 
 "W. HAMILTON. 
 
 These letters, and others which will follow, in themselves 
 of no great importance, have an interest as throwing light on 
 the relation that subsisted between Hamilton and his mother. 
 Though never wanting in filial respect and affection, he writes 
 to her with the familiarity of an equal in point of years, with- 
 out reserve, and often strongly. Down to this time, indeed, 
 there was no one but herself with whom he was on terms of 
 confiding friendship ; and though others were subsequently 
 admitted to a share of his affections, his mother to the last re- 
 tained the hold which she had acquired over him. She seems, 
 moreover, early to have discerned in him indications of those 
 qualities of mind which became afterwards so remarkable, 
 and to have resolved to give him every advantage of educa- 
 tion which lay within her power. This explains the solicitude 
 which, it would appear, she felt that he should go to Oxford 
 a solicitude by no means shared by some of the members of 
 her family, who saw in young Hamilton a lad of no very 
 extraordinary abilities, and who, we may add, conceived that 
 the training of an English university could be of little use to 
 one destined, as he then was, to the profession of medicine. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 OXFORD PERIOD: 1807-1811. 
 
 GOES TO OXFORD AS SNELL EXHIBITIONER LETTERS TO HIS MOTHER 
 OXFORD FRIENDS AND ASSOCIATES ALEXANDER SCOTT JOHN 
 GIBSON LOCKHART LETTERS OF LOCKHART ABOUT HAMILTON 
 IMPRESSIONS HE MADE AT OXFORD MR CHRISTIE'S REMINISCENCES 
 MR TRAILL'S REMINISCENCES CATCHES THE TUTOR EAVESDROP- 
 PING THE MULBERRY -TREE EXPLOIT HIS OXFORD LIFE AND 
 STUDIES WHAT INFLUENCE THE PLACE HAD UPON HIM THE LIST 
 OF BOOKS GIVEN UP BY HIM FOR THE FINAL EXAMINATION CHAR- 
 ACTER OF HIS EXAMINATION AS GIVEN BY DR JENKYNS, MR 
 VILLERS, REV. ALEXANDER NICOLL HIS OWN REFERENCE TO IT. 
 
 IN May 1807 Mr Hamilton left Scotland for Oxford, and 
 entered on residence at Balliol College. His distinguished 
 career at the University of Glasgow had secured for him 
 one of the Snell Exhibitions. These Exhibitions, which 
 have served to bring the University of Glasgow into pecu- 
 liarly closo relationship with that of Oxford, were founded 
 in 1677 by John Snell of Uffeton, in Warwickshire, a native 
 of Scotland, and formerly a student in Glasgow. Mr Snell 
 devised to trustees a considerable estate in England for edu- 
 cating Scottish students at Oxford. This provision has enabled 
 many of the most distinguished students of the University of 
 Glasgow to add to the training of their native school the 
 advantages of an Oxford education. The list of Snell Exhibi- 
 tioners in the last and present centuries embraces many names 
 of distinction, but none that can be placed alongside of William 
 Hamilton, saving only that of Adam Smith. 
 
I 
 
 LETTERS FROM OXFORD. 29 
 
 From the time of his entrance at Balliol, Hamilton con- 
 tinued his academical studies without interruption, until he 
 completed the requisite numher of terms. He took the Bachelor 
 of Arts degree in November 1810. During the period of his 
 Oxford course he usually spent the long vacation in Scot- 
 land. In the summer of 1809 he was for some time in Wales, 
 at Aberystwith, along with his mother and brother. While 
 here he was studying Aristotle, and was in the habit of carry- 
 ing one of the large folio volumes of Duval's edition to the 
 top of a neighbouring eminence, where he read, and enjoyed 
 the sea-breezes. The sight of the tomes in later years always 
 recalled the memories of this pleasant time to his mind. 
 He remained at Oxford during the whole winter of 1809, 
 and the summer and autumn of 1810, reading with much 
 assiduity, in view of the final examination for the degree, in 
 which he acquitted himself with almost unparalleled distinc- 
 tion. Of his life at Oxford, the subjects of his studies, and his 
 academical habits, we have some glimpses in his letters from 
 that place to his mother. We learn further particulars on 
 these points, and also the singular impression which he made, 
 both by his public career and his private character and habits, 
 during his residence at Balliol, from the reminiscences of a few 
 men who either were his contemporaries, or went to Oxford 
 shortly after he had left the University. 
 
 The following letters, and extracts from letters, relating to 
 this period, will be read with some interest : 
 
 BALL. COLL. OXON., Wednesday, IBth May 1807. 
 
 MY DEAR MOTHER, You need put yourself in no anxiety about 
 my health, as I was never better in my life, and could not have 
 worn my greatcoat though I had brought it with me in the coach. 
 I like Oxford very well, and find all my lectures very easy to prepare, 
 thanks to my studying Greek so hard in Scotland for these three 
 years. 
 
 When I came here first I called on my friends the M'Cauls, and 
 next day was introduced to a tutor, who carried me to the Master of 
 this College ; and after reading a number of regulations, and pro 
 rnising to accede to them, I was admitted a member of Ball. Coll. 
 
30 LETTERS FROM OXFORD. 
 
 I was then taken to the Vice-Chancellor's, where I entered my name, 
 and subscribed the Thirty-nine Articles. I also got a cap and gown. 
 No boots are allowed to be worn here, or trousers or pantaloons. 
 In the morning we wear white cotton stockings, and before dinner 
 regularly dress in silk stockings, &c. After dinner we go to one 
 another's rooms and drink some wine, then go to chapel at half- 
 past five, and walk, or sail on the river, after that. In the morning 
 we go to chapel at seven o'clock, breakfast at nine, fag all the fore- 
 noon, and dine at half-past three. 
 
 There are a great many curious customs which, as they take up 
 time in writing, I shall defer telling of till I see you in Scotland. 
 I remain, dear mother, &c. "W. S. HAMILTON. 
 
 [OXFORD,] 5th Nov. [1807]. 
 
 MY DEAREST MOTHER, I just now received your letter, which I 
 have been expecting for a fortnight, and was beginning to grow 
 uneasy lest something had prevented you writing me. I could not 
 but smile at your idle apprehensions, and assure you they are without 
 the smallest foundation. I was never better in my life. ... If 
 you have got a letter for Sir Christopher Pegge* send it off immedi- 
 ately, as I want it before the llth of this month. I will write my 
 aunt as soon as I can command time it is not for want of inclina- 
 tion. I have nothing new to tell you of. I am going to attend 
 Sir Christopher Pegge. . . . 
 
 Give my love to all my friends you see. Tell me soon if you are 
 going west. . . . God bless you. I am, your affectionate son, 
 
 W. HAMILTON. 
 + 
 
 OXFORD, Sunday, 15th Nov. [1807]. 
 
 MY DEAR MOTHER, ... It [introduction to Sir C. Pegge] 
 was too late for the purpose, as I have introduced myself to him as 
 a medical student, and he was very civil. ... I am so plagued 
 by these foolish lectures of the College tutors that I have little time 
 to do anything else Aristotle to-day, ditto to-morrow ; and I believe 
 that if the ideas furnished by Aristotle to these numbskulls were 
 taken away, it would be doubtful whether there remained a single 
 notion. I am quite tired of such uniformity of study. 
 
 Farewell, my dear mother. I wish you to write me as often as 
 you can. I am, dear mother, your affectionate son, 
 
 W. S. HAMILTON. 
 
 * Regius Professor of Medicine (1801), Professor of Anatomy (1803). 
 
LETTERS FROM OXFORD. 
 
 BA.LLIOL COLLEGE, 27th N* 
 MY DEAREST MOTHER, I received your letter of the 22d to-day. 
 I am very sorry to find you were angry at my last letter, and am 
 very sorry if I allowed any things to slip in that might give you 
 uneasiness. I wrote it, I suppose, when I was fagged and tormented 
 with work. I hope you will pardon me, and believe me, my dear 
 mother, nothing was ever farther from my wishes than to see you 
 uneasy, either on iny account or any other. I hope, therefore, you 
 will forget what is past. . . . 
 
 We have a very nice course of Anatomy here. I will tell you 
 more some other time about these matters. Michaelmas term will 
 end in about a fortnight, and I intend going up to London then for 
 a week or so to visit my uncle. I want to buy some books I require, 
 and a skeleton also, in London. I find Oxford a very comfortable 
 place. I have had very little occasion to use much wine, there being 
 but few men up this term. ... If you could send the micro- 
 scope I should like very well. . . . The whole country round 
 Oxford is under its annual overflow. I have famous exercise every 
 day in rowing up and down the river, and shall in a few days have 
 glorious skating, and the safest in the world, the meadows being no 
 more than a foot or so deep. . . . 
 
 To put you out of fear as to my health, I must tell you that I am 
 quite well as far as eating, sleeping, and sensation go. I am, &c., 
 your affectionate son, W. HAMILTON. 
 
 BALL. COLL., 19^ December [1807]. 
 
 MY DEAR MOTHER, I have been so busy with Collections at the 
 end of last term that I had no time to answer your letter when it 
 arrived, and have allowed one thing or another to prevent me doing 1 
 it since vacation commenced. I hope you do not feel the cold sea 
 air affecting you at this time of year. I always was against your 
 staying there [at Newhaven] in the winter. We have had very fine 
 weather here for a long time. I have at present my whole time to 
 myself, it being vacation. I go up to London for a day or two at 
 Christmas. . . . 
 
 I don't think I shall find Oxford more expensive than any other 
 place, with my Exhibition. . . . 
 
 I had a letter from Tom, in which he tells me Reekie is dead, and 
 that his books will come to the hammer in a week or two. Tell 
 Tom to send me a catalogue in time to write him back before the 
 sale begins, as I will delay buying some books which I intend tak- 
 
32 LETTERS FROM OXFORD. 
 
 ing up at my examination in hopes of getting them much cheaper 
 there. I never saw to what a price books of classical learning are 
 getting up here and in London, . . . I am, dear mother, 
 yours, &c. W. HAMILTON. 
 
 LONDON, 5th January 1808. 
 
 MY DEAREST MOTHER, ... I have applied for a Warner 
 Exhibition.* I have made some wonderful purchases of cheap 
 books, and, what is more wonderful, just the books I was obliged 
 most to buy. But of all the bargains and curiosities in the book 
 way I ever made, I made t'other day. I paid 0, 4s. Od. for oh, 
 incredible ! a MS. volume, which, on my examining it at home, I 
 found to be most beautiful illuminated manuscripts of the Rhetoric 
 and the book on Invention of Cicero, and another MS., at the end 
 of the volume, of Macrobius. . . . Books sell most wonderfully 
 high here. I bought my MSS. in an old shop near St Giles's. The 
 man was completely ignorant of the treasure he possessed. They 
 are at least six centuries old. ... I can't write here any 
 longer, so many tongues going about me, for I am writing in the 
 drawing-room. I am, &c., W. HAMILTON. 
 
 OXFORD, 26th January 1808. 
 
 MY DEAR MOTHER, ... I shall certainly be down in 
 Scotland next long vacation, but we do not break up till July this 
 year, so that we shall have little more than three months. Our 
 next term is very long. It commences the 1st of February. Is 
 Christy with you now 1 Give my love to her and Mrs Stark, and 
 all my other friends. I wish you to tell Tom to write me soon. 
 My microscope, &c., has arrived safe. I wish I had told you to 
 enclose my thermometer. We have had the most intense frost I 
 ever saw here, and most beautiful weather. Our chief amusement 
 at present is shooting larks and fieldfares. I hope to have another 
 excursion into the Highlands next summer on the Perthshire side. 
 Give my love to all my Midcalder friends. . . 
 
 Since I began this letter I have been at the schools seeing the 
 celebrated Eussel, organist of the Foundling, take a Bachelor's 
 degree in music. His compositions for this purpose are accounted 
 very fine. I am no judge of these things. I am, dear mother, 
 your affectionate son, W. HAMILTON. 
 
 * The four Warner Exhibitions were founded (1666 or 1667) by John Warner, 
 Bishop of Rochester, for natives of Scotland. It does not appear that this ap- 
 plication was successful. 
 
. 
 
 LETTERS FROM OXFORD. 33 
 
 OXFORD, YIth February 1808. 
 
 MY DEAREST MOTHER, ... I wish you to tell Tom to 
 write me. I have not seen his signature for this month or more. 
 My love to all my friends, which being premised, I proceed. There 
 was an auction of books (I think I see you beginning to look blue) 
 
 here t'other day, the property of a Mr Walker, surgeon 
 
 I bought some medical works very cheap, at a fifth part of the price 
 in the shops, though quite new. I also bought Dr Eeid's Works, 
 in 4to, in two vols., and the celebrated translation and commen- 
 tary of Mr Murphy on Tacitus, in four vols. 4to all very cheap. 
 I would not have bought the Tacitus, but as it was a book I take 
 up on my examination, I thought it better to buy it now at half-price 
 than at whole price in six months after. 
 
 I am beginning to read very hard at Aristotle, and Pindar, and 
 Sophocles, whose works I intend taking up at my examination, 
 being the most respectable books in Greek, as the most difficult ; 
 and as to Latin, I shall take up six or seven of the crampest and 
 longest authors. I intend, however, to begin to fag soon. . . . 
 I am, dear mother, &d, W. HAMILTON. 
 
 OXFORD, Id April 1808. 
 
 MY DEAR MOTHER, I must beg pardon for having so long de- 
 layed writing you. I have been so busy with Collections, which 
 are public examinations, at the end of each term, on all the books 
 we have read during the continuance of the term, before the master 
 and public lecturers. These commonly take us up a few days to 
 review the subjects of examination. This has kept me rather busy 
 for the past week. Our vacation has begun, and continues to the 
 7th of May. Then two short terms and then long vacation, when 
 I shall have the happiness to see you. . . . 
 
 I hope Tom is continuing to do right. I intend to be very busy 
 during the summer. . . . I am, dear mother, &c., 
 
 W. HAMILTON. 
 
 BALL. COLL., 25(h Ajyil. 
 
 MY DEAR MOTHER, I yesterday received your last letter, but 
 was prevented answering it then from some causes needless to name. 
 . . . Upon my word, I think very little can be done now 
 in the way of commerce ; the mercantile interest of the kingdom 
 seems going fast on to ruin. I cannot, therefore, think it would 
 be any loss if Tom were to change his views, and enter into some 
 other line of life than what he at first intended. However, that is 
 
 C 
 
34 LETTERS FROM OXFORD. 
 
 [as] it may be. A gentleman of our College is determined to go to 
 Scotland to spend the summer. I am afraid that I will be obliged 
 to accompany him in a pedestrian excursion to the Highlands, 
 though I had rather stay at home. We shall see, however, when 
 the time comes nearer. 
 
 I am certain of being able to live next year at Oxford cheaper than 
 I could anywhere else. It is all nonsense the notion of the great 
 expense, &c., that people have of Oxford. They here repay our 
 Scotch universities by thinking them the hotbeds of infidelity and 
 atheism. . . . 
 
 "Write me soon. I am, dear mother, your afiectionate son, 
 
 W. HAMILTON. 
 
 OXFORD, 5th inst. [June ? ]. 
 
 MY DEAREST MOTHER, ... I wish you would tell me 
 more news about my friends, and how they all are, when you write. 
 Here you cannot expect \Q hear anything of that kind. You seem 
 to think that I do not tell you that I am quite well : I never was 
 better in my life. For instance, did you ever hear of a sick man 
 eating every morning four eggs, twopence worth of bread, and three 
 cups of tea, which is my general quantum ? . . . 
 
 Aunt James sent me t'other day the most terrible philippic in de- 
 fence of the existence of women's souls. 
 
 Write me soon ; and hoping to see you soon, I am, dear mother, 
 your afiectionate son, W. HAMILTON. 
 
 OXFORD, lOtk November. 
 
 MY DEAR MOTHER, I have been prevented from answering your 
 letter, which I received the day before yesterday, before, on account 
 of business and twenty other things. 
 
 I have nothing earthly to tell you, and nothing heavenly. I have 
 bought Crabbe's Poems. If you like I will bring them down next 
 summer. Has the new * Edinburgh Eeview ' come out ? I do not 
 think Tom seems to think the counter an eligible place ; and, after 
 all, I don't see so much encouragement to spend so many years in 
 learning it, and with all the chance of getting no settlement after 
 all. I have told him to write you about it. I am afraid that my 
 going up to town in winter will cost some money ; but as the ex- 
 hibitions are to be so much increased, I think I may be allowed to 
 exceed a little in so necessary an expense. I am afraid of being 
 tempted with books, but I am determined not to buy any. I have 
 
r 
 LETTERS FROM OXFORD. 35 
 
 only now ' one or two to make out all the books needed for my 
 studies of these two years. I was never in better health in my life 
 than I have been since I came up. Oxford always agrees with my 
 appetite, and I have been getting up at six ! in the morning for 
 this week past, and I shall continue it all my life through. You 
 will say this was a change devoutly to be wished. I wish I had 
 my manuscript here. I wonder if you could find an opportunity of 
 sending it up. 
 
 I must leave off, as I must attack my Greek for lecture in an hour 
 hence ; so I remain, dear mother, your affectionate son, 
 
 W. HAMILTON. 
 
 OXFORD, 25th [February 1808 or 1809]. 
 
 . . . I am just going down to the Anatomy School, where the 
 Professor is so kind as to let me dissect. . . . 
 
 .OXFORD, 25^[1809]. 
 
 . . . The night before last we were wakened, at the request 
 of the Vice-Chancellor, to go down and give our assistance at Christ 
 Church, which had taken fire. I was working away from one till 
 five in the morning, handing buckets and working at the engines ; 
 and at last the fire was put down, after consuming a great part of 
 the great quadrangle, and the hall was with difficulty saved. . . . 
 
 [OXFORD,] Thursday [5th April 1810]. 
 
 . . . I don't think I can possibly come up to town this vaca- 
 tion. My time has been so miserably spent latterly, that when 
 I look back I can only hope by great attention to make up my 
 leeway. . . . 
 
 BALL. COLL. [August 1810]. 
 
 . . . An answer has appeared to the last number of the 
 ' Edinburgh Review ' against Oxford, and Mr Copleston has all the 
 argument on his side. The blunders of the last number are exposed 
 very well, and Playfair cuts the shabbiest figure ever man did. Mr 
 Knight seems to know less Greek than a schoolboy - } and the abuse 
 of Sydney Smith (Copleston's personal enemy) redounds on his own 
 head. . . . 
 
 [August 1810.] 
 . ... .. I send you up the reply to the Edinburgh Reviewers. 
 
 It is a very complete answer, and has all the truth on its side. You 
 
36 LETTERS FROM OXFORD. 
 
 must expect not to understand above one-half of it, as the other is 
 on classical niceties. The author is Mr Copleston. Sydney Smith 
 is the reviewer of Edgeworth, and, I believe, of Falconer's Strabo ; 
 and Playfair is the reviewer of La Place, where he introduces some 
 abuse against Oxford equally illiberal as false, and shows his own 
 thorough ignorance of Greek. Sydney Smith was a fellow of New 
 College, so that his apostasy was the more shameful, as he was the 
 more indebted to alma mater* . . . 
 
 Mrs HAMILTON to Mrs BANNATYNE. 
 
 HAMPTON, MIDDLESEX, 5th September 1810. 
 
 MY DEAR SISTER, . . . William has got what he was 
 very anxious to obtain permission to reside in Balliol during 
 the long vacation. He left us so full of ardour, saying he would 
 study so much when he now would meet with no interruptions, 
 and have the full use of the library, &c. ; but his letters describe 
 him quite tired of being alone. . . . 
 
 W. HAMILTON TO HIS MOTHER. 
 
 BALL. COLL., Friday \lst September 18101. 
 
 . . . I believe you are. now a letter in my debt. You may 
 think little of a letter from me, for you can hear nothing interesting 
 from hence ; but as you are the centre of all my information of any 
 moment, and living this monastic life, every letter I receive gives 
 me not only the pleasure to hear that you are well, but also con- 
 tributes to ease me of some of that weariness too apt to interrupt 
 the dull happiness of my present life. In fact, I am heartily tired 
 of living by myself, and am now looking forward to the end of 
 vacation with some hope. . . . However dull, I find this life 
 very useful, and go through more now than when interrupted by 
 other inducements. . . . 
 
 Around Hamilton, while at Oxford, there gathered a con- 
 siderable number of associates and friends. The principal 
 of these were : Mr J. H. Christie, barrister ; Mr James Traill, 
 
 * The references in these extracts appear to be to the articles on the ' M6- 
 chanique Celeste' of La Place (Jan. 1808); on Falconer's 'Strabo' (July 1809) ; 
 and on ' A Reply to the Calumnies of the Edinburgh Review against Oxford ' 
 (April 1810). 
 
OXFORD FEIENDS. 37 
 
 barrister, and now stipendiary magistrate, London ; Mr Alex- 
 ander Scott, son of Mr George Robertson Scott, of Benholme ; 
 and Mr John Gibson Lockhart. He was also on terms of 
 intimacy with Mr Alexander Nicoll, a Snell Exhibitioner, 
 who became Sub-Librarian of the Bodleian, and finally 
 Begins Professor of Hebrew, and Canon of Christ Church. 
 Mcoll was a singularly amiable and unassuming man, and a 
 most diligent and accomplished student of Oriental literature. 
 He died at an early age about 1827.^ To these should be 
 added the Eev. Dr Hawkins, the present Head of Oriel ; the 
 Rev. William Villers, of Balliol ; and the Rev. James Yonge, 
 Fellow of Exeter. Archdeacon Williams, late of the Edin- 
 burgh Academy, and the Rev. G. R. Gleig, Chaplain- General 
 to the Forces, made his acquaintance at Oxford during the 
 later period of his residence. 
 
 Of those named, his most endeared friend beloved as a 
 brother was Alexander Scott, whose premature death, which 
 took place in 1812, was to him the source of bitter grief.* 
 Along with Scott, Mr Traill and Mr Christie appear to have 
 been his most chosen companions during the greater part of 
 his Oxford life ; for John Gibson Lockhart, who was some 
 years his junior, did not come into residence till 1809. With 
 Lockhart, after Scott's death, his friendship was more close, 
 and his intercourse more familiar and constant, than with any 
 other man, until about 1818, when, owing to some unfortunate 
 circumstances, a breach that was never healed took place be- 
 tween them.-|- The following extracts from Lockhart's letters 
 to his father give us glimpses of his friend Hamilton : 
 
 1st November 1808. 
 
 I don't know how I should have managed here at all had it 
 not been for W. Hamilton. Ever since we met, I am sure he has 
 behaved to me with all th/ affection of a brother. Since papa left 
 us I have been always with him or he with me at breakfast, 
 tea, &c. He makes me carry my book over after evening prayers, 
 and read it beside him all night. His advice has been, I think, of 
 
 * See below, p. 64. t See below, p. 90. 
 
38 LOCKHART'S LETTERS. 
 
 great use to me ; for lie, knowing the characters and dispositions 
 of all the men beforehand, can of course advise me with whom I 
 should associate, and whose acquaintance I should rather decline. 
 He and Hardwick and Hannah are almost the only men in the 
 College I could wish to have much to do with. 
 
 . . . To-night there is to be a great ball here connected 
 with the jubilee. The " Penny-farthing Lane " people pressed 
 Hamilton and me much to gallant Miss ****, and some coun- 
 try Jennies they have brought up on the occasion ; but no no 
 no no guineas to be spent either by him or me on any such 
 miserable purposes. I got a Scapula very good edition for 
 2, 10s., and a Herodotus for thirty shillings. Hamilton is a 
 famous adviser in the purchasing of books. 
 
 21st October 1810. 
 
 Hamilton has been in College all summer read through Aris- 
 totle's Organon, and all the works of Hippocrates. I wish I could 
 say I had done as much, but I hope to make up for my idle summer 
 by my diligent winter. 
 
 Uth November 1810. 
 
 Hamilton is going up for his examination to-morrow. I dare- 
 say he will make a fine figure ; but in the mean time he is sadly 
 " funcked," as they call it. You will see him next month, for he 
 intends being in Scotland for some time, as soon as he has kept 
 this term. 
 
 26*A November 1810. 
 
 Our term will now be over in a short time not quite three 
 weeks. By the by, you will see Hamilton ere that time, for he is 
 going down with his mother very soon. He passed his examina- 
 tion in the highest style imaginable took up more of Aristotle 
 than ever was done, or is likely to be done again and I daresay will 
 receive all the honours. I have been asking him about the medical 
 matters, and will be able to write you next time. 
 
 13th November 1811. 
 
 Hamilton arrived here last night. He intends only to stay for 
 a day or two, and then proceed to London for the winter. His 
 friend Scott is in a very bad way. ... I wish H.'s stay were 
 to be longer ; but I flatter myself he will be here in spring for 
 some months. His brother is expected home every day. 
 
MR CHRISTIE'S REMINISCENCES. 39 
 
 The impression which Hamilton's personal appearance, char- 
 acter, and habits of study made on the fellow-students with 
 whom he came into contact was very remarkable. The few 
 men now surviving who knew him at Oxford, all concur in 
 testifying to the warm feelings of admiration and love which 
 he excited, at once by the manly beauty of his person, his 
 courteous and agreeable manners, the kindness and gentleness 
 of his demeanour, the force of his intellect, and the extra- 
 ordinary character of his attainments. 
 
 We are fortunate in being able to present two sketches of 
 him at Oxford, drawn from personal recollections. These are 
 given entire, and will be found to afford a picture singularly 
 harmonious in its details. The features noted are such as 
 those who knew him in after years will readily recognise as 
 permanently characteristic ; and as the writers had almost no 
 intercourse with him after leaving Oxford, the vividness of 
 their impressions is a proof of the remarkable force and in- 
 dividuality of his character even at this early period of his life. 
 
 The following is by Mr J. H. Christie, one of the small 
 number of Hamilton's Oxford friends who still survive : 
 
 " Some time since I was asked to furnish any particulars 
 which I imagined might be useful in the preparation of a 
 memoir which was then projected of Mr John Gibson Lock- 
 hart. In the paper I wrote on that occasion I find the follow- 
 ing passage : 
 
 " ' But though Lockhart was an excellent scholar, and a man 
 of great and various knowledge, he was not, I apprehend, what 
 would be called a learned man. We had only one learned 
 man in our (in those days) small College I mean the late Sir 
 William Hamilton. He was already (about 1810) pursuing 
 those studies which ultimately gave him a high place among 
 those who dwell in the higher regions of human speculation. 
 It will give some idea of the extent of his knowledge to men- 
 tion that, while yet an undergraduate, he was (as I well re- 
 member) quite familiar with so obscure a bit of literary his- 
 tory as the authorship, occasion, and object of the Epistolse 
 
40 MR CHRISTIE'S REMINISCENCES. 
 
 Obscurorum Yirorum then was. Hamilton's intellectual 
 eminence has been acknowledged by the world, but I do not 
 happen to have met with any adequate appreciation of the 
 qualities of the man. He was, as I knew him, the most 
 noble-minded, the most generous, and the most tender-hearted 
 of men. Lockhart and he were fast friends, and filled with 
 mutual admiration. I know not what miserable provincial 
 differences ultimately broke their friendship. Lockhart more 
 than once began to tell me the story, but the subject was too 
 painful to him, and he always broke off without finishing. 
 Hamilton, as far as I know, was the only friend that Lockhart 
 ever lost ; but his admiration and his real affection for him, I 
 well know, never ceased.' 
 
 " The above extract will show to what extent the impres- 
 sions made* on my mind fifty years ago by the character of 
 Sir William Hamilton still remain. After I left off resi- 
 dence at College (about the year 1813, 1 think), I never saw 
 him but once, and that for a few hours only, above forty years 
 ago. The remainder of his life was occupied in studies, the 
 general nature of which is known to the world, while I was 
 too busy with wholly different pursuits to attempt to follow 
 him. The only subsequent intercourse between us was his 
 sending me a pamphlet of a controversial nature. This was 
 after he had been struck by that malady which, I believe, 
 permanently affected his bodily health. In the paper in 
 question I saw no decay of intellectual vigour, but saw, or 
 fancied I saw, a change in the temper of the man. There 
 was something of acrimony, and a tenacity about matters 
 which his noble nature, when I knew him, would have dis- 
 dained to care for. I notice this because I am not writing a 
 panegyric on Hamilton, but the recollections and impressions 
 in regard to him which rest in my mind. Old men recall 
 the scenes of their early days with mixed emotions. The 
 process is attended with a flush of pleasure, instantly fol- 
 lowed by the saddening reflection that they cannot be re- 
 called that they who gave those hours their gladness are 
 
MR CHRISTIE'S REMINISCENCES. 41 
 
 either in their graves, or by years unfitted to bear the parts 
 they then bore. Hamilton was my senior at College, I 
 think about two years, and my senior in age a few years 
 more. All marks of boyhood had left him, if they ever be- 
 longed to him: he was in appearance completely a man, 
 though a young man. The dress of these days showed to 
 advantage his singularly finely-formed limbs. There was an 
 apparent looseness in his figure, proceeding, I think, from a 
 certain carelessness in his gait, and certainly not from any 
 imperfection of form, for he was admirably formed ; and still 
 less indicating any defect of muscular power, for he was very 
 strong, and excelled in running and leaping, and all other 
 athletic exercises, to which, moreover, he was much given. 
 I wish I were able to convey a just notion of the singular 
 beauty and nobleness of his most intellectual countenance. 
 His oval face, perfectly-formed features, deep-set black eyes, 
 olive complexion, his waving black hair, which did not con- 
 ceal his noble forehead, combined as happily to give the result 
 of perfect manly beauty as it is possible to imagine. 
 
 "The studies which Hamilton pursued were perfectly in 
 harmony with the Oxford studies of those days; but it so 
 happened that he owed little to the actual teaching of Oxford. 
 He was the only pupil of a Fellow of the College, who was 
 himself a singular, if not a remarkable, character.* This gen- 
 tleman lived in rooms in the tower over the gateway of the 
 College, and led the life of a hermit. He never attended hall 
 or chapel, nor held any intercourse with any of the authorities 
 of the College. He was a powerfully-made man, with rather 
 a striking countenance, who appeared to have totally seques- 
 trated himself from his fellow- creatures. No one but his 
 servant ever entered his rooms. He walked out frequently, 
 but always alone. He was never seen to speak to any one. 
 It seems, however, that he had accepted Hamilton as a pupil, 
 but the pupil and tutor soon discovered that they were by no 
 
 * His name was Powell. He is sketched by Lockhart in ' Reginald Dalton ' 
 under the appellation of Daniel Barton, book ii. c. vi. 
 
42 MR CHRISTIE'S REMINISCENCES. 
 
 means necessary to each other, and in fact, before I came to 
 the College, had ceased to have any intercourse. He must, 
 however, have been a man of some mark, for he had inspired 
 Hamilton (who was not given to overrate men) with respect. 
 It thus happened that Hamilton had no teacher, and was 
 strictly a solitary student ; for though it was not unusual for 
 us to join in our readings, Hamilton had no companion in his 
 studies. When, however, the term of his examination for his 
 degree came round, besides the ordinary books which can- 
 didates for the first class took up (as the expression is, or then 
 was), including the Mcomachean Ethics, Ehetoric, and Poetics 
 of Aristotle, he took up the whole works of Aristotle, not 
 excepting, if my memory serves me, the Zw/xj} /<rrog/a, and also 
 the whole works of Cicero. 
 
 " Though, as I have said, Hamilton was a solitary student, 
 he was far from an unsocial man. When he joined in the fes- 
 tivities and amusements of the place, he did so with buoyant 
 spirits and thorough enjoyment. His manners, though without 
 the slightest taint of coarseness or vulgarity, were brusque, but 
 thoroughly agreeable. I wish I could convey an adequate 
 notion of those qualities, which made a deeper impression on 
 others as well as myself than any of the characteristics I have 
 noticed. It is not always that great intellectual gifts are 
 accompanied by a corresponding elevation of moral feelings : 
 there are many lamentable instances the other way. But it 
 sometimes happens (and Hamilton is not the only case which 
 has fallen in my way) that great intellectual power is accom- 
 panied by qualities of the heart raising their possessor still 
 more conspicuously above the average of men. I cannot 
 enter into particulars, but I can say with truth that, consider- 
 ing his means, which I have no reason to suppose were great, 
 I have never known a heart so open to the claims of distress, 
 and with him misery was a sufficient claim when his help 
 was asked. The turn he gave the matter was that he was the 
 party obliged, not the asker of the favour. If any one was 
 depressed by fortune below those who would have otherwise 
 
MR TRAILI/S REMINISCENCES. 43 
 
 been his equal, Hamilton was sure, by the most delicate 
 means, to make him as far as possible forget what was painful 
 in his position. Hamilton, as far as I can recollect, was not 
 wanting in the performance of any of the duties which society 
 expects from all its members, but he did not rest there. On 
 many occasions he seemed to me to love his neighbour better 
 than himself." 
 
 The following is communicated by Mr James Traill : 
 
 " My first introduction to Hamilton took place in the rooms 
 of Dr Jenkyns, the late Dean of Bath and Wells, who was 
 then the College tutor, to whose charge I was consigned on 
 my entrance, in 1810, at Balliol College, as a Snell Exhibi- 
 tioner. I had a strong letter of recommendation to Hamilton 
 from his and my excellent friend, Professor Jardiue of Glas- 
 gow. I had also a letter to Scott from my brother, who 
 had been a schoolfellow with him at Westminster. Hamilton 
 and Scott were very intimate friends, but very dissimilar in 
 many respects. Scott was a man of singular delicacy of frame 
 and of features, and of an almost feminine refinement of mind. 
 He was of the most amiable and affectionate disposition ; and 
 I know that Hamilton deeply lamented (as I did) his early 
 death. 
 
 " The only Exhibitioners at that time from Glasgow College 
 were Hamilton, Lockhart, and myself. The others had been 
 nominated by Aberdeen University, which had the right of 
 presentation in default of its being exercised by Glasgow. 
 Balliol College, at this time, had not acquired its present high 
 position in the rank of colleges. The Scotch Exhibitioners 
 including such names as Hamilton, Lockhart, Mcoll, Christie, 
 and Gleig were, as may be supposed, its most distinguished 
 members. 
 
 " Before my meeting with Hamilton I conceived some awe 
 of his vast superiority to myself, and was not prepared for the 
 cordiality of his first greeting. This might be partly owing to 
 the strength of the letter of introduction, but kindliness was a 
 marked part of his character, which displayed itself towards 
 
44 MR TRAILL'S REMINISCENCES. 
 
 his friends in easy and affectionate familiarity. The day of 
 our first introduction I was addressed by my Christian name ; 
 and, in speaking to Lockhart or myself, it was always John 
 or James, as if we were his younger brothers. His regard 
 for Lockhart in fact, their mutual regard was very great. 
 In after days, when both became resident in Edinburgh, the 
 keen air of its politics cast a chill over their friendship ; but 
 I have reason to think the estrangement was the cause of 
 pain to both, and that in the more liberal and diffused in- 
 tercourse of professional life in London it would not have 
 existed. 
 
 " Dr Jenkyns was, as I have said, the College tutor. Hamil- 
 ton, however, was the pupil of Mr Powell, a studious, and, I 
 believe, an able man, but singular in his habits of life. His 
 rooms were in the tower over the College gates, where he 
 lived entirely secluded. He might be seen rarely about dusk, 
 taking his solitary ramble. He never appeared in hall or 
 chapel, or in academical dress, nor was he ever seen in com- 
 pany with any one. He was, in fact, an absolute hermit in 
 the centre of a noisy, lively community. For a short time 
 Hamilton and his tutor kept up the formality of an hour's 
 lecture. This, however, soon ceased, and for the last three 
 years of his College life Hamilton was left to follow his own 
 inclinations. Fortunately these all tended to noble objects. 
 A man of less vigour of mind, and less decision of character, 
 might have fallen into ways that might have proved very 
 injurious to his future success. From this period commenced 
 that process of self-education which has placed his name at 
 the head of the men of his generation who have cultivated the 
 science of mental philosophy. . 
 
 " At the period of my entrance at Balliol, Hamilton was in 
 the second year of his residence. His habits of study were 
 then confirmed, though somewhat irregular. His manner of 
 reading was characteristic. He had his table, chairs, and 
 generally his floor, strewed with books ; and you might find 
 him in the midst of this confusion studying with his foot on a 
 
MR TRAILL'S REMINISCENCES. 45 
 
 chair, poising one great folio on his knee, with another open 
 in his hand. His mode of " tearing out the entrails" of a 
 book, as he termed it, was remarkable. A perusal of the 
 preface, table of contents, and index, and a glance at those 
 parts which were new to him (which were few), were all that 
 was necessary. It was by this facility in acquiring knowledge, 
 and his great faculty in retaining it, that he was able, in the 
 short period of his undergraduteship, to become the most 
 learned Aristotelian in Oxford. In addition to the usual 
 Oxford course of the Ethics, Rhetoric, and Poetics, and the 
 Politics and Economics, he had studied the analytical, phy- 
 sical, and metaphysical treatises, and the History of Animals, 
 and had consulted all the principal commentators. His 
 reputation as an Aristotelian collected a large audience in 
 the schools at his examination. Few of them were capable of 
 estimating the amount of his learning; and, to judge from 
 their style of examination, the examining masters themselves 
 seemed to feel his superiority. Still his examination, in the 
 Oxford sense of the word, was not a brilliant one. Though 
 a sound and even learned scholar, his was not the kind of 
 scholarship that told in an Oxford examination. His early 
 education in Scotland had not been fashioned after the model 
 of an English public school. He wrote Latin prose with ease 
 and correctness, but he was not in the practice of verse-writing 
 not that he was without a thorough knowledge of metres 
 and of the niceties of the languages. Taken altogether, his 
 examination, both for scholarship and science, has never been 
 surpassed. His reading was not confined to the ordinary 
 College course ; it embraced also the learning of the period 
 of the Reformation, and of the fourteenth and fifteenth cen- 
 turies. His attention was at this period turned to medicine 
 as a profession, and the early writers on this branch of science 
 formed part of his study. We may well be surprised when 
 we consider this amount of labour, and remember that it was 
 the spontaneous and unassisted effort of his own mind. 
 
 " Hamilton was a great haunter of old-book shops one, in 
 
46 MR TRAILL'S REMINISCENCES. 
 
 particular, in the neighbourhood of Soho Square. It was a 
 low, dark hole, crammed with dust and folios, and in the 
 darkest corner sat the old bibliopole, like a spider in his web, 
 watching his prey. He never spoke, and beyond the price of 
 a book seemed to know nothing. I came across the old man 
 some years afterwards. He had advanced into a strange stage 
 of development, and appeared in the character of a shrewd, 
 active, parish overseer in a country parish, occupying a neat 
 cottage, chatting away, and offering his visitors the hospitali- 
 ties of his home-baked and brewed. It was a dangerous affair 
 accompanying Hamilton to an old-book shop. He was sure 'to 
 persuade you to buy soma favourite folio, and as soon as you 
 had got it he would comfort you with the assurance that you 
 would not understand a word of it. His own collection was 
 of the most miscellaneous nature. In addition to every com- 
 mentator upon Aristotle, it included the learned squabbles 
 of the Scaligers, Scioppius, and the authors of the Epistolse 
 Obscurorurn Yirorum. He was fond of controversial writings, 
 and enjoyed the learned railings of the Scioppian style. 
 
 " Any account of Hamilton's Oxford life would be defective 
 that did not notice him in his hours of relaxation, which were 
 equally characteristic of the man. Whatever he did, whether 
 work or play, was done with his whole heart and soul. He 
 had no turn for hunting, shooting, or boating, the usual out- 
 door studies of Oxford ; nor would they have furnished the 
 sort of relaxation he required. Gymnastics, as now scientifi- 
 cally practised, would have been exactly the thing for him, 
 and he would have excelled as a gymnast. We were obliged 
 to content ourselves with the simple feats of leaping, vaulting, 
 and the use of the pole. In these our proficiency was by no 
 means contemptible. When tired with work, we started off, 
 pole in hand, to Port Meadow or Bagley Wood, or took a 
 round of the fields and lanes (our home preserves), clearing 
 the gates and fences as we went. On these occasions, to 
 relieve the severity of his study, Hamilton was in the habit 
 of reciting, in his ore rotundo manner, passages from favourite 
 
MR TRILI/S REMINISCENCES. 47 
 
 authors. The last lines of the Prometheus of JEschylus, 
 the beginning of the second book of Lucretius, and the con- 
 cluding sentences of Tacitus's life of Agricola, were amongst 
 his favourites. Sometimes he would repeat the same line over 
 and over again, when it was sonorous and filled the ear. One 
 of these lines I remember, and mention it as now so applicable 
 to himself. It was from Cowley's lines to Hobbes, in which 
 he addresses him as 
 
 * Thou great Columbus of the golden lands of new philosophies.' 
 
 I may add another of his recitations of a list of Irish high- 
 sounding names : 
 
 'O'Hara, O'Mara, O'Morvan, O'More, 
 O'Donovan, Ara, M'Millan, Gelore : 
 All houses so great, so noble, so bold, 
 One drop of their blood were worth ounces of gold.'* 
 
 " Those who have known Hamilton only through his writ- 
 ings and in the later period of his life, can have no idea of 
 his almost boyish sportiveness in his early days, when his 
 animal spirits being set free, seemed to bound up with an irre- 
 pressible elasticity. In one of his nocturnal visits to my 
 rooms, whilst we were talking, a mouse crept out of a hole on 
 the hearth. With a view to the advancement of science we 
 strewed crumbs of bread soaked in wine for him, and found 
 that mice and men were very much alike under the influence 
 of drink. Whether, as this was a mouse of a learned univer- 
 sity, it was to be considered an exceptional case, we did not 
 fully determine. In College rooms there are no pantries or 
 store of provisions; the food is supplied from the College 
 buttery, and cannot be had after certain hours. Hamilton had 
 nothing of the commissary in him, and often found himself 
 about midnight in a state of destitution, for which the only 
 
 * " ye heroes so high, and so haughty of yore, 
 O'Donnell, O'Hara, O'Mara, O'Moore: 
 All houses so noble, so worthy, so old, 
 Every drop of your blood is worth ounces of gold." 
 
 Reginald Dalton, p. 100. 
 
48 MR TRAILI/S REMINISCENCES. 
 
 relief was a raid into other men's rooms in search of plunder. 
 In one of these freebooting expeditions we had a narrow 
 escape. We had been foraging for several nights in the rooms 
 of a brother Scot of rather a fiery temperament. He had on 
 this occasion prepared himself with the poker at his bedside 
 to discharge at us. Fortunately he had dropt asleep, and we 
 escaped out of the rooms before the missile overtook us. It 
 left a deep mark on the door, which he showed us as a warn- 
 ing next morning. 
 
 " Some of these pranks had a smack of the practical joke. 
 In the course of his anatomical studies he had collected human 
 bones,, preparations, and suchlike specimens. One morning at 
 breakfast, with three or four friends in his rooms, there was 
 some chocolate which was much approved of. When it came 
 round to him he looked at it very suspiciously, and asked his 
 scout, Dick Young, how he had made it. ' In the usual way,' 
 Dick replied ; ' in the large coffee-biggin.' ' You blockhead ! ' 
 said Hamilton, ' don't you know that was what I boiled the 
 child's head in yesterday ? ' This announcement did not in- 
 crease the relish of the repast. On another occasion two or 
 three of us were in his rooms at night telling ghost-stories. 
 As we were about to go there was a loud single knock at the 
 door ; it opened, and a human skull shrouded in a white sheet 
 appeared over the top of the door, gradually rising upwards 
 till it reached the roof of the room, and stretching forth a 
 pair of lean arms towards us. He had stolen out of the room 
 unobserved whilst we were talking; and with a skull, a 
 tablecloth, a long carpet-broom for a body, and a couple of 
 hearth-brushes for arms, had dressed up his ghost in the 
 most artistic fashion. This argumentum ad spectrum gave 
 the victory to the ghost-believers. 
 
 " These are a few of the illustrations of the remarkable feature 
 in Hamilton's character the extraordinary energy which he 
 threw into everything he engaged in. Whether he was deep 
 in metaphysics, or pole-leaping in Port Meadow, or watching 
 the vagaries of a tipsy mouse, or foraging for scraps of bread- 
 
MR TRAILLS REMINISCENCES. 
 
 and-butter in an undergraduate's room, he 
 his own word) in everything. 
 
 " It may be thought beneath the dignity of the subject to 
 relate these leves nugce of the mind of a philosopher. We 
 must not forget, however, that it is the slight identifying touch 
 that often gives reality to the picture. 
 
 " Hamilton had less of the dross of mere human nature than 
 any man I ever met with. The elements were so mixed in 
 him that he was formed to produce a deep influence upon those 
 he lived with. They might not be able to measure the height 
 and depth and breadth of his understanding, nor follow his 
 
 steps up 
 
 ' The steep 
 Where fame's proud temple shines afar ; ' 
 
 but they could not fail to feel the influence of his noble 
 character and kind affections. 
 
 "My personal intercourse with Hamilton ceased with his 
 residence in Oxford. We met once or twice afterwards, but 
 his residing in Edinburgh and mine in London kept us apart. 
 The last time I saw him was in passing through Edinburgh 
 in 1839, if I recollect right. We rambled together down to 
 Caroline Park, and talked over old times and old jumps, and 
 looked wistfully but timidly at five-barred gates. We also 
 talked of future meetings, and agreed that he should bring his 
 family to meet me and mine at the Lakes or in the Isle of Man. 
 We never met again, but the period of our early intimacy still 
 stands out in my memory manet mansurumgrue est. 
 
 " I have omitted to notice one remarkable trait of Hamilton 
 in his College life viz., his great prudence and temperate 
 habits. With the most liberal spirit in regard to pecuniary 
 matters, I never knew him troubled by a dun, and I never re- 
 member seeing him in a state of intoxication. These were both 
 extraordinary virtues in Oxford life fifty years ago. The only 
 exception to his uniformly temperate habits was on the celebra- 
 tion of St Andrew's Day, which was observed by us Scotsmen 
 
 D 
 
 4 
 
50 CATCHES THE TUTOR EAVESDROPPING. 
 
 in Balliol with patriotic zeal. Besides our own party we had 
 two out-college guests, Mr Ireland the surgeon, and Mr Leslie 
 the Eoman Catholic priest. Mr Ireland was one of the best 
 specimens of the old cut-away coat, lace-ruffle school of prac- 
 titioners, and was our medical adviser when the disorder was 
 a desire to be excused from lecture and College rules. The 
 worthy old priest was an especial favourite with us all, and a 
 constant guest at our St Andrew's festival. He was the repre- 
 sentative of one of the oldest, if not the oldest, family of his 
 name in Scotland. He had resigned his position as eldest son 
 in order to enter the Church, and was as proud of his creed as 
 of his pedigree." * 
 
 We must not omit to add to the reminiscences of this period 
 of life a story which was current at Oxford for many years 
 after Hamilton had left, and which, if not absolutely authentic, 
 may at least be given as characteristic of the way in which the 
 young Scotch undergraduate was likely to rid himself of offi- 
 cious tutorial interference. The story runs that Mr * * * * 
 the tutor, heard one evening indications of a rather noisy 
 party in Hamilton's rooms. With a view to ascertain who 
 were there, he, in a somewhat undignified manner, stole up 
 the staircase, by this time dark, the lamps having been 
 burnt out, and stood listening behind the door. Hamilton 
 was aware that this espionage was the tutor's occasional 
 habit, and he was on the watch. Hearing a gentle shuffling 
 of feet behind his door, he suddenly opened it, and seized the 
 eavesdropper by the collar. It was perfectly dark, and he was 
 not supposed to have recognised the tutor. Keeping him in 
 his strong muscular grasp, he held him over the stair, giving 
 him a shake such as a Newfoundland dog might give to a 
 terrier. The tutor in his terror revealed himself, when Hamil- 
 ton immediately replaced him in safety, expressing his sorrow 
 and astonishment that he should have treated the reverend 
 tutor so roughly, protesting that he never could have conceived 
 
 * Mr Leslie was no doubt the prototype of Mr Keith, the old priest described 
 in ' Reginald Dalton,' as Powell the tutor was. of Daniel Barton. 
 
HIS CHARACTER AT OXFORD. 51 
 
 it possible that Mr * * * * could have placed himself in such 
 a situation, and that he supposed it had been a rascally scout !* 
 Another story has come down from these times, of the truth 
 of which there can, I believe, be no question. It would seem 
 that, while staying in Oxford during the long vacation, the 
 fruit of a famous mulberry-tree, which grew in the College 
 gardens, had attracted the longing eye of the Balliol under- 
 graduate. Bringing into play his favourite mode of gym- 
 nastics leaping with the pole he scaled the wall at a 
 bound, and alighted close to the mulberry-tree no doubt, but 
 Jiorribile dictu also right in front of the Master, who 
 chanced to be sauntering quietly past the spot. The pre- 
 meditated robbery, and the accidental manslaughter which 
 had nearly accompanied it for the undergraduate was no 
 light weight were excused on the ground of the wonderful 
 leap ! 
 
 These reminiscences leave no shade of indistinctness on the 
 features of the Hamilton of the Oxford period. He stands 
 out in entire lifelike reality ; handsome and commanding in 
 form, with overflowing spirits and abounding physical vigour 
 that delighted and excelled in all bodily exercises ; possessed 
 withal by a fervid, unquenchable, intellectual ambition, the 
 hardest student and keenest intellect of his time reading so 
 widely that he could offer, without boasting, to give some ac- 
 count of any book, in the languages which he knew, on any 
 subject that was named to him reading, too, without aid of 
 tutor and usual appliances, leaving all such far behind in his 
 strong self-reliance and love of literary conquest. Admired 
 and reverenced for his talents and attainments; possessing 
 unbounded personal influence, and using it nobly; beloved 
 for his frankness, his friendliness, his tender-heartedness and 
 generosity ; ready to aid the young freshman in the difficulties 
 of his early studies, and seeking carefully to keep him from 
 evil companions ; with but limited means, yet open of hand 
 to men whose circumstances were narrower than his own, and 
 * Reminiscences by the Rev. J. Hamilton Gray. 
 
52 INFLUENCE OF OXFORD ON HAMILTON. V 
 
 concealing his part in the matter ; yielding to no excesses or 
 unworthy solicitations, yet social and ready to relax severer 
 pursuits for the companionship of his chosen friends ; sunny 
 and joyous, we find in him a breadth, force, purity, and eleva- 
 tion of character which have been rarely paralleled. It is not 
 too much to say that, in the figure portrayed in these remin- 
 iscences, we see a very near approach to the ideal of the 
 philosophic character as it is typified in the young Thesetetus. 
 The words of Theodorus are literally applicable to the young 
 
 Oxford graduate Of 1810 : Eu yao '/cdi on uv 8q vrtiffors svsrv^ov, 
 xot,} wavy tfoXXo/g TgTXfjo/'apca, ovd'sva KU wffQofAqv ouru Qav/JLuffrtig gu 
 TO ya,g tv/uaQij oWa, wg aXXw ^aXscroi', Kgaov au &7vat 
 xai Iff} rovroig avdgztbv iraJ bvnvovv, lyu /usy our' av WO/AYIV 
 ours bgu yiyvo/AHovc.* 
 
 The period of Hamilton's residence at Oxford was, no doubt, 
 the time during which his mind became fixed in its character- 
 istic bent towards abstract thinking. His general intellectual 
 character was formed before he quitted the University. In 
 the impressions which he conveyed to his College contem- 
 poraries we recognise the mental peculiarities of the author of 
 the 'Discussions/ The ardent, intellectual ambition, which 
 showed itself in almost boundless reading and research, is also 
 apparent. He had laid the foundations, at least, of his mar- 
 vellous acquaintance with logical science, as represented by 
 Aristotle and the commentators on the Organon. This he 
 himself fully and gratefully acknowledges. Speaking of the 
 comparative efficiency of the Colleges in 1852, he says : " It 
 afforded me great satisfaction to find that Balliol, the oldest 
 College in the University, stands so decidedly pre-eminent in 
 this comparative estimate of the present efficiency of its houses 
 a College in which I spent the happiest of the happy years 
 of youth, which is never recollected but with affection, and 
 from which, as I gratefulty acknowledge, I carried into life 
 a taste for those studies which have constituted the most 
 interesting of my subsequent pursuits." f 
 
 * Thesetetus, p. 144. t Discussions, p. 750 Appendix on Oxford. 
 
ITS HISTORY AND TRADITIONS. 53 
 
 Oxford, while the scene of this early development of his 
 tastes, can hardly, however, be said to have afforded more 
 than the occasion either of the speculative habit, or of the 
 acquisition of the erudition. There was, doubtless, a great 
 deal in the past life of the University to influence a young 
 mind so open as that of Hamilton to historical impressions. 
 Oxford had its muster-roll of great names in philosophy, 
 especially in logic. A University which carried the memory 
 back to a period previous to the rise of scholasticism which 
 had been the theatre of vigorous mediaeval speculation and 
 which numbered among its teachers and writers, Duns Scotus, 
 Crakanthorpe, Bradwardine, and Saunderson could not fail 
 to stimulate, mould, and inspire an ardent youth of specu- 
 lative capacity, whose singular historical inquisitiveness was 
 joined to a great reverence for the past of literary history, 
 for (to use his own favourite quotation) 
 
 " The great of old ; 
 
 The dead yet sceptred sovrans who still rule 
 Our spirits from their urns." 
 
 Whatever influence the past history of the University and 
 its traditions might have over him, there can, however, be 
 no doubt that the actual Oxford of Hamilton's time did very 
 little for him directly. Neither in the selection nor in the 
 mastery of the books which he gave up for the Schools' ex- 
 amination, did he derive any assistance from tutorial or univer- 
 sity teaching. What he achieved in philosophy at Oxford, he 
 accomplished for and from himself. This, indeed, the master of 
 Balliol (Dr Parsons, afterwards Bishop of Peterborough) frankly 
 acknowledged when, in 1811, he spoke of Hamilton to Bishop 
 Gleig : " Among other names (of young men) whom the master 
 mentioned with peculiar respect was that of Hamilton. 'He is 
 one of those/ said he, ' and they are rare, who are best left to 
 themselves. He will turn out a great scholar, and we shall 
 get the credit of making him so, though in point of fact we 
 shall have done nothing for him whatever/ "* The University 
 * MS. Reminiscences by Rev. G. R. Gleig. 
 
54 STATE OF OXFORD PHILOSOPHICAL TEACHING. 
 
 having in a great measure been lost in the Colleges, did not 
 afford any course of systematic instruction in logic, metaphy- 
 sics, or ethics. Beyond to some extent indicating subjects or 
 authors, it -gave the student no further aid. He was left to 
 divine the meaning of the author, and to find out for himself 
 what relation the particular branch he was grappling with bore 
 to the general subject of speculative philosophy. Beyond 
 Aldrich, or the ipsissima verba of Aristotle, tutorial effort as 
 a rule was helpless. 
 
 " The easier parts of Aristotle's system," says Sir William 
 in 1852, having doubtless a vivid remembrance of his own 
 experience, " were indeed still retained ; but these might, 
 in the circumstances, have been as well omitted ; because, 
 read as fragments, and by minds undisciplined to abstraction, 
 they could neither be understood themselves, nor stimulate 
 the intellect to understand aught else. There was no grada- 
 tion from the easy to the difficult, from the new to the old. 
 Philosophy was taught, philosophy was learned more by rote 
 than by reason ; and an abrupt intrusion of the tyro thinker 
 into the Ethics or Politics of the Stagirite might discourage or 
 disgust even a potential Montesquieu. Logic alone was studied 
 in a modern summary. But here too the unphilosophical 
 character of the Oxford philosophical discipline is apparent. 
 That University having formerly adopted, still adheres to the 
 Compendium of Aldrich, not because Aldrich was a learned 
 dialectician, but an academical dignitary."* "Philosophy," he 
 says in another place, " was taught not as food for speculation, 
 but in the dicta of certain authors as peremptory and decisive ; 
 whilst the student's knowledge was gauged, not by his syste- 
 matic comprehension of a work in its totality, parts, and rela- 
 tions, but only by the accuracy (and that is not to be contemned) 
 with which he might have committed to memory the very 
 terms of its definitions, in the very language of its writer." t 
 
 It is obvious that, in these circumstances, nothing but 
 special capacity and taste for the subject could enable a youth 
 
 * Discussions, p. 809. t Discussions, p. 796. 
 
COPLESTON AND WHATELY. 55 
 
 to attain any real acquaintance with not to speak of high 
 proficiency in philosophical studies. That Hamilton passed 
 far beyond the superficial and limited teaching of the period, 
 and reached the vital and catholic questions of speculation, 
 must be ascribed to the native intensity and persistency of his 
 intellectual character. 
 
 Further, in the absence of systematic instruction in philo- 
 sophy, Hamilton experienced no compensating influence in 
 the presence of a living mind of kindred tastes and pursuits, 
 from whom he might have received an impulse in the line of 
 his special studies. There appears even to have been no man 
 then in Oxford who really knew philosophical literature, or 
 possessed a taste for speculative inquiry. There was little 
 but the dreary reiteration of tutorial traditions and common- 
 place glosses "the tutors whistling to their pupils the old 
 tunes which, as pupils, had been piped to them."* It is quite 
 obvious, from the accounts of Hamilton's final examination for 
 his degree, that though he had only reached the age of twenty- 
 two, the examiners were both surprised and puzzled by the 
 extent and nature of his acquirements. It is true that to the 
 first decade of the century, and while Hamilton was at Balliol, 
 we may trace the beginning of a very remarkable impulse to 
 the studies of the University and the general course of fresh 
 thought in Oxford. Edward Copleston, the tutor of Oriel, 
 was already working in what was at first a limited cirqle, but 
 one which gradually widened until chiefly through Whately, 
 who became a Fellow of Oriel in 1811, and passed Master of 
 Arts in 1812, two years before Hamilton the raising of new 
 questions and the stirring of new thoughts was felt by the 
 majority of the rising youth of the University, alike in theo- 
 logy, ecclesiastical organisation, and social economy. The 
 names of J. H. Newman, E. D. Hampden, Senior, Hinds, 
 Pusey, Keble, Arnold, and others, indicate how widely and 
 variously the new spirit worked outwards from the cloisters of 
 Oxford through English thought and life. One department, 
 
 * Discussions, p. 760. 
 
56 NEW EXAMINATION STATUTES. 
 
 moreover, of thought which seemed to have been stereotyped 
 for generations, and which lay much in Hamilton's way, was 
 even then being keenly scrutinised by tutor and pupil ; for 
 Copleston and Whately passed their time of recreation, in 
 their walks in the meadows and woods around Oxford, in dis- 
 cussing the principles of the Aristotelic logic ; the result of 
 which was, some years later (1826), the fresh, sensible, and 
 practical (if in no way profound) treatise on logic of Dr 
 Whately. But Hamilton does not seem to have come in any 
 way under the influence of Copleston, or to have known much 
 of the circle that gathered admiringly round the future Arch- 
 bishop of Dublin, while he talked in the Common Boom of 
 Oriel. It is hardly probable, even had Hamilton been of this 
 circle, that men of the keenly analytic but practical stamp of 
 Copleston and Whately would have given any impulse to his 
 studies ; for with him truth that admitted of immediate prac- 
 tical application did not hold the first place ; and it is clear, 
 from the nature and number of the books he was now reading, 
 that he had already begun to deal with a range of philoso- 
 phical questions which Whately to the last never touched, and 
 which lay entirely beyond the limits of his intellectual vision 
 and sympathies. 
 
 Any influence which the actual Oxford of Hamilton's time 
 exercised upon his intellectual habits, arose probably from 
 the reforms which were introduced into the arrangements 
 of study and examination in the University by the statutes 
 of 1801, 1807, and 1809. The University examinations had 
 previously been a mere form, testing nothing, and affording 
 no stimulus to exertion, because setting iip no comparative 
 standard of excellence. By the new statutes honour-lists were 
 instituted, and the attainments of candidates were fairly tested 
 by public oral examination. The examination in the schools 
 thus came to be looked forward to by the undergraduates as 
 the ordeal by which their attainments were to be tried, and 
 the goal towards which their studies must be directed. The 
 candidates were called upon to select and prepare for exami- 
 
AUTHORS PROFESSED IN THE SCHOOLS. 57 
 
 nation a series of books in different departments of learning. 
 The subjects were besides " the Eudiments of the Christian 
 Eeligion " " Classics, Ehetoric, Logic, Moral Philosophy, the 
 Elements of Mathematics, and Natural Philosophy."* The 
 number, and the difficulty of the contents, of the books were 
 the elements on which the decision of the place in the list 
 turned. A great stimulus was thus given to the studies of 
 the undergraduates, and a wholesome rivalry excited among 
 the colleges. The impulse to study and competition thus 
 arising was not lost on the mind of the young Scottish ex- 
 hibitioner. His natural ardour was greatly quickened, and his 
 intellectual ambition aroused. As the subjects of examination, 
 moreover, included logic and ethics, they led to the study in 
 some degree at least of a portion of the best philosophical 
 authors of antiquity. A direction in the line of philosophical 
 reading was thus given to the studies of an undergraduate ; 
 and where, as in the case of Hamilton, there already existed 
 the taste and capacity for this department of investigation, 
 the youth would not rest satisfied with the small modicum of 
 acquaintance with the subject demanded for the simple pass, 
 but would be encouraged by the prospect of the honours to 
 the enlarged cultivation of it. And so it proved in the pre- 
 sent instance. The books selected by Hamilton were much 
 more than were required, or had ever been given up, even for 
 honours, and they embraced the best philosophical works of 
 antiquity. The list presented by him was, indeed, thought so 
 remarkable by one of the examiners, Mr Gaisford (afterwards 
 Deatf of Christ Church and Professor of Greek), that he took 
 and preserved a copy of it. The following entry in the 
 examiner's handwriting occurs in a list of candidates for the 
 degree, which, though without date, unquestionably refers to 
 Michaelmas term 1810 : 
 
 " Hamilton [The paper given in by this candidate being singular, 
 an accurate copy thereof is made]. 
 
 See Oxford Calendar for 1810. 
 
58 ACCOUNTS OF HIS EXAMINATION 
 
 Divinity. 
 Aristotle's Philosophy of Man. 
 
 Theoretical. 
 De Anima, &c. 
 
 Practical. 
 
 Moral Ethic. Me., Eud. Mag., Cic. Op. Ph. 
 Domestic Oecon. 
 Civil De Eepubl. 
 
 Instrumental. 
 Logic Organon. 
 
 Ehetoric Ars Khet., Cic. Op. Ehet. 
 Poetic De Poetica, Pindar, ^Eschylus." 
 
 This may be regarded as a perfectly authentic list of the sub- 
 jects and books which Mr Hamilton actually professed. It 
 shows the habit of methodical division and arrangement thus 
 early developed ; and it helps us to correct certain exaggerated 
 accounts that have gained currency of the number of the books 
 which he gave up. 
 
 The first-class lists for "Term. Mich. 1810" are as follow: 
 
 "IN LlTERIS HUMANIORIBUS. 
 
 Classis I. 
 
 Cotton, Henry, Ch. Ch. 
 Fletcher, Jacob, Brasenose. 
 Hamilton, W. Stirling, Ball. 
 Heath, Eobert, Brasenose. 
 Oakeley, Sir Herbert, Ch. Ch. 
 Storey, A. M. E., Wadhani. 
 
 IN DISCIPLINIS MATH. ET PHYS. 
 
 Classis I. 
 Storey, A. M. E., Wadham." 
 
 The examiners were E. Dixon, T. Gaisford, Gr. Ebwley, D. 
 Hughes. Two years before, in 1808, the name of " Eobert 
 Peel " appears as a double first ; that of " Eichard "Whately " 
 
BY DR JENKYNS AND MR VILLERS. 59 
 
 as second in both classes. In " Term. Pash. 1810;' " John 
 Keble " appears as a double first. 
 
 Hamilton's coming forward as a candidate for the Moral 
 Philosophy Chair in the University of Edinburgh in 1820 gave 
 occasion for a special record of his appearance at the exami- 
 nation for the degree, and generally of his studies while at 
 Oxford. The following extracts from his testimonials on that 
 occasion throw light on those points. 
 
 Dr Jenkyns, the Master of Balliol, thus writes : " I may 
 indeed truly assert that, during fourteen years as tutor and 
 public lecturer of the College over which I have now the 
 honour to preside, I have seldom met with an individual who 
 so happily as Sir William Hamilton combined a clear and 
 vigorous intellect with an ardent and indefatigable zeal in 
 literary pursuits; and certainly never knew one who more 
 successfully directed his mental powers to profound researches 
 into the systems of modern as well as ancient philosophy. 
 Of this he gave the strongest proof in his public exami- 
 nation for his degree, when he was prepared in a much 
 greater number of abstruse and difficult books than is usually 
 the case, and, by his knowledge of them, obtained the highest 
 distinction the examiners could bestow. In addition, however, 
 to such attainments as seem more peculiarly to qualify him 
 for the very honourable situation to which he now aspires, he 
 was, during his residence in Oxford, universally respected and 
 beloved for the correctness of his conduct, and his open and 
 gentlemanly manners." 
 
 From Mr Villers of Balliol, who was resident at Oxford 
 during the greater part of the time in which Hamilton 
 studied there, and who was present at his examination, we 
 learn that this ordeal was continued for the exceptional 
 period of two days, and occupied in all twelve hours. In 
 fourteen of his books on the abstruser subjects of Greek 
 philosophy he was not questioned, the greater part of these 
 being declared by the masters to be too purely metaphysical 
 for public examination. "In the department of science," 
 
60 NTCOLI/S ACCOUNT. 
 
 says Mr Villers, "his examination stood, and, I believe, still 
 stands, alone ; and it certainly argued no common enthusiasm 
 and ability for philosophical pursuits, that in a university like 
 Oxford, where the ancient philosophers are the peculiar objects 
 of study and admiration, and the surest passports to academical 
 distinction, his examination should not only remain unequalled 
 for the number, but likewise for the difficulty, of the authors. 
 Besides other subjects less immediately connected with a pro- 
 fessorship of morals, it contained every original work of anti- 
 quity, difficult or important, on logic, on the philosophy of the 
 human mind, on ethics, politics, and other branches of prac- 
 tical philosophy, on rhetoric and poetical criticism ; and after 
 a trial of many hours, besides the honours of the University, 
 he received the thanks and the public acknowledgment of the 
 examiners, that he had never been surpassed either in the 
 minute or the comprehensive knowledge of the systems on 
 which he had been examined." 
 
 Testimony to the same effect was borne by the Eev. 
 Alexander Nicoll of Balliol, another of Hamilton's college 
 friends. " His attention," says Mr Nicoll, " which had been 
 previously applied to philosophical speculation in a Scottish 
 university, was enthusiastically and principally directed to 
 the most minute and extensive study of the philosophy of 
 the Greeks and Eomans. . . . He allowed himself to 
 be examined in more than four times the number of philo- 
 sophical and didactic books ever wont to be taken up even 
 for the highest honours ; and those, likewise, authors far more 
 abstruse than had previously been attempted in the schools ; 
 while at the same time he was examined in more than any 
 ordinary complement of merely classical works. Since that 
 time, I can affirm with the fullest confidence, that there has 
 been no examination in this University which can be com- 
 pared with his in respect to philosophy." 
 
 It is curious to compare these impressive, but, I believe, 
 unexaggerated, accounts of Mr Hamilton's appearance on this 
 occasion with his own passing reference at the time to the 
 
HIS OWN REFERENCE TO IT. 61 
 
 same matter. In a letter to his mother, 16th November 
 1810, he says : " This morning I received your pleasing letter, 
 which gave me the happiness to hear that Tom was so well. 
 I was just going to the Schools when I received it, and am 
 not plueked." 
 
 Whether, with all his distinction, Hamilton aspired to a 
 Balliol fellowship or not, cannot be now determined. That 
 he did not hold one is certain. To a notice put up on 
 Balliol, advertising a fellowship, Lockhart appended the sig- 
 nificant intimation, " No Scotchman need apply." Whether 
 the tone of feeling here indicated had anything to do with 
 Hamilton's failure to reach that dignity and its accompanying 
 emolument, I know too little of the spirit of the times to be 
 able to determine. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 EDINBURGH PERIOD AT THE BAR: 1811-1820. 
 
 ABANDONS MEDICINE FOE THE LAW VISITS TO OXFORD ILLNESS AND 
 DEATH OF HIS FRIEND A. SCOTT NOTICE OF SCOTT RESEARCHES 
 INTO HIS OWN CONNECTION WITH THE FAMILY OF PRESTON PASSES 
 ADVOCATE ASSUMES THE BARONETCY OF PRESTON SKETCH OF THE 
 HOUSE OF PRESTON HIS EXPERIENCE AT THE BAR KNOWLEDGE 
 OF LAW AMOUNT OF EMPLOYMENT LITERARY TASTES THE ADVO- 
 CATES* LIBRARY POLITICAL VIEWS STATE OF SCOTCH POLITICS 
 * EDINBURGH REVIEW* HIS RELATIONS TO THE POLITICAL PARTIES 
 OF THE TIMES A BARRIER TO PROFESSIONAL ADVANCEMENT EDIN- 
 BURGHS OCIETY IN 1812 AND SUBSEQUENT YEARS THE OLD AND 
 THE NEW LITERARY IMPULSES SIR WALTER SCOTT FRANCIS JEF- 
 FREY HIS RELATIONS WITH JEFFREY DR THOMAS BROWN SKETCH 
 OF HAMILTON'S APPEARANCE AT THIS TIME BY DE QUINCEY HIS 
 INTERCOURSE WITH STRANGERS INTIMACY WITH LOCKHART 'BLACK- 
 WOOD'S MAGAZINE' HIS BROTHER, CAPTAIN THOMAS HAMILTON 
 FIRST VISIT TO GERMANY, 1817 THE NOTED POODLE HERMANN 
 SECOND VISIT TO GERMANY, 1820 SYSTEMATIC STUDY OF GER- 
 MAN COMMENCED ZEAL FOR THE INTERESTS OF THE ADVOCATES' 
 LIBRARY LETTER ON THE SUBJECT TO THE MEMBERS OF THE 
 
 FACULTY. 
 
 HAVING now completed his course at Oxford, it was ne- 
 cessary that Mr Hamilton should determine finally on his 
 profession in life. He had hitherto, both at Edinburgh and 
 Oxford, pursued the study of medicine with the view 
 of entering that profession. His prospects of success, more- 
 over, in this line were excellent. Dr Baillie, the eminent 
 London physician, who had been a friend of his father's, and 
 on terms of intimacy with many of his other relations, had 
 
CHANGE OF PROFESSION. 63 
 
 promised to start him in the metropolis. He had now, how- 
 ever, to some extent changed his mind on the subject of his 
 profession, and the following letter to his mother shows that 
 his thoughts were turned in the direction of the Scottish Bar. 
 At the time when it was written he was living in London, at 
 Elm Cottage, Brompton, with his friend Alexander Scott ': 
 
 Wednesday, 20th [Dec. 1811]. 
 
 MY DEAR MOTHER, ... I have taken lodgings at Bromp- 
 ton in the same house with Scott. His father is in town at present, 
 and I have had some conversation with him on my views of "being 
 an advocate. "When I first told him of my thoughts of changing 
 my profession, he said he was very glad to hear it, and advised me 
 strongly to go to the Scotch law. I can pass advocate in a year's 
 time from this, and if I say two years it is nothing to the length of 
 time necessary for medicine. He says that for the first few years 
 I may make a hundred or two, and that I am fully too young. I 
 have, however, determined nothing. If I determine on this plan, 1 
 shall come down to Scotland in a month or two, and pass my civil 
 law trials. There is no occasion of 'studying civil law there. I 
 wish you would write me what appears to you. It is evident that 
 I can never expect to make a large fortune by the law, but it is a 
 more sure subsistence, and sooner than physic. I have also great 
 advantages by having been at Oxford ; for when I take my Doctor of 
 Laws degree, I could practise in the English Admiralty, Ecclesiastic, 
 and Chancery Courts, and the same knowledge of civil law stands 
 in both the Scotch Court and there. . . . Write me soon. All 
 our friends are well here. I shall write you very soon again, and 
 remain ever your affectionate son, W. H. 
 
 His time from this date up to March 1812 was spent 
 chiefly with Mr Scott at Brompton. He went occasionally 
 for a short period to Oxford, a certain amount of residence 
 there being necessary to entitle him to retain the Snell exhibi- 
 tion, and to enable him to take the Master of Arts degree, 
 which he did in April 1814. His appearance at Oxford was 
 always most welcome to his old friends, and the occasion 
 of more than usual social hilarity. " The time when he paid 
 his annual visit to Oxford," says one of his friends of that 
 period, "was always a most agreeable one, walking expe- 
 
64 VISITS TO OXFORD. 
 
 ditions to Godstow and the Isis were our great source of 
 enjoyment, the leading purpose being to dine in a village 
 inn, on spitchcooked eels, with the appendages of ham, eggs, 
 potatoes. The usual party were Hamilton, Lockhart, Wil- 
 liams, Traill, myself, and an odd character called Jack Ire- 
 land, a Scotchman who had been an apothecary in Oxford, 
 and had retired from business with a handsome competency. 
 . . . On arriving at Godstow, the first step was always 
 to see the eels taken alive out of the boxes with holes, in 
 which they were kept in the river. After that, till all was 
 ready, we usually had a match at leaping, standing, and run- 
 ning, and at vaulting over gates. Hamilton was the best at 
 almost all these trials. After our repast, we indulged in pipes, 
 with excellent shag tobacco, and capital village ale. Jack 
 Ireland exhibited the exploit of inhaling the tobacco-smoke 
 by the mouth and expelling it by the ear. . . . Another 
 great amusement was bathing-parties, the favourite spot being 
 an angle of the river Charwell. . . . Hamilton and Lock- 
 hart were excellent swimmers." * 
 
 Both at Oxford, and after he settled in Edinburgh, his swim- 
 ming powers were famous. "We used sometimes," says his 
 friend Mr George Moir, speaking of him between 1820 and 
 1830, " in the evening to go down to Granton to bathe in the 
 Firth of Forth, and on the first occasion I was amazed and 
 somewhat alarmed to see him stretching out to sea to the 
 distance of about a quarter of a mile." 
 
 In a letter to his mother in March 1812, he mentions 
 being detained in London by the illness of his friend Mr 
 Scott. Mr Scott's health was at no time robust, and this 
 illness speedily took the form of an attack of consumption, 
 which proved fatal in the autumn of the same year. Scott 
 and Hamilton first knew each other at Balliol. Scott was 
 Hamilton's junior by only one year. Between them there 
 had sprung up an affection as of brothers. During the latter 
 
 * MS. Reminiscences of Eminent Persons, by the late Arthur Connell, Esq. 
 Advocate, Professor of Chemistry, St Andrews. 
 
ILLNESS AND DEATH OF HIS FRIEND SCOTT. 65 
 
 * 
 
 period of Hamilton's course at Oxford, he and his friend were 
 the closest companions, apparently living together whenever 
 they had an opportunity. In general temperament and 
 character the two youths were in many respects unlike. They 
 appear, however, to have found in each other those comple- 
 mentary qualities, which often form the basis of an intense 
 and enduring attachment. It would seem that Scott's gentle 
 and refined nature found rest and support in the stronger and 
 more ardent character of his friend ; while Hamilton's tender- 
 ness for this he had not less than strength and his sym- 
 pathy with a true and pure nature, bound him not less closely 
 to Scott. There can be no doubt that each exercised a power- 
 ful influence on the life of the other. Mr Scott's lingering 
 illness served but to make his character appear in greater 
 force and lustre. The chastened spirit that had lived on earth 
 so loving and beloved, passed away in the possession of a 
 hope and peace which had sprung out of trial, and grown to 
 strength amid bodily sufferings. Hamilton grieved for the 
 loss of his friend with a long and bitter grief. The in- 
 terest with which he dwelt on every incident of his last days, 
 led him to copy with his own hand the greater part of a 
 journal which Mrs Eobertson Scott had kept of her son's 
 illness. Many years afterwards Hamilton named a son, who 
 died in infancy, after his early friend. 
 
 The following letter refers to a matter of much interest to 
 him at this time his connection by birth with the family 
 of Preston. Upon his cousin's death in 1799 he had become 
 the head of the Airdrie family, and thus the traditional claim 
 to the Preston baronetcy now rested with him. Though the 
 family belief in its validity was strong, the claim had been 
 suffered to lie in abeyance for a hundred years; and so, 
 before it could be established, it was necessary to present 
 an array of legal evidence on all the points involved. This 
 it was now difficult to do from lapse of time. The degree 
 of uncertainty, however, and the need for exertion to estab- 
 lish the alleged right, only made it an object of greater inter- 
 is 
 
66 FAMILY HISTORY. 
 
 * 
 
 est to Mr Hamilton. The task, too, was in itself congenial 
 to his tastes, and he was resolved that it should be under- 
 taken and carried through by himself. Of inquiries in this 
 direction we have hints in the correspondence with his mother 
 during his undergraduate life at Oxford. The following tells 
 of further progress made : 
 
 ELM COTTAGE, 7th Jany. 1812. 
 
 MY DEAR MOTHER, I am wearying to hear from you. Why do 
 not you write me oftener ? I shall be in Oxford about a fortnight 
 or three weeks from this, and in a month after I shall be on my way 
 down. I have little if any news to tell you. All our friends are 
 well here, and I am still going on only in the common order of 
 business, without anything of novelty to say. I have lately got 
 a book called * Faithful Contendings,' which will, if anything, 
 prove that Robert Hamilton succeeded his brother in the baron- 
 etcy. It contains the journal of the proceedings of the United 
 Societies of Presbyterians after the defeat at Bothwell. It con- 
 sists of letters written by them to their commissioners in Holland, 
 &c. Robert Hamilton was one, his brother-in-law Earlston the 
 other. The book is written by Shields, who was the secretary of 
 these societies, and who lived after the Revolution for many 
 years.* Herein before the end of the year 1688 he is called only 
 Mr Hamilton, but at the end of that year, in which his brother 
 died, he is always spoken of as Sir Robert. There are a number 
 of original letters of Sir Robert in the volume, and some private 
 anecdotes of his sisters. That he could not have been created 
 a knight is too evident to require proof ; and that a contemporary 
 in intimate habits of acquaintance with him should always call 
 him Sir Robert without his being entitled to it, is absurd to suppose. 
 It therefore remains that he succeeded to his brother. His brother 
 is never mentioned through the whole book, though they must have 
 been in Holland together. I rather think they had quarrelled, for 
 Sir Robert is as bigoted an idiot as could well be, in fact, he is a 
 frantic fanatic, and the style in which his letters are written shows 
 that he would live in no habits of intimacy unless with one no less 
 furious than himself. King Charles thought him an object suffici- 
 
 * Faithful Contendings displayed, collected, and kept in record by Mi- 
 Michael Shields, &c. Collected and transcribed by John Howie. Glasgow, 
 1780. 
 
PRESTON BARONETCY. 67 
 
 ently worthy of his requesting the United Provinces to give him up ; 
 and he seems to have had a good deal of interest in the Provinces, 
 and had introductions to some foreign princes, with whom, however, 
 he quarrelled, on finding them of different opinions from himself. 
 . . . Ever your affectionate son, W. HAMILTON. 
 
 In the following, he announces his final determination re- 
 garding his profession : 
 
 ELM COTTAGE, Monday, [22d January] 1812. 
 
 MY DEAREST MOTHER, * ~>, . I thought I had told you 
 that I have finally fixed on the law. I have been reading in it for 
 some time, and like it very much. If you suppose I am in the 
 Museum for no better purpose than finding out old books on the 
 Covenant, you are much in the wrong. I picked up that book at a 
 divinity shop. I recollected that we had it, but we must have been 
 fools not to have collected more out of it than I can remember to 
 have done 
 
 After his return to Scotland, Mr Hamilton seems to have 
 spent his time chiefly at a small country-house in Lanarkshire, 
 which his mother then occupied. In July 1813 he passed 
 Advocate, and thenceforward Edinburgh was his permanent 
 place of residence. During the winter of 1813-14 we find 
 him, though now a member of the Bar, attending a law class 
 in the University. His leisure at the Bar allowed him ample 
 time to prosecute his researches into the history of his family, 
 and his title to the Preston baronetcy, as appears from the 
 following letter : 
 
 [EDINBURGH,] 37 FREDERICK STREET, Monday [24th Dec. 1813]. 
 
 MY DEAREST MOTHER, I am ashamed that my silence has con- 
 tinued so long. I hope in a few days, perhaps a fortnight hence, to 
 come and see you. Nothing keeps me here but that confounded 
 law class. 
 
 I have been working a good deal in the Register Office. This is 
 a very laborious business, and at the same time very expensive 
 both of money and time. I have accumulated a great mass of 
 curious information about the house of Preston. I have found above 
 a 1 score of deeds establishing the baronetage of Sir William, three 
 
68 THE HAMILTONS OF PRESTON. 
 
 or four of them public deeds, that is, charters under the great seal, 
 the oldest in the year 1675; but I have not looked for older, and he 
 may be a year or two before this. I have been also able to prove 
 that Eobert, his brother, succeeds him, otherwise it would have been 
 to little purpose to know that he was a baronet, without knowing 
 that the designation was to heirs-male in general. As to the con- 
 nection of the Airdrie and Preston families, I think I shall in 
 a few days, from the books of Session, which are astonishingly 
 voluminous, make that out by deeds which now only rests on tradi- 
 tion and family histories. There are of these generally two or three 
 volumes to the year ; so that, in making searches for thirty years 
 about the 1520, I have to look, perhaps, through forty or fifty vol- 
 umes of an old, close, difficult hand. I have, however, picked out 
 of the few I have read over some curious anecdotes, and cleared 
 up several descents and marriages. 
 
 Have you heard of Tom's leaving Cadiz yet ? There is little to 
 be done by a young lawyer. I have not had the apparition of one 
 fee yet. . . . Your affectionate son, 
 
 "W. HAMILTON. 
 
 These researches occupied a considerable portion of his time 
 during the following three years. In prosecuting them he was 
 fortunate in being aided by the late Mr John Kiddell, the 
 eminent antiquarian lawyer, his lifelong intimacy with whom 
 dates from this period. Mr Hamilton's first cousin, Mr Wil- 
 liam Stirling, and his more distant relative, Sir James Home, 
 Bart., were engaged, at the same time, in making inquiries 
 into the history of their respective families. Besides the zest 
 of an antiquarian hunt, they had the pleasures of co-operation 
 and mutual aid. The routine of Eegister House research was 
 agreeably varied by raids to places in the country where they 
 expected to light on an old charter or record ; still more 
 frequently by supper-parties, at which they met and discussed 
 the plan of their campaign. " John Lockhart," says Mr Kid- 
 dell, speaking of this coterie of friends, "was also of the 
 party, and being anxious in all points of family history, and 
 possessed of much ready wit, he was hailed as a welcome 
 addition to their social circle." 
 
THE HAMILTONS OF PRESTON. 69 
 
 After much careful research, Mr Hamilton, in 1816, was 
 able to present such a case to a jury before the Sheriff of 
 Edinburgh, that he was by them adjudged heir-male in general 
 to Sir Eobert Hamilton of Preston, the head of that house, 
 who died in 1701 ; and declared thenceforward entitled to 
 bear the name and style of Baronet of Preston and Fingalton. 
 In thus vindicating his right to assume the rank which his 
 ancestors had held, although it was now separated from the 
 estates of the family, Sir William was probably not indif- 
 ferent to the social position which, especially in Scotland, it 
 warranted the holder as possessing. Besides this motive, 
 there was doubtless another impulse much more characteristic 
 of the moral nature of the man a very strong family and 
 national feeling, which led him to link himself, by a species 
 of formal service, to the past history of his country, and 
 to the noble associations more immediately connected with 
 his own kindred just as in his intellectual life we find 
 him fascinated by the past, and turning for inspiration to 
 the great thinkers of bygone times. 
 
 And certainly the house of Preston was one of inspiring 
 memories ; and on the nature of William Hamilton this in- 
 fluence was not likely to be lost. Let us glance for a moment 
 at the history of the family, with every point of which he was 
 thoroughly familiar. The Hamiltons of Preston, Fingalton, and 
 Eoss or Eossavon, carry us back through the whole course of 
 Scottish history, and are illustrious in descent, in politics, and 
 in arms. The first of the name in Scotland appears, accord- 
 ing to the popular account, to have been a Sir Gilbert de 
 Hamilton in the thirteenth century, the elder of whose sons, 
 Sir Walter, was the founder of the ducal family of Cadzow, 
 while the younger, Sir John, was the immediate ancestor 
 of the Hamiltons of Eossavon, Fingalton, and Preston. The 
 house of Preston is thus the eldest of the junior branches of 
 that of Hamilton. Originally possessed of the lands of the 
 Eoss or Eossavon, the family had its earliest seat in an old 
 peel-tower perched on the wooded promontory encircled by the 
 
70 THE HAMILTONS OF PRESTON. 
 
 Avon, where, after a long descent from the upland moors of 
 Drumclog, it pours its tribute into the Clyde. To these 
 lands was soon added the barony of Fingalton in Renfrew- 
 shire, and, at a later period, that of Preston in East Lothian. 
 A family of such territorial importance readily formed alli- 
 .ances with the principal houses in the country ; and we find, 
 accordingly, that it was connected by marriage with the 
 families of Wyntoun, Somerville, Annandale, Carnwath, Lam- 
 ington, and Ormiston. 
 
 Looking back on the more eminent members of the family, 
 we find its head in the time of Eobert Bruce notable for 
 deeds of arms. Again, in the sixteenth century, Sir David, 
 the ninth representative of the family, was greatly distin- 
 guished for his courage, wisdom, piety, and moderation. He 
 was an early and steady adherent of the doctrines of the 
 Reformers, and a prominent member of the Parliament by 
 which the Eeformation was established (1560). On the 
 other hand, he stood by the cause of the queen in her ex- 
 tremity, and suffered attainder for his share in the battle 
 of Langside. The attachment to civil and religious liberty 
 which was manifested by Sir David,- blended, as far as cir- 
 cumstances would permit, with devotion to the throne, 
 remained a marked feature of succeeding representatives of 
 the family. In this cause they spent blood and treasure 
 for many generations, until, indeed, the family estates were 
 exhausted. 
 
 The life of George, the tenth of Preston, forms a quiet 
 episode in the hurrying activity of the family history. At 
 first an active partisan of the queen's faction, he subsequently 
 withdrew from the bustle of military service, and set himself 
 to promote the interests of religion and learning in his town 
 of Preston. In this work he was greatly aided by Mr Alex- 
 ander Davidson, a theologian of great note in his time. 
 Davidson became the first minister, and Alexander Hume, 
 " the most celebrated grammarian of his age and country," 
 the first schoolmaster of Preston on the new foundation. In 
 
SIR ROBERT HAMILTON. 71 
 
 a poem of David Hume of Godscroft inscribed to George 
 Hamilton occur the following lines : 
 
 " Patre pio proles, patrisque pii pater idem ; 
 
 Fota patri, prolem fovit et ipse pater. 
 Ille dedit ludoque locum temploque perennem, 
 (Hospitium Musis, hospitiumque Deo)." 
 
 In the person of his son Sir John, the head of the house of 
 Preston is once more found taking an active and memorable 
 part in national politics. With unflinching firmness, and at 
 great personal risk, he withstood the aggressions of the Crown 
 on civil and religious liberty in the reigns both of James and 
 Charles. As a Lord of the Articles, he resisted single-handed 
 the preliminary approbation of the Five Articles of Perth, 
 and spurned the intimidations of the Court, by which it was 
 attempted to obviate his opposition to their final ratification 
 in Parliament (1621). During the troubles that arose when 
 Charles sought arbitrarily to impose a form of religious wor- 
 ship on the country, Sir John stood by the popular cause, and 
 lent it important aid. He died in 1644. 
 
 The wonderful hereditary energy of the family was not yet 
 exhausted. There are still three names of note among its 
 heads. Sir Thomas, the twelfth of Preston, maintained the 
 political and religious principles of his house, and was at the 
 same time a lt constitutional cavalier." A very distinguished 
 soldier, he commanded a body of horse at the battle of Dun- 
 bar ; after which his estates were ravaged and the Castle of 
 Preston was burnt. Abandoning the extreme party among 
 the Covenanters, he afterwards accompanied his kinsman 
 William Duke of Hamilton in his expedition into England, 
 and led with great gallantry that nobleman's troop of horse at 
 the disastrous battle of Worcester. 
 
 Sir William, his son, was created a Baronet of Nova Scotia 
 in 1673. After suffering exile in Holland for his political 
 opinions, he returned to England in the expedition of the 
 Prince of Orange, but died suddenly at Exeter on the march 
 to London. 
 
72 ASSUMES THE BAROXETCY. 
 
 The last and most popularly known of the family was Sir 
 Robert, the brother of the preceding, who was born in 1650. 
 Thoroughly imbued with the deep religious fervour of the 
 time, and possessing the impulsive character of the popular 
 leader, Sir Eobert became the head of the Scottish Presby- 
 terians, when, goaded to desperation by misrule and oppres- 
 sion, they rose in arms against the Government. At the head 
 of their forces he gained the battle of Drumclog, and suffered 
 defeat at Bothwell Bridge. He then fled to Holland, to 
 escape the consequences of his part in the rising. Identified 
 in opinion with a very narrow orthodoxy that was intolerant 
 of all beyond its pale, brave without prudence or much 
 capacity, inflexible in his convictions, and uncompromising 
 in action, Sir Robert was the idol of the extreme party 
 among the Covenanters. He returned to Scotland after the 
 Revolution of 1688, but, disapproving of the freedom of the 
 latitudinarian principles on which it was conducted, refused 
 to acknowledge the king, as being "an uncovenanted sove- 
 reign of these covenanted nations." Even after the Revolu- 
 tion, his extreme political views brought him into trouble. 
 He was, however, finally left to an unmolested protest 
 against the universal declension of the times, and died in 
 1701. 
 
 With the death of Sir Robert, who was unmarried, closed 
 the main line of the house of Preston, and the family fell 
 to be represented by Robert Hamilton of Airdrie, fifth in the 
 male line from John, second son of Sir Robert Hamilton, the 
 seventh of Preston, who died before the year 1522. Robert 
 Hamilton of Airdrie, as has been mentioned, did not assume 
 the baronetcy, and his claim to the inheritance of what re- 
 mained of the Preston estates had been cut off by settlements 
 made by Sir William, the first baronet, on his daughters, in 
 preference to the remoter heirs-male. It was as representing 
 the laird of Airdrie that Sir William Hamilton claimed and 
 obtained the family honours of Preston, being the twenty- 
 fourth head of that house, and the twelfth male representa- 
 
EXPERIENCE AT THE BAR. 73 
 
 tive of the family of Airdrie.* The old tower of Preston, with 
 a small piece of ground surrounding it, was acquired by pur- 
 chase by Sir William in 1819. 
 
 Sprung from such a stock, and the heir of so many notable 
 names, it is no mere prompting of fancy which leads us to 
 recognise in the late distinguished representative of the house 
 of Preston a certain summing up of many of the greatest qual- 
 ities of his ancestors. The courageous high-souled men who 
 manifested a lifelong resistance to courtly aggression, who 
 risked their lives and stood unblenched in most of the great 
 battle-fields of Scottish history, found a worthy successor in 
 the ardent speculator of the nineteenth century who, though 
 spending his strength in a sphere of activity unlike theirs, had 
 yet as manly a soul as any of them, a spirit as independent, 
 courage, energy, and devotion to high and ennobling pursuits 
 as great, and who, it may be added, in his unsparing polemical 
 dialectic, dealt as heavy a home-thrust as any Cavalier or revo- 
 lutionary Whig, and showed as keen a blade as the sword that 
 gleamed at Langside, Worcester, or Drumclog. 
 
 And yet with all these claims to " long descent/' may not 
 we say of the representative of the Prestons what Heinsius 
 said of Joseph Scaliger, after noticing his traditional connec- 
 tion with the Princes of Verona : 
 
 " Plus tamen invenies quicquid sibi contulit ipse, 
 Et minimum tantae nobilitatis eget ? " 
 
 After passing at the Bar, Sir William naturally had his 
 permanent residence in Edinburgh. In 1815 Mrs Hamilton 
 removed to Edinburgh, where, during the rest of her life, she 
 had her home along with her elder son. They occupied houses 
 successively in Hill Street, Howe Street, and finally in Great 
 King Street. Soon after Mrs Hamilton had settled in Edin- 
 burgh, a young niece, Miss Janet Marshall, came to live with 
 her, and during the next ten years generally formed one of 
 
 * The authority chiefly relied on in the foregoing notice of the Preston 
 family is Anderson's ' Memoirs of the House of Hamilton.' The account of the 
 Preston family appears to have been revised by Sir W. Hamilton. 
 
74 REPUTE AS A LAWYER. 
 
 the little family circle. Miss Marshall afterwards became, 
 as we shall see, the wife of Sir William. His life under his 
 mother's roof was one of simple and even tenor of quiet 
 domesticity divided between his books, his profession, and 
 a certain amount of social intercourse with his friends and 
 the more eminent literary men of the period. 
 
 After passing as Advocate, his experience of the profession 
 proved no exception to the usual unfeed career, the dull wait- 
 ing for something to do, of the young Advocate. Writing to 
 his mother (20th November 1813), he says : " I have had my 
 time sadly consumed in pacing these vile Parliament House 
 boards nothing to do which I am not sorry at in the present 
 state of my legal acquirements." 
 
 Sir W. Hamilton's career at the Bar was not a brilliant 
 success, nor was it an absolute failure. His general legal 
 acquirements were far from being inconsiderable ; even a very 
 ordinary amount of application of such powers of mind as he 
 possessed to law was certain to give him a fair hold of it. As 
 might have been expected, however, he was attracted by the 
 more recondite and less trodden departments of the profes- 
 sion rather than by the more immediately useful and profitable. 
 He acquired a very thorough acquaintance with civil law. 
 His opinion in antiquarian and genealogical cases was highly 
 thought of, and he was well versed in the subject of teinds. 
 His unwearying habit of research, power of luminous arrange- 
 ment, and acuteness, stood him in good stead in the drawing 
 up of legal papers. Certain papers of his on fishery cases were 
 regarded as exceedingly remarkable. Altogether, his capaci- 
 ties as a lawyer were of good repute. On the other hand, he 
 was not, and constitutionally could not be, a ready and fluent 
 speaker. This operated against him in some measure, though, 
 from the extent to which written pleadings were then in use, 
 not so decidedly as it would now. Further, his fastidious 
 temperament was never satisfied without elaborate study and 
 preparation, whatever might be the subject in which he 
 was engaged. This element in his character was connected 
 
REPUTE AS A LAWYER. 75 
 
 with in fact, partly the cause of a want of regularity 
 and punctuality in the performance of his work, which was 
 really one of the main drawbacks to his success at the Bar. 
 There is no doubt, moreover, that his interest in legal studies 
 was subordinate to his zeal for learning. The study of the 
 technicalities and minutiae necessary to direct and successful 
 practice was distasteful to him. " His mother," says a friend, 
 himself a member of the Scottish Bar,* "has frequently 
 told me, that he could not bring himself to attend to the 
 paltry trifles which must occupy the attention of every 
 young lawyer who tries to get into practice." Law was, in 
 fact, but a secondary pursuit with him. His ardent intellect, 
 insatiable intellectual curiosity, and cultivated tastes carried 
 him far beyond the limits of a professional study. His real 
 interest lay among the problems of abstract thought and in the 
 wide domain of liberal literature. With his well-known intel- 
 lectual pursuits and his scholarly repute, he was not likely to 
 attract the attention and favour of the agents, who have in a 
 measure the making of the young Advocate ; and though his 
 practical sagacity was really not injured by his speculative 
 tendencies, he had certainly little or none of those worldly 
 aptitudes and practical habits which go a great way to 
 secure success at the Bar. The result was, that his legal 
 employment, though considerable, was not extensive ; and 
 his name came to be associated rather more with researches 
 in the Advocates' Library than with practice in the Courts. 
 The library contained a collection of books, in nearly all de- 
 partments of literature, which was not surpassed, if equalled, 
 by any other in Scotland. At this period, moreover, many 
 of its choice treasures lay entombed in dark and hidden 
 places that had been undisturbed for generations. These, in 
 particular, were the nooks of Hamilton's daily resort and 
 peculiar interest. The wearisome pacing to and fro of the 
 great hall of the Parliament House was abandoned, and with 
 it the best chance of a brief, for those underground recesses 
 
 * Rev. J. Hamilton Gray. 
 
76 STATE OF SCOTCH POLITICS. 
 
 of forgotten lore, with their dust-covered schoolmen, musty 
 German theses, and rare editions of classical and historical 
 authors, which were sought out with the avidity of the book- 
 hunter, and conned with the ardour and intelligence of the 
 student. 
 
 His political views, again, and his relations to the political 
 parties of the time, excluded him from any share of those legal 
 appointments which are open to the Advocate, and are legiti- 
 mate objects of his ambition. Though practically an unob- 
 trusive politician, his views were not those of the party in 
 power during his more direct connection with the Bar. Sir 
 .W. Hamilton was a Whig, and that during the period of the 
 Melville and Tory ascendancy in Scotland. How much was 
 implied in this ascendancy, politically and socially, it is very 
 difficult for the present generation to realise. Such was the 
 state of things, that Dugald Stewart confessed to despair for his 
 country. The whole of the first thirty years of the century, 
 particularly the period dating from the cessation of the Con- 
 tinental war, was a time of special conflict between the old and 
 the new political tendencies of conservation and of change. 
 The dread shadow of the French Eevolution lay heavily on the 
 minds of those in power, and party interest and existence were 
 identified by them with the maintenance of the constitution. 
 Every change was therefore deemed revolutionary, and every 
 novelty dreaded as a fatal innovation. .The political spirit 
 which in other times had issued in civil war, found outlet and 
 relief in bitter personalities, social hatred, and exclusion. 
 
 " Corruption and arrogance," says a writer whose political 
 leanings may probably have added a little intensity to the 
 description, " were the characteristics of the party in power 
 in power in a sense of which in these days we know nothing ; 
 a cowering fear covered all the rest. The people of Scotland 
 were absolutely without voice either in vote or speech. Par- 
 liamentary elections, municipal government, the management 
 of public bodies, everything was in the hands of a few 
 hundreds of persons. In Edinburgh, for instance and the 
 
HIS RELATIONS TO THE WHIG PARTY. 77 
 
 capital was even too favourable an instance the member of 
 Parliament was elected and the government of the city carried 
 on by thirty-two persons, and almost all these thirty -two took 
 their directions from the Government of the day or its pro- 
 consul. . . . Efforts at reform and liberation were sup- 
 pressed either by an abuse of the law, as in the cases of Muir, 
 Gerrald, and others, or more generally and effectively by a 
 rigorous social prosecution ; the man who questioned whether 
 all things were for the best was socially, professionally, and 
 commercially discredited. The Whig landed gentry, a small 
 but powerful body, and a brilliant band of Whig lawyers, 
 almost alone maintained a good testimony." Through the 
 efforts chiefly of this band of young lawyers conspicuous 
 among whom were Brougham, Jeffrey, Cranstoun, Thomas 
 Thomson, Murray, Cockburn, and others the cause of liberal- 
 ism in politics gradually progressed. In the period between 
 the establishment of the 'Edinburgh Keview' in 1802 and 
 the resignation of the editorship by Lord Jeffrey in 1829, 
 religious toleration had been advanced in the removal of 
 disabilities alike from Protestant Dissenters and from Eoman 
 Catholics ; the severity of the penal code had been miti- 
 gated ; and the way had been prepared for the extension 
 of the franchise in 1832. But these triumphs were gained 
 very gradually, and amid the bitterest political strife a state 
 of feeling which existed, if possible, in greater intensity in 
 the metropolis of Scotland, where office-holders and their 
 opponents met face to face, than in any other part of the 
 kingdom.* 
 
 Sir William was to some extent associated with this band 
 of lawyers, and so identified with the political party of which 
 several of his forefathers had been zealous members, and which 
 had received the adherence of most, if not all, of his predeces- 
 sors in the path of Scottish speculation especially Hutcheson, 
 Smith, Ferguson, Eeid, and Stewart; for one practical fruit 
 
 * See Cockburn's Memorials, chaps, iv. v. ; Life of Lord Jeffrey, voL i. 
 p. 248, 297. 
 
7.8 HIS RELATIONS TO THE WHIG PARTY. 
 
 of abstract thought in Scotland has been a liberal theory of 
 politics, and the gradual diffusion among the educated classes 
 of liberal principles, both political and economical. Thus, by 
 family history, philosophical antecedents, and personal predilec- 
 tion, Sir William was a man of progress in politics. This was 
 enough to put an arrest on any professional appointment ; and 
 it proved strong enough also to bar his election to a Univer- 
 sity Chair. For at this period, and for long afterwards, the 
 most moderate capacity, or even absolute incompetency, if 
 only joined with political orthodoxy, had nothing to fear from 
 the most eminent abilities and the most transcendent attain- 
 ments, if these were weighed down by political disfavour. 
 
 On the other hand, Sir William had just as little to look 
 for in the way of official promotion, and to the end received as 
 little, from the Whig party to which he belonged, and to which 
 he carried a certain amount of historical prestige and personal 
 influence. His political opinions were, at least before 1 820, 
 fully developed, and strongly, even sternly, made up. He 
 took, however, no active or conspicuously public share in 
 the proceedings of his party. He was not, in the received 
 sense of the term, a useful man to his side in politics. Public 
 meetings and public appearances generally were the objects of 
 his extreme dislike.* The bustle of ordinary political life, its 
 small details and temporary interests above all, the artifices 
 of party jarred on his life of abstract thought, and were alien 
 to the wide and lofty interests which absorbed him. In his 
 soul he abhorred all jobbery; he was quite too erect, in- 
 flexible, and scrupulous to stoop to the kind of tactics com- 
 monly enough employed for the ends of a political party ; he 
 
 * On one critical occasion, indeed, he seems to have accompanied Cranstoun 
 to a Lanark county meeting (January 13, 1821), where a successful opposition 
 was made to a motion intended to support the Ministry of the day, who had 
 been active in the prosecution of the Queen. The report of the proceedings 
 communicated to the ' Scotsman ' was by Hamilton. This meeting took place 
 the day after the Fox dinner of that year, and a few weeks after the famous 
 Pantheon Meeting in Edinburgh (16th December 1820), at which a petition had 
 been adopted praying the King to dismiss his Ministers, and which is referred 
 to as the first great purely political meeting of the century. 
 
THE 
 
 EDINBURGH LITERARY SOCIETY. 
 
 would have scorned to give service as a partisan that he might 
 obtain the reward of place. What many men would have 
 looked upon as politically fair, he would have indignantly de- 
 nounced as dishonourable. In the circumstances of the Whig 
 party at this period, fighting as they were for important in- 
 terests and against a powerful opposition, Sir William was thus 
 not of any considerable public service to them. They did not, 
 in fact, find it remunerative enough to patronise him. Posi- 
 tions, the duties of which he could have competently, even 
 ably discharged, were, when his party came into power, given 
 to others. And so he was left, in his unpatronised dignity and 
 integrity, to his books and his speculations for five-and-twenty 
 years, until his attainments raised him, in the face of consider- 
 able opposition, to the Professorship of Logic in the University, 
 and to the enjoyment of the very moderate competency which 
 that office brought him. 
 
 Amid all the political strife and bitterness which prevailed 
 in Edinburgh at this time, and for several years to come, we 
 must not suppose that the city was not, after all, a genial and 
 pleasant place of abode for a man of letters. The first twenty 
 years of this century were the transition period, particularly 
 in the metropolis, between what Lord Cockburn calls " the last 
 purely Scotch age that Scotland was destined to see," and that 
 in which we now live, when the new forces, then only begin- 
 ning to operate, have developed so many changes in habits, 
 institutions, and manners. " Enough of the generation that 
 was retiring survived to cast an antiquarian air over the city, 
 and the generation that was advancing was still a Scotch pro- 
 duction." * " In 1811 our Edinburgh society still continued 
 unchanged in its general character. Napoleon's Continental 
 padlock still sent us good English youths and families ; society 
 and literature adorned each other ; the war sparkled us with 
 military gaiety and parade ; London had not absorbed the 
 whole of our aristocracy, either of wealth or of rank ; and not- 
 withstanding several important emigrations, we still retained 
 
 * Coekbnrn's Life of Jeffrey, i. 160. 
 
80 EDINBURGH LITERARY SOCIETY. 
 
 far more native talent and reputation than could be found in 
 any other town in the empire except London." * 
 
 All was not as yet squared down to the dead level of modern 
 formality ; the raciness, the homeliness, and the flavour of in- 
 dividual character that had grown up in many an old Scottish 
 home in far-away glens, were readily to be met with in the 
 circles of Edinburgh. The native Scottish speech was not 
 extinct, and might be heard from the lips of graceful and re- 
 fined gentlewomen of the highest rank. Several representa- 
 tives of the best Scottish families lived at least in winter in 
 the city, and gave a tone to the social life of the place. We 
 were less distant by half a century than now from departed 
 state, and courtly manners, and royal residence. Certain fad- 
 ing gleams of " the old Scottish glory " still lingered on the 
 metropolis. 
 
 With all this there mingled a strong regard for the names 
 and persons of the many distinguished men in the University, 
 at the Bar, and on the Bench, who had from the early part 
 of the previous century so markedly advanced philosophy, 
 science, and literature. During that century in Scotland 
 and nowhere more than in Edinburgh there had sprung up 
 a wonderful growth of reflective thought and historical lite- 
 rature, which, while thoroughly Scotch in character, was yet 
 catholic in the range of its questions. Hume had gone to 
 the core of all the deep and vital questions of speculative 
 philosophy, morals, and theology. Blair and Kames had in- 
 vestigated with success the first principles of taste and literary 
 criticism. Adam Ferguson and Dugald Stewart had elo- 
 quently discussed the ground principles of ethical and political 
 science. Hume, Eobertson, and Henry were distinguished as 
 historians. The stores of native manners and scenery had 
 been newly, though only partially, unfolded by Mrs Elizabeth 
 Hamilton and Mrs Grant of Laggan. These, and others be- 
 longing to the Bar and the Church, with literary tastes and 
 accomplishments, had mixed freely in the society of the city, 
 
 * Memorials, p. 264. 
 
SIR WALTER SCOTT. 81 
 
 and through them the true refinement of letters and culture 
 had served to subdue the somewhat natural roughness of our 
 national manners. There still survived in Edinburgh in 1812, 
 as representatives and upholders of the old traditions and 
 culture, Henry Mackenzie, Sir James Hall, Dugald Stewart, 
 Dr James Gregory, the second Monro, John Playfair, Lord 
 Woodhouselee, Lord Glenlee, and others. At the same time, 
 new impulses in literature and philosophy were represented 
 by Scott, Jeffrey, and Dr Thomas Brown. 
 
 Already, in 1812, the greatest literary name in Edinburgh, 
 or indeed in Britain, was undoubtedly that of Walter Scott. 
 He was as yet only famous for his poetry ; but he had struck 
 out a new line, and this was so fresh and pictorial came home 
 so thoroughly to his country's heart and imagination as to be 
 the most popular and powerful literary influence of the time. 
 The poetry was the first-fruits in his own fertile mind of the 
 * Minstrelsy' which he had collected and published in 1802. 
 But the weird and romantic spirit which, born partly of old 
 story and partly of the solitude and pathos of the moor- 
 land, communed with him in the Border Land, was destined 
 once more to bear fruit in the imagination of this the last 
 and greatest of the minstrels, and the later growth was even 
 fuller and richer than the early one ; for before ' Waverley ' 
 (1814) and its successors that came so copiously for seventeen 
 years even the poetry paled, just as the first spring growths 
 of the braeside and the wimpling burn, however fresh, fair, 
 and fragrant, are not once to be compared with the heather 
 bloom on the Border hills as they flush full in the purple 
 beauty of mid-autumn. Scott, as he now mixed in Edin- 
 burgh society, divided the opinion of his admirers, as Lord 
 Cockburn tells us, as to the greater excellence of his poetry 
 or of his rich and racy talk. In the subjects of his poetry and 
 prose there was a region so high above ordinary practical in- 
 terests, that there at least all his countrymen could meet in 
 harmonious delight, all wretched political differences having 
 shrunk out of sight. 
 
 F 
 
82 FRANCIS JEFFREY. 
 
 Though they often met in society, Sir William's personal 
 intercourse with Sir Walter Scott never was more than that 
 of ordinary acquaintance. The fact that Scott used his politi- 
 cal influence against Hamilton at the time of the candida- 
 ture for the Moral Philosophy Chair is not surprising, if we 
 consider the spirit which characterised the times, and the 
 strength of Scott's party feelings. At a somewhat later period, 
 Sir William's brother, Captain Hamilton, became intimate 
 with Sir Walter and his family. 
 
 Francis Jeffrey was the other great literary influence of the 
 time. The ' Edinburgh Eeview/ commenced in 1802, was now 
 in 1812 well established approaching, indeed, to the meridian 
 of its fame. The brilliant literary criticism of Jeffrey, which 
 was poured out with fertility so remarkable, and which lost 
 none of its sparkle, grace, and fire during the seventeen suc- 
 ceeding years, gave the tone in great measure to the taste of 
 the time. That remarkable outburst of popular literature 
 especially poetry which characterised the first quarter of this 
 century, had begun ; and Campbell, Crabbe, Southey, Scott, 
 Byron, Moore, Coleridge, and Wordsworth, were all in due 
 course brought to the bar of his critical judgment. Notwith- 
 standing the great value of his example of independence as a 
 literary critic, and much that is elevating and instructive in 
 his criticisms themselves, we can hardly accept his somewhat 
 formal and conventional canons as either the highest or the ulti- 
 mate laws of taste. The importance of his judgment is much 
 more negative than positive ; he repressed licence, but there 
 was high and true excellence which he could not see or feel. 
 Any theory, poetical or sesthetical, that may be deduced 
 from his essay on " Beauty" (1816), with its meagre doctrine 
 of association or from other writings of the same school 
 (as those of Brown or Alison) will certainly not yield us 
 principles of literary criticism in which we can rest with 
 satisfaction. And it may be added, that canons of poetical 
 art which could not find room for a full appreciation of the 
 divine utterance of Wordsworth, may be quietly laid aside 
 
DR THOMAS BROWN. 83 
 
 as local and temporary " of the earth, earthy." In Hamil- 
 ton's lectures on the Feelings,* there are some hints not 
 much developed certainly, but still most fruitful regarding 
 the laws of imaginative action, which, if fully followed out, 
 and conjoined with Coleridge's most suggestive fragments, 
 would yield a more thorough theory of the beautiful than 
 any other course of sesthetical speculation yet pursued in 
 British literature. 
 
 Hamilton, though concurring generally in the political prin- 
 ciples of the ' Review,' and holding by those principles with 
 thorough consistency, does not appear, somewhat singularly, 
 to have been asked to write for it during Jeffrey's editorship ; 
 at least he made no contribution during that period.-f The 
 two men had indeed little in common save their political 
 creed, and though latterly well acquainted, do not for some 
 time seem to have known much of each other personally. 
 " Lord Jeffrey," says Mr George Moir, " while admitting Sir 
 William's vast erudition, seemed to know little or nothing 
 of him besides ; and used to call him an unpractical person 
 meaning, in other words, that he kept extremely aloof 
 from party demonstrations of any kind. On the other hand, 
 Sir William, though he admired Lord Jeffrey's abilities as 
 an Advocate, and the grace and polish of his style, had no 
 high reverence for his criticisms. Bred himself in a more 
 catholic school, he thought them frequently narrow and one- 
 sided. I do not know whether he had any great admiration 
 of Wordsworth, but he exceedingly disliked the flippancy and 
 unfairness with which he had been treated in the ' Edinburgh 
 Review.' " 
 
 The third great power in Edinburgh, and in Scotland, at this 
 period, was Dr Thomas Brown, who had recently succeeded 
 Stewart, and who, in the Moral Philosophy Chair, was lectur- 
 
 * Lectures, vol. ii., Lect. XLI. et seq. 
 
 t The name of Sir William Hamilton is incorrectly given "by Lord Cockburn 
 in the list of contributors to the Review ' during the period of Jeffrey's editor- 
 ship. Life of Jeffrey, vol. i. p. 300. 
 
84 DE QUINCEY'S SKETCH. 
 
 ing with much brilliancy and acceptance. I am not aware 
 whether Brown and Hamilton were personally acquainted. 
 Every one knows that Hamilton's thinking was in no way 
 formed by that of Brown or his school ; that, on the contrary, 
 it assumed the form of a direct antagonism to Brown's conclu- 
 sions on such of the fundamental points of speculative phi- 
 losophy as the latter discussed. We have the example in 
 Hamilton, during the period from 1812 to 1820, of a youthful 
 thinker living in a circle in which certain philosophical dogmas 
 were generally received for Brown's short and easy method 
 of dealing with the great problems of metaphysics speedily 
 became popular and accepted in Edinburgh and yet in no 
 degree sympathising with the current of opinion, but silently 
 following a course of study, the result of which was that, at a 
 day not very far distant, he was able wholly to turn the tide 
 of popular conviction regarding speculative subjects. 
 
 It was amid political, social, and literary influences of the 
 kind we have described that Hamilton lived and thought 
 taking on, however, very little from them not intermeddling 
 much with them contributing nothing to the busy periodical 
 literature around him very much in contrast with a good 
 deal of the talk that was going on reading and thinking 
 alone on questions which, though apparently far removed from 
 concrete interests, are in reality the most human of all. 
 
 The new generation of the cultivators of literature and phi- 
 losophy which began to be known in Edinburgh during the 
 second decade of the century principally consisting of the 
 friends Lockhart, Hamilton, Wilson, and De Quincey were 
 no unworthy successors and contemporaries of the three names 
 above mentioned. The torch of letters did not pass from the 
 notables of the previous time into ignoble hands. 
 
 It was shortly after passing as Advocate that Sir W. Hamil- 
 ton and Mr De Quincey became acquainted. The latter has 
 given us a very graphic and characteristic sketch of Hamilton 
 as he appeared at this time among his Edinburgh contem- 
 poraries : " In the year 1814 it was," says De Quincey, " that 
 
DE QUINCEY'S SKETCH. 85 
 
 I became acquainted with Sir William Hamilton, the present 
 Professor of Logic in the University of Edinburgh. I was then 
 in Edinburgh for the first time, on a visit to Mrs Wilson, the 
 mother of Professor Wilson. Him who, at that time, neither 
 was a professor, nor dreamed of becoming one (his intention 
 being to pursue his profession of Advocate at the Scottish Bar), 
 I had known for a little more than five years. Wordsworth it 
 was, then living at Allan Bank, in Grasmere, who had intro- 
 duced me to John Wilson ; and ever afterwards I was a fre- 
 quent visitor at his beautiful place of Elleray, on the Winder- 
 mere, not above nine miles distant from my own cottage in 
 Grasmere. In those days Wilson sometimes spoke to me of 
 his friend Hamilton as one specially distinguished by manli- 
 ness and elevation of character, and occasionally gazed at as a 
 monster of erudition. Indeed the extent of his reading was 
 said to be portentous in fact, frightful, and to some extent 
 even suspicious; so that certain ladies thought him 'no 
 canny/ If arithmetic could demonstrate that all the days of 
 his life ground down and pulverised into ' wee wee ' globules 
 of five or eight minutes each, and strung upon threads, would 
 not furnish a rosary anything like corresponding, in its sepa- 
 rate beads or counters, to the books he was known to have 
 studied and familiarly used, then it became clear that he must 
 have had extra aid in some way or other must have read by 
 proxy. Now, in that case we all know in what direction a 
 man turns for help, and who it is that he applies to when he 
 wishes, like Dr Faustus, to read more books than belong to 
 his allowance in this life." 
 
 Of his personal appearance Mr De Quincey says : 
 "I was sitting alone, after breakfast, when Wilson sud- 
 denly walked in with his friend Hamilton. So exqui- 
 sitely free was Sir William from all ostentation of learning, 
 that unless the accidents of conversation made a natural 
 opening for display, such as it would have been affectation 
 to evade, you might have failed altogether to suspect that 
 an extraordinary scholar was present. On this first inter- 
 
86 FOREIGN VISITORS. 
 
 view with him I saw nothing to challenge any special 
 attention beyond an unusual expression of kindness and cor- 
 diality in his abord. There was also an air of dignity and 
 massy self-dependence diffused over his deportment, too 
 calm and unaffected to leave a doubt that it exhaled spon- 
 taneously from his nature, yet too unassuming to mortify the 
 pretensions of others. Men of genius I had seen before, and 
 men distinguished for their attainments, who shocked every- 
 body, and upon me in particular, nervously susceptible, 
 inflicted horror as well as distress, by striving restlessly, and 
 almost angrily, for the chief share in conversation. Some I 
 had known who possessed themselves in effect pretty nearly 
 of the whole without being distinctly aware of what they 
 were about. ... In Sir William, on the other hand, was 
 an apparent carelessness whether he took any conspicuous 
 share or none at all in the conversation. ... In general 
 my conclusion was, that I had rarely seen a person who 
 manifested less of self-esteem under any of the forms by 
 which ordinarily it reveals itself whether of pride, or vanity, 
 or full-blown arrogance, or heart-chilling reserve." 
 
 Sir William, besides mixing to some extent in the ordinary 
 society of Edinburgh, had a very considerable amount of in- 
 tercourse with strangers who came to visit the city, and 
 whom his reputation, even at this early period, attracted to 
 his mother's house. Among these, many of whom became his 
 friends, were Baron Schwarzkopf, a young Prussian noble- 
 man ; G. H. Bernstein, afterwards Professor of Oriental Litera- 
 ture at Breslau ; Mr Edward Everett, afterwards editor of the 
 * North American Eeview,' and Minister in London from the 
 United States. At a somewhat later period (1826) Count 
 Davidoff (now Count Orloff Davidoff), the representative of a 
 well-known Eussian noble family, spent two or three years 
 in Edinburgh with his tutor, Mr Colyar, and was much with 
 Sir William and his brother. The young Count carried with 
 him to his native country very vivid and permanent im- 
 pressions of Edinburgh social life and feeling, and set him- 
 
LOCKHART AND BLACKWOOD's MAGAZINE. 87 
 
 self, on his return to his large estates, to ameliorate as far 
 as he could the condition of his numerous serfs. Sir Wil- 
 liam, in his intercourse with foreigners, habitually assumed 
 the attitude of an inquirer, and thus contrived to obtain a 
 great deal of information regarding the state of foreign litera- 
 ture, politics, and social life. He also continued for a time to 
 have pretty frequent opportunities of keeping up his Oxford 
 friendships. Mr Yonge and Mr Villers were in Edinburgh for 
 a considerable period Mr Traill came occasionally; but as 
 Sir William never left Scotland, these opportunities gradually 
 ceased through the changes of life, and for many years before 
 his death he had no intercourse with any of these early 
 associates. 
 
 One, however, of his Oxford friends had, like himself, settled 
 in Edinburgh as a member of the Scottish Bar. This was 
 J. G. Lockhart. His intimacy with Lockhart was a marked 
 feature in his life, hardly a day passing that they did not meet. 
 Through Lockhart he seems to have been a good deal associ- 
 ated with the set of young men who became connected with 
 ' Blackwood's Magazine.' He has even been mentioned as a 
 contributor to the early numbers of the Magazine, about 1817. 
 Of this in itself unlikely there is no proof. There is a tra- 
 dition that he was one of the memorable party in Mrs Wilson's 
 house (53 Queen Street) when the Chaldee MS. was concocted, 
 and that he even contributed a verse. This is not at all 
 improbable, as both Wilson and Lockhart were his intimate 
 friends, and he figures in the MS. as "the black eagle of 
 the desert." Widening difference of political opinion, how- 
 ever, gradually disengaged him from this connection. Sir 
 William had certainly nothing to do with the Magazine after 
 its political principles were fully and emphatically declared, 
 and no part whatever in the personalities by which the early 
 numbers were disfigured. 
 
 About this time Captain Hamilton retired from the army 
 on half -pay, and came to Edinburgh. He walked lamely 
 from a wound in the leg, which, as already noticed, he had 
 
88 CAPTAIN HAMILTON. 
 
 received at Albuera. " But his tall and noble military figure, 
 his finely-cut and expressive features, gave him a distinguishep 
 air, to which no one could be insensible. In many things 
 the brothers were contrasted, but there were also many points 
 of resemblance between them. Captain Hamilton possessed 
 the highest sense of the ludicrous, and a power of humour 
 which was irresistible. Sir William was a recipient rather 
 than a creator." * 
 
 Captain Hamilton naturally became acquainted with Lock- 
 hart, and thus was associated with the early contributors to 
 ' Blackwood's Magazine/ in which he wrote occasionally under 
 the nom de plume of " Ensign and Adjutant O'Doherty." 
 Hogg believed him to have helped Lockhart to deck " The 
 Odontist " in his borrowed plumage. He says : " I suspect 
 Captain Tom Hamilton, the original O'Doherty, had also 
 some hand in that ploy at least he seemed to enjoy it as if 
 he had ; for though he pretended to be a high and starched 
 Whig, he was always engaged with these mad-cap Tories, and 
 the foremost in many of their wicked contrivances." *f* 
 
 Captain Hamilton was one of the earliest among the Edin- 
 burgh literary men who appreciated and sympathised with 
 the poetry of Wordsworth, in opposition to the tone of sneer- 
 ing and superficial criticism with which it was habitually 
 greeted in the ' Edinburgh Eeview/ In this Sir William 
 agreed with his brother, and was an early reader and admirer 
 of the poet. The merits of Wordsworth formed an occasional 
 subject of discussion between them. Sir William thought he 
 saw traces of an acquaintance with Kant in the magnificent 
 passage of the Wanderer's discourse, beginning 
 
 " And what are things eternal ? " J 
 
 But it would seem that this was a case in which the poet and 
 philosopher had reached the same great truth independently 
 
 * Mr Moir's Reminiscences. 
 
 t Hogg's Autobiography, Col. Works, vol. ii. p. 467. 
 
 + Excursion, Book iv. 
 
FIRST VISIT TO GERMANY. 89 
 
 and by different approaches. " I asked Wordsworth," says 
 Captain Hamilton, writing from the Lakes, where he resided 
 latterly, " about that passage in the ' Excursion ' which Wil- 
 liam says contains the doctrine of Kant. Wordsworth says he 
 is utterly ignorant of everything connected either with Kant 
 or his philosophy. So that it could not have come from that 
 source, but is a casual coincidence." 
 
 Sir William, though an assiduous student of German and 
 Continental literature, paid only two short visits to the conti- 
 nent of Europe. The first of these took place in the autumn 
 of 1817. At the request of the Faculty of Advocates, and 
 accompanied by Mr Lockhart and Mr John Hyndman, he 
 proceeded to Leipsic to examine an extensive library there 
 for sale, which he had recommended the Faculty to acquire. 
 At this time Sir William had only begun to study German, 
 and his acquaintance with it was not very thorough. The 
 party held communications chiefly by means of Latin. At 
 Leipsic he met the learned Godofred Hermann, who was 
 then professor in the university of that city. There is no 
 record of the other places visited. 
 
 The party had crossed to Hamburg in a Leith smack. 
 Among the passengers was Major (afterwards Major-General) 
 Mitchell, a distinguished officer, subsequently well known as 
 the author of the ' Life of Wallenstein,' the ' Fall of Napoleon/ 
 &c. The acquaintance which Sir William thus formed with 
 Major Mitchell, continued through life, and was the origin 
 of a close and warm friendship with his father and sisters, 
 who, about 1819, took up their residence in Edinburgh. 
 Mr Mitchell, the father, was a man of unusual intellectual 
 powers, who had occupied influential positions abroad. The 
 ladies of the family were highly accomplished, and from 
 their long residence on the Continent well acquainted with 
 foreign literature. Their society was very agreeable to Sir 
 William, and many a summer evening's walk would end 
 at their tea-table, in the enjoyment of the cheerful intelli- 
 gent conversation which went on around it. Popular educa- 
 
90 BREACH WITH LOCKHART. 
 
 tion in Germany, in which Sir William took great interest, 
 was, in particular, a subject which he often discussed with 
 them. 
 
 It was on this occasion that Sir William brought home a 
 large white poodle-dog, long a companion of its master, which, 
 in honour of the great philologist, he named Hermann. Her- 
 mann was quite a character a very knowing dog, indeed if 
 not the mysterious prodigy of learning and the familiar of Dr 
 Faustus, reappearing in the nineteenth century, which Mr De 
 Quincey hinted he might possibly have been. Hermann knew 
 all his master's haunts, and when seeking him would visit 
 them successively until he was found going, perhaps, first 
 to the Advocates' Library, and then to the various book- 
 shops which he frequented. Hermann was sometimes put to 
 uses of a grotesque sort. On one occasion the young cousin 
 who stayed in the house confided to Sir William her distress 
 that his mother insisted on her continuing to wear a pelisse 
 and hat of which she was tired. Hermann's master at once 
 hit on a happy device. Hermann was dressed in the pelisse 
 and hat, of which he very speedily made short work, amidst 
 the laughter of the two onlookers, and the mingled delight 
 and fright of the owner at so daring an expedient for securing 
 the desired new dress. 
 
 It seems to have been not long after they were together in 
 Germany that the friendship between Sir William and Mr 
 Lockhart came to an end. The breach probably was caused 
 by circumstances connected with ' Blackwood's Magazine,' and 
 by the bitterness of political feeling at that time in Edinburgh. 
 But it is vain to seek to fix more accurately the time or occa- 
 sion of this unfortunate occurrence; for, in fact, it was a 
 subject so painful to Sir William that he hardly ever spoke of 
 it at the time or afterwards. One thing we know, that those 
 who had been such close friends in youth still retained, in 
 spite of outward coldness and estrangement, warm feelings 
 towards one another. The friendly intercourse which Sir 
 William and Lady Hamilton kept up for many years with Mr 
 
SECOND VISIT TO GERMANY. 91 
 
 Lockhart's only sister was felt as a link between them. And 
 Mr Lockhart's continued interest was shown, as we shall see, 
 by the anxious inquiries which the news of his old friend's 
 illness called forth from him. Thus, by the death of Scott 
 and the estrangement from Lockhart, Sir William had already 
 lost the two chief friends of his early days and none ever 
 seems to have come exactly into their place. 
 
 Sir William again visited Germany, in 1820, in company 
 with Mr James Mackenzie, son of the author of ' The Man 
 of Feeling/ and Mr Miller, a brother Advocate. The purpose 
 of the journey was to procure evidence in a legal case. They 
 sailed from Leith to Hamburg remained some days both at 
 Hamburg and Berlin, visiting Wittenberg on the way and 
 then proceeded to Dresden, their place of destination. Sir 
 William, characteristically enough, spent what of his time 
 was not occupied with the business on hand in the libraries 
 of Berlin and Dresden. While in Berlin he solved a minor, 
 but to him interesting, question in bibliography. A copy 
 of Dante had just been sold at the Duke of Eoxburghe's 
 sale to Lord Blandford (afterwards Duke of Marlborough) as 
 unique, for 2000. It was surmised that the library of Berlin 
 contained a similar copy ; but it turned out that the copy there 
 was of a different edition, and the Eoxburghe one was proved 
 a true unique. 
 
 During a cessation of the inquiry on which they had been 
 despatched, Mr Mackenzie and his friend Mr Miller took 
 the opportunity of making a run into Bohemia as far as 
 Prague ; but Sir William declined accompanying them, pre- 
 ferring the library and picture-gallery of Dresden. The only 
 excursion from Dresden on which Sir William seems to have 
 accompanied his party was a short one into the highlands of 
 Saxony, when they spent a few days at Schandau. The season 
 having broken up early, they returned hurriedly by the route 
 they had gone. Owing to the circumstances of their visit, 
 communications were generally made in English by means of 
 an interpreter. It would appear, moreover, that Sir William's 
 
92 ADVOCATES' LIBRARY. 
 
 power of conversing in German at the period of this visit, as on 
 the previous occasion, was but limited. It was probably, in- 
 deed, about this time that he commenced the systematic study 
 of that language. He was his own teacher, and his method of 
 studying it or any other foreign language was to take a ver- 
 sion of the Bible or some book with which he was familiar in 
 English, and thus quickly make himself acquainted with the 
 vocabulary and construction of the language to be acquired. 
 It was also part of his plan in learning German to read at an 
 early stage of his progress a number of reviews and works of 
 that class, and so obtain at once a knowledge of the language 
 and a general acquaintance with the literature. Sir William 
 was one of a small club which was formed about this time for 
 the purpose of procuring and circulating German periodicals. 
 Among the other members were Dr J. H. Davidson, Mr E. P. 
 Gillies, Professor Duncan, Professor Jamieson, Dr (afterwards 
 Sir) David Brewster, Mr J. C. Colquhoun, &c. 
 
 It was through Sir William's exertions that the " Dieterichs " 
 collection of Tracts and Pamphlets was secured for the Ad- 
 vocates' Library. " This extensive series," says Edwards 
 in his 'Memoirs of Libraries/ "comprises a wide range of 
 subjects, and includes many works of Luther, Melanch- 
 thon, and other leaders of the Eeformation, most of them 
 being the original editions. Sir William Hamilton, a most 
 zealous curator, acquired the collection for the library at the 
 trivial outlay of eighty pounds. He estimates its contents as 
 extending to 100,000 distinct pieces. But by some strange 
 oversight, the collection was permitted for several years to lie 
 in a ' damp cellar.' Under the present energetic librarian, 
 Mr Halkett, it has been 'taken out, aired, and dried,' and 
 proves, we are told, to be 'one of very considerable value.' " * 
 The former possessor of the collection George Septimus 
 Dieterichs valued the collection highly, and had the half of 
 it catalogued. The preface to his catalogue is dated " Eatis- 
 ponse die xvi. Decembris MDCCLX." This series seems to have 
 
 * Memoirs of Libraries, vol. ii. p. 9, b. iii. c. 19. 
 
EXTRACTS FROM HIS LETTER. 93 
 
 been procured for the library by Sir William about 1820. It 
 is not improbable that the purchase was made during his 
 second visit to Germany. 
 
 Sir William's zeal for the interests of the Advocates' Library 
 was further strongly shown on occasion of a vacancy in the 
 office of principal librarian in 1820. He addressed a letter to 
 the members of the Faculty, in which he pointed out what he 
 considered to be the prominent defects of management, and 
 the more pressing wants of the library. A well -equipped 
 and well-managed library appeared, to one of Sir William's 
 tastes and habits, to be the greatest of a student's wants. 
 With a view to remedy existing evils, and secure increased 
 efficiency of management, he strongly urged the Faculty in 
 his letter to obtain, if possible, the services of the learned 
 Dr Benecke, then professor and librarian in the University 
 of Gottingen. Dr Benecke had been associated with the 
 great scholar Heyne in the management of the Gottingen 
 library; and its organisation, due in large measure to the 
 latter, was regarded as the most perfect in Europe. Sir 
 William's pleading is exceedingly able and characteristic of 
 the writer. Dr Benecke appears, however, to have declined 
 the proposal to come to this country, and the appointment 
 was conferred on the late Dr Irving, whose attainments as a 
 scholar and bibliographist Sir William in his letter most fully 
 acknowledges. 
 
 The letter contains one or two paragraphs of general inter- 
 est, which merit being preserved. Of competition for literary 
 offices in Germany he says : " In no other country is the 
 choice among literary competitors so wide, nor the standard 
 of learned eminence so high. Even the civil vices of the 
 constitution have contributed to this. For if the roads to 
 political distinction are few, and have been seldom open but 
 to the ambition of the privileged orders, the paths of literary 
 emulation have thereby become more crowded, and the con- 
 test has been more keen. If the separation into petty states 
 has oppressed the industry and sunk the importance of the 
 
94 EXTRACTS FROM HIS LETTER. 
 
 nation, it has, at the same time, proved the most effectual 
 means to the encouragement of literature, by the increase in 
 the number, and by the impartial dispensation, of literary 
 rewards. Where every prince maintained his university, 
 no such institution could flourish if not superior to other 
 academies in the ability of its teachers nor even exist, if not 
 their equal. A useful competition thus arose between the dif- 
 ferent governments of Germany, in attracting and in retaining 
 men by whom their universities might be promoted ; and the 
 emulation of learning was most effectually encouraged when 
 its remunerations, even though small, were always the prizes 
 of honour, and the sure marks of excellence. In this competi- 
 tion the Hanoverian Government has certainly been the most 
 active; and Gottingen, even from its foundation, has been 
 able, by the liberality of the ministry, to maintain its rank as 
 the first university in Europe for the number and celebrity of 
 its professors." 
 
 His conception of bibliography of the comparative state 
 of the science in Britain and Germany of the qualifications 
 of a librarian, and of what is required of an author in the 
 way of preparatory reading, is thus given : " Although Bri- 
 tain be anything but inferior to other countries in works of 
 original speculation, and, on some subjects, has been at least 
 their equal in works of profound erudition, still there is one 
 department of learning, however useful and even necessary 
 to any extensive progress in knowledge, that may boldly 
 be said not to have been cultivated amongst us at all. I 
 mean the study of bibliography in its nobler sense, and in its 
 useful application ; that is, the science which teaches us what 
 are the books existing on each subject of knowledge, and 
 by each several nation, and what are their nature, contents, 
 and value. Bibliography, on the contrary, considered merely 
 as conversant in literary rarities, typographical curiosities, &c., 
 has been fondly cultivated in England ; and we have indigen- 
 ous works on every department of the subject, and pampering 
 every fashion and caprice. Our general ignorance in this pre- 
 
EXTRACTS FROM HIS LETTER. 95 
 
 liminary study is seen, indeed, in every branch of our literary 
 labours which supposes an acquaintance with the history of 
 opinions ; and it is seldom that such a publication appears in 
 Britain whatever may be its other merits which does not 
 manifest its author to be unprepared in a great part of the 
 literature of his subject. As a concomitant effect of this 
 ignorance, although itself reacting as a most principal cause 
 of its continuance, is the comparatively defective state of all 
 British public libraries, both in their complement of useful 
 books, and in those arrangements which facilitate the use of 
 their collections. ... In all this the case is precisely 
 reversed among the Germans. In the erudition of that 
 nation the principle seems established, that before a writer 
 can come forward to instruct the world, he ought himself to 
 have learned all that has been already taught upon his sub- 
 ject ; that the surest method of making new advances in 
 knowledge is, first to ascertain what has been previously 
 effected. Accordingly, along with other branches of literary 
 history, the history and science of books, in all their useful 
 application, have been prosecuted in Germany to an extent 
 of which there is no parallel among other nations. Indeed, 
 with the exception of a very few works of some import in 
 France, and of one or two despicable attempts in classical 
 bibliography among ourselves, we owe everything on the sub- 
 ject which exists and how much does exist ! of any general 
 interest to the labours of the countrymen of Fabricius, Struvius, 
 and Meusel. But the cultivation of the science of books sup- 
 poses, or rather is identical with, the art of the librarian ; and 
 among a people like the Germans, fondly devoted to the pur- 
 suits of erudition, a library is esteemed the most important of 
 all literary institutions. The librarian, with them, is a most 
 important character, and supposes most extensive acquire- 
 ments. Their libraries are, indeed, always superintended by 
 persons of eminent qualifications ; frequently by men even of 
 the first talents and the most transcendent learning." 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 AT THE BAR, AND IN THE UNIVERSITY: 1820-1829. 
 
 SIR WILLIAM A CANDIDATE FOR MORAL PHILOSOPHY CHAIR SUPPORTED 
 BY MR DUGALD STEWART HIS TESTIMONIALS ELECTION TURNS ON 
 POLITICAL CONSIDERATIONS LETTER OF LORD A. HAMILTON PRO- 
 BABLE CHARACTER OF HIS ETHICAL TEACHING LETTER OF DR PARR 
 
 CHAIR OF CIVIL HISTORY VACANT APPOINTMENT OF HAMILTON 
 
 SUBJECTS OF HIS LECTURES AT ST ANDREWS IN SUMMER OF 1823 
 SMALL COMMONPLACE-BOOK HIS STUDIES AT THIS PERIOD 
 MODERN LATIN POETS, BUCHANAN, BALDE, AND OTHERS PAPER 
 READ BEFORE ROYAL SOCIETY ON GREEK VERB PHRENOLOGY HIS 
 INVESTIGATION OF ITS PRETENSIONS CONCLUSIONS REGARDING THE 
 CEREBELLUM ANIMAL MAGNETISM AND MESMERISM HIS FRIENDS 
 R. P. GILLIES THOMAS CARLYLE's REMINISCENCES CAPTAIN 
 HAMILTON SIR WILLIAM'S REPUTATION FOR READING, AND READINESS 
 TO IMPART INFORMATION DEATH OF HIS MOTHER HIS MARRIAGE. 
 
 ON the 2d of April 1820, Dr Thomas Brown, the Professor of 
 Moral Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh, died in his 
 early manhood. Dr Brown, during his brief but brilliant 
 career, had held the Chair as colleague to Mr Dugald Stewart. 
 The latter was now again the sole Professor; but from the 
 state of his health and his advanced age, it was not at all likely 
 that he would resume the active duties of the Chair. The 
 successor of Dr Brown would, therefore, require to discharge 
 the entire work, as Dr Brown himself had done, whether in 
 the capacity of colleague to Mr Stewart or as sole Professor. 
 Mr Stewart, however, before the office was again filled up, had 
 placed his resignation in the hands of the electors. 
 Among the candidates for the position there appeared, 
 
CANDIDATE FOR MORAL PHILOSOPHY CHAIR. 97 
 
 shortly after Dr Brown's death, Mr John Wilson, Advocate, 
 known as the author of the ' Isle of Palms/ and as a leading 
 contributor to 'Blackwood's Magazine/ then recently estab- 
 lished. The public had already received the first-fruits of his 
 fine sensibility, and fervid imaginative genius. He certainly 
 stood out as the young man of the highest literary promise of 
 the time. 
 
 Sir W. Hamilton did not appear early in the field as a can- 
 didate. This delay arose from a delicacy of feeling regarding 
 the yet unannounced determination of Stewart, who had not 
 formally declared his intention not to resume lecturing. Sir 
 William, however, after communicating with Mr Stewart and 
 his friends, finally declared himself a candidate for the appoint- 
 ment. The circumstances of the case from the first indicated 
 that the contest lay between the two friends, Wilson and 
 Hamilton. 
 
 Hamilton prosecuted his candidature under the disadvantage 
 of not having as yet appeared before the public as an author. 
 At the same time, his opponent's writings, whatever their other 
 merits, could not be regarded as indicating the kind of talent 
 or training necessary for an efficient ethical analyst and teacher. 
 The election was in the hands of the Town Council of Edin- 
 
 9 
 
 burgh. In Scotland the bodies intrusted with the uni- 
 versity patronage did not at that time, nor do they now, as 
 in Germany and France, take upon themselves the initiative 
 of inquiring into the merits of candidates, with a view to 
 select and call to the office the man they might deem best 
 fitted for it. The due exercise of a function of this sort 
 implied a degree of educated intelligence and special qualifica- 
 tion which no municipal body could be expected to possess.* 
 
 * It is right, however, to state that on this occasion a majority of the Council 
 took the very exceptional step of offering the Chair to Sir James Mackintosh. 
 His friends prevailed on him to decline it. Lord Cockburn, on whose authority 
 this statement rests, adds, speaking of Mr Napier's subsequent candidature for 
 the Chair: "By this time the Town Council had relapsed into its true self. 
 Its invitation to Mackintosh had excited great alarm, and it was soon made 
 plain that that dangerous experiment would not be repeated, and that no Whig 
 need be hopeful." Memorials, p. 370. 
 
 G 
 
98 SUPPORTED BY DUGALD STEWART. 
 
 The candidates were therefore in this, as in other instances, 
 left to seek the opinions of those understood to be qualified to 
 judge of their pretensions, and to present those opinions to the 
 electing body the Town Council in the form of testimonials. 
 Of the relative value of the testimonials, and generally of the 
 merits and character of the candidates, it was the part of the 
 Council to judge.* 
 
 In April Hamilton announced his intention to stand to Mr 
 Stewart, with whom he was then only slightly acquainted. 
 Mr Stewart, in reply (writing from Kinneil, 10th April 1820), 
 stated that his own recommendation was already promised to 
 an old friend (Mr Macvey Napier), " to whom," he says, " from 
 my perfect conviction of his fitness for the situation, I had 
 myself suggested the idea of his becoming a candidate." He 
 continues, " This, however, is no reason why you should not 
 bring forward your own pretensions, accompanied with all 
 the testimonials which you can command." And he adds, 
 " Whatever may be the result of the present competition, I 
 trust that what has now passed between us will give a com- 
 mencement to a friendship which, for many reasons, it will 
 always give me the greatest pleasure to cultivate." Mr Napier 
 does not appear to have pressed his canvass for the Chair. 
 After his withdrawal as a candidate, Mr Stewart gave his 
 support, as far as the circumstances of his position allowed 
 him, to Sir W. Hamilton. In a letter, of date 19th June 1820, 
 to Mr James Wedderburn, the Solicitor-General for Scotland, 
 Mr Stewart says : " I have read with the greatest pleasure 
 the testimonials in favour of Sir William Hamilton. Those 
 from his friends of the University of Oxford are more flattering 
 than anything of the kind I remember to have seen ; and when 
 added to the warm testimonies to his learning, talents, and 
 character from some of the most respectable names in Scotland, 
 
 * How our system of application by testimonials is viewed by foreigners may 
 be gathered from the following: "Cette espece de concours qui, dans 1'ordre 
 scientifique, cheque un peu nos idees en France, est tout-a-fait conforme aux 
 habitudes Anglaises, et n'y a rien que de tres nature!." Peisse, Fragments de 
 Philosophic, Preface, p. 71. 
 
OTHER SUPPORTERS. 99 
 
 cannot fail to make a strong impression on the public mind. 
 In reading them I could not help regretting that I had not an 
 earlier opportunity of forming his acquaintance, as I have no 
 doubt that I should have profited greatly by his assistance in 
 the prosecution of my favourite studies. Indeed, I am already 
 indebted to him for much curious and valuable information 
 about the later philosophers of Germany, whose merits and 
 defects he seems to me to have appreciated with great candour 
 and discrimination ; and I look forward with peculiar satisfac- 
 tion to my future connection with him, if, fortunately for the 
 University, he should succeed in obtaining the object of his 
 present ambition/' * 
 
 That the superiority of qualifications was on this occasion on 
 the side of Hamilton, will hardly be disputed by any one who 
 dispassionately considers the previous training and habits of 
 study of the two candidates, or the evidence presented by 
 them. Of force of intellect, philosophical culture and learn- 
 ing, special attainments in the study of intellectual and ethical 
 philosophy, Hamilton adduced the most ample and conclusive 
 testimony. We have seen what was Mr Stewart's opinion 
 of his testimonials. When they were shown to Mr Cran- 
 stoun (afterwards Lord Corehouse), then at the head of the 
 Scottish Bar, he exclaimed, " I would rather have failed with 
 such credentials than have gained with any others." Of 
 his honourable and elevated character, his self-respecting 
 dignity, and his delicacy of feeling, there never was any ques- 
 tion. His opponents tried hard to make him out politically 
 unsafe; and of course he was suspected by the usual tribe 
 of weak and noisy alarmists of theological unsoundness. But 
 both of these suspicions he was able satisfactorily to put 
 down. The Master of Balliol, Dr Jenkyns, unhesitatingly 
 supported Hamilton on the ground of his superior claims; 
 and his Oxford contemporaries testified in the most em- 
 phatic manner to his habits of philosophical research, his 
 well-grounded reputation for learning, and his unparalleled 
 
 * Testimonials in favour of Sir ~W. Hamilton, Bart. 1820. 
 
100 POLITICAL ELEMENT IN THE ELECTION. 
 
 appearance at the examination for the degree. He had the 
 hearty support, moreover, of Drs John Barclay and John 
 Thomson, Drs Thomas M'Crie and Samuel Parr, and of Francis 
 Jeffrey. But the truth is, there was little need of adducing 
 evidence as to philosophical attainments or special fitness 
 for the office. The temper of Edinburgh was at that time too 
 violently political to allow a calm consideration of the real 
 merits of candidates, even for an office so catholic as the Chair 
 of Moral Philosophy. The Town Council showed that it did 
 not possess the virtue and intelligence necessary to raise it 
 above party feeling, and enable it to exercise its function of 
 election purely with the dignity of a sacred trust. The two 
 elements of Whig and Tory came into play. Hamilton, 
 though a very unobtrusive politician, was yet a Whig. His 
 opponent was a Tory, and one who thoroughly secured the 
 support of his party. The Tories were in the majority in 
 the Council, and the result of the election, accordingly, was 
 that Wilson was appointed to the Chair. The state of the 
 vote was twenty-one to eleven. 
 
 It may be proper here to add that, to the credit of both the 
 rival candidates, nothing in the course of the canvass or in the 
 result of the election was allowed to interrupt their friendly 
 relations. To the close of life Wilson and Hamilton retained 
 a cordial regard for each other. 
 
 How completely the election on this occasion was deter- 
 mined by political considerations is proved by an overture 
 made to Hamilton in the course of the contest, to which he 
 thus refers as late as the year 1840, in showing the sacrifices 
 he had made for his political convictions : " I had the best 
 prospects of success (however worthy my opponent) pro- 
 vided the contest were not made a political one. In these 
 circumstances, it was intimated to me from a most influ- 
 ential quarter that if I would allow it simply to be said 
 that I was not a Whig not a political opponent of the then 
 dominant party the election would be allowed to take its 
 natural course. I refused ; and in refusing I knew that the 
 
LETTER OF LORD A. HAMILTON. 101 
 
 Chair was lost, for the Tory electors were to the Whigs as 
 three to one, and every individual voted according to his 
 party." 
 
 And so high philosophical talent, patient investigation, 
 and profound research animated by love and enthusiasm, 
 failed of their public reward. The possessor of these quali- 
 ties had yet to wait for sixteen long years ere he found a 
 befitting sphere for the exercise of his powers. 
 
 The following letter from Lord Archibald Hamilton ex- 
 presses the opinion entertained at the time, at least by Sir W. 
 Hamilton's friends and supporters, regarding the character of 
 the election for the Moral Philosophy Chair : 
 
 PANSHANGER, IZtk August [1820]. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR WILLIAM, I received your letter of the 29th ult. 
 just as I was leaving London for the interval of Parliamentary pro- 
 ceedings, and have neglected to acknowledge it longer than I in- 
 tended or can justify. 
 
 The nattering way in which you mention my letter to Mr Stewart 
 in your favour is indeed highly gratifying to me ; and that that letter 
 expressed my real opinion, you can have no doubt, from the circum- 
 stance that it was not intended by me that you should know of it 
 at all. I am much pleased, too, that you followed Mr Stewart's 
 advice in excluding me and my letter wholly from your testimonials. 
 My name would probably have been hurtful to your pretensions : 
 my authority would have been of no benefit, and the appearance 
 of either among such learned company would have been deemed, 
 perhaps, unwarrantable intrusion. But here my satisfaction ends. 
 I regret the result most sincerely, and nearly as much on public 
 as on private grounds, because it has been proved, in this instance 
 at least, that political feelings can supersede all other motives in the 
 disposal of an honourable and important trust, at the place where 
 of all others merit should exclusively prevail This impression, 
 however, abates somewhat of the regret I should otherwise feel on 
 the score of your comparative failure. In all competitions for 
 honourable distinction, the parties may derive honour from the 
 merits of each other, except where the judges decide under some 
 sinister influence, in which case success ceases to be victory, and 
 failure ceases to be defeat. 
 
102 MORAL PHILOSOPHY CHAIR. 
 
 In hopes of meeting you in the autumn, I remain, my dear Sir 
 William, with regard and esteem, most truly and faithfully yours, 
 
 ARCHD. HAMILTON. 
 
 It is somewhat idle to speculate regarding the probable 
 effect on the course of Hamilton's studies, had the result of 
 the election to the Moral Philosophy Chair been different. 
 The tendency of his mind was unquestionably more to the 
 abstract side of philosophical questions than to the concrete 
 more metaphysical and logical than ethical or practical. 
 And probably this natural bent would not have been marked- 
 ly checked by close and special attention to ethical studies, 
 though it might have been rendered less exclusive and pre- 
 dominant. 
 
 To himself the chief advantage of the appointment would 
 have been that it would have afforded a field for his powers 
 of dealing with young minds while he was yet compara- 
 tively youthful and fresh, and thus more ready to accom- 
 modate himself to the practical work of teaching than he pos- 
 sibly could be at a later period of life. It would also have 
 given him an immediate stimulus to studied composition 
 an effort which he was always prone to defer in the interest 
 of research and reflection, and to which, from his fastidious 
 habits and temperament, he felt a positive repugnance. 
 
 So far as the interests of the Chair were concerned, there 
 can be no doubt that Hamilton would have supplied certain 
 of the deficiencies in the treatment of moral philosophy in 
 the Scottish universities. He would have given to the science 
 a more definite sphere than had been assigned to it in our 
 teaching and literature, and would thus have checked the 
 diffuseness of treatment which has so greatly enfeebled its 
 growth. Above all, he would have looked at ethical questions 
 in the light of their history linked on to the past of ancient 
 Greece and Eome the isolated and exclusive efforts of Scottish 
 inquirers and given them scientific completeness and vitality, 
 by setting both questions and solutions in the light of modern 
 Continental speculation. 
 
APPOINTMENT TO THE CHAIR OF CIVIL HISTORY. 103 
 
 This latter point did not escape the sagacity of the learned 
 and philosophic Dr Parr. " Will you pardon me," he says, 
 writing to Mr Stewart about Hamilton previously to the elec- 
 tion, " for telling you my own judgment ? In my opinion Sir 
 W. Hamilton is exactly the man who should follow you and 
 Brown. He is a man who will supply what is wanting, and 
 what you and your successor had no opportunity of stating 
 with the precision which the subject required. Your attention 
 was necessarily confined to modern systems of philosophy, 
 and you have left very few gleanings. We now look for a 
 man who should unlock the stores of ancient metaphysics, 
 and that man is presented to you in Sir W. Hamilton." * 
 
 Before the contest for the Moral Philosophy Chair took 
 place, the appointment of a colleague to Mr William Fraser 
 Tytler, the Professor of Civil History, had been spoken of. 
 For this office Sir William had thought of becoming a candi- 
 date ; and he had then, for the first time, formally declared 
 his attachment to Whig principles. 
 
 The Chair finally became vacant through the resignation of 
 Mr Tytler early in 1821. The subject of this professorship 
 was congenial to Sir W. Hamilton's tastes, and had fallen 
 within the scope of his multifarious studies. It was known 
 that Sir William would not be indisposed to accept the office, 
 though he never actually became a candidate for it. The 
 appointment lay virtually with the Faculty of Advocates. 
 His political views, which had been so fatal to his success in 
 the contest for the Moral Philosophy Chair, might here, too, 
 have been expected to stand in his way ; for Whig principles 
 were far from being in the ascendant in the Parliament House. 
 To the honour of the Faculty, however, his politics were not 
 allowed to overweigh his indisputable qualifications for the 
 office. They appear even to have virtually secured for him 
 the appointment. 
 
 The mode of procedure in the election to this Chair was 
 for the Advocates to choose a leet of two candidates, and 
 
 * Testimonials in favour of Sir W. Hamilton, Bart. 1820. 
 
104 SUBJECTS OF HIS LECTURES. 
 
 forward it to the Town Council, who appointed one of the 
 number generally the first on the leet. At a meeting 
 of the Faculty held March 7, 1821, "it was moved by Mr 
 William Erskine, and seconded by Mr Pringle, that the motion 
 made by Mr Solicitor-General at the meeting on the twenty- 
 first day of February last be put viz., that Sir William 
 Hamilton be first on the leet, along with Mr Fraser Ty tier " 
 (the retiring Professor). The motion was carried by a large 
 majority. The Faculty further intimated to the Town Coun- 
 cil that they gave their consent and authority to the joint- 
 nomination of Sir W. Hamilton and Mr Tytler, with a right 
 of survivorship, if the Council should see fit to adopt this 
 course. The Council made the appointment in terms of the 
 recommendation of the Faculty. 
 
 The office to which Sir William was now nominated did not 
 bring with it great remuneration, or imply very onerous duties. 
 The class formed no part of the course of study for the degrees 
 in Arts, and attendance on it was not required by any of the 
 learned professions. The number of students was accordingly 
 very limited. In fact no previous professor had succeeded in 
 forming a regular class. Under a predecessor of Sir William's, 
 indeed, the History class gained the distinction of having 
 reached the absolute minimum of attendance, for in one ses- 
 sion there was but one pupil ; and professor and student very 
 judiciously agreed to discuss the subject of the lecture in a 
 walk round the Meadows in preference to the class-room. The 
 salary attached to "the Chair was only 100 a-year, payable 
 out of a local duty on ale and beer. Owing to the embarrass- 
 ments of the city, even this pittance was not paid with unin- 
 terrupted regularity during Sir William's tenure of office. 
 
 The circumstances of the Chair were thus hardly of a nature 
 to stimulate its occupant to much exertion. The Professor's 
 inspiration had to spring entirely from interest in the subject 
 which he was called upon to teach. Fortunately of this Sir 
 William had no lack, and so, after a little of his habitual 
 procrastination in the work of composition, he set himself 
 
SUBJECTS OF HIS LECTURES. 105 
 
 energetically to prepare a course of lectures. The subject 
 which he discussed, after an introduction on the sphere of 
 history and the advantages of its study, was the modern 
 history of Europe down to the outbreak of the French Eevo- 
 lution. This he viewed as commencing with the formation of 
 a system of states connected with each other on the principle 
 of the balance of power. Accordingly he devoted several 
 preliminary lectures to developing the causes through which, 
 about the close of the fifteenth century, the previously isolated 
 states of Europe came to constitute such a system. Among 
 the causes specified were the decline of feudalism and the 
 simultaneous rise of towns and of a middle class, the decline 
 of the Papal power, and the concentration of national author- 
 ity in the hands of the kings. He next proceeded to give an 
 account of the fundamental principles and historical origin of 
 the system of the balance of power, which he compared with 
 two other plans for adjusting international relations viz., the 
 theory of a universal monarchy, and the theory of an inter- 
 national confederation and congress. He then entered upon 
 the history which formed the proper subject of his lectures. 
 This he divided into two periods the first extending from 
 the end of the fifteenth century to the majority of Louis 
 XIV. (1492-1661) ; the second, from the latter date to the 
 commencement of the French Eevolution (1661-1789). Ee- 
 garding the general system of the European states as consist- 
 ing of a northern and a southern, he divided the history of 
 the southern system during the first period into four intervals. 
 Under the second of these there were lengthened remarks 
 on the Eeformation and its influence. In showing how it 
 acted as a powerful stimulus to the energies of Europe, he 
 stated its effects on the organisation of society as follows : 
 1st, A change in the condition of the clergy and in the 
 relation of the ecclesiastical to the civil authority ; 2d, That 
 religion now became formally established as a basis of the 
 political constitutions ; 3d, The extension and consolidation of 
 monarchical authority. He took a general survey of the his- 
 
106 CONDUCT OF THE HISTORY CLASS. 
 
 tory of the northern system of states during the first period, 
 and then, proceeding to the second, carried on the history of 
 both systems separately till about the middle of the eighteenth 
 century, when, by the rise of Prussia under Frederick the 
 Great, he regarded them as blended into one. The course 
 terminated with an account of Maria Theresa and Frederick 
 the Great, and of the partition of Poland. To the history of 
 each period was annexed an account of the colonies of the 
 different European states. 
 
 In addition to the above, Sir William was in the habit of 
 giving a short course on the history of European literature, 
 which embraced the following topics : General characteristics 
 of modern literature as compared with that of antiquity ; 
 influence of events on its course ; remarks on national litera- 
 ture ; history of the literature (chiefly poetry) of Italy, Spain 
 and Portugal, France, England and Scotland, Germany. 
 
 Occasionally, also, he delivered detached lectures on the 
 political economy of the ancients, Aristotle's analysis of the 
 forms of government, the theory of an original civil contract, 
 the political institutions of the ancient Germans, the feudal 
 system, the Papal supremacy; also on the literature of the 
 middle ages, &c. 
 
 Sir William seems to have intended to 'deliver a course of 
 lectures on ancient history, consisting of "general specula- 
 tions, and of discussions on interesting and obscure points of 
 historical research;" but probably there was not sufficient 
 encouragement to induce him to carry out this design. 
 
 The number of loose papers preserved in connection with 
 this course, and their contents, show with how much diligence 
 and zeal he entered into the historical and political subjects 
 which fell within the range of the professorship. 
 
 The first course of the lectures on history was composed 
 chiefly in the summer of 1822, at Burntisland. " Compara- 
 tively few, however," Lady Hamilton tells us, " were fully 
 written out before the commencement of the session, and many 
 were not composed till the night before they were delivered, 
 
AT ST ANDREWS IN 1823. 10*7 
 
 Sir William's mother and myself acting as amanuenses, either 
 writing to dictation or copying, according as preparation had 
 been made. Sir William was very much dissatisfied with the 
 lectures, and when, on the opening of the class, a number of 
 his brethren at the Bar wished to attend the course, he en- 
 deavoured to exclude them by positively declining to give 
 them tickets of admission at least, which was tantamount to 
 the same thing, to accept of a fee ; and all who attended the 
 iirst year as actual students were invited to return on the 
 same ticket the following year, by which time the lectures 
 had been to some extent added to and improved." 
 
 In the Chair of History Sir William attracted for some 
 years what, in the circumstances, was a very considerable 
 class, numbering, as it did, from thirty to fifty. Several of 
 his auditors were of course non-professional students, while 
 others had already gone through the usual curriculum. After 
 a few years the numbers appear to have diminished. Latterly 
 Sir William delivered lectures only in alternate years; and 
 when the salary ceased to be paid, through the bankruptcy of 
 the city, he did not lecture at all. Though this was not the 
 sphere in which he was destined to achieve a high or general 
 reputation, he yet made on the few who listened to him a very 
 powerful impression. " In 1829," says Mr Archibald Russell, 
 writing from New York in 1864, " I attended his course of 
 lectures on History, and still remember the earnestness with 
 which he described the Thirty Years' War and the changes 
 of public opinion in Germany." " The most distinguished 
 students of the University," said Professor Wilson, "spoke 
 with enthusiasm of the sagacity, learning, eloquence, and 
 philosophical spirit of those lectures." 
 
 In the same year in which he was appointed to the History 
 Chair, Sir William was elected a Foreign Member of the 
 Society for the Study of the German Language at Berlin. 
 This seems to have been the first of the many honours 
 which he received from foreign countries. 
 
 A portion of the summer of 1823 was passed at St Andrews. 
 
108 HIS PURSUITS AT ST ANDREWS. 
 
 In those days the ancient city had not become a place of 
 fashionable resort in summer. Access to it was not so easy 
 as now. It was the old university town primitive in char- 
 acter with a society peculiarly its own. Modern improve- 
 ment, in the form of excellent pavements and the demolition 
 of historical monuments, had fortunately not yet come near 
 it. Sir William's delight in the relics of the past and their 
 associations was there fully gratified. During his stay he was, 
 moreover, deeply immersed in the study of the poetry and life 
 of his favourite author, George Buchanan ; and we may imagine 
 the special interest which the residence and place of teaching 
 of the great Scottish scholar had in his eyes. 
 
 It does not appear that he took any part in the exciting 
 pastime of the links, but he had an opportunity of gratifying 
 his marked taste for a fine expanse of sea and coast-line. In 
 the very agreeable society connected with the University, Sir 
 William found several congenial spirits, with whom ever after- 
 wards he kept up friendly relations. The usages of this 
 society were no less primitive than the appearance of the old 
 town. The dinner-hour was four o'clock, the evenings were 
 generally spent in playing long commerce, which was pretty 
 often kept up till midnight, after which there was the walk 
 home along the unpaved street with the lass and the lantern, 
 varied on rainy evenings by the transport in succession of the 
 ladies of the party in the solitary sedan-chair which the city 
 then boasted. 
 
 The library of the old University held out for Sir William 
 a powerful attraction. It contained certain folios not readily, 
 or even at all, to be met with elsewhere in Britain among 
 others, Durandus on the Sentences. A rare schoolman was 
 to him simply irresistible ; and thus the greater part of his 
 time was spent in the library in the engrossing study of a 
 commentator on Peter Lombard, or in an arduous hunt through 
 the various works of John Major. A commonplace-book of 
 this period, formed on no very definite principle, contains the 
 fruits of his researches during the summer. The chief 
 
STUDY OF MODERN LATIN POETRY. 109 
 
 topics investigated appear to have been the scholastic doctrine 
 of Species, and the distinction of Intuitive, Eepresentative, 
 and Abstractive Knowledge, as given by Durandus and other 
 schoolmen ; a notice of traces of Idealism in the older philo- 
 sophers, and of those philosophers who held an intuitive and 
 representative knowledge of external objects. It is interest- 
 ing to find in this coimnonplace-book distinct evidence of his 
 having already thought out that doctrine of Intuitive Percep- 
 tion which was given to the world seven years afterwards in 
 the ' Edinburgh Eeview ' of April 1830. The other points 
 touched upon are the Infinite, Common Sense, and Beauty. 
 The jottings on these subjects are probably of later date. 
 
 The study of Buchanan, which he prosecuted with so much 
 interest at St Andrews, had begun even in his Oxford days, 
 and was continued during his lifetime. Buchanan was, in- 
 deed, only the favourite author in a line of reading to which 
 he was enthusiastically devoted, and to which about this time 
 especially he gave much attention. This was the Latin poetry 
 of the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries. Sir 
 William's collection of the poets of this period was both ample 
 and rare, and his acquaintance with them very thorough. 
 There are in the library upwards of two hundred volumes of 
 the modern Latin poets, including individual authors and col- 
 lected editions. With Buchanan he was peculiarly conversant. 
 He has left an annotated copy of Euddiman's quarto edi- 
 tion of his works, which, for the number and quality of the 
 illustrative quotations and references to ancient and modern 
 Latin poetry, is a monument worthy of a classical scholar of 
 the highest distinction. The materials which he gathered, 
 with a view to a life of the poet, were also very ample. These 
 labours were expended in pursuance of the scheme of a com- 
 plete edition of Buchanan's poems. The work was never 
 finished; but the portion overtaken is very great, and, with 
 a little careful revision and superintendence, would, if pub- 
 lished, form a valuable contribution to the poetic literature of 
 that period. Visitors at Great King Street will remember the 
 
110 MODERN LATIN POETS. 
 
 excellent portrait of " old George" so he was spoken of in the 
 family which hung on the wall of the library. It was an 
 early purchase of Sir William's the only one of the kind he 
 ever made and was considered by him as an original picture. 
 Another favourite Latin poet was James Balde* (born 
 1603, died 1668) the " Vates Boiorum," the Horace of 
 Alsace eulogised by Herder and A. W. Schlegel. Herder's 
 enthusiasm for Balde breaks out in the strongest manner : 
 " Starke Gesinnungen, erhabene Gedanken, goldne Lehren, 
 vermischt mit zarten Empfindungen furs Wohl der Mensch- 
 heit und fur das Gliick seines Vaterlandes, stromen aus seiner 
 vollen Brust, aus seiner innig bewegten Seele."-f- "Highly 
 as Sir William admired the grace and beauty of Buchanan's 
 lyrjcs, I almost think," says Mr George Moir, " that the racy 
 vigour of Balde was more in harmony with his own masculine 
 tastes. How often have I heard him recite with enthusiasm the 
 noble stanzas on the death of Tappenheim (killed at Lutzen, 
 1632, just as he was bringing his celebrated corps into action 
 to the aid of Wallenstein against Gustavus Adolphus) : 
 
 * Jacet ille magnus 
 Qui cadit magnus ; celebrat ruina, 
 Non premit fortem ; titubatque pulchra 
 
 Truncus in ira. 
 
 Vulnus arniatum decorat cadaver, 
 Comit hoc rupti sacer oris horror ; 
 Et cicatrices et adhuc ferocis 
 
 Rudera viiltus.' " J 
 
 In addition to Buchanan and Balde, Sir William seems to 
 have had a marked preference for the three authors "the 
 famous triumvirate " who adorned the first half of the six- 
 teenth century, an epoch distinguished for its Latin poetry. 
 
 * Balde (Jacobi) Poemata, 2 vols., Colonise Ubiorum, 1660. Opera Omnia 
 Poetica, 8 vols., Monachii, 1729. Carmina Selecta (ed. J. 0. Orelli), Zurici, 
 1805. Carolina Selecta (ed. Rohn), Viennse et Cremisfe, 1824. Carrnina 
 Lyrica (ed. Muller), Monachii, 1844. The above are all in Sir William's 
 library. 
 
 f See Miiller's edition, ' Herder an den Deutschen Leser. ' 
 
 $ Carmina Lyrica, 1. i. od. 19. 
 
MODERN LATIN POETS. Ill 
 
 These were Sannazarius, Vida, and Fracastorius. Sannazarius 
 (1458-1530) has a high repute for the purity of his Latinity 
 and the harmony and variety of his versification. These char- 
 acteristics, apart even from his purely poetical power, were 
 congenial to Sir William's tastes. The ' De Partu Virginis ' of 
 Sannazarius is regarded as one of the most finished of modern 
 Latin poems. Mr Hallam says of his Piscatory Eclogues " that 
 they seem to breathe the beauty and sweetness of that fair 
 bay they describe," and that " his Elegies are such as may 
 compete with Tibullus." * Vida of Cremona (1480-1566), 
 who took Virgil for his model, has left us, among other pieces, 
 the 'De Arte Poetica' and the ' Eclogse.' [ In the former 
 lie treats of the education of the poet, of invention, and of 
 elocution. The ' De Arte Poetica ' has been frequently trans- 
 lated into other languages, and has influenced the views 
 of the French critics on the subject of epic poetry. Mr 
 Hallam says of Vida that, "notwithstanding some Brilliant 
 passages, among which the conclusion of the second book 
 'De Arte Poetica' is prominent, he is far inferior to San- 
 nazarius." The third of the triumvirate is Fracastorius { 
 (1483-1553), distinguished by the universality of his attain- 
 ments and the rare vigour of his intellect. Critics are divided 
 in opinion as to the relative superiority of the two great works 
 of Sannazarius and Fracastorius. Fracastorius, in Mr Hallam's 
 opinion, is " the greater poet ; " Sannazarius " the better author 
 of Latin verses." 
 
 Besides the names already mentioned, Sir William relished 
 the racy invectives against the Church of Baptista Mantuanus, 
 
 * Literature of Europe, i. p. 597. The library contains Saunazarii (Actii 
 Sinceri) Opera Latina, omnia et integra, Amstelodami, 1689. There is also the 
 edition of Broukhusius, Amstel., 1728. The 'Arcadia' of Sannazarius passed 
 through sixty editions in the sixteenth century. Tiraboschi speaks of it in 
 terms of high encomium. 
 
 t Vidae (Marci Hieronymi) Poemata (ed. Tristram), Oxonii, 1722. De 
 Arte Poetica, libri iii. (ed. Klotzius), Altenburgi, 1766. 
 
 Fracastorii (Hieronymi) Syphilis sive Morbus Gallicus (ed. Choulant) ; 
 Lipsise, 1830. Also the second and third Juntine editions of his Opera 
 Omnia. 
 
112 MODERN LATIN POETS. 
 
 once very celebrated, but now nearly forgotten.* Janus 
 Douza,-f OwenJ (in Latin Audoenus, 1560-1622, of New 
 College, Oxford), and the two Scaligers were also favour- 
 ites. 
 
 Sir William's proficiency in the department of learning of 
 which we have now been speaking, is shown in a characteris- 
 tic way in the following anecdote. Dr Parr, when in Edin- 
 burgh, some time before 1820, met Sir William at the house 
 of Dr John Thomson, the distinguished Professor of Patho- 
 logy in the University. " Sir William astonished the colos- 
 sal philologist by evincing a range and accuracy of scholarship 
 not inferior to his own. The erudite doctor, probably in 
 gracious condescension to the society in which he found him- 
 self, had at first discoursed of Greek philosophy, his know- 
 ledge of which was certainly extensive, but finding he did 
 not achieve any decided superiority in this chosen walk, be- 
 took himself to an obscurer field of learning, where he natu- 
 rally expected to reign alone ; he led the conversation to- 
 wards the later and less known Latin poets, with their imita- 
 tors at the revival of letters, and in still more recent times, 
 but he soon discovered that even here his companion was at 
 home ; until at length, finding that, turn where he would, the 
 young Advocate before him could not only follow step by step, 
 but was actually able to continue his quotations and correct 
 his references, his imperturbable superiority gave way, and he 
 
 * The poems of Mantuan were first collected and published about the eud 
 of the fifteenth century. In Sir William's library, among other editions, is 
 Mantuani (Baptistse) Opera Omnia, 4 vols., Antverpiae, 15/6. 
 
 t Douzse (Jani) Poemata pleraque selecta (ed. Scriverius), Lugd. Bat., 1609. 
 
 J Oweni (Joannis) Epigrammata, Vratislavise, 1680. The library contains also 
 the Basle edition, with MS. notes, 1766 ; Renouard's edition, 1794 ; and that of 
 Ebert, Leipsic, 1824. Owen's epigram against the simony of the Court of 
 Rome, which cost the author his uncle's estate, is worth quoting : 
 
 " An fuerit Petrus Romse sub judice lis est; 
 Simonem Romse nemo fuisse negat." 
 
 Scaligeri (Jul. Cses.) Poemata Divina, In Bibliop. Commeliniano, 1600. 
 Poetices, libri vii., 1617. Scaligeri (Jos. Justi) Poemata Omnia, ex Museo 
 Pet. Scriverii; Ex offic. Plantin., Raphelengii, 1615. 
 

 
 PHRENOLOGY. 113 
 
 was startled into the sudden inquiry, ' Why, who are you, sir ? ' 
 The doctor, as afterwards appeared, did not forget Sir William 
 Hamilton, nor lose the impression his extraordinary acquire- 
 ments had made upon him."* 
 
 Besides modern Latin poetry, the various points in the 
 theory of Greek and Latin grammar had a special attraction 
 for Sir William ; and this study he prosecuted, as usual, with 
 great historical thoroughness. A special nook of the library 
 contains his collection of grammarians, ancient and modern 
 an exceedingly rare and curious one. His interest in the 
 subject was quickened about 1823 by the ingenious specu- 
 lations of the late learned Principal Hunter of St Andrews, 
 which were communicated to the Eoyal Society of Edinburgh 
 (20th January of that year), and published in its Trans- 
 actions under the title of " Conjectures on the Analogy ob- 
 served in the Formation of some of the Tenses of the Greek 
 Verb." Sir William, in two papers read before the same 
 body, reviewed the grounds of Dr Hunter's opinion under 
 the title of "A Theory in regard to the original approxima- 
 tion of the First and Second Aorists of the Greek Verb." 
 Coinciding generally in Dr Hunter's view, he yet criticised 
 with great learning and acuteness the steps of the Doctor's 
 reasoning in refutation of the hypotheses of other gram- 
 marians and in support of his own doctrine. The papers are 
 characterised by the author's usual nicety and refinement of 
 distinction, and prodigality of reference to authorities. He 
 cites the grammarians from Apollonius Dyscolius of the 
 second century, down through Herodian, Zonaras, Eustathius, 
 Macrobius, Prisciau, Sanctius, Lascaris, Linacer, to Matthias 
 and Hermann most of them "nomina non prius audita" 
 in Scotland, and particularly in the Koyal Society of Edin- 
 burgh. 
 
 The pretensions of phrenology commenced shortly before 
 
 1820 to attract attention in Scotland, especially in Edinburgh, 
 
 through the zealous efforts of Mr George Combe. Sir William 
 
 * Edinburgh Essays Sir W. Hamilton ; by Professor Baynes. 
 
 H 
 
114 PHYSIOLOGICAL RESEARCHES. 
 
 was led, through his interest in anatomy and physiology the 
 studies of his youth and through his views of psychological 
 science, to sift carefully the claims of the new doctrine of 
 mind, and method of investigating the mental phenomena, 
 propounded by Gall, Spurzheim, and their followers. It 
 had been not uncommon to meet the phrenological doctrines 
 by reasoning to their supposed consequences, and seek- 
 ing to show these to be hurtful to the interests of morality 
 and religion. Sir William had too just an appreciation of 
 scientific method to admit the legitimacy of such a proced- 
 ure. "That the results of phrenology are repugnant to 
 those previously admitted, is but a sorry reason for not in- 
 quiring into their foundation. . . . This doctrine pro- 
 fesses to be founded on sensible facts. Sensible facts must 
 be shown to be false, not by reasoning, but by experiment ; 
 for as old Fernelius has well expressed it, ' Insipientis arro- 
 gantise est argumentationis necessitatem sensuum testimonio 
 anteponere.' " He set himself accordingly, with characteristic 
 zeal and care, to examine the alleged grounds of fact on which 
 the new science was based. He addressed himself to the 
 investigation of its principal general doctrines particularly 
 those respecting the function of the cerebellum, and the 
 existence and extent of the frontal sinuses. This was the 
 first thorough scrutiny of the science on its proper grounds 
 which was made in this country. His observations and 
 experiments, which were carried out with his own hand, 
 were conducted in a singularly careful, sagacious, and method- 
 ical manner. They resulted in conclusions that are entirely 
 subversive of the phrenological allegations on the points at 
 issue ; in the correction of certain prevailing physiological 
 errors ; and in discoveries of very considerable importance 
 both in physiology and anatomy. His conduct of these re- 
 searches shows very conclusively, that if he usually gave but 
 little attention to the investigation of physical phenomena it 
 was not from want of capacity, but because of his stronger 
 interest in other pursuits. 
 

 CONTROVERSY WITH PHRENOLOGISTS. 115 
 
 The first results of his researches on this subject were given 
 in a paper which he read before the Eoyal Society in Decem- 
 ber 1826, under the title of " Practical Consequences of the 
 Theory of the Functions of the Brain of Dr Gall." This was 
 followed by another paper in 1827. He also read two lectures 
 on the subject in the Chemistry class-room of the University, 
 before a crowded audience of supporters and opponents of 
 phrenology. " They sparkled," says one who heard them, 
 " with fine irony, and abounded in facts which a goodly array 
 of real skulls fully confirmed." * 
 
 Sir William was recognised at this period as the most 
 formidable opponent whom the phrenologists had to en- 
 counter. Nor was it only in public that he was called upon 
 to combat phrenology. " I was invited/' says Archdeacon 
 Sinclair, "by a zealous phrenologist, Mr Hamilton, to meet 
 at dinner Sir William and the celebrated George Combe. 
 ' I hope/ said Mr Hamilton, ' to have a great phrenological 
 field-day, by securing an equal number of phrenologists and 
 anti-phrenologists to back these two champions, Sir William 
 and Mr Combe. You must come to support Sir William. 
 I can easily bring together as many well-informed phreno- 
 logists as I please to support Mr Combe; but I can hardly 
 find a single anti-phrenologist who is not wholly ignorant 
 on the subject/ I accepted the invitation. The discus- 
 sion lasted the whole evening, and was extremely interest- 
 ing. Sir William, as our host apprehended, had not his 
 full quota of supporters, but he had at his command a sur- 
 prising battery of arguments and references which never failed 
 him." 
 
 The papers read before the Koyal Society led to a contro- 
 versial correspondence with Mr Combe, and afterwards with 
 Dr Spurzheim, on his visit to Edinburgh in 1828. Dr Spurz- 
 heim was desirous of a public oral discussion on the points at 
 issue, with a view to obtain a decision upon them by the vote 
 
 * He afterwards gave the substance of these papers as lectures in the class 
 of Logic and Metaphysics. 
 
116 RESULTS OF HIS RESEARCHES. 
 
 of the audience. Sir William very decidedly declined both 
 the discussion and the tribunal.* 
 
 His final conclusion regarding phrenology is forcibly ex- 
 pressed probably in his own words in the following state- 
 ment of his friend Mr George Moir, who first became ac- 
 quainted with him about this period : " So tolerant was Sir 
 William of all opinions, that I may say phrenology was the 
 only doctrine he could not tolerate. He had studied it with 
 care, and mastered very completely the anatomy of the brain. 
 . . . The result was, he had come to look on phrenology 
 as a mischievous humbug." 
 
 The physiological and anatomical inquiries thus commenced 
 in connection with phrenology were continued for many 
 years subsequent to 1826, and extended to points which 
 Sir William had not originally intended to embrace, such 
 as the weight and relative proportions of the brain in man 
 and animals under varying circumstances. The results of 
 his inquiries were published at different times in Dr Monro's 
 'Anatomy of the Brain' (1831), 'Edinburgh New Philoso- 
 phical Journal,' vol. xlviii. (1850), 'Medical Times,' 1845.-(- 
 On the subject of the cerebellum and the brain generally, his 
 researches were most careful and extended. "It was cer- 
 tain discoveries," he tells us, "which I made in regard to 
 the laws of development and the function of this organ [the 
 cerebellum], and the desire of establishing these by an induc- 
 tion from as many of the species as possible of the animal 
 kingdom, that led me into a more extensive inquiry than 
 has hitherto been instituted by any professional physiolo- 
 gist. . . . My tables extend to above 1000 brains of 
 above 50 species of animals, accurately weighed by a delicate 
 balance." J 
 
 * See a voluminous correspondence between Hamilton and Combe, &c., in 
 the Phrenological Journal, vol. iv. p. 377-407 (1827), and vol. v. p. 1-82 
 (1828). 
 
 t Collected and reprinted in Lectures on Metaphysics, voL L Appendix. 
 
 Lectures on Metaphysics, vol. i. Appendix, p. 408. 
 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 117 
 
 His conclusions regarding the development and real func- 
 tion of the cerebellum are curious and important. He held 
 it to be " the intra-cranial organ of the nutritive faculty," and 
 " the condition of voluntary or systematic motion." * 
 
 He conducted his numerous experiments with his own 
 hand sawing open skulls, dissecting, and testing the weight 
 of brains. His juvenile friends, of whom he had always an 
 attached following, were employed in scouring the fields for 
 animals on which to experiment ; and the yard of his house 
 at Manor Place was filled with rabbits, poultry, &c., which 
 ate, slept, and moved about with their heads transfixed with 
 needles in different directions, in defiance of phrenological and 
 physiological predictions that these functions must thereby 
 be instantly arrested. " There was," says Lady Hamilton, " a 
 constant succession of young animals about the house, for 
 the purpose of being experimented on. Pins or wires were 
 passed in various directions through their heads by Sir Wil- 
 liam, and the consequent effects on their powers of motion, 
 sight, taking of food, &c., were not only considered by him 
 scientifically valuable, but sometimes were so comical as to 
 afford us much amusement, indeed to watch these vagaries 
 was a favourite diversion of Sir William's. When we made 
 a visit in the country, he took his instruments with him, and 
 would get hold of fowls and chickens, which he left with 
 wires sticking in their heads, and which were sometimes sent 
 to him months afterwards to show how well they had thriven, 
 notwithstanding this unusual treatment." 
 
 While opposed to phrenology, he was much interested in 
 animal magnetism, and disposed apparently to believe in the 
 more general facts on which it is founded at least to regard 
 them as matter for careful scientific investigation. To one 
 who was indisposed to accept the apparent phenomena of 
 mesmerism, he remarked, " Before you set aside the science 
 of the mesmerist, you ought to read the evidence in its favour 
 
 * See Lectures, vol. i. Appendix, p. 410. 
 
118 MR GILLIES'S REMINISCENCES. 
 
 given by all the greatest medical authorities in Germany.' 
 "Sir William had no doubt," says a friend, "of the power 
 of mesmerism in nervous temperaments to produce sleep and 
 other cognate phenomena ; but he utterly disbelieved clair- 
 voyance : and when Mr Colquhoun used to bring forward 
 instances to that effect, he would remind him of the story of 
 the 1000 bank-note which had been lying sealed up for years, 
 ready to be delivered to any clairvoyant who, without opening 
 the envelope, could read its contents." 
 
 Sir William had frequent experiments at his house in mes- 
 merism, along with the friend just mentioned, Mr J. C. 
 Colquhoun, a brother advocate, and for many years Sheriff of 
 Dumbartonshire. Mr Colquhoun was the author of ' Isis Ee- 
 velata,' a work which contains a singularly extensive collec- 
 tion of facts and testimonies on the subject of animal magnet- 
 ism. He had studied at GOttingen, where his interest had 
 been excited in the subject of his book, and where he had 
 laid the foundations of a wide acquaintance with German 
 literature. This degree of community in their interests helped 
 to foster the constant and affectionate intimacy which sub- 
 sisted between him and Sir William. 
 
 Another of Sir William's friends at this period was Mr 
 E. P. Gillies. Gillies was a man of talent and considerable 
 accomplishments, thoroughly familiar with the lighter kinds 
 of German literature. His poetical ability was respectable. 
 He contributed to ' Blackwood's Magazine,' from its com- 
 mencement up to 1827, a series of papers entitled "Horse 
 Germanicse" and "Horae Danicse." These were the means 
 of first making known to the British public the works of 
 Milliner, Grillparzer, Houwald, and others. In 1826 ap- 
 peared his ' German Stories, selected from the works of Hoff- 
 mann, De la Motte Fouque, Pichler, Kruse, and others.' With 
 all his attainments Gillies was eccentric to the last degree. 
 Sir William did every justice to his talent. He considered 
 the ' German Stories/ as translations, fully equal to anything 
 done by Carlyle. But he had at the same time an exceed- 
 
MR GILLIES'S REMINISCENC 
 
 ingly keen perception of Gillies's absurdities, 
 him, as lie said, " a kind of inspired idiot." * 
 
 The following extract from the ' Memoirs of a Literary 
 Veteran/ published by Gillies in 1851, throws light on Sir 
 William's habits at this period : " Among impressions of 
 this epoch [1823-25], few are more pleasant in retrospection 
 than those of long pedestrian excursions, in company with 
 two near neighbours, numbered still among the few surviv- 
 ing friends who have not changed their conduct towards 
 me during the chance and change to which I have been 
 subjected I mean Sir William Hamilton and Mr J. C. 
 Colquhoun. Dissimilar as were the members of this petit 
 comite, there was, at all events, one point on which we quite 
 agreed namely, in a hearty liking for long walks out of town, 
 reckless whether the season was that of wintry storms or 
 summer sunshine. Numberless were the subjects broached 
 in these rambles, and numberless as the changes in Dr 
 Brewster's kaleidoscope, the lights and shades which they 
 assumed under our desultory discussions. Sir William Ham- 
 ilton's researches in literature generally, but especially in that 
 of the middle ages, had already been almost unprecedented, 
 and I suppose have continued to progress up to the present 
 date. But the conclusions at which he arrived (if such they 
 could be called) were somewhat eccentric, for according to 
 him, all that might now be projected had already been ; there 
 was mutation without any real progress. In his estimation, 
 the chateaux en Espagne of which I dreamed had woefully 
 little chance. They were scarcely allowed to have their poor 
 transitory being among the clouds. It was impossible to 
 table any literary plan which he did not immediately smother 
 by numberless references and citations, to show how much 
 had been already done towards it without effect, his purpose 
 seemingly being to evince that nothing of any real importance 
 could be effected. In reality, perhaps, his object was very 
 different. At all events, the consequences were very pleasant 
 
 * Mr George Moir's notes. 
 
120 MR CARLYLE'S REMINISCENCES. 
 
 and profitable ; for by a merciless application of the principle 
 of contradiction (Satz des Wider spruchs), topics religious, 
 political, ethical, and sesthetical, were discussed and investi- 
 gated in a manner of which otherwise there would have been 
 no chance. Many animated debates yet linger on my remem- 
 brance, of which the objective matter was too serious to be 
 fitted for these hasty pages. I think Sir William Hamilton 
 was (and perhaps is) as much inclined as the late Malcolm 
 Laing to use the said principle of contradiction this being 
 necessary towards the conclusions of logic as well as of mathe- 
 matics. In those days, having leisure time, he derived much 
 amusement from the prevalent rage at Edinburgh for the doc- 
 trines of Gall and Spurzheim, and, for pastime, he entered 
 into a series of experiments, measurements, and dissections, 
 to prove how erroneous were their dicta. I remember how 
 heartily he was diverted one morning, when, on comparing 
 Voltaire's head with mine, he found by his craniometrical 
 process that the stupid dolt, who never uttered a bon mot in 
 his life, nevertheless possessed a bump of wit much more pro- 
 nonctf than that of the far-famed Frenchman." * 
 
 The following reminiscences by another of Sir William's 
 associates at this period will be read with much interest. The 
 name of Thomas Carlyle is identified, more than that of any 
 man now living, with the best and freshest intellectual and 
 moral influences of the last thirty-five years. And amid cer- 
 tain outward differences of form, there may be traced a real 
 unity in the characters and life-aims of Hamilton and Carlyle. 
 Both stand out in the history of those past years conspicuous 
 for fervour, simplicity of purpose, noble -heartedness, and a 
 resolute adherence to their respective self-chosen, somewhat 
 isolated, tracks of thought and conviction ; sustained alike 
 by the unwavering belief that, whatever the world around 
 them might think, the best thing for it was the sense of the 
 absolute worth the absolute inconvertibility with any other 
 earthly good of a love of truth as truth, in thought and action. 
 * Memoirs of a Literary Veteran, vol. iii. p. 93-95. 
 
MR CARLYLE'S REMINISCENCES. 121 
 
 "I have in my memory nothing that is worth recording 
 about Sir William Hamilton ; pleasant as all my recollections 
 of him are, they cover but a small space, and that not in the 
 conspicuous or famous portion of his life ; and can have no- 
 thing new to those that had the honour of any acquaintance 
 with him. Here, nevertheless, they are, tales quotes. 
 
 " Well onward in my student-life at Edinburgh I think it 
 may have been in 1819 or 1820 I used to pass, most morn- 
 ings, on my way college-ward, by the east side of St Andrew 
 Square, and a certain alley or short cut thereabouts called 
 Gabriel's Road, which led out to the very end of Princes 
 Street, directly opposite the North Bridge close by the place 
 which afterwards became famous as Ambrose's Tavern. Both 
 Gabriel and Ambrose, I find, are now abolished, and the 
 locality not recognisable; but doubtless many remember it 
 for one reason or another, as I do for the following. 
 
 " Somewhere in Gabriel's Eoad, there looked out on me, 
 from the Princes Street or St David Street side,* a back 
 window on the ground -floor of a handsome enough house ; 
 window which had no curtains ; and visible on the sill of it 
 were a quantity of books lying about, gilt quartos and con- 
 spicuous volumes, several of them ; evidently the sitting room 
 and working room of a studious man, whose lot, in this safe 
 seclusion, I viewed with a certain loyal respect. ' Has a fine 
 silent neighbourhood,' thought I ; ' a fine north light, and 
 wishes to save it all/ Inhabitant within I never noticed by 
 any other symptom; but from my comrades soon learned 
 whose house and place of study this was. 
 
 u The name of Sir William Hamilton I had before heard ; 
 but this was the first time he appeared definitely before 
 my memory or imagination ; in which his place was per- 
 manent thenceforth. A man of good birth, I was told, 
 though of small fortune, who had deep faculties and an 
 insatiable appetite for wise knowledge; was titularly an 
 
 * There is an inaccuracy here respecting the locality of the house. At this 
 period Sir William was living in Howe Street. 
 
122 MR CARLYLE'S REMINISCENCES. 
 
 advocate here, but had no practice, nor sought any ; had 
 gathered his modest means thriftily together, and sat down 
 here, with his mother and sister (cousin, I believe, it really 
 was), and his ample store of books ; frankly renouncing all 
 lower ambitions, and indeed all ambitions together, except 
 what I well recognised to be the highest and one real ambi- 
 tion in this dark ambiguous world. A man honourable to 
 me, a man lovingly enviable ; to whom, in silence, I heartily 
 bade good speed. It was also an interesting circumstance, 
 which did not fail of mention, that his ancestor, Hamilton of 
 Preston, was leader of the Cameronians at Bothwell Brig, 
 and had stood by the Covenant and Cause of Scotland in that 
 old time and form. ' This baronetcy, if carried forward on 
 those principles, may well enough be poor,' thought I ; ' and 
 beautifully well may it issue in such a Hamilton as this one 
 aims to be, still piously bearing aloft, on the new terms, his 
 God's-Banner intrepidly against the World and the Devil ! ' 
 
 " It was years after this, perhaps four or five, before I had 
 the honour of any personal acquaintance with Sir William ; 
 his figure on the street had become familiar, but I forget, too, 
 when this was first pointed out to me ; and cannot recollect 
 even when I first came to speech with him, which must have 
 been by accident and his own voluntary favour, on some slight 
 occasion, probably at The Advocates' Library, which was my 
 principal or almost sole literary resource (lasting thanks to it, 
 alone of Scottish institutions !) in those obstructed, neglectful, 
 and grimly-forbidding years. Perhaps it was in 1824 or 1825. 
 I recollect right well the bright affable manners of Sir William, 
 radiant with frank kindliness, honest humanity, and intelli- 
 gence ready to help ; and how completely prepossessing they 
 were. A fine firm figure of middle height ; one of the finest 
 cheerfully-serious human faces, of square, solid, and yet rather 
 aquiline type ; a little marked with smallpox marked, not 
 deformed, but rather the reverse* (like a rock rough -hewn, 
 
 * This impression is not correct. Sir William's face had no marks of 
 smallpox. 
 
MR CARLYLE'S REMINISCENCES. 123 
 
 not spoiled by polishing) ; and a pair of the beautifullest 
 kindly-beaming hazel eyes, well open, and every now and 
 then with a lambency of smiling fire in them, which I always 
 remember as if with trust and gratitude. Our conversation 
 did not amount to much, in those times ; mainly about Ger- 
 man books, philosophies and persons, it is like; and my 
 usual place of abode was in the country then. Letter to him, 
 or from, I do not recollect there was ever any ; though there 
 might well enough have been, had either of us been prone 
 that way. 
 
 " In the end of 1826 I came to live in Edinburgh under 
 circumstances new and ever memorable to me : from then till 
 the spring of 1828 and, still more, once again in 1832-33, 
 when I had brought my little household to Edinburgh for the 
 winter must have been the chief times of personal intercourse 
 between us. I recollect hearing much more of him, in 1826 
 and onward, than formerly : to what depths he had gone in 
 study and philosophy ; of his simple, independent, meditative 
 habits, ruggedly athletic modes of exercise, fondness for his 
 big dog, &c. &c. : everybody seemed to speak of him with 
 favour, those of his immediate acquaintance uniformly with 
 affectionate respect. 
 
 " I did not witness, much less share in, any of his swimming 
 or other athletic prowesses. I have once or twice been on 
 long walks with him in the Edinburgh environs, oftenest with 
 some other companion, or perhaps even two, whom he had 
 found vigorous and worthy : pleasant walks and abundantly 
 enlivened with speech from Sir William. He was willing to 
 talk of any humanly-interesting subject ; and threw out sound 
 observations upon any topic started : if left to his own choice, 
 he circled and gravitated, naturally, into subjects that were 
 his own, and were habitually occupying him; of which, I 
 can still remember animal magnetism and the German revival 
 of it, not yet known of in England, was one that frequently 
 turned up. Mesmer and his ' four Academicians/ he assured 
 us, had not been the finale of that matter; that it was a 
 
124 MR CARLYLE'S REMINISCENCES. 
 
 matter tending into realities far deeper and more intricate 
 than had been supposed ; of which, for the rest, he did not 
 seem to augur much good, but rather folly and mischief. 
 Craniology, too, he had been examining ; but freely allowed 
 us to reckon that an extremely ignorant story. On German 
 bibliography and authors, especially of the learned kind 
 Erasmus, Kuhnken, Ulrich von Hutten he could descant 
 copiously, and liked to be inquired of. On Kant, Eeid, and 
 the metaphysicians, German and other, though there was 
 such abundance to have said, he did not often speak; but 
 politely abstained rather, when not expressly called on. 
 
 "He was finely social and human, in these walks or in- 
 terviews. Honesty, frankness, friendly veracity, courageous 
 trust in humanity and in you, were charmingly visible. His 
 talk was forcible, copious, discursive, careless rather than 
 otherwise ; and, on abstruse topics, I observed, was apt to 
 become embroiled and revelly, much less perspicuous and 
 elucidative than with a little deliberation he could have made 
 it. ' The fact is/ he would often say : and then plunging into 
 new circuitous depths and distinctions, again on a new grand, 
 ' The fact is,' and still again, till what the essential ' fact ' 
 might be was not a little obscure to you. He evidently had 
 not been engaged in speaking these things, but only in think- 
 ing them, for his own behoof, not yours. By lucid questioning 
 you could get lucidity from him on any topic. Nowhere did 
 he give you the least notion of his not understanding the 
 thing himself; but it lay like an unwinnowed threshing-floor, 
 the corn-grains, the natural chaff, and somewhat even of the 
 straw, still unseparated there. This sometimes would befall, 
 not only when the meaning itself was delicate or abstruse, but 
 also if several were listening, and he doubted whether they 
 could understand. On solid realistic points he was abun- 
 dantly luminous ; promptitude, solid sense, free-flowing intel- 
 ligibility always the characteristics. The tones of his voice 
 were themselves attractive, physiognomic of the man : a 
 strong, carelessly-melodious, tenor voice, the sound of it be- 
 
MR CARLYLE'S REMINISCENCES. 125 
 
 tokening seriousness and cheerfulness ; occasionally something 
 of slightly remonstrative was in the undertones, indicating, 
 well in the background, possibilities of virtuous wrath and 
 fire ; seldom anything of laughter, of levity never anything : 
 thoroughly a serious, cheerful, sincere, and kindly voice, with 
 looks corresponding. In dialogue, face to face, with one he 
 trusted, his speech, both voice and words, was still more en- 
 gaging ; lucid, free, persuasive, with a bell-like harmony, and 
 from time to time, in the bright eyes, a beaming smile, which 
 was the crown and seal of all to you. 
 
 "In the winter 1832-33, Captain Hamilton, Sir William's 
 brother, was likewise resident in Edinburgh ; a pleasant, very 
 courteous, and intelligently-talking man, enduring, in a cheery 
 military humour, his old Peninsular hurts, and printing his 
 Peninsular and other books. At his house I have been of 
 literary parties, of one, at least, which I still remember in 
 an indistinct but agreeable way. Of a similar party at Sir 
 William's I have a still brighter recollection, and of his fine 
 nobly simple ways there ; especially of one little radiancy (his 
 look and his smile the now memorable part of it) privately 
 addressed to myself on the mode of supping I had selected ; 
 supper of one excellent and excellently-boiled potato, of fair 
 size, with salt for seasoning, at an epoch when excellent 
 potatoes yet were. This evening was altogether pleasant, the 
 talk lively and amusing: the Captain, I remember, quizzed 
 me, and obliquely his brother, in a gay good-natured tone on 
 Goethe's ' Last Will ' : the other Edinburgh figures I have 
 entirely forgotten, except a Mr * * *, newspaper editor, 
 author of some book on the Highlands, whom I otherwise 
 knew by sight and rumour (called at that time ' Captain 
 Cloud ' from his occasionally fabulous turn), and who died not 
 long after. 
 
 " I think, though he stood so high in my esteem as a man 
 of intellect and knowledge, I had yet read nothing by Sir 
 William, nor indeed did I ever read anything considerable of 
 what has sent his name over the world ; having years before, 
 
12G MR CARLYLE'S REMINISCENCES. 
 
 for good reasons of my own, renounced all metaphysical study 
 or inquiry, and ceased altogether (as a master phrases it) to 
 ' think about thinking! One evening I recollect listening to 
 a paper on Phrenology, read by him in the Royal Society ; 
 in deliberate examination and refutation of that self-styled 
 science. The meeting was very much larger than usual ; and 
 sat in the deepest silence and attention, and, as it gradually 
 appeared, approval and assent. My own private assent, I 
 know, was complete ; I only wished the subject had been more 
 important or more dubious to me. The argument, grounded 
 on cerebral anatomy (osteology), philosophy, and human 
 sense, I remember, went on in the true style of vires acquirit ; 
 and the crowning finish of it was this : ' Here are two skulls ' 
 (or rather, here were, for the experiment was but reported to 
 us), ' two noteworthy skulls ; let us carefully make trial and 
 comparison of them. One is the skull of a Malay robber and 
 cut-throat, who ended by murdering his mistress and getting 
 hanged ; skull sent me by so-and-so ' (some principal official 
 at Penang) ; ' the other is George Buchanan's skull, preserved 
 in the University here. One is presumably a very bad speci- 
 men of a nation reckoned morally and intellectually bad ; the 
 other a very good, of a nation which surely reckons itself 
 good. One is probably among the best of mankind, the other 
 among the worst. Let us take our callipers, and measure them 
 bump after bump. Bump of benevolence is so-and-so, bump 
 of ideality, and in result, adding all, and balancing all, your 
 callipers declare the Malay to transcend in goodness the 
 Buchanan, by such and such a cipher of inches. A better 
 man, in intellect and heart, that Malay, if there be truth in 
 arithmetic and these callipers of yours ! ' Which latter im- 
 plement, it seemed to me, was finally closed and done for. I 
 said to Sir William next time we met, ' Were I in your place 
 I would decline to say another word on that subject. Malay 
 cut-throat versus Buchanan ; explain me that ; till then I say 
 nothing/ 
 
 "In April 1833 we left Edinburgh; next year went to 
 
MR CARLYLE'S REMINISCENCES. 127 
 
 London ; and I think Sir William and I never met again. 
 For the next thirty and odd years I rarely came to Edinburgh, 
 and then only in transit, and usually at a season when all my 
 friends (of whom he surely was among the chief there) were 
 out of town. From time to time there passed little mementos 
 between us ; sometimes accidental, unintentional, and of a 
 mute nature, which to me were very precious, from a fellow- 
 soldier whom I took to be on the same side with me, and 
 always well assured of my regard as I was of his. In Fife 
 once or twice I heard with regret that his health was failing ; 
 once that he had been lately within reach of where I now 
 was, but had left and was gone. We were to meet in this 
 world no more." 
 
 "CHELSEA, 19th February 1868." 
 
 The following characteristic letter from Mr Carlyle to Sir 
 William was written shortly after the date at which these per- 
 sonal reminiscences terminate : 
 
 5 GREAT CHEYNE Eow, CHELSEA, LONDON, 
 8th July 1834. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR, The hope of ever seeing you at Craigenputtock 
 has now vanished into the infinite limbo. We have broken up our 
 old settlement, and, after tumult enough, formed a new one here, 
 under the most opposite conditions. From the ever-silent whinstones 
 of Nithsdale to the mud-rattling pavements of Piccadilly there is 
 but a step. I feel it the strangest transition j but one uses himself 
 to all. 
 
 Our upholsterers, with all their rubbish and clippings, are at length 
 handsomely swept out of doors. I have got my little book-press 
 set up, my table fixed firm in its place, and sit here awaiting what 
 time and I, in our questionable wrestle, shall make out between us. 
 The house pleases us much ; it is in the remnant of genuine old Dutch- 
 looking Chelsea ; looks out mainly into trees. We might see at 
 half a mile's distance Bolingbroke's Battersea ; could shoot a gun 
 into Smollett's old house (at this very time getting pulled down), 
 where he wrote ' Count Fathom,' and was wont every Saturday to 
 dine a company of hungry authors, and then set them fighting 
 together. Don Saltero's coffee-house still looks as brisk as in Steele's 
 
128 MR CARLYLE'S REMINISCENCES. 
 
 time ; Nell Gwynn's boudoir, still bearing her name, lias become a 
 gin-temple, not inappropriately ; in fine, Erasmus lodged with More 
 (they say) in a spot not five hundred yards from this. We are 
 encompassed with a cloud of witnesses, good, bad, indifferent. 
 
 Of London itself I must not begin to speak. I wish you would 
 come and look at it with me. There is a spare bed here, ample 
 room and verge enough ; and, for welcome, I wish you would under- 
 stand that to be for you infallible at all times. 
 
 Literature seems dying of thin diet and flatulence, but it is not 
 quite so near dead as I had calculated. In all human things there 
 is the strangest vitality. Who knows how long even bookselling 
 may last 1 ? Ever, too, among these mad Maelstroms swims some 
 little casket that will not sink. God mend it ! 
 
 Mrs * * * often speaks of you, but seems to have no recent 
 news. She has got much deeper into the vortex than when I saw 
 her last ; dines with Chancellors ; seems to sit berattled all day with 
 the sound of door-knockers and carriage-wheels, and the melody of 
 drawing-room commonplace, perennial as that of the spheres: for 
 the rest, a most lovable loving woman, to whom I could wish a 
 better element. 
 
 There is some uncertain talk here about founding a new periodi- 
 cal, on another than the bibliopolic principle, with intent to show 
 Liberalism under a better than its present rather sooty and ginshop 
 aspect. I was asked whether your co-operation might be possible. 
 I answered, Possible. If it go on, you will let me write to you 
 farther about it. 
 
 Meanwhile, I am actually going to write a book, and perhaps 
 publish a booklet already written : the former is my enterprise till 
 perhaps spring next. Wish me well through it. 
 
 Will you ever send me a sheet of Edinburgh news? It were 
 very welcome from your hand. Pray tell Moir also where I am, and 
 give my hearty love to him. Think kindly of me ; there are few in 
 Scotland I wish it more from. 
 
 With kind regards to Lady Hamilton, in which my wife, were she 
 here at the moment, would cordially unite, I remain, my dear Sir 
 William, yours most faithfully, T. CARLTLE. 
 
 Captain Hamilton, who had married in 1820, lived, during 
 the years referred to in this chapter, at least in winter, in 
 Edinburgh or its neighbourhood. Sir William was much 
 with his brother and his wife, the latter of whom was a 
 
CAPTAIN HAMILTON'S WORKS. 129 
 
 person of very pleasing manners and accomplishments. Cap- 
 tain Hamilton resided for several summers at Chiefswood, 
 a villa near Melrose, on the Abbotsford property, which he 
 rented from Lockhart, and where his intercourse with Scott 
 was very constant. Sir William would occasionally make a 
 raid on Chiefswood, along with one or two friends. " On one 
 occasion," says Mr George Moir, " Sir William and I started 
 from Edinburgh in company with Gillies, who left us at 
 Abbotsford, his object being, I believe, to try to enlist Sir 
 Walter Scott as a contributor to the ' Foreign Quarterly 
 Keview,' which Lad just been started under the auspices 
 of Gillies as editor. We went on to Chiefswood, and I was 
 charmed with the quiet and beauty of the place. Before 
 dinner we walked to Melrose Abbey, where Sir William 
 pointed out to me the inscription which so deeply interested 
 Washington Irving, ' Here lies the race of the House of Yair.' 
 Sir William sympathised with the feelings of the accom- 
 plished American on the subject." 
 
 It was at Chiefswood that the greater part of ' The Life and 
 Manhood of Cyril Thornton' was written. It appeared in 
 1827, and was most favourably received. The sketches of 
 college, military, and civic life are drawn with great vividness. 
 The portraiture, in particular, of former Glasgow manners, is, 
 whether overdrawn or not, one of the raciest bits of writing 
 in the language. " With little of plot for it pursues the 
 desultory ramblings of military life through various climes 
 it possesses a wonderful truth and reality, great skill in the 
 observation and portraiture of original character, and a pecu- 
 liar charm of style, blending freshness of movement with 
 classic delicacy and grace."* Another work, 'Annals of the 
 Peninsular Campaign/ appeared in 1829. 
 
 In 1829 Captain Hamilton went to Italy, where his wife 
 died at the end of the year. He then visited America, and 
 the result of the observations made in his travels was given 
 
 * Notice of Captain Hamilton in ' Blackwood's Magazine,' February 1843, 
 understood to be by Mr George Moir. 
 
 I 
 
130 SIR WILLIAM CONSULTED BY AUTHORS. 
 
 to the world in ' Men and Manners in America/ which was 
 published in 1833. Its author had anything but sympathy 
 with either the manners or the government of the Americans, 
 and is occasionally exceedingly caustic. " Of this work," says 
 Mr Moir,* "one French and two German translations have 
 already appeared, a work eminently characterised by a tone 
 of gentlemanly feeling, sagacious observation, just views of 
 national character and institutions and their reciprocal influ- 
 ence, and by tolerant criticism." 
 
 Though Sir William had hitherto published nothing, his 
 reputation for wide and varied learning was now well estab- 
 lished in Edinburgh ; and the amplitude of his attainments 
 was only equalled by the generosity with which he imparted 
 his stores to all comers. His readiness to aid the humblest 
 seeker in any department of learning, and that in the simplest 
 and most unassuming manner, was indeed one of the most 
 striking and interesting features of the man. When con- 
 sulted by any one be he friend or stranger on a literary, 
 historical, or philosophical point, for the subject mattered little, 
 such applications found him always prepared ; " nor," as Mr 
 De Quincey remarks, "did it seem to make any difference 
 whether it were the erudition of words or things that was 
 needed." His friends, indeed, looked upon him as a kind of 
 living encyclopaedia, to whom resort might at any time be 
 made for information on any subject, literary, philosophical, 
 or theological. If the books he recommended for reference 
 were not readily to be obtained, his own copies were at once 
 placed at the disposal of the applicant, One would have ima- 
 gined that a knowledge of Etruscan history and antiquities 
 was tolerably wide of his range ; yet we find Mrs Hamilton 
 Gray saying : " I went to the great scholar in fear and trem- 
 bling, believing, in the first place, that he would ridicule the 
 undertaking [the proposed History of Etruria], and, in the 
 second, that he would not give himself trouble upon a woman's 
 account. I received from him the most cordial greeting and 
 
 * Blackwood's Magazine, February 1843. 
 
MR GEORGE MOIR. 131 
 
 the most careful attention. He asked me many questions as 
 from an equal to an equal, and then said that he would think 
 the matter over and give me his advice. Upon a second inter- 
 view he pointed out to me how much the knowledge upon so 
 obscure a subject must be inferential, derived from hints in 
 Latin or Greek history from the evidence of Etruscan com- 
 merce, coins, relics or from words and customs adopted from 
 other nations or imported to them ; and then he recommended 
 to me several historical and critical works, all German, and 
 all of which he lent me. This he continued to do for a series 
 of years, placing his rich library at my disposal. ... It 
 is easy to conceive how nattered I felt at the encouragement 
 of my undertaking by such a man. Without his help I do 
 not think that I could have pursued it." 
 
 A literary consultation was the occasion of the commence- 
 ment of the warm and lifelong friendship which subsisted 
 between Sir William and Mr George Moir. In 1824 Mr 
 Moir, then a young man preparing to pass advocate, was 
 engaged on an article for the ' Edinburgh Keview' on the 
 ancient ballad poetry of Spain, and was encouraged by a 
 mutual friend, Mr Thomson of Banchory, to apply to Sir 
 William for information on the subject, and on the numerous 
 books that had appeared in Germany in reference to it. It was 
 arranged that Mr Moir should meet Sir William one morning 
 at the Advocates' Library. " I confess," says Mr Moir, " the 
 interview appeared to me beforehand rather a formidable one. 
 I had heard of Sir William's almost unequalled examination 
 at Oxford, and of his universal erudition both in philosophy 
 and languages. There was something also in his appearance 
 which had powerfully impressed me. When in repose, indeed, 
 his look was somewhat stern. The massive though well-cut 
 features, the firm, compressed mouth, and the eagle-looking 
 eye, of which the whole pupil was visible, created a feeling 
 akin to awe. But in proportion to this apparent sternness 
 was the charm of his smile, and of his whole manner when 
 animated. To myself he was most indulgent ; and I had not 
 
132 ARCHDEACON SINCLAIR. 
 
 been ten minutes in his company when my anxiety vanished, 
 and I felt an assurance that, however little I might deserve 
 it, we were destined to become not merely acquaintances but 
 friends an assurance which I rejoice to think was verified 
 by the event. He not only took a warm interest in my 
 review, but, as I did not then understand German, explained 
 to me the meaning of passages in the German works bearing 
 on the subject." 
 
 When Mr Moir, some years later, was engaged on his trans- 
 lation of Wallenstein, Sir William kindly "revised and cor- 
 rected the sheets with as much patience and care as if they 
 had been his own composition, till the illness of his mother 
 obliged him to give up the task when nearly completed. His 
 advice always was : translate as literally as possible avoid 
 periphrastic expression ; even roughness is better than any 
 departure from the original."* 
 
 To consult Sir William about a book that was meditated 
 was frequently easier than to follow his advice or meet his 
 criticisms. His friend Archdeacon Sinclair was preparing a 
 work on Episcopacy (afterwards published in 1836). He con- 
 sulted Sir William on the subject. "When I had explained 
 to him," says the Archdeacon, " my line of argument, he 
 said : ' Besides the ordinary English authorities on Episco- 
 pacy, you must get Petavius on the one side, and Salmasius 
 and David Blondel on the other. To read Blondel's treatise 
 "De Sententia Hieronymi," in some few hundred closely- 
 printed pages of dry Latin, will make no bad beginning. 
 When you think you can refute Blondel, bring your essay to 
 me and I shall be glad to hear it.' Some time elapsed," con- 
 tinues the Archdeacon, " before I had sufficiently executed 
 the prescribed task, to be ready for the proposed argumen- 
 tation. At length, however, having satisfied myself, I spent 
 two evenings in Manor Place, reading my essay and hearing 
 all his comments and objections. The result was that I had 
 no small difficulty in devising fresh arguments and collect- 
 * Mr Moir's MS. notes. 
 
VON SCHEEL'S REMINISCENCES. 333 
 
 ing fresh authorities. But I made my base of operations 
 more secure." 
 
 The kind of impression which he made on educated for- 
 eigners, many of whom came to visit him even before his 
 contributions to the 'Edinburgh Eeview' made him generally 
 known abroad, may be gathered from the following notice of 
 him by Dr Albert Von Scheel, Gentleman of the Bedchamber 
 to the King of Prussia, who met him in Edinburgh in 1827 : 
 
 " I must say it gave me considerable surprise to meet in 
 Scotland a gentleman of Sir William Hamilton's peculiar 
 talents and acquirements. ' Can any kind of genius or ac- 
 quirement be surprising in the country of Sir Walter Scott ? ' 
 you will ask. ... Of a high order as Sir Walter Scott's 
 talents are, yet they are peculiarly Scottish ; they are fed and 
 matured and exercised on Scottish objects, and most com- 
 monly applied to them. This is not the case with Sir William 
 Hamilton. Born in Scotland, but educated at Oxford, and 
 afterwards prosecuting his studies on his journeys on the 
 Continent, he has collected a greater store of knowledge than 
 most men I ever met with either in Great Britain or else- 
 where. His reading is immense, for he has considered no 
 branch of science entirely foreign to his pursuits, and his 
 memory is admirable. He undoubtedly is one of the first 
 classical scholars living in Great Britain, and one of the few 
 now living in that country who in Germany would be con- 
 sidered as eminent ones. With a singularly good taste and 
 choice he has studied our own literature, and he is perfectly 
 well acquainted with all that there is best and most solid in 
 it, and, in particular, with our most eminent philosophers. He 
 perhaps is the only Briton who can claim any acquaintance 
 with them at all. After such a description you will conceive 
 that my surprise at meeting with such a gentleman in Scot- 
 land was not ill founded. His views are bold, comprehensive, 
 original, like those of a German, yet his judgment clear, and 
 his discourse refined, like that of an Englishman. Every 
 respectable German who arrives in Edinburgh has a home in 
 
134 DEATH OF HIS MOTHER. 
 
 his house, and even in intellectual respects he here feels him- 
 self at home." * 
 
 In January 1827 Sir William's mother died. His home 
 had always been under his mother's roof, and since 1815 they 
 had lived together in Edinburgh. The home-circle, with his 
 mother as the principal figure, had been one that well suited 
 him, and round which his affections had gathered with a 
 peculiar tenacity and interest. Keen student as he was, he 
 could never at any time bear a solitary life. An outlet in 
 the higher regions of abstract thought was a necessity of 
 his nature, and here he was indifferent to the sympathy of 
 his fellows the more remote, indeed, from the ordinary beat 
 and from commonplace interests was the line of inquiry, the 
 more thorough was his intellectual enjoyment. But the deep 
 social nature of the man yearned for perpetual companionship 
 and sympathy in practical life ; and even in his studies he liked 
 to be with his home-circle, and to have its members aiding 
 him in the mechanical subsidia of fetching books or copying, 
 and performing the numerous offices which affection finds to 
 do for the assiduous scholar who chances to be both rever- 
 enced for his power and loved for his gentleness. With the 
 breaking up of his home-circle there was a severance of the 
 quiet continuity of his past life. To a nature like his so 
 truly social, and at the same time so keenly sensitive, with 
 little self-dependence, moreover, or tact in matters of practical 
 routine, and accustomed to lean on others in this particular, 
 the blow he now experienced was a very severe one for a 
 time, indeed, overwhelming. The two years that immediately 
 followed his mother's death were doubtless the unhappy period 
 of his life. Writing of himself at this time he says : 
 
 [No date, but probably May 1827.] 
 
 Things here go on as usual. I feel the horrors of solitude with 
 daily-increasing bitterness. I suppose I will get accustomed to my 
 fate by degrees, at last. ... I dine at General Cuninghame's 
 to-day, and was last night at Mrs Fitzmaurice's to a dance. I shall 
 
 * Reise in Gross Britaimien im Sommer, 1827. Berlin, 1829. 
 
DEATH OF HIS MOTHER. 135 
 
 get quite gay again, for I cannot feel happy by myself; and all is 
 melancholy in its associations about me in this house. . . . 
 Tom and Annette go off at the beginning of next week for Chiefs- 
 wood. I shall then be far more forlorn. 
 
 16 GREAT KINO STREET, 3d June 1827. 
 
 Once dining out was the greatest of all bores ; now it is a refuge 
 from the recollection of happy days, and the sad contrast of the 
 present with the past. 
 
 So greatly was he prostrated by his mother's death that 
 for some time he appears to have been without energy or 
 spirit to make any exertion. Contrary to his usual methodical 
 habits, he even neglected to return his books to their shelves, 
 or to keep them in any sort of order. The result was, the ne- 
 cessity of a somewhat ludicrous emigration from room to room 
 of the house ; for an accumulation of confusion ensued in one 
 apartment, from which he could free himself only by taking 
 refuge in another. This in like manner was abandoned when 
 it had reached a similar state of disorder. At length he 
 established himself in a large room in the upper story of the 
 house, which commanded a view of the opposite coast and of 
 the Fifeshire hills. He thought it less dismal than any of 
 the usual sitting-rooms, associated as they were in his mind 
 with more cheerful days. In the following year (1828) he 
 removed to a smaller house in Manor Place, in which he con- 
 tinued to reside until 1839. Mr De Quincey, who was in 
 Edinburgh at this period, used kindly to break in on Sir 
 William's evening solitude, accompanied generally by his 
 eldest son and daughter, children of about eight or ten years 
 of age. While the two philosophers discoursed till the small 
 hours of the morning, the two children would be lying asleep 
 on a chair. 
 
 Two years after his mother's death on the 31st March 
 1829 Sir William married his cousin, Miss Marshall, who, 
 as has been noticed, had been an inmate of his mother's 
 family during the last ten years of her life. On this event 
 the character of his subsequent life, and in many respects the 
 

 HIS MARRIAGE. 
 
 ilding of the inner nature of the man, turned in a way and 
 in extent which those only who knew husband and wife 
 can understand. From the first, Lady Hamilton's devotion to 
 her husband's interests was untiring, and her identification 
 with his work complete. Her rare practical ability was her 
 husband's never-failing ally. This was shown in a pnw?r ^ 
 guidance and counsel, in the womanly 
 its way through difficulties where mere in 
 and in the extent to which she relieved her husband of the 
 practical concerns that would, as a matter of course, have fallen 
 to him, but for the details of which he lacked patience and 
 capacity. To the labour involved in this and in the ordi- 
 nary duties of her position, which she admirably fulfilled, was 
 added the nearly constant work of amanuensis to her husband ; 
 for there was hardly, even from the first, anything of im- 
 portance that Sir William wrote that had not also to be 
 copied by Lady Hamilton. (The number of pages in her hand- 
 writing filled with abstruse metaphysical matter, original 
 and quoted, and bristling with prepositional and syllogistic 
 formulae that are still preserved, is perfectly marvellous. 
 Everything that was sent to the press, and all the courses of 
 lectures, were written by her either to dictation or from a 
 copy?) This work she did in the truest spirit of love and 
 devotion. She had a power, moreover, of keeping her hus- 
 band up to what he had to do. She contended wisely against 
 a sort of energetic indolence which characterised him, and 
 which, while he was always labouring, made him apt to put 
 aside the task actually before him, sometimes diverted by 
 subjects of inquiry suggested in the course of study on the 
 matter in hand, sometimes discouraged by the difficulty of 
 reducing to order the immense mass of materials which he 
 had accumulated in connection with it. Then her resolute 
 and cheerful disposition sustained and refreshed him, and 
 never more so than when, during the last twelve years of 
 his life, his bodily strength was broken, and his spirit, though 
 languid, yet ceased not from mental toil. The truth is, that 
 
HIS MARRIAGE. 137 
 
 Sir William's marriage, his comparatively limited circum- 
 stances, and the character of his wife, supplied to a nature 
 that would have been contented to spend its mighty energies 
 in work that brought no reward but in the doing of it, and 
 that might never have been made publicly known or available, 
 the practical force and impulse which enabled him to accom- 
 plish what he actually did in literature and philosophy^ It 
 was this influence, without doubt, which saved him from utter 
 absorption in his world of rare, noble, and elevated, but ever- 
 increasingly unattainable ideals. But for it the serene sea 
 of abstract thought might have held him becalmed for life, 
 and in the absence of all utterance and definite knowledge 
 of his conclusions, the world might have been left to an 
 ignorant and mysterious wondering about the unprofitable 
 scholar. 
 
CHAPTEE V. 
 
 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE EDINBURGH REVIEW: 1829-1836. 
 
 PERIOD AFTER MARRIAGE FRIENDS PERSONAL AND SOCIAL CHARACTER- 
 ISTICS EDINBURGH REVIEW AND ITS NEW EDITOR FIRST ARTICLE 
 CONTRIBUTED TO THE REVIEW, ON THE ' COURS DE PHILOSOPHIE ' OF 
 M. COUSIN GENERAL AIM AND CHARACTER OF THE CONTRIBUTION 
 M. COUSIN'S INTEREST IN THE AUTHOR CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN 
 COUSIN AND HAMILTON ARTICLE ON PERCEPTION LETTER OF THE 
 AUTHOR REGARDING IT TO M. COUSIN ARTICLES ON LOGIC ON THE 
 * EPISTOL^E OBSCURORUM VIRORUM ' ON THE STATE OF THE ENGLISH 
 UNIVERSITIES IN 1831 SUBSEQUENT ARTICLES ON OXFORD ON 
 RIGHT OF DISSENTERS TO ADMISSION INTO THE ENGLISH UNIVERSITIES 
 ON PATRONAGE AND SUPERINTENDENCE OF UNIVERSITIES GENER- 
 ALLY INFLUENCE ON PUBLIC OPINION OF ARTICLES ON OXFORD 
 LORD RADNOR AND HIS BILL IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS OXFORD 
 COMMISSION OF 1850 TESTIMONIES OF REV. S. H. JOHNSON, REV. A. 
 P. STANLEY, REV. F. D. MAURICE ARTICLE ON THE PATRONAGE AND 
 SUPERINTENDENCE OF UNIVERSITIES ITS INFLUENCE FURTHER 
 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE REVIEW REVIEW OF COUSIN ON GERMAN 
 SCHOOLS ON THE STUDY OF MATHEMATICS LETTER OF MR NAPIER 
 MADE SOLICITOR TO TEIND COURT LETTER FROM PROFESSOR 
 MYLNE PHYSIOLOGICAL EXPERIMENTS. 
 
 AFTER their marriage Sir William and Lady Hamilton lived 
 for some years in Manor Place a sunny, pleasant row of 
 houses, then at the extreme west end of Edinburgh, which 
 looked into the grounds of the old manor-house of Coates, and 
 afforded easy access to the country. Sir William's quiet 
 student-life and habits continued as before. The great pro- 
 blem of keeping his books and papers in order, which, as we 
 have seen, he himself had given up in despair, was now grap- 
 
PERIOD AFTER MARRIAGE. 139 
 
 pled with in a highly practical, energetic fashion, as we may 
 gather from the following : 
 
 " Before his brother and sister-in-law left town, in 1828," 
 says Lady Hamilton, " they assisted Sir William to remove his 
 library, and settle himself in his house in Manor Place. But 
 the arranging of the books was a matter in which no one 
 could give him much help, and to himself it was a very 
 tedious occupation, both because it required a great effort to 
 set himself to the labour, and because he was very apt, when 
 about to place a book on the shelf, to open it, and, being at- 
 tracted by something on which his eye lighted, to continue its 
 perusal (frequently standing all the while on the steps of the 
 ladder); and thus the work of putting the library in order, being 
 often interrupted, advanced very slowly. His young friends, 
 Francis and John Kussell, who often tried to assist Sir William 
 in putting his books in the shelves, used to describe the pro- 
 gress made, after perhaps several hours had been devoted to 
 the work, as so small as to be altogether without effect in 
 diminishing the confusion 'for either Sir William begins 
 to read, or he tells us about the author, which again leads 
 to his speaking of something else, till it is time for us to 
 leave/ 
 
 " This being the state of matters with regard to the arrange- 
 ment of the library, when we arrived at home after our mar- 
 riage (1829) I found the house in a sad state of disorder (as, 
 indeed, I had been warned would be the case); and for the first 
 week there was nothing for it but to set energetically about 
 the business of reducing the confusion. As soon, however, 
 as some progress became visible, and room after room began 
 to assume a more comfortable appearance, Sir William who 
 was essentially orderly, and, in particular, liked to have his 
 library well arranged now relieved from despair, worked 
 diligently at placing the books on the shelves. They were all 
 minutely classified and arranged according to size and sub- 
 jects. The progress of the work was often retarded by books 
 requiring to be mended, or washed, or varnished. 
 
140 HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 " When we returned to King Street in 1839, the same 
 labour in arranging the library had, of course, to be repeated, 
 and on a larger scale, the books having become much more 
 numerous in the interval. After their removal from the one 
 house to the other had been accomplished, they lay for a 
 long time piled up in confusion while the bookcases were 
 being prepared for their reception. This was a task after Sir 
 William's own heart, and he entered into it con amore. He 
 superintended in general, and planned the arrangement of 
 cases such as would best suit the economy of the library. 
 There were a number of ingenious contrivances in the con- 
 struction of the shelves, which were of his devising ; and all 
 such work as fastening on curtains to protect the books, he 
 executed with his own hand, after a very elaborate fashion. 
 
 " It may be noticed, generally, that with Sir William every 
 fit of hard study was succeeded by a fit of manual work, both 
 by way of relaxation and in order to provide for the due ar- 
 rangement of the MSS. which had come into being." 
 
 As his friends Mr Eiddell and Mr Colquhoun resided in 
 the immediate neighbourhood of Manor Place, they were much 
 with him. A walk on Sunday afternoons with Mr Colquhoun 
 was a regular practice for many years. In this they were 
 frequently joined by Mr George Moir and Captain Hamilton, 
 who, both before and after his visit to America in 1830 and 
 1831, spent a considerable time in Edinburgh, generally living 
 in his brother's house. 
 
 A walk into the country was frequently with Sir William 
 a means of relief after intense and long- continued study. On 
 these occasions he liked to have a companion, but the con- 
 versation was usually rather scanty, at least on his part the 
 train of thought in which he had been engaged continuing 
 apparently to occupy him. The truth is, it was rather his 
 way when on a walk with the more intimate of his friends, to 
 set them off on their respective hobbies it might be gene- 
 alogy or mesmerism while he himself, though putting in his 
 word now and then, followed the bent of his own thoughts. 
 
HIS SOCIAL INTERCOURSE. 141 
 
 He would then be seen walking considerably in advance, or 
 on the opposite side of the road from his companion per- 
 haps repeating aloud to himself some Greek, Latin, or Eng- 
 lish verses, quite unconscious of what he was sounding forth. 
 Some lady friends who often met Sir William and his com- 
 panion returning in this fashion from their stroll, would natur- 
 ally enough ask whether the two had had a quarrel. 
 
 Sir William's friendship with the late Eev. Dr Welsh com- 
 menced when the latter, on his appointment to the Chair of 
 Church History in the University, settled in Edinburgh in 
 1831, as it happened, close to Manor Place. They had not 
 known each other before this time ; and on two of Sir 
 William's strong points Dr Brown and Phrenology they 
 were entirely at variance. But the intimacy of Lady Ham- 
 ilton and Mrs Welsh, and the genial nature and refined in- 
 tellect of Dr Welsh, soon drew Sir William to him. They 
 became very warm friends, esteeming each other highly, and, 
 with all their differences of opinion, taking constant pleasure 
 in each other's society. Mr Leonard Homer and his family 
 spent some years in Edinburgh, and were a most agreeable 
 addition to the little coterie of friends among whom Sir Wil- 
 liam and Lady Hamilton found themselves settled in Manor 
 Place. About this time also, Mr J. W. Semple, the translator 
 of Kant's ' Metaphysic of Ethics, ' Mr J. H. Burton, Mr George 
 Moir, and Mr Patrick Eraser Tytler, were frequent visitors at 
 Manor Place. Mr Terrier, then a young man, was first at- 
 tracted towards Sir William at this period, and soon came to 
 be very intimate with him. 
 
 At this period Sir William mixed a good deal in society, in 
 which he took real pleasure when it was not merely formal. 
 He had no pretensions to shine as a talker in fact, would 
 have despised such a rdle. Whether he spoke much de- 
 pended on a subject being started in which he felt an interest. 
 Then he became animated and fluent. If a question were 
 asked him and he were in the vein, he would pour forth a 
 stream of information one thing suggesting another, and 
 
142 HIS SOCIAL INTERCOURSE. 
 
 calling forth the wonderfully comprehensive and minute 
 knowledge which he had stored on almost every subject of 
 his reading. 
 
 He did not by any means accommodate himself to the 
 prevailing opinions of the company ; but rather took delight 
 in running atilt against them in a good-humoured way. He 
 had great pleasure in stating and defending some paradox 
 or startling opinion (of which he would perhaps afterwards 
 make a joke), not because it exactly represented his own 
 opinion, but sometimes merely for the sake of argument, 
 and more frequently with the wish to uphold the unpopular 
 side of a question under discussion. The prevailing opinion 
 on a subject, when strongly put, had a tendency to arouse 
 in him a feeling of opposition, which led him to present quite 
 as strongly that side of the case which he thought unfairly 
 dealt with or overlooked. As might have been expected, in 
 Edinburgh society these novel opinions frequently related to 
 theological and ecclesiastical topics. "He was exceedingly 
 jealous," says Archdeacon Sinclair, " lest I should not do 
 justice to the opinions of Koman Catholics, Geologists, and 
 other parties opposed to the Church of England ; and would 
 frequently demand, What have you to say to this argument 
 of Dr Wiseman ? or to that quotation from Semler, Paulus, or 
 Wegscheider?" 
 
 It was, however, in a limited circle of friends above all, in 
 a two-handed discussion that his social character and con- 
 versational powers were fully displayed. A certain natural 
 diffidence and reserve disappeared, and he spoke freely, at least 
 before his illness had impaired his power of utterance. Owing 
 to his wonderful range of reading, few topics could be started 
 with which he was unacquainted ; and on subjects in which 
 he took a special interest his talk was fluent, copious, and 
 impetuous. So thorough and accurate was his reading, that 
 he was a match for most men even on subjects which they 
 had made matter of special study. We have already seen 
 how he surprised Dr Parr on the Doctor's chosen theme of 
 
, HIS SOCIAL INTERCOURSE. 143 
 
 Modern Latin Poetry. The following is a case of a similar 
 kind : Shortly before Dr Abercrombie published the second 
 edition of his 'Intellectual Powers/ Sir George Sinclair in- 
 vited him and Sir William to dinner. " There was no other 
 company," says Archdeacon Sinclair, who was present, " and the 
 Doctor naturally related to us all the anecdotes of insanity, 
 spectral illusions, vast powers of memory, &c., which he was 
 about to introduce in the next edition of his book. He added 
 other interesting illustrations ; and, under the circumstances, 
 might have been expected to enjoy a monopoly of the conver- 
 sation. But Sir William was not at all disposed to be a mere 
 listener. On the contrary, throughout the evening, he was 
 ready to exchange anecdote for anecdote, and illustration for 
 illustration, as if he had been studiously preparing himself for 
 the occasion." 
 
 At another time he would astonish a controversial opponent 
 by the extent, readiness, and aptness of his references to theo- 
 logical and ecclesiastical authorities. To excursions into this 
 province he was through life addicted ; and his acquaintance 
 with the history of the Church and of theological opinions, espe- 
 cially in the less-trodden departments, was very considerable. 
 In Scotland, certainly, he was entitled to rank as a learned 
 theologian. Quotations from Fathers and Councils came so 
 freely in the course of a debate, that these might almost appear 
 to have been his special study. The period of the Reforma- 
 tion was a choice morceau, and he was always ready to mar- 
 shal his authorities at a moment's notice. 
 
 There was frequently in his manner of conversation an au- 
 thoritativeness which amounted to dogmatism. This, however, 
 was so obviously the natural outcome of the strength and 
 honesty of the man, and of the fulness of his knowledge, that it 
 did not offend. Open, straightforward, and generous, he spoke 
 his opinions and feelings strongly, because he thought and felt 
 strongly. And no one was more ready than he to acknowledge 
 his ignorance on a point to which he had not given his attention. 
 
 The following sketch from the pen of the authoress of the 
 
144 MRS H. GRAY'S REMINISCENCES. 
 
 ' History of Etruria '-Airs Hamilton Gray-^-gives a graphic 
 picture of him, as he appeared in a congenial circle, while still 
 in his vigorous prime : 
 
 " I first saw Sir William Hamilton at a small party about 
 the year 1832. His name was already celebrated all over 
 Europe as one of the greatest metaphysicians ever produced 
 by metaphysical Scotland ; and therefore I was aware of the 
 mental standing of the illustrious guest whom I was about 
 to meet. Presently he entered the room, and he was in 
 my eyes the handsomest and grandest figure there tall of 
 stature and strongly built, with a large, noble-looking head, a 
 firm mouth, and magnificent black eyes. His brow was mas- 
 sive and heavy, producing upon me something of the same 
 effect as Walter Scott's when perfectly quiet. His mouth, too, 
 had a little touch of satire and severity about it which some- 
 times held me in awe ; but all the severity and all the heavi- 
 ness vanished when once he began to speak, dispelled by the 
 fire of his eye and the kindliness of his smile. I never en- 
 joyed an evening more, from the perfect ease of his conversa- 
 tion. Sir William's language was fluent, his manner ener- 
 getic, and his humour irresistible. I laughed heartily at the 
 fun of the great lion of the evening, and the more so, perhaps, 
 that he struck me at first as solemn and imposing.// 
 
 " It shows how deep must have been the impression then 
 made upon me, that after the lapse of so many years I am able 
 to recall the two leading topics of that evening's conversation 
 the heresies of Edward Irving, and the questionable reality of 
 mesmerism. In connection with the former I well remember 
 the animation with which Sir William declared, 'There is 
 no great and voluminous theological author whatever out of 
 whose works you may not substantiate any heresy you please, 
 if you will only separate extracts from their context, and both 
 from your knowledge of the man's principles and character.' 
 The other discussion, that about mesmerism, interested me 
 extremely. The subject, as in any degree a serious one, was 
 new to me, and I expected to hear Sir William dismiss it with 
 
SOCIAL CHARACTERISTICS. 145 
 
 contempt. Quite the reverse. 'What mesmerism is/ he 
 said, 'I do not know; but there is a reality in it which 
 deserves far more investigation than it has hitherto received 
 at the hands of men of science. It appears to be a phase of 
 the imagination, or an influence upon the nerves, so subtle 
 and so powerful as for the time to absorb and overcome every 
 mental power. In the strength of its illusions it has all the 
 force of madness, without in any way leading to it. And it 
 seems only to affect certain constitutions ; for though multi- 
 tudes are amenable to it, multitudes are not. Nervous people 
 are more liable than others, but it is by no means confined 
 to them, and some very nervous people are not impressible at 
 all. It is rife at this moment in Germany, and a very curi- 
 ous book has recently been published upon it, called "Die 
 Seherin von Prevorst,"* by Dr Kerner, a man of high repu- 
 tatkai amongst his brethren, and of unblemished honour.' 
 f* In all the intercourse I ever had with Sir William Hamil- 
 ton/' adds Mrs Gray, " his kindness, his simplicity, and his 
 apparent unconsciousness of his own superiority, were the 
 leading characteristics. I knew his supereminence, but I 
 never felt it.' 3 ^ 
 
 Sir William, with all his multifarious reading and thinking, 
 had as yet given none of the results of his reflection to the 
 world. The truth is, that although, under compulsion, he could 
 write with great rapidity, he took up his pen with the utmost 
 reluctance, and required an outward stimulus to engage him in 
 composition. This peculiarity had been for some time matter 
 of regret to his friends. A sufficient inducement was now, how- 
 ever, to come into play, arising partly from the need which he 
 felt, after his marriage, of doing something to add to his limited 
 income, but still more from the very strong pressure put upon 
 him by the new editor of the ' Edinburgh Eeview/ Professor 
 Macvey Napier. Mr Napier had from early life been distin- 
 guished by the interest which he took in questions of specula- 
 tive philosophy; and now that he occupied the position of editor 
 * Stuttgart, 1829. A translation by Mrs Crowe appeared in 1845. 
 
 K 
 
146 MR NAPIER AND EDINBURGH REVIEW. 
 
 of the ' Review/ he sought at once to gratify his own taste and 
 to do justice to subjects which appeared to him to have been 
 too much neglected in that leading periodical. He accordingly 
 applied to his friend Hamilton for a philosophical article, to 
 appear in the first number of the ' Eeview ' under his editor- 
 ship. The subject suggested was the introductory book of the 
 ' Cours de Philosophic ' of M. Cousin, then in the midst of a very 
 brilliant career as Professor in the Faculty of Letters at Paris, 
 and the head of the new philosophical movement in France 
 which, inspired from Scotland, had begun early in the century 
 under the auspices of Degerando and Laromiguiere, and been 
 sustained by Eoyer Collard and Jouffroy. Sir William, as he 
 tells us, personally felt averse from the task. " I was not un- 
 aware," he says, " that a discussion of the leading doctrine of 
 the book would prove unintelligible not only to ' the general 
 reader/ but, with few exceptions, to our British metaphysi- 
 cians at large. But, moreover, I was still farther disinclined to 
 the undertaking, because it would behove me to come forward 
 in overt opposition to a certain theory, which, however power- 
 fully advocated, I felt altogether unable to admit ; whilst its 
 author, M. Cousin, was a philosopher for whose genius and 
 character I already had the warmest admiration an admiration 
 which every succeeding year has only augmented, justified, 
 and confirmed. . . . Mr Napier, however, was resolute ; it 
 was the first number of the ' Eeview ' under his direction ; and 
 the criticism was hastily written." * Such was the origin of the 
 afterwards famous essay on the Philosophy of the Uncondi- 
 tioned, the first of a series of contributions to the ' Edinburgh 
 Eeview/ which, for force and keenness of dialectic, depth of 
 thought, and extent of learning, have not in this century been 
 surpassed, if equalled, by any writings on the subjects to which 
 they refer. Mr Napier showed both enlightenment arid firm- 
 ness in encouraging the author of those articles to their com- 
 position ; and when, some seven years afterwards, their merits 
 began to be recognised even in this country, and testimonies 
 
 * Discussions, p. 1. 
 
REVIEW OF COUSIN. 147 
 
 came in from men of high name on the Continent where from 
 the first they were duly appreciated the courageous editor 
 had his reward. " I confess," he says, writing to Sir William 
 in 1836, "that I have a sort of selfish joy in this splendid 
 approbation of those papers which I have been instrumental 
 in drawing forth from you, and for the doing of which I have 
 been blamed by those who should have known better what 
 a journal like the 'Edinburgh Review' owes to science and 
 the world." 
 
 If we except the earnest and impassioned but fragmentary 
 utterances of Coleridge, the review of Cousin, written thirty- 
 nine years ago, was the first indication that any one in Britain 
 had become aware of the true import of the highest philosophi- 
 cal thought of this century. The ' Critique of the Pure Reason' 
 (1781) had revolutionised intellectual philosophy, and the best 
 minds of Germany had long been at work on the great ques- 
 tion of the analysis of human knowledge and its metaphysical 
 bearings, ere in England men knew aught of the movement, 
 or had risen above vague and assumptive theories about sensa- 
 tion and association, which leave the whole investigation of the 
 nature of thought and knowledge at the very threshold, and 
 serve only to delude people with the belief that the problem 
 has been solved when it is not even reached. For some time 
 immediately preceding the review of Cousin there had been 
 imported into Scotland, with much rhetorical adornment but 
 little genuine earnestness, the leading doctrines of this super- 
 ficial psychology, which really avoided the deeper logical and 
 metaphysical questions. Reid and Stewart, indeed, recognised 
 other elements in knowledge than those allowed by the sensa- 
 tional school, and thus laid the foundation of a firmer meta- 
 physical doctrine regarding the three great objects of inquiry 
 Man, the World, and God. But both philosophers were 
 in the main merely observational and psychological. Their 
 great merit lay in a resolute opposition to all attempts at 
 constructing a theory of reality deductively out of notions or 
 assumptions, such as had been constantly made by metaphysi- 
 
148 AIM AND CHARACTER OF THE ARTICLE. 
 
 cians from Descartes downwards. But the anti-deductive 
 reactionary impulse which characterised them led to an ex- 
 cessive deference for what was called the Inductive Method 
 of studying mental philosophy ; but which with them really 
 meant the reflective observation of the facts of consciousness, 
 with little attempt at finding their genesis, even when this was 
 possible. They were thus more ready to accept a fact of mind 
 as a whole, and to point to it as not having been previously 
 or adequately recognised, than to seek to analyse it into its 
 simpler elements, or even to sum up a series of phenomena in 
 a higher generalisation. Questions to which an observational 
 study of the mind naturally leads were thus left unsolved ; yet 
 some theory of these was needed to give the inductive method 
 completeness. If, as the Scottish thinkers maintained, all true 
 philosophy is restricted to experience, or the phenomena of 
 mind and matter, with the dim inferences or suggestions which 
 these necessitate, and all comprehensive deductive theories of 
 the world and Deity are impossible, we might naturally have 
 expected some attempt on their part to ground this doctrine on 
 a thorough-going analysis of the nature and laws of our powers 
 of knowing. But this, in any real or systematic way, they did 
 not essay. Their philosophy, therefore, had nothing truly 
 valid to oppose to the pretensions of absolutist or deductive 
 theories of being, for it had never marked out the true limits of 
 knowledge, or determined the question of the conceivableness 
 of infinite as opposed to finite reality. Now, what Hamilton 
 set himself to do in his review of the philosophy of Cousin was 
 to grapple with this point in other words, to show, from the 
 essential nature and conditions of human knowledge, that a 
 science of other than finite or phenomenal reality is impossible, 
 and, consequently, that deductive theories of the universe, 
 founded on a conception of what is alleged to be higher than 
 experience call it Infinite or Absolute, or the Infinite-absolute 
 are ab initio illegitimate and delusive. The attempt was 
 made in the spirit of Kant ; the analysis of the conditions 
 of thought on which it proceeds is in the main Kantian ; 
 
AIM AND CHARACTER OF THE ARTICLE. 149 
 
 and it may be described as a carrying out, with important 
 modifications and corrections, of principles which were for the 
 first time announced in the Critical philosophy. This was 
 a line of thought new to British speculation ; the style and 
 phraseology of the article were unlike anything that had be- 
 fore appeared in our philosophical literature ; and the solution 
 of the profound questions opened up carried with it moral 
 and theological consequences of the most important kind. 
 " In this country/' we find the author saying, "the reasonings 
 were, of course, not understood, and naturally, for a season, 
 declared incomprehensible." The exceedingly condensed and 
 abstract style of the essay, the usual absence of sympathy with 
 such discussions, and the want of acquaintance on the part of 
 the reading public with the writings of Kant, or with the course 
 of Continental speculation that flowed from the ' Kritik/ were 
 the causes that so few men in Britain at the time were able 
 to grasp the full purport of the discussion. The same causes 
 are still, though to a less extent, in force ; and in as far as their 
 influence is now less than it was thirty-nine years ago, this is 
 due in great measure to the interest awakened by Hamilton's 
 Essay, and to the growth of a speculative taste which it and 
 his other writings have helped materially to foster.* 
 
 On the Continent the review, immediately on its publication, 
 was recognised and proclaimed, both by those who agreed with 
 its conclusions and by those who differed from them, as the 
 work of a powerful thinker of one entitled to be regarded as 
 occupying a foremost place among the originators of the spec- 
 ulative impulses of the time; and it was speedily translated 
 into French and Italian. But by no one was the merit of 
 the essay more fully recognised than by M. Cousin himself, 
 whose main philosophical doctrine was passed through so 
 scorching a fire of criticism. A literary friend of M. Cousin, 
 Mr Austin, the distinguished jurist, had informed him that 
 the ' Edinburgh Review/ then just published, contained " a 
 bitter attack " on him. M. Cousin wrote in reply : " How 
 
 * On the Review of Cousin see Note A. 
 
150 M. COUSIN'S INTEREST IN THE AUTHOR. 
 
 could an Englishman approve of a French work, especially a 
 work of philosophy, and still more of speculative philoso- 
 phy? I was therefore prepared for an article more than 
 severe on the part of the ' Edinburgh Eeview/ and said so to 
 one of my English friends. He has read it this terrible 
 article ! and from what he tells me, I conclude that it is very 
 polite towards me personally, and written in full knowledge 
 of the cause. One extract from it, which I have received, 
 has singularly struck me. I did not believe that there was an 
 individual beyond the Channel capable of interesting himself 
 so deeply in metaphysics, and I regard this article as an ex- 
 cellent augury for philosophy in England. I am therefore 
 thankful to the author, and wish he knew it. You will please 
 me by information as to his true name, for it is here doubted 
 whether you are correct in the person you have mentioned as 
 the writer ; and I request of you on this point all the informa- 
 tion you may be able to collect. I think he is wrong in his 
 objections to my doctrine; but I must do him the justice to say 
 that he has profoundly studied and perfectly understood me. I 
 should wish him to read my Lectures of 1829, the second 
 volume of which contains ten lectures on Locke, which might 
 interest an Englishman." After having read the article and 
 learned the author's name, he says : " Sir William Hamilton's 
 article has arrived, and I have read it. It is a masterpiece. 
 . . . Mr Brougham has good reason to speak of it highly. 
 For my part, I have done the same here, and I affirm that 
 the article is so excellent that there cannot be fifty persons 
 in England competent to understand it. It is truly to be 
 regretted that such talents have not produced more. You 
 seem to speak to me of other articles from the same hand. 
 Where are these articles, and what are they ? . . . I shall 
 send M. Hamilton my ' Examen de Locke/ and wish that some 
 partisan of Locke would be roused to answer it." Subsequently 
 he says : " The information you are to send me regarding Sir 
 W. Hamilton and his writings is expected with so much the 
 more impatience as I wish to push my chivalry towards him 
 
LETTER TO MRS AUSTIN. 151 
 
 to the point of having his article translated ; and a few lines 
 on the writings, age, employments, and course of life of the 
 author would suitably accompany this translation." 
 
 M. Cousin's chivalrous interest in his critic, thus awakened, 
 led to a warm friendship between him and Sir William. The 
 two distinguished representatives of French and British specu- 
 lation never met in person, but they kept up a pretty regular 
 correspondence. 
 
 Mrs Austin, to whom M. Cousin had applied for information 
 regarding the author of the article, addressed a letter to Sir 
 William, though not personally acquainted with him. This 
 communication elicited the following reply: 
 
 SIR W. HAMILTON TO MRS AUSTIN. 
 
 EDINBURGH, 18th March 1830. 
 
 MADAM, In consequence of an absence of some days from town, 
 I did not receive your letter till last night. I need not say how 
 highly flattered I felt by the -contents, as there is no one of whose 
 good opinion I should be more ambitious than that of M. Cousin. 
 If anything could have added to my admiration of his character, 
 it is the generous praise with which he has been pleased to honour 
 a criticism the views of which he must regard as so erroneous. I 
 should certainly be proud to think that I was really entitled to a 
 tithe of the encomium he so liberally bestows. To one merit (un- 
 fortunately too rare) I may, indeed, lay claim that I have endeav- 
 oured to state and to canvass a philosophical doctrine fairly ; and 
 am gratified to find that, in M. Cousin's own opinion, I have suc- 
 ceeded. But I am conscious that this is almost the only merit of 
 my paper, and am afraid he has gratuitously extended to the execu- 
 tion the approbation due only to the good intention. The paper 
 has, indeed, some reason to claim indulgence. M. Cousin's Lectures 
 were put into my hands by my friend Professor Napier, with the 
 request (which, from the way it was made, I could not possibly 
 refuse) that I would review them for the first number to be pub- 
 lished under his editorship. Other business, however, interfered : 
 the article, delayed to the last, was written and corrected in the 
 greatest haste ; when printed, it was found too long, and, in my 
 absence, was summarily shortened in the proof by omissions which 
 
152 LETTERS OP HAMILTON AND COUSTN. 
 
 left obscurity in some places, and the transition in others abrupt 
 and awkward. In these circumstances I should have wished that 
 my name had not transpired, even if the article, when it appeared, 
 had not been universally voted unintelligible. I am now, however, 
 less inclined to be ashamed of it by finding the opinion of the most 
 competent judge so favourable, and shall certainly be the more nat- 
 tered if M. Cousin may continue to think it not unworthy of his 
 notice. 
 
 In regard to myself, I have nothing to state but that I am a 
 graduate of Oxford, and a member of the Scottish bar; and in 
 reply to M. Cousin's inquiries touching my works, I ought to be 
 ashamed to acknowledge that I have as yet written almost nothing. 
 You must have been misinformed in regard to other articles of mine. 
 I have to answer for nothing in any English review, and of the 
 insignificant occasional trifles of which I may have been guilty, there 
 is nothing which would be at all interesting for M. Cousin to hear 
 of, and not irksome for me to confess. . . . 
 
 I am very impatient to see M. Cousin's Lectures for 1829. I am 
 sure that if any work of metaphysical discussion would succeed at 
 present in England, a translation of M. Cousin's Lectures on Locke 
 would. But, in fact, in this country there is no thought now be- 
 stowed on any abstract speculation ; and no nation, absolutely, in 
 Europe, thinks or cares so little about Locke as his own countrymen. 
 If the English could be brought to read philosophy at all, M. Cousin 
 is just the author to inspire them with a zeal for the study ; but, I 
 am sorry to say, I am afraid that, addressed to a British public, even 
 his eloquence would be only "as the voice of one crying in the 
 desert." 
 
 . . . Any part of this letter which you may consider interest- 
 ing to M. Cousin I shall feel obliged by your communicating ; and 
 I remain, with the greatest respect, your much obliged 
 
 W. HAMILTON. 
 
 The following correspondence relates chiefly to the subject 
 of the article now mentioned : 
 
 M. COUSIN TO SIR W. HAMILTON. 
 
 20 Mars 1834. 
 
 . . . Je m'attendais bien que la nouvelle Preface des Fragmens ne 
 vous convertirait pas ; mais je me permets d'appeler votre attention 
 sur la the"orie de la Raison, et vous prie de la bien me'diter avant de 
 
LETTERS OF HAMILTON AND COUSIN. 153 
 
 la rejeter definitivjement ; car toute la question du scepticisme y est 
 engagee, et je crois que si je vous tenais la, je vous prouverais que 
 vous etes sur la route du scepticisme. II ne faut pas avoir peur du 
 mot dUdbsolu. 
 
 Admet-on, ou n'admet-on pas, de la verite, c'est-a-dire, de la verite 
 absolue, et sur quel fondement 1 On ne le pent que sur la foi de 
 quelque chose en nous qui soit objectif comme son objet meme, et ce 
 quelque chose c'est la Eaison. 
 
 Au reste, je vous envoye aujourd'hui meme le volume de M. de 
 Eiran, auquel j'ai mis une Introduction purement psychologique, et 
 sans aucune conclusion ontologique et systematique, mais ou vous 
 apercevrez pourtant la base d'un systeme entier. Cette introduction 
 se lie a celle des Fragmens, et toutes deux s'eclairent reciproque- 
 ment. Mais voila bien des personnalites, quand je n'aurais du vous 
 parler que de M. de Biran. 
 
 Le dessein que vous avez de traduire mes argumens de Platon me 
 touche veritablement ; mais il est sage de 1'ajourner tout au moins 
 jusqu'a ce que j'ai fini ou presque fini cette traduction. La mort 
 de Schleiermacher me prive d'un guide utile et que nul autre ne peut 
 remplacer. C'etait, avec Hegel, mon meilleur ami de Berlin ; il ne 
 me reste plus en Allernagne que Schelling, dont la sante est loin 
 d'etre [bonne]. 
 
 Je rec,ois en ce moment la 7^ me edition de Brown. Mon Dieu ! 
 Luttez, mon cher Monsieur, luttez sans cesse centre cette funeste 
 popularite. En vous sont toutes mes esperances pour la philoso- 
 phic en Angleterre. Dieu done vous soit en aide, et vous donne ce 
 que je souhaite a tous mes amis et a moi-meme : courage et Constance. 
 C'est mon perpetuel refrain. 
 
 M. COUSIN TO SIR W. HAMILTON. 
 
 21me A 0^1834. 
 
 Avez-vous enfin regu M. de Biran 1 et que vous semble de mes 
 eloges et de mes critiques'? Ma preface vient au secours de celle 
 des Fragmens, qui ne vous a point converti, et je crains bien que 
 celle-ci ne vous convertisse pas davantage. Cependant plus je vais, 
 plus je refle'chis et plus je m' attache a ma the'orie de la raison, et 
 comme e*tant 1'expression la plus vraie de ce qui se passe dans 
 1' esprit humain dans 1'acquisition de toute verite", et comme e*tant 
 le seul moyen d'e"chapper au scepticisme. 
 
 Prenez garde, je vous prie, de ne pas laisser de'gene'rer la philoso- 
 
154 LETTERS OF HAMILTON AND COUSIN. 
 
 phie ecossaise dans un scepticisme nouveau qui ne vaudrait guere 
 mieux que 1'ancien. Que la philosophic ecossaise soit circonspecte 
 des qu'il s'agit d'ontologie, a la bonne heure ; mais en psychologic, 
 elle ne pent pas ne pas se prononcer sur le caractere de la faculte 
 qui nous de"couvre la verite. Si cette faculte est purement subjective, 
 alors reviennent les objections de Kant, centre lesquelles 1' expedient 
 de M. Schelling et de M. Hegel, a savoir de placer la perception ou 
 intuition de 1'etre hors de la conscience, est a mon sens une hypo- 
 these inintelligible et en opposition avec la condition de toute vraie 
 connaissance, d'etre accompagne"e de la conscience. Entre Kant et la 
 philosophie de la nature, je ne vois de salut que dans la theorie de 
 la raison, subjective et objective tout ensemble. Quant a Eichte, je 
 crois 1'avoir assez bien refut dans la personne de M. de Biran, et 
 j'appelle votre attention sur cette partie de ma preface. Mais c'est 
 assez vous occuper de moi. 
 
 Parlez-moi de vos projets et de la philosophie en Ecosse. J'ai 
 congu avec M. Pillans 1'espe'rance que vous serez bieiit6t Professeur 
 de philosophie a la place du bon M. David Ritchie. utinam ! 
 Dites-moi de qui est 1'article du dernier nume'ro d'Edinburgh Review 
 sur mon compte ; je crois que 1'auteur m'accuse a tort d' avoir mesin- 
 terpre"te" les opinions de Locke ; entre autres son opinion sur 1'espace. 
 Dites a 1'auteur, si vous le connaissez, que ce n'est pas moi, un 
 Francais, mais Reid lui-meme qui a convaincu Locke d'avoir trop 
 assimil^ 1'espace et le corps. On m'apporte a 1' instant une traduc- 
 tion anglaise, que 1'infatigable Thomas Taylor a public a Londres, 
 de deux Merits de Proclus sur la providence et sur la nature humaine, 
 dont le texte a pe"ri, et dont j'ai le premier publie^ la traduite latine 
 un peu barbare faite par Guillaume Moore. 
 
 SIR "W. HAMILTON TO M. COUSIN. 
 
 EDINBURGH, 14^ Nov. 1834. 
 
 . . . I have received your edition of Biran, and I know not 
 whether to admire most the originality of the author or the more 
 commanding universality of his editor. I was delighted to find you 
 estimating Brown at his proper value. I have also recently received 
 (what I had ordered from Germany) the translation of your new Pre- 
 face, &c. I have not, however, yet got the treatise on Secondary 
 Instruction. I am much disappointed at this. May I beg you to 
 offer my best acknowledgments to M. Poret for his translation of 
 Sir James Mackintosh's Dissertation 1 ? I received much pleasure 
 
LETTERS OF HAMILTON AND COUSIN. 155 
 
 from the perusal of the excellent Preface. Your letter by Mr Pillans, 
 having been mislaid by him, I did not receive till long after his 
 return. 
 
 . . . I have spoken to Napier about an article on your Preface, 
 and Schelling's remarks. As the editor of a popular journal, he has 
 a perfect horror of the Absolute. Nor is he to be blamed, perhaps, 
 for I do not believe there are five readers of the ' Review ' who are 
 qualified to comprehend anything above the superficial psychology 
 dignified in this country with the name of Metaphysic, far less to 
 understand the merits of your philosophy arid that of Schelling. 
 He has, however, agreed to an article in the number after next 
 next being already full. Personally, however, I am under far 
 greater difficulties. I am loath to place myself in opposition again 
 to the doctrine of one whom I so sincerely admire and respect, and 
 whose authority as a philosopher is entitled to so great deference ; 
 and yet the more I meditate, the more am I compelled to believe 
 that the human mind is unable to form even a rational conception 
 of the Unconditioned ; nor, if it could, do I see how this subjective 
 notion of the Absolute-Infinite could afford a real knowledge of the 
 ovru$ ov. I am, on the one hand, neither able to reject, nor to rise 
 above, nor to overlook, nor, with Hegel, iiberwinden, the contradic- 
 tions which are involved in every philosophy of the Absolute (the 
 principles of Contradiction and Exclusi Medii I cannot get rid of) ; 
 and, on the other, I find that the great law that the conceivable is 
 always intermediate between two extremes, each equally incompre- 
 hensible, and yet each contradictory of the other affords a simpler 
 solution than has yet been proposed of some of the most difficult 
 and important problems of mental philosophy e. g., the laws of 
 Causality and Substance. I am quite aware that this doctrine is 
 not ^aX/;ra xar' su%Jiv, and admit that it is a virtual scepticism in 
 regard to the possibility of an Ontology, but I cannot help it. It 
 is only because you wish a discussion on the subject of your differ- 
 ence from Schelling that I would attempt an article of the kind ; 
 and if I could, I would wholly avoid interposing my own views in 
 treating of your philosophy in contrast to that of Germany. Per- 
 haps you will tell me what you think of the matter. 
 
 I trust that the change in your Ministry may not deprive France 
 and Europe of your invaluable services to the great cause of civilisa- 
 tion. May it only enable you to promote with greater effect your 
 benevolent and enlightened plans. I hope before long to congratu- 
 late ourselves on your nomination as Minister of Instruction. 
 
156 ARTICLE ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF PERCEPTION. 
 
 Sir William continued to contribute philosophical and other 
 articles to the 'Review' annually until 1836. In the October 
 number of 1830 appeared the essay on the Philosophy of Per- 
 ception, having for its text the French edition of the works of 
 Eeid by M. Jouffroy, which had recently appeared. This essay 
 is the natural and logical sequel to that on the Unconditioned. 
 In the former, Hamilton had sought to show the grounds on 
 which human thought is to be held as necessarily limited to 
 a phenomenal knowledge of reality. Its scope, in fact, was 
 negative. In the latter, he sought to point out and vindicate 
 a principle on which an observational or experiential know- 
 ledge of things might be based a principle, therefore, which 
 would yield positive results. This was the authority of con- 
 sciousness, viewed as testifying to certain ultimate facts which 
 are to be sifted by definite analytic criteria. The hint of this 
 ground is no doubt to be found in Reid's principle of Com- 
 mon Sense, and in many previous writers. Hamilton, how- 
 ever, has carried it out to such proportions, and given it so 
 much precision, not only in the essay on Perception, but sub- 
 sequently in the Dissertations appended to Reid's Works,* 
 that in his hands it has assumed a new and specific character. 
 It forms, in fact, the salient feature in the positive or construc- 
 tive side of his philosophy. The main fact to which he regards 
 consciousness as testifying the synthesis in knowledge of self 
 and not-self, and their antithesis in reality has, since the 
 time of this essay, become the great central point round which 
 speculative discussions on the question of finite reality have 
 turned, just as the conclusions maintained in the review of 
 Cousin form the sphere of debate in regard to infinite or tran- 
 scendent being. It might very easily be shown that the view 
 adopted by the late accomplished author of the ' Institutes of 
 Metaphysic' is but a modification of the doctrine of Hamil- 
 ton on this point, and that it arose naturally and by historical 
 sequence out of the essay on the Philosophy of Perception. 
 
 Without, meanwhile, entering into any discussion of the 
 * See especially Note A. 
 
LETTER TO COUSIN. 157 
 
 conclusions of the article, we may safely affirm that, in the 
 mode of treatment of this central psychological and meta- 
 physical problem, it shows an immense advance on anything 
 that had previously been done on the same question by 
 any British thinker all the difference, in fact, between a 
 partial, confused, and isolated handling of this and that side 
 of the problem, and a catholic comprehension of it in its 
 various bearings, with a rare power of clear, refined, and un- 
 deviating analysis. The discussion, moreover, manifests, as 
 strikingly as any of his writings, the author's power of making 
 his enlarged philosophical reading the pabulum of his own re- 
 flection ; of raising forgotten distinctions, in which an ordinary 
 mind would see nothing to note, to the rank of fruitful and 
 luminous principles ; and of giving to the speculations of indi- 
 vidual thinkers their due place in the order of philosophical 
 theory. 
 
 The following letter refers to the article on Perception : 
 
 SIR "W. HAMILTON TO M. COUSIN. 
 
 EDINBURGH, 23d Oct. 1830. 
 
 SIR, ... As there is no one whose character and genius 
 I more ardently admire, I need not say how greatly flattered I am 
 by the expressions of your esteem, though I could wish they had a 
 worthier object than the crude and hasty production to which they 
 relate. In return for your admirable work (brass for gold), I have 
 the presumption to send you a copy of an article of mine which 
 appears in the present number of the ' Edinburgh Beview.' It was 
 so long that I found it necessary to eject everything not absolutely 
 essential. It thus, in many places, wants development and the in- 
 troduction, in which I had availed myself of your authority, is ren- 
 dered awkward and abrupt. Of this part I send you the sheets as 
 they ought to have appeared, and this is the curtailment that I most 
 regret. I enclose two other copies, which, if you think the article 
 of any interest, I would request you to present to M. Eoyer-Collard 
 and M. Jouffroy; I can hardly, I think, take the liberty of present- 
 ing it to these gentlemen in my own name. 
 
 In regard to your inquiry touching the present state of metaphysical 
 philosophy in this country, the reply is easy we have nearly none. 
 The works on this subject of late published in Britain (independently 
 
158 ARTICLE ON LOGIC. 
 
 of the last volumes of Mr Stewart and Sir James Mackintosh's Disserta- 
 tion) are, as far as I know (but I must confess that I am very im- 
 perfectly acquainted with them), too insignificant to merit notice. 
 If, however, you are desirous of closely " spying the nakedness of 
 the land," I shall have great pleasure in obtaining for you any 
 information in my power. "With sentiments of the greatest respect, 
 I have the honour to remain, sir, your most obedient servant, 
 
 W. HAMILTON. 
 
 Two years after the date of the article on Perception, Sir 
 William made his third important philosophical contribution 
 to the ' Keview/ This was the article on Logic, which appeared 
 in 1833 being a review of the recent English treatises on that 
 science, especially Dr Whately's ' Logic.' Like the essays on 
 the Unconditioned and on Perception, this article inaugurated 
 a new era in the mode of dealing with its subject, by showing, 
 for the first time in this country, the true place of formal logic 
 in the range of the philosophical sciences. The spirit of philo- 
 sophising which had turned away from the higher metaphysical 
 problems, had also proscribed formal logic. Although Eeid 
 wrote an able summary of the Aristotelic logic, the science it- 
 self had no proper place in his philosophy. Stewart referred to 
 " the logic of the Schools " only with contempt, and desired to 
 put in its stead a " rational logic," or theory of scientific method. 
 Bacon had bequeathed this contempt of the Aristotelic logic to 
 philosophy in Britain, and the course of thought had been suffi- 
 ciently true to his spirit. The science itself was persistently 
 contemned or ignored because of its too exclusively deductive 
 applications during the scholastic period. Men had reasoned 
 too much then, or rather had put reasoning in the place 
 of observation and induction, and we were therefore called 
 upon to omit as useless, or positively hurtful, any scientific 
 study of the laws of reasoning itself. This has been, in the 
 main, the spirit of the cultivators of the sciences of obser- 
 vation and analysis from the Baconian epoch to the present 
 day. The theoretical result is the omission from its rightful 
 place of one most important element of the body of human 
 
ITS AIM AND CHARACTER. 159 
 
 knowledge, and the consequent marring of the symmetry of 
 the philosophical sciences. The practical consequence is, an 
 undue estimate of the mere possession of so-called facts, how- 
 ever crudely arranged or digested, and the substitution, in a 
 liberal education, of information for culture the evil results 
 of which are seen in many departments of our literature, but 
 nowhere more than in scientific writing, which is, as a rule, 
 conspicuous for want of definition, subordination, consecution, 
 and generally all the qualities of good method.* 
 
 Dr Whately had done something to turn attention to the value 
 of the Aristotelic logic, both as a test of valid reasoning and as 
 a mental discipline. But with all his acuteness and practical 
 ability, Whately, while clearing the science of logic from much 
 that is extraneous to it, yet failed to ground it on any thorough- 
 going scientific principle. In particular, his limitation of logic 
 to the theory of reasoning or syllogism was fatal to the com- 
 pleteness and symmetry of the science ; for a correct theory 
 of syllogism must have its ground in a doctrine of notions and 
 propositions, the laws of which only find a higher application 
 in reasoning. In his review of Whately, Hamilton laid down 
 a principle by which logic, as the science of the form of thought, 
 may be distinguished alike from psychology and from the 
 other sciences which assume and apply its rules. Thus also 
 was the science of formal logic marked off from the logic of 
 induction, with which, to the great detriment of both, the 
 former had been confounded. 
 
 In the article on Logic we may trace very decidedly the in- 
 fluence of the long-continued study of the Organon of Aristotle 
 both on the mental habits and the opinions of the author. With 
 the Organon he was familiar as daily food ; and he revelled in 
 its curt, compact, and precise thought and style as in a con- 
 genial atmosphere in the " lumen siccum," which, in formal 
 logic at least, is the best light. The various difficulties with 
 
 * M. Peisse has some very valuable remarks on the neglect of logical train- 
 ing which prevailed till lately in the French Universities. See his Fragmens,' 
 Preface, p. cxix. 
 
160 ITS AIM AND CHARACTER. 
 
 which commentators had wrestled afforded him a familiar and 
 delightful arena. Here, as in everything, he might have taken 
 as his motto, " res severa est verum gaudium." In this essay he 
 vindicated his title to be regarded as an authoritative expositor 
 of the text, on fundamental points where before its true im- 
 port had been misapprehended.* The ' Logik ' of Kant had 
 also, it is obvious, a large share in the formation of his views 
 on the nature of the science of logic, and its place among the 
 other branches of philosophy. But the contents of this essay 
 even, to say nothing of his subsequent logical theories, show 
 that with all his admiration for Aristotle, and his high esti- 
 mate of Kant as a thinker, he was faithful to the spirit of the 
 words : " Qui ante nos ista moverunt non domini nostri, sed 
 duces sunt. Patet omnibus veritas, nondum est occupata; 
 multum ex ilia etiam futuris relictum est." 
 
 It was from the 'Review' article that Hamilton's subse- 
 quent speculations on Logic took their direction and colour- 
 ing. Nor did he ever fairly pass, in his actual treatment of 
 the science, beyond the bounds of the formal division of it 
 to inductive or material logic the theory of scientific 
 method. This he has left to others to prosecute. The por- 
 tion of logic which he took up in the article, and subse- 
 quently, has a very obvious connection with the discussion 
 on the Unconditioned ; for it is in the formal department of 
 logic that we find an analysis of the nature and laws of 
 thought the doctrine of the formally conceivable points 
 which have an immediate bearing on the question of the 
 reach and limits of our faculties, in dealing with what is 
 regarded as Infinite or Absolute. 
 
 Thus these three essays on the Unconditioned, on Per- 
 ception, and on Logic though apparently isolated, and con- 
 tributed at intervals of time to a periodical, in which the 
 greater part of the writing necessarily falls out of view and 
 memory very speedily, have yet a real philosophical unity; 
 
 * See particularly the remarks on the Inductile Syllogism, 'Discussions,' 
 p. 156. 
 
LETTER OF NAPIER. 
 
 and each supplied a marked want in the speculative literature^ 
 of the time. They are not likely to be forgotten in British 
 philosophical literature. Yet impressive as is the suggestion 
 which they give of power and learning, it is melancholy to 
 think that those accomplishments appeared so late in the 
 lifetime of their possessor appeared, too, almost by accident ; 
 and that even after they were revealed, they were kept by him 
 in a reserve, which stayed his hand from completing the edifice 
 designed one so rare in conception, so grand in its ideal pro- 
 portions, that even the tracings of its first lines stir the soul 
 which ponders them with emotions akin to those inspired by 
 the fragments of the stateliest architecture, or by the partly- 
 shrouded form of a far-reaching, undefined, mountain height.* 
 In the following letter to Sir William, Mr Napier refers to 
 the article on Logic, and notices, among other things, certain of 
 its peculiarities of style. 
 
 MR NAPIER TO SIR W. HAMILTON. 
 
 April 1833. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR WILLIAM, ... I hope you will contrive, on 
 after occasions, to be ready in such time as not to be so hurried with 
 the important business of correcting. This is more particularly neces- 
 sary in regard to such subjects as those you handle. Had there been 
 a little more time at present, I would have requested you to try to 
 enlighten some dark spots, the sight of which may chance to turn 
 away the impatient readers of this fastidious age from the whole ; 
 and I would also have begged you to soften various expressions, 
 which wear a more harsh and jeering aspect than is perhaps neces- 
 sary in such discussions. As it is, I have only softened one or two 
 places. The primary responsibility falls on the editor ; and Whately 
 and Hampden may fairly think that so many hard blows were not 
 to be expected from one who had been in intercourse with them, 
 and been benefited by their assistance. 
 
 You have made a very remarkable article, both in respect of 
 learning and thought. The learning, indeed, is altogether surpassing. 
 No other man in Britain I question if anywhere could match it. 
 As to the philosophy, I am not sure that I have been able to follow 
 
 * On the influence of these essays, and generally of Hamilton's philosophical 
 writings, in America, see Note B. 
 
 L 
 
162 EPISTOL.^ OBSCURORUM VIRORUM. 
 
 you, or that I should be able, even with the benefit of a more 
 leisurely perusal. I think you are wrong, I confess, in imagining 
 that such discussions do not admit of a more intelligible style. 
 Philosophy is brought down to a mere squabble about terms when 
 it expresses itself in terms that require a special lexicon for their 
 interpretation. Hutcheson, Smith, Campbell, Reid, and Stewart 
 may often be wrong, but they are always clear, and never speak in 
 a language peculiar to themselves or to any school. 
 
 The Oxford doctors will no longer scoff at our Scotch ignorance of 
 Greek, &c. I should suppose you have fairly beat them with their 
 own weapons. They will, however, take the merit of having taught 
 you, and will very probably say that if your training had been pure 
 Scottish training you would have been nothing. We shall leave 
 them to make a syllogism of this. Ever most faithfully yours, 
 
 M. NAPIER. 
 
 The history and literature of the fifteenth and sixteenth cen- 
 turies had been a favourite subject of study with Sir William 
 from his Oxford days. The universality of attainment, and the 
 cultured completeness of the men of that epoch, were features 
 of character entirely according to his own heart. Further, their 
 arduous struggles for the revival of learning, the noble efforts 
 of several of them for the reform of the Church, even their per- 
 sonal literary controversies which, however, generally typified 
 vital interests and principles roused the polemic spirit within 
 him as keenly as the ballad of Otterbourne ever stirred the 
 soul of chivalry that was in Sir Philip Sidney. The display 
 of high critical acumen, and the figure of the literary athlete 
 standing well in the fight, had a charm for him in themselves; 
 and this was greatly enhanced if a moral interest were in- 
 volved. Hence he entered thoroughly into the spirit and lit- 
 erature of that stirring controversial period which witnessed 
 the production of the ' De Subtilitate ad Cardanum/ the ' De 
 Causis Linguae Latinse/ and the ' Epistolas ' of Julius Caesar 
 Scaliger, and the even fiercer polemical writings of his son. 
 He was familiar with the ' Adagia/ the ' Apothegmata/ the 
 ' Encomium Morise ' of Erasmus ; with whose subtle, refined, 
 
INTEREST IN UNIVERSITIES. 163 
 
 and scholarly spirit he sympathised not the less, perhaps, that 
 it was too fastidious for much of the practical work of the time. 
 With the lives and writings of Eeuchlin and Hutten he was 
 especially conversant. He admired the rare philological attain- 
 ments of the former as the prince of Hellenists, and as almost 
 the only Hebraist of his time ; while the accomplishments of 
 Hutten as wit, poet, orator, and theologian, formed attractions 
 for him, which were enhanced by the prominent part that he took 
 in the struggles of the period for the revival of letters, and the 
 large share that he had in the composition of the ' Epistolse 
 Obscurorum Yirorum.' It was from his stores of reading on 
 this important period of the literary history of Europe that 
 Sir William contributed to the ' Eeview ' (1831) the article 
 on the authorship of the famous national satire of Germany. 
 In it he explains the circumstances of the period, entering 
 thoroughly into the spirit of the time, and giving a graphic 
 sketch of the character of Eeuchlin, the difficulties with which 
 he had to contend, and the aid furnished to his cause by the 
 remarkable ' Epistolse/ written by some of his friends in the 
 assumed character of his opponents. Eor the first time the 
 authorship of the 'Epistolae' was definitely ascertained, and 
 assigned to the co-operation of three distinguished literary 
 men of the time Hutten, Crotus, and Buschius. This article 
 was translated into German the year after it appeared. Sir 
 William's decision of the question raised has been generally 
 accepted as final by German critics. 
 
 Eor many years Sir William had been silently engaged in 
 the study of the literature connected with the constitution 
 and history of the European universities. The one great 
 practical interest of his life lay in the higher education of the 
 country ; and this led him, in his usual comprehensive way 
 of dealing with a subject, io penetrate on all sides to the 
 utmost bounds of its literature. The result was a wonderful 
 accumulation of knowledge regarding the university systems 
 of Europe, and the opinions of the best writers on the higher 
 
164 ARTICLES ON OXFORD. 
 
 education. His researches moreover, had ripened into de- 
 finite thought, and on no subject were his convictions more 
 fully formed, pointed, and intense, than on the proper con- 
 stitution and government of universities as a means of pro- 
 moting liberal education. His interest in these subjects 
 had hitherto been that merely of a student; but public at- 
 tention was now being turned to the actual condition of 
 the British universities, and Mr Napier, being well aware 
 of his friend's mastery of the whole subject, used his in- 
 fluence to get him to take it up in the ' Eeview.' The 
 result was the very remarkable series of articles on the 
 Universities and University Eeform, with which commenced 
 Sir William's practical influence on the machinery for the 
 higher education of the country an influence which has 
 proved hardly less powerful and commanding than that of 
 his speculative writings on the philosophical thought of the 
 times. The learning with which these essays were illustrated, 
 the information that was conveyed regarding the history 
 of universities, Continental and British, and regarding the 
 perversions of constitution through which they had passed, 
 above all, the singularly rigorous and elevated ideal of what 
 university instruction should aim at the scorn, even little 
 measured, of mere professional attainments, and the lofty 
 view of the intellectual man as an end in himself, and not 
 an instrument, served to quicken and elevate the general 
 thought and feeling of readers, and to impart new and de- 
 finite conceptions of the direction which true progress in 
 university reform ought to take. 
 
 Accordingly, in the 'Review' of June 1831, appeared the 
 first of the articles on " The State of the English Universities, 
 with more especial reference to Oxford/' This was followed 
 in December by a second article on the same subject, supple- 
 mentary to, and in vindication of, the first. Subsequently, 
 in 1834 and 1835, Sir William contributed to the ' Review' 
 two articles " On the Right of Dissenters to Admission into 
 the English Universities;" and one, in the former of those 
 
ARTICLES ON OXFORD. 165 
 
 years, on the " Patronage and Superintendence of Universities 
 generally." 
 
 In the articles on Oxford, Sir William advocated in a very 
 powerful way the restoration of the public or university 
 element, which, though in the constitution of the university 
 the main and original one, had almost entirely disappeared, 
 through the rise and encroachments of the collegiate interest. 
 He showed that one principal result of this usurpation by the 
 colleges of the function of the university proper had been the 
 abandonment of certain essential and statutory branches of 
 academical education, and the lowering of the teaching, even 
 in those retained, to the average level of tutorial competency 
 which he by no means rated high. Subsequently, on occasion 
 of the republication of the articles contributed to the ' Eeview ' 
 (1852), he added an Appendix on " A Eeform of the English 
 Universities, with especial reference to Oxford, and limited to 
 the Faculty of Arts/' 
 
 The tone of the articles on Oxford has been censured as 
 severe even to an extreme. Feeling that he was fighting 
 single-handed, and at desperate odds, against what he con- 
 ceived to be flagrant abuses, firmly intrenched in usage and 
 self-interest, he rises to the full height of that critical and 
 controversial vehemence which was part of his nature, and 
 which those who knew him only in his public relations 
 were apt very erroneously to regard as the main or salient 
 point in the character of the man. It was his peculiarity to 
 throw the whole force of his nature into whatever he took in 
 hand ; and, in controversy particularly, its manifestation might 
 very aptly be described in the words of Seneca, " Quemadmo- 
 duin flamma surgit in rectum, jacere et deprimi non potest, non 
 magis quam quiescere ; ita noster animus in motu est, eo mo- 
 bilior et actuosior, quo vehementior fuerit." 
 
 " When Sir William published his severe attack on Oxford 
 in the 'Edinburgh Eeview,'" says Archdeacon Sinclair, "I 
 expressed surprise that he did not treat his own venerable 
 Alma Mater with more filial indulgence. 'Indulgence!' he 
 
166 ARTICLES ON OXFORD. 
 
 exclaimed ; ' Oxford does not require indulgence, and that is 
 the very reason why I chose it for the subject of my article. 
 There is hardly any university against which I have not more 
 to say. I am not so great a coward as to select the weakest 
 antagonist.' " 
 
 In the two articles of 1834 and 1835, " On the Eight of 
 Dissenters to Admission into the English Universities," he put 
 the question on a new and proper footing. Having shown in 
 the previous articles that the university was in fact the 
 original element, he maintained the general right of all to 
 demand the restoration of this element, especially in the 
 form of public instruction, to its legal or statutory condition. 
 That the university existed only through the colleges the 
 staple argument of the opponents of the bill then before Par- 
 liament he had shown to be untenable. The supporters of 
 the bill of 1834 had not known or proceeded on this ground. 
 They had sought admission into the university through the 
 colleges, and thus rested their case on a much weaker ground 
 than was open to them. 
 
 The interest, opposition, and discussion excited by these 
 articles proved most salutary. They served to impart much- 
 needed information regarding the constitution and history of 
 the English universities, to correct prevalent misconceptions, 
 and to direct attention to proved abuses. They attracted 
 the notice, among others, of Lord Eadnor, who took an active 
 interest in university reform ; and a correspondence ensued 
 between him and Sir William on the subject. Lord Eadnor 
 was strongly impressed by Sir William's views. In one of 
 his letters he says : " The perusal of your different articles 
 in the 'Edinburgh Eeview' of 1831 and of last year has 
 very much enlarged my views on the subject; and my 
 object is now, if possible, to throw open the university 
 altogether. With this view, at the suggestion of a friend, I 
 am preparing a string of resolutions, to be submitted to the 
 Lords, stating historically the fact that the benefits of the 
 university education have been gradually confined within 
 
TESTIMONIES TO THEIR VALUE. 167 
 
 narrower and narrower limits, and showing how they may 
 be still further limited, till there shall not be a single stu- 
 dent not belonging to some foundation; and praying that 
 the king will take steps for causing such a visitation as 
 shall lead to the alteration of the statutes in such a manner 
 as will again open the university at least to all the king's 
 subjects/' * Besides thus throwing open the university, Lord 
 Eadnor was desirous also of "restoring the old practice of 
 public lectures and professorial education." His lordship 
 at length determined to proceed by bill rather than by resolu- 
 tions. After some further correspondence with Sir William, 
 particularly on the question of the utility of tests, the bill 
 was brought forward and discussed in the House of Lords 
 on 14th July 1835. It was made a question of party and 
 of support of the Church, and thrown out by 163 to 57. 
 
 Notwithstanding the defeat of Lord Eadnor's bill, Sir Wil- 
 liam lived to see his criticism of Oxford bear fruit, and to 
 receive an acknowledgment of his services in the cause of 
 English university reform from several members of the Oxford 
 Commission of 1850. Several of the leading changes intro- 
 duced into that university by the bill founded on the Ee- 
 port of the Commissioners, were in the direction which Sir 
 William had indicated as desirable ; in particular, the revival, 
 in part at least, of the university or professorial element, and 
 the reconstitution of the governing body of the university. 
 Writing to Sir William (April 1852) the Eev. G. H. John- 
 son (now Dean of Wells), one of the Commissioners on Oxford 
 University Eeform, says : 
 
 . . . " Many of your essays have had a most beneficial 
 influence (in my opinion) upon university affairs, and have 
 been of the utmost use in preparing the world for the Eeport 
 of the Commission, which I am going to deliver in to-day. I 
 fear that no opportunity occurred to mention our obligations 
 to you as they deserved ; the articles in question have been so 
 long before the world, and so commonly read, that they have 
 * Lord Radnor to Sir W. Hamilton, March 10, 1835. 
 
168 TESTIMONIES TO THEIR VALUE. 
 
 become in some sort public property ; and, without some re- 
 flection, one does not consider to whom the original account of 
 the Oxford constitution is owing." 
 
 The Eev. A. P. Stanley, now Dean of Westminster, writes, 
 5th June 1852 : 
 
 " It gives me much pleasure to receive from you so flat- 
 tering a tribute to our Eeport. I can only repeat our regret 
 that we were unable to refer more directly to the name of one 
 who has so powerfully contributed towards it by advocacy of 
 reform at a time when its need was less acknowledged than 
 at present, and by the stores of information which the articles 
 in the ' Edinburgh Eeview ' supplied on a subject till then 
 almost unknown." 
 
 Similar testimony is given by the Eev. F. D. Maurice : 
 
 " The form which this proposition has taken is certainly not 
 that which it would have taken twenty or thirty years ago. 
 Then it was supposed that the old universities required to be 
 reformed according to modern maxims ; that they ought to 
 abandon as much as possible their original character, which 
 was presumed to be a narrow one. What has been attempted 
 in this bill, successfully or unsuccessfully, has been to restore 
 part of their original character which had been lost, to bring 
 back the most ancient idea of the university, partly because 
 this was also found to be the most comprehensive. This 
 change in the direction of our thoughts and plans is owing, I 
 conceive, very principally to the writings of an eminent Scotch- 
 man, Sir W. Hamilton. In his articles in the ' Edinburgh 
 Eeview/ about twenty years ago, he showed very clearly that 
 the universities, properly so called, had been merged in the 
 colleges that the reform which was most demanded was to 
 restore them to life. He endeavoured to support this import- 
 ant doctrine by charges against the conduct of the colleges, 
 some of which I think were not supported by evidence, and 
 have been disproved by subsequent investigations. He ap- 
 peared to regard the whole scheme of colleges with a suspi- 
 cion and dislike in which I cannot participate. Eespect for 
 
PATRONAGE OF UNIVERSITIES. 169 
 
 the name of Balliol, and for the benefits which have proceeded 
 out of the society bearing that name from the fourteenth cen- 
 tury to the present day, would alone prevent me from adopt- 
 ing that opinion. But this difference does not make me less 
 sensible of the obligation under which Sir W. Hamilton has 
 laid us all, by asserting the necessity of giving prominence 
 and efficiency to the university, and not suffering the discipline 
 of the colleges, valuable as that may be, to overshadow it. It 
 is this consideration which has led many, who have exceed- 
 ingly disliked the thought of legislative interference with the 
 bodies from which they have derived some of the greatest 
 blessings of their lives, to acquiesce in the necessity of the 
 present measure even to desire that a more comprehensive 
 one had been adopted."* 
 
 In April 1834 appeared the article on the "Patronage and 
 Superintendence of Universities," which had for its text the 
 ' Eeport of the Eoyal Commission of Inquiry into the State 
 of the Universities of Scotland/ printed in 1831. Here Sir 
 William seeks, first of all, to lay down the general principles 
 and conditions of an efficient scheme of university patronage 
 a matter which, in this country at least, has proved so difficult 
 to realise. Bringing his rare acquaintance with the history of 
 the universities of Europe to bear on the subject, he gives an 
 account of that form of patronage and superintendence which 
 had been found to work best in the universities of Italy, Hol- 
 land, and Germany. This was an extra-academical board of 
 curators specially constituted for the purpose small, intelli- 
 gent, responsible, and conditionally permanent. He supports 
 this system by direct argument, by the facts of academic his- 
 tory, and by a trenchant and severe review of the modes of 
 university patronage then subsisting in this country viz., 
 the municipal, professorial, and regal. The province of this 
 limited body of curators would be " to discover, to compare, to 
 choose, to recommend, and to specify the grounds of their 
 preference to the Minister of State, with whom the definite 
 
 * Learning and Working, p. 10 etseq. 
 
170 PATRONAGE OF UNIVERSITIES. 
 
 nomination would remain a nomination, however, which 
 would be only formal if the curators conscientiously fulfilled 
 the duties of their trust." * The subject of academical patron- 
 age, with especial reference to the University of Edinburgh, 
 is further prosecuted in the Appendix to the ' Discussions.' ( 
 
 This article was the first attempt in this country to grapple 
 in a competent and intelligent manner with the vexed sub- 
 ject of university patronage. It and the articles on the 
 English universities must be referred to as affording the prime 
 impulse and direction to that spirit of discussion and inquiry 
 regarding the constitution and patronage of the universi- 
 ties of Scotland, which resulted in the Universities Act of 
 1858. The views advocated by Sir William in those con- 
 tributions to the 'Keview' influenced very considerably the 
 Keport of the Burgh Commissioners (1835), in so far as it 
 referred to the universities. This Eeport recommended a 
 small extra-academical board of curators (five in number), 
 as a substitute for the Town Council in the case of the Uni- 
 versity of Edinburgh, thus adopting the principle of the 
 scheme advocated in the 'Eeview.' Sir William subsequently 
 says of the comparatively simple method of the Burgh Com- 
 missioners, that it would be " a marvellous improvement on 
 the present reign of ignorance, favour, passion, and caprica"J 
 " The University Court " of Lord Advocate Inglis's bill is, in 
 certain of its features, analogous to the schemes recommended 
 by Sir William and the Burgh Commissioners. 
 
 It still remains for experience to show whether, by the pre- 
 sent constitution of the university courts, we have secured the 
 most efficient system of academical patronage possible in the 
 circumstances of the country whether, in fact, we have solved 
 the difficult and delicate problem of the best mode of appoint- 
 ment to professorial chairs. In a body so limited, and with no 
 check save a conflicting and often ill-informed public opinion, 
 nearly all depends on securing men who are at once edu- 
 
 * Discussions, p. 396. t Appendix III. A., p. 708 et seq. 
 
 f Discussions, p. 399. 
 
OTHER ARTICLES. 171 
 
 cated, courageous, and upright the conscious holders of a 
 high and sacred trust for the country. In this case, but in this 
 case only, we shall find electors willing and able to look beyond 
 the alumni of the local university ; to put a very modified 
 trust in mere testimonials ; to discourage the insulting process 
 of a personal canvass by interested parties ; to despise secta- 
 rian clamour ; and actively to seek out and sift evidence of 
 qualification even among men who, in the absence of special 
 interest in the town and neighbourhood of the university, are 
 deterred from coming forward as candidates. The necessity 
 for securing these conditions of an efficient and impartial pat- 
 ronage will lead to the enlargement of the present electing 
 body ; and probably the best mode of doing this, and thereby 
 effectually annihilating powerful local influences in favour of 
 particular candidates, would be to fuse the four bodies at pre- 
 sent separately intrusted with the patronage into one general 
 body for the appointment of professors in the whole of the 
 universities. 
 
 Sir William's exposure and vehement censure of the pre- 
 vailing system of examination for degrees, alike in arts and 
 in medicine, and his suggestions as to the propriety of intro- 
 ducing extra -academical examiners, and generally elevating 
 the standard for both degrees,* served materially to pave the 
 way for the regulations on these subjects of the recent Uni- 
 versities Act. 
 
 In 1832 Sir William contributed two articles to the ' Eeview,' 
 one in July, on " The Revolutions of Medicine, in reference 
 to Cullen ; " the other in October, on " Johnson's Translation of 
 Tennemann's Manual of Philosophy." 
 
 In July 1833 appeared the review of Cousin's Eeport on 
 German Schools. Eeference to this article is made in the 
 following letter: 
 
 MY DEAR SIR, When I received your letter, about a month ago, 
 I had been reproaching myself for having delayed so long thanking 
 you for the two editions of your ' Eapport,' &c. Your letter, how- 
 * Discussions, Appendix III. A. 
 
172 STUDY OF MATHEMATICS. 
 
 ever, caused me to defer writing you till I could collect the pieces 
 necessary to afford you the information you wished in regard to our 
 Scottish parochial schools. These I sent about a fortnight since to 
 Mrs Austin, to be transmitted through your ambassador, or in any 
 other way she might think better. ... I regret that you will 
 find the information so scanty, and the schools themselves so over- 
 praised. Our Scottish system of education for the people only 
 merits commendation by contrast to the English. I trust that the 
 example of France, of which you have been the principal author, 
 may shame our Government out of their negligence. I have been, 
 indeed, deeply gratified to see you obtaining so great and merited an 
 influence in the councils of your country ; and this not so much on 
 your own account (however interested I feel in all that concerns 
 your honour), as for the pledge it affords for the welfare of France 
 and Europe. 
 
 In your letter you mention a brochure on the state of popular 
 education in Prussia. This I have not received, and I regret it, 
 as it would (I imagine) have enabled me to make a more elegant 
 epitome of your 'Rapport' than is given in the article wholly 
 unworthy of the subject in the last number of the 'Edinburgh 
 Review.' This (of which you will believe me guilty) was, from una- 
 voidable causes, delayed till near the moment of publication, and 
 then written against time. 
 
 I am much gratified to hear that philosophy prospers so well in 
 France under your auspices. I look with impatience for the new 
 edition of your ' Fragmens,' and its Preface. I shall certainly be 
 highly flattered by any notice on your part, however unworthy I am 
 of the honour. Nothing can be more melancholy than the state of 
 philosophy with us. Two articles of mine in the ' Edinburgh Re- 
 view ' on the English translation of Tennemann's * Grundriss,' and on 
 the recent writers on 'Logic' in England, may afford some illustration 
 of this. . . . Believe me, &c. &c., W. HAMILTON. 
 
 POETENCROSS, 1st August 1833. 
 
 The articles on University Reform and Patronage of 1834 
 and 1835 have already been noticed. In July 1835 appeared 
 the essay " On the Deaf and Dumb History of their Instruc- 
 tion, in reference to Dalgarno." In January 1836 appeared 
 the famous article " On the Study of Mathematics as an 
 Exercise of Mind." In the course of the discussion its 
 
LETTERS OF NAPIER. 173 
 
 author lays down much that is valuable on the subject of 
 the nature and conditions of liberal education. The limited 
 utility which he is disposed to attribute to mathematics as a 
 mental discipline has of course given rise to much comment 
 and criticism. This article has been translated into French, 
 German, and Italian. 
 
 In the following letter, which refers to the article on Mathe- 
 matics, we have a glimpse of the troubles of the editor from 
 the irregular habits of composition and procrastination of the 
 contributor. The grounds of complaint appear to have been 
 pretty constant. At length the wrath of the editor has reached 
 its height. 
 
 Satwday night (very late) [1836]. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR WILLIAM, I will not disguise from you that I 
 felt at first exceedingly provoked, as well as difficulted, by the ex- 
 orbitant length of your article, which exceeds the utmost limit you 
 yourself asked by nearly a sheet and a half ! This mode of pro- 
 ceeding on your part has happened so often, and is so obviously 
 incompatible with those fixed arrangements which every editor 
 is entitled, and in fact is necessitated, to make, as to compel me to 
 say, that if you are to continue to favour me with your assistance 
 and I need not, I presume, say how much I value it you must 
 comply with those necessary conditions which no man connected 
 with the ' Review,' however high, but yourself, sets altogether at 
 naught. 
 
 I have taken an hour to deliberate what course to pursue ; and 
 there is so much risk of delaying the publication, to the great detri- 
 ment of the proprietor and the work, by following the only course 
 I can take, consistently with the insertion of your article in this 
 number, that it really has not been easy for me to make up my 
 mind. However, as I had, perhaps incautiously, notified that an 
 article on Mathematical Study was forthcoming, and as my own 
 views coincide entirely with your most able and valuable article, I 
 have resolved to print it as it stands to postpone another article 
 in consequence and to set up from MS. (and hence the risk of 
 delay) a shorter one, in order to enable me to get yours inserted 
 without mutilation. If I fail in getting all ready in time, I shall 
 have much cause to regret the resolution I have come to. ... 
 
 Let me beg of you to change some of those phrases which will be 
 
174 LETTERS OF NAPIER. 
 
 called pedantic and scholastic recollecting that we cannot change 
 the taste of the age, and that we ought, in addressing ourselves to 
 it, to have some regard to its tastes. 
 
 Such phrases, too, as " the Plato of later times," " the Dictator of 
 Letters," &c., belong entirely to a bygone age. Excuse me for 
 these remarks. I have in this article and on other occasions de- 
 ferred to your wishes and tastes more than to those of any other 
 contributor ; and it is not, I hope, too much in me to ask that I may 
 not be subjected, as editor, to certain critical charges which I do 
 not wish to incur. 
 
 I would have wished all the authorities in the type of the text, 
 but the number and the length of the article render this impossible. 
 . . . Ever most truly yours, , M. NAPIER. 
 
 CASTLE STREET, Feb. 1 [1836J. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR WILLIAM, ... I do not know whether 
 you would like to see all the criticisms I have got on this article. 
 In one respect they would please you, namely, that all of them 
 allow it to display great talent and learning. But the observations 
 on style, obscurity, &c. &c., would not be so palatable. One criti- 
 cism, I confess, I was not quite prepared for viz., that the argu- 
 ment is injured by the " cloud of witnesses," which, it is said, has 
 been huddled together without discrimination, and without any 
 rational view of the value of authorities. Lord Brougham, in a let- 
 ter I received yesterday among others, makes this remark, and adds, 
 that he is sorry the writer, whom he praises for ability and learning, 
 should have adopted a tone in regard to mathematics so widely 
 different from that of the cautious and philosophical D. Stewart. 
 
 If you are to write an article on classical education we must 
 settle about it immediately. And you must allow me to say that, 
 after reasonable limits are fixed, they must be adhered to ; and 
 further, that the article must be given me in such time as to 
 admit of deliberate revision, instead of being sent at the close when 
 all is hurry. Do, then, make up your mind deliberately, and let me 
 know the result as soon as possible. I must arrange the articles, 
 spaces, &c., for next number in a very few days. . . . Ever 
 most truly yours, M. NAPIER. 
 
 In the October number of the 'Beview' of this year (1836) 
 appeared the article " On the Conditions of Classical Learning, 
 relative to the Defence of Classical Education by Professor 
 
LETTER TO MRS AUSTIN. 1"75 
 
 Pillans." Sir William's regular contributions to the ' Keview' 
 now ceased, owing to his appointment to the Logic Chair, 
 which, as we shall see, took place this year, and to the occu- 
 pation of his time in the preparation of his Lectures. After 
 a lapse of three years (April 1839) he contributed a short 
 article " On Idealism with reference to the scheme of Arthur 
 Collier." This was his last contribution to the ' Be view.' 
 
 The following probably refers to Mr Carlyle's letter already 
 given, and the proposal which it contained that Sir William 
 should become a contributor to the new periodical* : 
 
 SIR W. HAMILTON TO MRS AUSTIN. 
 
 EDINBURGH, November 26, 1834. 
 
 . . . What has become of the new Review? I am afraid 
 there is hardly much to be expected for the success of a periodical 
 on the same plan (however different the principles) as the old 
 reviews. I am much nattered in being thought worth asking as a 
 contributor, but could hardly promise to be more than an occasional 
 ally (supposing always a harmony of views), as I am too much occu- 
 pied with matters apart from all popular interest, and have in the 
 'Edinburgh Review' an outlet more than sufficient for any super- 
 fluous energy with which I may be distressed. I meant to have 
 enclosed a letter for our friend Mr Carlyle along with this, as I have 
 mislaid a letter of his with his address in London, but find that I 
 am already late enough for the post. I shall take the liberty of 
 doing so in a day or two, and beg you would address it. ... 
 How are we all thrown back by this disastrous exercise of royal 
 will ! I trust, however, it will be a useful lesson to the Whigs, t 
 
 The preparation of the contributions to the ' Review/ re- 
 ferred to in this chapter, necessarily formed Sir William's prin- 
 cipal occupation during the period from 1829 to 1836 ; and he 
 was now evidently looking rather to philosophy than to law as 
 the main work of his life. In 1832, however, he had received 
 from the Crown a minor legal appointment (the Solicitorship 
 of Teinds), which required his attendance in the Parliament 
 House once or twice a-week. The function of the Teind 
 
 * Supra, p. 127. 
 
 "t* The reference is probably to the dissolution of the Melbourne Ministry. 
 
176 LETTER OF PROFESSOR MYLNE. 
 
 Court is to consider and determine applications by ministers 
 of the Church of Scotland for augmentation of stipend out 
 of a fund set apart for this purpose at the Eeformation. It is 
 the duty of the Solicitor of Teinds, along with the Lord 
 Advocate and Solicitor-General, to watch over the interests 
 of the Crown in the matter of applications to the Court. 
 Sir William was well versed in the subject of teinds, which 
 implies considerable antiquarian and legal attainments. This 
 office, the salary of which is inconsiderable, was the only 
 piece of legal promotion which he ever received. 
 
 Sir William's contributions to the 'Edinburgh Keview,' 
 coupled with the remembrance of his career in the University 
 of Glasgow, had attracted towards him the attention of the 
 venerable Professor Mylne, his former teacher. The follow- 
 ing letter contains a proposal of much interest, which, if it 
 had been carried out, must have very materially affected the 
 course of philosophical instruction and opinion in the west 
 of Scotland : 
 
 PROFESSOR MYLNE TO SIR W. HAMILTON. 
 
 FAIRLIE, BY LARGS, AYRSHIRE, 
 August 22, 1834. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR, I beg leave to state to you a proposal to which I 
 beg you will give your deliberate and serious consideration. I pre- 
 face it only by saying that I feel a deep interest in it, and that your 
 concurrence with it will be highly gratifying to me, and, I trust, 
 may eventually contribute materially to your honour and advantage. 
 
 You probably know that, for reasons which I need not now detail, 
 I have for some time past meditated my retirement from the Chair 
 which I have held in the University of Glasgow for thirty-seven 
 years ; and that above eighteen months ago I formed, and proposed 
 to the Faculty, a plan by which I thought this purpose could be 
 effected in a way easy to myself and beneficial to the University. 
 But that plan, though it received the cordial approbation of the 
 greater number of my colleagues, encountered an opposition which 
 I did not anticipate, and which, as, I see no means of conquering it 
 but such as neither prudence nor my sincere concern for the 
 advancement of sound and enlightened philosophy permit me to 
 adopt, I shall no longer contend against. 
 
LETTER OF PROFESSOR MYLNE. 177 
 
 My failure, however, in this instance has not abated the earnestness 
 of my desire to secure, as soon as I can, the great objects for which 
 my plan was formed. I am still anxious to obtain my immediate 
 and speedy release from the professional duties incumbent on me, 
 and for the due discharge of which I feel myself becoming daily 
 more and more unfit. I long to see them transferred from me to 
 one whose acknowledged talents and acquirements, whose known 
 pursuits and predominating propensities towards philosophical and 
 accurate inquiry, and whose confirmed habits of severe and persever- 
 ing study, eminently qualify him for the trust. I am still eagerly 
 desirous that, during the probably short remainder of life that may 
 be allowed to me, I may enjoy the pleasure of witnessing the fidelity 
 and success with which such a person, my appointed substitute and 
 successor, shall acquit himself in my stead ; and that when I am 
 called to quit the world, I may leave it with the high satisfaction 
 of thinking that I have contributed something to establish in our 
 Chair of Ethical and Political Science a person worthy of its im- 
 portance, and who, during a life that, it may be hoped, will be long 
 and happy, shall nobly emulate and sustain the merited honours 
 which some of my illustrious predecessors have brought by their 
 genius and exertions on themselves, on the University, and particu- 
 larly on that Chair. 
 
 With these objects in view, my proposal to you is that you should 
 heartily concur with me in the attempt to bring about immediately 
 or speedily the appointment of yourself to be my assistant, or rather 
 my substitute during my life, and successor when I die. I am sorry 
 that I must thus subject you as well as myself to a course of exer- 
 tion which, though I cannot believe it will be fruitless, yet I cannot 
 represent as very easy or agreeable in itself, and which might be 
 found by some so repugnant to their tastes and feelings that they 
 would rather reject my proposal at once and altogether than engage 
 in it. If I could I would include in the act of resignation an express 
 clause that you were to be appointed my successor as the condition 
 of its fulfilment on my part ; and if my resignation, so stated, were 
 to be recognised and admitted by the patrons of the Chair, I would 
 certainly, without hesitation or delay, put it into their hands. But 
 I am sure that a resignation so limited would not be indeed, for 
 very obvious and strong reasons, I think it ought not to be 
 received by them. All, therefore, that I can do to promote your 
 appointment is, to give you, as I now do, my full warrant and 
 authority to offer yourself as a candidate for my office, and my 
 
 M 
 
178 LETTER OF PROFESSOR MYLNE. 
 
 deliberate promise that, as soon as you shall receive the assured 
 support of a sufficient number of the electors, I shall make way for 
 your admission to my Chair by an explicit and full resignation of 
 it, on the terms that shall have previously been agreed on between 
 us and fixed by the concurrence of the Faculty. I need not add, 
 that nothing that I can do, or that is within the reach of such 
 influence as I can with propriety employ with the electors, shall be 
 wanting on my part to advance your success. 
 
 The terms on which I am willing to resign may be generally and 
 briefly stated as follows : 
 
 First, That during my life I retain the whole salary payable to 
 the Professor of Moral Philosophy ; 
 
 Secondly, that I relinquish to you the whole of the other emolu- 
 ments arising from the discharge of the duties connected with the 
 Chair. 
 
 I readily and cheerfully consent that from the beginning of your 
 career you shall draw the whole of the emoluments arising from the 
 devotion of your time, your talents, and your exertions to the duties 
 of the Chair that is to say, the fees or honorariums you may 
 receive, not only from students attending the public and the private 
 Ethic classes, but also from those who attend classes in which you 
 give lectures, or otherwise communicate instruction on subjects that 
 come within the line prescribed for the Professor of Moral and 
 Political Philosophy by the statutes of the College, or that have 
 been sanctioned by former custom and practice of the Ethical Chair, 
 or that may be chosen by your own taste and judgment, allowed 
 and authorised by the permission of the Faculty. Of such subjects 
 there is a great variety, and of these several which I believe will 
 be found to harmonise with those inquiries to which your studies 
 have been specially directed, and on which, of course, you will 
 find it easy to give highly useful and popular prelections such, for 
 instance, as jurisprudence ; the origin and progress of human society, 
 and of the modifications of social and civil institutions; the prin- 
 ciples of government and its different forms philosophy, political 
 and economical ; ancient philosophy, physical and ethical a subject 
 the adoption of which by you will, I doubt not, be greatly encouraged 
 by our two professors of languages, and by all who are desirous of 
 promoting in the Scottish universities a more diligent cultivation 
 of these languages, &c. &c. &c. 
 
 I will anxiously look for your deliberate and well-considered reply 
 to my proposal. If, after carefully pondering it yourself, and con- 
 
PHYSIOLOGICAL EXPERIMENTS. 179 
 
 suiting with your most confidential friends respecting it (to whom 
 only I request your communications on the subject may for the pre- 
 sent be made), you should determine to decline, be so good as to 
 let me know your rejection ; but I shall be much more desirous to 
 learn from you soon your concurrence with me in it. 
 
 I would be happy to enjoy a personal communication with you 
 on the subject, and would be glad if you could for that purpose 
 make me a visit here. That visit it will be in all respects both 
 convenient and gratifying to me to receive; and the sooner the 
 more gratifying. 
 
 Believe me to be with sincere esteem and regard, my dear sir, 
 yours faithfully, J. MYLNE. 
 
 Sir William appears to have declined this proposal. The 
 appointment lay with the Senate of the University ; and he 
 probably judged that the influence which, in accordance with 
 the habits of the place, was certain to be put forth in favour 
 of the local candidate, was likely to be too strong even for 
 the reviewer of Cousin and author of the essays on Percep- 
 tion and Logic. Another consideration that weighed with 
 him was the prospect of his becoming a candidate for the 
 Chair of Logic in Edinburgh, which was likely soon to be 
 vacant by the resignation of its holder, Dr David Kitchie. 
 
 Along with the preparation of the articles for the ' Review/ 
 which was the most important occupation and the chief visible 
 result of the years referred to in this chapter, Sir William 
 was of course carrying on his usual studies in their various 
 branches. Among these he continued to pursue those physio- 
 logical researches which have been alluded to. One of the 
 outlets which he found for his interest in this direction was 
 in a series of experiments on his children, the results of 
 which remain recorded in very elaborate tables. In refer- 
 ence to this matter Lady Hamilton says : " The children be- 
 came victims to his love of investigation and experiment, 
 being subjected from the day of their birth to a process of 
 weighing and measuring which does not often fall to the lot 
 of such little creatures. The matter to be ascertained was the 
 rate of growth of the body, especially the head, during the 
 
180 EXPERIMENTS WITH MORPHIA. 
 
 first few weeks of life. For the purpose of this inquiry which 
 was connected with Sir William's investigations on the brain 
 elaborate measurements were taken (with callipers, tape, 
 and flexible leaden bands) of the head of each of our children 
 in succession ; drawings being also made to show the varying 
 configuration of the skull. The other part of the process was 
 of a somewhat novel kind. The child, stretched on a wooden 
 board, was placed on one balance of a pair of (Degrave's) scales, 
 while on the other, in order to supply a deficiency of proper 
 weights, were laid two volumes of the quarto edition of Mon- 
 taigne's ' Essais ' (the weight of which, as well as of the board 
 and child's clothes, had been previously ascertained) ; and in 
 this way, with the assistance of an old nurse, who cordially 
 entered into his scientific ardour, Sir William proceeded to 
 satisfy himself of the child's weight, of which on each occa- 
 sion he took an accurate note. During the first few weeks, 
 when the rate of growth was very rapid, these observations 
 were made almost daily. Afterwards the weighing and meas- 
 uring operations became less frequent, and were subsequently 
 gone through only at intervals of a month or two. Nor were 
 the observations on the growth of the head confined to our 
 own children : those of our most intimate friends were made 
 the subjects of a scarcely less minute examination. 
 
 " When his eldest boy grew too big to be weighed on scales, 
 a handkerchief was tied round his waist, and he was sus- 
 pended in mid-air from a steelyard which was generally 
 made fast to a step of the library ladder." 
 
 Sir William also more than once experimented on himself 
 after a somewhat bold fashion. His purpose was to test the 
 effect of morphia on his system, which he had found to possess 
 the remarkable peculiarity of insensibility to the action of nar- 
 cotics. " For the facts connected with this," says Dr Douglas 
 Maclagan, his medical attendant, " I am indebted to my col- 
 league Dr Christison, who has been in the habit of noticing 
 them in his lectures. It seems that when at Oxford Sir 
 William had suffered from toothache, and had sought relief 
 
EXPERIMENTS WITH MORPHIA. 181 
 
 from a dose of laudanum ; but he found that it produced on 
 him no effect whatever. He afterwards made some experi- 
 ments on himself with laudanum of known excellence, and 
 found that he could take 450 drops without the production 
 of any effect on him except a little headache. This may be 
 roughly stated to be equal to ten average doses of this drug 
 for a person who, like him, was totally unaccustomed to its 
 use." We have in the following rough jottings a record of 
 one such experiment, made about 1836 : 
 
 22d December. 
 
 5 o'clock. Just before dinner, pulse 65. 
 | -past 5. After hearty dinner, and some half-dozen glasses of 
 
 light wine, pulse 74. 
 | past 5. After dinner, 76. 
 J-past 7. (Having slept an hour) pulse 84. (N.B. Having eaten 
 
 salt herrings to dinner, drank three or four tumblers of water.) 
 
 10 o'clock. Pulse 88 or 89. 
 
 Took 150 drops of morphia at 10 minutes past 10 o'clock, 
 ^-past 10 o'clock. Pulse 80 perhaps fuller; for last quarter of an 
 hour feeling as it were of fulness in head. At present very 
 slight feeling of nausea, and very slight pain in stomach ; a 
 slight feeling of languor in muscles. 
 
 1 1 o'clock. Pulse 82 ; sense of fulness rather less ; languor, or rather 
 
 feeling of placidity, not increased ; slight feeling of warmth in 
 face and over surface of body, especially in feet. No confusion 
 or somnolency. Altogether not more effect apparent than when 
 only 50 drops taken. Have been, since taking dose, occupied 
 in reading. 
 
 ^-past 11. Pulse 78 or 79 full; feeling of fulness less; no real 
 languor, and feeling of less ; warmth continues ; quite alert 
 indeed very. 
 
 12 o'clock. Pulse 70 not so full; all symptoms nearly off; very 
 
 wakeful and alert ; feeling of full muscular vigour. 
 -past 12. Pulse 75 ; still feeling of slight warmth, especially in 
 hands and feet ; mouth not dry, but saliva not so abundant as 
 usual, but no thirst felt. Now, as all along, a slight feeling of 
 surd headache ; and in turning suddenly, a slight symptom of 
 giddiness, or rather swimming, was observed, but not deserving 
 of either name, so slight. 
 
182 EXPERIMENTS WITH MORPHIA. 
 
 1 o'clock. Pulse 69 ; headache very slight, but still a feeling in 
 
 head ; and slight giddiness or swimming occasionally on turn- 
 ing conies on more easily than usual. 
 
 |-past 1. Pulse 64 ; no somnolence ; now and then a slight noise 
 in ears ; rather mawkish feeling this, indeed, all along ; mouth 
 not moist, but not dry as before ; skin warm (prickly glow) ; 
 not feverish. 
 
 2 o'clock. Pulse 60 not full ; no somnolence ; glow still in skin, 
 
 especially hands, feet, and ears ; mawkishness, but not a nega- 
 tion of appetite ; have eaten nothing since dinner ; slight sound 
 in ears like distant sound of a carriage, now heard and now not 
 heard (but this might have been, independently of morphia, 
 from hour of night) ; surd headache not better. 
 
 J-past 2. Pulse 62 ; quarter of an hour ago ate three apples bread 
 and cheese as usual ; [am now] reading quite as well as usual. 
 
 J from 4. Pulse 68 ; had been asleep, or rather in a sort of dreamy 
 slumber ; awoke naturally, indeed voluntarily. 
 
 Slept not deeply, but, on the contrary, perhaps more lightly than 
 usual ; often awoke ; dreaming. Next morning about 
 
 J-past 10, fully awake, but with rather bad taste in mouth, and 
 with feeling of giddiness, as if bile ; oddish all over, but 
 nothing worth notice, if not looked for. 
 
 J from 11. Pulse 63; got up and breakfasted ; now, at 
 
 | -past 11, feel nearly as usual; pulse 65 ; perhaps not so alert as 
 ordinary i.e., not so disposed for exertion of body. 
 
 1 o'clock P.M. Pulse 69. 
 
 These experiments, on his children and himself, were con- 
 ducted as much in the way of pastime and relaxation from 
 severe pursuits as from a purely scientific interest, which, 
 however, he had pretty strongly. They serve to show the 
 wonderful activity of his intellect at this period, which, when 
 most hardly taxed, sought relaxation, not in repose, but in a 
 change of work : " Alit lectio ingenium ; et studio fatigatum, 
 non sine studio, tamen reficit." 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 APPOINTMENT TO LOGIC CHAIR, AND COMPOSITION OF LECTURES : 
 
 1836-1839. 
 
 RESIGNATION OF DR RITCHIE UNIVERSITY PATRONAGE IN EDINBURGH 
 CANDIDATES FOR THE LOGIC CHAIR CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN 
 PROFESSOR PILLANS AND M. COUSIN LETTER OF SIR WILLIAM TO 
 
 M. COUSIN REPLY AND TESTIMONIAL OPPOSITION TO SIR WILLIAM 
 
 HIS DECLINATURE TO CANVASS ALLEGED OBSCURITY OF HIS WRITINGS 
 THEOLOGICAL OBJECTION RESULT OF THE ELECTION PREPARATION 
 OF LECTURES INTRODUCTORY LECTURE LECTURES OF FIRST SESSION 
 ON METAPHYSICS HOW COMPOSED COMMENCEMENT OF EDITION OF 
 REID LECTURES OF SECOND SESSION ON LOGIC PLACE OF THE 
 LECTURES AS AN EXPOSITION OF THE AUTHOR'S PHILOSOPHICAL DOC- 
 TRINES THEIR GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS AND INFLUENCE TES- 
 TIMONY OF REV. DR CAIRNS CORRESPONDENCE WITH M. COUSIN 
 CONTROVERSY WITH TOWN COUNCIL ABOUT FEES AND SENIOR CLASS. 
 
 AT the close of the College session of 1836, Dr David Kitchie, 
 after a career by no means brilliant, resigned the Professorship 
 of Logic and Metaphysics in the University of Edinburgh. Sir 
 William Hamilton, as the outstanding man in the department 
 of speculative philosophy, not only in Scotland, but in Britain, 
 might naturally have been expected to obtain the vacant Chair 
 without difficulty, if not even without solicitation. He had 
 already contributed to the ' Edinburgh Eeview ' those articles 
 which had made him known on the Continent of Europe as 
 the man of highest philosophical genius and greatest philo- 
 sophical learning in Britain. He had also proved his remark- 
 able, if not unique, acquaintance with the history and consti- 
 tution of universities at home and abroad, and explained the 
 
184 EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY PATRONAGE. 
 
 high aims of all university training. As in Germany and 
 France the custom was for the patrons of university ap- 
 pointments to seek the man most fitted for the office, and 
 not to leave it to every one who fancied himself qualified 
 to seek ihe office, it was never doubted by the distinguished 
 members of foreign universities, such as Brandis and Cousin, 
 but that the vacant Chair would be readily offered to Sir 
 William Hamilton. Nothing of the kind, however, took 
 place, or was at all likely to occur. Foreigners were not 
 aware that the patronage of the University of Edinburgh 
 lay with the Town Council (Stadtrath), and that University 
 appointments were decided, among other city transactions, 
 by the burgomaster and councillors in the Eathhaus or 
 Hotel de Ville a body, however useful and respectable, not 
 to be supposed capable of judging directly of attainments 
 in abstract philosophy, or of the qualifications necessary for 
 teaching it from a professor's chair. Philosophical merit, 
 like other accomplishments, had thus to be made clear by 
 varied and laborious processes, and to approve itself to the 
 respectable body of citizens chiefly engaged in trade and 
 commerce who constituted the Town Council. These men 
 were supposed to act as jurymen, to sift and determine 
 on, the evidence brought before them regarding the qualifi- 
 cations of rival candidates. Whether evidence of the pecu- 
 liar nature suitable in such a case should ever have been 
 submitted to the judgment of a jury so constituted, how 
 far, as a rule, they succeeded in selecting the best man, and 
 what were the countervailing checks against abuse and pre- 
 ventives from mistake, are points which it is here unneces- 
 sary to discuss. The fact was so ; and a candidate for the 
 Chair of Intellectual Philosophy, be he a Plato or an Aristotle, 
 was under the necessity, at this period, of addressing himself, 
 with proof of his qualifications, to this body of electors, thirty- 
 three in number. Sir William, in particular, had written, and 
 written powerfully, against the continuance of the patronage 
 of the University in the hands of the Council, and he did 
 
OTHER CANDIDATES. 185 
 
 not much relish the prospect before him of having to persuade 
 that body of his superior qualifications. 
 
 The other principal candidates for the Chair were Mr Isaac 
 Taylor, Mr George Combe, and Mr Patrick Campbell Mac- 
 dougall. Mr Taylor was acceptable to a considerable body of 
 electors on account of his religious views. He had recently 
 written ' The Natural History of Enthusiasm/ the first of that 
 series of works on questions that lie in the border-land be- 
 tween philosophy and theology, by which he has deservedly 
 achieved a high reputation. He had also given to the world 
 a small work entitled 'Elements of Thought/ in which he 
 sought to give an explanation of various philosophical terms, 
 with, however, but indifferent learning and success. Mr 
 Combe was the representative of the phrenological doctrines, 
 which, chiefly through his influence, had at this time a con- 
 siderable hold of some portions of the public. Mr Macdougall, 
 who afterwards became Professor of Moral Philosophy in the 
 University of Edinburgh, was then a young man, of very 
 varied and brilliant accomplishments. 
 
 It soon became obvious that the final victory must lie either 
 with Sir William or Mr Taylor. With a body such as the 
 Town Council, the chances might seem rather in favour of the 
 popular author than of the abstract thinker. And there is a 
 tolerable degree of probability that, but for the overwhelming 
 evidence of superior attainments that came from men like 
 Cousin and Brandis, the small majority by which Sir William 
 carried his election would have been converted into a minority. 
 Sir William's testimonials were by design few and select, but 
 stronger evidence of capacity and attainments was never pre- 
 sented to a body of electors. I have already quoted M. 
 Cousin's remarks on the first article in the 'Keview' that 
 on his own writings. He had also unsolicitedly said, " Sir 
 William Hamilton is the fittest person to be Professor of 
 Logic in the University of Edinburgh at the first vacancy. 
 He is pointed out for this situation by the peculiar bent of 
 his mind, and by his pre-eminence above all his Scotch and 
 
186 CORRESPONDENCE WITH M. COUSIN. 
 
 English contemporaries." This was part of the notes of a 
 conversation between M. Cousin and Professor Pillans during 
 a visit which the latter made to Paris in May 1834. On Dr 
 Ritchie's resignation of the Chair, Mr Pillans wrote to M. 
 Cousin, transmitting a copy of the notes, with a request that 
 he would either formally sanction their accuracy or return a 
 more authentic expression of his opinion. Owing to the 
 severe indisposition of M. Cousin, two months elapsed before 
 a reply was received. In the mean time Sir William had 
 addressed to him the following letter : 
 
 SIR W. HAMILTON TO M. COUSIN. 
 
 EDINBUEGH, 23d May 1836. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR, I. have a long letter soon to write you of acknow- 
 ledgments, apologies, and explanations in particular, to justify my- 
 self for not yet having performed my promise regarding a review of 
 the prefaces of yourself and Schelling a non-performance for which, 
 when you know the circumstances, I am sure you will not think me 
 in fault. At present, however, I write only on a matter wholly 
 personal to myself, and that briefly and hurriedly, as time is now 
 of great importance in the affair. I therefore go at once to the 
 business. 
 
 As the communication was thought better from another person 
 than from myself, Professor Pillans wrote you above five weeks ago, 
 requesting that you would have the goodness to state in writing 
 your opinion of my qualifications for the Chair of Logic and Meta- 
 physics, now vacant, in this University, and for which I have ap- 
 plied. As so long an interval has elapsed, we are apprehensive 
 that the packet may not have reached you. In case it should be 
 lost, I have shortly to say that a testimony from so distinguished 
 an authority as you will have the greatest influence in my favour. 
 It may seem, indeed, superfluous to trouble you again for such 
 a testimony after the too flattering expression of your good opin- 
 ion of me to Professor Pillans in a conversation of which he 
 kindly secured notes. But my friends think that your opinion, 
 given by yourself in writing, would be of greater weight and a 
 more authentic evidence. At the same time it would be better 
 to avoid dwelling so much on the obscurity of my articles (which 
 arises, I hope, only from the abstruseness of their subjects and the 
 limited space into which the discussions must, in a journal like 
 
LETTER OF M. COUSIN. 187 
 
 the 'Edinburgh Review,' be compressed), as this the obscurity 
 of my writings is the only objection of any consequence made to 
 my claims. This I know with you arose in reply to Mr Pillans, 
 who was probably not prepared to understand them. I do not 
 know whether you are aware of an article of mine on " Logic," in 
 the ' Edinburgh Review,' No. 115. There is another on the " Study 
 of Mathematics" in No. 126, in which, I am afraid, you will think 
 me very heretical. There are various others to which it is needless 
 to refer you. Among the competitors there is no one from whom I 
 have to fear anything on the score of any knowledge of the subject 
 of the Chair. But the electors, who are the municipality of the city 
 (thirty-three in number), are a good deal under the influence of the 
 clergy and the fanatical party, who, of course, always wish for some 
 friend of their own ; and I have also recently irritated the bourgeoisie 
 of the municipality by an article " On the Patronage of Universities," 
 in the 119th number of the 'Edinburgh Review,' and by my evi- 
 dence before a Parliamentary Commission, in which I treated their 
 capacity for academical patrons with the contempt it merited. In 
 these circumstances I shall feel deeply grateful to you for anything 
 you can candidly say in my behalf. And if you could procure any 
 opinions to the same effect from any of your distinguished philoso- 
 phers, you would add to the obligation, for our honest magistracy count 
 as well as weigh the testimonies. Perhaps M. Royer-Collard and M. 
 Jouffroy may have read my article " On the Philosophy of Percep- 
 tion " which I sent them, and perhaps may be able to say something 
 favourable of it. But you are the best judge. I must request your 
 kind indulgence for this egotistical epistle, as for many other peccata, 
 and I must abruptly subscribe myself, with the highest regard, my 
 dear sir, ever most faithfully yours, W. HAMILTON. 
 
 At length the following weighty letter reached Mr Pillans, and 
 was submitted to the electors : 
 
 M. COUSIN TO PROFESSOR PILLANS. 
 (Translation.) 
 
 MY DEAR MR PILLANS, A severe indisposition, which has for 
 some time confined me to bed, has compelled me not to answer your 
 letter so speedily as I would have desired, especially in the matter 
 to which it relates. My first care is to do so the moment I have 
 been able to hold a pen. 
 
 I perfectly recognise in the paper accompanying your letter the 
 
188 LETTER OF M. COUSIN. 
 
 heads of a conversation which we had together two years ago in the 
 presence of your young friend. He has very faithfully interpreted 
 my thought, and has even rather weakened than overstrained it in 
 what regards the merit of Sir W. Hamilton. I will by-and-by recur 
 to the points in which it seems to me the accuracy of your friend is 
 somewhat at fault ; but permit me previously to recall to you my 
 own position in this affair. As some small value has been attached 
 to my testimony, it is necessary to make known how I stand dis- 
 posed, and what it is that determines my opinion. 
 
 I have no personal connection with Sir W. Hamilton. You are 
 the only individual I have seen who knows him. It was from read- 
 ing an article in No. 99, Oct. 1829, of the 'Edinburgh Review/ that 
 I became desirous of knowing who was its author ; and it was Mr 
 Austin, the learned and profound jurist, who informed me of Sir 
 W. Hamilton's name. 
 
 The article to which I allude, although polite in manner, was in 
 substance very severe ; and it has served for the text to all the ob- 
 jections which have subsequently been made to what is called my 
 philosophy, in America, and even in France. 
 
 This article remains, of what has been written against me, that 
 of principal account. From reading all that Sir W. Hamilton has 
 done, I am convinced that we are not perfectly at one except in the 
 matter of public education, and that in philosophy, under much ap- 
 parent similarity, there subsist between us fundamental differences. 
 You are therefore clearly aware, my dear sir, that my esteem for Sir 
 W. Hamilton is very disinterested. It is not a partisan that I am 
 desirous of supporting. No ; it is an adversary of the most elevated 
 order to whom I render an honest tribute of respect. 
 
 What, then, is the difference of opinion between Sir W. Hamilton 
 and me ? Without here treating you to metaphysics, I will only 
 say that, professing the highest regard and the most grateful ac- 
 knowledgment to the Scottish philosophy, out of which the new 
 philosophy of France has arisen, and without deserting the prin- 
 ciples of that excellent philosophy, I have believed it possible 
 to bestow on these a development that somewhat surpasses the 
 boundary which Reid and Dugald Stewart have assigned to human 
 reason. This development, is it legitimate 1 ? or is the circumspec- 
 tion of your illustrious countrymen to be preferred 1 That is the 
 question. 
 
 Now, on this question Sir W. Hamilton is the man who, before 
 all Europe, has, in the ' Edinburgh Review/ defended the Scottish 
 
LETTER OF M. COUSIN. 189 
 
 philosophy, and posted himself its representative. In this relation 
 the different articles which he has written in that journal are of 
 infinite value ; and it is not I who ought to solicit Scotland for 
 Sir W. Hamilton ; it is Scotland herself who ought to honour by 
 her suffrage him who, since Dugald Stewart, is her sole representa- 
 tive in Europe. 
 
 In truth, what characterises Sir W. Hamilton is precisely the 
 Scottish intellect ; and he is only attached to the philosophy of Reid 
 and Stewart because their philosophy is the Scottish intellect itself 
 applied to metaphysics. Sir "W. Hamilton never deviates from the 
 highway of common sense, and at the same time he possesses great 
 ingenuity (esprit) and sagacity ; and I assure you (I know it from 
 experience) that his dialectic is by no means comfortable to his 
 adversary. 
 
 Inferior to Reid in invention and originality, and to Stewart in 
 grace and delicacy, he is perhaps superior to both, and certainly to 
 the latter, by the vigour of his dialectic ; I add, and by the extent 
 of his erudition. 
 
 Sir W. Hamilton knows all systems, ancient and modern, and 
 he examines them by the criticism of the Scottish intellect. His 
 independence is equal to his knowledge. He is, above all, emi- 
 nent in logic. I would speak to you here as a philosopher by 
 profession. 
 
 Be assured that Sir W. Hamilton is the one of all your coun- 
 trymen who knows Aristotle the best ; and were there in all the 
 three kingdoms of his Britannic Majesty a Chair of Logic vacant, 
 do not hesitate make haste give it to Sir W. Hamilton. 
 
 I say it sincerely, that my obligations to Scotland obligations 
 recently enhanced by the honourable title which your learned Aca- 
 demy has been pleased to confer upon me have inspired me with a 
 lively desire of seeing Scotland again represented in the congress of 
 European philosophers. If you think it expedient, I will write to 
 Lord Lansdowne, whom I have the honour to know a little. Were 
 M. Jouffroy here, he would be eager to add his testimony to mine ; 
 but M. Jouffroy is in Italy for his health, and M. Royer-Collard has 
 just set off for the country. But have you not the suffrage of M. 
 Eoyer-Collard ? My illustrious master is wholly Scotch ; he is Reid 
 and Stewart in flesh and bone. And Reid and Stewart, if they 
 were electors, would choose Sir W. Hamilton. 
 
 Now for the two points where the accuracy of your young friend 
 might have been greater : 
 
190 LETTER OF M. COUSIN. 
 
 1 . That Sir W. Hamilton has, perhaps, less originality than Reid, 
 Stewart, and Brown. Sir W. Hamilton is very superior to Brown, 
 especially as a logician. Were the articles of Sir W. Hamilton col- 
 lected, we should have a "book infinitely more distinguished than the 
 writings very ingenious, but superficial and diffuse of Brown. 
 
 2. Sir W. Hamilton has not even the very slightest appearance 
 of obscurity. His style is substantial and severe, but of a perfect 
 plainness for every one acquainted with the subject and not incap- 
 able of attention. No one is more opposed to, no one is more de- 
 void of, the vagueness and obscurity of the German philosophy in 
 several of its most celebrated authors. To be popularly clear, there 
 is only wanting to Sir W. Hamilton the space requisite fairly to 
 develop his thought ; and that space is not found in a review it is 
 only fully obtained in a course of lectures. In short, my dear Mr 
 Pillans, were there not too much of pretension and arrogance in the 
 request, I would entreat of you to say in my name to the person or 
 persons on whom depends this nomination, that they hold, perhaps, 
 in their hands the philosophical future of Scotland, and that it is a 
 foreigner, exempt from all spirit of party or of coterie, who conjures 
 them to recollect that what they are now engaged in is to give a 
 successor to Eeid and to Dugald Stewart. Let them consult the 
 opinion of Europe. Several of the articles of Sir W. Hamilton 
 three especially, in No. 99, No. 103, No. 115 of the 'Edinburgh 
 Review ' have made the strongest impression on all regular philo- 
 sophers. I have just received from America a work of Mr Henry, 
 entitled 'Elements of Psychology.' The following is what this 
 praiseworthy author says of the article in No. 103 : "By those who 
 are acquainted with the article referred to remarkable alike for 
 philosophical learning and ability of the very first order a higher 
 authority cannot well be imagined." I know not who are the com- 
 petitors of Sir W. Hamilton ; but I wish, for Scotland, that there 
 may be one who has received public eulogies of equal value from 
 disinterested and learned foreigners. 
 
 Adieu, my dear sir. When anything is decided, do not fail to let 
 me know ; and believe me always yours very devotedly, 
 
 V. COUSIN. 
 PARIS, 1st June 1836. 
 
 The other testimonials were from M. Angrand, the French 
 consul at Edinburgh, a pupil of Royer-Collard, Cousin, and 
 Jouffroy ; Professor Brandis of Bonn, the editor of the Berlin 
 
OPPOSED TO CANVASSING. 191 
 
 Academy edition of Aristotle; Mr Leonard Horner, Lord 
 Jeffrey, Eev. Archibald Alison, Professor Macvey Napier, Pro- 
 fessor George Moir, Archdeacon Williams, Sir David Brewster, 
 and Professor Wilson. Certain of the testimonials that had 
 been used for the Moral Philosophy Chair were reprinted. 
 The evidence was strong, pertinent, and select. 
 
 The opposition, however, was formidable, and there were 
 personal difficulties of various sorts to be overcome. 
 
 Though desirous of the office, Sir William characteristically 
 declined entering on any personal canvass of the electors. In 
 this he was not, he said in a letter to the Lord Provost of 
 the 8th April, actuated by any want of respect for the electors ; 
 he declined to canvass simply because he regarded the dispen- 
 sation of academical patronage as the exercise of a sacred 
 trust, and consequently felt that such a proceeding would be 
 at once insulting to them and degrading to himself. His de- 
 clining this mode of address was in fact, he maintained, " the 
 most unequivocal proof" he could give "of the confidence 
 he reposed in the integrity and intelligence of the present 
 patrons." This strong view of the matter indicated, however, 
 a height of virtue which was not destined to be appreciated. 
 Sir William's more worldly-wise friends shook their heads 
 about it. This was to fly in the face of all time-honoured 
 tradition, to refuse the dues of the genii loci. That a 
 councillor should give his vote for a man who did not solicit 
 it privately in person, or by his friends, was a thing not to be 
 looked for unless in a very exceptional case of appreciation 
 of his position. Where was the importance of having a 
 vote, if the deference of a persistent solicitation was not ac- 
 corded to its holder ? Why, unless this were done, it was not 
 in municipal human nature to give it failure is certain if the 
 principle of no canvass be persisted in. His opponents, again, 
 said, and said strongly, that he could not be very anxious to 
 obtain the Chair, seeing that he did not employ the ordinary 
 means of success to wit, this same private canvass. On this 
 Sir William waxed tolerably wroth. In a second letter to the 
 
192 OBSCURITY OF STYLE. 
 
 Lord Provost of 23d April, he thus comes out : " I alluded 
 to this matter [the declining to canvass] in my original letter 
 to the Lord Provost, but I must now be allowed to speak on 
 it plainly and openly. I am assuredly most anxious to obtain 
 this Chair ; but I am ambitious of it not as a boon granted, 
 but as a right recognised. I only ask I would only accept 
 the appointment on the ground of superior qualification. 
 To mendicate the votes of the patrons by the private solicita- 
 tion of myself or friends, and to forestall an unbiassed decision 
 of the body, on a full and final estimate of the evidence, by a 
 private preliminary canvass of the individual electors, are pro- 
 ceedings which I not only scorn, but of which, as morally 
 dishonest, I trust I am incapable. But if I will not disgrace 
 myself, neither shall I presume to insult the Council by such 
 a conduct. As patrons of the University, they must view 
 that patronage in the light of a sacred trust. They will con- 
 sequently administer it with the rigour and impartiality of 
 judges; and, like judges, spurn as the worst indignity all 
 attempts at privately influencing their decision." Whether, 
 as the contest waxed hotter, his friends abstained from all 
 personal canvass, I cannot say : seeing that he finally suc- 
 ceeded in his candidature, I should think it extremely un- 
 likely. 
 
 Another prejudicial allegation which he had to meet was, 
 that his philosophical writings were obscure, and his success 
 as a lecturer, therefore, hopeless. This was, of course, the 
 popular objection, and it was a formidable one. M. Cousin 
 no doubt scotched it when he said : " Sir W. Hamilton has not 
 even the very slightest appearance of obscurity. His style is 
 substantial and severe, but of a perfect plainness for every one 
 acquainted with the subject and not incapable of attention. 
 No one is more opposed to, no one is more devoid of, the 
 vagueness and obscurity of the German philosophy in several 
 of its most celebrated authors. To be popularly clear, there 
 is only wanting to Sir W. Hamilton the space requisite fairly 
 to develop his thought ; and that space is not found in a 
 
OBSCURITY OF STYLE. 193 
 
 review, it is only fully obtained in a course of lectures." 
 But it seems difficult to lead some persons, even when they 
 are in the official position of adjudicators, to surmise that they 
 may not be able without previous training to judge of an 
 abstract discussion, and that its apparent obscurity may arise 
 mainly from their own lack of visual power. And so the ob- 
 jection survived to the day of election, and was duly produced 
 by more than one of the speakers, but particularly by a seri- 
 ously dull elector, who, descending to minutiae of style, declared 
 he could not for the life of him understand the phrase " em- 
 phatic evidence," and was absolutely floored this time not 
 without ground by the aim of a teacher of philosophy being 
 set down as the " determination of students to a vigorous and 
 independent self-activity." The way in which Sir William him- 
 self met the allegation of obscurity is curiously characteristic 
 and complete. " It is," he says, " truly humiliating to be com- 
 pelled to meet such an allegation by any detailed explanation 
 or defence. Yet, in the circumstances, it may be proper to 
 mention that there are two of the philosophical essays which 
 I have contributed to the ' Edinburgh Keview ' of such a de- 
 scription as to be incomprehensible by ordinary readers. But is 
 the inference, therefore, just, that my writings are generally 
 obscure ? or is the fact of the obscurity of these two disquisi- 
 tions any fault of mine ? There are, I may be allowed to say, 
 two kinds of obscurity ; one the fault of the writer the other, 
 of the reader. If the reader, from want of preparation, be not 
 competent to a subject, that subject, though treated as lucidly 
 as is possible, will to him be dark or unintelligible. This 
 is the case of the two articles in question. The first, that on 
 the ' Philosophy of the Absolute/ in relation to M. Cousin's 
 ' Cours de Philosophic/ is on the subject of all others the most 
 difficult and abstruse a subject which, whilst it forms the 
 cardinal point of the recent Continental philosophy, was one 
 with which no British metaphysician had yet ventured to 
 grapple ; and to the discussion of which, accordingly, even the 
 philosophical language of this country is wholly inadequate. 
 
 N 
 
194 THEOLOGICAL OBJECTION. 
 
 The article also behoved to be comprised in some twenty or 
 twenty - five pages. Within such limits I had to give an 
 account of M. Cousin and his philosophy to show the rela- 
 tions of his system to those of the great German metaphy- 
 sicians and also to trace the latter to their sources ; while, as 
 my aim was no less than a fair and fundamental refutation of 
 the entire ' Philosophy of the Absolute/ I had to explain on 
 an opposite doctrine the whole intellectual phenomena of 
 which that notion was supposed to afford the only solution. 
 In such circumstances it was utterly impossible to bring up 
 the unlearned reader to a level with the question ; it was im- 
 possible even to argue it, for those already competent to its 
 consideration, with the requisite details. It was necessary to 
 carry the discussion of this, the most abstract problem in 
 philosophy, to its highest possible generalisation, and where 
 an explanation was most wanted, an indication could often 
 hardly be afforded. The article was therefore calculated for 
 the very smallest number of readers in this country ; for those 
 only (and those how few !) who were already versed in the 
 higher speculations of the German schools. It was, in fact, 
 principally intended for the philosophers abroad. It might 
 be supposed that such an article would be allowed to pass 
 uncensured by those confessedly unable to comprehend it; 
 nor is it easy to see why a metaphysician, more than a mathe- 
 matician or a philologer, should be required to bring down 
 the highest problems of his science to the comprehension of 
 the ' general reader/ " To this he adds : " A journal like the 
 ' Edinburgh Review ' is not the place for elementary expatia- 
 tion. ... Its philosophical articles are addressed not to 
 learners but to adepts. ... A good philosophical review is 
 thus often the converse of a good philosophical lecture ; but 
 a capacity for the more difficult achievement does not surely 
 infer inability for the easier." 
 
 There was, however, still another objection to Sir William, 
 of which he personally could not take notice ; this was the 
 usual religious or theological objection. Not one word was 
 
THEOLOGICAL OBJECTION. 
 
 whispered against the purity of his moral character, 
 his scrupulous honour as a high-minded gentleman. That 
 would have been in vain. But there was a lack of evidence, it 
 was said, in regard to his Christian character ; he had not ad- 
 duced testimonials as to his being a religious man ; though, in 
 regard to this, one councillor, with a better appreciation of the 
 evidence of a man's religion, said he would not have voted 
 for him if he had. Nay, it was even insinuated, though not 
 boldly asserted, that he was an infidel. For look to the 
 positive presumption on this point : he was a contributor to 
 the 'Edinburgh Eeview;' and was the tone of that journal 
 sound or to be commended? were there not articles there 
 which were not only not orthodox, but not Christian? Sir 
 William was a principal contributor, and thus it was likely 
 that he was of the mind of the ' Keview/ and no better than 
 his neighbours. And then, to make the presumption a certain- 
 ty, he had not only studied, but was alleged to be profoundly 
 versed in, the " German philosophy," that fount of all theo- 
 logical heresy, which left room neither for the possibility of 
 miracles nor for the being of God. This was not a man 
 to be put into a chair to train the youth of Scotland. All 
 this was urged; and it is quite certain that herein lay the 
 greatest difficulty with which he had to contend in his appli- 
 cation for the professorship, and against which he made his 
 way to the Chair in a spirit of dignified and contemptuous 
 silence towards his detractors. 
 
 An insinuation or allegation of this kind, which has very 
 commonly been urged against the advancement of originators 
 of new views in intellectual philosophy, is with some men an 
 honest, though an unintelligent, ground of opposition. The 
 traditional spirit which is contented with accredited results, 
 will always set itself against the spirit of analysis, examina- 
 tion, and inquiry into received opinions. It is well that 
 these two opposing tendencies should take note of each other, 
 so that we may not, on the one hand, lose the life of intel- 
 lectual progress in the mere symbols of thoughts and things, 
 
196 THEOLOGICAL OBJECTION. 
 
 or, on the other hand, allow the spirit of reverence for past 
 efforts and historical conclusions to die in the tumult of rest- 
 less doubts. In the opposition, however, to Sir William at 
 this juncture, it is to be feared that there was more of the 
 impulse of sect and of party purpose than of higher consid- 
 erations. For the special insinuations made there were no 
 just grounds. Supposing the worst that was said against 
 the 'Edinburgh Review' to be true, it is obvious that Sir 
 William, as well as each individual contributor, was respon- 
 sible only to the extent of his own contributions. Again, 
 to those who really had education arid intelligence enough 
 to appreciate the character and tendencies of the philosophy 
 which he sought to develop in the articles in the ' Review/ 
 the general charge against him must have appeared passing 
 strange. The doctrines which he laid down were in har- 
 mony not only with the purest ethical theories, but with 
 the most profound and reverential theological convictions, 
 and with the consistency of natural and revealed religion. 
 So far from being tainted with those foreign dogmas, of which 
 there was so much ignorant talk, he was the most skilled and 
 powerful antagonist then living of unlicensed speculation 
 seeking, as he did, to oppose the Absolutism of Schelling and 
 Hegel by the conclusions of a Philosophy of Experience. But 
 the truth is, the men who made the objection did not know, 
 in their narrowness of spirit and blindness of fanatical zeal, 
 their friends from their foes, and were incapable of discrim- 
 inating good and evil in the matter.* 
 
 * It is somewhat curious to find even now that the theological objection is 
 still made to play its part against the same person. This time, however, it is 
 not that Hamilton has no religion quite the reverse ; he gives undue import- 
 ance and improper influence to it. For, according to a recent critic (Mr Mill, 
 'Examination,' p. 549), "the whole philosophy of Sir W. Hamilton seems to 
 have had its character determined by the requirements of the doctrine of Free- 
 Will ; and to that doctrine he clung, because he had persuaded himself that it 
 afforded the only premises from which human reason could deduce the doc- 
 trines of natural religion." Hamilton is also adduced as an example of the 
 practice " of bribing the pupil to accept a metaphysical dogma by the promise 
 or threat that it affords the only valid argument for a foregone conclusion," 
 
THEOLOGICAL OBJECTION. 197 
 
 The religious objection was duly brought forward on the 
 day of election. It did one good service, however ; it 
 quickened to an eloquent indignation the manly spirit of 
 Mr Adam Black, then City Treasurer. In a few vigorous 
 sentences, he denounced the too common crime of making 
 religion a stalking-horse in the disputes of the day, and for 
 party purposes ; said pretty plainly that he felt disgusted 
 with men who suddenly assumed a zeal for religion on an 
 occasion of this sort, while nothing of the kind was mani- 
 fest in their conduct at other times; challenged those who 
 had not dared openly to allege Sir William's infidelity to the 
 proof of the insinuation by producing passages from his 
 articles, which from their nature must afford evidence on this 
 point, if evidence were to be procured at all. To this there 
 was no reply. He concluded a pointed and animated speech 
 by adverting to the unworthy manner in which this ground- 
 less objection had been made to operate on the minds of 
 councillors. 
 
 The election took place on Friday the 15th of July. Sir W. 
 Hamilton was nominated by the Lord Provost (Mr, afterwards 
 Sir James, Spittal), and seconded by Mr Hugh Bruce. As the 
 result of the voting, Sir William was elected by a majority 
 
 and as seeking " to create a religious prejudice in favour of the theory he 
 patronises." (Ibid. p. 490, 491.) 
 
 This later criticism may justly be placed on the same level of fairness and 
 intelligence with the earlier one. There is neither proof nor probability for 
 the allegation that Sir W. Hamilton held the doctrine of Free- Will, or any of 
 his opinions, on any other ground than that he thought it supported by the 
 evidence proper to establish it, and therefore true in itself. If he further 
 believed, as he did, that with the fact of Free- Will stood or fell the proof of the 
 reality of Deity, he was not only at liberty but he was bound to' state this, and 
 to offer proof of the connection of the two points, which he has done. For a 
 critic who differs from him in the matter, it is a perfectly fair thing to assail 
 this proof, and show it, if he is able, to be invalid. But to accuse an author 
 of ** bribing" his pupils in the way specified, and of seeking " to create a reli- 
 gious prejudice in favour of the theoiy he patronises," merely because he held 
 and affirmed a logical connection between two speculative doctrines, is critically 
 as unworthy as logically it is unwarrantable. If there be here "a grave 
 offence against the morality of philosophical inquiry," it lies not with the 
 person upon whom it is charged, but with the person who makes the charge. 
 
198 LETTER TO M. COUSIN. 
 
 of four eighteen members of Council voting for him, and 
 fourteen for Mr Isaac Taylor. " I need not tell you the joy," 
 writes Mr Macvey Napier, " which the success of your election 
 gave me, mixed, however, with very indignant feelings at the 
 small majority, and the conduct of some individuals, and the un- 
 easiness occasioned by seeing to what terrible risks the Uni- 
 versity stands exposed under the present system of patronage. 
 I had received gloomy accounts a day or two before the news 
 of your success arrived, and this made those news the more 
 acceptable." 
 
 SIR W. HAMILTON TO M. COUSIN. 
 
 EDINBUKGH, 19tk July 1836. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR, I have delayed writing you until the election 
 for the Chair of Logic and Metaphysics was determined, which Mr 
 Pillans will have informed you was in my favour ; and now, when 
 I sit down to do so, I find myself wholly unable to express to you 
 my feelings in relation to -yourself. To you, indeed, I cannot say 
 Avhat I would find it so easy to say of you to another. You have 
 overwhelmed me with honour, and in so noble a spirit, that were I 
 not humbled by the consciousness that I owe my eulogy more to 
 a generous illusion on your part than to any merit of my own, I 
 might be, indeed, the proudest of mortals. Such a testimony from 
 such a witness (as yours in my favour on this occasion) could hardly 
 fail of commanding success even in such a country as this, and 
 with such a body of electors as our Edinburgh municipality. But 
 the accident of success is, in my eyes, as nothing in comparison 
 to the honour of being so recommended by you ; and I should be 
 equally gratified by your good opinion, and equally grateful for its 
 expression, had the result been different from what it is. I send 
 you a copy of my testimonials. You will find yourself there asso- 
 ciated with many distinguished individuals ; but, however flattered 
 by the commendation of others, I value no other testimony as I 
 value yours. But I must confess that I value its paramount autho- 
 rity, its consummate talent, and its (too) transcendent praise, even 
 less than the kindness that made you send it from a sickbed. 
 
 I am, indeed, most anxious to hear that you have completely 
 recovered from your indisposition. . . . With this you will 
 
LETTER TO M. COUSIN. 199 
 
 receive two books. One is a complete edition, recently published, 
 of the ' Dissertations ' of Stewart, Mackintosh, Playfair, and Leslie ; 
 the other a translation of Kant's ' Metaphysik d. Sitten.' Mr 
 Semple, the translator, is, as you will soon see, a mere Kantian, and 
 wants the knowledge necessary to deal properly with his subject, and 
 the taste requisite to obtain for his work, in this country at least, 
 any success. He is otherwise an able and estimable man. I send 
 you his translation as I know you are cosmopolitically interested in 
 every indication of the progress of philosophy. 
 
 I have many acknowledgments to make for the many valuable 
 works you have been so kind as to send me especially for your 
 own. I am delighted to see that Aristotle has already in part 
 received, and is soon about to obtain in full, the benefit of your 
 genius and erudition. I admire your ' Eapport sur le Concours ' as 
 absolutely an ideal model. With so many recent distractions I 
 have not yet been able to study your * Cours ' by Gamier, who seems 
 a disciple not unworthy of his master. Besides the documents you 
 sent me, I have made a collection of all that appeared in Germany 
 relative to your ' Preface ' and that of Schelling, by Krug, Marbach, 
 and J. H. Fichte. In obedience to my promise, I fifteen months 
 ago attempted an article on the question at issue between you and 
 the German philosophy. I agree wholly with you ; but Mr Napier 
 thought that, as written, the discussion would be utterly beyond the 
 comprehension of the public in this country, and I was prevented 
 from trying to re- elaborate it by an attack of rheumatic fever, which 
 kept me for three months to bed. Since that, one thing or another 
 has always intervened to prevent me from renewing the attempt. 
 However, I am now in a situation in which it will be my duty, as it 
 is truly my wish, to make your philosophical writings better known 
 to the British nation ; and I hope to do this in a more effectual 
 manner than by reviews. For some considerable time, however, I 
 must wholly devote myself to the labour of my new class : it is no 
 very easy task to write a course of about a hundred lectures with so 
 short a time for preparation. Believe me, my dear sir, ever grate- 
 fully and sincerely yours, "VV. HAMILTON. 
 
 P.S. 2$th July. On my return to town, after an absence of 
 some days, I found lying for me your ' Introduction to the undis- 
 covered works of Abelard.' I had heard of this some time ago, and 
 am delighted to find that you make Abelard a Conceptualist like 
 
200 LETTER OF M. COUSIN. 
 
 Occam. I admire your industry hardly less than your genius. It 
 would have been inappropriate had Abelard fallen into other hands 
 than yours the modern Abelard. 
 
 M. COUSIN TO SIR W. HAMILTON. 
 
 7 Novemln-e 1836, 
 
 Je vous assure que j'ai e"te sur les Opines, avant de recevoir la 
 bonne nouvelle que contient votre derniere lettre. Je me reprochais 
 de n'avoir point ecrit a M. Brougham ou a M. Lansdowne. Mais, 
 grace a Dieu, vous etes nomine ; vous voila a votre place et dans 
 votre element. Une immense carriere d'utilite publique est devant 
 vous, et je serais heureux de pouvoir penser que mon te'moignage a 
 contribue en quelque chose a vous rouvrir. Ayez la bonte", je vous 
 en prie, de me mander si vous avez ouvert votre cours, quel audi- 
 toire vous avez, quelle marche vous suivez, sur quel auteur vous vous 
 appuyez, et quels succes vous obtenez. Yos legons doivent sans 
 doute absorber tout votre temps. Trouvez pourtant quelques heures 
 pour penser a moi et pour m'ecrire. 
 
 Je vous menage une ovation, et une ovation a mes de"pens. Je 
 fais traiuire quatre de vos articles par un de mes amis, homme tres- 
 capable, excellent logicien, ecrivain habile, auquel j'ai fait faire votre 
 connaissance et dont vous avez fait la conquete au point qu'il ne 
 veut plus me suivre dans 1'ontologie par la psychologie. Vous avez en 
 lui un admirateur fervent, un disciple, et je vous assure que ce 
 disciple-la, a lui tout seul, en vaut cent autres. Bref, M. Peisse vous a 
 traduit, il vous commente, et il va bientot vous publier. Je ne 
 manquerai pas d'en envoyer un exemplaire au tres-honorable Lord 
 Maire de la ville d'Edinburgh, et ces dignes niarchands entre les 
 mains desquels est place" le sort de la philosophic en Ecosse. 
 Entre nous, si votre nouvel article ine"dit sur M. Schelling et moi 
 etait a peu pres fini, vous seriez bien aimable de rn'en envoyer une 
 copie. M. Peisse le traduirait et ajouterait cette piece aux quatre 
 autres. Ce serait un grand ornement pour son recueil, et nous vous 
 en serions tous deux tres-oblige"s. 
 
 Je vous remercie beaucoup du volume des Introductions a 1'En- 
 cyclop^die d'Edinburgh. II m'est fort agreable de posseder cette 
 collection. Je mets de cote la traduction de M. Semple pour rn'en 
 servir dans Toccasion. 
 
 Voulez-vous bien prendre la peine de vous informer si 1'Acade'mie 
 d'Edinburgh a regu mon gros in -4 sur Abelard 1 Je n'ai demande 
 
PREPARATION OF LECTURES. 201 
 
 an Gouvernement pour tout salaire de ce long travail que d'en 
 envoyer un exemplaire aux Academies qui ont eu la bonte de 
 m'admettre dans leur sein. J'aurais bien voulu vous en donner le 
 volume entier ; mais j'ai craint en verite de vous ennuyer de ma 
 p^danterie de Benedictin. 
 
 D'ici a quelques niois je quitte la philosophic pour 1'instruction 
 publique. Pour me delasser de mes travaux sur la scholastique, je 
 suis alle faire un tour en Hollande, et j'en rapporte une moisson 
 pour M. Pillans et pour vous. les belles ecoles de village ! c'est 
 tout aussi beau qu'en Prusse. Ce voyage m'a tres-fatigue, mais il 
 m'a fait aussi grand plaisir, et j'espere que vous ne serez pas faches, 
 mes tres-chers amis, de voir mes descriptions, malheureusement 
 faites t la hate, mais fideles et impartiales. Si Edinburgh n'etait 
 pas si loin et si j'e"tais plus jeune, j'irais en causer avec vous. 
 Nous verrons. En attendant je vous fais & tous deux mes com- 
 plimens. 
 
 Shortly after his appointment to the Logic Chair, Sir Wil- 
 liam, with a view to the preparation of his course of lectures 
 for the coming winter, removed with his family to Porten- 
 cross, a retired watering-place near the mouth of the Clyde. 
 The College session would commence early in November, and 
 now was the time for preparatory labour. It would seem, 
 however, that Sir William, during this period, did very little 
 to the actual composition of his lectures. As usual, he read 
 and thought a great deal, but made little progress in writing. 
 This arose, in part at least, from what was to him the novelty 
 of the kind of composition which was required. In accord- 
 ance with the practice of the University, he was called upon 
 to give a course of written lectures extending over a period 
 of five months, in which he had to combine elementary instruc- 
 tion in Logic and Metaphysics with at least some adequate 
 treatment of the higher and more abstract questions of those 
 sciences. The Logic class is usually made up of comparatively 
 young students, in the second year of their university studies. 
 To lead the minds of students gradually from the simpler to 
 the higher questions of philosophy in a single session, and 
 at the same time to treat the subject according to its proper 
 
202 PREPARATION OF LECTURES. 
 
 requirements, is, to any one with an adequate conception of 
 speculative philosophy, an exceedingly difficult, if not an im- 
 possible, task. Sir William had hitherto dealt only with the 
 highest and most abstract of philosophical problems ; and there 
 can be no doubt that he felt or anticipated a more than usual 
 difficulty in suiting his style and mode of treatment to the 
 supposed wants and capacity of his class ; for, with all his 
 authoritativeness of statement and apparently dogmatic turn of 
 thought, he had a strong element of personal diffidence. As 
 the result proved, this feeling was the consequence rather of 
 a distrust in his own abilities for the particular kind of work, 
 than of any real incapacity. To this anticipation of unusual 
 difficulty must be added his singularly high ideal of philo- 
 sophical composition, and his extreme fastidiousness both of 
 thought and style. Composition was with him always a care- 
 ful and laborious work. A rough draft was first of all 
 thrown off, and then it was revised and corrected until the 
 blurred page presented nothing legible of the original. His 
 manuscripts have the appearance of palimpsests of a manifold 
 order. 
 
 The following letter to Lady Hamilton from her brother-in- 
 law, Captain Hamilton, refers to the small progress that had been 
 made with the lectures, and also contains a hint about style : 
 
 ELLERAT, 5tk September 1836. 
 
 MY DEAR JANET, I rejoice to find by your letter that you are so 
 comfortably settled at Portencross. I wish, however, that William 
 had made greater progress with his lectures than you seem to say he 
 has. Sure I am that if he does not start with a very large stock 
 at the commencement of the session, both you and he will be kept 
 uncomfortable all the winter. But, above all, I anxiously trust 
 that in writing them he will always keep in view the character of 
 his audience, and study simplicity. At his age, and with his stand- 
 ing as a philosopher, anything like display before boys would he 
 sadly infra dig. He is above this, I am sure ; hut of one thing I 
 may assure him, and that is, that in writing, every Latinism he can 
 displace by a Saxonism is a defect avoided, if not a beauty gained. 
 I shall certainly come down to hear William's opening lecture. 
 
INTRODUCTORY LECTURE. 203 
 
 The work of composition had thus made little progress be- 
 fore the commencement of the session. As the time of opening 
 approached, with little work done, Sir William began to feel 
 some degree of nervous uneasiness. The subject of the intro- 
 ductory lecture was changed more than once, and altogether 
 the state of mind of the lecturer was unpromising. He thought 
 now of putting tiff the opening of the class for a few weeks 
 beyond the usual period, to afford time for more ample pre- 
 paration. But his friends were strongly against this. It was, 
 they said, certain to be instantly appealed to by the adverse 
 parties of all descriptions as showing how much he still had 
 to learn, and how incapable he was of meeting his practical 
 duties, as others, if chosen, would have met them. Abandoning, 
 then, the thought of any lengthened postponement, he returned 
 to Edinburgh, resolved to gird up his strength for the coming 
 campaign. He began to lecture shortly after the commence- 
 ment of the session, and the work suffered no interruption 
 until its close. 
 
 Sir William delivered the introductory lecture of the course 
 on Monday the 21st November, before a numerous audience 
 one of the largest class-rooms in the University and the pas- 
 sages leading to it being crowded almost to suffocation. The 
 lecture was very characteristic in tone and doctrine. After a 
 short introductory notice of the recent history of speculative 
 philosophy in Scotland, and its relations to the course of 
 German and French thought now so well known as to be 
 matter of the merest commonplace, but then an absolute nov- 
 elty he took up the subject of the uses of intellectual phi- 
 losophy. Then were revealed the peculiarities of the thinker 
 and the man ; the play of the most orderly logical power and 
 of the finest acumen, a style of rare lucidity, a deep, grave 
 eloquence, abounding in wonderfully felicitous turns of expres- 
 sion. These qualities, along with the novelty and elevation of 
 the thought, and the earnestness of the man as he evidently 
 spoke the familiar things of his mind made a powerful im- 
 pression on his audience. The reflective listener felt that a 
 
204 INTRODUCTORY LECTURE. 
 
 new power had arisen in the intellectual world that the key- 
 note of a higher strain of abstract inquiry than had been 
 heard before in our Scottish universities was now struck. 
 The expectations which had been excited by the somewhat 
 mysterious repute of his writings began to take a definite 
 shape and clearer ground. It had often been made matter 
 of reproach to abstract philosophy that it was a thing truly 
 apart, not connecting itself with definite practical interests. 
 But here, in the principal points of this first lecture of the 
 course now inaugurated, a hand was laid at once on the ab- 
 stract and on the concrete sides of truth. The "useful" was 
 finely analysed, and the popular abusive restriction of the term 
 to certain professional pursuits was challenged. The useful 
 branches of knowledge, it was shown, are not those merely 
 " which tend to qualify a human being to act the lowly part 
 of a dexterous instrument," but those chiefly which form the 
 arena of liberal culture. The native dignity of man was 
 vindicated. He is to be regarded as an end in himself as a 
 being with powers which must be thoroughly quickened and 
 developed through all their breadth, and not to be looked 
 upon merely as a thing with consciousness that is capable of 
 being educated to this or that professional aptitude of be- 
 coming an intelligent machine. Abstract philosophy, without 
 abating a jot of its integrity, carne charged with a moral 
 lesson, which the highest and most earnest poetry of the time 
 had sought to inculcate : 
 
 " Our life is turned 
 
 Out of her course wherever man is made 
 An offering or a sacrifice, a tool 
 Or implement, a passive thing employed 
 As a brute mean." 
 
 Then it was refreshing, in an age of facts, and practical appli- 
 cations, and narrow utilitarian aims, to find the cultivation of 
 the mind declared to be a higher end than the stocking of it 
 with information, and the apparent paradox of the superiority 
 of the quest of truth to the attainment of it unhesitatingly 
 
SCHEME OF THE COURSE OF LECTURES. 205 
 
 proclaimed. It was shown that knowledge itself is princi- 
 pally valuable as a means of intellectual cultivation ; and 
 that an individual may possess an ample magazine of know- 
 ledge, and still be properly described as an " intellectual bar- 
 barian." Hamilton regarded this doctrine as countenanced 
 by Plato, and in this Mr Grote is at one with him. " The 
 life of the philosopher, as Plato here conceives it (in the 
 Theaetetus), is a perpetual search after truth."* "At the 
 time when most of his dialogues were composed, he con- 
 sidered that the search after truth was at once the noblest 
 occupation and the highest pleasure of life. Whoever has no 
 sympathy with such a pursuit whoever cares only for results, 
 and finds the chase in itself fatiguing rather than attractive 
 is likely to take little interest in the Platonic dialogues." ( 
 
 Whatever may be the needed qualification of this view in 
 the interest of moral earnestness, its proclamation at the time 
 was an important service to the cause of the higher educa- 
 tion, the aim of which is assuredly not the mere conveying 
 of universal information, but the creation and keeping alive 
 of intellectual power in the individual, through the direction 
 of his mind for a time to a class of subjects fitted above all 
 others to stimulate and develop it. In the inquiries of in- 
 tellectual philosophy we find material eminently suitable 
 for this end. For while our efforts after speculative truth are 
 often, and often necessarily, unsuccessful, our feeling of despair 
 is mitigated by finding that while we miss the treasure sup- 
 posed to be hid in the ground, a full harvest of the true good, 
 all unlocked for, has grown up in the wake of our efforts, and 
 that we are the richer for our toil, just as faith was beginning 
 to waver and hope to grow faint. 
 
 In the first or early scheme of the course, Sir William ap- 
 pears to have proposed to divide his Lectures into four series. 
 " I shall commence," he says, in a deleted paragraph, " with 
 Mental Philosophy, strictly so called ; with the science which 
 is conversant with the Manifestations of Mind Phsenomen- 
 
 * Crete's Plato, ii. p. 391. f Ibid., p. 393. 
 
206 PREPARATION OF LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 
 
 ology or Psychology. I shall then proceed to Logic, the 
 science which considers the Laws of Thought ; and, finally, to 
 Ontology, or Metaphysics proper, the philosophy of Kesults. 
 ^Esthetic, or the theory of the Pleasurable, I should consider 
 subsequently to Logic, and previously to Ontology."* This 
 scheme was never, however, carried out with anything like 
 completeness. 
 
 He subsequently adopted a twofold division of the course 
 giving one series of lectures on Psychology and Mental Philo- 
 sophy in general, and another on Logic, or " the Laws of the 
 Cognitive Faculties in particular. "(- We have, in the volumes 
 of the courses since published, occasional lectures on the 
 branches indicated in the first scheme some of them glimpses 
 into the subject of great value but we fail to find any regular 
 systematic discussion of all the four heads. At first he de- 
 signed to lecture, during the same session, at different hours, 
 on both of those departments. This intention he carried out 
 for a short time ; but, owing to circumstances, to which we 
 shall refer in the sequel, he finally delivered the courses in 
 alternate years. The course given during the first session 
 after his appointment (1836-37) was that on Psychology, or 
 Metaphysics. 
 
 This first course of lectures was composed during the cur- 
 rency of the session of five months. He gave three lectures 
 a-week, and each lecture was, as a rule, written on the night 
 preceding its delivery. The lecture-hour was one o'clock in 
 the afternoon, and the lecturer seldom went to bed before five 
 or six in the morning. He was generally roused about ten or 
 eleven, and then hurried off to the College, portfolio under 
 arm, at a swinging pace. Frequently, notwithstanding the 
 late hour of going to bed, he had to be up before nine 
 o'clock, in time to attend the Teind Court. All through the 
 session Lady Hamilton sat up with her husband each night 
 until near the grey dawn of the winter morning. Sir William 
 wrote the pages of the lecture on rough sheets, and his wife, 
 
 * Lectures on Metaphysics, vol. i. p. 128. t Ibid. 
 
COMMENCEMENT OF EDITION OF REID. 20*7 
 
 sitting in an adjoining room, copied them as he got them ready. 
 On some occasions the subject of the lecture would prove less 
 easily managed than on others, and then Sir William would be 
 found writing as late as nine o'clock of a morning, while his 
 faithful but wearied amanuensis had fallen asleep on a sofa. 
 Sometimes the finishing touch to the lecture was left to be 
 given just before the class-hour. 
 
 In the midst of the strain of this winter's hard work on 
 them both, Sir William and Lady Hamilton suffered their 
 first domestic bereavement in the death of an infant son, 
 which took place after a short illness at the close of the year 
 1836. 
 
 It was while engaged in the composition of his first course 
 of lectures that he commenced, and to some extent carried on, 
 the edition of Eeid's works, which was destined to occupy so 
 much of his time and thought, and to be the receptacle of his 
 elaborate erudition. The taking up of Keid was a matter 
 almost entirely of accident, and had its origin in an occasion as 
 slight as the conversation among some private friends to which, 
 as Locke informs us, his essay may be traced. One afternoon in 
 October of the year in which Sir William was appointed to the 
 Chair, he, along with Lady Hamilton, turned into the shop of 
 Mr Tait, bookseller, then in Hanover Street. Sir William made 
 some inquiry about the number of copies of Eeid's works on 
 hand, with a view to adapting portions as a text-book for his 
 students in the forthcoming session. Mr Tait suggested that 
 Sir William should write a preface for a new issue. To this 
 he agreed. Setting himself to write the preface, and to revise 
 the sheets of the issue as they passed through the press, he 
 grew interested in the work, added footnotes, and, his concep- 
 tion of the whole matter widening, promised appendices in the 
 form of supplementary dissertations. Any time that he could 
 spare from his lectures during the winter was given to this 
 task, and he continued his editorial labours during the following 
 years until the winter of 1839, the work gradually expand- 
 ing under his hands, until it promised to assume its present 
 
208 PREPARATION OF LECTURES ON LOGIC. 
 
 form and dimensions. In 1839, however, it came to a stop, 
 owing to a difficulty in the arrangements for publication. Sir 
 William had originally made no bargain with Mr Tait ; and as 
 the terms which the latter subsequently proposed were rejected 
 by him as entirely inadequate remuneration for his labours, he 
 took the work out of the publisher's hands. This course in- 
 volved him in expenses for printing, stereotype plates, &c., to 
 the amount of nearly 500. As he did not succeed in making 
 immediate arrangements with any other publisher, the edition 
 of Eeid was abandoned for seven years, then resumed, and 
 finally published for the first time in 1846. 
 
 The second course of lectures those on Logic was com- 
 posed under circumstances similar to the first that is, during 
 the currency of the session. Very little, if any, progress was 
 made in their composition during the summer of 1837. The 
 time he devoted to study was occupied with the edition of 
 Reid's works. " He has got," writes Lady Hamilton (4th Sep- 
 tember), " for his edition of Reid a great deal of unpublished 
 matter and letters from the Alisons and Gregorys, which he 
 seems to think valuable; and he is himself making numer- 
 ous notes. ... I look forward to another winter of hard 
 work both to him and me, although he declares I am to have 
 nothing to do." 
 
 After the commencement of the session, 7th December, 
 Lady Hamilton writes to Captain Hamilton as follows : 
 " The lectures have been going on prosperously. The num- 
 bers at the College have very much decreased this winter, 
 and all the other Professors are grumbling exceedingly ; but 
 William has no reason to complain. His class is the best 
 attended of any of the literary classes, and he has above forty 
 more students than last winter. . . . For the first three 
 weeks he gave some of his old introductory lectures ; but he 
 has now commenced on Logic, which he did not enter upon 
 last winter. The lectures will now be all new, and not one 
 of them is written, so that there will be as hard work^this 
 year as last. If William keeps well, I have no fear of his 
 
PLACE OF THE LECTURES. 209 
 
 breaking down. He is much interested in his class, and likes 
 the subject; so, now that he is obliged, he works cheerfully. 
 The sitting up all night is, however, very trying to us both ; 
 but I have not had any writing except the first lecture to do 
 tiU now." 
 
 Farther on in the session (22d February) we find Lady 
 Hamilton saying : " We are going on in our usual quiet 
 way, generally dining out every Friday or Saturday by way of 
 refreshment to .William's mind, after the exertion of writing 
 his three weekly lectures. He finds that he will require the 
 whole of the session to finish the course of Logic, so none of 
 last year's lectures will be of any avail for this year ; however, 
 six or seven weeks will soon pass away, and now that he has 
 got into the habit of regular daily, or rather nightly, work, he 
 does not seem to feel it any very great drudgery. His stu- 
 dents are taking great interest in the business of the class, 
 and, since Christmas, William meets them two hours daily." 
 
 It is perhaps necessary here to say a word regarding the 
 place of the Lectures as an exposition of their author's philo- 
 sophical doctrines, and in relation to his other writings. What 
 has been already said of the circumstances under which they 
 were composed, and the purpose which they were designed to 
 subserve, is sufficient to show their special and exceptional 
 character as expositions of their author's opinions. This 
 was pretty fully explained in the Preface to the first edi- 
 tion of the Lectures (p. ix. et seq.) But as a recent critic, 
 who professes " to anticipate the judgment of posterity on Sir 
 W. Hamilton's labours," has yet represented the Lectures as 
 " the fullest and only consecutive exposition of his philoso- 
 phy," * and has very elaborately criticised the author's opin- 
 ions on this assumption, it may be proper again to state the 
 matter at greater length. Though written subsequently, in 
 point of time, to the Articles in the ' Edinburgh Eeview ' on 
 Cousin (the Unconditioned), on Perception, and on Logic, 
 the Lectures were yet prior to nearly all the footnotes on 
 
 * Mill's Examination, p. 3. 
 
 
210 THE LECTURES AS AN EXPOSITION OF 
 
 Eeid, to all the Dissertations supplementary to the same 
 author, and to the development of Sir William's special logical 
 doctrine of a Quantified Predicate with its consequences prior, 
 in fact, to all that can fairly be regarded as the published 
 authoritative expositions of his philosophical doctrines, ex- 
 cepting only the articles in the ' Review.' In the Lectures, in- 
 deed, we find the subject of Perception treated with somewhat 
 greater detail, and certainly with more diffuseness, than in the 
 article on the same subject in the ' Review ;' but we must have 
 recourse to the Dissertations supplementary to Reid (Notes 
 B, C, D, and D*) for the full and final development of Sir 
 William's own doctrine of Perception. To these, as he himself 
 tells us in a footnote to the article on Perception, republished 
 in the 'Discussions,' he gives references "when the points 
 under discussion are more fully or more accurately treated." * 
 These Dissertations were published for the first time in 1846> 
 ten years after the ' Lectures on Metaphysics ' were written. 
 Again, the doctrine of the limitation of human knowledge of 
 the Conditioned and Unconditioned is formally expounded 
 only in the article on M. Cousin's writings, republished in 
 the 'Discussions' (1852), and in the new matter contained in 
 Appendix I. A and B. In the ' Lectures on Metaphysics ' (L. 
 xxxviii., xxxix., xl.) he states the doctrine with some illus- 
 trations, and seeks to show its application to the principle of 
 causality. But this exposition is slighter and looser in manner 
 than that in the article on Cousin, and earlier in time than 
 the consideration of the same point in the Appendix to the 
 ' Discussions/ where, as he says, a " more matured view of the 
 conditions of thought " is to be found than that given in the 
 review of Cousin.^ The Lectures on Consciousness contain, 
 among other matters, the distinctive doctrine which he de- 
 veloped under the designation of the Argument from Common 
 Sense ; but here, too, we must refer for the latest and most pre- 
 cise exposition of the doctrine to Note A of the supplementary 
 Dissertations to Reid's works. The ' Lectures on Logic ' contain, 
 
 * Discussions, p. 39. t Ibid., p. 18. 
 
THE AUTHOR'S PHILOSOPHY. 211 
 
 of course, the fullest exposition of his views of the details of 
 that science from the Aristotelic and Kantian stand-points. 
 But his new and special logical doctrines (with the exception 
 of that of Comprehension in Concepts, Judgments, and Rea- 
 sonings) are only cursorily and incidentally treated in two 
 lectures, which he occasionally interposed in the middle of the 
 course on Logic, and which are to be found in the Appendix 
 to the second volume of the Logic Lectures (p. 255 (c), first 
 edition). The latest and fullest development of his special 
 logical theory is to be found in the ' Discussions/ second edi- 
 tion, Appendix II. A and B. On many topics especially the 
 distinctive doctrines in the philosophy of their author the 
 Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic can in fairness be taken 
 merely as the point from which he started in his course of 
 philosophical investigation ; and where there may appear, as 
 there must do in the career of every man of vitality of thought 
 and activity of research, any difference or discrepancy be- 
 tween the earlier and the later form of opinion as, for exam- 
 ple, in his theory of association the later view, especially if 
 it be also that published by himself, is that which ought, in 
 common fairness, to be attributed to the author, and dealt 
 with as his. What renders this the more imperative in the 
 present case is, that Sir William did not find it necessary 
 or expedient to embody the fuller or more advanced state- 
 ment in his series of Lectures, which were already sufficient 
 to occupy the whole time of each session, and most ade- 
 quately to fulfil the wants of university instruction. For the 
 more elaborate and more advanced discussions of certain ques- 
 tions he was content to refer his students to his published 
 writings. After their first composition, indeed, the Lectures 
 were never substantially changed; they received only occa- 
 sional verbal alterations. Though amply sufficient for the 
 purposes of class instruction, they were always spoken of by 
 their author as falling far short of complete or adequate courses, 
 whether of Metaphysics or of Logic as forming, in fact, only 
 introductions to a full and thorough-going discussion of the 
 
212 THE LECTURES AS AN EXPOSITION OF 
 
 principal topics of those sciences. In the Lectures he certainly 
 introduces and briefly discusses a number of subjects upon 
 which he has not otherwise given anything to the world. But 
 these are taken up always and only with a view to class 
 instruction, and do not receive at his hands (as, in the time 
 allotted to each course, they could not) that prolonged or de- 
 liberate treatment which is accorded to the subjects of the 
 ' Discussions ' or of the ' Dissertations on Eeid,' published in 
 his lifetime. On the more elementary and trite parts of 
 philosophy and logic, Sir William, moreover, was content 
 to piece together expositions from authors who had clearly 
 stated current or received opinions. This practice he car- 
 ried to a greater extent than was desirable or commendable ; 
 the only consideration that could even temporarily excuse it 
 being the pressure under which the Lectures were origin- 
 ally written for which, however, he had ample time subse- 
 quently to apply a remedy. Whatever degree of censure 
 may be awarded on this ground, it is a matter of positive 
 unfairness in any critic who professes to discuss Sir W. Hamil- 
 ton's opinions, to deal with these Lectures written early, 
 hastily, for a special and temporary purpose, never revised for 
 publication by their author, not containing either the most 
 authentic or the most complete statements of his peculiar doc- 
 trines as of co-ordinate authority with his other published 
 writings ; and, keeping all this out of view, actually to re- 
 present them as "the fullest exposition of his philosophy." 
 This they are not, in any true or pertinent sense of those 
 words ; they are simply offhand expositions of a series of 
 philosophical questions, and are in many respects of style 
 and treatment in absolute contrast to the author's published 
 writings. What a knight in undress was to himself armed 
 cap-d-pie, this Sir William is in the loose robes of the Lectures 
 compared with himself in his usual formal and guarded man- 
 ner. The spirit of ancient chivalry would have disdained to 
 draw the sword at a vantage, and would have sought a foe 
 when his armour was on ; but the modern philosophical knight- 
 
THE AUTHOR'S PHILOSOPHY. 213 
 
 errant is of a different type ; he strikes his home-thrusts through 
 the loose robe, and withal loudly proclaims that his opponent 
 was armed to the teeth. 
 
 As to the other statement, that they are " the only consecu- 
 tive exposition of his philosophy," it is hardly better founded 
 than the preceding. Though the Lectures, especially those 
 on Logic, show great clearness and power of arrangement of 
 a certain number of philosophical topics for purposes of aca- 
 demical instruction, and are thus " consecutive," they are far 
 from being a "consecutive exposition of his philosophy;" 
 for a consecutive development of his distinctive theories in 
 Metaphysics and Logic he has not anywhere given, unfortu- 
 nately enough for the interests of those sciences, but especially 
 for a competent comprehension of his views by his critics.* 
 
 Sir W. Hamilton's appointment to the Logic Chair in Edin- 
 burgh was the inauguration of a new era in the philosophical 
 thought and education of the country. Through his writings, 
 few and limited in quantity as they were, his general in- 
 fluence on the course of reflection was already beginning to 
 make itself felt. But his academical position gave him the 
 means of a more intimate, intense, and systematic influence 
 
 * To show the occasional carelessness with which Mr Mill has dealt with his 
 materials, I may refer to the extraordinary blunder on a matter of the order of 
 Sir "W. Hamilton's writings which he commits at p. 172 of his 'Examination ' 
 (first edition). We are there informed that " much " of the paper on Brown 
 the second in the ' Discussions ' was " transcribed from our author's Lectures " 
 that is, an article which appeared in the 'Edinburgh Review' in 1830, and 
 which is reprinted (with the restoration of a few introductory paragraphs deleted 
 for want of space) almost verbatim as it appeared originally, was transcribed 
 from Lectures which were written six years afterwards ! But Mr Mill, as usual, 
 had found an "inconsistency," and Sir W. Hamilton himself, Mr Mill goes so 
 far as to allow, had, in an exceptional moment, become aware of it, and had 
 therefore substituted another "argument" in room of the one that conflicted 
 with his own principles. Unfortunately for the explanation, there is nothing 
 needing to be explained, the facts of the case being precisely the reverse of 
 what is supposed. If there was any transcribing in the matter, the Lectures 
 on Perception must have been taken from the paper since published in the 
 * Discussions,' and not contrariwise. It is right to add that, in the third edi- 
 tion of the * Examination/ Mr Mill silently reverses his first statement on the 
 point referred to in this note. 
 
214 INFLUENCE AS A TEACHER. 
 
 than he could otherwise exercise. He was now to speak his 
 doctrines to other minds ; and what was personal in the man 
 was to have its full weight on young and ingenuous minds. 
 The subjects and style of the lectures, not less than the 
 tone of the lecturer, were new to the time. Fresh active 
 thought on philosophical themes had ceased as a power in 
 Scotland philosophy lived only in books. The impetus which 
 Hume and Eeid had given to speculation, and which Stewart 
 and Brown had propagated, was apparently spent. The tide 
 had at any rate ebbed below the level of the universities 
 of the country. Logic, beyond the ordinary elements, had 
 ceased to be taught in the Chairs assigned to it. As for the 
 high problems of metaphysics, these were entirely strange. 
 No teacher of philosophy knew or felt anything of their mean- 
 ing or reality. The youth of one university had been treated 
 to a dull retail of the nomenclature and more superficial doc- 
 trines of Eeid. In another, some elementary account of logic 
 was usually given, to the complete exclusion of all vital meta- 
 physical inquiry ; and the highest aim of philosophical teach- 
 ing was traditionally regarded as a discipline of the faculties 
 by means of composition on general themes that lay on the 
 outskirts of the proper work of the Chair. In this way stu- 
 dents acquired some culture and accomplishment ; but they 
 were never brought even within view of the true problems 
 of philosophy never confronted with their own necessary 
 ignorance. 
 
 The questions of philosophy had thus, so far as academi- 
 cal teaching was concerned, ceased to penetrate to the moral 
 and spiritual life of the country. Without further help, phi- 
 losophy must have died of inanition. Even at the best, Scot- 
 tish speculation had been too ignorant both of ancient and 
 modern philosophy to know its relations either to the past 
 or the present. It had been carried on rather in the way of 
 an arbitrary selection of topics, in accordance with the tastes 
 of the individual thinker often able and ingenious than 
 from any knowledge and previous determination of the great 
 
INFLUENCE AS A TEACHER. 215 
 
 catholic questions of philosophy. Many questions were thus 
 altogether omitted ; and no attempt was made to determine 
 the order or mutual relation of the various branches of philo- 
 sophical investigation. The discussions even of the topics thus 
 singled out by individual preference, or forced upon the thinker 
 by circumstances, though frequently able contributions to 
 speculative inquiry, had seldom been carried to the highest 
 point of which they were capable, or indeed pushed farther than 
 served to satisfy the objections of an antagonist. Speculation 
 in Scotland, though powerful and intense, had not been full, 
 systematic, learned, or exhaustive. 
 
 With the already published writings of Hamilton the 
 spring-time of a new life in Scottish speculation had begun. 
 A more profound analysis, a more comprehensive spirit, a 
 learning that had surveyed the philosophical literature of 
 Greece and Germany, and marked the relative place in the in- 
 tellectual world of the sturdy growths of home thought, were 
 the characteristics of the man who had now espoused the 
 cause of Scottish speculative philosophy. The speculation of 
 the country had been raised above its comparatively low level, 
 and brought face to face with the highest metaphysical prob- 
 lems. The modified doctrine of Experience of the Scottish 
 school had been marshalled with the skill of a great general 
 against the positions of the highest representatives of modern 
 Absolutism. Hamilton had shown that he knew the strength 
 and the deficiency of the line of speculation which had been 
 pursued in Scotland. Now that he was called upon to devote 
 his energies in an academical position to the study and the 
 teaching of philosophy, a keen sifting, purification, and ampli- 
 fication of preceding doctrines were to be looked for at his 
 hands. In his Lectures, accordingly, we find, for the first 
 time in the history of British speculation, an appreciation 
 of the nature and number of the departments of intellectual 
 philosophy, of their mutual relations, and of the questions 
 appropriate to each, a restoration to their proper place of 
 neglected branches of the study, and a thorough and service- 
 
216 INFLUENCE AS A TEACHER. 
 
 able acquaintance with the literature of the subject. These 
 points are now familiar among us; but they were un- 
 known thirty years ago : and adherents and opponents of 
 the views then inculcated are alike indebted for their know- 
 ledge of the departments of philosophy, and of the attempted 
 solutions of many of its higher problems, to the writings of 
 Hamilton. 
 
 In the Lectures the spheres of Psychology, Logic, and Meta- 
 physics were for the first time in this country clearly defined, 
 and their mutual relations established. The much-despised 
 and much- misunderstood Logic of the schools, after centuries 
 of neglect, was revived and reinstated in its proper place as 
 a true and vital science, and valuable academical discipline. 
 Adventitious matter that had been suffered to deform its 
 symmetry and impede its progress was detected and thrown 
 aside. Its value as an analysis and development of the 
 ultimate laws and processes of human thought was vin- 
 dicated ; and the bearing of the fact that human thought is 
 subject to formal necessary law on systems which allege the 
 virtual omniscience of man, was luminously declared. In 
 Psychology a new, simple, and beautiful general analysis of 
 the intellectual powers was propounded ; original views were 
 afforded of special departments of psychological inquiry, espe- 
 cially the laws of association, imagination, and feeling. In 
 Metaphysics there was a reassertion, coupled with a new and 
 profound analysis, of the principles which Eeid and Stewart 
 had maintained as ultimate laws of belief, and which they had 
 advanced as a valid defence against the Nihilism of Hume. 
 The theory of Perception, involving the questions of Realism 
 and Idealism, was investigated with a rare skill, learning, and 
 subtlety. The problem of the nature and extent of human 
 knowledge, and its relation to the infinite and absolute in ex- 
 istence, which had been discussed in the article on Cousin 
 with matchless power, and in a way entirely new to British 
 speculation, was not omitted in the course of instruction. 
 
 The Lectures, while thus containing the more important 
 
INFLUENCE AS A TEACHER. 217 
 
 problems of philosophy, yet by no means embraced all the 
 topics, metaphysical and logical, which a thoroughly complete 
 course in both departments should comprise. Only small 
 space was given to the questions of applied or inductive 
 logic; and several of the discussions, both on logical and 
 metaphysical points, were slight and hasty. To this no one 
 was more fully alive than their author. In realising the pur- 
 poses of philosophical instruction, for which alone they were 
 intended, they were, however, eminently successful. In seve- 
 ral points they have been superseded by subsequent writings 
 of their author ; but they adequately enough represented the 
 state of his views at the time they were written ; and amid 
 much elementary and general matter that was pieced together 
 from books whose very titles were then unknown in Britain, 
 they contained the results of his own fresh and vigorous 
 thought on the topics of philosophy to which he had given 
 special attention. A lecturer of less power might have given 
 more complete courses, but we should then probably have had 
 a more elaborate formality of system, instead of the visible 
 workings of a great mind, and the charm of original thought 
 and unparalleled learning. 
 
 From the commencement of his career as a lecturer, and 
 during the twenty years that he occupied the Chair, Sir 
 W. Hamilton was the means of inspiring and impressing 
 young minds opening up to them new fields of thought and 
 vision giving principles and convictions which passed into 
 their intellectual, moral, and religious life to a degree and an 
 extent which has very rarely been equalled by any academic 
 teacher. And this he did not accomplish through any elab- 
 orate system of class drilling and general mental discipline. 
 He was not ready as an examiner on lectures or text-books, 
 did little by interrogation, and had not at any time much 
 power of oral explanation or illustration. The advantage de- 
 rived from the mere exercises of the class was comparatively 
 subordinate. In all this he has been excelled by men otherwise 
 vastly his inferiors. The power which passed as the shock of a 
 
218 INFLUENCE AS A TEACHER. 
 
 new life into many minds lay primarily in the man, the mat- 
 ter of his teaching, and his felt personal relation to his subject. 
 The feeling he inspired was that of one who did not teach 
 from the low level of a professional accomplishment, but who 
 had naturally, spontaneously, and with full simplicity of heart, 
 found in his high theme the nourishment of his thought and 
 life. He had been 
 
 " By love of truth 
 
 Urged on ; or haply by intense delight 
 In feeding thought wherever thought could feed." 
 
 Philosophy was not a thing appended to him, which he could 
 take up and lay down use for pleasure or profit an ele- 
 gant accomplishment far less a thing which he could bend 
 according to changing circumstances, or the shifts of an 
 immoral expediency or mould after the unhealthy dimen- 
 sions of popular beliefs and prejudices ; but it was a body of 
 convictions, definite, thorough, real a living growth from the 
 depths of his nature part and parcel of the man himself. To 
 reflect and to inquire on the great questions regarding matter, 
 mind, freedom, God the finite and the infinite had obvi- 
 ously been not the business of his life, but his very life. 
 
 And now this man, subtle in thought, vehement in argumen- 
 tation, precise in speech, ardent in nature, disdainful of all 
 practical narrowness, came to tell what meaning he found in 
 the words which indicated those great ideas what of reality 
 he had been able to rescue from it all. No wonder that to 
 young minds it appeared as the revelation of a new world. So 
 firm and close was his hold of the world of consciousness, so 
 distinct the utterance of what he himself saw therein, that its 
 invisible and impalpable phenomena came, for the time that 
 the student was under the influence of this teacher, actually to 
 supersede the interests and impressions of tKe world of sense, 
 and appeared indeed the only abiding and real present. It 
 was thus that by words 
 
 " Which spoke of nothing more than what we are," 
 he won his hearers to " noble raptures," and 
 
INFLUENCE AS A TEACHER. 219 
 
 " Bred such, fear and awe 
 As fall upon us often when we look 
 Into our minds into the mind of man." 
 
 The qualities of the lectures which enabled their author, in 
 the same course, to combine elementary instruction with an 
 adequate discussion of the higher philosophical questions, were 
 mainly the extreme exactness of the definitions, the clearness 
 of the divisions, the remarkable orderliness of the development 
 of the thoughts, and the extraordinary precision and perspicu- 
 ity of the language. His method was a purely synthetic one 
 he was careful to mark out in the most general form the 
 limits and the various departments of the science he was treat- 
 ing, and to develop his doctrines under each head in complete 
 obedience to the natural laws and instincts of the understand- 
 ing. He thus made a strong demand on the attention of every 
 student ; but, when once this was given and an interest awak- 
 ened, the listener was readily and naturally carried on from the 
 more elementary to the more advanced parts of the science. It 
 was thus that, while any ordinary student who was able and 
 willing to give the requisite attention could follow the lecture, 
 those who had an aptitude for the subject were quickened 
 and captivated, and even roused to enthusiasm. The stately 
 ratiocination of the more polemical parts was impressive 
 and overawing, as the tread of an armed host marching to the 
 onset. Th*e symmetry of the argumentative array the ease, 
 variety, and compass of the movement filled the mind as the 
 harmony of a grand music fills the sense. The style, at least 
 of the metaphysical lectures, was not so condensed as that of the 
 author's published writings. It was novel and peculiar in many 
 of its turns of expression often resolutely and most exactly 
 technical always clear, precise, nervous, pregnant. It was 
 such a style as one felt the thought had shaped for itself. 
 Amid all this array of exact but never overpowering distinc- 
 tions and orderly argumentation, there came ever and anon 
 passages of a grave and impressive eloquence original, or it 
 might be quotations from Plato, Pascal, or Malebranche 
 
220 INFLUENCE AS A TEACHEK. 
 
 from Boetliius or Sir John Davies apt and beautiful : when 
 the eye and countenance that had before been keen as the keen 
 logic of the thought would 
 
 " Even like an altar lit by fire from heaven, 
 Kindle before us ; " 
 
 and the voice, always clear, deep-toned, and full, would swell 
 and fall in a pathetic cadence the outflow of profound emotion. 
 
 Curiously blended with all this power of the teacher there 
 was a wonderful fascination about the man. His personal 
 appearance in the Chair was to the end exceedingly impres- 
 sive ; at first, when he lectured standing, it must have been 
 singularly striking. " It was impossible," says a distinguished 
 pupil,* " not to be impressed with the commanding expression 
 of that fine countenance and noble bust ; the massive well- 
 proportioned head, square and perfectly developed towards 
 the front ; the brows arched, full, and firmly bound together, 
 with short dints of concentrated energy between; the nose 
 pure aquiline, but for its Roman strength ; and a mouth beau- 
 tifully cut, of great firmness and precision, with latent sarcas- 
 tic power in its decisive curve. But the most striking feature 
 of all to a stranger was Sir William's eye ; though not even dark 
 hazel, it appeared from its rare brilliancy absolutely black, and 
 expressed beyond any feature I have ever seen, calm, piercing, 
 sleepless intelligence. . . . Though naturally most struck 
 with this at first, one soon found that it but harmonised with 
 the perfect strength and finish of every feature nothing being 
 weak, nothing undeveloped in any." 
 
 The dignity, earnestness, and simplicity of his character 
 showed themselves in his manner as a lecturer. Though 
 felt to be so high above the student in intellect and learn- 
 ing, he was withal so unaffected, so courteous, so kind in his 
 dealings with the members of his class so ready to explain 
 difficulties and answer inquiries that love and reverence for 
 the man were blended with enthusiastic admiration for the 
 
 * Prof. Baynes of St Andrews, 'Edinburgh Essays' (1856) "Sir W. Hamilton." 
 
INFLUENCE AS A TEACHER. 221 
 
 teacher. Hamilton was, as I know, deeply and warmly loved 
 by students who never saw him, except in the Chair, and 
 never perhaps exchanged with him more than a few unim- 
 portant words. 
 
 The mode in which Sir William conducted the business of 
 the class had its peculiar features, and was closely connected 
 with the kind of influence which he exercised as a lecturer. 
 He did not observe the usual practice of ascertaining by inter- 
 rogation, whether oral or written, how far the student had mas- 
 tered the lecture. The student who submitted to examina- 
 tion had to prepare the lecture or lectures that had been pre- 
 viously delivered by Sir William in such a way as to be able 
 without interrogation to give an unbroken account of any part 
 which might be selected. The salient feature of the examina- 
 tion thus consisted in the student making to the Professor and 
 the class a statement of the contents of the written lectures 
 without the prompting of consecutive questions. This method 
 had its advantages : it was an admirable dialectical discipline, 
 accustoming the reciter to the orderly connection and arrange- 
 ment of his thoughts; it was a training in public speaking; and, 
 above all, in the course of the five months during which it 
 was continued, the mind of the zealous student was thoroughly 
 imbued with the mode of thought of his teacher, and acquired 
 certain valuable intellectual habits which remained with him 
 as permanent possessions. It implied, however, nearly entire 
 devotion to the work of the one class, and while it succeeded 
 admirably with the few who submitted to the process, it can- 
 not be said to have been useful to the many who did not 
 undergo it as the method of oral questioning may readily be 
 made or to be the most effectual means of reaching and 
 quickening the minds of the majority of a class. The follow- 
 ing highly graphic account of the system is given by one who 
 himself passed through the training : 
 
 " The active discipline of the class," says Professor Baynes,* 
 "consisted of exercises and examinations, the latter of two 
 
 * " Sir W. Hamilton" in ' Edinburgh Essays.' 
 
222 INFLUENCE AS A TEACHER. 
 
 kinds compulsory and voluntary. The compulsory, which 
 generally occurred four or five times during the session, was 
 an examination (in the lectures) of the whole class, when any 
 member was liable to be called up, and generally before the 
 end of the session all were actually questioned once or twice 
 at least. Latterly, however, this fell rather into disuse, so 
 that often the voluntary, which had always been the prin- 
 cipal, remained the exclusive form of examination during the 
 session. This examination was of two kinds, or rather in 
 two subjects, the lectures, and what was called " additional 
 information" i. e., subjects connected with the lectures. The 
 examination derived its name from the fact that it was quite 
 optional whether the students took it or not ; the order in 
 which those who offered themselves were examined being de- 
 termined in the most impartial manner in fact, by lot as 
 follows : On the examination days, which were Tuesday and 
 Thursday Monday, Wednesday, and Friday being lecture 
 days the members of the class were requested to sit in 
 alphabetical order according to their names, the benches being 
 lettered for this purpose. On the table before the Professor, 
 at the commencement of the hour, was placed a jar (by cour- 
 tesy a vase or urn) containing the letters of the alphabet 
 printed in large type on rounds of millboard ; in fact, a child's 
 alphabet, with highly-coloured pictures at the back of the 
 letters, from ' A was an apple ' to ' Z was a zebra/ These Sir 
 William mixed thoroughly together in the jar, and then taking 
 the uppermost one, say W, held it before the class, inquiring 
 whether any gentleman in W was prepared to undertake the 
 examination; whereupon Mr Walker, or Watson, or whatever 
 the name might be, rose, bowed to the Chair, and commenced 
 at the point where the last examination left off. The work of 
 preparing for these examinations was by no means slight to 
 those who did it regularly and well. For the lectures being 
 so full of condensed matter, a mere outline would not do 
 some important points being necessarily left out in any ab- 
 stract the student might attempt. There were always three 
 
INFLUENCE AS A TEACHER. 223 
 
 or four, and generally five or six, lectures in arrear, any part of 
 which he must be prepared to take up at a moment's notice, 
 as it was of course impossible to know when or where he 
 should be called, or whether he should be called at all. 
 Finally, the lectures he was thus required to have at his 
 finger-ends often contained long series of minute and ex- 
 tremely subtle discriminations, such as the thirty-three dis- 
 tinctions between mediate and immediate knowledge in Note 
 B, and the thirty-one between the primary and secondary 
 qualities of body in Note D, of Sir William's edition of Eeid, 
 both of which, I remember, were included in the lectures the 
 year I attended the metaphysical course, to say nothing of 
 exercises in syllogistic, such as concrete examples of every 
 valid mood under the old and new systems, and the like, 
 which naturally occurred in the logical course. It was useless 
 for any one to attempt the examination trusting to memory 
 alone, as some men are said to do with Euclid ; for in the first 
 place it was almost impossible to remember the lectures with- 
 out understanding them ; and in the second, one's knowledge 
 was continually tested by cross-examination on the more diffi- 
 cult points, in which the mere memoriter men were sure to 
 break down altogether. The effort of thorough preparation 
 was, however, a most invigorating one to those who made it, 
 not only from the mastery of the subject induced, but from 
 the habits of clear mental discrimination and exact verbal 
 precision it necessarily helped to form. The second voluntary 
 examination in subjects connected with the lectures, though 
 not so arduous as the first, was a very useful, pleasant, and at 
 times even entertaining one. The subjects brought before the 
 class in the space of an hour were often miscellaneous enough, 
 as the only restriction imposed that the ' additional informa- 
 tion* should refer to points touched upon in the previous 
 lectures still left a large margin for the diversities of indi- 
 vidual choice. The pupil might, for example, give the views 
 of any philosophic writer on questions directly or indirectly 
 discussed in the lectures, such as the division of the mental 
 
224 INFLUENCE AS A TEACHER. 
 
 powers, the distinction between art and science, the theories of 
 perception, &c. ; the history of a philosophic word, such as 
 category, predicament, concept, consciousness, &c. ; the dis- 
 tinction between related terms, as hypothesis and theory, dis- 
 covery and invention, observation and experiment ; a short 
 biography of any philosopher, poet, critic, historian, or cele- 
 brated man mentioned in the lectures ; or, finally, state diffi- 
 culties and speculations of his own on points arising out of 
 the previous exposition. Sir William strongly encouraged all 
 such manifestations of interest in the subject of the prelections, 
 especially, perhaps, the last; and from the greater freedom 
 thus allowed, this examination brought the students more 
 directly into contact with the Professor than any other class 
 exercise. After the student had finished his account, what- 
 ever it might be, Sir William would inquire what books he 
 was reading, give valuable hints as to the best course of study, 
 and often supply the information brought by particulars de- 
 rived from the vast storehouse of his own learning. The 
 examination thus acted as a powerful stimulus and guide 
 during the whole course of philosophic study. The exercises 
 of the class were short essays, restricted, like the foregoing 
 examination, to subjects connected with the lectures, and 
 generally prescribed every fortnight or three weeks. Extracts 
 from these essays were regularly read to the class by the 
 writers, each student being allowed five minutes (measured 
 by a sand-glass) for this purpose the time being extended at 
 the option of the Professor, who generally criticised the more 
 important exercises. While only a fourth, or at most a third, 
 of the class attempted the voluntary examinations, a large 
 majority of the members wrote essays of some sort or other. 
 In addition, however, to the regular class exercises, essays on 
 special subjects were now and then prescribed to the com- 
 petitors for prizes, which were also, of course, read to the class. 
 Indeed it was part of Sir William's system that all the class 
 work should be done in public ; and as the essays were read 
 in public, so the examinations were all viva voce, and before 
 
DR CAIRNS'S REMINISCENCES. 225 
 
 the whole class. Each member had thus an opportunity of 
 deciding the relative position of the prize competitors; and at 
 the end of the session the honours of the class were awarded 
 to the successful candidates by the votes of their fellow- 
 students." 
 
 Of the nature and intensity of the influence of Hamilton 
 as an instructor in philosophy, no more pertinent evidence 
 could be adduced than that contained in the following passage, 
 written by one who attended his early courses of lectures, and 
 who powerfully describes what he and others of that time 
 experienced : " So rich a treasure of thought and learning," 
 says Dr John ^Cairns,* " brought to light in a succession of 
 lectures at once profound and luminous, adventurous and 
 sober-minded, full of exact distinctions and criticisms, yet per- 
 vaded by a grave academic earnestness and eloquence, could 
 not but be hailed by all students of speculative tendencies 
 with sympathy and admiration, while, in the more congenial 
 spirits, these feelings were kindled into passion and enthu- 
 siasm. Many are now living who have experienced this shock 
 in a high degree of intensity, and who connect it with a wide 
 and definite enlargement of their intellectual horizon, which 
 has remained, and cannot disappear, though the excitement 
 has long passed away. . . . 
 
 "Willingly do I recall and linger upon these days and 
 months, extending even to years, in which common studies of 
 this abstract nature bound us together. It was the romance 
 the poetry of speculation and friendship. All the vexed 
 questions of the schools were attempted by our united strength, 
 after our higher guide had set the example. The thorny 
 wilds of logic were pleasant as an enchanted ground ; its 
 driest technicalities treasured up as unspeakably rare and pre- 
 cious. We stumbled on, making discoveries at every step, and 
 had all things common. Each lesson in mental philosophy 
 opened up some mystery of our immortal nature, and seemed 
 to bring us nearer the horizon of absolute truth, which again 
 
 * Memoir of the Rev. John Clark, by the Rev. Dr Cairns of Berwick, p. 21. 
 
 P 
 
226 DR CAIRNS'S REMINISCENCES. 
 
 receded as we advanced, and left us, like children pursuing the 
 rainbow, to resume the chase. In truth, we had much of the 
 character of childhood in these pursuits light-heartedness, 
 wonder, boundless hope, engrossment with the present, care- 
 lessness of the future. Our old world daily became new; and 
 the real world of the multitude to us was but a shadow. It 
 was but the outer world, the non-ego, standing at the mercy of 
 speculation, waiting to be confirmed or abolished in the next 
 debate ; while the inner world, in which truth, beauty, and 
 goodness had their eternal seat, should still survive and be all 
 in all. The play of the intellect with these subtle and un- 
 worldly questions was to our minds as inevitable as the stages 
 of our bodily growth. Happy was it for us that the play of 
 affection was also active nay, by sympathy excited to still 
 greater liveliness and that a higher wisdom suffered us not, 
 in all these flowery mazes, to go astray. The fascination of 
 these hours of wandering in the morning twilight few can 
 sympathise with. To those who have loved them most they 
 cannot return ; and they awaken only tears of regret that those 
 who shared them, and could best understand them, are gone 
 with them. But it is wrong to complain of the laws of mental 
 and moral progress. These days, too, had their cares, their 
 sorrows, and their sins ; and the true golden age lies not be- 
 hind, but before us." 
 
 In the following notes, which Dr Cairns has kindly fur- 
 nished for this Memoir, he refers more particularly to the sub- 
 ject which he has noticed generally in the foregoing extract. 
 The statement will be read with interest by every one who 
 has any concern in the higher education of the country. 
 
 " I was in the second year of my studies when I entered the 
 Logic class in November 1837 ; but I had been absent from 
 College for two years, and I knew little or nothing of the im- 
 pression which Sir William had made by his first course on 
 Metaphysics in 1836. I was but indifferently prepared for 
 such a style of instruction as he brought with him to the Chair. 
 I had given a good deal of attention to classics, and read 
 
DR CAIRNS'S REMINISCENCES. 227 
 
 widely enough in miscellaneous literature, but I had never 
 gone to any extent into mental philosophy or logic. Such 
 questions I had perplexed myself with as the freedom of the 
 will, the reality of moral distinctions, and the ultimate grounds 
 of certainty. I had struggled through Butler's Analogy and 
 other less difficult books on the evidences of Christianity, and 
 had read some systems of divinity ; but I had not taken up 
 the study of mind with any warmth or deep interest, the only 
 works that I had gone through having any express connection 
 with it being Watts on the Improvement of the Mind, and, 
 if I remember rightly, Keid's Inquiry. As for logic, all that 
 I knew was gathered from Duncan's, and a hasty perusal of 
 an early edition of Whately's, sufficient only to make me see 
 that they contradicted each other, and that the latter gave a 
 place to the Aristotelian scheme, which the former denied. 
 Scanty as this furnishing was, it is not likely that many of the 
 class most of the members of which were still, like myself, 
 in their teens had much more ; and one can thus understand 
 the difficulties under which Sir William submitted to us his 
 profound and elaborate investigations into the most abstruse 
 questions of mental and logical science. 
 
 " I need not speak of the substance of his lectures ; for these 
 were materially the same as in the published volumes on logic. 
 As published, however, they hardly give an idea of the manner 
 of his delivery ; for the paragraphs or principal statements, 
 which, as numbered, amount to one hundred and thirteen, 
 were slowly dictated in the German fashion, while the suc- 
 ceeding illustrations were simply read over. The moment 
 that he entered he began, without sitting down, to read, often 
 waving his hand to stay the applause with which he was 
 greeted, and thus continued throughout the hour during which 
 the lecture lasted, his standing attitude giving him the appear- 
 ance of being taller than he really was an impression which 
 was confirmed by the flowing gown which he always wore 
 and the high desk behind which he stood, and above which, 
 as if belonging to a more gigantic frame, rose his truly Olympic 
 
228 DR CAIRNS'S REMINISCENCES. 
 
 head, massive but finely chiselled in forehead, nose, mouth, 
 and chin, and with a dark eye looking out from beneath the 
 shaggy eyebrows with a concentrated depth and penetration 
 that could not be surpassed. His gesture had little variety, 
 his appearance presenting from first to last a look of solid and 
 impregnable conviction; and this was also reflected in the 
 clear and emphatic tones of his deep-set voice, which, however, 
 could be quickened into true rhetorical grandeur, and deliver 
 poetical quotations or highly- wrought passages with a peculiar 
 roll such as I have not heard in any other speaker. 
 
 " The fascination of so commanding a personality for young 
 and susceptible minds can easily be understood. It was as- 
 sisted by the novelty of the lectures, and by the sense of 
 novelty even on the part of the lecturer, which had its stimu- 
 lating effect on the audience as they strove to march with him 
 through the unexplored regions of a first course. If I may 
 judge from myself, it must have cost even those who at all 
 succeeded a great effort. The style was wholly new in our 
 philosophical literature. It was replete with technical terms, 
 and bristled with Latin and even Greek words and quotations. 
 It carried with it a constant load of definitions and distinc- 
 tions, and involved, even in its elementary statements, difficult 
 processes of analysis and criticism which could only be fully 
 mastered at an advanced stage. It was liker stretches of 
 Aristotle and steppes of Kant than the flowery field opened 
 out in Stewart and Brown. After the border of the wilderness 
 was passed in the introductory lectures, I well remember the 
 sense of difficulty and even desperation that seemed to fall 
 upon the class as the definition of logic was unrolled in all its 
 formidable proportions ' the science of the laws of thought as 
 thought, or of the forms of thought, or of the formal laws of 
 thought/ Another slough of despond was the enunciation of 
 the fundamental laws of thought ; and many a shuffle of the feet 
 entreated the lecturer to pause upon and repeat, for the enlight- 
 enment of a wholly bewildered audience, such dark formulas 
 as that of the law of contradiction, 'A A=0/ I do not 
 
DR CAIRNS'S REMINISCENCES. 229 
 
 think, indeed, that I ever saw more blank dismay upon any 
 countenances than that which sat upon the majority of the 
 class during this lecture. Some, perhaps many, abandoned 
 the effort henceforth ; but to a select minority, and that by 
 110 means inconsiderable, the sense of difficulty acted with 
 the force of inspiration. In the throes and struggles of the 
 unwonted exercise an altogether new power of thought was 
 created, and the frowning and rugged cliffs, at the base of 
 which some sank to rise no more, became to others the means 
 of ascent to the command of a wide and unsuspected horizon 
 of land and sea. Gradually, to those who waited for it, day 
 broke upon the extensive prospect, and the toil of climbing, 
 with the horror of darkness, gave place to exhilaration. 
 
 " It soon appeared, by a decisive test, that a fair contingent 
 were able to follow the lecturer. Sir William adopted a sys- 
 tem of examination on alternate days which revealed the exact 
 impression which his lectures had made. After the example 
 of his own teacher, Professor Jardine of Glasgow, he resolved 
 to put the decision of the prizes at the end of the session into 
 the hands of the class ; and in order to give them opportuni- 
 ties of judging, he encouraged, in addition to the regular oral 
 examination to which the whole class was successively liable, 
 a more lengthened voluntary recapitulation of the substance of 
 his lectures on the part of the more enterprising or ambitious. 
 Sitting quietly in his chair on examination days, he would, 
 after sticking for a time to the questioning of selected names, 
 the questions being rather elementary, open a wider field by 
 looking over upon the benches before him, each of which had 
 its set of occupants arranged according to the alphabet, and 
 offering the challenge, ' Will any gentleman in A give an ac- 
 count of my last lecture V If A was unfruitful, the challenge 
 went through B, or C, or D, till some one was adventurous 
 enough, amidst general cheering, to rise and make the effort. 
 Ere long all the competitors came to the front, and their rising, 
 sometimes to the number of two or three under one letter, could 
 be anticipated as certainly as the utterance of the summons, 
 
230 DK CAIRNS'S REMINISCENCES. 
 
 ' Any gentleman in X ? ' The extent to which these rehearsals 
 were carried was really surprising. Sometimes a student would 
 recapitulate for fifteen or twenty minutes ; and though some 
 deviated into new tracts, the general strain was that of minute 
 reproduction of all the technicalities and peculiar phrases that 
 had been employed, including, of course, the substance of the 
 lecture. A more invigorating exercise could hardly be ima- 
 gined, and the class in general had the advantage, if not of 
 much variety, at least of some light and shade, from the dif- 
 ferent parts remembered and restored by different minds, and 
 these of their own order. Besides, independent thinking and 
 style were helped by written exercises, and these were read, 
 at least in selected instances, in the class. Altogether, the 
 amount of mental impulse given has probably never been 
 exceeded in the history of any Scottish university, and the 
 youthful enthusiasm excited took a somewhat irregular form, 
 for it was proposed and carried at large meetings of the class 
 to present Sir William with a testimonial, which, however, he 
 immediately and firmly declined. 
 
 " During the session it was the custom of Sir William to 
 invite his students in parties to his house, which was then in 
 Manor Place, as afterwards in Great King Street. I recollect 
 nothing of the conversation on the fiifet occasion when I thus 
 met him, except the general impression of unaffected kindness 
 and simplicity, which was increased by every subsequent in- 
 terview. The immense library also, as venerable in its look 
 as striking in its size, could not be forgotten. I believe I was 
 not the only one who, during the summer recess, returned once 
 and again to Manor Place, simply to take a look at the out- 
 side of the house which recalled the excitement of the past 
 session, and held out the promise of the future. 
 
 " The second course of lectures that on Metaphysics (since 
 published) delivered in 1838-39, at a separate hour from his 
 Logic course, was to me still more interesting than the first ; 
 and those who attended it were attracted only by the love of 
 the study, as it was not required for graduation. In connec- 
 
DR CAIRNS'S REMINISCENCES. 231 
 
 tion with it there arose an unwelcome controversy with the 
 Town Council, who had then the superintendence of the Uni- 
 versity. Into the merits of this I cannot enter, as I only 
 remember the circumstances imperfectly. There was some 
 demur to Sir William's disjoining Metaphysics (or Psychology) 
 from Logic, and charging for the two simultaneous courses 
 separate fees ; and he, on his part, resented the interference 
 all the more, that in regard to the ordinary fees, some prefer- 
 ence, which he considered unjust, had been given to the Medi- 
 cal and Legal Chairs over those in the Faculty of Arts. In a 
 pamphlet written by him on the subject, and containing his 
 correspondence with the Town Council, I remember his indig- 
 nant quotation of the lines 
 
 ' Dat Galenus opes, dat Justinianus honores, 
 At nos philosophi turba misella sumus.' 
 
 " Besides the qualities of vehemence and energy which Sir 
 William carried with him into all his literary controversies, 
 this correspondence was conducted with all the formal divi- 
 sions and elaborate definitions with which he would have 
 reviewed and exploded an erroneous opinion in philosophy, 
 so that, as Professor Macdougall once wittily remarked to me, 
 ' He answered the Edinburgh Town Council as if he had been 
 refuting Porphyry.' This misunderstanding, which had the 
 unfortunate effect of leading Sir William to retrench afterwards 
 his separate course, and to give his different lectures only in 
 alternate years, had no disturbing influence on our- class. We 
 were quietly engaged in our discussions as to the existence of 
 the external world while the storm was raging without, and 
 only felt it to be another form of the non-ego; while the contrast 
 between the singular gentleness and simplicity of our teacher 
 in his dealings with his pupils, and his more impassioned 
 qualities in controversy, became more remarkable. In addi- 
 tion to his other labours, Sir William, throughout this winter, 
 held meetings with a voluntary class for reading in Aristotle's 
 Khetoric ; and this hour was entirely free. I well remember 
 
232 DE CAIRNS'S REMINISCENCES. 
 
 that during the private gatherings of this season, discussions 
 between Sir William and his more advanced students took a 
 larger compass ; that some difficulties in regard to his philo- 
 sophy of perception, and other points, which have since been 
 abundantly urged, were proposed, and that he endeavoured to 
 meet them with the greatest candour and fairness. I can 
 distinctly recall one evening in Great King Street, when suc- 
 cessive groups of querists assailed him, not with objections so 
 much as with difficulties calling for explanation ; and when, 
 I believe for hours, with his back leaning against the shelves 
 of his library, he met all comers with the most perfect good- 
 nature, and with that unconsciousness of his own greatness, 
 which was the charm of his friendly intercourse. 
 
 "Another fruit of his influence was the formation by his 
 advanced students in 1838-39 of a Metaphysical Society, 
 which, for a considerable series of years, held its place in 
 the list of College societies, for which Edinburgh is so hon- 
 ourably distinguished. Few agencies contributed more to give 
 currency to his views and speculations ere they were fully 
 laid before the world ; and the delightful meetings prolonged 
 to midnight, of which not a few still survive to retain the 
 recollection, were almost as much marked by freedom of 
 discussion as by natural deference to his authority.* 
 
 " I may state, before leaving my account of Sir W. Hamilton 
 as a professor, that having occasion to study for a winter in 
 Berlin the year being 1843 I had the opportunity of com- 
 paring him with some of the most eminent professors of phi- 
 losophy there, including his great contemporary, who was also 
 the subject of his criticism, Schelling. But in this last case 
 there was no comparison possible. Schelling was striving in 
 his last period to recover himself from his pantheistic aberra- 
 tions, but without abandoning his a priori or speculative 
 
 * Besides Dr Cairns himself, the following were among the members of this 
 Society : A. C. Eraser, now Professor of Logic in the University of Edin- 
 burgh ; John A. "Wood, advocate ; David Masson, now Professor of Rhetoric 
 in the University of Edinburgh ; Andrew Wilson, afterwards minister of the 
 Abbey Church, Paisley ; John Clark, afterwards minister in Glasgow. 
 
CORRESPONDENCE WITH COUSIN. 233 
 
 method; and though, there were gleams of unextinguished 
 genius, with the revelation of power, there was neither the 
 clear vigour nor the progressive march of Sir William's style 
 of lecturing ; and the impression on the class was mixed and 
 doubtful. Michelet and Beneke the one a high Hegelian, 
 the other a disciple of experience had their merits and their 
 interest. But the most Hamiltonian in his professorial man- 
 ner, in which grave authority mingled with vast philosophical 
 learning, was Trendelenburg, though the kindling and quick- 
 ening element was less conspicuous. The only man, however, 
 of the same moulding power was Neander, who, in another de- 
 partment, and with many other differences, breathed the like 
 breath of vital enthusiasm into the immense body of his ma- 
 terials, and united the solidity of research and the originality 
 of thinking with the glow of passionate and even dogmatic 
 conviction." 
 
 In the following letters of this period between Sir William 
 and M. Cousin, we have references to the lectures and other 
 subjects "of interest common to the two philosophers. 
 
 SIR W. HAMILTON TO M. COUSIN. 
 
 EDINBURGH, 21st May 1837. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR, I am deeply ashamed that I allowed your kind 
 letter which I received at the commencement of winter to remain 
 so long unacknowledged; but for five months I was so occupied 
 with writing lectures from day to day for I had not been able 
 from indisposition to do anything in that way last summer that I 
 was too easily induced to procrastinate this among other duties. . . . 
 I have read M. St Hilaire's preface to his translation of the Politics 
 of Aristotle, and some of the translation itself and notes. It ap- 
 pears to me a work of great accuracy and ability, and puts to shame 
 any attempts of the kind that have been made in this country. I 
 trust, however, that M. St Hilaire's translation will not prevent 
 you from proceeding with your half-promised work on the Organon 
 and Metaphysics of Aristotle : that would be a disappointment in- 
 deed. Among my collections relative to Aristotle I have a copy of 
 the Organon, with MS. notes and collations by Isaac Casaubon, 
 not contained in his edition of the * Opera Aristotelis ; ' and also 
 
234 CORRESPONDENCE WITH COUSIN. 
 
 notes and a collation of the 'Codex Argentoratensis' of the Ehetoric 
 of Aristotle by Franciscus and Aemilius Portus, not contained in 
 their edition of that book. If these could be of any possible 
 interest to you or to M. St Hilaire, it will give me great pleasure to 
 send them to you. By the by, I may notice what has escaped all 
 the editors, that on the margin of the first edition of the Organon 
 by Pacius (Lugd. 1584) there is the collation of a MS. In the sub- 
 sequent editions, though the result of a collation of five MSS., there 
 are no various readings given. The first edition is very rare ; you 
 must have it in the Parisian libraries, otherwise my copy is at your 
 service. Buhle could not obtain it, and the Berlin academicians 
 have made no use of its varice lectiones. 
 
 Can you answer the following questions without any trouble, 
 when you again favour me with a letter 1 ? 1, I am desirous to 
 know whether the Greek verses corresponding to ' Barbara, Cela- 
 rentj i.e. r^a/^ara, "Eypa-vj/g, x. r. X., are to be found in any Greek 
 logician prior to M. Psellus, in whose ' Synopsis Organi ' (published 
 by Ehinger 1597), I presume (for I have not been able to obtain 
 the work), they appear; and whether from them Petrus Hispanus 
 (whose ' Summulse ' are chiefly taken from the Synopsis of Psellus) 
 took the hint which he improved in the ' Barbara, CelarentJ &c. 
 The verses in question are not, I know, to be found in Alexander 
 Aphrodisiensis (to whom they are erroneously attributed by Nun- 
 nesius), nor in any of the subsequent Greek commentators on the 
 Organon (Ammonius, Philoponus, Magentinus, &c.) prior to Psel- 
 lus. 2, These diagrams illustrative of the syllogism 
 
 FIG. I. Fm. II. FIG. III. 
 
 P M S M PS 
 
 PS M 
 
 are they to be found prior to Faber Stapulensis ? Is there any 
 trace of them in the MSS. of the Greek commentators on the 
 Organon before the end of the fifteenth century? Now I should 
 not have mentioned these doubts if they were to give you the 
 slightest trouble ; but it is probable you may be able to satisfy me, 
 from what you know of the subject, without the cost of any in- 
 quiry ; and it is only in the hope you can do so that I take the 
 liberty to request your solution.* 
 
 * On the points here referred to, see Discussions, p. 669, note. 
 
CORRESPONDENCE WITH COUSIN. 235 
 
 I am superintending a collected edition of Reid's Works, more 
 complete than has yet been made, and shall add a few notes. Were 
 the work not beneath your consideration I mean as far as my share 
 extends I should have been anxious to have requested that you 
 would allow me to inscribe it to you. I have got through my first 
 course, upon the whole, with tolerable satisfaction. I am happy 
 that, though I did not give a very elementary view of the philosophy 
 
 of mind, my auditors did not find it unintelligible I am 
 
 much gratified by hearing that you are engaged in profound study 
 of the scholastic philosophy. What you have already done in that 
 department only excites the desire that you should do more. The 
 separation of the gold from the dross requires a workman like your- 
 self. I am afraid you will find the deciphering of my execrable 
 handwriting more than your patience can submit to, and I shall 
 therefore desist for the present. You kindly ask about the plan 
 of my lectures. I have been hitherto solely occupied with psy- 
 chology, next session I shall commence with logic proper. The 
 course will contain psychology, logic, metaphysic, and aesthetic. I 
 mean to have a text-book made out soon for certain parts, and I 
 shall, of course, send you a copy when printed.* Believe me, with 
 the highest respect, ever most truly yours, 
 
 W. HAMILTON. 
 
 M. COUSIN TO SIR W. HAMILTON. 
 
 1 Sept. 1837. 
 
 II y a long temps que j'aurais du repondre a votre lettre du 21 Mai 
 dernier. Mais j'en ai e"te empeche par mille occupations, dont la 
 plus pressante etait la publication de mon livre sur la Hollande. 
 L'avez vous regu, ainsi que mon Ecole Normale ? Je vous ai fait 
 passer ces deux ouvrages par des voies si peu sures que je ne sais 
 s'ils vous sont parvenus : et je le desire beaucoup, car vous etes du 
 petit nombre de ceux auxquels je pense en e"crivant, et il m'importe 
 que vous preniez la peine de me lire. Mandez-moi done si vous avez 
 regu ces deux Merits. . . . 
 
 Parlons maintenant de la philosophic. Combien je suis ravi du 
 succes de votre cours ! et combien j'en approuve la division ! Vous 
 commencez done aussi par la psychologic. Dans ce cas, je suis im- 
 patient de voir quelle valeur vous attribuez aux lois de la logique. 
 Si elles sont purement relatives, vous aurez affaire a Aristote ; si vous 
 les croyez et les etablissez comme vraies en elles-memes, et non pas 
 * This design of a Text- Book was never realised. 
 
236 CORRESPONDENCE WITH COUSIN. 
 
 seulement par rapport a nous, il vous faudra bien revenir a line 
 philosophic quelconque de Fabsolu, sauf le mot que je vous aban- 
 donnc. Enfin vous preparez un Manuel. Je le lirai avec la plus 
 grande attention. 
 
 Vous 6tes fort aimable de m'offrir votre nouvelle edition de Eeid. 
 Je 1'accepte volon tiers, car je respecte infiniment Reid auquel je do is 
 beaucoup ; et je compte bien 1'appeler a mon secours contre le scepti- 
 cisme qui commence a sortir de tons cotes de notre chere philosophie 
 Ecossaise. Est-ce la ce qu'avait voulu Reid et la philosophie du sens 
 commun] Ou il n'a pas compris la portee de ses principes, ou vous 
 leur donnez, mon tres-cher ami, une signification qu'ils n'ont point. 
 Vous voyez que je suis fort entete de ma philosophie. Mais je vous 
 1'avoue, autant le doute en beaucoup de points me parait sage et 
 force autant le scepticisme ge'ne'ral sur la raison et les realties qu'elle 
 nous decouvre, me semble, plus j'y renechis, arbitraire, artificiel, et 
 dangereux. 
 
 Je suis bien aise que vous estimez le travail de M. St Hilaire. II 
 vient de remporter le prix de notre Academic sur T Organon. II n'a 
 rien a voir avec. la famille de notre celebre zoologiste. II vous e"crira 
 lui-meme pour vous remercier de vos aimables propositions. Nous 
 avons cause ensemble de vos questions, et voici notre commune re- 
 ponse. 
 
 1. Les mots' techniques, rga^ara/E/ga-xj/e, K. r. X., ne sont ni dans 
 aucun logicien grec avant Psellus, ni dans Psellus lui-meme. Avant 
 Pierre d'Espagne, on ne les trouve que dans Mce'phore Blemmidas, 
 abrege* de T Organon. S'ils remontent plus haut, toute trace est per- 
 due, et, jusqu'a nouvelle decouverte, on pent tres-bien les considerer 
 comme un fruit de la scholastique constantinopolitaine. 
 
 2. Les figures explicatives 
 
 FIG. I. FIG. II. FIG. III. 
 
 P M S M PS 
 
 M 
 
 n'appartiennent point a la scholastique latine ; et sont de petites 
 inventions grecques du bas Empire. Us sont d'un usage general 
 dans les MSS. du 13^ me siecle, et ils doivent remonter plus haut, 
 peut-etre meme a 1'ancienne e"cole peripaticienne, dont le chef a joint 
 plus d'une fois des dessins explicatifs a son texte. Ce n'est la 
 qu'une conjecture probable ; le certain est qu'on rencontre ces figures 
 
CORRESPONDENCE WITH COUSIN. 237 
 
 a chaque pas dans les MSS. grecs anterieurs a la graiide scliolas- 
 tique latine. 
 
 M. COUSIN TO SIR "VV. HAMILTON. 
 
 10 Fevrier 1838. 
 
 Et bien, mon clier Monsieur, que faites-vous, et oh en etes-vous 1 
 Je n'ai plus de nouvelles d'Ecosse, et 1'Edinburgh Review ne m'ap- 
 porte aucun article de philosophic qui trahisse la main de M. Hamil- 
 ton. Songez done que pour moi la philosophic de la Grande Bretagne, 
 c'est vous, et que je ne sais plus rien des que vous vous taisiez. 
 
 Sans cesse je vous demanderai des nouvelles de votre cours, de votre 
 futur Manuel, et de votre edition de Reid. 
 
 M. COUSIN TO SIR W. HAMILTON. 
 
 30 Juillet 1838. 
 
 Voici, mon cher Monsieur, une troisieme edition de mes Fragment. 
 Le libraire m'a fait violence pour donner cette edition ; j'ai ce"de a 
 regret, n'y pouvant mettre qu'un mot d'Avertissement, oil vous jouez 
 un role que j'aurais fort agrandi, si 1'espace ne m'eut manque". Je 
 n'espere pas vous convertir, mais je desire ardemment et j'espere bien 
 n' avoir pas dit un seul mot qui vous puisse choquer. Soyez asse 
 bon pour me re"pondre a cet egard. 
 
 . . . . Mais votre cours ? Grace a Dieu, j'en ai des nouvelles 
 et d'excellentes par M. Homer, qui est ici, et avec lequel je cause 
 beaucoup de notre cher professeur de logique de I'llniversite d'Edin- 
 burgh. II est certain que vos legons sont saisies et goutees, et je 
 m'en rejouis comme d'un evenement tres-heureux pour la philo- 
 sophic. Toutefois comme je suis tres exigeant, je me permets de 
 de"sirer aussi que les succes du professeur ne nous privent pas des 
 articles de I'ecrivain. 
 
 A propos d' articles, je vous avais annonce" qu'un de mes amis, M. 
 Peisse,dont vous verrez le nom dans monAvertissement, avait traduit 
 plusieurs articles sortis de votre plume. II se decide enfin a les 
 publier, k mon instante priere. Je ne crois pas qu'a aucune e"poque, 
 depuis la vogue de la philosophic de Condillac, il y ait eu en France 
 autant de zele sincere et serieux pour nos cheres etudes. Le cours 
 de M. St Hilaire est suivi de pen d'auditeurs, mais par des audi- 
 teurs choisis et laborieux. Celui de M. Damiron sur la philosophic 
 moderne a un succes plus brillant; et si la sante" de M. Jouifroi lui 
 interdit k peu pres 1'enseignement, ses ecrits lui font partout un 
 nombreux auditoire. Son Introduction a Reid serait tres-bonne sans 
 
238 CORRESPONDENCE WITH COUSIN. 
 
 cette facheuse tendance au scepticisme que Reid n'approuveroit guere, 
 et que je vous reproche a vous aussi, mon tres-cher monsieur. Dans 
 ce siecle de foible croyance, est-il digne de vous d'avoir 1'air de fa- 
 voriser le moins du monde un scepticisme que ses consequences me 
 feraient redouter, quand ses principes me tenteraient 1 Yous voyez 
 avec quelle franchise je vous parle ; c'est la mesure de la haute es- 
 time que je professe pour vous et de 1'affection que je vous porte, a 
 travers les deux cents lieues et plus qui nous Be" parent. . . . 
 
 Ne manquez pas de me tenir au courant de tout ce qui se fait 
 d'un peu important en Ecosse, en philosophic et en pedagogic. 
 
 SIR W. HAMILTON TO M. COUSIN. 
 
 EDINBURGH, 18th Sept. 1839. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR, ... I have read with the greatest interest 
 (and, I need not add, admiration) the papers with which I was pre- 
 viously unacquainted, and which appear for the first time in the 
 new edition of the Fragments. Will you allow me to answer a 
 question you put in note (1), at p. 297 of the second volume 1 ? It 
 was the ' Opera Yaria' of Joannes Michael Brutus to which Leibnitz 
 refers, and the editor of the Berlin edition of 1698 (which I have), 
 though his name is not given, was Johann Friedrich Cramer, as 
 appears from the article "Brutus" in the ' Zedlerisches Lexicon.' I 
 trust you will not desist from your labours on Aristotle, though 
 Plato may claim your attention for a time, and though a Peripatetic 
 School has sprung up under your auspices. I have the intention 
 which I hope I may before long be able to realise of attempting 
 an article on the recent works on the philosophers of antiquity in 
 France, Germany, and Holland. Of course you and your Sieves will 
 constitute the central group. I rejoice also to hear of the flourish- 
 ing state of philosophy in your country. M. Peisse's intention of 
 translating some of my papers is extremely flattering, but if he 
 execute his purpose I could have wished that some errors in the 
 original were corrected. With M. Peisse's reputation I was ac- 
 quainted from M. Damiron's History, before I had heard of him 
 from your letters and preface. I see he was engaged in opposition 
 to Gall's doctrine in an able polemic. I have had a long series of 
 experiments in relation to that doctrine, which completely dis- 
 prove its most fundamental positions, lying by me for above ten 
 years, half forgotten. The account you give of M. St Hilaire's 
 success as a professor gives me much pleasure. 
 
SENIOR CLASS OF LOGIC. 239 
 
 I trust your health, is now completely restored, which I was 
 grieved to learn had not been such as to allow you to engage in the 
 more arduous functions of the Ministry of Instruction. You have 
 been employing your summers in journeys into Switzerland and 
 Holland. Would you not be induced to visit us in this remote 
 region 1 I can promise you that no one would be more honourably 
 received by all ; and nothing could, to me personally, afford a higher 
 satisfaction than such an event. Do think of it, and magnify any 
 objects of interest we may possess that may concur in affording you 
 a temptation. 
 
 Of Reid I am ashamed to speak. The work has been nearly 
 ready for a year and a half, but having been obliged to change my 
 publisher, I have allowed the publication to be delayed without any 
 good reason for it longer than it ought. I mean to set about finishing 
 it in the course of a few days, and hope to have it out in about six 
 weeks, when I shall send it for your indulgent criticism your ap- 
 probation of such a production I cannot hope for. I shall at the 
 same time thank M. St Hilaire for the present of his valuable work 
 on the Organon. I had a letter from Mrs Austin lately, and a 
 well-deserved reproach for my epistolary delinquencies. Believe me, 
 my dear sir, with the highest regard, most truly yours, 
 
 "W. HAMILTON. 
 
 Sir William, as we have seen, speedily excited an ardent 
 enthusiasm in the youth by whom he was surrounded in his 
 class-room. The daily hour of formal prelection i. e. } read- 
 ing a prepared discourse on the different topics of the course 
 was soon found not to be sufficient. Closer contact and 
 keener questioning between student and professor became ne- 
 cessary. The study in which they were engaged had passed 
 from its previous state of dull stagnation and formality, 
 and become a living and quickening mental discipline. Sir 
 William, therefore, instituted hours of oral examination, dis- 
 cussion, and exercise, over and above the prescribed five 
 hours a -week. Before the third session of the new order 
 of things, a strong desire was felt on the part of many of 
 the students for a higher and more advanced course than the 
 ordinary one, which should deal chiefly with metaphysical 
 problems. These could be discussed more adequately after 
 
240 CONTROVERSY WITH TOWN COUNCIL 
 
 the preliminary training of the ordinary class, and with more 
 ease before an unmixed audience of senior students. Sir 
 William, accordingly, in 1838-39, instituted, or rather revived, 
 a senior class of speculative philosophy ; and during the ses- 
 sion added considerably to his stock of lectures. It was at- 
 tended by a number of highly-interested students. Any one 
 at all acquainted with the*subject of speculative philosophy 
 must be aware of the difficulty of combining its two great 
 branches Logic and Metaphysics in one course of instruc- 
 tion, and must be aware also of the quickened but unsatis- 
 fied craving for further progress and instruction with which 
 the better students necessarily terminate the first year's attend- 
 ance. These wants Sir William, in his love for his science and 
 interest in his students, sought to meet ; and he would have suc- 
 ceeded, but for the prompt interference and determined opposi- 
 tion of the patrons of the University. This involved him in a 
 controversial correspondence of six months' duration. 
 
 The controversy regarding the institution of a second and 
 advanced class was connected, and to some extent mixed up, 
 with another regarding the amount of fee exigible in the 
 philosophical classes (Logic, Moral Philosophy, and Natural 
 Philosophy), in which Sir William took a prominent part. 
 The Town Council, by a resolution of llth September 1838, 
 had declared that the fee which the literary and philoso- 
 phical professors were authorised to exact from all students 
 without distinction was three guineas. They still, however, 
 allowed the fee of four guineas to subsist in the classes of 
 Law and Medicine. Sir William very strongly opposed this 
 resolution, pointing out the invidiousness of the distinction 
 which it made in the different Faculties. In an elaborate 
 circular letter* addressed to the Town Council, he main- 
 tained the right of the philosophical professors to receive 
 
 * Afterwards printed, along with the correspondence relative to the second 
 class of Logic and Metaphysics, under the title, ' Correspondence relative to 
 certain proceedings of the Town Council of Edinburgh, affecting the philoso- 
 phical Professors of the University, and in particular the Professor of Logic and 
 Metaphysics.' Edinburgh : pp. 41 : 1839. 
 
ABOUT FEES. 241 
 
 two different rates of fee a minimum of three, and an (op- 
 tional) maximum of four guineas, from different classes of 
 students. Previously to 1812 the fees were simply honoraria 
 given by the students, and not payments strictly exigible ; 
 hence they varied in different classes. By a resolution of the 
 Town Council of that year, proceeding upon a memorial from 
 the Senatus, the fee of two guineas (received as a minimum in 
 the philosophical classes) was raised to three, and that of 
 three guineas (established in certain other classes) to four; 
 but as in the memorial of the Senatus the term minimum 
 had been omitted in referring to the fee of two guineas, the 
 Council now maintained that by the resolution of 1812 the 
 maximum fee was abolished, and that thenceforward only one 
 fee of three guineas was exigible from all students of litera- 
 ture and philosophy without distinction. This interpreta- 
 tion was put on the resolution of 1812 by the Council only 
 in September 1838, and in face of the fact that the professors 
 of Mathematics, Ehetoric, Moral Philosophy, and Natural 
 Philosophy, had all along, from 1812, been accustomed, with- 
 out interference, to accept a higher optional fee or honorarium 
 of four guineas. It was done, moreover, with a special and 
 avowed reference to the case of the new Professor of Logic, 
 who in the session 1837-38 had, in the exercise of what he 
 maintained to be his right, accepted the higher fee. The 
 Council by their resolution of September 1838 not only 
 maintained this maximum fee to be abolished in the philoso- 
 phical classes, but, in the classes of law and medicine, con- 
 firmed the fee of four guineas made exigible by the resolu- 
 tion of 1812, or authorised this amount to be exacted 
 where hitherto it had been drawn only by custom. 
 " While all the other classes are thus," says Sir William, 
 "continued on the same or placed on a better footing, the 
 philosophical classes alone are degraded to a worse." Against 
 all this Sir William, in the circular, reclaimed in a very 
 emphatic manner. He maintained the right of the philoso- 
 phical professors to the higher fee as an honorarium ; and 
 
 Q 
 
242 CONTROVERSY WITH TOWN COUNCIL 
 
 alleged that the resolution of the Council involved an in- 
 dignity and an injustice : an indignity, inasmuch as it placed 
 them on a lower level than their colleagues in respect of 
 emoluments, and implied that they had been drawing fees to 
 which they had not as good a title as the other professors who 
 were authorised to continue to exact the same ; an injustice, 
 because the fees of the philosophical professors, which even 
 before were not equal to those of their colleagues, were now 
 still further reduced. He argued further, very pertinently, that 
 if a difference of fee were to be made, the literary and philo- 
 sophical chairs are those to which the higher fee should be 
 allowed, on the ground that chairs of law and medicine fur- 
 ther the professional success of the holders, while the occu- 
 pants of the other chairs depend exclusively on these for 
 their subsistence ; " or if they do pursue an extra-academical 
 profession, the mere fact of holding an academical position 
 is an impediment to professional success, an impediment 
 which augments precisely as the professor distinguishes him- 
 self for assiduity in the performance of his university duties." 
 The Council adhered to their resolution of September ; which, 
 while it abolished the somewhat invidious distinction among 
 students caused by the payment of a lower and higher fee, 
 constituted and perpetuated the inequality complained of be- 
 tween the classes of arts on the one hand, and those of law 
 and medicine on the other. 
 
 This controversy did not leave the Town Council very ami- 
 cably disposed towards the new Professor of Logic, who, besides, 
 had long been known to be the most powerful antagonist 
 to their position as administrators of the affairs of the Uni- 
 versity. Unluckily the institution of the second or ad- 
 vanced class of Logic and Metaphysics took place while the 
 controversy about the fees was pending, and while both 
 parties were considerably exasperated. Sir William, in this 
 second dispute, avowed his decided impression that the prompt 
 and unexampled interference of the Council with his new 
 class was due to the fact that he had advocated against them 
 
UNIVERSITY 
 
 ABOUT SECOND CLASS. 
 
 the claims of the philosophical professors. This imp 
 and what appeared to him to be the unintelligent character 
 of the opposition to his plans for furthering his favourite 
 science, may account for the tone of his communications to 
 the Council, which certainly was far from conciliatory. He 
 was throughout caustic, elaborate, even scornful ; stimulated, 
 but not overmastered, by a certain white heat of passion, 
 which shone through a dialectic far too keen and fine for the 
 occasion. 
 
 The Council alleged that the institution of the new class, 
 without their sanction having been previously asked or ob- 
 tained, was an interference with their rights as patrons of the 
 University, which they held to extend to the control and regu- 
 lation of the courses of study therein. Sir William, while 
 admitting a general right of administration on the part of the 
 Council, punctiliously refused to acknowledge their authority 
 to determine the manner in which a professor should carry on 
 the teaching of his class, or subdivide his subject. He pointed 
 out, moreover, that in delivering two courses of lectures, a 
 higher and a lower, he introduced no novel practice into the 
 conduct of the chair, for which it was necessary he should show 
 cause ; for " down to the demise of Professor Finlayson two 
 separate courses, at two different hours, viz., a First and Second 
 Logic, were regularly advertised." Then, in reply to the charge 
 that he had " divided his lectures into two courses one on 
 Logic and the other on Metaphysics," his answer was that he 
 had not divided into two courses lectures which he had de- 
 livered as one, or which ought to be delivered as one, but that 
 he taught in separate courses the two departments of science 
 which he was specially commissioned to teach, and that this was 
 a necessity arising from the extent, and from differences in the 
 matter and order, of those departments themselves. His more 
 recent predecessors had met this difficulty by cutting it ; they 
 in fact omitted, and that without observation, at least without 
 censure, from the now zealous patrons, one of the departments 
 of the chair ; " and as Logic was of the two the easier, and 
 
244 CONTROVERSY WITH TOWN COUNCIL 
 
 only lucrative, department, being the one of the more popular 
 attractions and the one alone protected, as alone compulsory 
 on students of theology, Metaphysics was allowed to drop 
 from the lectures of the professor, and, as a natural conse- 
 quence, from the title of the chair. . . . Had I chosen the 
 same alternative," he continues, "the practice of my prede- 
 cessors might have well excused me in its adoption ; but the 
 other was the one which better accorded both with my inclina- 
 tions and my notions of duty. I determined, therefore, at 
 least to make the experiment whether a more advanced course 
 of mental philosophy, principally though not exclusively con- 
 versant with Metaphysics, could not maintain itself in effici- 
 ency, along with another of a more elementary character, chiefly, 
 but not solely, occupied with Logic." 
 
 These sentences should have been sufficient to obviate the 
 only reasonable objection to Sir William's proposal of a 
 second class, that he apparently departed from the terms 
 of his commission, in not giving in one course lectures on 
 both departments of the chair. From first to last, however, this 
 objection was maintained by the patrons in the most dogged 
 and unintelligent manner, and in the face of all explanations. 
 In vain Sir William showed that his ordinary course was 
 actually fuller and at least as long as that of his predecessors' 
 that, in fact, he gave more hours' instruction than had been 
 customary; and that, so far from the one series of lectures be- 
 ing insufficient, as was insinuated, to satisfy the Faculty of Arts 
 and the Church, the science of Logic that specially prescribed 
 to intending students of Divinity was more fully taught by him 
 than by " any at least of his latter predecessors, or by any con- 
 temporary professor whatever in any Scottish University." All 
 that Sir William's very elaborate argumentation elicited from 
 the patrons was a series of curt replies, in which they simply 
 reiterated their unchanged opinion on the points in dispute. 
 The subtle pleadings of the advocate of the higher Meta- 
 physics were thrown away on a body which, after listening to 
 all that could be said in their behalf, still looked on the 
 
ABOUT SECOND CLASS. 245 
 
 science as relating to " an abstruse subject, not generally con- 
 sidered as of any great or paramount utility." * To this they 
 graciously added : " It will be specially observed that they did 
 not refuse their sanction to the course altogether ; but only 
 provided that a second fee should not be charged in the mean 
 time for a course which could only be looked upon in the 
 light of an experiment."* It would probably have been 
 more technically regular had Sir William asked the sanction 
 of the Council to the charge of a separate fee for the second 
 class ; but this he maintained he had a complete right to 
 make, in accordance with the practice in other chairs, where 
 junior and senior classes existed ; and it may be added that, 
 as the class was optional, the fee was after all a voluntary and 
 conditional payment. It is proper to mention that throughout 
 this controversy Sir William had the support of the Senatus, 
 who, when the Council proceeded to the extremity of deleting 
 the announcement of the second class of Logic and Meta- 
 physics from the programme of classes for session 1839-40, 
 protested against the step, " because it superseded an act of 
 Senatus, hitherto unchallenged, and because it expunged the 
 announcement of an important course of lectures proposed to 
 be delivered." Professor Macvey Napier's opinion of the con- 
 troversy is given in the following letter : 
 
 Thursday night [1839]. 
 
 MY DEAK SIR WILLIAM, I am much obliged by your sending the 
 enclosedt for my perusal. It is a profound and satisfactory view of 
 your plan, and must give satisfaction to all who, like myself, antici- 
 pated everything good from your appointment, and who looked to 
 it as one of the best hopes of a philosophy honourable to Scotland, 
 though shamefully neglected in the present age. I am not sure 
 that I have a precise idea of some of your distinctions, or that I 
 would agree in them all ; but that is nothing to the purpose. The 
 plan shows profound acquaintance with the subject, and honourable 
 zeal to promote it. This makes me deeply regret that you did not 
 follow a different course. Had you presented your plan to the 
 
 * Report of the College Committee of the Town Council, September 1839. 
 t Probably a detailed outline of the courses of Lectures. 
 
246 CONTROVERSY WITH TOWN COUNCIL. 
 
 Council, and solicited their sanction, they would not have dared to 
 gainsay it ; but your taking the matter of fees into your own hands 
 is a great mistake and misfortune. Your argument fails there ; for 
 wherever a plan calls for a double fee, clear it is that, in order to 
 prevent abuse, it should have the sanction of a competent tribunal. 
 However, I hope the storm will blow over. Keep yourself calm, 
 and don't allow yourself to be disgusted by this opposition. Ever 
 yours truly, M. NAPIER. 
 
 Although at the conclusion of the correspondence Sir 
 William intimated his intention of still, as circumstances 
 required, giving two courses, the second class was not again 
 resumed ; the lectures remained during his further occupation 
 of the chair as they were now written ; and, the stimulus of 
 the advanced class beings withdrawn, the University and the 
 world were deprived of a regular and systematised series of 
 lectures on the higher questions of Metaphysics.* During 
 the remainder of his career, he delivered a course of Logic 
 and one of Metaphysics in alternate years. 
 
 * Thirty years have surely made great changes in the views of men, or the 
 new authority in tlie University of Edinburgh is of a different spirit from the 
 old, for in 1865 the present distinguished Professor of Logic in that University 
 instituted or rather revived an advanced class of philosophy, of precisely the 
 same character as Sir William proposed, without interference from the govern- 
 ing body. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 IN THE LOGIC CHAIR: 1839-1844. 
 
 WORK OF THE CLASS RECORD OF HONOURS MECHANICAL CONTRIV- 
 ANCES IN CONNECTION WITH THE CLASS RELATIONS WITH HIS 
 COLLEAGUES GRADUATION IN ARTS EXAMINATION FOR HONOURS 
 REID FUND ELECTED MEMBER OF THE INSTITUTE OF FRANCE 
 
 LETTERS TO LORD MELBOURNE AND LORD ADVOCATE RUTHERFURD 
 HIS BROTHER'S DEATH PAMPHLET ON THE DISRUPTION CONTRO- 
 VERSY THEOLOGICAL INTEREST DR CAIRNS'S REMINISCENCES OF 
 INTERCOURSE WITH SIR WILLIAM CORRESPONDENCE WITH COUSIN. 
 
 BESIDES carrying on the ordinary work of the class in the 
 manner already described, Sir William gave special oppor- 
 tunities of prosecuting philosophical studies, which were en- 
 tirely novel in the conduct of the Logic Class in Edinburgh. 
 He instituted courses of Heading and prescribed subjects of 
 Essay for the summer vacation. To eminence in these de- 
 partments, the taking up of which was of course optional, 
 he attributed great importance, as indicating a special and 
 continued interest in the work on the part of the competi- 
 tors. Prizes in the form of books were given in the three 
 departments of ordinary class -work, summer reading, and 
 essays. In a lecture on Academical Honours which Sir Wil- 
 liam delivered at the commencement of his first course, he 
 thus explains the practice which he adopted in reference to 
 the awarding of prizes in his own class : " In the first place, 
 I am convinced that excitement and rewards are principally 
 required to promote a general and continued diligence in the 
 ordinary business of the class. I mean, therefore, that the 
 prizes should with us be awarded for general eminence, as 
 shown in the examinations and exercises ; and I am averse on 
 principle from proposing any premium during the course of 
 
248 RECORD OF CLASS HONOURS. 
 
 the sessional labours for single and detached efforts. The 
 effect of this would naturally be to distract attention from 
 what ought to be the principal and constant object of occupa- 
 tion ; and if honour is to be gained by an irregular and tran- 
 sient spirit of activity, less encouragement will necessarily be 
 afforded to regular and sedulous application. Prizes for in- 
 dividual essays, for written analyses of important books, and 
 for oral examination on their contents, may, however, with great 
 advantage, be proposed as occupation during the summer vaca- 
 tion ; and this I shall do. But the honours of the winter session 
 must belong to those who have regularly gone through its toils. 
 
 " In the second place, the value of the prizes may be greatly 
 enhanced by giving them greater and more permanent pub- 
 licity. A very simple mode, and one which I mean to adopt, 
 is to record upon a tablet each year the names of the success- 
 ful competitors ; this tablet to be permanently affixed to the 
 walls of the class-room. 
 
 " In the third place, the importance of the prizes for general 
 eminence in the business of the class may be considerably raised 
 by making the competitors the judges of merit among themselves. 
 This, I am persuaded, is a measure of the very highest efficacy." * 
 
 Sir William carried out the plan of memorial tablets here 
 referred to. At the close of each session there was placed on 
 the wall of the class-room, immediately behind the chair, a 
 board painted green, on which were inscribed in golden let- 
 ters the names of those students who, by the votes of their 
 fellows, had been adjudged worthy of a place on the prize- 
 list. These boards in course of time covered the entire line 
 of wall behind the chair, and caught the eye of all in the 
 class-room. The wall facing the chair displayed in a similar 
 manner the names of those who had carried off the prizes 
 for summer reading and essays, and also of those graduates 
 who in mental philosophy had gained first or second class 
 honours. Above the tablets behind the chair were inscribed the 
 following mottoes, also on a green board, in golden letters : 
 * Lecture I., Appendix I. A. 
 
RECORD OF CLASS HONOURS. 249 
 
 " ON EARTH, THERE IS NOTHING GREAT BUT MAN ; 
 IN MAN, THERE IS NOTHING GREAT BUT MIND." 
 
 U6vov T)$VV Ka.fj.arov rf fVKafj.a.TOV Zx l ^ <ra ^ "^pbs a,/Jii\\av /ml rifj^v tirixeip etrat' 
 'Epe0terai yap, /cat <r<p65pa ye, virb TOV <pi\oviKov els rb <pi\6irovov 77 tyvxh 
 Kvpiov ap e(TT<a rb 'Hffi68ov, irtpl fj.ev aper^s aTrAws, paXiaTO. 8e irepl iratSeias, 
 'Ayad)) Zpis T^Se fiporoiffi. 
 
 Altogether, as the tablets increased with the years of Sir 
 William's occupancy of the chair, the class-room presented a 
 unique and picturesque appearance, and afforded a complete 
 retrospect of those students who during the period had 
 achieved distinction in the study of Intellectual Philosophy. 
 It is to be presumed that the heart of young ambition was 
 frequently fired by the sight of the names thus conspicuously 
 emblazoned ; and that the tyro in Logic was incited to hope 
 that his name too might be elevated to a place in this sphere 
 of the Dii dialectici ! 
 
 These devices for recording the names were entirely Sir 
 William's own. His power of mechanical contrivance was 
 also shown by certain black boards that stood on either side 
 of the chair, and were occasionally used for exhibiting pro- 
 positional and syllogistic formulae and diagrams. They have 
 been thus described : " One of these moves up and down in 
 the ordinary way ; another opens up, and is like a door on its 
 hinges ; and a third does neither, but stands out four-sided 
 like a truncated pyramid on a tall pedestal of its own. This 
 mysterious instrument, which is not unlike the trees seen in 
 old sampler work, or the cropped yew and box of country 
 gardens, is looked upon with a certain feeling of awe by 
 casual lady visitors in the vacation, and timid students on first 
 entering the class, as probably a novum organum of philo- 
 sophy, a syllogistic machine, or perhaps a dwarfed and hodded 
 specimen of Porphyry's tree."* 
 
 Some years later than the period now referred to, a veritable 
 logical machine, that would have delighted the heart even of 
 the figurative Eaymond Lully, occasionally appeared in the 
 class-room before the wondering eyes of the students. This 
 
 * ' Edinburgh Essays' : " Sir William Hamilton." 
 
250 
 
 MECHANICAL CONTRIVANCES 
 
 was an ingenious apparatus, contrived by Sir William himself, 
 for illustrating the doctrine of the comprehension and extension 
 of notions or concepts a favourite point with him in the Logic 
 course. It consisted of a series of hollow wooden cylinders 
 sliding into each other, and diminishing in depth as they in- 
 creased in circumference. These cylinders were arranged 
 round an upright rod, so that their upper faces formed a 
 horizontal plane, and the whole presented the appearance of 
 an inverted cone. The illustration was made by first of all 
 exhibiting the upright rod, which represented the individ- 
 ual, standing naked on its pedestal, and then proceeding to 
 clothe it with the cylinders, denoting such notions as say 
 Greek, Man, Animal, Living Body, Body, Being, when the mere 
 supraposition showed the increasing extension with the de- 
 creasing comprehension, and vice versa. 
 
 "The vowels," says Sir William, "have been taken as affording 
 a compendious order of subordination according to their pri- 
 ority and posteriority in the alphabet : A, of course, represent- 
 ing the summum genus ; and z 1 , z 2 , z 3 , &c., denoting this or 
 these individuals. The letters in general, or the consonants, 
 would better approximate to the possible infinity of subordi- 
 nate classes ; but the vowels are more convenient, and quite 
 sufficient in number to show the variety and relations of 
 logical classes, concrete examples of which may in any variety 
 be applied to the abstract symbols." 
 
IN THE CLASS-ROOM. 251 
 
 The central rod was seven inches in height; the first or 
 lowest inch was painted white, and bore the letters Z, and 
 z 1 , z 2 , z 3 , z 4 , z 5 , z 6 . Above the portion of the upright rod 
 allotted to Z was a series of six similar divisions reaching to 
 the top, and painted successively green, purple, yellow, blue, 
 red, black, and lettered Y, u, o, I, E, A. These represented the 
 attributes contained in the individual Z -'that is, its compre- 
 hension; and as the colours reached to the top of the rod, 
 comprehension was thus seen to be at its maximum in Z. 
 Extension again was shown to be at its minimum there, seeing 
 that Z stood at the inverted apex of the cone. 
 
 Now let the first cylinder, the lowest inch of which was 
 painted green and lettered Y, be slipped over the top of the 
 stick, it would slide down so far as to take its place immediately 
 above the white or Z division. It thus represented a notion 
 (say Greek) wider or more extensive than the individual Z (say 
 Socrates), for it included under it also the little zs z 1 , z 2 , z 3 , 
 z 4 , z 5 , z 6 (say Alexander, Plato, &c.) As, however, it only 
 reached from Z to the top of the stick, and bore the letters 
 u, o, i, E, A, its comprehension was seen to be less than that 
 of Z by one division ; viz., Z itself. 
 
 The second cylinder, the lowest inch of which was painted 
 purple and lettered U (say Man), was now slid down over the 
 first cylinder, the whole of which it covered, except the part 
 allotted to the letter Y, thus showing that its extension was 
 greater than Y, but its comprehension less, for it had under 
 it Y and Z, but on it upwards to the top only o, I, E, A. 
 
 The third cylinder, the lowest inch of which was painted 
 yellow, and lettered (say Animal), was in a similar way let 
 down on U, and it was at once seen that its extension was 
 greater than U, for it embraced under it U, Y, Z, while its com- 
 prehension was less, for upwards to its top there were only 
 
 I, E, A. 
 
 The fourth cylinder, the lowest inch of which was painted 
 blue and lettered I (say Living Body), was now let down on O, 
 and it was seen that while its extension was increased, taking 
 
252 DELATIONS WITH COLLEAGUES. 
 
 under it 0, U, Y, its comprehension was decreased, for it showed 
 upwards only E and A. * 
 
 The fifth cylinder, the lowest inch of which was painted red 
 and lettered E (say Body), was now let down upon I, and it 
 was seen that the extension had further increased, for it em- 
 braced under it I, 0, U, Y, Z, and upwards there was only A. 
 
 Finally the cylinder painted black, and lettered A (say 
 Being), was put on to crown the whole and complete the in- 
 verted cone, and it was seen that here the extension was greatest, 
 embracing as it did E, I, 0, U, Y, Z, and, there being nothing 
 above it to represent an attribute, the comprehension least. 
 
 Now the complete inverted cone stood before the student, 
 who gathered up the whole lesson by noticing that the cylinders 
 gradually lessened in breadth as they neared the base, and 
 that the lowest of them was the least in breadth, while it sup- 
 ported all the increasing circles above it ; wherein was sym- 
 bolised the depth or comprehension of the notion, which, 
 while it took in the least number of objects, contained at 
 the same time the greatest number of attributes. Again, look- 
 ing to the uppermost circle, he saw how it in its wide circuit 
 embraced all the gradually lessening cylinders down to the 
 lowest, thus symbolising the fact that the sphere of the most 
 extensive notion, while it contains under it all the lesser or 
 subordinate notions i. e., the greatest number of objects or 
 classes in the same line contains in it at the same time the 
 least number of attributes i. e., the smallest comprehension 
 or depth. And thus the young logician obtained in a con- 
 crete symbol a summary glimpse of the very abstract doctrine 
 of the nature and relations of concepts. 
 
 Sir William was far from being an idle or uninterested 
 member of the Senatus. He even made himself conspicuous 
 by his zeal in matters of university administration, which 
 seemed to him to involve educational interests. His appoint- 
 ment as secretary to the Senatus, an office which he held 
 from 1833 to 1846, involved him still more in its discussions. 
 
INTEREST IN GRADUATION. 253 
 
 His views on university matters brought him pretty fre- 
 quently into sharp collision with some of his colleagues. 
 For with all his lovableness, even tenderness of nature, 
 Hamilton was yet a man of resolute will, and high and some- 
 what uncompromising temper. Left fairly to himself, he was 
 gentle, calm, serene a patient student and thinker; but there 
 was another side of his character which the circumstance of 
 opposition especially in practical arrangements would wake 
 into the most resolute energy. As in intellect he was critical, 
 so in temperament he was strongly polemical, even finding 
 a certain enjoyment in conflict for its own sake. He had very 
 definite convictions, especially in philosophy, education, and 
 university management ; and he was always ready to stand 
 by them and to fight for them strongly. He was, more- 
 over, sternly opposed to all appearance of interested 
 management or self-seeking in a public body. The very 
 semblance of unfaithfulness to a trust would rouse him to 
 the most vehement and passionate opposition. Hence to 
 the public view he appeared chiefly as a controversialist 
 vehement, keen, pertinacious, unsparing a very Anak in 
 battle. His antagonism, however, was against opinions, not 
 against men ; when he fought, it was for a principle that was 
 clear, pertinent, distinct. In some of the controversies in 
 which he engaged there is apparent, I think, an exclusiveness 
 of regard to the abstract truth and value of a principle, or to 
 the symmetry of a plan. His tendency rather was to overlook 
 the mixed state of the facts and the specialty of the new or 
 modern circumstances in which the principle he advocated fell 
 to be applied, or under which his theory was to be worked. 
 This made him in a large degree uncompromising, and imprac- 
 ticable in action and co-operation. But for one who engaged 
 so much and so vehemently in controversy, he was singularly 
 free from any feeling of personal hostility, as he was absol- 
 utely above all interested motives. Referring to his contests 
 in the Senatus, Professor Kelland, one of his colleagues, thus 
 writes : " I can say, who was witness and part actor in all 
 
254 EXTRA GRADUATION HONOURS 
 
 these contests, that never did Sir William exhibit a shadow of 
 self-seeking ; for his science, not for his comfort or his gain, 
 he contended: and although my own department was the object 
 of some of his best known attacks, I can say that never for 
 one moment did I feel towards him other than the warmest 
 personal regard nay more, attachment. He was indeed one 
 of my kindest and steadiest friends." 
 
 Finding that graduation, especially in arts, had fallen 
 greatly into abeyance about the time of his appointment to the 
 chair of Logic and Metaphysics, Sir William was led to take up 
 the subject of a reform with much ardour. As the regulations 
 which he was anxious to see introduced were supposed to clash 
 with the interests of certain individual professors, the discus- 
 sions on the subject assumed a keen and somewhat personal 
 character. The tradition even is that on these occasions he 
 sometimes used language more emphatic than choice. 
 
 One point in regard to graduation in arts on which he 
 strongly insisted, was the necessity of a change in the order 
 of study, so as to allow the philosophical classes, at least 
 that of Logic, to come later in the curriculum than the second 
 year, on the ground mainly that the abstract sciences should 
 be preceded by the more concrete. This, however, is an ar- 
 rangement which many, taking into consideration the actual 
 constitution and working of the Scottish university system, 
 would regard as very far from being advantageous. 
 
 Another point was that the amount prescribed for exa- 
 mination in the classical department was excessive, and out 
 of all proportion to what was actually accepted. 
 
 A third point was the absence of any proper mode of as- 
 certaining and recording extraordinary attainments in special 
 departments of examination. This was a matter in which he 
 was greatly interested, and there can be no doubt of the im- 
 mense importance of a well-constituted Honours examination 
 in enhancing the value of the degree. Failing to get the 
 Senatus to concur in his proposals, he instituted an Honours 
 examination in his own department. This was the first scheme 
 proposed in Scotland that even professed to ascertain and re- 
 
IN MENTAL PHILOSOPHY. 255 
 
 gister special attainments in any department of University 
 study. The following is the advertisement of the new plan, 
 with the result of the first examination : 
 
 EXTRA GRADUATION HONOURS IN SPECULATIVE PHILOSOPHY, 1841. 
 
 As the scheme of Examination for the DEGREE IN ARTS, recently 
 adopted by the Faculty, takes no account of any proficiency beyond 
 that displayed in written answers to common questions on the tasks 
 proposed to Candidates in general, and as, in the department of 
 Speculative Philosophy, Candidates are invited to give up any number 
 of approved works, ancient and modern, over and above the minimum 
 necessary for a degree, the Professor of Logic and Metaphysics, in 
 justice to those who have come forward to his higher Examination, 
 has instituted a scale of Honours, according to which philosophical 
 learning and ability, of a superior order, may be graduated ; and this 
 not merely with relation to Competitors of the same year, but also 
 by a general and permanent standard. Excellence will be estimated, 
 1, By the extent and difficulty of the works given up ; 2, And more 
 especially, by the accuracy and relative comprehension with which 
 these have been studied. 
 
 The Examination will be partly oral, partly by writing. The oral 
 Examination by the Professor, or the Professor and his coadjutors, 
 will take place in the presence of all the Candidates, and, if not 
 public, before a competent number of witnesses. 
 
 As this Examination is wholly independent of that by the 
 Faculty of Arts, it will not be limited to those proceeding to a 
 Degree. No one, however, not thus proceeding, will be admitted as 
 a competitor, who has not, at least, completed his third academical 
 session in the study of Philosophy proper, Speculative or Practical ; 
 and the Graduates and Non-Graduates will be distinguished. 
 
 In the Fourth Class, for which (though with a minuter Examina- 
 tion) the minimum required for a Degree may qualify, the names will 
 not be published, though a testimonial of extra proficiency will be 
 given. 
 
 Candidates to give in their List of Books on or before the 1st of 
 April. 
 
 First Class. JOHN CAIRNS, M.A., Berwickshire. 
 Second Class. (Vacant.) 
 Third Class. (Vacant.) 
 Fourth Class. (Unnamed.) 
 
256 HONOURS IN MENTAL PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 Sir William's arrangement, in allowing more than two 
 classes of honours, is decidedly superior to that instituted 
 by the Commission of 1863, and at present in force. A third, 
 if not a fourth class, is absolutely necessary to allow any 
 scheme of this kind to work efficiently. Sir William's 
 scheme did not call forth so many candidates as it might 
 have done had it been formally and regularly connected 
 with the University arrangements, or had such a thing as 
 an honours examination ever before been recognised in 
 Scotland ; yet it did good service on a limited scale. With 
 no prospect of reward beyond the mere fruits of the study, 
 and the comparatively local honour attending success in the 
 examination, a young student gave up the following list of 
 philosophical books : 
 
 " WORKS ON SPECULATIVE PHILOSOPHY FOB GRADUATION 
 IN APRIL 1843. 
 
 De Anima. 
 Categories. 
 
 Me"thode. 
 
 Meditations. 
 
 Principes de la Philosophie, P. I. 
 
 7. LOCKE. Essay on Human Understanding. 
 
 8. MALEBRANCHE. Recherche de la Verite*. 
 
 9. BERKELEY. Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous. 
 
 10. COLLIER. Clavis Universalis. 
 
 11. REID. Inquiry. 
 
 12. Essays on Intellectual Powers. 
 
 13. STEWART. Philosophy of Human Mind, Vol. I. 
 
 14. History of Progress of Metaphysical Phi- 
 
 losophy. 
 
 15. COUSIN. Examination of Locke. 
 
 16. I/ Art de Penser. 
 
 Besides the Lectures on Logic and Psychology. 
 
 March 1843. WILLIAM SHAW." * 
 
 Sir William had further conflicts in the Senatus on the 
 
 * Now minister of Alloa. 
 
REID FUND. 257 
 
 subject of medical graduation. ' His views on this point may 
 be found in the ' Discussions,' Appendix III., A. 
 
 At length, in 1846, he finally withdrew from taking any part 
 with the Senatus in the matter of graduation. From that time 
 he published the list of candidates in Logic separately, with 
 the nominal values of their answers ; thus indicating that he 
 had ceased to take any share in determining on whom the degree 
 should be conferred. This unfortunate state of matters arose 
 partly out of the rejection, by a majority, of his proposals for a 
 reform in the arrangements for graduation, but more imme- 
 diately from the circumstance that two candidates who, though 
 passing the examinations in the other departments compe- 
 tently, had failed to answer the simplest questions in Logic 
 (one of the subjects for the degree), were nevertheless 
 admitted by the Senatus to the Mastership of Arts. Sir 
 William protested against this proceeding, and along with 
 him Professor Wilson ; but in vain. He considered it to be 
 a violation of all sound principles of graduation, and held 
 that, after such candidates had been allowed to pass, the 
 Senatus could not consistently reject any one, however defi- 
 cient in a particular department, and that the value of the 
 degree had thus been permanently lowered.* 
 
 Sir William had strong views on other points of academical 
 polity and arrangements, which brought him into frequent 
 collision with his colleagues in the Senatus. One topic of 
 chronic dispute and conflict was what is known as the Reid 
 Fund. Without entering into the complicated history of this 
 fund, and the disputes connected with it, it may be sufficient 
 to say that a sum of money was left by General Eeid in 1803, 
 which after being allowed to accumulate for a number of years, 
 was destined, by the terms of his will, to be devoted, in the 
 first place, to " establishing and endowing a Professorship of 
 Music in the College and University of Edinburgh ; " and, in 
 the next place, to " making additions to the Library of the 
 University, or otherwise promoting the general interest and 
 
 * See Discussions, p. 355, 2d ed. 
 R 
 
258 APPLICATIONS FOR LEGAL APPOINTMENTS. 
 
 advantage of the University, in such a way and manner as the 
 Principal and Professors thereof for the time being shall in 
 their discretion think most fit and proper." The Senatus, it 
 would appear, made certain applications of this fund, which 
 Sir William and others, standing on the strict legal construc- 
 tion of the terms of the bequest, from the first opposed. 
 Among those applications, was the setting aside of a certain 
 sum to constitute a fund for retiring allowances to the pro- 
 fessors. Of this use of the money, however much it might 
 have been in favour of his personal interest, Sir William 
 decidedly disapproved. He was always anxious to obtain a 
 larger share of the bequest for the Library, the claims and 
 requirements of which seemed to him too little regarded. 
 The controversies about the Reid fund were settled by the 
 provisions of the Scotch Universities Act of 1858, and thus 
 a bone of chronic contention was taken away from the Edin- 
 burgh Senatus. 
 
 The inadequate income from the Logic chair, which was 
 burdened by an annuity to Dr Ritchie, so as to leave the free 
 emoluments under 300 a-year, constrained Sir William to 
 make application for any legal appointment that was com- 
 patible with his office as professor, and the work of which he 
 judged himself competent to perform. In 1840, on the occa- 
 sion of a vacancy in the Keepership of the Great Seal of Scot- 
 land, it was generally supposed that the office of Deputy- 
 keeper, which had hitherto been in the gift of the principal, 
 would be made a direct Government appointment. On this 
 assumption, Sir William applied for the office, and sent a 
 statement of his claims to Lord Melbourne, then at the head 
 of the Ministry. But the disjunction of principal and deputy 
 keeperships was not made, and the application fell to the 
 ground. The new principal, the Duke of Argyll, appointed 
 as deputy Mr John Christison, advocate. 
 
 Later in the same year, when it appeared likely that there 
 would be a vacancy at the clerk's table of the Court of Session, 
 Sir William applied again to Lord Melbourne for the office, 
 
LETTER TO LORD MELBOURNE. 259 
 
 referring to the statement of his claims already submitted to 
 his lordship. But this too, the last application of the kind 
 made by Sir William to Government, was without effect. 
 
 Sir William's manner of applying for an appointment was 
 thoroughly characteristic. As he never sought one for which 
 he did not deem himself qualified, so he did not hesitate to 
 state, in an honest and manly way, his especial claims and 
 qualifications. In illustration of this, his letters to Lord Mel- 
 bourne and the Lord Advocate (Eutherfurd) about the clerk- 
 ship are here subjoined. 
 
 Sm W. HAMILTON TO LORD MELBOURNE. 
 
 MY LORD, On the 30th of December last I had the honour of 
 addressing a letter to your Lordship, in which, on the supposition 
 that the Deputy-Keepership of the Great Seal of Scotland was to 
 be made a Government appointment, I humbly submitted to your 
 Lordship and the other members of Her Majesty's Treasury a brief 
 statement of the claims on which I rested an application for that 
 office. This letter I communicated to the Lord Advocate, who had 
 agreed to transmit it to your Lordship, that he might, if so dis- 
 posed, be enabled to support my application. I offered him any 
 details he might be pleased to require in regard to the general 
 statements of that letter. This he did not do ; and as I have now 
 become aware that his Lordship is interested in another, I trust that 
 your Lordship will in the circumstances pardon me in thus presum- 
 ing again to solicit attention to a more explicit exposition of the 
 grounds on which I confidently found the justice of my suit. 
 
 In my former letter I stated in general my claims for the appoint- 
 ment in question, as grounded on my open and unswerving adherence, 
 from my first entrance into public life, to Whig principles, and the 
 personal sacrifices I had in consequence been called upon to make ; 
 my long standing at the Scottish bar; the small and insignificant 
 preferment I had, as yet, received from my party ; the inadequate 
 remuneration I receive for my services as a professor ; and withal 
 the circumstances of a large family, and no private fortune competent 
 to its provision. To these I ventured to add my claim as the head 
 of an old historical family, long distinguished and finally ruined by 
 its efforts in the cause of civil and religious liberty. 
 
 I may, indeed, safely say that no individual at the Scottish bar, 
 with equal claims and wants, has asked or received so little ; and 
 
260 LETTER TO LORD MELBOURNE. 
 
 nothing but the duty I owe my children could induce me on the 
 present occasion to sue even for what I am confident, it will be 
 generally acknowledged no one is better entitled to obtain. 
 
 In the first place, I have to state, in supplement of my former 
 letter, that should her Majesty's Government graciously favour 
 my present application, the appointment will not even make up to me 
 sacrifices I cheerfully have made to my political convictions. When 
 the vacancy in the chair of Moral Philosophy (one of the most 
 honourable and lucrative in this university) took place, by the death 
 of Dr Brown, I became a candidate. My claims were warmly 
 supported by the emeritus professor, Mr Dugald Stewart, and other 
 distinguished philosophers; and I had the best prospects of success 
 (however worthy my opponent), provided the contest were not made 
 a political one. In these circumstances, it was intimated to me from 
 a most influential quarter that, if I would allow it simply to be 
 said that I was not a Whig not a political opponent of the then 
 dominant party the election would be allowed to take its natural 
 course. I refused ; and in refusing I knew not only that the chair 
 was lost (for the Tory electors were to the Whigs as three to one, 
 and every individual voted according to his party), but that my 
 non-exclusive devotion to professional pursuits having been thus 
 proclaimed, my legal practice, which had hitherto, for my standing, 
 been highly prosperous, might be expected to decline. 
 
 In the second place, may I presume to allege on my behalf my 
 exertions in the cause of public education and the reformation of the 
 great national seminaries ] In the ' Edinburgh Review/ I was the 
 first to call attention to what had been done in Germany, and was 
 doing in France, for the instruction of the people. In a series of 
 articles, the present corruption and illegality of the English univer- 
 sities was laid open to the -light, and the question touching the 
 admission of Dissenters to these seminaries first placed and argued, 
 as is now admitted, upon its proper ground ; to say nothing (in more 
 immediate relation to our Scottish universities) of an historical and 
 philosophical development of the general principles on which every 
 rational system of academical patronage must be established. These 
 services to the cause of educational reform I regard as trifling com- 
 pared to what I hope yet to perform in the promotion not only of 
 these interests, but of interests of far higher political urgency and 
 moment ; but I humbly venture to hope that they may be allowed 
 their weight, if public patronage is to be dispensed for public ser- 
 vices, and not by private favour. 
 
LETTER TO LORD MELBOURNE. 261 
 
 But in the last place, my Lord, I humbly but confidently prefer 
 a claim to the present appointment in my character of professor. 
 My chair (that of Logic and Metaphysics) is one of the greatest im- 
 portance ; and it requires for the proper discharge of its duties, 
 besides learning and philosophical talent, strenuous and unremitted 
 exertion. To zeal as an instructor I may lay claim without any im- 
 putation of vanity, and I am happy to think that m^ efforts are not 
 unappreciated by the public. In regard to any erudition and talent 
 I may possess, it is exceedingly unpleasant for me to speak. I have 
 as yet published on philosophical subjects only a few hasty occa- 
 sional articles, and then anonymously ; but the reception these have 
 met with from the profoundest philosophers throughout Europe far 
 exceeds what I could have hoped for from the success of any regular 
 and extended work. In Germany, my literary and philosophical 
 papers have been for the greater part translated, and the latter have 
 been ranked, though without any personal knowledge of their author, 
 so high by the best authorities, that, knowing what they are and 
 what they ought to be, I feel only humiliation from the pre-eminence 
 accorded. I may refer, for example, to * Krug's Phil. Lex.,' in the 
 article under my name, vol. v. p. 220, 500, 647. In Paris, the 
 greater part of my philosophical writings have been very recently 
 collected and translated, and this publication was followed by my 
 election, in a late meeting of the Academy of Sciences, to the dis- 
 tinguished honour of a place among the members of the Institute. 
 As this publication contains evidence of what is thought of me 
 and my philosophical acquirements by some of the most illustrious 
 thinkers of France, I take the liberty of transmitting a copy of it to 
 your Lordship. 
 
 But if I am capable of reflecting credit on the university with 
 which I am connected, and if my instruction be of benefit to the 
 interests of philosophy and of the public, the chair I hold affords no 
 equitable remuneration in return. As originally stated to your 
 Lordship, in consequence of the burdens imposed upon this chair, 
 the free emolument to the professor is under 300 a-year; and 
 even of this paltry sum I have always found that I must expend 
 nearly a third in the books requisite for my relative studies. But 
 were there no deductions from the emoluments of the chair, and 
 were the salary of the office in question added to these, they would 
 not amount to more than a very moderate endowment not to 
 more than the endowment of a similar chair in another university, 
 which I would have thought it my duty to my family not to 
 
262 LETTER TO LORD ADVOCATE. 
 
 have neglected, had I not trusted that my preferable claims to 
 professional promotion would not have been long postponed. At 
 the same time, I am anxious not to abandon my function of acade- 
 mical instructor, which is at once suitable to my tastes and a voca- 
 tion in which I feel that I am usefully employed ; and I am more 
 peculiarly anxious for the success of my present application, because 
 this appointment will not, like most legal offices, interfere with my 
 functions as professor. Independently, therefore, of all other grounds, 
 I would urge my suit upon her Majesty's Government as affording 
 me only a fair remuneration for my professional services, and the 
 means to devote myself without distraction or anxiety to the prose- 
 cution of those plans which I trust will prove of some advantage 
 to science, and reflect no discredit on the patrons by whom their 
 author was enabled to carry them into effect. It is, my Lord, on 
 public grounds alone that I rest my claims ; and though few have 
 sacrificed so much to their political party and creed, if another can 
 be found whose public services entitle him to rank above me or on 
 a level with mine, I shall be the first to applaud his nomination to 
 the office for which I now apply. I therefore humbly entreat that 
 your Lordship would be pleased to take my case into your impartial 
 consideration ; and should my suit be granted, I shall ever grate- 
 fully acknowledge the generosity and love of justice by which her 
 Majesty's Government were actuated. I have the honour to remain, 
 your Lordship's, &c., 
 
 W. HAMILTON. 
 EDINBURGH, lltk February 1840. 
 
 SIR W. HAMILTON TO THE LORD ADVOCATE. 
 
 EDINBURGH, 27 tk April 1840. 
 
 MY DEAR RUTHERFURD, As I understand that it is probable that 
 some new appointment must be immediately made among the Prin- 
 cipal Clerks of Session, I earnestly entreat that you would take my 
 claims to such appointment into account. 
 
 I do not request you to second any application on my behalf on 
 the ground of personal favour. I should, indeed, feel most grateful 
 for any act of friendship from you; but I would be the last to re- 
 quest of you, in your public character, to do anything not justifiable on 
 public grounds. I may be mistaken, but I do not think that any one 
 has now a higher claim" on the present Government to such an office 
 than I have ; and I am so situated that, however disagreeable to my 
 
MEMBER OF THE INSTITUTE OF FRANCE. 263 
 
 own feelings, it is my duty my urgent duty to do what an honour- 
 able man can, to make that claim effectual. I am induced to hope 
 that Lord Melbourne is not indisposed to me ; and, were you free to 
 support my suit, I would be desirous to lay a statement of my claims 
 before Lord Normanby. Seconded by you, I should indeed have 
 little doubt of success ; and there is assuredly no one whose recom- 
 mendation and good opinion would be more flattering to me on their 
 own account. 
 
 I have been no importunate and habitual suitor ; and no one with 
 equal claims has asked or received from his party less. I have never, 
 indeed, been the candidate for any office to which I was not fairly 
 entitled ; and I can confidently affirm that I have undertaken no 
 public duty which I have not discharged with more than satisfaction. 
 For a sheriffship I have not pressed, as I was conscious that it re- 
 quired a knowledge of forms and details with which I had not made 
 myself familiar. But as to the office of Clerk of Session, in which, 
 with a general knowledge of law, precision of language and of thought 
 is the principal requisite, I may without presumption say, that no 
 one is better qualified to discharge its duties ; while I would endea- 
 vour to devote myself, without distraction or anxiety, to pursuits 
 which I trust will not be found to be without result. 
 
 In January 1840, Sir William was elected Corresponding 
 Member of the Institute of France, in the department of Philo- 
 sophy. His immediate predecessor, in whose room he was 
 appointed, was Van Heusde. 
 
 The following is M. Cousin's letter announcing the con- 
 ferring of this highly honourable distinction : 
 
 M. COUSIN TO SIR W. HAMILTON. 
 
 25 Janvier 1840. 
 
 Je m'empresse de vous annoncer que, sur ma proposition, la section 
 de Philosophic de 1'Academie des Sciences Morales et Politiques 
 vous a presente", et 1'Academie vous a nomine aujourd'hui meme, 
 correspondant de 1'Academie pour la section de Philosophic. 
 
 Je vous annonce en meme temps que la traduction de vos beaux 
 articles de 1'Edinburgh Review, par M. Peisse, avec une tres-excellente 
 Preface, a paru depuis quelques jours. Je vous 1'enverrai par la 
 premiere occasion. '"''. 
 
264 DOCTOR OF DIVINITY. 
 
 SIR W. HAMILTON TO M. COUSIN. 
 
 EDINBURGH, 7th April 1840. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR, I am sure you will pardon my delay in offering 
 you my acknowledgments for this new testimony of your kindness 
 when you know its cause. A few days after the receipt of your 
 note, a dear son was attacked with fever, and, after a tedious and 
 painful struggle, has been taken from us, and I have hardly recovered 
 spirits to perform even the most urgent and otherwise the most 
 agreeable duties. This is the first letter I have written since the 
 affliction. I am gratified more than I can express by the great 
 honour of which your letter was the informant ; and not the less so, 
 that I am indebted for it to your friendly influence far more than to 
 my own deserts. Of this I am well aware. But to pass from petty 
 concerns to great : I can hardly congratulate you on your accession 
 to the ministry, as on the acquisition of any honour or advantage to 
 yourself personally ; but this is an event which, I am sure, all the 
 friends of education all the votaries of philosophy will hail as 
 propitious to the highest interests not only of France but of Europe. 
 May your health and strength not suffer from your new labours ! It 
 is too much to expect that your philosophical avocations should not 
 be interrupted ; but patiantur aquilce dum pascuntur columbce. 
 . . . Believe me, my dear sir, with sincere regard, ever faith- 
 fully yours, 
 
 W. HAMILTON. 
 
 To the load of literary and academic distinctions conferred 
 on Sir William must be added the somewhat singular one of 
 Doctor of Divinity. " Sir William one day mentioned to me," 
 says Archdeacon Sinclair, " a singular academic honour con- 
 ferred upon him. He received a letter from a friend at Ley- 
 den, offering to obtain for him the degree of Doctor of Laws 
 from that ancient university. In reply, he said that he had no 
 ambition to obtain so ordinary a degree as that of Doctor of 
 Laws, but that as a layman be would be gratified to be made a 
 Doctor of Divinity. His friend succeeded in convincing the 
 authorities of Leyden that Sir William was not unworthy 
 of the peculiar compliment in question. Accordingly, the 
 diploma was duly transmitted, and the Professor ever after 
 
CONNECTION WITH ROYAL SOCIETY. 265 
 
 jocularly maintained that he was perhaps the only layman in 
 Europe that could pretend to the title of Reverend." * 
 
 Sir William was for a considerable period a member of the 
 Royal Society of Edinburgh. The Society's hall was a place 
 of almost daily resort with him for many years ; and he en- 
 joyed the social gatherings which once a-month took place 
 in connection with it. Some years before this time, however, 
 (in 1835), he had resigned his membership of this body, on 
 failing to carry out certain proposals to revive the original 
 constitution of the Society. The point of difference between 
 him and the majority of the existing members seems to have 
 related to the balance between the literary and physical 
 elements in the constitution. In a paper, which was read at a 
 meeting, he maintained that originally the literary and physical 
 classes possessed a complete equality of rights, the govern- 
 ment of the Society being by law divided between them. 
 This constitution of the Society, which had been established 
 on the distinction of these two co-ordinate classes, had sub- 
 sisted until the close of the year 1828, when it was apparently 
 superseded by certain bye-laws then promulgated. He con- 
 tended that these bye-laws were illegal, having been passed in 
 violation of the charter of the Society, and in fact without the 
 sanction of the members. His appeal on this point was not 
 successful, and, finding that his views were not accepted, he 
 very characteristically resigned his position as a member of 
 the Society. The whole proceedings show the intensity with 
 which he threw his strong will and character into anything 
 which he took up, and at the same time a certain impatience of 
 opposition, an assertion of his own individuality, and a readi- 
 ness to sacrifice his likings to his conception of what was 
 strictly legal, and probably theoretically the best. These were 
 features of his character which appeared in many of his con- 
 troversies. He must have his views completely accepted, else 
 he is not to be represented in any form. It was a case of " aut 
 
 * In a note in Discussions, p. 349, he refers to the fact that in the German 
 universities laymen may be Doctors and Professors of Divinity. 
 
266 CAPTAIN HAMILTON'S DEATH. 
 
 Csesar aut nullus;" the "Caesar" being not certainly in any 
 degree a personation of self-seeking, but an intense indivi- 
 duality that would be satisfied with nothing short of the com- 
 plete ideal of what appeared to him to be right and best. 
 
 In the spring of 1842, Sir William and his brother met for 
 the last time. Captain Hamilton, who some years before had 
 married the widow of Sir Eobert Townsend Farquhar, Bart., 
 Governor of the Mauritius, had continued to reside in the 
 Lake district, chiefly at Elleray, employing his leisure in 
 literary pursuits. As a neighbour of Wordsworth he had 
 much intercourse with him, and was his frequent companion 
 on long mountain -walks. The poet had a great liking for 
 the literary soldier in whom there was a fine vein of feeling 
 and poetry, mingled with a keen perception of the ludicrous, 
 and a power of quiet sarcasm ; and this liking was reciprocated 
 by the object of it, though not without a certain enjoying 
 appreciation of the contrast between the higher qualities and 
 the somewhat stolid and prosaic background of Wordsworth's 
 character. 
 
 Captain Hamilton and his wife were now about to start 
 for a lengthened sojourn on the Continent, but came first of 
 all to Edinburgh to bid farewell to Sir William and Lady 
 Hamilton. A last farewell it proved. Besides the wish to 
 see his brother, another motive which brought him to Edin- 
 burgh was the desire, which he and Sir William regretted not 
 to have sooner realised, of placing a slab over their mother's 
 grave. 
 
 Captain Hamilton spent the summer in France and Switzer- 
 land, and had reached Florence at the beginning of winter. 
 Here he was seized with paralysis. He recovered so far as to 
 be able to proceed to Pisa; but he there had a second attack, 
 and, after a short illness, died on the 7th December 1842. 
 The news of this sad event came as a sudden and painful 
 shock to Sir William ; and he long and deeply felt the loss 
 of his only brother, to whom, amid strong differences of cha- 
 racter, tastes, and sympathies, he was ardently attached. 
 
PAMPHLET ON NON-INTRUSION CONTROVERSY. 267 
 
 Captain Hamilton was buried at Florence, where years before 
 he had laid his first wife in the tomb. On the marble which 
 the brothers had raised in memory of their mother, Sir 
 William had the pain of adding within the year a record 
 of his brother's death. There it is shortly and beautifully 
 written that 
 
 THOMAS HAMILTON 
 DIED AT PISA, vn. DECEMBER MDCCCXLII, AGED LII YEARS, 
 
 AND, LAID, AS HE DESIRED, BY THE DEAREST OF THE LIVING 
 
 BESIDE THE DEAREST OP THE DEAD, 
 
 IS INTERRED AT FLORENCE. 
 
 In the winter and spring of 1843, Sir William seems to 
 have given his attention to the controversy in the Church 
 of Scotland, which had been going on for some years, and 
 was then evidently n earing its crisis. His ordinary interest 
 in ecclesiastical matters was quickened by what was pass- 
 ing around him. His constant intercourse in private with 
 his colleague, Dr Welsh, and in the Senatus meetings with 
 Dr Chalmers, served to add intensity to his feeling about 
 the Church question. The legal bearings of the question, 
 moreover, were naturally a frequent subject of discussion 
 in the Parliament House. He was thus led to turn aside 
 for a time from his more appropriate studies, and give his 
 attention to the questions involved in this controversy, espe- 
 cially in its historical retrospect. It happened but rarely 
 that he was thus deflected from his ordinary work, and the 
 unusualness of the circumstance may in part account for the 
 intensity with which for the time he took up the new line of 
 investigation. He set about examining historically one of 
 the main points of dispute, known as " the principle of non- 
 intrusion." The result of his researches was given in a pam- 
 phlet addressed to the ministers about to leave the Church, 
 and entitled, ' Be not Schismatics, be not Martyrs by Mistake, 
 a demonstration that the principle of non-intrusion, so far 
 from being fundamental to the Church of Scotland, is sub- 
 
268 PAMPHLET ON NON-INTRUSION CONTROVERSY. 
 
 versive of the fundamental principles of that and every other 
 Presbyterian Church Establishment.' 
 
 The "principle of non-intrusion" referred to consisted in 
 asserting as final the refusal by a congregation, as represent- 
 ed by the male heads of families in full communion, to ac- 
 cept a presentee apart from the decision of any court, ecclesi- 
 astical or civil, on the merits of the objections or grounds of 
 refusal. This the rights of the people was one of the points 
 upon which the disruption of the Church of Scotland turned ; 
 the other, which came to be involved in it, being that of the 
 nature and limits of the powers of Church courts, or the 
 principle known as " the independence of the Church in 
 matters spiritual." The purport of the tract is sufficiently 
 set forth in the title. Its composition and publication were 
 resolved on only about a week before the meeting of the 
 General Assembly, at which the disruption in the Church 
 took place. Sir William knew generally where to find the 
 evidence required to support his position, but he had too little 
 time to do more than gather together what lay nearest to his 
 hand the whole pamphlet having been written and printed 
 in little more than a week. It did not pass through the 
 press until the secession from the Church had actually taken 
 place, but there is little probability that, if it had appeared 
 sooner, it would have had any effect in staying the progress 
 of events. With his usual comprehensiveness of design, Sir 
 William first of all entered on an extended examination of 
 the historical grounds of the non-intrusion principle, as re- 
 spected all the chief Presbyterian Church establishments on 
 the Continent. He intended that this should be followed by 
 a review of the evidence for the principle in the history of 
 the Church of Scotland itself. But the first part, relating to 
 foreign churches, was all that ever appeared. A good deal 
 of space is devoted to the mode of electing pastors in the 
 Genevan Church, as that form on which the Scotch procedure 
 was supposed to be modelled, and particularly to the opinions 
 of Calvin and Beza. Here the question between Sir William 
 
PAMPHLET ON NON-INTRUSION CONTROVERSY. 269 
 
 and those on the other side was entirely a matter of inter- 
 pretation of the passages quoted, for the same statements were 
 regarded by each of the opposing parties as establishing their 
 own views. There is very emphatic reference, in the quota- 
 tions from Calvin and Beza, to the necessity of having the 
 approbation, consent, &c., of the particular congregation in order 
 to the settlement of a pastor; but it is equally clear that the 
 grounds of objection were required to be stated for judgment. 
 The action of the consistory, syndics, and council in the 
 Genevan Church, after dealing with the objections, is not 
 precisely stated, and its probable character can only be pre- 
 sumed. The case, in fact, does not seem so clear on either 
 side as to warrant very confident assertion. Objections to the 
 nominee selected by "the ministers," and approved by the 
 petty council, were probably as rare as they were unneces- 
 sary ; for the process of selecting the presentee, before he was 
 offered to the congregation, was most careful and thorough, 
 and very much in contrast with what usually took place 
 under the system of unchecked and irresponsible lay-patron- 
 age in the Scottish Church. Whatever be the merits of 
 the case, the pamphlet in question (which reached a third 
 edition) is sufficiently characteristic of the author's mental 
 habits. It contains the fruits of much curious reading ; and 
 it was acknowledged to show the greatest historical acquaint- 
 ance with the subject on the side of the discussion which it 
 espoused.* 
 
 "When the controversy was raging in Scotland," says Arch- 
 deacon Sinclair, " as to the right of the people to choose their 
 own ministers, and a disruption appeared imminent, I re- 
 marked to Sir William 'that the conservative party in the 
 Kirk seemed most unadvisedly to abandon as untenable the 
 ground of Scripture and antiquity, and were fighting to need- 
 less disadvantage about the Books of Discipline and the 
 opinions of the Scottish reformers.' 'You do not pretend to 
 
 * For some strictures on this pamphlet see ' Three Letters on Sir W. Hamil- 
 ton's Pamphlet.' By William Cunningham, D.D. 1843. 
 
270 THEOLOGICAL INTEREST. 
 
 say,' replied Sir William, 'that Scripture and antiquity are 
 against the people's claim to choose their own ministers ? If 
 you do, you have Bingham, Father Paul, and Gibbon point- 
 blank against you ; Bingham representing your own Church, 
 Father Paul the Church of Eome, and Gibbon the whole body 
 of unbelievers.' I was surprised that even Sir William should 
 at once remember what these singularly combined authorities 
 had written on the subject; but made him promise that he 
 would let me read to him, as soon as it was completed, a 
 pamphlet I was preparing on the question. I took it to him 
 accordingly soon afterwards, and we discussed it paragraph 
 by paragraph. He showed himself as well acquainted with 
 the subject as if meanwhile he had been making it his 
 especial study. At last he said: 'You have made out a 
 much stronger case than I expected. By all means publish 
 your essay. You will have this advantage, that no one in the 
 Kirk, or out of it, is sufficiently acquainted with the Fathers 
 to refute you.' " 
 
 Sir William's theological interest was occasionally mani- 
 fested very keenly when he had an opportunity of bringing 
 together at his house men of different creeds. It gave him 
 great pleasure to hear opposite views on theological subjects 
 put well and pointedly by men of definite convictions and 
 power of giving expression to them. One party in particular 
 of this sort is still remembered by some who were present as 
 having taken place in King Street, some years later than the 
 date of this chapter, but yet illustrating sympathies in Sir 
 William's character which ever and anon found an outlet. 
 The gathering on the occasion referred to was a casual 
 one, but it included representatives of the varied prominent 
 theological opinions of the time of the English Church, 
 of the Church of Eome, and of Scottish Presbyterianism. 
 Sir William's wide catholicity, sense of fairness, and readi- 
 ness to acknowledge what was good and true in the most 
 opposite theological views, found great gratification in the con- 
 versation. He seemed to throw off all signs of his illness (for 
 
DR CAIRNS'S REMINISCENCES. 271 
 
 the party took place after his first seizure), and entered with 
 the greatest animation into the good-humoured debate of the 
 evening, especially on the question at issue between Kornan 
 Catholics and Protestants in regard to faith and works. 
 
 The following reminiscences of private intercourse with Sir 
 William, from about 1839 onwards, are written by one* who, 
 at first his pupil, was afterwards admitted to intimacy with 
 him, and occupied a high place in his regard. They refer to 
 several of the points touched on in this and the succeeding 
 chapter, especially Sir William's views on theological subjects. 
 They also well illustrate his habits of intercourse with his 
 more intimate friends, and the general tone and topics of his 
 conversation. Their force will be best preserved by giving 
 them unbroken as communicated by their author. 
 
 "My intercourse with Sir William, after I ceased to be one 
 of his regular students, did not supply very much that could 
 be suitably communicated to the public. Besides the neces- 
 sary relation of much of his conversation to passing topics, the 
 opinions on men and things uttered in perfect freedom have a 
 sanctity which must be respected ; and I can therefore only 
 make a limited collection of his judgments and sayings. 
 
 " On questions of philosophy his opinions uttered in con- 
 versation so nearly resembled those delivered in his lectures 
 and other works, that I can add but little. An expression I 
 have heard him use repeatedly was this, in speaking of the 
 philosophers who assert the knowledge of the Absolute, 
 ' Hegel and his followers have to take the bull by the horns, 
 and deny the law of contradiction.' And again, ' Cousin thinks 
 my system one of scepticism ; but it is only sceptical as dis- 
 claiming omniscience.' With Cousin's somewhat depreciatory 
 estimate of Locke he did not agree, and spoke of him more 
 affectionately than in his published writings. He was con- 
 stant also in his praises of Malebranche and Pascal ; and used 
 to say in regard to Spinoza, that ' we must deny his premises, 
 if we would escape his conclusions.' 
 
 * Rev. Dr John Cairns, of Berwick. 
 
272 DR CAIRNS'S REMINISCENCES. 
 
 " I repeatedly urged him, if I remember rightly, to finish his 
 scheme of Psychology, by fully discussing what he called our 
 conative or exertive faculties, as well as our faculties of 
 knowledge and feeling ; and I am certain that I especially 
 solicited him to give us his Metaphysics proper, in the shape 
 of necessary inferences from the facts and laws of mind, and 
 thus crown his system. He admitted it to be very desirable, 
 but did not hold out much hope that it would ever be accom- 
 plished. 
 
 " Naturally enough, during my course as a student of Di- 
 vinity, and afterwards, our conversation not unfrequently turned 
 to questions of theology. This also had been included in the 
 circle of his studies, though he certainly had not gone so 
 deeply and minutely into it as into systems of philosophy. 
 One great source of his interest in theology was to see in it 
 the reappearance of philosophical problems and difficulties 
 under other names. His application of the Law of the Con- 
 ditioned to the question of Free-will is sufficiently known ; 
 and on this he dwelt in his conversation as much as in his 
 writings. He thought that he harmonised the difference be- 
 tween the Calvinist and the Arminian, by taking away the bone 
 of their contention : and while he regarded Calvinism as the 
 more philosophical system, and spoke with the highest respect 
 of its author, he protested against its alliance with philo- 
 sophical necessity a protest in some measure shared by his 
 strenuous antagonist in some theological controversies, the 
 late Principal Cunningham. Of his Scottish theological con- 
 temporaries, he spoke in the warmest terms of Dr M'Crie, who 
 he held had kept Calvinism free from the necessitarianism of 
 Dr Chalmers, though he admired Chalmers also, and stood with 
 him as a colleague in kindly relations. Dr John Brown he 
 praised for his learning and devotion to biblical study, and 
 took some interest in the controversy in which he was engaged 
 in regard to the extent of the Atonement ; but he seemed to 
 doubt whether the question was solvable, or whether any- 
 thing had been added to the earliest Calvinism by the de- 
 
DR CAIRNS'S REMINISCENCES. 
 
 bates of centuries on this point. He spoke highly of some 
 American divines, such as Stuart and Bobinson, as, to use 
 his own phrase, ' more solidly built ' than the great body of 
 English theologians ; but I do not remember any special allu- 
 sions to the more recent theologians of France or Germany, 
 though he was familiar with the current of religious thought 
 in both countries. 
 
 " One subject which has some place in his writings had a 
 considerable part in his conversation the questions at issue 
 between Bomanism and Protestantism. Some of his published 
 utterances regarding the Reformers have led Archdeacon Hare 
 and others, in their defence of them, to underrate, if not to deny, 
 his genuine sympathy with the Reformation, and his admira- 
 tion of Luther and the other leaders of that great movement. 
 But if anything that he wrote on this head was liable to misap- 
 prehension (and perhaps here and there it was so), it was other- 
 wise in his spoken discourse, which freely expressed even a 
 passionate regard for the great Reformer, and thankfulness for 
 his work. At the same time, even in conversation, there was a 
 frequent expression of the opinion that some parts of the Pro- 
 testant argument, as commonly conducted, were not sufficiently 
 conclusive. For example, in regard to the claim to continuous 
 revelation, he held that Protestant advocates had too lightly 
 rested their denial of it on a priori grounds, and not treated it 
 as a question of fact ; and under some other heads he conceived 
 that the stress of the argument had not been directed to the 
 point where it was needed. One who did not know Sir William 
 well, nor enter into his dialectical tendencies, might have sup- 
 posed that there was something of a half apology for Romanism 
 in what was merely, in his eye, an exposure of the weakness of 
 illogical Protestantism, made in its own interest. When met, as 
 I sometimes took the liberty of meeting him, either by defend- 
 ing the inculpated logical procedure, or by attempting to supply 
 the missing argument, he would show sufficiently that he had 
 in him no real affinity to the Romish conclusion at the most, 
 a reluctance to drive the argument to extremities, or a kind of 
 
 s 
 
274 DR CAIRNS'S REMINISCENCES. 
 
 tenderness to the great thinkers who had not abandoned the 
 communion of Kome. With its dogmas, its hierarchical claims, 
 and its special modes of worship, in themselves considered, he 
 had no coalescence ; and I have heard him denounce some 
 of the kindred features of Ritualism, when they were as yet 
 novelties, in language almost too strong to be quoted. 
 
 " Of conversations on differences of government among Pro- 
 testants, and on the connection between Church and State, I 
 remember nothing. All through, in his class and in friendly 
 intercourse, the differences of religious parties were to him 
 nothing, though he was personally attached to the Established 
 Church of Scotland. I recollect that about the year 1842, 
 when the controversy that ended in the Disruption was nearing 
 its crisis, I happened to call on him and found him reading 
 a pamphlet, containing a ( Friendly Reply' by Dissenters to 
 a 'Friendly Address' issued to them by the Non- Intrusion 
 party in the Church of Scotland. He took the deepest interest 
 in the question, showed me passages in one, if not both, of 
 these pamphlets carefully marked, and was as much absorbed 
 as in any philosophical discussion. How much he could be 
 carried away by a great public agitation his own elaborate 
 pamphlet, designed to arrest the Disruption, but only published 
 after it, sufficiently shows. It will certainly now be regretted 
 by all, that he should have been diverted from his unfinished 
 philosophical labours into a region more contentious, and where 
 no such appeal of a solitary thinker, on either side, could affect 
 the movements of great ecclesiastical parties. 
 
 " As an example of his interest in ecclesiastical matters of 
 a quite different order, I may mention that, some years after- 
 wards, when the United Presbyterian Church had for some 
 time established a mission in Old Calabar, near the mouth of 
 the Niger, a statement was published, descriptive of the nature 
 and success of the mission, which had in it something unu- 
 sual as dealing with novel and dark superstitions, and as occu- 
 pying an abandoned seat of the slave-trade. I sent a copy 
 to Sir William, thinking that he might like to see it. After 
 
CORRESPONDENCE WITH COUSIN. 275 
 
 an interval he returned it, thanking me for the great pleasure 
 it had given him, and declaring it a perfect model of that 
 species of literature. 
 
 " Looking back on these and such indications of interest in 
 matters higher even than philosophy, and remembering the 
 respectful and even reverential strain of every allusion in 
 speech or writing to Christianity and the Christian Scriptures, 
 it is with peculiar pleasure that I think of so great a mind 
 as having, in days of doubt and restless speculation, satisfied 
 itself with that common Christian belief with which so many 
 of the loftiest human intellects have been contented, and as 
 having proved, with a yet deepened sense, its value, as I 
 humbly believe, amid the discipline of affliction and the 
 shadows of death." 
 
 Now and again letters passed between Sir William and M. 
 Cousin, on subjects of common interest. 
 
 SIR W. HAMILTON TO M. COUSIN. 
 
 EDINBURGH, 1st July 1843. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR, I am so ashamed of not having hitherto performed 
 what I promised to do, that I should have been tempted to procras- 
 tinate writing to you till I had been able to fulfil my wishes, had not 
 my friend Count Davidoff, a distinguished Eussian nobleman the 
 heir of the house of OrlofF solicited me to make him acquainted 
 with you, of whom with the rest of the world he has the highest 
 admiration. This I was the less averse from doing, because I am 
 confident you will find him highly worthy of being known to you. 
 He was for several years a resident here during the course of his 
 education ; and he left behind him the warmest recollections of his 
 excellent qualities, which he has lately renewed by a visit to his 
 old friends.* 
 
 As I said, I have been long under the burden of an unfulfilled 
 obligation, I mean, to bring your more recent works before the 
 British public in the 'Edinburgh Eeview.' When I spoke to Mr 
 Napier, the editor, about an article on your ministerial acts, he 
 thought, and I cordially agreed with him, that it would be better to 
 
 * See above, p. 86. 
 
2*76 CORRESPONDENCE WITH COUSIN. 
 
 have a more comprehensive review ; and I have recently arranged 
 with him, that the first article I write for the ' Edinburgh Review ' 
 (in which I have had nothing for four or five years), shall be a 
 survey of your influence through your writings, &c., on the present 
 state of philosophy in France. This, however, will require some 
 reading ; and I shall not be able to undertake it for several months 
 to come. Before that I hope to send you Reid's Works, which has 
 fallen asleep on my hands once and again. I shall take care to send 
 you the volume of the ' Transactions of the Royal Society.' You 
 will, however, I am sure, find them utterly worthless to a philo- 
 sopher. 
 
 I received the first volume of your Legons on Kant, which I think 
 the best exposition of his philosophy I have seen. I have given it 
 out as the prize subject for study during the present summer vacation 
 for my pupils (as I often do with your books), but I am not sure if 
 the second volume is yet published. I have not yet seen your 
 Pascal, though I have read the notices of it in the * Journal des 
 Savans.' But I must close. Believe me, my dear sir, with high 
 respect, ever truly yours, 
 
 W. HAMILTON. 
 
 M. COUSIN TO SIR W. HAMILTON. 
 
 20 Septembre 1843. 
 
 J'ai regu par Monsieur Davidoff un billet de vous, auquel je 
 r^ponds avec empressement, pour vous prouver le prix que j'attache 
 a une correspondance beaucoup trop interrompue. 
 
 M. Davidoff m'a dit que vous aviez public re>.emment sur vos 
 atiaires religieuses,une brochure qui avait eu un immense succes. Yous 
 etes un inechant homme de ne pas me 1'avoir envoyee. Je lis avec le 
 plus grand inte"ret tout ce qui sort de votre plume, et je ne vous tiens 
 pas quitte de cette brochure. . . . 
 
 ... On songe a Paris a fonder une Revue philosophique, mais le 
 libraire re"siste beaucoup. Pourrait-on avoir quelques souscripteurs 
 en Ecosse? II faut que d'un bout de 1'Europe a 1'autre tons les 
 amis de la bonne philosophic, independante a la fois et vraiment 
 morale et religieuse, se soutiennent et forment un certain ensemble, 
 devant des attaques aussi concertees que celles des plusieurs clerge"s. 
 Pensez a cela, mon tres-cher confrere. Notre Academic des Sciences 
 Morales et Politiques re"sistera, et moi je ne me rendrai pas. La 
 bonne philosophic du 19 me siecle ne peut-elle done pas s' entendre 
 
CORRESPONDENCE WITH COUSIN. 277 
 
 pour se defendre legitimement, comme la mauvaise philosophic du 
 18 me siecle s'est entendue pour attaquer 1 Le temps est venu de 
 chercher nos ressernblances plus que nos differences. Vous verrez 
 comme dans mon Rapport je parle de la philosophie Ecossaise. 
 Peu-a-peu je me degage davantage de la philosophie AUemande, 
 et je m'enfonce de plus en plus dans la psychologic. Vous, raccom- 
 modez-vous un peu avec 1'eclecticisme, comme methode historique. 
 Enfin, aimons et servons la philosophie selon nos convictions, qui 
 sans se confondre peuvent se rapprocher. Surtout, ecrivez-moi par 
 la poste, et donnez-moi de longs details sur 1'etat de la philosophie 
 dans cette Ecosse que j'aime infiniment et que je voudrais bien voir. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 ILLNESS, AND LAST YEARS OF LIFE: 1844-1856. 
 
 ILLNESS DR MACLAGAN'S NOTES EFFECT ON HIS HEALTH MIND UN- 
 IMPAIRED SOLICITUDE OF HIS FRIENDS CONDUCT UNDER HIS ILL- 
 NESS APPLICATION FOR A PENSION AND RESULT COMPLETION OF 
 REID'S WORKS CONTEMPLATED WORKS ON LOGIC AND LUTHER 
 CORRESPONDENCE WITH DR CAIRNS DOMESTIC LIFE AND HABITS 
 MR BAYNES'S REMINISCENCES OF CONVERSATIONS LETTERS TO LIEU- 
 TENANT HAMILTON IN INDIA RESEARCHES IN CONNECTION WITH 
 
 LUTHER THE DISCUSSIONS LETTERS RELATIVE TO THEM TESTS IN 
 
 THE SCOTTISH UNIVERSITIES VISITS OF STRANGERS EDITING OF 
 STEWART'S WORKS LETTERS FROM HOME LAST ILLNESS GENERAL 
 
 REMARKS. 
 
 IN July 1844, without any premonitory symptoms, Sir William 
 was struck down by paralysis. During the immediately pre- 
 ceding year he had been working very hard, first on his 
 edition of Eeid's Works, and then on the course of inquiry, 
 opened up by his interest in the Disruption, into the original 
 constitution of the Scottish Church. This latter subject had 
 led him into an investigation about the Books of Discipline, 
 the results of which are recorded in a large body of manu- 
 scripts. Through his absorption in these occupations his 
 usual late hours of study were at this period protracted, so 
 that it was not uncommon for him to be going to bed when 
 other people were about to rise. There can be little doubt 
 that this imprudent disregard of the laws of health had much 
 to do in bringing on the paralytic attack. 
 
HIS ILLNESS. 279 
 
 The following account of the illness is furnished by Dr 
 Douglas Maclagan, Sir William's medical attendant : 
 
 " I wish that I could comply in a more satisfactory man- 
 ner with the request made to me that I would give some 
 account of Sir William Hamilton's illness in 1844, but the 
 unfortunate loss of a note - book compels me to write from 
 memory, and prevents me from furnishing some particulars 
 which I would like to give. It is, however, not requisite 
 to give a clinical history of the case, which would have no 
 interest for any but medical readers, and my recollection of 
 the salient points is sufficiently vivid to enable me to state 
 them accurately. 
 
 " Sir William's illness, as is well known, was an attack of 
 paralysis (in technical language, hemiplegia) of the right side. 
 The seizure was sudden and severe. Not merely were the 
 arm and leg paralysed, and the muscles of the tongue so much 
 affected that speech was rendered extremely difficult, but the 
 power of swallowing was so completely lost that I had for 
 three or four days to feed him with the stomach-pump. This 
 piece of practice was suggested by himself, specially with 
 a view to relieving the thirst from which he suffered. He 
 was well aware of the fact that thirst can be relieved by 
 fluids being introduced into the stomach though they do 
 not touch the mouth and throat to which the sensation is 
 referred. 
 
 " The marked feature in the case was the retention by him 
 of his mental faculties. Such paralytic attacks are sometimes 
 by non-professional people erroneously called apoplectic, but 
 the true characteristic of apoplexy the loss of consciousness 
 was entirely awantiug here. The gigantic intellect of the 
 man was at work throughout the whole illness, and made 
 itself manifest in a striking manner on the day after his 
 seizure. He had been thinking over the phenomena of his 
 own case, and making a physiological study of himself. 
 The difficulty of articulation, of which he was painfully 
 conscious, had evidently been uppermost in his mind, and 
 
280 ITS EFFECTS. 
 
 upon this subject lie began to question me, or rather to dis- 
 course to me, on the occasion referred to. He spoke of the 
 views of Sir Charles Bell and other modern physiologists, and 
 referred to a paper in the transactions of one of the older 
 scientific academies Belgian, according to my recollection 
 in which was enunciated the connection of the ninth pair 
 of nerves with the movements of the tongue, a subject on 
 which he had himself written. Of this old memoir, whatever 
 it was, I never had heard, nor can I now guess what it was. 
 The fact in question was known to men of science long before 
 the time of those modern inquiries which have given so much 
 precision to our knowledge of the nervous system, and may 
 readily have been noticed in some early scientific writing, 
 which none but a person of Sir William's extensive reading 
 was likely to know or remember. The interest which attaches 
 to his quoting it lies in the evidence which was thus afforded 
 of the integrity of his intellectual powers under this severe 
 illness. I need not say that all exertion on his part, either of 
 mind or muscle, was discouraged in the strongest possible 
 manner, both by myself and by Dr Davidson, who saw him in 
 consultation with me. But though Sir William was an ex- 
 cellent patient, so far as submission to medical treatment was 
 concerned, it was not easy to obtain compliance with our in- 
 junction regarding mental exertion. I was particularly struck 
 with the eagerness with which he entered upon this physiolo- 
 gical topic, and questioned me with regard to theoretical 
 points involved in his own case an eagerness intensified no 
 doubt in appearance by the efforts which he required to make 
 to overcome the difficulty of articulation. His recovery from 
 the primary dangers of the attack was steady and satisfac- 
 tory, but the injury done to the brain was so considerable 
 that he never completely regained the power of the paralysed 
 limbs." 
 
 The stroke was sudden, and heavy to bear. He was yet in 
 his prime, and up to the day of his seizure had been active and 
 athletic beyond most men. The illness which followed was 
 
ITS EFFECTS. 281 
 
 tedious ; and it left him broken in health and vigour. His 
 intellect, however, was entire, active, and acute as before; 
 and his wonderful memory remained unimpaired. He himself, 
 indeed, considered that his memory was even better and more 
 reliable after his illness than before, that he could now more 
 securely trust to it in making quotations; an improvement 
 for which he accounted by his being liable to fewer out- 
 ward distractions than formerly. But the body had suffered 
 severely. The right hand was powerless, the right leg im- 
 paired, and the articulation was often indistinct, in a word, 
 there was much physical weakness, which made all bodily 
 exertion laborious and painful. His vision also was affected. 
 Though there was, strictly speaking, no failure of eyesight, there 
 was an appearance of motion in small objects before the eye, 
 which was very unpleasant, and compelled him when reading 
 to use an obscured right eye in his spectacles. Still he carried 
 on his congenial work; brought out his edition of Reid's Works, 
 and republished with additions his articles in the ' Edinburgh 
 Review.' He also during the College session, with the excep- 
 tion of that of 1844-45, appeared regularly in his class-room, 
 read a portion of the hour's lecture, having an assistant who 
 read the remainder. 
 
 As might have been looked for from the nature of the 
 illness, there was a good deal of nervous feeling, especially 
 in walking ; and his early friends noted that he had now a 
 tendency to irritability and occasional warmth and vehemence 
 of temper in a degree which they had not before observed. 
 
 His illness served to show the intensity of affection with 
 which he was regarded. During the night that followed the 
 seizure, and before it was known whether the sufferer would 
 rally, the greatest solicitude was felt by his friends on the 
 spot. One of them, with a loyalty of affection which is hon- 
 ourable to both, might have been seen pacing to and fro on 
 the street opposite the bedroom window of the invalid, during 
 the whole of the long anxious night, watching for indications 
 of his condition, yet unwilling to intrude on the attendants, 
 
282 HIS CONDUCT 
 
 and unable to tear himself from the spot where his friend 
 was possibly passing through the last agony. This was his 
 old friend, amid much speculative difference and debate, James 
 Ferrier. 
 
 On hearing of Sir William's illness, Mr John Cay had sent 
 a brief note to Lockhart, whose heart, despite the unfortunate 
 misunderstanding of recent years, still beat warmly towards 
 his early friend. Lockhart writes in reply : 
 
 Aug. 8, 1844. 
 
 MY DEAR CAY, Your short and not very clear account of poor 
 Hamilton's seizure afflicts me to the inmost heart. You don't say 
 whether he was struck with paralysis or apoplexy or what, but I 
 fear it was something very terrible, and beg you will let me hear 
 what you know. . . . James Traill was the last person who 
 had seen Sir W. H., and it was, I believe, a year ago. He told me 
 he had been grieved with the change in his appearance the body 
 heavy, and complexion not healthy, and the temper seemingly much 
 affected. He came away with the impression that there must be 
 something far wrong in his worldly affairs pressing him down and 
 irritating him. I have nobody now in Edinburgh that I could write 
 to. How changed are all things since the days you allude to ! 
 
 I need hardly say that there was not the slightest ground 
 for the surmise regarding Sir William's worldly circumstances 
 expressed by Mr Traill. 
 
 The manly, heroic, and unselfish spirit which Sir William 
 manifested under his grievous affliction was truly touching 
 and admirable. Naturally at first he found the condition of 
 restraint and dependence to which he was reduced hard to bear. 
 It was especially a calamity to a man of his time of life, who 
 had always delighted and excelled in bodily exercises, and who, 
 painfully conscious of his own helplessness, was sensitive 
 of its being noticed by others yet he was never heard 
 to murmur or complain, and in general was very cheerful. 
 " In those first days of his recovery," says Miss Craig, who 
 from a child had known and loved him, " how unchanged he 
 was in mind, though so sadly stricken in body ! How in- 
 
UNDER HIS ILLNESS. 283 
 
 stantly he made you feel at home in his sick-room made you 
 join in all that was doing, whether in mechanical contrivances 
 to assist him in his helplessness, or in writing for him when 
 he was able to resume his work ; and how completely he en- 
 gaged you in what he was doing himself, taking it quite for 
 granted that you were to be so, and by his own intense interest 
 creating yours, till you felt, even in the plenitude of your ignor- 
 ance, as much interest as he did in the subject he was dis- 
 cussing, whether it were the exegetical works of Luther or 
 the syllogisms of Aristotle ! " 
 
 From the commencement of his illness, as we have seen 
 from Dr Maclagan's account, he was in the habit of making 
 its symptoms a subject of careful observation. He could not 
 help smiling at the first awkward attempts he made at using 
 his legs, and resolutely set about practising the way of walk- 
 ing straight in spite of missing nerves. He also at once began 
 to acquire the habit of writing with his left hand. Sir Wil- 
 liam was confined to his room for some months, and during 
 the whole of the winter of 1844-45 continued to be more or 
 less of an invalid. The winter, too, was saddened by the loss 
 of a little girl, whose beauty and sweetness of disposition had 
 greatly endeared her to her parents. 
 
 It was not long, however, before he resumed study, de- 
 voting himself particularly to logic, and filling with his re- 
 searches a Common-Place Book, which remains as the record 
 of this winter's employment. Some of the results of this 
 winter's work are to be found in the Appendix to the second 
 volume of the ' Lectures on Logic.' 
 
 Sir William was unable to undertake the work of his class, 
 and there was some talk of his spending the winter at St An- 
 drews a plan which was not carried out. Mr Terrier acted 
 as his substitute in the class-room reading Sir William's lec- 
 tures and conducting the business of the class. 
 
 From the time of his illness, Sir William's physical vigour 
 was, as we have seen, greatly impaired. It was painful to see 
 how terribly broken-down was the powerful man the com- 
 
284 APPLICATION FOR PENSION. 
 
 manding form and great athlete of former years. While 
 still below sixty, his physical vigour had given way under 
 the strain of so many years of intellectual labour; and 
 when he resumed his College work, he was assisted daily 
 in ascending the stairs which led to the class-room, where 
 he still continued to prelect to a class that increased in 
 numbers yearly to the close of his career. Especially during 
 the last years of his life, it was evident that the unfailing 
 mind and resolution alone sustained the bodily effort. Still 
 the business of the class was to the end efficiently con- 
 ducted. Had the circumstances of his position allowed it, 
 there can be no doubt that he would have withdrawn from 
 the active duties of the Chair, and confined himself to phi- 
 losophical writing. He was in every point of view well 
 entitled to retire from his public office, especially after a 
 professional term of service which commenced in 1820, and 
 the latter part of which had been so distinguished and labori- 
 ous. But his personal means were very limited. The income 
 from the Chair did not average 500 a -year, and out of 
 this, for the first seven years of his professorship, he had 
 paid to his predecessor, Dr Eitchie, an annuity of 100. 
 Then there was no retiring allowance not even the meagre 
 proportion of income which has been recently provided in the 
 case of professorships in the Scottish universities, and arranged 
 on a principle so evidently unjust and inconsiderate as to 
 defeat the end for which it was originally proposed. In these 
 circumstances, it was felt by many men of influence in Edin- 
 burgh that, considering Sir William's philosophical eminence 
 and learning, the great services he had rendered to the higher 
 education of the country by his writings and instruction, and 
 the state of his bodily health, his was a case in which it would 
 be proper and becoming in the Government to proffer some 
 pecuniary recognition. It had been the custom lately for 
 the Government to recognise and reward eminence in phy- 
 sical science, in literature, and in other departments of in- 
 tellectual effort, merely as such where there existed no 
 
APPLICATION FOR PENSION. 285 
 
 bodily affliction and even where the person thus singled 
 out occupied a position of emolument, or still continued to 
 discharge the duties of a university chair. Sir William's 
 was thought to be a strong case compared with these, even on 
 the ground of intellectual eminence and services : the state of 
 his health added to this seemed to render it irresistible. What 
 had been given to Mr Dugald Stewart, to say nothing of lesser 
 men, could not surely be withheld from Sir W. Hamilton. 
 He had spent a lifetime in the quest of philosophical erudi- 
 tion, and in the exercise of abstract thought, impelled by as 
 strong an enthusiasm, and in a spirit as little worldly, as any 
 man who ever devoted himself to intellectual pursuits. His 
 learning was unparalleled in his time. He had grappled with 
 the profoundest philosophical questions ; he had set them in 
 new lights ; he had originated views that would confessedly 
 affect the course of abstract thought for generations to come. 
 His writings had carried the name of the university with which 
 he was connected and of his country over the continents of 
 Europe and America. He had discussed, moreover, with a 
 learning which only he could display, and a force of thought 
 in which he was not surpassed by any writer of his time, the 
 questions of the Higher Education and University Eeform. 
 Finally, he had taught with singular success and power for 
 a considerable period, and made luminous to his students 
 the abstrusest philosophical problems. True, he had not 
 appealed directly to the popular intelligence. He had not 
 been a scientific discoverer or a popular author. He had 
 worked in a quarter where he did not expect, and did not re- 
 ceive, general sympathy. His philosophy, though profoundly 
 religious, was the natural growth of a free and simple mind 
 not squared to the dimensions of any prevailing form of 
 unthinking dogmatism, and therefore commanding no wide 
 interest. Still his work was a good in the commonwealth 
 a rare good, even a blessing, which men worthy of occupying 
 the position of heads of the state might have been expected 
 to appreciate. Now that he was paralysed in limb and 
 
286 APPLICATION FOR PENSION. 
 
 broken in health, it would be but becoming to afford him at 
 least what had been given to others who were still unimpaired 
 in powers, and had been rewarded for their services alone. 
 To give to them and refuse to him were an act simply of the 
 grossest injustice. Means were accordingly taken, at first 
 entirely unknown to Sir William himself, by his friends in 
 Edinburgh, who were of all political parties, to bring his case 
 before the Ministry of the day, at the head of which was Sir 
 Eobert Peel. As the Peel Ministry, however, was evidently 
 about to fall, it was not thought desirable to press the matter, 
 and it was not brought before the Government until Lord 
 John Eussell succeeded to power. How the application was 
 dealt with by the head of the Whig Ministry, the following 
 brief narrative will show. 
 
 In 1846, Lord Advocate Eutherfurd having brought Sir 
 William's services and claims before Lord John Eussell, his 
 lordship's reply, as communicated by the Lord Advocate, 
 was as follows : " I found that of 1200 pension, 900 had 
 been distributed by Sir Eobert Peel. I have advised pensions 
 of 200 ; there remains only 100. But I will recommend 
 100 a-year to Sir William Hamilton, if he thinks proper to 
 take that sum. I can only say that it is all that is left." 
 The Lord Advocate, in his letter to Sir William (22d August 
 1846), adds : " I trust you will accept it though I wish it 
 had been more adequate to your merits and position. His 
 means for this year are exhausted, and I did not expect him 
 to give any engagement for the future. But I shall bring the 
 matter again before him. in due time, and I hope the same 
 considerations which have led him to give you all he now has 
 to bestow will enable him to enlarge the grant from the fund 
 of next year." Sir William, in a letter to the Lord Advocate, 
 declined Lord John Eussell's offer, on the ground mainly 
 of its obvious inadequacy as a recognition of his claims. 
 Some of his friends, among whom was Lord Jeffrey, at first 
 thought that in this he was wrong, as the Government had 
 offered him all that was then at their disposal the terms of 
 
APPLICATION FOR PENSION. 287 
 
 the otter even implying a sense of the inadequacy of the sum. 
 On this Sir William wrote a second letter to the Lord 
 Advocate as follows : 
 
 SIR W. HAMILTON TO THE LORD ADVOCATE. 
 
 EDINBURGH, 3d September 1846. 
 
 MY DEAR EUTHERFURD, I have for the last three days been suffer- 
 ing from a smart feverish attack ; and as Mr Gibson-Craig, whom I 
 saw on Monday, bid me write you at my leisure, I have allowed the 
 irritation to subside before doing so. Since Mr [now Sir William] 
 Gibson-Craig spoke to me, I have been favoured with a second note 
 from Lord Jeffrey, in which he says : " The element of publicity, 
 or rather defective publicity, had not occurred to me, and that cer- 
 tainly is a consideration not to be overlooked." I am thus confirmed 
 in my conviction that, if the present grant is to be published, and 
 that without explanation, I have no alternative but the painful one 
 of respectfully declining that for which I feel most grateful to all 
 concerned ; for it would appear to the world as if this were an 
 estimate of my claims, and that by a Government of my own party 
 an estimate, independently of the consideration of my illness, I 
 should be mortified to think correct. But if Mr Gibson-Craig is 
 right in his belief that there is no necessity for the matter to be 
 published hoc statu, unless a return be called for in Parliament, I 
 should most gladly avail myself of your kindness, and beg you to 
 hold my former letter pro non scripto. For I have full reliance, in- 
 dependently of the terms of his lordship's letter to you, that neither 
 Lord John Kussell nor any other Minister would allow me to 
 remain on the pension-list in an inferiority to others of inferior 
 claims, so soon as he had the usual means at his disposal ; whilst it 
 would greatly pain me to do aught that might possibly be con- 
 strued into any want of gratitude for what was so kindly intended. 
 
 I hope you will indulgently excuse the writing of this note, 
 which I trust you will be able to read. Believe me, my dear 
 Eutherfurd, most gratefully yours, 
 
 W. HAMILTON. 
 
 P.S. I see that I have not begged you, as I ought, to offer on 
 my behalf my most grateful acknowledgments to Lord John Eus- 
 sell. This I earnestly request that you would do. 
 
288 APPLICATION FOR PENSION. 
 
 The Lord Advocate appears to have thought it for Sir 
 William's interest not to bring before Lord John Eussell this 
 conditional acceptance of the pension ; and though zealous 
 in Sir William's behalf, he omitted to send a reply to this 
 letter. In the end of September it turned out that the pen- 
 sion-fund was entirely exhausted. Sir William's friends still 
 hoped that, in the following year, a sum not unbecoming his 
 services and position might be offered. But on July 2, 1847, 
 the Lord Advocate wrote : " I am under the necessity of 
 announcing that Lord John Eussell has found it impossible 
 to include your name among those who are to share in 
 the distribution of the pension -list of this year. He is 
 very sensible of your great merits, and of the high position 
 you hold in literature and learning, and deeply laments the 
 circumstances which render important the assistance he is 
 unable to afford. But the funds he has to dispose of fall 
 very much short of answering what he would otherwise con- 
 sider just objects of the country's grateful acknowledgment, 
 and other claims have been pressed upon him to which he 
 feels himself compelled to postpone yours, more especially as 
 he could not have proposed now a larger sum than was last 
 year rejected as inadequate and unbecoming, though it was all 
 he then had to bestow." 
 
 This conduct of the First Lord of the Treasury caused very 
 great dissatisfaction in Edinburgh, among both his political 
 supporters and others. Lord Cuninghame writes to Lady Ham- 
 ilton (July 14, 1847) : " I return you the Lord Advocate's 
 letter, which Lord Jeffrey had for some days, and tells me he 
 perused with great pain. That Lord John has taken some 
 offence at the refusal last year is plain ; and I own I am 
 shocked at the unreasonableness and littleness of the feeling. 
 It has produced the deepest condemnation among all classes 
 of Liberals, and justice must and will be done to Sir William 
 next year, without any effort. That I and all our friends are 
 confident of." 
 
 In the following year Sir William addressed a letter to Lord 
 
APPLICATION FOR PENSION. 289 
 
 John Eussell, of part of which a copy has been preserved. It 
 ran as follows : 
 
 SIB "W. HAMILTON TO LORD J. EUSSELL. 
 
 [ 1848. ] 
 
 MY LORD, It is with extreme reluctance that I venture to ob- 
 trude my claims upon your lordship's consideration ; and nothing 
 has overcome my repugnance to the step but a conviction that this 
 is a duty which I owe to the public, to my family, and to myself 
 I mean my own usefulness and reputation and that your lord- 
 ship's is the judgment by which they ought to be considered. 
 
 But, first of all, I must speak on what is to me a very painful 
 matter. I am informed that I have given offence by declining the 
 pension which your lordship two years ago was pleased through 
 the Lord Advocate to offer me. On this I am only anxious that 
 your lordship should be fully aware of the facts, for I have no 
 apology to allege, but am humbly confident that your lordship in 
 the circumstances will not think that any is required. On partially 
 recovering from a severe attack an attack of paralysis some 
 distinguished members of the Conservative party did me the honour 
 of thinking that, though a Whig, I was, independently of party 
 considerations, worthy of a public pension. When informed of the 
 proposed application, I expressed, as I felt, and feel, my grateful 
 sense of the sympathy, compliment, and intended benefit, and only 
 required that no secret might be made of my political opinions. Of 
 this precaution, however, there was no need ; for though ignorant 
 of what the memorial contained, I know that it was signed as in- 
 tended by a few high names of either party, and that it was only 
 drawn up by the Lord Justice-Clerk [Hope] on Lord Jeffrey being, 
 from an attack of illness, obliged to delegate the task. This was 
 soon before your lordship's administration commenced. The Lord 
 Justice-Clerk deemed it proper not to transmit the application dur- 
 ing the final struggle of the parties ; but he has written me that he 
 made no doubt that Sir Robert Peel, had he remained in office, 
 would at once have granted what was asked. On your lord- 
 ship's becoming Prime Minister, my case was brought under your 
 consideration by the Lord Advocate [Eutherfurd], and when your 
 lordship was pleased to say (I quote from the Advocate's letter to 
 me) that " I will recommend 100 a-year to Sir William Hamilton, if 
 he thinks proper to take that sum," I received this intimation with 
 
 T 
 
290 APPLICATION FOR PENSION. 
 
 every feeling of gratitude to your lordship, for having done and said 
 all that in the circumstances was possible or proper on my behalf. 
 Still, as is more fully stated in my letters to the Advocate (a copy of 
 the second is subjoined), I felt that, if the grant to me of a pension of 
 that amount were published without explanation, I should appear 
 to the world on a lower level than was my due. And, from the 
 terms of your lordship's letter, I even thought that it was not ex- 
 pected of me to accept. With these sentiments, I at first wrote to 
 the Advocate, begging him, for the reasons given, to express to your 
 lordship my sincere gratitude, and the regret I had in declining the 
 offered pension. But after a conversation with Mr Gibson-Craig, 
 and two notes from Lord Jeffrey, I wrote to the Lord Advocate, 
 requesting to withdraw my previous letter; and if Mr Gibson- 
 Craig were correct in his supposition, that publication in ordinary 
 circumstances was unnecessary accepting of the proposed grant, 
 and begging through him to express my most grateful acknow- 
 ledgments to your lordship. 
 
 The pension -list of 1848, however, appeared without Sir 
 William's name ; on which Professor George Moir writes to 
 him as follows : 
 
 MY DEAR HAMILTON, Your note of to-day grieves and annoys 
 me very much. Not that I was not in some degree prepared for it, 
 from seeing several pensions awarded some of them I believe 
 worthily though none, as far as I can see, on grounds of literary 
 or scientific eminence, which could be mentioned beside yours with- 
 out exciting ridicule ; and the last which I have seen mentioned, to 
 some entomological personage, a dissector of fleas and embalmer of 
 beetles, is really beyond measure indefensible. . . . 
 
 You know very well, my dear Sir William, that though a strong 
 Tory, I have a perfect contempt for the introduction of political 
 opinions into any questions connected with literature and science ; 
 and though I regret, more than I can express, the present state of 
 things (as you explain it) as to the result of the application, which 
 your friends felt themselves honoured in making, it is a great satis- 
 faction to me to think that the first move in the matter was made 
 by those who, differing from you, toto ccelo, in mere political opinion, 
 admired and respected your great abilities at least as much as those 
 who had entertained congenial political opinions. Nor can I really 
 believe that the matter is to rest here. . ; - r . ' 
 
 Ever very affectionately yours, GEO. MOIR. 
 
APPLICATION FOR PENSION. 291 
 
 In 1849, Lord John Russell, who had again been induced 
 to consider Sir William's claims, renewed the offer of 100. 
 This was communicated by the Lord Advocate Eutherfurd to 
 Mr James Gibson-Craig (July 28th, 1849) in the following 
 terms : 
 
 MY DEAR CRAIG, I have a letter from Lord John Russell, in 
 which he says, " The Queen has sanctioned a pension of one hun- 
 dred pounds a-year to Sir W. Hamilton. This is all that can be 
 spared, hut it may be increased next year, if there are the means of 
 doing it." 
 
 Will you have the goodness to ascertain whether Sir William 
 Hamilton will accept the pension ? I wish Lord John had been 
 enabled to propose a larger sum. I trust he may be able, as I be- 
 lieve he will be inclined, to increase it next year. But I shall be 
 very sorry if anything again occurs to prevent Sir William accepting 
 it, as it is again offered, even though his friends should think it 
 inadequate to his claims. 
 
 Sir William still declined to accept the sum of 100 as for 
 himself; but he concurred in an arrangement, brought about 
 through the friend to whom the above letter was addressed, in 
 virtue of which, with Lord John Russell's consent, the pension 
 was bestowed on Lady Hamilton. The expectation of an in- 
 crease to this pension during Sir William's lifetime proved de- 
 lusive ; and it may be added that an application for an addition 
 to it, made shortly after his death, to Lord Palmerston, though 
 largely and influentially supported,* met with no success. 
 Philosophical genius and rare learning, such as appear once 
 
 * The names attached to the representation to Lord Palmerston were as fol- 
 low : Principals Lee and Macfarlane, the Lord Justice-General (M'Neill), 
 Lord Dunfermline, Sir David Brewster, the Lord Justice-Clerk (Hope), Lords 
 Murray, Wood, and Cowan, Sir W. Gibson- Craig, Bart, the Dean of Faculty 
 (Inglis), Bonamy Price, Esq., the Dean of Carlisle (A. C. Tait), the Dean of 
 St Paul's (H. H. Milman), Professor Jowett Rev. Dr Thompson, Provost of 
 Queen's, Oxford, the Dean of Wells (G. H. S. Johnson, M.A.), Rev. Dr Haw- 
 kins, Provost of Oriel, Rev. H. L. Hansel, Right Hon. T. B. Macaulay, Rev. 
 A. P. Stanley, Rev. Dr Scott, Master of Balliol, Adam Black, Esq., M.P., 
 the Duke of Argyll, the Lord Advocate (Moncreiff), Sir Charles Lyell, Henry 
 Hallam, Esq., Lord Panmure. 
 
292 APPLICATION FOR PENSION. 
 
 in two hundred years, were apparently viewed in high places 
 as but of second-rate importance. Abstract thought was not to 
 be weighed in the same balance with physical discoveries or 
 imaginative talent. These latter were appreciable by the men 
 in power ; the other was to be looked on merely as a curious 
 eccentricity ; for in this nineteenth century are we not bent 
 mainly on the useful, the pleasurable, and the spasmodic ? 
 So long as the profoundest speculative power had not become 
 palpable to that enlightened, deep-seeing, and infallible judge 
 of all true good, popular opinion ; so long as there were none 
 to applaud it on hustings or throw up their hats in the air 
 for it, it was not worth the recognition of the great political 
 leaders. So John Locke worked out the idea of toleration not 
 only without any official recognition, but with a good deal of 
 obloquy and persecution. Adam Smith, too, quietly elaborated 
 his doctrine of free-trade ; and though it was a great deal above 
 the popular and statesman intelligence of the time, its author 
 did not fare so badly in respect of social recognition and 
 reward as might have been expected. But probably his better 
 fortune was due more to the accident of his connection with 
 the Buccleuch family than to any appreciation of his merits. 
 Francis Hutcheson developed his elevating theory of morals, 
 and Thomas Keid made his grand protest in behalf of the 
 noble and inspiring in human hopes and destiny. All this 
 work was done apart from general sympathy and appre- 
 ciation; and thus it is that while scientific discoverers men 
 who can make their work palpable to eye, ear, and touch 
 and even intriguing local politicians who can manage a 
 borough or county, are rewarded, we do not find even the 
 most ordinary provision made for men of abstract thought or 
 learning. They may live for ever, where to the popular mind 
 they find their life's pleasure, in their abstract sphere, the 
 " domos Ditis vacuas et inania regna." Yet these men of 
 abstract studies, while working far away in their time from 
 public sympathy and immediate understanding, and therefore 
 to purblind politicians as nothing, have proved the really 
 
RESUMES WORK. 293 
 
 influential forces at work in society, in that very sphere 
 over which statesmen are called upon to preside. Their 
 thoughts fall unheeded at the time, so far as general effect 
 is concerned, as the rains on the high mountains, which, 
 however, quite certainly in the end come down in streams to 
 the plains. 
 
 A distinguished colleague of Hamilton's in the University, 
 John Wilson, became ill, and was understood to be desirous 
 of retiring from active work. The same Minister who offered 
 Hamilton 100, bestowed on Wilson a pension of 300 
 a -year, a gift in itself well merited, and begrudged by no 
 one. This act of Lord Eussell's was regarded as exceedingly 
 magnanimous ; and probably it was, for politically Wilson 
 had been the violent foe of all Whigs and all Whig Ministers 
 for nearly half a century, and would, if he could, have put 
 them in a position in which they should have had no State 
 patronage to dispense. It would, however, have been pleasing 
 to be able also to record that the same Minister showed not 
 only magnanimity to a political foe, but justice, and intelli- 
 gence somewhat proportioned to this magnanimity, in regard 
 to one who happened to be a political adherent, and whose 
 claims to advancement had been sacrificed, when they were 
 undoubtedly the first, by his declared attachment in evil times 
 to a party whose leaders never showed him either gratitude 
 or appreciation. 
 
 Sir William, as we have seen, had so far recovered from his 
 illness in the winter of 1844-45 as to be able to resume his 
 studies, and he continued the work of reading and thinking 
 with but slight interruptions till a few days before his death in 
 May 1856. The editing of Eeid, which had suffered so much 
 from interruptions, was resumed. The work was finally pub- 
 lished though without being completed in November 
 1846. The supplementary dissertations D * * and D * * * had 
 been written before his illness. The latter was given in an 
 unfinished state breaking off, in fact, in the middle of a 
 sentence. The edition of Reid's works has recently been 
 
294 EDITION OF REID. 
 
 completed, as far as it was possible to do so, from the papers 
 and fragments of dissertations which were left by Sir William 
 at the time of his death, under the able and learned superin- 
 tendence of the Eev. H. L. Mansel, D.D., late Canon of 
 Christ Church, and Professor of Ecclesiastical History in the 
 University of Oxford, and now Dean of St Paul's. 
 
 M. COUSIN TO SIB W. HAMILTON. 
 
 1 Dtcembre 1846. 
 
 . . . Vous faites mieux que me repondre : vous m'envoyez 
 un cadeau inappreciable dans votre edition de Reid. Je 1'ai 169116 
 le jour meme ou je corrigeais mes dernieres epreuves. C'est un 
 grand travail, et j'ai bienregrette de ne 1'avoir pas eu sous les yeux, 
 en corrigeant la premiere et defectueuse edition de mes Ie9ons sur la 
 philosophic e'cossaise. Les voici moins indignes de vous etre 
 offertes. . . . Puisse votre sante etre enfin retablie entieremeiit 
 et vous permettre de me donner de vos cheres nouvelles ! 
 
 Sm W. HAMILTON TO M. COUSIN. 
 
 EDINBURGH, December 16, 1846. 
 
 MY DEAB SIB, . . . I have forgotten, I find, to speak of the 
 additions you wished to Jouffroy's list.* This, with the inquiries 
 about Stewart and Ferguson, was a part of your letter which I 
 could not read. As to my making any additions to that list, from 
 that list I learned the existence of many professors of philosophy 
 of whose being I, and the Scottish public in general, were not 
 aware names unknown to fame, men who wrote nothing, or 
 authors unworthy to be read. By the by, you complain of having 
 found me backward in sending you notices of works on philosophy 
 appearing in this country ; but in truth this is no fault of mine, 
 for either there are no books to write about, or they are so poor 
 that I should be sorry to attract your attention to them. As an 
 exception, being a work of merit, I may mention Burton's ' Life of 
 Hume,' lately published. If you have not got it, I shall have much 
 pleasure in sending it to you. 
 
 I beg leave to offer my best thanks for the volumes of the new 
 
 * List of Scottish philosophical authors in Jouffroy's ' Traduction des 
 (Euvres de Thomas Reid,' t. i. p. cxxv. et seq. 
 
CORRESPONDENCE WITH COUSIN. 295 
 
 edition of your works. I have read with much interest and admir- 
 ation your speech in the Chamber of Peers upon the new law in 
 regard to the Council of Instruction. I have as yet been dis- 
 appointed in getting the numbers of the ' Journal des Savans ' con- 
 taining your articles on what the French are pleased to call the 
 Scottish school of philosophy. I have, however, read again with 
 much gratification what you say of us Scotch in the sheets you 
 kindly sent from the fourth volume of your works. These I have 
 sent as you had addressed them. How much you know of this 
 obscure corner of Europe ! The only inaccuracy I noticed was in 
 your spelling of the name Shaftesbury, which you write as a 
 German word Scliaftesbury. Such a spelling occurs in no English 
 word. 
 
 It would afford me the most sincere pleasure should you realise 
 your intention of visiting Scotland ; though I am now, unfortun- 
 ately, debarred from offering you the services which I should other- 
 wise have been so happy in performing as cicerone, &c., by my 
 great lameness. No public man in France, I am sure, would be 
 more hailed than yourself in this country, for there is no one more 
 generally and more highly admired. 
 
 As I have not yet had the gratification of seeing you personally, 
 I have endeavoured to supply that want by a portrait. The one 
 
 I have is a lithograph of Delpechi after a picture of Maurer. This 
 is a very pleasing print ; but if there is any better likeness, you 
 would oblige me greatly by telling me of it. . . . I remain, my 
 dear sir, with the greatest regard, most truly yours, 
 
 W. HAMILTON. 
 
 . . . I should like very much to know what you think of the 
 emendations which I have proposed on Aristotle's text of the De 
 Memoria, &c., in Dissertation D * *. 
 
 M. COUSIN TO Sm W. HAMILTON. 
 
 UFSvrierlStf. 
 
 . . . De mon cot j'ai recu votre excellente lettre du 16 
 Decembre 1846 et un peu auparavant les epreuves de votre edition 
 de Reid, ou il ne manque qu'une preface et une fin. Je me suis 
 plonge dans vos notes et vos dissertations, et j'y ai trouve mille 
 ehoses dont j'aurais fait mon profit, si je les eusse connues plus tot. 
 
 II est impossible d'accumuler sur un moindre espace plus de connais- 
 
296 MR NAPIER'S LETTER. 
 
 sances exactes et profondes. Je vous relirai quand j'aurai regu 
 votre ouvrage des mains de Monsieur Mitchell. . . . Soyez 
 persuade que je desire que vous teniez de nioi tous mes Merits, 
 comme un gage de ma profonde estime. . . . Adieu : soignez 
 bien votre saute", ecrivez-moi le plus souvent possible, et aimez-moi 
 un peu pour toute 1'affection que je vous ai voue"e. 
 
 M. COUSIN TO SIB W. HAMILTON. 
 
 7 DScembre, 1847. 
 
 . . . Nous sommes ici dans la plus vive admiration de votre 
 edition de Reid. Exactitude, sagacite, profondeur, tout y est. 
 Aussi nous soupirons apres la fin de ce grand travail qui me"riterait 
 vos preferences. Le monument que vous e"levez a Eeid portera a 
 jamais votre nom. Je connais votre predilection pour la logique. 
 Mais passez-moi la mienne pour la psychologic. 
 
 MR NAPIER TO SIR W. HAMILTON. 
 
 CASTLE STREET, December 28, 1846. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR WILLIAM, I was truly happy to see the great and 
 important volume of Reid's ' Works,' with your additions, completed, 
 and before the public. The appearance of such a volume, amidst that 
 flood of flimsy literature which seems to threaten the destruction of all 
 grave and manly exercises of the mind, is, indeed, a spectacle most 
 worthy to behold ; and I wish, with all my heart, that I could see it 
 hailed as such in the countries which produced Locke and Reid, and 
 some deserved reward bestowed upon so worthy a successor. I wish I 
 had health and strength, and leisure and mind enough, to renew my 
 acquaintance with these idols of my early devotion, and to let the 
 world know how precious is the volume which you have laid before 
 it ; but these are vain thoughts, and I hope that some one may be 
 found in all respects qualified for the task, which I can only wish 
 that I were able adequately to perform. Most sincerely yours, 
 
 MACVEY NAPIER. 
 
 SIR W. HAMILTON TO MR G. L. CRAIK.* 
 
 June 1, 1846. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR, I have to apologise for my procrastination in 
 answering your letter, for which I will not trouble you with stating 
 
 * Afterwards Professor of the English Language and Literature in Queen's 
 College, Belfast. 
 
PROMISED WORKS. 297 
 
 any of the excuses I might allege. In reply to your question about 
 the acute dictum of Bacon, "Antiquitas seculi juventus mundi," 
 I have never met with the two placed in contrast in any previous 
 author ; and of this I am sure, for my attention would have "been 
 arrested by it in relation to Bacon. There are numerous sayings in 
 which the present is talked of as the only age of the world. 
 
 I am glad to hear that you are about a work on Bacon ; a selec- 
 tion and arrangement of whose happiest thoughts I have long con- 
 sidered a desideratum. I had myself got a couple of waste copies 
 of his works for the purpose of clipping out and placing under com- 
 mon heads his sententice illustriores, but never carried this purpose 
 into effect. Most of the translations I have seen of the Latin 
 writings are worthy of all abomination none worse than those in 
 Basil Montagu's edition. I am also delighted to hear what you tell 
 me of Mr Spedding's labours. Ever most truly yours, 
 
 W. HAMILTON. 
 
 In 1846, appended to the edition of Reid's '"Works/ appeared 
 the prospectus of ' Essay towards a new Analytic of Logical 
 Forms/* This Essay was designed to contain the author's 
 new logical doctrines, especially the theory of the Quantifica- 
 tion of the Predicate, with its developments and results. The 
 prospectus contains the principal heads of the essay. It is to 
 be regretted that Sir William did not carry out his promise, 
 and give a complete and systematic view of his proper logi- 
 cal theory. As it is, we have only fragmentary discussions of 
 certain of the heads indicated in the prospectus, and these 
 scattered through his various writings, the Appendices to the 
 ' Lectures on Logic,' his ' Letter ' to Professor De Morgan, and 
 the Appendices to the ' Discussions.' 
 
 In September 1846 commenced the correspondence between 
 Professor De Morgan and Sir William on certain points in the 
 theory of the Syllogism, which ultimately led to a serious con- 
 troversy. The correspondence was interrupted by a tedious 
 inflammatory attack under which Sir William suffered for 
 fully two months in the winter of 1846-47. As soon as his 
 health permitted, he resumed communication with Mr De 
 
 * See Lectures on Logic, vol. ii., Appendix V., p. 249 (1st edition). 
 
298 LUTHER AND ARCHDEACON HARE. 
 
 Morgan, and the result was that he published ' A Letter to 
 Augustus De Morgan, Esq., on his claim to an independent 
 Eediscovery of a new Principle in the Theory of Syllogism/ in 
 April 1847. 
 
 The same prospectus which promised the logical essay also 
 contained the intimation of a work on Luther, entitled 
 ' Contributions towards a true History of Luther and the 
 Lutherans. Part First: Containing Notice of Archdeacon 
 Hare and his Polemic/ In the article on the Eight of Dis- 
 senters to admission into the English Universities (' Edinburgh 
 Keview/ October 1834), Sir William, in discussing the question, 
 Do religious tests insure religious teachers? had referred 
 to certain opinions of Luther on points in Speculative and 
 Practical Theology and Biblical Criticism. The reference was 
 relevant enough. Mr Pearson, whose arguments in favour of 
 religious tests he was combating, had regarded the theological 
 novelties and heresies taught in the German Universities as the 
 result of the removal of academic religious tests. Sir William 
 maintained the "alleged licentious speculation to be the natural 
 result of a vigorous and unimpeded Protestantism ; " and cited 
 the example of Luther as, " though personally no rationalist, 
 yet affording a warrant to the most audacious of rationalistic 
 assaults/' Sir William's reference to Luther and statement of 
 his opinions drew forth from Archdeacon Hare a very elaborate 
 criticism, in his work entitled ' The Mission of the Comforter/ 
 vol. ii., note iv., published in 1846. The note, from the nature 
 of its animadversion and its tone, was not likely to pass with- 
 out a tolerably sharp retaliatory notice by Sir William. And 
 this it certainly received. At first Sir William appears to 
 have designed, as is manifest from the prospectus already 
 noticed, to go fully into the whole subject of Luther and his 
 opinions; and from 1847, for some years, he resumed his 
 Lutheran studies, which had long had an interest for him, and 
 devoted a great deal of his time to the subject. As usual, 
 however, with him, in formally attempting a systematic work, 
 the subject widened out before him so greatly, and his re- 
 
LETTER FROM MR CAIRNS. 299 
 
 search became so extended, that it was not brought to an end. 
 He has left a large mass of papers on the subject of Luther 
 and his opinions, carefully arranged under different heads, 
 the fruit of long and elaborate research. These we shall notice 
 in the sequel. 
 
 His reply to Archdeacon Hare's attack was given in notes 
 to the first and second editions of the 'Discussions ' (1852-53).* 
 The second edition of the 'Discussions' also contains a notice of 
 an article in the 'British and Foreign Evangelical Eeview,' June 
 1853, with the ad captandum title of ' Sir W. Hamilton's 
 Attack on the Apocalypse ; ' the fact being that the question 
 related not to Sir William's opinion of the book, but to the 
 correctness of his representation of the opinions regarding it 
 of others, such as Calvin. 
 
 Now and then a letter from a former student reached Sir 
 William, showing an affectionate interest in him. The fol- 
 lowing is from his pupil and friend, Mr (now Dr) Cairns of 
 Berwick : 
 
 BERWICK, Nov. 16, 1848. 
 
 MY DEAR Sm WILLIAM, I herewith enclose the statement re- 
 specting the Calabar Mission of our Church, which I take blame to 
 myself for having so long delayed to send. My avocations are very 
 numerous, and a habit of procrastination, where anything is to be 
 written, has sadly grown on me with time. 
 
 I cannot even send you this brief note without testifying, what I 
 could not so well utter in your presence, my unabated admiration of 
 your philosophical genius and learning, and my profoundly grateful 
 sense of the important benefits received by me both from your in- 
 structions and private friendship. I am more indebted to you for 
 the foundation of my intellectual habits and tastes than to any other 
 person, and shall bear, by the will of the Almighty, the impress of 
 your hand through any future stage of existence. It is a relief to 
 my own feelings to speak in this manner, and you will forgive one 
 of the most favoured of your pupils if he seeks another kind of relief 
 a relief which he has long sought an opportunity to obtain the 
 expression of a wish that his honoured master were one with him- 
 self in the exercise of the convictions, and the enjoyment of the 
 
 * P. 524. 
 
300 LETTER FROM MR CAIRNS. 
 
 comforts, of living Christianity, or as far before himself as he is in 
 all other particulars. This is a wish, a prayer, a fervent desire often 
 expressed to the Almighty Former and Guide of the spirits of men, 
 mingled with the hope that, if not already, at least some time, this 
 accordance of faith will be attained, this living union realised with 
 the great Teacher, Sacrifice, and Restorer of our fallen race. You 
 will pardon this manifestation of the gratitude and affection of your 
 pupil and friend, who, if he knew a higher, would gladly give it as 
 the payment of a debt too great to be expressed. I have long ago 
 been taught to feel the vanity of the world in all its forms to re- 
 nounce the hope of intellectual distinction, and to exalt love above 
 knowledge. Philosophy has been to me much ; but it can never be 
 all, never the most ; and I have found, and know that I have found, 
 the true good in another quarter. This is mysticism the mysticism 
 of the Bible the mysticism of conscious reconciliation and intimacy 
 with the living persons of the Godhead a mysticism which is not 
 like that of philosophy, an irregular and incommunicable intuition, 
 but open to all, wise and unwise, who take the highway of humility 
 and prayer. If I were not truly and profoundly happy in my faith 
 the faith of the universal Church I would not speak of it. The 
 greatest increase which it admits of is its sympathetic kindling in 
 the breasts of others, not least of those who know by experience the 
 pain of speculation, the truth that he who increaseth knowledge in- 
 creaseth sorrow. I know you will indulge these expressions to one 
 more in earnest than in former years, more philanthropic, more con- 
 fident that he knows in whom he has believed, more impressed 
 with the duty of bearing everywhere a testimony to the convic- 
 tions which have given him a positive hold at once of truth and 
 happiness. 
 
 But I check myself in this unwonted strain, which only your 
 long-continued and singular kindness could have emboldened me to 
 attempt : and with the utterance of the most fervent wishes for your 
 health, academical success, and inward light and peace, I remain 
 your obliged friend and grateful pupil, 
 
 JOHN CAIRNS. 
 
 SIR W. HAMILTON TO MR CAIRNS. 
 
 Dec. 4, 1848. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR, I reproach myself for not having sooner thanked 
 you for the very interesting account of the mission in Calabar, and 
 
LETTERS TO MR CAIRNS. 301 
 
 for your accompanying letter. Mr Waddell's statement was read 
 here by old and young, and by all with almost equal interest. It 
 seems to me a good model for such accounts, and Mr Waddell him- 
 self to be admirably fitted for the great service to which he has so 
 zealously devoted himself. Africa is surely the field in which mis- 
 sionary enterprise has been as yet most successful ; and no people 
 stand more in need of the change which Christianity and gospel 
 truth so blessedly determine. 
 
 I feel deeply obliged to you for the kindness of your letter, and 
 trust that I shall not prove wholly unworthy of the interest you 
 take in me. There is indeed no one with whom I am acquainted 
 whose sentiments on such matters I esteem more highly, for there 
 is no one who I am sure is more earnest for the truth, and no one 
 who pursues it with more independence, and at the same time with 
 greater confidence in the promised aid of God. May this promised 
 aid be vouchsafed to me ! 
 
 Your brother stood up on last examination-day for the first time. 
 If I had looked a moment, far less heard him speak, I would at once 
 have recognised him. There is a strong family likeness ; and I 
 could not wish him better than to resemble you in the zeal and abil- 
 ity with which he pursues his studies. I hope in a day or two to 
 become personally acquainted with him. I hope soon to see you in 
 town, and remember that you promised to take a quiet dinner with 
 us when you came in. Believe me, my dear sir, ever truly yours, 
 
 W. HAMILTON. 
 
 The following are letters to Mr Cairns of a somewhat later 
 date, which explain themselves. 
 
 SIR W. HAMILTON TO MR CAIRNS. 
 
 Feb. 9, 1850. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR, I return you my best thanks for your article on 
 Julius Miiller's philosophical theology, who is for me quite a new 
 hero, for I have read little or nothing in German divinity for some 
 years. Your essay, which I perused with great interest, both on 
 your personal account and for the importance of the subject, struck 
 me not only for the ability and learning which it exhibits, but for 
 the wisdom and charity and unsectarian spirit which pervade it. 
 I trust that this is only the commencement of your contributions on 
 such subjects, for I am sorry that in the criticisms on German the- 
 
302 LETTERS TO MR CAIRNS. 
 
 olo*gy that have fallen in my way in the journals of this country the 
 writers have usually shown rather their own ignorance and bigotry 
 than the one-sided views of those whom they set themselves to com- 
 bat. Made animi. Believe me that as much is expected from 
 you by all your friends, no one will be more rejoiced as you gradu- 
 ally fulfil these expectations than myself. I remain, my dear sir, 
 ever truly yours, 
 
 W. HAMILTON. 
 
 SIR W. HAMILTON TO ME CAIRNS. 
 
 April 15, 1851. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR, I must needs beg for your kind indulgence in 
 having been so long in returning you my thanks for the Memoir of 
 Mr Clark. I read it, you may be sure, with the greatest interest, 
 and I need hardly say that it is equally honourable to your heart 
 and head. I was certainly not prepared for the opposition he en- 
 countered from a part of his congregation ; for there are few of whom 
 I would so confidently have anticipated more than harmony between 
 flock and pastor. Indeed, I would have expected that Mr Clark, 
 from his talents, his zeal, and his amiable dispositions, would have 
 been an especial favourite with all his congregation ; and his example 
 is indeed to me a confirmation of Seneca's doctrine argumentum 
 2Mssimi lurba. 
 
 I have read likewise your very able article in the ' North British 
 Review ' on Ethics and Christianity. I feel much gratified by your 
 expressions in regard to myself both in that article and in the Memoir, 
 and not the less that I must attribute them far more to the personal par- 
 tiality of an old pupil and friend than to any desert of my own. Your 
 review of ethical systems interested me very much, more especially the 
 accounts you give of the more recent theories, of which I was wholly 
 ignorant. The foundation of ethics, connected as it is with moral 
 freedom, has always appeared to me the most difficult, as the most 
 important, problem in philosophy ; and I confess that I see not how 
 the discrepancies of opinion on this point could be avoided by merg- 
 ing philosophical ethics in Christian theology. The problems, I still 
 conceive, ought to be treated separately ; the first asking, What do we 
 know of the moral nature of man apart from all positive revelation ? 
 the second asking, What do we learn of the moral nature of man 
 from the Christian dispensation ? But waiving this, would there not 
 
LETTER TO PROFESSOR CRAIK. 303 
 
 be as much controversy in regard to morality and accountability if 
 ethics were taught only as a Christian doctrine, as there is when they 
 are taught apart from revelation ? For some theologians would hold 
 that man can do something for himself, whilst others would main- 
 tain that he can do nothing, in the words of Dr Chalmers, that God 
 worketh all in all (the words of St Paul touching supernatural gifts), 
 and that man has no more freedom of operation than the particle of 
 flying dust or the drop of running water. Believe me, my dear sir, 
 ever truly yours, 
 
 W. HAMILTON. 
 
 Sir William's curious out-of-the-way reading comes out in 
 the following : 
 
 SIR W. HAMILTON TO PROFESSOR CRAIK. 
 
 EDINBURGH, Dec. 22, 1851. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR, I have been time out of mind reproaching myself 
 for not having thanked you in my own and Lady Hamilton's name 
 for all the volumes of your ' Romance of the Peerage,' which were 
 read as they arrived with the greatest interest. And now I have 
 also to acknowledge the receipt of your admirable little book on the 
 English language. By the by, if you are at all curious about the 
 matter, there is a very characteristic account of the duel between 
 Stuart and Wharton by a foreign contemporary, the famous Jesuit 
 Latin poet Baldi. It is principally in the form of an inscription, 
 and is of course full of points and antitheses. One of these I recol- 
 lect is very good, it being said that, in this case, 
 
 "The point of honour drew the line of death." 
 . . . Ever truly yours, 
 
 W. HAMILTON. 
 
 The patience and cheerfulness which Sir William exhibited 
 during these last twelve years of his life struck every one 
 who came into contact with him. " Latterly, " says his 
 daughter, " he was much more subject to depression of spirit ; 
 he dreaded the failure of his mental powers, and this thought 
 of course was inconceivably bitter to him. The reality, thank 
 God, was spared him. With all the infirmity of his body 
 
304 CONDUCT UNDER ILLNESS. 
 
 never was there any cloud over his great mind. It seemed 
 indeed to be in its very height of vigour and acuteness during 
 the nine years that followed his paralytic seizure. . . . 
 Perhaps during the last two or three years of his life there 
 was less power of working his brain, mental exertion was 
 more of a toil, but that, with sometimes a suspicion of a little 
 failure of memory, was all ; and I suppose it was inevitable 
 along with the decline of physical tone which we observed 
 in him from the end of 1853. During the years that he suf- 
 fered from the effects of paralysis, the excellence of his general 
 health was remarkable, and testified to the original strength 
 and soundness of his constitution. He hardly ever had a 
 headache or a trifling ailment." 
 
 His comparative helplessness was to draw forth and be 
 alleviated by the most devoted love and care which it was in 
 the nature of a woman and wife to bestow. Lady Hamilton 
 had all along been peculiarly helpful to her husband in his 
 work and life. Of this we have had glimpses in the course 
 of the Memoir. She had been much to him before; now 
 that he was so struck down by illness, she became well- 
 nigh all to him. " She made it the business of her life 
 to wait upon and tend him, and by every means in her 
 power to promote his comfort and ease. He now more than 
 ever required the assistance of her pen, and for some years 
 she almost alone wrote to his dictation. Except to consult 
 and acquaint him with everything that went on, she never 
 let him be troubled with matters that her sound sense and 
 general faculty for business enabled her to manage instead 
 of him. In all things he had in her a wise and reliable 
 counsellor, and he knew it. Nor was it only what she did 
 for him. She was so cheerful and buoyant of spirit that 
 her presence was a brightening, quickening influence. When 
 he was depressed or put out and annoyed, she often did 
 him good with a little playfulness. She understood his 
 nervous irritability, and never minded it. More and more as 
 years went on, and his strength declined, and illness again 
 
DOMESTIC LIFE AND HABITS. 305 
 
 attacked him, did he lean upon her and seek to have her con- 
 stantly beside him, and with ever- increasing care and assi- 
 duity did she to the last moment fulfil her life's labour of 
 love, to smooth and cheer and remove all outward hin- 
 drances from the path of her husband ; feeling, when she could 
 no longer do this, that her occupation was gone. She had the 
 only reward for which she cared, in the one life which she 
 and her husband in their several spheres lived, in the perfect 
 confidence which he reposed in her, in the depth of his affec- 
 tion and appreciation. Those who knew them both will not 
 be slow to believe that without her he would never have done 
 what he did." 
 
 From the date of his illness Sir William's life was neces- 
 sarily one of retirement, spent entirely at home. There is thus 
 in this latter period nothing beyond two or three simple facts 
 that are patent to an outside observer. Yet these were among 
 the most fruitful and laborious years of his life, and witnessed 
 the publication of all the independent works which bear his 
 name. The materials, accordingly, of most use for their 
 history, are those which can lift the curtain from his home- 
 life, and show how under bodily infirmity he still carried 
 on unceasingly the pursuits to which his life was devoted, 
 and what he was when withdrawn from personal intercourse 
 with the world. For the following interesting picture of Sir 
 William's ordinary life at this period, and notice of his read- 
 ing for relaxation, and his relation to his children, we are 
 indebted to his daughter. The description of the day's 
 routine here given may be regarded as applicable to the 
 entire period after his illness. It should be kept in mind 
 that the college session extended over the winter half-year, 
 and that he was free from college duties during the six 
 months of summer. 
 
 " When my father went to the college, he came down just 
 in time to let him be up there by one o'clock, latterly a little 
 before it, so as to be in the retiring-room before the students 
 assembled. In vacation-time he was often later of rising. 
 
 u 
 
306 DOMESTIC LIFE AND HABITS. 
 
 He had always been in the habit of rising late, as might have 
 been expected from his hour of going to bed. 
 
 " In summer, from the time when he came down-stairs till 
 near dinner-time, the day was in general devoted to study and 
 writing, subject to the interruption of a short walk, or a drive, 
 or of visitors. He sat in a parlour on the ground-floor, in 
 which, though it did not contain the bulk of his library, he had 
 about him the books which he habitually used. A number of 
 these he kept quite at hand in a large desk of his own contriv- 
 ance which stood by his sofa. Although in this apartment all 
 his study was carried on, it was also the one most* used by the 
 family his power of concentration on his work being so great, 
 that he ordinarily felt no distraction from what went on around 
 him. Here also he received such visitors as came specially to 
 see him. Having established himself on the sofa, a desk was 
 placed before him, and with pencil and paper, and books laid 
 all around within easy distance on desk and chairs and floor, 
 he began his work. Of course he had constant need of assist- 
 ance, and every now and then some one would be summoned 
 to hand him something, or to go for a book, or to write to his 
 dictation. He pretty often had letters to write. He dictated 
 rather slowly, often repeating the clause, but fluently some- 
 times, however, altering expressions on the way, and having 
 read over to him what he had written. He had a way which 
 amused us of very often spelling words, without trusting to 
 the knowledge of his amanuensis. My father's manner of 
 composition was, I think, to make with his own hand a rough 
 pencil jotting of his ideas, and then to dictate an amplified 
 and accurate expression of them, in which again he would 
 frequently make alterations. His power of abstraction was 
 very great ; sometimes he would become so absorbed in the 
 subject he was thinking of that we had to speak to him over 
 and over again before we could make him hear. 
 
 " Often, on his way down-stairs for the day, he would go 
 into one of the upper rooms and see some books taken out 
 which he wished to use that day, a glance at the book- 
 
DOMESTIC LIFE AND HABITS. 307 
 
 shelves perhaps suggesting others which he had not previ- 
 ously thought of. Sometimes also, in the course of the after- 
 noon, he would make a journey up-stairs for a similar purpose. 
 But most frequently when a book was wanted he would call 
 one of us into the parlour, and there give us directions where 
 to find it. He never had a catalogue ; yet from his excel- 
 lent memory, and the order in which his library was kept, 
 there was hardly a volume about which he could not tell 
 the shelf where it lay, and the other books near it, or give 
 such directions that, unless from stupidity, we could soon 
 find it. 
 
 "After dinner he returned to his sofa. Sometimes he 
 did a little work then, at other times he at once composed 
 himself to sleep, with some one reading aloud to him. I 
 don't think he almost ever passed an evening without a 
 nap, though it varied in length ; indeed, his late hour of 
 going to bed made this refreshment necessary. After tea 
 he was quite brisk, and when we were alone resumed 
 serious occupations, with which he generally went on till 
 far on in the morning. Even in bed I fancy he sometimes 
 read. 
 
 " My father had others to read to him solely for relaxation ; 
 he always read himself books which he used in the way of 
 study or reference. This was indeed almost a necessity, as 
 the latter were mostly in dead or foreign languages. Latterly 
 when newspapers came to be daily, and when, during the 
 Crimean campaign, they were of an absorbing interest, they 
 supplied the staple of his reading for relaxation ; and 
 he would generally have them read pretty much straight 
 through. I don't think he was much in the way of speak- 
 ing on political questions, at least in the family. He 
 was always more or less in the habit of indulging in light 
 literature as a recreation, and many is the novel, story, and 
 book of travel which we have read to him. The Waverley 
 Novels, Dickens's and Thackeray's serials in their monthly 
 parts, Charlotte Bronte's ' Jane Eyre ' and ' Shirley/ ' Sintram,' 
 
308 DOMESTIC LIFE. 
 
 * Caleb Williams ' (which I think was a favourite with 
 him), < Mary Barton/ ' Cranford/ ' Uncle Tom's Cabin/ ' The 
 House of the Seven Gables/ 'Hypatia/ Curzon's 'Monas- 
 teries of the Levant/ Laing's ' Norway/ and very many 
 other books of fiction and description, are recalled to my 
 mind in thinking of those days. Eeview articles, too, were 
 frequently read. The kind of books which my father en- 
 joyed for relaxation brings out a feature of his mind in which 
 his simplicity and freshness of nature strikingly showed it- 
 self. This was his love for works of the imaginative type 
 in fiction the more strongly tinged with the fantastic, or 
 weird, or horrible, the better he liked them. Mrs Radcliffe's 
 stories, for instance, he used laughingly to confess, he had 
 enjoyed. ' Frankenstein' he had liked. ' The Ancient Mariner' 
 was a favourite with him. On the other hand, he had not 
 patience for the ordinary society or domestic novel, unless 
 there was in it much of intellect, or pathos, or wit. ' Causes 
 Celebres/ I believe, were favourite reading with him. None of 
 us children were fonder of fairy tales than he was. He would 
 now and then order them for us, and then he took a reading 
 of them himself. I remember a parcel arriving, among which 
 was a translation of Tieck's * Phantasus ' (which was read to 
 him), and also of the 'Shadowless Man/ of which he had 
 a lively recollection, and which he now listened to again 
 with pleasure. Then I remember a volume of German 
 legends and fairy tales which we had in the country the 
 last summer of his life. We thought it a very indifferent 
 collection, yet my father had a number of the stories read 
 aloud chiefly I think because, not being well then, he was 
 glad to be soothed to sleep by the sound of something which 
 made no demand on his attention ; still the choice was charac- 
 teristic. He was easily moved by anything pathetic, and 
 latterly could not help showing it outwardly. And how he 
 did enjoy humour! He would be quite overcome with 
 laughter ; nor was it difficult to make him laugh. He readily 
 saw the comic side of things, while not himself possessing 
 
DOMESTIC LIFE. 309 
 
 much power of making humour, though here and there in his 
 writings I think there are real gleams of it brightening the 
 general gravity of the style. 
 
 " When any one was reading to him, he would, in general, 
 every now and then, make some remark to give a piece of 
 information which the book suggested, or to explain a word 
 or passage. Often, too, he would make corrections in pro- 
 nunciation, which, as some of his readers were juvenile, 
 was very often necessary. It was marvellous how he had 
 something to tell about every sort of subject his stores of 
 knowledge being not only vast, but so well ordered as to 
 be always available. And he gave forth from them so kindly, 
 so ungrudgingly, perhaps with even more liberality when it 
 was spontaneous, though he was always ready to answer 
 kindly his children's questions. And I am sure no one ever 
 made his children feel more that they could go to him freely, 
 or let them be on a simpler, more familiar footing with him. 
 He might be to others a great and learned man to us he 
 was but our dear affectionate father, whose position and fame 
 in the world we only understood so far as to make us proud 
 of him, and value the more his kindness to us. There was 
 in him a tenderness which enhanced his even slight words 
 and acts of affection ; they went from the heart to the heart, 
 and drew those around wonderfully to him. People who 
 stayed in the house were always fond of my father, and felt 
 him to be very kind. Even those who had begun by being 
 shy and afraid of him soon became quite at their ease. For 
 almost all young people he had an attraction he himself 
 was fond of children. His consideration for animals was 
 remarkable ; and nothing made him more angry than ill- 
 treatment of them : in driving, for instance, he was always 
 very careful of horses. He had always been fond of dogs." 
 
 His sense of humour and perception of the grotesque ap- 
 propriately referred to in a notice of his domestic life was cer- 
 tainly a very remarkable feature in his character. The con- 
 trast which this trait offered to the general solidity, almost sol- 
 
310 SENSE OF THE LUDICROUS. 
 
 enmity of his character, probably heightened the effect. But 
 there it was, strongly marked and continually cropping out. 
 Strange to say, in the manuscripts of some of his most abstract 
 writings, such as the articles on Cousin, Brown, and Whately, 
 we find that every now and then the writer had apparently 
 relieved the pressure of his thoughts, and indulged an unsus- 
 pected side of his nature, by rapidly dashing off on the mani- 
 fold corrected page a grotesque face, which had suddenly risen 
 on his fancy, much as the architects of our great cathedrals 
 have flanked the grand creation by the grinning ape and the 
 distorted countenances of the animal and human grotesque. 
 His reading, too, had supplied him with some rich bits of 
 bathos, which he was fond of repeating with intense enjoy- 
 ment of their absurdity. 
 
 In the class-roorn his sense of the ludicrous not unfre- 
 quently threatened to compromise professorial dignity. The 
 fine face would occasionally be observed striving hard to re- 
 strain the internal emotion from overcoming the expected 
 decorum of the chair, not always with success. And if the 
 sense of the ludicrous proved too powerful, the fit of laughter 
 was for a time absolutely uncontrollable. 
 
 Among those friends who, at this period, were on intimate 
 terms with the family in Great King Street, was Mr Thomas 
 Spencer Baynes, the present Professor of Logic and Ehetoric 
 in the University of St Andrews. Mr Baynes, who was then 
 attending College at Edinburgh, and had attracted Sir William's 
 notice by his abilities and zeal in logical research, would fre- 
 quently drop in of an evening at Sir William's house, where he 
 ever was a welcome visitor. He has fortunately kept notes of 
 some of his interviews with Sir William; when the latter would 
 pour out the stores of his reading in kindly and easy talk. 
 The beginning of Mr Baynes's intimacy with Sir William, 
 to which reference is made in the notes, is very charac- 
 teristic, and is an example of the kindness and courtesy 
 which he displayed to his students. These notes may be 
 taken as faithful indications of Sir William's manner of inter- 
 
MR BAYNES'S REMINISCENCES. 311 
 
 course and conversation at this period with his more familiar 
 friends, who at the same time had an interest in the studies 
 he pursued. 
 
 " One of the first evenings I ever spent with Sir William 
 Hamilton was in the early weeks of Session 1846-7. Sir 
 William was accustomed to prescribe annually some standard 
 work in philosophy to be read by candidates for honours in 
 connection with the work of the class, and that year the ' De 
 Anima ' of Aristotle had been selected for this purpose. Soon 
 after the commencement of the session, Sir William having 
 intimated to the class that he would be glad to see any stu- 
 dents who were reading the book, and answer any question 
 they might wish to ask, I went to his room at the close of the 
 lecture hour, mainly to inquire what edition he recommended 
 for critical study. He mentioned Trendelenburg's as the best, 
 adding, that of the older commentaries on the ' De Anima/ that 
 of Philoponus was of the greatest interest and value. It would 
 be of great service in helping to clear up the obscurities of the 
 text ; and he promised, if I would call in the evening, to lend 
 me an excellent Latin version of the Commentary to keep at 
 hand for reference while reading the book. On calling ac- 
 cording to my appointment, Sir William entered almost at 
 once into an interesting conversation about the ' De Anima ' 
 and its author, giving a number of particulars which so 
 impressed themselves on my memory that I can even now 
 distinctly recall them. He spoke of the 'De t Anima' as the 
 earliest purely psychological work we possess, the first sys- 
 tematic attempt at the inductive study of the mind, and one 
 which, curiously enough, had only in recent times been fol- 
 lowed up with anything like success: that a number of 
 treatises formed on the same model had been produced by the 
 Arabians, the Schoolmen, and their successors, which, though in 
 many instances marked by acute and original observation, did 
 not carry the investigation of mental phenomena much beyond 
 the point that Aristotle had reached. He then referred to the 
 influence of Aristotle generally, as being of a wider and more 
 
312 MR BAYNES'S REMINISCENCES. 
 
 permanent kind than that of any single thinker. While his 
 direct and acknowledged influence was apparent enough in the 
 earlier periods of revived philosophical activity, the indirect but 
 powerful effect of his writings might be discovered even in 
 modern times, and that too in quarters where it would be least 
 expected. Hobbes, for example, is justly regarded as the type 
 of a shrewd, original, and intrepid thinker, acknowledging no 
 authority in philosophy, and hardly referring to any of his 
 predecessors except in the way of disparagement. But it is 
 clear from his writings that he not only diligently studied 
 Aristotle, but was largely indebted to the Stagirite for hints 
 and illustrations, which he turned to good account in his 
 philosophical writings, especially in his Psychology, which is 
 usually regarded as peculiarly his own. How carefully he 
 had studied Aristotle, his ' Brief of the Art of Khetoric/ contain- 
 ing in substance all that Aristotle had written in his three 
 books on that subject, sufficiently attests. The early thinkers 
 of the Scottish School, again, were more remarkable for their 
 homely sagacity and independence of thought than for scho- 
 larship or learning of any kind. Several of them were, how- 
 ever, well acquainted with Aristotle's writings. This was true 
 of Alexander Gerard, Professor of Logic in Aberdeen, and 
 author of two Essays, one on ' Taste/ the other on ' Genius/ 
 published about the middle of the last century ; not to men- 
 tion Ferguson the historian, and Gillies, whose acquaintance 
 with Aristotle was of a loose and uncritical kind. It was true 
 also of Hutcheson. And that the practice of reading Aristotle 
 was partially kept up among Hutcheson's successors was seen 
 in Adam Smith's Essays, and even in Keid's very imperfect 
 ' Account of Aristotle's Logic.' But the Scottish writer of the 
 last century most profoundly versed in the Peripatetic philo- 
 sophy was the curious and eccentric author of 'Ancient Meta- 
 physics,' Lord Monboddo, who, in his devotion to the ancient 
 ' science of universals/ and admiration of the Peripatetic prin- 
 ciples of nature, stoutly opposed the results of modern re- 
 search, and in particular Sir Isaac Newton and his discoveries. 
 
MR BAYNES'S REMINISCENCES. 313 
 
 In relation to Lord Monboddo, Sir William went on to add, 
 that the first volume of his ' Ancient Metaphysics ' abounded 
 in references to the 'De Anima/ and might usefully be re- 
 ferred to in reading the book ; that his discussion of difficult 
 points was always acute, and his exposition of Aristotle's 
 meaning generally accurate, though he had fallen into some 
 mistakes, especially in illustrating the four kinds or categories 
 of motion. With regard, for instance, to the mental change 
 involved in the acquisition of knowledge, and the growth of 
 habits, good or bad, he not only mistakes Aristotle's text, but 
 contradicts the explicit statements of his chief commentator, 
 Philoponus. Lord Monboddo was one of the few moderns, 
 however, who had carefully studied not only Aristotle but 
 his Greek commentators, whose writings, though abounding 
 in interesting matter, in original discussions, and acute criticism, 
 had in recent times fallen into unmerited neglect, Harris, 
 the author of ' Hermes,' being perhaps the only other modern 
 writer who showed any minute or critical acquaintance with 
 the Greek commentators of the Peripatetic school. Eecurring 
 to Philoponus, Sir William highly praised his interpretation 
 of the ' De Anima ' as luminous and acute, referring especially 
 to the introduction as discussing and deciding some curious 
 points left obscure or doubtful in the text ; in particular, the 
 question as to the threefold division of the vital principle not 
 simply into distinct functions, but into separate entities or 
 souls. While Aristotle constantly speaks of the vegetable, 
 animal, and rational soul, he leaves it doubtful whether he 
 regarded them as substantially distinct or as various energies 
 of the same simple principle. Philoponus, however, decides 
 in favour of three separate souls, adducing in support of 
 this view cases in which the hair and nails have continued 
 to grow after death, the vegetable soul thus remaining 
 present and operative after the animal and rational souls had 
 fled. 
 
 " After a conversation of more than an hour I bore away the 
 coveted version of Philoponus, a thin folio in limp vellum, 
 
314 MR BAYNES'S REMINISCENCES. 
 
 which I found copiously underlined with blue and red inks. 
 On a subsequent evening, when I called by invitation to con- 
 sult some other volumes, the conversation turned on the prac- 
 tice of underscoring books of study. Sir William spoke highly 
 of the practice, as attended with many advantages, especially 
 in the saving of time and labour. Intelligent underlining 
 gave a kind of abstract of an important work, and by the use 
 of different coloured inks to mark a difference of contents, 
 and discriminate the doctrinal from the historical or illustra- 
 tive elements of an argument or exposition, the abstract be- 
 came an analysis very serviceable for ready reference. He 
 mentioned that this principle had been carried to a ludicrous 
 extreme in the publication of a coloured New Testament by 
 an Anglicised German, Wirgmann by name, the author of 
 some articles on philosophy in the ' Encyclopaedia Londinensis.' 
 In this book, entitled ' Divarication of the New Testament 
 into Doctrine and History,' the pages were all coloured, most 
 of them parti-coloured, the doctrine being throughout visually 
 separated from the history by this device ; the doctrine being, 
 if I remember rightly, blue, and the history red. The author 
 expressed his belief that all the sects of Christendom had 
 arisen from a confusion of these elements, and that his grand 
 discovery in the ' Divarication ' would annihilate sects, estab- 
 lish pure Christianity as a sacred science, and become here- 
 after a Euclid in Theology. Wirgmann, Sir William added, had 
 also published a ' Grammar of Mental Philosophy,' illustrated 
 with coloured diagrams, designed to represent to the eye the 
 categories and distinctions of the Kantian philosophy. The 
 author was evidently a simple-minded enthusiast, with a 
 touch of fanaticism in his nature ; but if I remember rightly, 
 Sir William spoke of some of his papers on the Kantian 
 philosophy with praise, as giving in some respects a better 
 outline of Kant's system than had appeared in English at the 
 time of their publication. 
 
 " The memoranda of conversations now referred to I ex- 
 tract from my note-book, with only such slight alterations of 
 
MR BAYNES'S REMINISCENCES. 315 
 
 expression as may be necessary to render the more condensed 
 jottings intelligible. 
 
 "Friday evening, June 1848 (early in June, probably the 
 first week). Went to Sir William Hamilton's about eight 
 o'clock, and found him busy re-covering with blue leather an 
 old quarto copy of Buchanan's Poems, Lady Hamilton help- 
 ing, evidently in a most efficient manner. Sir William, refer- 
 ring to Buchanan's Poems, said they were perhaps the very 
 best to be found in the whole circle of modern Latin poetry. 
 They had been widely and systematically plagiarised by later 
 writers, especially the Epigrams, in which he was often pecu- 
 liarly happy. One of the most celebrated poems, that on the 
 Calends of May, rose quite out of the region of poetical com- 
 monplace, and had passages of the rarest beauty and sub- 
 limity. A part of the poem was, however, borrowed, at least 
 in idea, from Joannes Secundus. Eeferring to the different 
 editions, he said that Kuddiman's was the most complete, 
 though still defective in not having some of the best read- 
 ings ; that the Basel was also good, but that in all the edi- 
 tions there were numerous mistakes of words and letters, 
 especially in the interchange of u and n, as leuis for lenis, 
 and the like. Sir William then spoke of Buchanan's intimate 
 friend, the poet Eonsard, who had imitated in French verse 
 some of Buchanan's best poems ; and also of his friend and 
 colleague Muretus, who, from the same college in which they 
 had taught together at Paris, went to Italy to become the de- 
 fender of the Massacre of St Bartholomew, while Buchanan 
 came to Scotland to take a leading part in the northern Eefor- 
 mation, and become ultimately a violent Presbyterian. 
 
 " From Buchanan the conversation turned to Scottish scho- 
 lars and men of genius who had gained a reputation abroad, 
 and amongst others the ' Admirable Crichton ' was men- 
 tioned. Sir William said that although he had been a good 
 deal depreciated by some writers in modern times, he was in 
 fact a most accomplished gentleman and scholar, and in the 
 rare union at an early age of physical and intellectual dexteri- 
 
316 MR BAYNES'S REMINISCENCES. 
 
 ties of almost every kind and in the highest degree of per- 
 fection, with wide and solid attainments in literature and 
 philosophy, might fairly be regarded as a great wonder as 
 ' admirable ' in the old and etymological sense. That ample 
 testimony to his varied powers had been given by an eye- 
 witness of his performances (I think an Italian poet-laureate), 
 and also by a Scottish contemporary [Johnston ?]. 
 
 " In connection with Latin poetry, elegiac and epigram- 
 matic, Sir William spoke in very high terms of the epigrams 
 of the Welsh scholar Owen, who lived in the reign of James 
 I., and whose works seem to have been published in all the 
 countries of Europe. He remarked that the Latin poems of 
 Englishmen were for the most part far from good ; that Addi- 
 son's were decent, those of Crashaw, the Catholic poet, and of 
 Vincent Bourne, decidedly good, but that perhaps Milton's 
 were the best of all. 
 
 " A lady came to tea [Miss Mitchell], whose father was for 
 many years consul at Hamburg, and who had a brother in 
 the army, author of some works, amongst others, a ' Life of 
 Wallenstein/ ' The Fall of Napoleon/ etc. The eldest sister, 
 Sir William said, was remarkably accomplished, and talked 
 French and Italian with the accent and fluency of a native, 
 while all the family talked German and Danish, the latter at 
 home amongst themselves. 
 
 " Some discussion arose as to hydropathy and the general 
 value of the water-cure. Sir William thinks highly of its 
 usefulness in cases of chronic rheumatism, gout, and kindred 
 affections, and generally that in moderation it is good as a 
 tonic to the system. From hydropathy and other medical 
 heresies he referred to the Medical Faculty in general as 
 strongly marked by the spirit of caste, the majority of the 
 adult members being almost inaccessible to new ideas. He 
 said that on the whole we perhaps derive more harm than 
 good from the Faculty, fewer people dying of sickness probably 
 where there are no doctors than where they abound. He 
 quoted on this head the maxim or rule laid down by Hoffman, 
 
MR BAYNES'S REMINISCENCES. 317 
 
 ' Fuge medicos et eorum medicamenta, si vis esse salvus/ add- 
 ing, that medicine had made no advance in modern times, its 
 most recent theories being simply a return to the doctrines of 
 Hippocrates. Surgery, on the other hand, was a most impor- 
 tant branch of the curative art, and had rapidly advanced in 
 our own day. Sir William mentioned a curious fact in regard 
 to himself, that he can take laudanum in almost any amount 
 without being sensibly affected at all. He had on one occa- 
 sion taken 500 drops, but this enormous dose had produced 
 no effect in any way ; other narcotics, again, such as snuff and 
 tobacco, have a powerful effect. 
 
 "The other evening's conversation, of which I find some 
 record in the same note-book, occurred nearly a year later, 
 and is fully dated. 
 
 " Thursday evening, April 12, 1849. Went to Sir William 
 Hamilton's and found him asleep on the sofa, Lady Hamilton 
 working, and their little girl reading by the fire. He was 
 soon awake, however, and began talking of Trendelenburg, 
 one of whose works I had recently been reading. Sir William 
 spoke of him as an acute man, well versed in the history of 
 philosophy, and comparatively orthodox in his philosophical 
 views. He writes a good deal against Hegel, especially in his 
 work on Logic, but amidst the widespread influence of Hegel- 
 ianism is little listened to is in fact almost like St John, ' the 
 voice of one crying in the wilderness/ He is in the same 
 university with Beneke, who, unlike the Germans in general, 
 is a thorough sensualist in philosophy, and stands almost 
 alone. Beneke writes to Sir William, however, to the effect 
 that he has no misgivings, and is a thorough-going believer in 
 his own system. 
 
 "Showed Sir William, Franck's ' Esquisse d'une Histoire 
 de la Logique,' recently published, which he had not yet 
 seen. Observing in the work a notice of Carpentarius (Car- 
 pentier), Sir William said that he wrote fiercely and at great 
 length -against Eamus, rarely, however, mentioning his name, 
 but designating him by some assumed or descriptive name or 
 
318 ME BAYNES'S REMINISCENCES. 
 
 epithet. In his persistent polemic against his opponent and 
 rival, Carpentarius went into such a number of biographical 
 details that a good account of Eamus might be obtained from 
 Carpentaria's controversial writings. He was, however, so 
 bitterly opposed to Eamus, that he is said to have hired 
 assassins to murder him on the night of St Bartholomew. 
 Eamus was a good subject for a biography, still open, as his life, 
 though often attempted, had never been well written. There 
 was a good deal of incident, and something of adventure, in his 
 history. He boldly opposes Aristotle, and rouses the Aris- 
 totelians to a pitch of the highest excitement ; travels in Ger- 
 many, Italy, and other countries ; and tries to effect reforms 
 in the current systems of education. He is a theologian, 
 moreover, and church reformer, holding, with Morelli [Jean 
 Morel], that the people ought to possess the power of the 
 keys, and is blamed by the Calvinists for supporting such a 
 doctrine. Eamus, Valla, and Vives were free-thinkers in logic 
 and philosophy, who did good service in stimulating a spirit 
 of enquiry, and provoking a reaction against the dominant 
 influence of traditionary systems. Vives was perhaps on the 
 whole the best, but he would be considered now a very good 
 Aristotelian. Beza was strongly prejudiced against Eamus, 
 and there seems to be even a touch of personal spite in his 
 references to him. He speaks somewhere of ' that beast 
 Eamus.' Beza also writes in offensive terms against Buch- 
 anan and Goveanus.* Eeferring to Govea, Sir William said 
 that he had translated Porphyry's Introduction into beautiful 
 Latin, but that the translation was extremely scarce, not being 
 included in the collected edition of Govea's works. 
 
 * Govea, Anthony, must be the brother here referred to, not Andrew, who 
 was Buchanan's intimate friend and colleague in the College of Guienne at 
 Bourdeaux, and who induced him to accompany him to Coimbra as Professor 
 in the College which John III. had just established there. Andrew died the 
 year after his settlement at Coimbra ; but his younger brother Anthony also 
 taught at Bourdeaux, and was no doubt well acquainted with Buchanan. He 
 was a distinguished scholar and man of letters, and had probably excited 
 Beza's wrath by replying with spirit to the charges of heterodoxy which Calvin 
 had urged against him. 
 
MR BAYNES'S REMINISCENCES. 319 
 
 " Buchanan suggested some reference to Scottish professors 
 abroad, and, amongst others, Mark Duncan was mentioned, and 
 one professor, if not more, at Geneva, whose name or names 
 escaped. From these references Sir William went on to 
 speak of the great intercourse formerly kept up between 
 France and the Continent generally and Scotland ; that for 
 a long time it was the custom for students intended for 
 the Scottish Church to finish their education at some 
 foreign university. Latterly they had gone very much to 
 Holland, until studying abroad was forbidden by the General 
 Assembly, and, in consequence of this prohibition, learning 
 had very much declined in the Church. He then asked 
 how the English Congregationalists do with regard to the 
 education of their ministers ; in what way, since they are un- 
 justly excluded from the national universities, the standard of 
 clerical attainment is kept up amongst them. The best means, 
 he said, of keeping up a good standard was to have accredited 
 examiners, who should test the attainments and qualifications 
 of candidates for the ministry by a fair and impartial examina- 
 tion. The existing machinery for this purpose in the national 
 churches north and south of the Tweed was practically almost 
 worthless, the Presbytery examinations being inept, and the 
 Bishops' examinations in the Church of England no better. 
 Eeturning to the English dissenters, Sir William said that in 
 modern times the Baptists had been the first to send out mis- 
 sionaries, and that many of them, such as Carey, and Ward in 
 India, were able men, who, apart from their directly religious 
 labours, had done good service in preparing the way for a 
 better understanding between the English governing class and 
 the natives. He went on to add that missionary societies 
 should be more united, that the various Churches and de- 
 nominations should, in their missionary efforts, combine to 
 teach the rudiments of Christianity, which do not involve 
 doctrinal differences, inculcating common truths without 
 insisting on their distinctive symbols. In recent times Dr 
 Winslow had remarked that the main thing for missionary 
 
320 MR BAYNES'S REMINISCENCES. 
 
 societies to do was to translate and circulate the Scriptures 
 and religious tracts ; but this was a mistake, for though the 
 people would take them readily enough, they often regarded 
 them as mere waste paper, without attempting to read or un- 
 derstand them. Missionaries were necessary, and in modern 
 times perhaps some of the German missionaries were amongst 
 the best. Swartz, for example, was a man of singularly high 
 character and devoted life, and Sir William said he had heard 
 him spoken of in terms of the highest praise by persons from 
 India who had known him intimately. The early Jesuit mis- 
 sionaries, again, went to the other extreme, and became too 
 much all things to all men, adopting the habits, manners, and 
 to a certain extent even the religious usages of the natives 
 amongst whom they laboured. It was a poor religion they 
 taught, but they excused or justified themselves by saying 
 that it was necessary first to teach a rude form of Christianity 
 and then the more perfect. 
 
 " Henry Martyn the missionary was then referred to. Sir 
 William said he was a fine noble character, but that in his 
 1 Persian Controversies ' he had fallen into strange mistakes. 
 His Persian opponents argue well, and are in relation to 
 Mahommedanism very much what the Hegelians are to Christi- 
 anity. They ingeniously divide miracles into three kinds 
 magical, medical, and rhetorical ; the magical, those of Moses 
 at Pharaoh's court, the medical, those of Christ, and the 
 rhetorical, those of Mahomet in the production of the Koran, 
 which is itself a standing miracle, so beautifully eloquent and 
 perfect in style throughout, that it must be divine. Martyn in 
 his reply says that magic was unknown in the time of Moses, 
 while in fact the Pentateuch abounds in references to it, which 
 show that it must have been quite common. He says further, 
 that medicine was not practised in Judaea in the time of 
 Christ, and was indeed virtually unknown. This was a most 
 incredibly ignorant statement, as the Gospels abound with 
 references to medicine and physicians. The woman with the 
 issue of blood, for example, who had spent her substance on 
 
MR BAYNES'S REMINISCENCES. 
 
 the doctors without any good result, 'had 
 things of many physicians, and was nothing bette: 
 rather grew worse ' a satire on the Faculty of medicine as 
 true now as it was then. The whole controversy between 
 Henry Martyn and his Persian opponents was very interesting, 
 and had been well translated by Professor Lee. The Asiatics 
 are peculiar in their philosophy, and their religion is directly 
 connected with their philosophy. They are Absolutists, 
 Hegelians ; the main sources of information respecting their 
 speculations are Colebrooke, Saisset, Tholuck, and the rising 
 French school of Oriental scholars who are studying in the 
 original the great movements of Eastern thought. Curiously 
 enough there is a complete Oriental system of logic, and the 
 Indian syllogism has the peculiarity of beginning with the 
 quaesitum or question, after which come the conclusion and 
 then the premises in order. 
 
 "The conversation then turned on forgotten scholars, and 
 books of life and interest no longer read or even remembered. 
 Sir William mentioned as an example the Epistles of Clen- 
 ardus [Nicholas Clenard or Cleynserts]. They are full of 
 lively description and incident, and many of the stories and 
 adventures he relates are quite as good as things in Gil Bias. 
 He was for some years in Spain as Professor of Oriental 
 Languages in the University of Salamanca ; and in his letters, 
 which were not written for publication, referring to the poverty 
 and wretchedness of the country, he says, ' Blessed are they 
 that have not seen and yet have believed.' In another letter 
 he gives an account of a grand Spanish barber, whose man 
 lathered the customers, while he himself, as a superior artist, 
 condescended to shave them. Clenardus went from Spain to 
 the coast of Africa as a teacher and missionary, and died 
 there.* It would be well worth while to translate the Epistles, 
 
 * He went mainly for the purpose of acquiring a mastery of Arabic, in 
 which language he intended to write a refutation of the Koran, to be circulated 
 amongst the Mohammedans with a view to their conversion. He died on his 
 way back to Spain. 
 
 X 
 
322 MR BAYNES'S REMINISCENCES. 
 
 and give some account of the author. This led to a general 
 reference to men of thought and action, whose lives afford in- 
 teresting materials for a biography. Sir William mentioned 
 Lord Herbert of Cherbury and Ulrich von Hutten as examples. 
 They were men of keen intellect, high courage, and chival- 
 rous character cavaliers and philosophers whose lives com- 
 bine literary and philosophical interest with a good deal of 
 action and adventure. Hutten, though a little man, fought 
 like a game-cock, on one occasion defending his life against 
 three [five?] Frenchmen well armed, and defeating them. 
 Other good subjects for biographies were Erasmus, the Scali- 
 gers, Barclay the author of 'Argenis,' Mark Duncan and his 
 son, and Sir K. Digby." 
 
 Sir William's eldest son, having obtained an appointment 
 in the Indian army, sailed for India in February 1849. From 
 that period the letters to him from home form a domestic 
 chronicle, from which interesting glimpses of Sir William in 
 his daily life and habits may be obtained. From these, and 
 letters to other members of the family, selections will now 
 and again be made, with a view to illustrate his character as 
 it appeared in his family, the tenor of his life during his latter 
 years, and his idiosyncrasies in reading and working. 
 
 During 1848, 1849, and 1850 he was busy with Logic, 
 Luther, and the points of controversy between himself and 
 Archdeacon Hare. The following extracts give us a glimpse 
 of his manner of working : 
 
 LADY HAMILTON TO WILLIAM HAMILTON. 
 
 22rf August 1848. 
 
 . . . Your papa has been rather idle this last week ; he has, 
 I think, finished what he was writing about the Book of Discipline, 
 so he has taken a few days at his logical problems and been wash- 
 ing and mending his books. To - day we had a visit from the 
 American Ambassador to this country, Mr Bancroft, who is making 
 a tour in Scotland at present. He is the author of the best History 
 
LETTERS TO LIEUTENANT HAMILTON. 323 
 
 of America. He remembers meeting your papa at Berlin seven-and- 
 twenty years ago. 
 
 5th October 1848. 
 
 I do not wonder that you have been daily expecting to hear from 
 me. I think I was never so long of writing to you not, you will 
 easily believe, from forgetfulness, but your papa has kept me con- 
 stantly writing for him, and I have not had a minute I could call 
 my own for these three weeks past. As soon as he was able, after 
 his attack of erysipelas, he took to answering a letter from Mr 
 Thomson of Oxford, on some of his logical theories, and last night 
 we despatched a second letter of twenty-two folio pages of close 
 writing, all of which I had to write twice over. Within this last 
 fortnight I have written seventy folio pages, besides letters and 
 notes and other things, so you may understand that I have had little 
 leisure. 
 
 These ample letters to Mr Thomson contained an account 
 of the principal novelties in Sir William's logical system, 
 particularly the doctrine of Comprehension and Extension, and 
 that of Quantification of the Predicate. His method of Nota- 
 tion was also explained. 
 
 Uth March 1849. 
 
 We have all been going on very much as usual since you left us, 
 your papa working for a while at his Latin poetry, of which I 
 think he is now tired, and amusing himself in sizing your present 
 [Waitz's edition of Aristotle's Organon], and getting it interleaved 
 and arranged according to his own notions. It has been bound, and 
 you would be quite amused if you saw it with all its various coloured 
 marks to distinguish the different divisions and subjects. Certainly 
 you could not have given him a book which he would have liked 
 better, or one which he is more likely to use frequently. He is 
 quite taken up with it, and every day, almost every hour, something 
 is to be done or written in this wonderful book ! 
 
 17A May 1849. 
 
 We are all well your papa particularly so, and working away at 
 Luther, which he says he must finish this summer. Most truly do I 
 hope so. Mr Maclachlan [the publisher of Reid's Works] came down 
 the other evening to speak to him about finishing Reid, and above 
 all bringing out a Logic ; but your papa would promise nothing, and 
 
324 LETTERS TO LIEUTENANT HAMILTON. 
 
 said he must do Luther first. Mr Maclachlan was also speaking 
 of making a collection of your papa's contributions to the * Edin- 
 burgh Review,' and publishing them in one volume with a few 
 additions and notes. Your papa seems to like the idea of this, and 
 it will probably be done this summer. 
 
 16th June 1849. 
 
 Your papa is still working away at the old subject [Luther]. If 
 he ever publishes, the materials he has collected and prepared will, 
 I am sure, be sufficient for many thick volumes, instead of one small 
 one, as originally intended. 
 
 \7thJnlyISW. 
 
 Your papa still works indefatigably at the old subject, but I 
 don't see much progress made towards the completion of the work. 
 If I could only see any prospect of his ever finishing his intended 
 book, I would work night and day to get it off hands. He says it is 
 to be completed this summer ; but, as long as he has the volumes of 
 Luther's works beside him, he will go on translating and adding to 
 his materials till he will disgust himself with the whole subject, and 
 be driven distracted by such an overwhelming quantity of matter 
 as he will not know how to get arranged. You will be glad to hear 
 he is very well and strong. 
 
 7th January 1850. 
 
 As Hubert, I believe, told you, your father has been making a fine 
 Tower of Babel to represent some of his logical notions ; * we have 
 done little else but dress it for the last fortnight with various coloured 
 ribbons and fine cut-out letters that have been the plague of Hu- 
 bert's life and mine, for you know your papa is not easily pleased. 
 I think it will afford some amusement to the students. 
 
 13^ February [1850]. 
 
 Your father is very busy at present with Logic, some new views 
 or discoveries which have troubled him a good deal to arrange ; 
 but he seems to think he has now hit upon it. ... He is read- 
 ing at present the ' Life and Correspondence of Southey,' written by 
 his son. If you can meet with it, you will find it pleasant reading. 
 
 The logical points here referred to are probably those em- 
 bodied in the note appended (p. 153) to Mr Baynes's ' Essay on 
 
 * The nature and relations of Extension and Comprehension in Concepts 
 noticed above at p. 153. 
 
LETTERS TO LIEUTENANT HAMILTON. 325 
 
 the New Analytic of Logical Forms/ published in May 1850. 
 They are the reduction of hypothetical reasoning to imme- 
 diate inference; the division of the syllogism into figured 
 and unfigured; new canons of inference; and emendations 
 on the propositional and syllogistic tables. 
 
 HUBERT HAMILTON TO HIS BROTHER. 
 
 16th March 1850. 
 
 Poor Luther has for a long time been laid aside indeed he ap- 
 pears to have enjoyed a sort of serpentine torpidity all winter ; and 
 papa is now bent upon what do you think 1 skulls ! All our 
 heads have been callipered, taped, and all the rest of it : in fact, he 
 is speaking of sending out to you directions so as to enable you to 
 measure your own skull and send the dimensions home. He has 
 purchased a lot of millet-seed, and has had out all the array of scales, 
 shot, blacking-bottles full of sand, and other articles, and is evidently 
 meditating some grand operations, which I am rather afraid of. As 
 I have said, we are to have the full benefit of book-sizing to-day, 
 and Mr Baynes is coming down to act as a kind of lieutenant under 
 papa, while I will be the middy who runs about carrying messages 
 and bringing all that is required. . . . Mr Colquhoun still comes 
 on Sundays and talks to papa, the subject on his side being mes- 
 merism ; while papa generally entertains him with Luther. 
 
 LADY HAMILTON TO W. HAMILTON. 
 
 ISth March. 
 
 . . . We are all going on much as usual, except that your father 
 has taken to a new hobby. He desires me to ask you if you think there 
 are any callipers to be found in Lucknow, and if you could manage 
 to send him the measurements of your head 1 He has been induced 
 to look into his papers on this subject by Professor Jameson asking 
 him for some remarks upon a paper he is publishing in his journal ; 
 and your papa has taken the opportunity of correcting some animad- 
 versions and attacks which had been made on some discoveries of 
 his, published long ago byDr Monro.* This has set him to measur- 
 ing of heads and weighing of brains for the last week. . . . Your 
 father sends you his kindest love, and says he will dictate a letter to 
 you next time. His class will now soon be over, and then he talks 
 
 * See above, p. 113 et seq. 
 
326 LETTERS TO LIEUTENANT HAMILTON. 
 
 of being very busy. He is using galvanism at present daily, and 
 thinks himself more supple in consequence. 
 
 This interruption had been of short duration, as very soon 
 after we find Sir William again engrossed with Logic. 
 
 18th April 1850. 
 
 Your father is working hard at Logic at present, making out some 
 new syllogistic tables ; but he talks of resuming Luther soon, and 
 also of reprinting his articles from the 'Edinburgh Review,' and 
 publishing them in a single volume. 
 
 18th June 1850. 
 
 This is the anniversary of Waterloo, and you will be surprised 
 when I tell you where we have been at a review in the Queen's 
 Park. I have not been at anything of the kind for thirty-six 
 or thirty-seven years ; and, except one that he saw at Berlin some 
 thirty years ago, when there were about 40,000 reviewed, your 
 papa says it is even longer since he has been so it was as 
 novel a sight to us as to the children. You will wonder how we 
 came to go. Last night I incidentally mentioned that the chil- 
 dren had been speaking of it and wishing to go. "You had 
 better take them." " No," I answered, " unless you will go." Papa, 
 of course, said he could not ; but I saw that he rather liked the 
 notion, and would have no great objection to being pressed. Well, 
 this morning was beautiful, and papa wakened much earlier than 
 usual, and in great good-humour, so I asked him if he would take a 
 drive and let them see the review ; and seeing, although at first he 
 said "No," that he wished to go, I sent Hubert, who had got a holi- 
 day, to see if we could have an open carriage, which we got, and off 
 we all set by eleven o'clock. And greatly delighted we were, for 
 the day was lovely, and the views, you know, from the Queen's 
 Drive are exquisite. Your father had not been there before, so he 
 was much pleased. Indeed I cannot conceive anything finer than 
 the whole scene was. 
 
 5th July. 
 
 Your papa is quite well, and still enamoured with Logic, and ne- 
 glecting Luther. 
 
 18th July 1850. 
 
 . . . Your father desires me to give you his kindest love, and 
 says you must not think him less interested in you that he does not 
 
LETTERS TO LIEUTENANT HAMILTON. 327 
 
 write ; but you know how lazy he is about writing a letter, and at 
 present he is spell-bound by Logic, and everything is allowed to lie 
 over. It is really quite vexing, as he himself says, for he ought to 
 be doing other things. 
 
 7 Ik August 1850. 
 
 Your papa is busy cutting up De Morgan, and has had a great 
 many people calling for him. [A meeting of the British Association 
 was then being held in Edinburgh.] I think, however, he has 
 rather enjoyed it, and you will be surprised to hear he dined out on 
 Monday to meet some of the savans, and went all alone. 
 
 NORTH BERWICK, \lth September 1850. 
 
 Your papa has recommenced working at Luther, but I think he 
 has rather begun to tire of the subject, and is actuated more by a 
 sense of duty than inclination in resuming the work. To-day he is 
 answering a letter from a gentleman in China, who wrote to him to 
 ask his opinion upon the rendering of the words which express Su- 
 preme Being the missionaries who are translating the New Testa- 
 ment into Chinese having got into a controversy on the subject. 
 
 th October. 
 
 Your father has been reading Macaulay's History, and was so pleased 
 with it that he read incessantly till he finished the two volumes. He 
 even lay awake all night perusing the fascinating pages. Luther gets 
 on very slowly. I think your papa is tired of it, and it is not unlikely 
 that all his work for years will be thrown away. It is very provoking. 
 The chief employment he has had of late is answering letters from 
 Mr Ferrier, who has taken to study Logic in the most energetic way, 
 and is continually writing to your papa to ask explanations or to 
 controvert some opinion which offends him. I am sure there have 
 been more than a dozen letters from him this last month. 
 
 The following are interesting as evincing Sir William's 
 intense solicitude and affection for his son : 
 
 SIR W. HAMILTON TO LIEUTENANT W. HAMILTON. 
 
 GREAT KINQ STREET, 5th June 1849. 
 
 MY DEAREST BOY, Your letters, which we have duly received, 
 have afforded us the greatest pleasure, not only for the interesting 
 
328 SIR WILLIAM'S LETTERS 
 
 accounts they give of what you saw, but for the evidence they 
 contain (and this is even far more agreeable) that you are thinking 
 of home at every step of your removal from those to whom you are 
 so dear. Your last letter that to me was particularly delightful 
 for the minute details it gave concerning yourself and what you had 
 seen in Egypt and Ceylon. It is not so much the things themselves 
 as that they have been noticed by you which makes them welcome here. 
 Follow the plan of jotting down whatever occurs to you from time to 
 time ; and any journal of your proceedings you send us will be the 
 more pleasing the minuter it is. You are naturally of a reserved 
 and diffident disposition. You must be on your guard against this, 
 especially to us, for you may rely upon it that though you may tire 
 yourself you can never tire us. This I have said once and again. 
 Your mother will tell you any news to be told, though in fact there 
 has occurred nothing to inform you of since she last wrote. We 
 are all looking forward to your next letter, which we trust will 
 contain an account of your safe and happy arrival at Calcutta. 
 God bless you, my dear Billy ! and believe that there is no object 
 on earth dearer to me than you are. I trust He will take you into 
 His holy keeping, and that you may always fulfil all the duties which 
 are now incumbent on you to perform. His blessing you may be 
 sure will accompany you in this, and I need not remind you that 
 the chief duty which a man has upon earth is his duty to God. 
 Your ever affectionate father, 
 
 W. HAMILTON. 
 
 18th January 1850. 
 
 MY DEAREST BILL, Your mother will have told you all that I 
 can say in the shape of news and information ; I only add a word to 
 assure you of my kindest love and blessing, wishing you all health 
 and happiness now and hereafter. It most sincerely rejoices me to 
 hear nothing but good in regard to you ; and your letters, which 
 are excellent in themselves, delight me principally by the evidence 
 they bear that the love which we all feel towards you is fully 
 reciprocated on your part. I am sure that no distance and no 
 length of absence will ever weaken the affection which we bear 
 towards each other. At home here, Billy, Billy is more spoken of 
 from Tommy upwards than any other name, and I am sure that no 
 name is connected with warmer feelings than your own. My dearest 
 boy, continue to write us all that interests you. You may rely upon 
 it that it will interest us as much. Of course we cannot suppose 
 
TO LIEUTENANT HAMILTON. 329 
 
 that you will always be equally able to write at every return of the 
 mail, but I am sure that nothing but necessity will prevent us 
 hearing from you, be the letter shorter or longer. We are all 
 happy in thinking that you have been sent to so pleasant a station, 
 and one that in every respect seems so favourable. But in what- 
 ever place, in whatever relation, you may be, I trust confidently 
 that you will do your duty ; and be certain that an anxiety on your 
 part to perform all the duties which Providence may make incum- 
 bent on you, is the way to gain the favour of God and man. God 
 bless you, my dear boy ! and though I may not always express to 
 you what I feel, devolving as I must the details of correspondence 
 on those around me, it surely requires no declaration on my part to 
 make you believe that no one is nearer or dearer to me than your- 
 self. Ever your affectionate father, 
 
 "W. HAMILTON. 
 
 NORTH BERWICK, September 5, 1850. 
 
 MY DEAREST BILLY, I leave your mother to tell you all our 
 news. I have only to express to you, what I am sure you do not 
 require to be told, the deep affection and anxious interest with 
 which you are regarded by me and all others here. My dear boy, 
 your letter to me afforded the greatest gratification ; and indeed all 
 your letters to us display both your excellent feelings and your good 
 sense and observation. I trust that next arrival will bring us good 
 accounts of your examination. I trust that you may obtain every 
 honour competent; but at any rate it is most gratifying to be 
 assured that you are doing everything in your power to deserve 
 them. That is the principal matter. There is in these things 
 always a good deal of accident, favourable and unfavourable ; 
 and if at one time you may obtain more, at another you may 
 obtain less, than you merit. The great thing is to do always 
 as well as you can ; and you may be sure that if you do not 
 succeed so well as you are entitled to expect at present, another 
 time will set it all right. I am delighted to see that you are 
 anxious about, and that you are taking an interest in, matters 
 which, while they afford you a relief against ennui, will greatly add 
 to your happiness, and in the long run certainly to your external 
 prosperity. . . . No sugar was ever so sweet as yours, at least 
 so it seems to all here, and your rice, &c., tastes better from the 
 recollection of him from whom it comes. I must not, however, 
 occupy more of the paper, as your mother has a great deal, as usual, 
 
330 SIR WILLIAM'S LETTERS TO LIEUT. HAMILTON. 
 
 to tell you of. I shall merely add that I should like this place far 
 better if you were here along with the rest of us, and you may be 
 assured that you are never absent from the kindest thoughts of your 
 mother and myself. May God bless you, my dearest Billy, and 
 keep you in His care and fatherly protection ! Believe me ever 
 your very affectionate father, 
 
 W. HAMILTON. 
 
 ELIE, FIFESHIRE, 17 th September 1851. 
 
 MY DEAREST BILL, Though I depend upon your mother to ex- 
 press to you from post to post my unceasing affection for you, I 
 cannot allow the return of your birthday to pass by without in my 
 own person saying a few words of love and endearment. I need not 
 say how much gratification your letters afford to all of us : they are 
 equally creditable to your head and heart. You may be sure that 
 every the smallest particular of what you see, and feel, and think, 
 is of interest at home, and I rejoice that you also are confident of 
 this. I have nothing, my dear boy, to say to you in the way of re- 
 monstrance j you seem to be acting as those most interested in you 
 would have you to act. Go on improving yourself to the utmost of 
 your power, and with the blessing of God you will not be without 
 reward in the end, and all the while you will have the approval of 
 your own conscience. I am glad to see that you are applying yourself 
 with assiduity to the languages. This is an indispensable qualifica- 
 tion for ever rising above the routine promotion of your particular 
 department ; and I trust you will steadily persevere in the study. 
 I suppose that you have all kind of books more peculiarly adapted 
 for Indian pursuits provided and accessible ; otherwise you have 
 only to mention the work and it would be sent to you. I thank 
 God that you have not only given us no anxiety about your conduct, 
 but that your health has been so uniformly good. I trust that this 
 blessing may be continued to you ; and though I am unable to write 
 to you frequently myself, there is no one who is more constantly in 
 my dearest thoughts. God bless you, my dearest Billy ! Your ever 
 affectionate, 
 
 W. HAMILTON. 
 
 From notices in some of the foregoing letters it is evident 
 that the subject of Luther occupied Sir William's time very 
 much during the years referred to. In fact he would ever and 
 
LUTHER AND HIS WRITINGS. 331 
 
 anon, down to the close of his life, go off into investigations 
 on points connected with the life and doctrines of Luther. 
 He had a strong impression that the character of Luther had 
 been unfairly represented that its excellences had been 
 exclusively emphasised and idealised by his admirers, while 
 its defects had been kept in the background. In dealing 
 with the subject, Sir William's honest and ardent desire 
 was to present a picture of Luther that should be histori- 
 cally accurate. And as the balance of exaggeration seemed 
 to him to lie with the admirers of the Eeformer, he thought 
 himself called upon in the interests of historical truth to pre- 
 sent chiefly the other side of the picture. There can be no 
 doubt that any representation of an historical character, such 
 as Luther, that Sir William might present, would be distin- 
 guished by completeness and great literal accuracy. It is 
 doubtful, however, whether he would make due allowance for 
 exaggeration of statement arising from intensity of conviction ; 
 and be able quite to put himself in the position of one whose 
 nature was so little, as Luther's, that of the mere scholar and 
 man of thought, and so much that of the ardent worker and 
 practical innovator. The passionate nature of Luther was 
 not one to tarry to weigh statements or balance periods or 
 reconcile contradictory opinions ; it overleapt the barriers of 
 theory, scorned speculative limitations, and found satisfaction 
 only in the substitution of what appeared to be the true and 
 real, for the false and insincere. His work was a moral, not 
 a speculative one, and it was probably wider and better than 
 any theory he himself ever gave of it. Luther's positions, if 
 occasionally extreme, were adopted not under the calm in- 
 spiration of mere reflective thought, but under the pressure 
 of an antagonistic power, the struggle with which was an 
 issue of life or death. But we shall allow Sir William to 
 speak for himself. The following is an extract from what 
 appears to have been designed as a preface to the work on 
 Luther. The purpose which Sir William had in view, and 
 his general feeling towards Luther, are at least indicated. 
 
332 LUTHER AND HIS WRITINGS. 
 
 " Under every changeful phasis of opinion, in every country 
 of Germany, Catholic and Protestant, Luther is still the man 
 of the nation. His general intellectual ascendancy is decided. 
 All endeavour, if not to enlist, at least to disarm, his authority. 
 In theology, Eationalist and Supernaturalist both adduce his 
 declarations. In philosophy he is regarded as the emblem of 
 regulated, as of independent, thought. In politics, the con- 
 servative and revolutionary appeal, the one to his precept, the 
 other to his example. Nor is his surpassing greatness unac- 
 knowledged even in those countries of the empire which have 
 remained constant to the faith which he assailed ; and in the 
 Valhalla of Munich, Luther and Arminius stand as the two 
 liberators of Germany from the two dominations of Eome. 
 The painter, in fine, and sculptor venerate in the friend of 
 Cranach the protector of art against the iconoclasm of his 
 followers ; whilst the Eeformer has bequeathed to the most 
 musical of all nations, not only its most celebrated religious 
 hymn, but its most popular convivial catch. Luther, in short, 
 is to his countrymen what no countryman has been to any 
 other people of Europe. He alone is a one concrete reality, 
 living in the heart of every German ; whilst other nations have 
 only at best the precarious memories of dead and jostling ab- 
 stractions. Luther, in fact, supplies to the people of other 
 countries what they want among themselves ; his coarse but 
 characteristic features are familiar to every European; and 
 there is no observer of the Eeformation, Catholic or Protes- 
 tant, from Erasmus to Carlyle, who has not recognised in 
 Luther the veritable hero. Of Luther, indeed, pre-eminently 
 may it be said with St Paul that 'he being dead yet 
 speaketh;' or, in the language of Homer, 
 
 Ofy vfirvvffdal rol Se, ffKial aiffffovffi. 
 
 ' He, he alone from Pluto's silent glades, 
 Warns wisely back, the others flit as shades. ' 
 
 Yet it is not so much the doctrine as the doctor that survives 
 and teaches. For of Luther's letter and Luther's spirit we 
 
LUTHER AND HIS WETTINGS. 333 
 
 may too truly say that 'the letter killeth, but the spirit 
 maketh alive.' 
 
 " With all his faults and frailties, Luther stands alone in 
 this he exercised a greater influence over a greater number 
 of his fellow-men than any human agent in the history of the 
 world. Herein Mohammed is his only rival ; but the influ- 
 ence of the Arabian was far more limited during life than the 
 influence of the German. No one, indeed, in modern times 
 has ever established so extensive and permanent a glory. 
 Other of the reformers have perhaps exerted a higher scien- 
 tific authority over the learned, but no other name is so 
 popular as Luther's, not in Germany only, but in Europe. In 
 Germany, even where the doctrine of the theologian has faded 
 or never flourished, the fame of the man is perennial. But 
 whilst the Lutheran doctrine stood entire, who was ever 
 glorified like Luther the theologian ? Countless dissertations 
 have been devoted to evince the reality of all (and more than 
 all) of Luther's dreams. Books upon books have been written 
 to show that his advent was miraculously foretold. The 
 Apocalypse alone (the canonicity of which, by the way, he 
 himself denied) afforded four such prophecies to his followers. 
 To them he was there prefigured either J>y 'the two wit- 
 nesses ' (xi.) ; or by ' the man child who was to rule all 
 nations with a rod of iron ' (xii.) ; or by ' the angel with the 
 everlasting gospel' (xiv.) ; or by 'the angel calling mightily, 
 "Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen'" (xviii). To them 
 also he was foretold in the pretended vaticinations of Huss, 
 of Hilten, of the Elector Frederic the Sage, &c. Many and 
 elaborate are the treatises in exposition of Luther's own 
 prophecies, and to prove him a veritable prophet; to prove 
 his title to the style of evangelist and apostle, of saint and 
 worker of miracles, of confessor and martyr, of hero and 
 conqueror, of the Megalander or Great Man, by pre-eminence, 
 &c. Much likewise has been written touching his similitude 
 with the sun and with the morning-star; with Abel, with 
 Noah, with Abraham, with Moses, with Samuel, with Elias 
 
334 LUTHER AND HIS WRITINGS. 
 
 with Jeremiah, with St John the Baptist, with St John the 
 Evangelist, with Ananias, with St Paul ; to say nothing of St 
 Christopher the Great, St Martin of Tours, St Benno, Wick- 
 liffe, Huss, &c. But if the real Luther be lost in a flood of 
 panegyric, he is equally lost in a counter-flood of invective. 
 I know a hundred portraitures of Luther the Angel, and a 
 hundred pendants of Luther the Devil; but I know not a 
 single true likeness of Luther the Man. One party seem 
 to have ignored his real features, another to have been 
 ignorant of them ; and yet there they stand, painted in all 
 the vivacity of truth by his own powerful pencil a pencil 
 more graphic for the inner man than that of his friend Cra- 
 nach for the outer. No one can know Luther who does not 
 know him in his writings, writings, however, hardly more 
 deserving of study as reflecting their illustrious author, than 
 as interesting and instructive in themselves. All in all, they 
 are among the most engaging of works ; and whilst the rapidity 
 with which they were thrown off by Luther, in writing or in 
 speech, is adverse to condensation, a full and fair selection 
 would prove an invaluable contribution to the history of 
 human strength and weakness, that is, to the true history of 
 man. I regret that the extracts here made are principally 
 limited to the latter phasis ; for I am at present called on to 
 antagonise and correct the one-sided and erroneous repres~enta- 
 tions, exclusively given of Luther under the former. I there- 
 fore earnestly caution my reader that he do not mistake the 
 proof which I now adduce, that Luther is not impeccable, for 
 a demonstration that Luther does nothing but err. Such a 
 conclusion would, indeed, be greatly farther from the truth 
 than the prevalent delusion against which I here contend. In 
 these I make no pretension to a full portraiture of Luther. 
 I merely call into relief certain neglected features, which 
 ought to be taken into account in any veritable picture of the 
 Eeformer. Luther I not merely admire but love. My love is, 
 however, limited to the real Luther, and hirn I love with all 
 his faults and weaknesses nay more, perhaps, that he is no 
 
LUTHER AND HIS WETTINGS. 335 
 
 ' monster of perfection/ * As to the ideal Luther, angel or 
 devil, for such I care no more than for any other fancy which 
 folly, ignorance, prejudice, or perfidy may engender. I look 
 to truth alone." 
 
 A great deal of time and research was spent by Sir William 
 on Luther. There was much reading, and not a little think- 
 ing. The results are given in some thirty separate parcels 
 of papers, which, if published, would occupy a large volume. 
 These are carefully arranged under various heads, seemingly 
 exhaustive of the subject. 
 
 A 1. Biography and personal anecdotes alphabetical. 
 
 2. Luther, various references to, from Walch's Index and various 
 
 works. 
 
 (a.) Notes from Luther's letters. 
 
 (b.) Varia Ecclesiastica. 
 
 (c.) Varia Ecclesiastica Anglicana. 
 
 3. Various extracts from various books, chiefly in reference to 
 
 Luther and the Reformation. Leaves. 
 
 List of errors in D'Aubigne, . * . ; ''. 2 
 
 Audin's Luther references to, : ^. . . . 1-10 
 D'Aubigne" and Audin, varia upon . "-i .- >; '.. 
 
 Michelet and Luther, . . - * ; .<. #1.* 11-13 
 
 Fabricii Centifolium, ^,- .. * ;. . . ,- . . . 15-21 
 
 Acta Eruditorum, . . . * . . . 23-25 
 
 Extracts from disputations in German universities, 27 
 
 Observationes Hallenses, . . :-;;T. . 28 
 
 History of Church for Religious Tract Society, . 29-31 
 
 Ward's Ideal, . . i*. *--- . .' . 33-39 
 Chatelain Synod of Dort, . ;-^/ : . -. 
 Laing's German Catholic Church, 
 
 Spalatine Chronicon from 1513 to 1526, . ,. 41-49 
 
 Chronicon Torgoviae, . . . . . 52, 53 
 
 Bonnechose, Les Reformateurs, &c., . / ' , ' 55, 56 
 Ancillon, - . . . i. : ^ 
 
 4. Luther in general being extracts from his own works. 
 
 i. Manner of Life ; and of, in general, . J. 1-4 
 
 * "Monstrum perfectionis " is the expression of Julius Caesar Scaliger. Pope, 
 who was a curious reader, copies but spoils the saying in his famous line, 
 " A faultless monster that the world ne'er saw." 
 
336 LUTHER AND HIS WRITINGS. 
 
 ii. Virtues, . ~ - - ,; V> . . . 5-8 
 
 iii. Ignorance and Learning, . ,-- : f.,.?. . 9-12 
 
 iv. Doctrines in general, . . , , . ... 13-18 
 v. Special doctrines 
 
 (a.) Prayer, . . . , * / . 19-22 
 
 (ft.) Devil and Superstition, . " *"' . 23-30 
 
 (c.) Marriage, Polygamy, &c., . . 31-34 
 
 vi. Inconsistency, . . . . ' i'^ 35-40 
 
 vii. Theory of government, .... 41-44 
 
 viii. Varia Ecclesiastica, ..... 45, 46 
 
 ix. Varia Philosophica, . . . . 47, 48 
 
 x. Varia Historica, ..... 49, 50 
 
 xi. Acute Dicta, -* ; ; * . . . 51,52 
 
 xii. Aristotle, Aquinas, &c., . ~ -. , . 53, 54 
 
 B 1. Luther's moral imperfections extracts from himself. 
 
 2. Luther's opponents extracts from himself. 
 
 i. Opponents in general, <i ^ . . .1 
 ii. Papists, 3 
 
 (a.) In general. 
 
 (.) Individuals, 
 iii. Sacramentarians, . . . . . .13 
 
 (a.) In general. 
 
 (&.) Individuals, 
 iv. Antinomians, . . . . > * . .21 
 
 (a.) In general. 
 
 (b.) Individuals. 
 
 v. Other sects Anabaptists, &c., . . . .25 
 vi. Jurists, ..... ' ^ . . 27 
 
 3. Fragments by me on Luther. 
 C 1. Varia Lutherana unarranged. 
 
 2. Leaves from Politica. 
 
 &.u 
 
 2. / Principles of Luther with regard to Marriage, Polygamy, &c. 
 
 3.J 
 E 1. \ Corollaries (practical consequences of principles) in himself 
 
 2. J and others. 
 F 1. Polygamy, inter alia, Henry VIII. 
 
 2. Do. Landgrave of Hesse. 
 
 3. Do. do. 
 
 4. Do. Landgrave's bigamy, testimonies of third 
 parties to. 
 
LUTHER AND HIS WRITINGS. 
 
 337 
 
 G 1. } 
 
 2. ' Corollaries with regard to Religious Vows, Demoralisation, 
 
 3. t German and Swiss Reformations, &c. 
 
 4. J 
 
 Two packets with Lutherana unarranged. Others labelled as fol- 
 lows : 
 
 Political Doctrines Peasants, Princes, &c. 
 Diabolic Agency. 
 
 Theological Inconsistency Antiiiomianism, Agricola, Weller, &c. 
 Want of Charity and Toleration. 
 Luther on Biblical Books. 
 Appendix Hare. 
 D'Aubigne* and Audin in general Huss. 
 
 'A. Opinions of Lutheran divines, chiefly Luther 
 
 and Melanchthon, from 1525 to 1554. 
 B. Lutheran Church Constitutions as estab- 
 lished : 
 Strasburg. 
 
 Lutheran Church 
 
 Denmark. 
 
 Hanau. 
 
 Mecklenburg. 
 
 Wirtemberg, Techt, and Montbelliard. 
 
 Brunswick and Lunenburg and Wolfen- 
 
 biittel Hanover. 
 
 Nether Saxony or Saxe Laueiiburg. 
 East Friesland. 
 CEttingen. 
 
 C. German ecclesiastical jurists and systematic 
 theologians : 
 Jurists 
 
 Finkelthauss. 
 
 B. Carpzovius. 
 
 Brunnemannus. 
 
 Strykius. 
 
 Boehmer. 
 Divines 
 
 Gerhard. 
 
 Balduinus. 
 
338 THE DISCUSSIONS. 
 
 In January 1851, Sir William commenced to look over his 
 contributions to the ' Edinburgh Keview,' with a view to their 
 collection and publication in a separate form. The thing was 
 to be done speedily ; only a few notes were to be added, and 
 the book was to be out, Sir William thought, in a few months. 
 But, like the edition of Eeid, which he hoped would be pub- 
 lished in a few weeks as far back as 1837, the new volume 
 did not appear at the time contemplated. He felt the need of 
 making additions to the articles as originally published ; and 
 accordingly, the design of writing appendices on points in 
 philosophy, as well as on education and university reform, 
 gradually grew and strengthened. From his extraordinarily 
 careful, thorough-going, and elaborate manner of working at 
 a subject, these appendices took up his time and strength in 
 such a way that all calculation as to when the volume would 
 appear was completely baffled. The more he laboured, the 
 more did there appear to be done. Those around him began 
 to think, as date after date fixed for the publication of the 
 volume passed without its appearing, that it might possibly 
 never be finished. However, after more than a year's almost 
 constant labour the greater part of the work being done after 
 midnight the ' Discussions on Philosophy and Literature, 
 Education and University Keform/ appeared in March 1852. 
 The lengthened notes and appendices that were added to the 
 original articles, and their quality, showed how the time had 
 been employed, and made it appear wonderful that such a 
 body of thought, at once compact and profound, had been pro- 
 duced in the limited period of fifteen months. 
 
 The ' Discussions' reached a second edition in 1853. And 
 now since his death there has appeared a third edition in 1867. 
 
 The following letter acknowledging a presentation copy of 
 the 'Discussions' is from one with whom Sir William had 
 most elaborate controversy : 
 
LETTERS RELATIVE TO THE DISCUSSIONS. 339 
 
 REV. DR WHEWELL TO SIR W. HAMILTON. 
 
 TRINITY LODGE, CAMBRIDGE, April 23, 1852. 
 
 DEAR SIR, I have had the pleasure of receiving your * Discus- 
 sions on Philosophy and Literature/ and as a present from yourself. 
 This I accept as a mark of your goodwill, and value it much on that 
 account ; and also on account of the matter of the book, with much 
 of which I am already familiar, and know its interest and value. 
 I had the fortune to differ with you on various points which are 
 discussed in these pages, and may possibly still have something to 
 say on such points ; but if so, I hope that it will only produce some 
 farther " shaking of the torch of truth," which, as your motto says, 
 makes it shine the brighter. And all we who venture to write on 
 philosophical subjects must feel fresh obligations to you, who have 
 done so much to keep alive and to extend the interest felt in this 
 country respecting such speculations. I hope you will long find 
 pleasure in the prosecution of such studies ; the subject of philo- 
 sophy is sure to gain as long as you do so. 
 
 The notice which you have taken of a short paper of mine (though 
 you think me in error), induces me to send you a few other papers 
 which I have published in the like manner. They will at least 
 show you that I continue to speculate about such matters ; and I 
 hope you will accept them as a token that I am, with great esteem, 
 your faithful and obedient servant, 
 
 W. WHEWELL. 
 
 The following contains a reference to Sir William's views 
 on Oxford: 
 
 REV. C. P. CHRETIEN* TO SIR W. HAMILTON. 
 
 ORIEL, 26th April 1852. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR WILLIAM HAMILTON, Will you allow me to thank 
 you very much for your kindness in sending me your philosophical 
 and educational ' Discussions "J Independently of their separate 
 value, they claim, and must receive, renewed attention in their col- 
 lected form and with your second imprimatur. I have read the last 
 Discussion with much interest, and find in it much to which I 
 assent willingly ; some things too, to which I must give a more 
 reluctant adhesion. I fear that we have departed too far from our 
 
 * Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford, and author of ' Essay on Logical Method.' 
 
340 LETTERS RELATIVE TO THE DISCUSSIONS. 
 
 original model to think of really returning to it as a whole ; and its 
 dead forms are often painful mockeries. What parts will bear re- 
 viving, what will not, is a question of detail, on which there will be 
 differences of opinion. Excuse me if I say that, on some points 
 which you mention, the divergence of the college practice from the 
 university theory does not seem so wide to me as it appears to you. 
 And perhaps I may add that the statistical estimate of the colleges, 
 though true in fact, and useful in your hands, might be made the 
 ground of very false inferences. . . . Believe me, very faith- 
 fully yours, 
 
 CHARLES P. CHRETIEN. 
 
 MR JAMES BROUN * TO SIR W. HAMILTON. 
 
 HARCOURT BUILDINGS, 19^ May 1852. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR WILLIAM, I have to thank you for the present of 
 your ' Discussions.' 
 
 I trust that you will not wholly abandon your design of giving a 
 sketch of the Scaligers. I should not willingly see your thoughts 
 withdrawn from the completion of the Notes to Reid, but you might 
 surely give a sketch, and indicate the sources of information. The 
 most interesting parts of the history of philosophy at that time 
 would lie in your way. Muretus must have owed much to the 
 earlier Scaliger, and in a finer spirit than he afterwards showed, for 
 now the earlier " Julius Csesar" is contrasted with the later syco- 
 phant orations before the Papal chair, and his impudence in offering 
 the whole soil of Scotland to the Pope. 
 
 I am not quite clear that mathematics are so easy to study ; in 
 reading thoroughly good mathematicians as James Bernoulli, or 
 Maclaurin, or Lagrange there is quite enough for energy of the 
 intellect. Bad mathematicians obscure their no-meaning with com- 
 plicated signs ; but to the better class of them the signs are an 
 incumbrance in some respects, though an aid in others. 
 
 Nor is it quite so straight a road to walk in. Poor Joseph 
 Scaliger got off the narrow path right into the ditch, and over the 
 boots in mud. Of course a pedant in geometry will be stupid in 
 business, but other exclusive pursuits lead the same way Dominie 
 Sampson was no geometer. 
 
 There is a saying of Pascal, about eight years before his death, of 
 
 * Barrister of the Inner Temple. 
 
LETTERS RELATIVE TO THE DISCUSSIONS. 341 
 
 M. Mere : " II a tres bon esprit, mais il n'est pas geometre c'est, 
 comme vous savez, un grand defaut. 
 
 I am pretty well convinced in my own mind that logical quantity 
 is not a whit different from algebraic. I can't see any difference 
 between and "all" for four-fourths of a number of things is 
 clearly all of them. I have half a mind to write a note to the 
 'Athenaeum' to draw more attention to this, and let it be refuted 
 if that can be done. With kind remembrances to Lady Hamilton, 
 I remain, my dear sir, yours most truly, 
 
 JAMES BROUN. 
 
 REV. DR W. LINDSAY ALEXANDER * TO SIR W. HAMILTON. 
 PINKIE BURN, BY MUSSELBURGH, IQth October 1853. 
 
 DEAR SIR WILLIAM, On my return home from London a few 
 days ago, I found waiting me a copy of the second edition of your 
 'Discussions on Philosophy and Literature,' "From the author." 
 For so valuable a gift, and so nattering a token of regard, I beg to 
 convey to you my sincerest acknowledgments. 
 
 I have not now for the first time to make myself acquainted with 
 the rich stores of thought and learning which that volume contains. 
 More than twenty years ago, the perusal, in the ' Edinburgh Review,' 
 of the first two of these Discussions produced on me effects which 
 have influenced my habits of thought ever since, and given a pre- 
 vailing tendency to my studies and opinions in philosophy. If I 
 may without presumption appropriate language which Kant uses of 
 himself, I would say that your article on the Philosophy of Percep- 
 tion "meinen dogmatischen Schlummer unterbrach, und meinen 
 Untersuchungen im Felde der speculativen philosophic cine andere 
 Richtung gab." I had, up to that period, been a kind of som- 
 nolently acquiescent follower of Brown, and had very nearly relin- 
 quished philosophical studies under an idea that his four volumes 
 contained the ne plus ultra of speculative science. After repeated 
 perusals of your Discussions, I found out my mistake pretty dis- 
 tinctly, and awoke to the conviction that I had yet to begin philo- 
 sophical pursuits in the right direction. I cannot pretend that I 
 have made much progress in these ; still I feel that I have gained 
 something, and I cannot but seize this opportunity of expressing to 
 you my grateful sense of the advantages I have reaped from the study 
 of your philosophical writings. 
 
 * Minister of Augustine Church, Edinburgh. 
 
342 LETTERS RELATIVE TO THE DISCUSSIONS. 
 
 Of the additions to the present edition of the ' Discussions' I have 
 as yet only had time to read your reply to the writer in the ' Evan- 
 gelical "Review.' I felt exceedingly offended at the tone and style 
 of the article to which you have replied, and therefore enjoyed not 
 a little your castigation of the author. As to the point at issue, I 
 think there can be no reasonable doubt that your statement as to the 
 judgment of Calvin and Beza concerning the Apocalypse is strictly 
 correct. Beza's own language in the Prolegomena to the Apocalypse, 
 in his edition of the New Testament, is sufficient to show how hesi- 
 tatingly he came to admit its canonicity, how uncertain he remained 
 as to its author, and how deeply he felt its obscurity. His advice 
 also to all " to venerate the mysteries of God contained in this book, 
 rather than pollute them with their fanatical comments," shows 
 pretty clearly that he was no friend to the free exposition of it. 
 But I must not further intrude with such remarks. I remain, dear 
 Sir William, yours most respectfully and faithfully, 
 
 W. LINDSAY ALEXANDER. 
 
 PROFESSOR BOOLE TO SIR W. HAMILTON. 
 
 CORK, 27th May 1852. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR, I beg you to accept my cordial thanks for your 
 kind and valuable present of your new volume of collected essays. 
 
 Though I have long been familiar with several of the essays and 
 reviews, it has afforded me sincere pleasure to read them again, and 
 there are portions of them to which I yet purpose to recur. For 
 whether I agree with you in opinion or not (and there are far more 
 points upon which I do agree with you than upon which I differ), it 
 is impossible not to be instructed by the very learning and ability 
 with which you support and adorn your cause. . . . Will you 
 forgive me for adding that I do not think that upon all points you 
 have manifested that freedom from prejudice which is essential to 
 the formation of a right judgment ? Much of what you say upon 
 the study of mathematics appears to me to be only applicable to an 
 exclusive study of the science. The evils of which you speak are 
 due, I conceive, not to the direct and positive influence of the 
 study of the relations of quantity and of the methods proper to that 
 study upon the mind, but to the absence of those influences of gene- 
 ral literature and human intercourse which the very preoccupation 
 of the mind in extreme instances occasions. Would not, then, the 
 very same, or a strictly parallel observation, apply to the exclusive 
 
LETTERS RELATIVE TO THE DISCUSSIONS. 343 
 
 study of any other department of knowledge, psychology for 
 example ? Are not all one-sided men (intellectually speaking) defi- 
 cient in general strength and aptitude of mind ? I think so. The 
 sole question which remains is, whether there is anything in the 
 nature of mathematical science which specially tends to make the 
 study of it exclusive. Is there anything in the interest attaching to 
 mathematical pursuits and objects which is specially unfriendly to 
 other interests which demands to rule alone ? 
 
 Now, while I admit it to be true that many minds have been 
 absorbed to a very injurious extent in mathematical pursuits, I can- 
 not, judging from the nature of the case and from individual experi- 
 ence, believe that such is a necessary or a proper result. I do not 
 see why a man, because he feels an interest in mathematical specula- 
 tions, should therefore not feel an interest in moral, or philosophical, 
 or social inquiries. I should rather suppose that the effect of the 
 former study would be, not to destroy the intellect in question, but 
 to add to it a disposition to pursue the particular studies with a refer- 
 ence to general laws, as the end of investigation. And such a dispo- 
 sition is not in itself to be reprehended. Undoubtedly it may, how- 
 ever, be carried too far the immediate value of facts may be too 
 little regarded ; but all this only brings us to the same position as 
 before viz., that any mental disposition suffered to gain an undue 
 predominance becomes injurious. 
 
 I have in my own case (which I mention only by the way) 
 observed that every period of sustained mathematical eifort has been 
 followed by, and has been, I believe, productive of, an opposite 
 state of mind a state in which the mind appeared to assert its un- 
 willingness to be too long subject to one set of ideas, and to demand 
 for itself " fresh fields and pastures new." I cannot doubt that when- 
 ever this indication is neglected, this call refused, great mental injury 
 must result. And in this way it seems to me probable that the 
 rewards which universities hold out to ambitious minds for special 
 attainments may often be productive of irreparable and most melan- 
 choly evils. But the result is not properly chargeable upon mathe- 
 matics as a study, nor is it solely chargeable upon the abuse of 
 mathematical studies. Some men have been warped by philology, 
 some crazed by metaphysics ; and the whole history of the pursuit of 
 learning stimulated by other incentives than the love of learning, 
 would, I suppose, if truly written, tell of the ruin of many noble 
 minds, and make large deductions from the general benefits which 
 the world owes to academical institutions. 
 
344 LETTERS RELATIVE TO THE DISCUSSIONS. 
 
 Now this leads me to say that I do not think that you have suffi- 
 ciently discriminated between the use and the abuse of mathematical 
 studies. 
 
 May I add too, and in the same spirit of candour and of respect, 
 that I think you are unjustifiably severe upon my friend Mr De 
 Morgan. He is, I believe, a man as much imbued with the love of 
 truth as can anywhere be found. When such men err, a calm and 
 simple statement of the ground of their error answers every purpose 
 which the interests either of learning or of justice can require. The 
 peculiarities of Mr De Morgan's system of logic I have not made an 
 object of study, and I do not feel competent therefore to pass any 
 opinion upon the correctness or mutual consistency of his views. 
 
 I hope that it is not needful to offer any apology for the freedom 
 of some of my observations. Merely to have thanked you for your 
 very valuable work would not have conveyed my real feelings or 
 convictions as to its great merits, and to have confined my remarks 
 to points of entire agreement would not have been strictly candid. 
 
 In the following correspondence, Mr Collyns Simon * raises 
 a point of considerable speculative importance in reference to 
 Perception : 
 
 MR T. COLLYNS SIMON TO SIR W. HAMILTON. 
 
 LONDON. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR, Nothing could be more agreeable to my feelings 
 than your very kind recollection of me. The gift of your most 
 valuable work is an honour of which I cannot but feel myself quite 
 unworthy, and which I shall never cease to esteem. I trust that 
 a few months of repose and recreation will restore your strength, 
 which must have been heavily taxed in the production of such a 
 volume. 
 
 On looking into it I am surprised that you should think that 
 there is anything respecting Berkeley to be discussed between you 
 and me, even if you had leisure for it. I see, with a great deal of 
 gratification, that, until now, I had sadly misunderstood you, having 
 considered you one of what you very appropriately call the Hypo- 
 thetical Realists. We differ, I see, more than I can well understand 
 respecting Reid, but that is at present of less consequence. The 
 only thing that I would beg of you is to mention to me the point in 
 
 * Author of 'The Nature and Elements of the External World,' 'Hamil- 
 ton versus Mill,' &c. &c. 
 
LETTERS RELATIVE TO THE DISCUSSIONS. 345 
 
 which you consider that your views differ from Berkeley's. I am 
 thinking of publishing a second edition of my work with additions, 
 and propose to decorate it with a few quotations from both your 
 works, though neither of them allow me to speak of you as a 
 Berkeleian ; and it could not fail to be matter of great interest to 
 the public to know what point of difference there is between you ; 
 for that you consider there is some I infer, though I look for it in 
 vain in what you have written. 
 
 What you describe at p. 54 as your own views, under the name of 
 Natural Realism, represents exactly those of Berkeley. The matter 
 of which we have intuitive knowledge the reality of the reciprocal 
 independence or antithesis between this matter and the percipient 
 the unconditional admission of everything of which we are conscious 
 he agrees in all this. Even when you assert (in the same page) 
 a " co-originality " between this matter and the percipient, I do not 
 think you mean by this term anything denied by Berkeley. Do 
 you mean by it that the cause of this matter is also the cause of the 
 mind ? He did not deny this. Or do you mean it as a mere syn- 
 onyme of "reciprocal independence 1 ?" Then in this also he agrees 
 with you. Or do you mean (as the word " genetic " there used 
 seems to indicate) that neither the mind educes the phenomenal 
 world of which it is conscious, nor the phenomenal world the mind 
 which is conscious of it ? I need not say that there is no difference 
 between you upon this point. Or, lastly, do you mean that we have 
 it among the facts of consciousness that the mind does not begin to 
 exist until or does not exist afterwards except when it is con- 
 scious of its material world 1 ? If so, there would be a difference 
 between you and Berkeley, inasmuch as he clearly considered (which 
 appears to me to be the fact given in consciousness upon this point) 
 that every individual mind must have existed prior to its own indi- 
 vidual world of phenomena. But after all, this is at best but a 
 mere corollary of Berkeley's doctrine, and not a portion of it ; for 
 those who hold his doctrine may (as far as it is concerned) look upon 
 each mind as beginning to exist either prior to, or simultaneously 
 with, its own world of phenomena which two are, I think, the only 
 possible alternatives ; for would it not be absurd to suppose that the 
 existence of the mind supervenes upon its own phenomena ? You 
 speak in the page I refer to of materialism as being distinguishable 
 by this last-mentioned supposition. But I think, on reflection, you 
 will see that though materialism teaches that the " otiose " substra- 
 tum (as you justly term it) exists prior to the mind, it does not 
 
346 LETTERS RELATIVE TO THE DISCUSSIONS. 
 
 assign this priority to the world of phenomena, at least I have not 
 fallen in anywhere with that statement. The first tenet of materi- 
 alism assumes a substratum world of which we are not conscious, 
 besides the phenomenal world of which we are ; and thence derives, 
 I think very naturally, all its other tenets. But without this matter 
 of which we are not conscious, and the substitution of this in their 
 doctrine for the matter of which we are, they could not argue the 
 priority of matter, and still less (if less in such a case were possible) 
 the " eduction," as you there call it, of the percipient from the 
 thing perceived. I have prolonged this remark because I sometimes 
 fancy that it is a fear lest Berkeley's doctrine should lead to confu- 
 sion in this respect that makes some writers unwilling to identify 
 their views with his ; and from p. 54 I could almost imagine that 
 this might be your case. Even the idea there expressed in the term 
 "co-originality" exhibits no difference between your views and Berke- 
 ley's. Pardon me, therefore, I beg of you, the trouble that I give, 
 when I ask you to tell me the particular term which you consider 
 to express the difference between you to which you occasionally 
 allude. I perfectly agree with you that the Berkeleian question is 
 one of common-sense alone. 
 
 With the sincerest wish that you may long enjoy the fame which 
 you have so gallantly earned, I remain, my dear sir, most faith- 
 fully yours, T. C. SIMON. 
 
 MEMORANDA OF SIR W. HAMILTON'S EEPLY. 
 
 If Berkeley held that the Deity caused one permanent material 
 universe (be it supposed apart or not apart from His own essence), 
 which universe, on coming into relation with our minds through the 
 medium of our bodily organism, is, in certain of its correlative sides 
 or phases, so to speak, external to our organism, objectively or really 
 perceived (the primary qualities), or determines in us certain sub- 
 jective affections of which we are conscious (the secondary qualities) ; 
 in that case I must acknowledge Berkeley's theory to be virtually 
 one of natural realism, the differences being only verbal. But again, 
 if Berkeley held that the Deity caused no permanent material uni- 
 verse to exist and to act uniformly as one, but does Himself either 
 infuse into our several minds the phenomena (ideas) perceived and 
 affective, or determines our several minds to elicit within consci 
 ousness such apprehended qualities or felt affections ; in that case 
 I can recognise in Berkeley's theory only a scheme of theistic ideal- 
 
LETTERS RELATIVE TO THE DISCUSSIONS. 347 
 
 ism in fact, only a scheme of perpetual and universal miracle, 
 against which the law of parcimony is conclusive, if the Divine 
 interposition be not proved necessary to render possible the facts. 
 For " non Deus intersit, nisi dignus vindice nodus " holds good in 
 philosophy as in poetic. Noticed that egoistic idealism, therefore, 
 more philosophical than theistic \ because the former postulates only 
 a great miracle once for all, whereas the latter supposes the Deity 
 to perform a petty miracle on each representation of each several 
 mind. Noticed also that in the place referred to (Disc. p. 54) I 
 only had in view the proximate sources of idealism and materialism, 
 and did not allude to the first cause of both sources in the word 
 Genetic ; nor is idealism there distinguished into its two species as 
 at pp. 193, 194, &c. &c. I also noticed the ambiguity of the terms 
 object and objective, subject and subjective, in relation to and as 
 discriminating the material and mental worlds. 
 
 MR COLLYNS SIMON TO SIR W. HAMILTON. 
 
 ROSSTREVOR, IRELAND, Jan. 22, 1853. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR, Your kind offer induces me to trouble you with 
 one or two remarks. 
 
 It is to me a great satisfaction to hear that you have seen nothing 
 in Berkeley that appears to you irreconcilable with your own views. 
 Of this I became convinced upon reading your * Discussions,' and 
 the first page of your letter is to the same effect. But when you 
 defend, as you do in your letter (or rather seem to do), a correl- 
 ative and hypothetical universe over and above that universe of 
 qualified sensations of which we are conscious, I begin again to fear 
 that your views and Berkeley's are irreconcilable. What I would 
 ask you is, when you have leisure, to have the kindness to explain 
 to me what use you see in supposing a universe of which we are not 
 conscious, correlative to that of which we are. The phenomena 
 called " sensations " (in your letter " subjective affections ") exhibit 
 in themselves all the primary qualities. When we see a square green 
 object, its form is evidently in its colour and delineated by it ; what 
 more need, then, is there of a prototype for the one set of qualities 
 than for the other for the primary than for the secondary *? or am 
 I mistaken in thinking that you mean "a universe" when you 
 speak of something unsensational and correlative connected with 
 our universe of qualified sensations 1 
 
 Another question suggested by your letter is this : In what re- 
 
348 LETTERS RELATIVE TO THE DISCUSSIONS. 
 
 spect do you fear that Berkeley's views infringe that principle of 
 parcimony on which you cite " non Deus intersit nisi dignus vindice 
 nodus," and in which I fully acquiesce 1 How can it be said that 
 his views involve more miracle than the ordinary theory 1 You 
 suppose his doctrine to imply an intermittent universe, and that 
 such a universe calls for more of the " Deus vindex " than a per- 
 manent universe would do ; but on both these points allow me to 
 offer a few suggestions, for I neither look upon the universe as inter- 
 mittent, nor can I see that an intermittent miracle would involve 
 more of the Deus vindex than a permanent one. 
 
 1. Even if we are not to consider each so-called "act" of the 
 material world as an act of the present power and direct present 
 attention of the Deity, how can it be said that a mass of continuous 
 petty miracles is a greater display of miraculous power, or a more 
 complex display of it a less parsimonious display of it than one 
 great isolated miracle comprehending all these petty ones? To 
 create and to set going in a moment a huge institution of future 
 miracles which shall hereafter take effect of themselves and without 
 the present agency of the Deity, involves quite as stupendous a dis- 
 play of the Divine power as to suppose all this done in successive 
 acts instead of in one act, and in a million of years instead of in a 
 single minute. How can length of time be supposed to augment the 
 miraculous display ? Surely if there is any difference it is in favour 
 of Berkeley ; for is not Babbage's calculating machine a larger display 
 of mental power a less parsimonious display of it than all the 
 results it ever gave or ever could give 1 and the same principle holds 
 in all such cases. But after all, no one with whom we now have to 
 do considers the so-called "acts" of the material world as anything 
 else but acts of the present power and direct present attention of the 
 Deity; so that in this respect Berkeley's views involve nothing new. 
 The apple falls by laws of gravitation established 6000 years ago ; 
 but no modern writer seems to think (not even the author of the 
 'Vestiges') that it would do so if that which originally founded 
 the law was not there to enforce the law, or that Divine interposi- 
 tion is unnecessary to preserve Divine law. All admit that a law 
 cannot enforce itself. 
 
 2. As to the "permanence " of the universe, in the ordinary sense 
 of this permanence, Berkeley has nothing new. When educated 
 people say or think that the light, or sound, or colour, or any other 
 such element of nature of which we are conscious, is permanent, 
 they do not mean that such things are not intermittent sensations. 
 
LETTERS RELATIVE TO THE DISCUSSIONS. 349 
 
 They only mean the same thing as when we say that knowledge is 
 permanent or an idea permanent, although we know that, in one 
 sense, it can only exist when we are conscious of it. The inter- 
 mission of the things of the mind does not break their " perma- 
 nence ; " and in all this Berkeley thought but as other educated men. 
 The attempt made by some to explain this permanence in colours, 
 sounds, and other such things of which we are conscious, by sup- 
 posing other correlative colours, sounds, &c., of which we are not 
 conscious, is of no use. The supposition does not answer the in- 
 tended purpose. On this the learned are now agreed. The colours 
 in the furniture of a room to-day and these colours yesterday are the 
 same. We are conscious that they are so, and yet education teaches 
 us that they are not numerically the same. Berkeley has added 
 nothing to and taken nothing from this fact ; for, as I have said, the 
 hypothesis of a correlative universe does not explain the permanence 
 in question. But besides, what permanence is, after all, assigned by 
 Berkeley's opponents even to their supposed correlative universe? 
 Xone whatever. They admit that its particles are constantly 
 shifting their position that no part of it remains one hour the 
 same that all the " primary qualities " in it, as well as those which 
 create the " subjective affections " are for ever changing, and might 
 be wholly changed without affecting its permanence and identity 
 and that the only really permanent creation originally effected was 
 a creation of laws of those laws which we can perceive only in the 
 sensational universe, but which these parties attribute also to their 
 supposed correlative and unsensational one. Thus, neither in re- 
 spect of permanence nor of miraculous display is the Berkeleian sys- 
 tem inferior to that of our opponents. 
 
 You speak of Berkeley's doctrine as a theistic one, as if the op- 
 posite one were not also theistic. But all the theistic portion of his 
 doctrine he has merely adopted from the ordinary belief of men. 
 In reality his doctrine has nothing theistic in it, for it does not re- 
 late to the cause of the universe but to the contents of the universe 
 his problem being not, what is the origin of the universe ? but, 
 what does the universe elementally consist of 1 
 
 I shall greatly value any remarks with which you will have the 
 goodness to favour me upon these points. Believe me, my dear 
 sir, with the greatest esteem, ever most truly yours, 
 
 T. C. SIMON.* 
 
 * It is much to be regretted that Sir William's letters to Mr Simon on this 
 and other speculative points were lost. 
 
350 TESTS IN THE SCOTTISH UNIVERSITIES. 
 
 SIR W. HAMILTON TO PROFESSOR CRAIK. 
 
 HUNTFIELD HOUSE, BiGGAR, 26th Aug. 1852. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR, Before leaving town I received your last kind 
 note, and am much obliged to you for stating the opinion of your 
 ingenious friend touching the vexed question of causality. This 
 is a point on which I am very anxious to receive objections the 
 weightier the better ; for I have endeavoured in vain to find diffi- 
 culties to the theory which do not admit of an easy solution, whilst 
 at the same time the theory itself seems to me more favourable to 
 our moral interests than any other that has been proposed. If, 
 therefore, you or your friend would state what appear its weak 
 points I should be indebted ; not, however, that I would ask you to 
 take any trouble in the matter, for I myself have too strong a ten- 
 dency to inertion to think of requesting others to do what I should 
 be too willing to avoid myself. Believe me, my dear sir, yours 
 very truly, W. HAMILTON. 
 
 The tests that were exigible from persons appointed to pro- 
 fessorships in the Scottish universities, consisting of a declara- 
 tion of adherence to the Westminster Confession of Faith and 
 other standards of the Church of Scotland, besides having proved 
 useless for the end which they were designed to secure, had been 
 found, especially of late years, to operate very injuriously on 
 the interests of the universities, as well as unjustly on many 
 candidates for the chairs. Certain lay members of the Church 
 of Scotland, persuaded of the impolicy of a continuance of 
 these tests with respect to non-theological chairs, subscribed 
 a Declaration affirming this, and recording their desire that an 
 appeal should be made to the Legislature for their removal. 
 Among the names appended to the document were those of 
 Lords Belhaven, Lauderdale, and Kuthven ; Professors Chris- 
 tison, Campbell Swinton, More ; Dean of Faculty Inglis (now 
 Lord Justice-General), David Mure (now Lord Mure), E. S. 
 Gordon (late Lord Advocate), &c. The paper was sent to Sir 
 William for his signature. In reply he sent the following 
 letter: 
 
DOMESTIC LIFE. 351 
 
 SIR W. HAMILTON TO PROFESSOR CAMPBELL SWINTON. 
 
 EDINBURGH, 25th January 1853. 
 
 I feel quite at one with you and those who sign the Declara- 
 tion, in so far as it goes. The exclusion of men of merit from 
 the lay chairs of our universities, in consequence of any secta- 
 rian differences of opinion, appears to me an evil which ought to 
 be removed. But, in the circumstances of our Edinburgh Univer- 
 sity, I am firmly convinced, by reasoning corroborated by recent 
 experience, that an abolition of the religious test, without depositing 
 the academical patronage in more worthy hands, would only tend 
 greatly to aggravate the evil. Professors would then be here selected 
 merely because they belong to this or that sect; in fact, there 
 would be a division of the chairs among the preponderant religious 
 bodies ; and merit would then have far less chance of success even 
 than it has at present. With this conviction, I am sorry that I 
 cannot append my name to your Declaration, though I am happy to 
 think that there is no essential difference between my opinion and 
 that of yourself and the other eminent individuals by whom it is 
 signed. 
 
 These tests were finally abolished in 1853. 
 
 Sir William's illness very much cut him off from society, 
 and thenceforth his intercourse was almost entirely confined 
 to those whom he saw in his own house. He had, especially 
 latterly, rather a dread of having to appear and speak in com- 
 pany. But his native kindliness and genuine hospitality 
 (along with Lady Hamilton's influence) led him to over- 
 come this nervous feeling, to the extent at least of having 
 quiet gatherings of friends occasionally of an evening. And 
 to the last he kept up the kindly practice of having students' 
 parties. It was very pleasant and touching to see him on 
 such occasions, established in an arm-chair by the fireplace 
 of the drawing-room, which also contained his library, listen- 
 ing to the conversation around him, and joining in it on any 
 topic that interested him, the old "lion-like look" about 
 the face, now softened and made more attractive by illness, 
 
352 DOMESTIC LIFE. 
 
 and ever and anon beautified by a kindly smile or sudden 
 flash of animated interest. He was pleased with ladies' talk, 
 and he would take fancies to people, or sometimes the reverse. 
 Except that he did not move from his chair, and that with 
 a slight hesitation in speech there was apparent a certain 
 feebleness of voice which, to those who had known him 
 formerly, contrasted with his old tones, there was little visible 
 trace of the illness through which he had passed. 
 
 Among Sir William's intimate friends at this period was Mr 
 John Shank More, Professor of Scots Law in the University. 
 Mr More occupied a house nearly opposite Sir William's, and 
 between the families there was very frequent intercourse. We 
 are indebted to one of Mr More's daughters for the following 
 most graphic and truthful picture of Sir William and his sur- 
 roundings in this latter period of his life : 
 
 If the houses in our street [Great King Street] were outwardly 
 uniform, the interiors were abundantly varied, and always character- 
 istic of the inhabitants; and, as might be expected, Sir William 
 Hamilton's was pre-eminently distinguished for individuality. The 
 rooms in which he and his family usually sat were surrounded by 
 books ; and how clearly does one in which we passed many a 
 pleasant hour rise to mind ! In it, from floor to roof, the book- 
 shelves mounted one above the other, almost entirely covering the 
 walls. The books were of all sorts and sizes, but the brown folios 
 and great volumes clothed in vellum, which were level with the 
 eye, inspired us at an early period with profound respect, from 
 seeing them so near, and yet feeling they contained treasures of 
 wisdom and knowledge which we would never reach. Above the 
 black marble mantelpiece the picture of a strikingly handsome 
 man (Sir William's brother) looked grandly down, and at his side 
 the wall was occupied by fine engravings of the Italian poets 
 Dante's earnest face always seeming to catch the eye, and to be 
 reminding one that the way to paradise is steep and long. Beneath 
 these, on a table inlaid with brass, stood two handsome malachite 
 vases, some pieces of old china, and usually a glass with flowers 
 all looking like homage offered to the immortals above. The 
 room was lighted by one large window, and in its embrasure 
 stood a great Indian jar covered with strange devices, which must 
 
VISITS OF STRANGERS. 353 
 
 have had a charmed life, since it had survived many generations 
 of children unscathed. Outside the window, the top of a tall 
 poplar (planted in the court below) swayed to and fro with every 
 breath of air. 
 
 At the farther end of the room, two pillars supported a beam 
 which crossed the roof. By some inexplicable combination of 
 ideas, these always reminded us of the two middle pillars in the 
 temple of Dagon. Without doubt, the impression which the pil- 
 lars in themselves first conveyed was afterwards confirmed, by 
 Sir William in his latter years being almost invariably seated 
 near them at the side of the fire; the sight of the strong man, 
 shorn of his strength by the mysterious malady which had laid 
 hold of him, almost naturally suggesting thoughts of Samson. 
 What a brave spirit his was, which, in a form of such massive 
 mould that physical strength seemed its right, endured with 
 patience being held captive and bound with fetters which no 
 effort of his will could break ! His grand appearance was adorned 
 with that essential and most ethereal attribute of beauty colour ; 
 and the gleam of the silvered hair, with the deep, dark fire in the 
 eyes, and the delicate carmine which often mounted to the cheek, 
 produced a combination which pleased indescribably. Time and 
 increasing feebleness only made the spirit shine out more visibly 
 from its house of clay, and the sharp distinction between the mortal 
 and immortal part always grew more vivid and interesting. 
 
 If the spirit of Queen Constance seemed held against her will 
 in a bodily prison, with him it rather seemed as if the shattered 
 tabernacle was held together by force of will and mental strength 
 until his work was done. Dr Samuel Johnson has said that " he 
 hoped he never passed unmoved over any spot dignified by suffering 
 bravery or virtue ;" and to those who, sympathising with the moral- 
 ist's feeling of " religio locorum," saw or can imagine the painful 
 faltering steps necessarily made when the limbs had become no 
 longer willing servants but lifeless drags, the heroism of Sir Wil- 
 liam Hamilton's daily exits to the College must ever make his 
 threshold dignified. 
 
 At this period strangers frequently came to see Sir William, 
 attracted by the fame of his genius and learning. The visits 
 were sometimes of an odd character. One evening there 
 arrived at Cordale, in Dumbartonshire, where Sir William was 
 
 z 
 
354 DR PORTER'S NOTES. 
 
 spending the summer, a gentleman, who described himself as 
 engaged in trade in South Shields. Disappointed of finding 
 Sir William in Edinburgh, he had ascertained where he was 
 living, and taken the long journey for the sole purpose of see- 
 ing him, and getting him to write his name in a copy of the 
 'Discussions.' This object attained, he took his departure 
 next day, without caring to visit Loch Lomond, or any of the 
 scenes of interest into the midst of which his zeal had brought 
 him. 
 
 The spread of Sir William's philosophical opinions in Amer- 
 ica brought a number of visitors from that quarter. 
 
 Professor Porter, of Yale College, who has furnished an in- 
 teresting account of the influence of Sir William's writings in 
 America (printed in the Appendix), visited him in Edinburgh 
 in 1853. He thus records his impressions : 
 
 " The writer of these lines had a slight personal acquaintance 
 with Sir William Hamilton, the remembrance of which he 
 will ever cherish with unalloyed satisfaction. In June 1853 
 he spent a few days in Edinburgh, when on his way to Ger- 
 many to prosecute his studies. Though at that time he had 
 for a few years taught in philosophy, he felt all the timidity 
 of a novice in the presence of the very eminent scholar and 
 critic, whose writings he had read with so much interest and 
 respect. I was of course impressed by his commanding pre- 
 sence and his wonderful eye, but even more by the simplicity 
 of his manners, and the cordiality of his personal feelings. 
 The combination of commanding dignity and winning sweet- 
 ness was remarkable more remarkable, with one or two 
 exceptions, than in any man whom I have known. His look 
 and manner, his thought and speech, gave the impression of 
 an intellect and character of singular and irrepressible fire and 
 energy, which would always command respect and enforce 
 compliance. But to a stranger, his unaffected simplicity 
 and sympathetic kindness were quite as noticeable, especially 
 when set off against such gigantic power and volcanic energy. 
 He entered at once into all my plans with the interest and 
 
DR PORTER'S NOTES. 355 
 
 warmth of an old friend, answered all my questions with the 
 greatest readiness, talked to me about books and men with 
 unwearied patience, and treated my comparative illiteracy 
 with the utmost consideration. His infirmity evidently sat 
 heavily upon him, most sadly and painfully impeding his 
 powers of speech and locomotion. He did not seem, however, 
 annoyed by his slow and imperfect utterance, but quietly and 
 gracefully sought to remove from my own mind all the sense 
 of disquiet or discomfort which I might feel from sympathy 
 with himself. In order, as it seemed to me, to remove any such 
 feeling, he spoke to me freely of this infirmity, and of his 
 varying condition on different days, depending on the changing 
 condition of his nervous system. He expressed a warm interest 
 in the scholarship of my own country, repeated his surprise at 
 having read in the ' Methodist Quarterly Eeview ' a series of 
 very able papers upon the philosophy of Comte, and spoke in 
 flattering terms of the high position which the country would 
 soon occupy in his own favourite sciences. He talked freely 
 and emphatically, in what, I presume, was his usual vein, of 
 the Scottish University system, and of its effects upon the 
 scholarship of the country. He spoke very familiarly and 
 freely, in answer to my questions, of his courses of instruc- 
 tion ; and when I expressed a very strong desire to attend the 
 course in Psychology, he replied that I should find it com- 
 paratively worth but little, and very incomplete, intimating 
 most distinctly that the course upon Logic was far more fin- 
 ished and satisfactory to himself. I sent him a few trifling 
 pamphlets on my return from Germany, and afterwards from 
 America, and received a very courteous letter in reply an 
 attention which, considering his infirmity, and the very slight 
 claim I had upon him, I regarded as illustrating the kindness 
 and simplicity of his nature." 
 
 The following fragments of letters refer to elementary in- 
 quiries about the doctrine of Association. They were written 
 by Lady Hamilton to dictation : 
 
356 LETTERS ON ASSOCIATION. 
 
 Nov. or Dec. 1852. 
 
 The Lectures on Association were written previously to a more 
 accurate consideration, especially of Aristotle's doctrine on the sub- 
 ject, which you will find in the two last printed Dissertations upon 
 Eeid. Professor * * * * seems to think that what Sir William 
 calls the Law of Redintegration may be reduced to the principle of 
 custom or habit. But this, Sir William says, is not correct, because 
 custom is more than one action, being a repetition of the same. 
 Custom, therefore, supposes the principle of redintegration, but the 
 principle of redintegration does not suppose custom. There is an old 
 English proverb, "Once is no custom;" but the German adage is 
 better, being rhyme " Einmal ist Keinmal" Sir William says 
 that his emendation of Aristotle's text, 8 " from the absurd and 
 impertinent " is well illustrated by the French proverb, " Apropos 
 
 des bottes." 
 
 I5tk Dec. 1852. 
 
 The question is, whether what Sir William calls the Law of 
 Redintegration be the primary or most generic law of Association. 
 On this see Dissertations on Reid, p. 897 et seq. The tendency to 
 redintegrate cannot be called custom, though it be the basis of 
 custom ; for custom, the result of which is habit, supposes a 
 plurality of redintegrations, that is a repetition of it. This the 
 proverbs which I wrote you in last letter recognise; the English 
 adage, " Once is no custom" the German, "Einmal ist Keinmal." 
 We ought, therefore, Sir William says, to keep redintegration 
 distinct from habit or custom. Custom is, in fact, the association 
 itself that is, the consecution of thought on thought, through a 
 psychological tendency in opposition to logical necessity. This 
 you will see frequently stated on p. 894 and 895, especially, of 
 the Dissertations. In Garnier's new work, at p. 251 et seq. is a 
 doctrine of association. You will see (p. 270-278 more particu- 
 larly) that Garnier makes, without reference to any previous writer, 
 the Law of Redintegration the principal condition of Association.* 
 " Previous coexistence" may be called the law (that is, the sub- 
 jective rule or reason) or the cause (that is, the objective principle 
 or determination) or the condition (that is, the limitation under 
 which alone the phenomenon emerges) ; but Sir William does not 
 think that it can be called the occasion : for why? the occasion is 
 that which is now present ; but, ex hypothesi, " previous coexist- 
 ence" is not now present it is a past cause of a present effect. 
 
 * Facultes cie 1'Ame, t. II. 2, c. 1. 
 
EDITING OF STEWART'S WORKS. 357 
 
 In 1853, Sir William was requested by the trustees of 
 Miss Stewart to undertake the superintendence of a collected 
 edition of Mr Dugald Stewart's Works, for the publication of 
 which, in fulfilment of her instructions, they were making 
 arrangements. Miss Stewart had herself named Sir William 
 as the editor whom she would prefer above all others. He 
 agreed to the proposal, and this task mainly occupied his 
 time from this date onwards. The purely editorial part of 
 the task did not imply much labour, as Sir William was 
 not expected to do more than revise the text, and arrange 
 generally the order of the Works. The Lectures on Political 
 Economy, however, which had not been printed before, gave 
 him a good deal of thought and trouble. To this portion 
 of the work, which consisted of two volumes, Sir William 
 wrote a short but very excellent preface. This was the 
 last composition which he gave to the world. The issue 
 of the Works was intended to comprise a Memoir of Mi- 
 Stewart by the Editor; but this Sir William did not live 
 to accomplish. 
 
 The Messrs Black of Edinburgh, while bringing out the 
 last edition of the 'Encyclopaedia Britannica/ were desirous 
 that Sir William should contribute to the work a Disserta- 
 tion on the History of Metaphysical and Ethical Philosophy, 
 carrying on the subject from the points at which the Dis- 
 sertations of Stewart and Mackintosh had left off, and thus 
 supplying an account of the more modern systems of specula- 
 tion, especially in Germany and France, during the first half 
 of this century. This task, as also a subsequent proposal 
 that he should contribute the article " Logic" to the same work, 
 Sir William, with much regret, was constrained to decline, on 
 account of the prospect of the full occupation of his time and 
 strength by the editing of Stewart's Works. 
 
 The letters from home to Lieutenant Hamilton give us 
 further continuous glimpses of Sir William, and form the 
 chief materials for illustrating his life from this period on- 
 wards to the close: 
 
358 LETTERS FROM HOME. 
 
 LADY HAMILTON TO W. HAMILTON. 
 
 7th June 1852. 
 
 . . . Your papa is quite well, and speaks of setting to work 
 to finish his notes to Reid ; but as yet he has done nothing. A 
 great accumulation of letters have required answering, and as that 
 is an employment he does not like, he does not make much progress. 
 
 17 th August 1852. 
 
 We have been trying to persuade him to finish the notes to 
 Reid, but he seems to be frightened to begin. 
 
 To H. HAMILTON. 
 
 Jan. 1853. 
 
 There is a long and complimentary article on your papa's Reid 
 and ' Discussions/ in the * North American Review.' I send it, and 
 you will return it on Monday. As usual, your papa says in some 
 points he has been altogether misunderstood. 
 
 5th Fehuary 1853. 
 
 . . The greatest piece of news that I have to tell you this 
 letter is what I consider something of a misfortune ! that your 
 papa has found out that he can attend an auction, which he has not 
 done since his illness, more than eight years ago ! The induce- 
 ment to this unusual proceeding has been the sale of the valuable 
 library of the late Lord Glenlee. The books were in beautiful 
 order, and of the best editions. However, the greater part were 
 mathematical, and, of course, they did not tempt your papa ; never- 
 theless he has bought a good many volumes. He seems well 
 pleased with his purchases. 
 
 To W. HAMILTON. 
 
 2d July 1853. 
 
 There will be one advantage in going out of town so early we 
 shall escape the strangers who are continually invading us. Already 
 we have had several Americans, and the other night we had quite 
 a brilliant little party a Sicilian prince and his friend, a Polish 
 nobleman, whom Count Krasinski asked leave to introduce to your 
 papa. Fortunately, several people who speak French and Italian 
 well were here, so we got on very well, and the prince was most 
 agreeable and affable. 
 
LIFE IN THE COUNTRY. 359 
 
 The somewhat unvarying tenor of Sir William's life was 
 a little broken in upon in the summer months by an annual 
 migration to the country. The place of temporary sojourn 
 was generally on the sea-coast. Occasionally we find the family 
 located in an inland residence. Sir William liked bracing 
 air, especially of the sea ; and as latterly he never otherwise 
 left home, he found himself benefited by the yearly change, 
 though the actual moving from his usual haunts was a trou- 
 blesome exertion, which he would not of himself have under- 
 taken. 
 
 When in the country, he generally accompanied his family 
 in expeditions and picnics, which he enjoyed as much as the 
 youngest. A characteristic feature of him came out very 
 markedly in those summer sojourns, the readiness and zest 
 with which he entered into his children's pursuits and amuse- 
 ments rejoicing, and, as far as he was able, taking part, in 
 every youthful pastime. A round game with his family de- 
 lighted him at any time. But the country afforded scope for 
 another form of pastime. His mechanical turn had, from 
 his own early boyhood, found an outlet in the construction of 
 kites, for which among juveniles he was famous. Two of his 
 productions in this line had a traditional fame, and were always 
 reported as marvels of art ! The one was an immense fellow, 
 and the other a very small one, but of elaborate construction. 
 One of intermediate size was regularly carried to the country. 
 When it rose in successful flight from the sands of Leven, or 
 the uplands of Lanarkshire, amid the plaudits of the young- 
 sters, it was difficult to say whether they or the constructor 
 himself had the greater enjoyment. This was but the outcome 
 of a part of his character, which was not so generally known 
 or understood as the sterner side. There was, indeed, a lov- 
 ableness and a depth of tenderness in Sir William's strong, 
 hard-knit nature which those who knew him only as the ab- 
 stract thinker, or as the fierce polemic keen, unsparing, and 
 impatient of contradiction did not dream of. So may we 
 find in the massive mountain, which towers high, immovable, 
 
360 ACCIDENT AT LARGO. 
 
 and grim against the sky, that all is not as in the distance 
 appears ; for, in the shadowy recesses of its bosom there are 
 pure founts and streams, deep as it is high, which are ever 
 flowing, beautiful, bountiful, and blessed. 
 
 To W. HAMILTON. 
 
 LARGO, 17th September 1853. 
 
 ... At length I am happy to announce to you that the new 
 edition of the ' Discussions ' is finished and sent off to London. . . . 
 I wish I could also tell you that the preparations for the edition 
 of Stewart's collected writings were commenced ; for I fear it will 
 require all (and more than) the time allowed for the completion of 
 the publication ; but you know it is always a difficult matter to get 
 your papa to bring his mind to the work he ought to do ; and as 
 yet we have not been successful in persuading him to begin to look 
 over the MSS. and other materials whilst he has Hubert at home 
 to assist him, and whilst he is free from the interruptions to which 
 he is exposed in town. Our time here is now' drawing to an end, 
 which we are all sorry for, as we have enjoyed our summer very 
 much, notwithstanding our poor accommodation. 
 
 At Largo (Fifeshire), in the autumn of 1853, he met with 
 a very alarming and serious accident. In walking up-stairs 
 alone, as he was at this time accustomed to do, he fell and 
 broke his right arm. The doctor of the place was very skil- 
 ful, and, under his care, Sir William recovered wonderfully 
 quickly from the accident; but it was afterwards surmised 
 that in the shock to the brain by this fall on his head lay the 
 first cause of an illness which he had in the following winter, 
 and after which he never recovered his former vigour. 
 
 Just before the commencement of the session, Lady Hamil- 
 ton writes : 
 
 To W. HAMILTON. 
 
 25*/i October 1853. 
 
 Your papa is very well. He has not yet commenced with 
 Stewart, but will I suppose be obliged to do so next week ; in the 
 mean time he is absorbed in some logical speculations. 
 
LETTERS FROM HOME. 361 
 
 Only some weeks later, however, Sir William was taken ill. 
 During his recovery Lady Hamilton thus writes to her son : 
 
 Gtk January 1854. 
 
 I did not write by Southampton, thinking it better to give you 
 the latest accounts of your papa. I am glad to tell you he is con- 
 siderably better since my last, and for the* past week he has been 
 in the drawing-room for several hours every day. He sleeps well, 
 eats well, and looks well, and I think has been more cheerful since 
 he has been down -stairs; but he is so extremely nervous about 
 falling, it is very difficult to persuade him to take any exercise, so 
 his walking does not improve so much as we could wish. How- 
 ever, the weather has been so extremely cold, I daresay his diffi- 
 culty in walking has been very much the result of the cold, and 
 we hope when the hard frost takes its departure he will feel less 
 stiff. Yesterday the thermometer was ten degrees higher, and he 
 seemed much more comfortable in respect to heat. What vexes 
 us most is that he does not attempt to resume work ; indeed the 
 very thought of applying himself to anything like work makes 
 him quite nervous ; and, except occasionally looking over a proof, he 
 has not had a book in his own hand since he was laid up. We 
 read to hi constantly. He is much interested in the newspapers, 
 of which we have always a plentiful supply. I think it is fortunate 
 that your papa has got the editorship of Mr Stewart's Works to do, 
 as I trust it will not give him a great deal of trouble, and yet it will 
 be an inducement to exertion. But I have little hope of his being 
 able to write the Memoir, for it would require more mental exertion 
 than he seems now equal to. However, I trust he will be quite 
 able to superintend the printing of the Works, as Miss Petre and 
 I can. do a good deal of the drudgery of looking over the various 
 
 editions, &c. 
 
 2d Feb. 1854. 
 
 . . You will be glad to learn that for the last three days 
 your papa has been going up to his class. He has certainly been 
 much better this last fortnight, but he feels the fatigue of going to 
 the College very much. Kobertson, the porter (whom you will 
 remember), goes with another man to carry your papa up the 
 stairs in a chair, as he finds it too fatiguing to walk up the long 
 stair when none of his own family are there to afford him the 
 accustomed assistance. By another session we must try and have 
 matters better arranged, and, if possible, get a class-room on the 
 ground-floor. 
 
362 LETTERS FROM HOME. 
 
 18th March 1854. 
 
 . . . My report of your papa must be very much the same 
 as it has been for some letters back. He continues to go to the 
 College and to take a short walk after his return ; but he is still 
 timid about walking a step alone, and he never attempts to rise off 
 his chair or sofa without assistance. He complains of being weak, 
 yet I don't think he is really so, unless it is in his limbs ; and this 
 is induced, I have no doubt, by want of exercise. The printing of 
 Stewart's Works goes on, and affords him occupation and interest 
 exactly suited to his present state of health ; for this we cannot be 
 sufficiently thankful for he could not be contented without some 
 mental employment, and yet I do not think he" is able at present 
 for original thought, so this is just the thing for him. 
 
 To H. HAMILTON. 
 
 27th April 1854. 
 
 I daresay you will be looking to receive another letter from home ; 
 so, as Miss Petre and papa are busy reading over a " proof," I may 
 as well take a little chat with you. The sheet they are reading 
 is the last of the second volume ; to-morrow the third volume will 
 be commenced ; so you see the work is getting on. ... In 
 regard to Mr Thomson's [Archbishop of York] question as to which 
 is the best * Manual of Psychology/ your papa says he is totally 
 unable to answer it ; for he considers one such book good in this 
 respect, another in that, but he cannot name any one which he 
 would recommend as absolutely and pre-eminently the best. He 
 has seen, he cannot say read, the principal modern manuals of the 
 kind written in Germany, France, Italy, Holland, and Denmark, 
 besides those of British authors, but he finds it difficult to make 
 a selection indeed, does not feel a,ble for it at present, when his 
 mind is occupied with other matters, and he has little strength to 
 spare. . . . Your papa desires me to return upon Mr Thomson's 
 inquiry to supply what I had omitted to state, that he might 
 mention Garnier's book, ' Traite des Facultes de 1' Ame,' as affording 
 one of the most recent digests of the kind from France, though he 
 does not think it very profound. 
 
 A portion of the summer of 1854 was spent at Cordale, in 
 Dumbartonshire, on the banks of the Leven. Sir William's 
 health was not so good as in the preceding summer, the ill- 
 
AT CORDALE. 363 
 
 ness of the previous winter having told on him, and he was 
 busy with his edition of Stewart's Works. But both he and 
 Lady Hamilton had spent many pleasant days of their youth 
 in this spot, and there was a quiet happiness in again so- 
 journing for a little amid the former scenes of life. Since 
 the time of his boyhood, the past had been nobly used, and the 
 near close of the future was unseen. " He would often stop in 
 his wheel-chair," says his daughter, " to gaze on the beauty 
 of the views from the walks near the house. The pretty old- 
 fashioned garden he enjoyed, and was often in it, sitting on a 
 shady seat near the river, or walking on the grassy paths. He 
 and Miss Petre * used to sit out of doors making the index 
 to one of the volumes of Stewart's Works, and looking quite 
 picturesque, as well as happy, in their combination of labour 
 with enjoyment. He had a swing put up, which he would 
 come and watch us using. During this summer we were 
 seldom without visitors, whom he was always glad to see, 
 particularly as they were often old friends with whom of late 
 he had not had the opportunity of holding much intercourse." 
 
 To W. HAMILTON. 
 
 CORDALE, llih June 1854. 
 
 I am sure you will be pleased to receive a letter dated from 
 Cordale, and to know that we are so comfortably settled for the 
 summer, as we find ourselves in this sweet place, which has to me 
 at least the pleasing associations of the home of my early days. 
 The house is much improved, but, I am glad to say, little changed 
 in external appearance ; and the garden and grounds remain the same 
 I have ever known them, except that the trees are nearly fifty years 
 older ! 
 
 CORDALE, 2d August 1854. 
 
 . . . We are all well, and now all gathered together, except your 
 dear self ; and that you were with us is, I think, all that is wanted 
 to make us perfectly happy in this sweet quiet place, which seems 
 
 * Miss Petre had resided for several years in Sir "William's family as governess 
 to his daughter, and now assisted him in his labours on Stewart's Works with 
 a zeal and intelligence of which he always expressed a grateful sense. 
 
364 LETTERS FROM HOME. 
 
 so much of a home to me. For some time past we have had very 
 fine weather, and have enjoyed our drives very much ; and on 
 Saturday last we accomplished a great thing in taking your papa 
 round the Loch [Lomond] in the steamer; and having made out 
 this expedition to his satisfaction, I hope we shall be able to get 
 him to undertake some others. I think he has been very much 
 better and happier since we have been having more people with us, 
 especially friends with whom he is on no ceremony. 
 
 CORDALE, llth Sept. 1854. 
 
 . . . It is a year to-day since your papa broke his arm ; and 
 although I think it has told upon him in many respects, and he is 
 much more infirm and helpless than he was some two or three years 
 ago, we have reason to be thankful he is upon the whole so well. 
 He is looking very well at present, and is walking better, and more 
 than when we came here ; but as the time draws on for our return 
 to Edinburgh, he is beginning to be troubled about the class, and 
 how he is to get on in the winter. I have long been anxious on 
 this point, but as he never mentioned the subject, I refrained from 
 speaking to him. My own opinion is that he ought to have resigned 
 last spring, and applied to Government to grant him a retiring 
 allowance. We shall leave this the end of the month, and I am 
 sure we shall all leave it with great regret and with much gratitude 
 to our kind cousins, who have enabled us to spend such a comfort- 
 able and pleasant summer. All the party have had great enjoyment. 
 . . . Your papa and I have been all the better of the variety of 
 seeing a number of old friends, who have seemed to find pleasure in 
 coming here to visit us. 
 
 The following were written after the family returned to 
 town : 
 
 ISth October 1854. 
 
 . . . The house is now at last in tolerable order, and we are 
 settled down into our old ways. Your papa is kept busy by the 
 printer sending him "proofs" every evening. . . . Yesterday 
 Mr Terrier and two or three other gentlemen dined here, which was 
 something of an event, as your papa, for a long period before we left 
 town, thought himself quite unable to have company. He enjoyed 
 himself, however, last night very much, although he did not speak 
 much, except when enticed into a discussion on the " Absolute " by 
 Mr Terrier, whose book is at length on the eve of publication.* 
 
 * Institutes of Metapliysic. 
 
LETTERS FROM HOME. 365 
 
 2d Nov. 1854. 
 
 Tfj ; V . You will be glad to hear we are all well here, and that 
 your papa was able to commence his lectures yesterday, and to get 
 through the fatigue and worry more comfortably than we expected. 
 . . . Your papa has just got Mr Terrier's book, which he has 
 been so long engaged in writing. It is a very nice-looking volume 
 outwardly, but your papa does not appear to think so much of its 
 contents ; but he and Mr Terrier have differed on " the Absolute," 
 the subject of the book, for the last twenty years, so it is not to be 
 expected that they will agree now. 
 
 23d Nw. 1854. 
 
 . . . You will be glad to hear we are all well, and particu- 
 larly that your papa continues to get on comfortably with his 
 College duties. He is decidedly much better than he was last year ; 
 he walks up and down stairs, and reads at least half an hour ; nor 
 does he feel tired with his exertions, but is generally ready to take 
 his walk when he comes home. Still the nervous dread of falling 
 remains, and he never attempts to walk a step alone, or to use his 
 stick. 
 
 To H. HAMILTON. 
 
 15ft Feb. 1855. 
 
 Bill's kind and generous offer has quite overcome his father and 
 me ; of course we could never think of accepting it ; but that does 
 not diminish the gratification which we feel, that he should have 
 wished to make so great a sacrifice of his own income to increase 
 ours. I do not remember having expressed any anxiety that your 
 papa should give up his professorship ; but since I did, it must have 
 been previous to the commencement of the session, when, of course, 
 it was a matter of doubt and anxiety how he was to get on. To his 
 own feelings, and to ours, it is certainly very painful, that when so 
 unable for his work, he should be compelled to go on with it for the 
 sake of income ; but at the same time in many respects it is good 
 for him, particularly in causing him to make the bodily exertion, 
 and in giving him the variety of occupation, which is needful, and 
 which it is always difficult to persuade him to take ; and, for these 
 reasons, it is well that he should retain his professorship as long as 
 he can at all fulfil its duties. 
 
 4th Apj-il 1855. 
 
 Your papa is pretty well, though he complains much of feeling 
 weak, and I think is walking ill. The class will not finish till next 
 
366 LETTERS FROM HOME. 
 
 week. The index to the Active Powers is well advanced ; indeed, 
 Miss Petre expects it will be finished in a few days, so the seventh 
 volume of the Works will soon be out. 
 
 To W. HAMILTON. 
 
 2d April 1855. 
 
 . . . Your papa is well ; he intended to have dictated a few 
 lines to you, but he was tired, and having been much agitated with 
 the news of your letter, I persuaded him to go to bed, promising 
 I would give you his kindest love and blessing, and tell you how 
 thankful and proud he is of his son. 
 
 The incident here referred to was a nocturnal attack by a 
 party of hill-men on the tent of Lieutenant Hamilton. They 
 were in considerable number, and well provided with arms, 
 while he, suddenly aroused, had nothing but a partially-loaded 
 revolver with which to protect himself. After a struggle, in 
 which he showed great presence of mind and courage, he drove 
 off his assailants. Another similar attack, which had proved 
 fatal to the person assailed, and the news of which reached 
 Edinburgh at the same period, increased the emotion with 
 which Sir William regarded the fortunate issue of the assault 
 on his son. An accidental reference in the class, shortly after 
 he had learned Lieutenant Hamilton's escape, to a case in 
 which danger was similarly warded off by personal bravery, 
 caused Sir William to give way to strong emotion. 
 
 To W. HAMILTON. 
 
 24^ May 1855. 
 
 . . . Your papa is now busy printing the eighth volume of 
 Stewart's Works, which is to contain the Lectures on Political 
 Economy ; and as they are in MS., and require a great deal of 
 arrangement, he has been a good deal bothered ; but he finds a 
 most efficient assistant in Miss Petre. 
 
 13*A June 1855. 
 
 . . . Your papa is in his usual health, only very nervous 
 at the thought of writing the Memoir of Stewart. I don't know 
 what to do, whether to urge him to give it up altogether or not. 
 
AT AUCHTEKTOOL. 367 
 
 He thinks he is unable to do it, yet I think he would be sorry to give 
 it up, and I always hope, if it were once begun, he would find he 
 was getting on better than he anticipated. 
 
 The autumn of 1855, when he left home for the last time, 
 was spent at Auchtertool, an inland and retired spot in 
 Fifeshire. At this time Sir William frequently felt both ill 
 in health and depressed in spirits, and there was about him 
 an unusual want of tone and vigour. This was apparently 
 the beginning of that decline of strength which ended fatally 
 the following year. The thought of the Memoir of Mr 
 Stewart weighed heavily on his mind. The kind of composi- 
 tion was comparatively new to him, and in his present health 
 and spirits he had no courage to look forward to the task. 
 He seemed, however, to derive benefit from his stay at 
 Auchtertool, which suited him extremely well. He was 
 much in the open air, the neighbourhood being so quiet that, 
 in a little wheel-chair drawn by his sons, he was able to share 
 in the walks of the rest of the party, which he thoroughly 
 enjoyed, and from which he would come home braced and 
 cheered. 
 
 Some fragments on the Scottish Philosophy (printed in the 
 Appendix to his metaphysical lectures), which were written 
 in connection with the Memoir of Mr Stewart, and were his 
 last philosophical compositions, date from this time. 
 
 LADY HAMILTON TO W. HAMILTON. 
 
 AUCHTERTOOL, 1st Sept. 1855. 
 
 . . . It is well I had written so much of my letter before 
 going out, for we have had such a long expedition I am quite worn 
 out and can scarcely keep myself awake. Your papa's chair-carriage 
 is really invaluable to him. I wish you saw the road we took him 
 to-day, and the two hills he mounted. You would be astonished both 
 at what he can accomplish in the way of walking, and what Hubert, 
 Bessy, and Tommy can do in the way of drawing him. I think 
 papa is certainly better since my last ; but still his work is not 
 
368 AT AUCHTERTOOL. 
 
 begun. He has been doing a little at other things, though the 
 Memoir has received no attention ; but every day I hope he will 
 commence. It is vexing that already so much time has been lost. 
 
 We have had one or two visitors of late. The first was an American 
 gentleman, who has been studying in Germany for two years, and 
 can talk of nothing but German philosophy. He is translating a 
 History of Philosophy from German into English, and wished papa's 
 opinion upon it. He came quite unexpectedly one day, and stayed 
 till next morning. 
 
 AUCHTERTOOL, 17th Sept. 1855. 
 
 . . . Your papa sends you his blessing, and fondest and best 
 good wishes [on his birthday]. Letter-writing is such a burden 
 to him, he hopes you will excuse him, and believe that it is from no 
 want of affectionate interest that he does not express his feelings 
 except through me. This place has agreed with him remarkably 
 well, and in every way suits him, and his general health has much 
 improved ; but his spirits are still much depressed, and his work does 
 not get on. How it is to be got through I don't know, but we hope 
 he is getting a little more interested in it, and that, when the pres- 
 sure of necessity comes, he will set to work in earnest. 
 
 After the family had returned to town for the winter, Lady 
 Hamilton writes : 
 
 To W. HAMILTON. 
 
 2d Nov. 1855. 
 
 . . Your father was very nervous and feeling very weak last 
 week, but I think he is better again. The anticipation of the class 
 beginning upsets him, but I hope he will not find it so unpleasant 
 after the first few days are over. 
 
 To H. HAMILTON. 
 
 16th Nov. 1855. 
 
 I am sure you are wearying to hear again how your papa gets on 
 at the College ; and for these some nights past I have fully intended 
 to write, but there has been so much to do, and I have been so tired, 
 I have been quite unable to fulfil my intention. I am happy to 
 tell you your father keeps well, and, from all I can hear, gets on as 
 well at the College as last year. At home we think he is speaking 
 
LETTERS FROM HOME. 369 
 
 better. One evening we had Mr * * * at tea, and we were all 
 struck with your papa speaking so well and distinctly ; indeed, we 
 all think him better since the class commenced. The printing of 
 the second volume of the ' Political Economy ' goes on rapidly a 
 proof almost every night, which is hard work for him and Miss 
 Petre. 
 
 To W. HAMILTON. 
 
 7th Dec. 1855. 
 
 . . . Since my last, both your papa and I have had a good 
 deal of worry and annoyance he, from having to write a Preface 
 to the first volume of Stewart's * Political Economy ' hurriedly and 
 unexpectedly, as the publisher had not intended to bring out that 
 volume until the second was ready, but found occasion to change 
 his mind, somewhat inconveniently for papa, who has little leisure 
 or strength for extra work during the College session. Fortunately, 
 some of it had been written whilst we were in the country, but it 
 is curious how the strength comes when exertion is requisite, and 
 we have all been surprised to see how well he has got through the 
 hurry, and written really a very good advertisement perhaps the 
 best he has composed for Stewart's Works. He gets on also in the 
 class much better than we anticipated, reading generally about half 
 an hour ; and, altogether, we think him happier and more cheerful 
 since the class commenced. 
 
 19th Dec. 1855. 
 
 . . . "Within these few days your papa has got one load off his 
 mind by the publication of the first volume of Stewart's * Political 
 Economy,' and the satisfaction which his Preface has given to the 
 Trustees, and to those more immediately concerned in the publica- 
 tion. As the contents of this volume have not been printed before, 
 and as it has cost an immense amount of trouble to arrange the 
 MSS., it will be a pleasant thing if the volume is well received by 
 the public ; we shall therefore be looking out anxiously for notices 
 of it in the reviews and newspapers. 
 
 13th Feb. 1856. 
 
 . . . When I said to your papa on the 12th, " This is the seventh 
 anniversary of Billy's leaving us," he burst into tears at the thought 
 that he might never be allowed to see you again in this world. . . . 
 He is pretty well, and has not missed a day in going to his class, 
 but he reads very little of the lecture himself. The second volume 
 
 2 A 
 
370 LETTERS FROM HOME. 
 
 of Stewart's * Political Economy ' is now completed, as far as your 
 father is concerned, so now the only portion of the undertaking 
 which is to do is the Memoir, to which I suppose he will not do 
 anything till the College session is over. Indeed he has neither 
 leisure nor strength for it at present. 
 
 19th March 1856. 
 
 . . . I am glad to say we are all very well your papa holding 
 out wonderfully, though now looking forward to the termination of 
 the College session with some impatience, and counting the days, 
 like a schoolboy those to the commencement of his holidays. We 
 are to have the first students' party to-morrow evening. The Banna- 
 tynes have given us a very kind and pressing invitation to pay them 
 a visit as soon as the class is over. ... I should like it very much, 
 and so I think would your papa, but I fear he will not be able to 
 make up his mind to the exertion, he is so very nervous and unwill- 
 ing for any change. It would, however, I am sure, be a refresh- 
 ment to us all, and with the Bannatynes he might do as he likes 
 and feel under no restraint. I think one thing that might tempt 
 him is the wish to see the Glasgow Cathedral, which has been 
 undergoing a complete repair and restoration. 
 
 3d April 1856. 
 
 . . . Your papa is just off to the College ; next week his class 
 will close, which will be a relief to him.* 
 
 ISth April 1856. 
 
 We have been reading a deeply interesting memoir of an officer 
 who was killed last spring in the Crimea, as truly pious as he was 
 brave, and the latter years of whose life were spent in the most zeal- 
 ous efforts to do good to all who came within his influence [Captain 
 Hedley Vicars]. . . . Your papa has been much interested in it, and 
 as we read it to him many times the tears were running down his 
 cheeks. 
 
 The College session came to an end about the 10th or 12th 
 of April. Sir William was daily in his class-room to the 
 
 * The following is a list of the number of students who attended the class 
 during Sir William's occupancy of the Chair : In 1836-7, 117 ; 1837-8, 172 ; 
 1838-9, 155; 1839-40,128; 1840-1,117; 1841-2, 108 j 1842-3, 105; 1843-4, 129; 
 1844-5, 110; 1845-6,174; 1846-7, 104; 1847-8,122; 1848-9,111; 1849-50,159; 
 1850-1, 146 ; 1851-2, 166j 1852-3, 150 ; 1853-4, 157 ; 1854-5, 132 ; 1855-6, 143 ; 
 making an average each year of 135. There was thus, on the whole, an increase 
 of the attendance during the latter years of Sir William's professorship. 
 
LAST ILLNESS. 3*71 
 
 last ; and after the work of the session was over, he took 
 leave, as usual, of the class with the simple but heartfelt and 
 impressive words " God bless you all." It was noticed that 
 on no former occasion had he spoken the words with more 
 emphasis. 
 
 There was, as we have seen, a little plan, in which he him- 
 self was interested, of going to Glasgow to visit his cousins, 
 Mrs Stark and the Misses Bannatyne ; and it was proposed to 
 proceed thence to Eairlie in Ayrshire, to spend a short time 
 with his friend and relation Miss Home, who was ill. Evi- 
 dently he was far from well, and it was thought that a change 
 might do him good. Shortly after the close of the session 
 he had attacks of giddiness and headache. With care and 
 quiet these passed away for a time; then .they recurred so 
 as to cause considerable anxiety. The proposed journey was 
 accordingly given up. 
 
 The end was now very soon to come. 
 
 On Monday, the 28th April, Sir William was down-stairs 
 for the last time. He employed himself in looking over and 
 correcting the proof of a short account of Heyne, written by 
 him for a former edition of the 'Encyclopaedia Britannica/ 
 with the view of making a few alterations rendered necessary 
 by lapse of time. He seemed so much better that there was 
 again some talk of leaving home. But during the night a tem- 
 porary confusion of mind seemed to come over him, which 
 alarmed his family. He lay in bed for the next few days, not 
 suffering, and able to listen to reading. A friend had lent him 
 the Life of Dr Kitto, in which he was much interested. 
 
 On 2d May Lady Hamilton wrote to her eldest son : 
 
 Your papa sends you his blessing. He seldom speaks of you that 
 the tears do not come into his eyes. I hope I shall be able to give 
 you a better account of him when I next write. 
 
 The same day he attempted to rise but found himself unable. 
 From that time he gradually became worse. The illness was 
 pronounced congestion of the brain, and the physician's aid 
 
372 GENERAL REMARKS. 
 
 was in vain. On Monday, the 5th, he fell into a state of 
 unconsciousness, yet with lucid intervals, in which he was 
 able to recognise and faintly speak to those about him. As 
 night drew on the unconsciousness became more profound, 
 and early next morning life ceased. 
 
 " A simpler and a grander nature never arose out of darkness 
 into human life : a truer and a manlier character God never 
 made. How plain and yet how polished was his life in all its 
 ways ; how refined, yet how robust and broad his intelligence 
 in all its workings ! . . . His contributions to philosophy have 
 been great ; but the man himself was greater far." So wrote 
 one who, knowing him long, and loving him well, and, un- 
 biassed by assent to the conclusions of his philosophy, was 
 well fitted to appreciate him.* No one could come into con- 
 tact with Hamilton without feeling that in him simplicity was 
 blended with the truest manliness. The ground of his nature 
 was simplicity ; its strength was sustained and nourished from 
 this root. All through life there was a singleness of aim, a 
 purity, devotion, and unworldliness of purpose, and a childlike 
 freshness of feeling, which accompanied, guided, and in a great 
 measure constituted his intellectual greatness. To the vulgar 
 ambitions of the world he was indifferent as a child ; in his 
 soul he scorned the common artifices and measures of compro- 
 mise by which they are frequently sought and secured. To be 
 a master of thought and learning, he had an ambition; in this 
 sphere he naturally and spontaneously found the outlet for 
 his powers. But this craving, passionate as it was, never 
 did harm to the moral nature of the man. The increase of 
 years, the growth of learning and fame, took nothing away from 
 the simplicity of his aim, his devotion to its pursuit, or his 
 freshness of heart. No sordid covering ever gathered over 
 his soul to restrain the warmth, the quickness, the chival- 
 rousness, the generosity of his early emotions ; no hardened 
 satisfaction with the routine of the world settled down on a 
 
 * Professor Ferrier. 
 
GENERAL REMARKS. 373 
 
 nature which had looked so long and so steadily at the point 
 where definite human knowledge merges in faith : 
 
 " Time, which matures the intellectual part, 
 Had tinged the hairs with grey, but left untouched the heart." 
 
 The elevated intellectual sphere in which he lived carried 
 with it a corresponding elevation and purity of moral atmo- 
 sphere; the ideals of philosophy had been to him far more 
 than the world of the real. 
 
 We might .reasonably expect that a prolonged meditation 
 of the great metaphysical questions about this universe of 
 which we are a part, would have a tendency, as a sense of 
 their vastness and ultimate insolubility grew in the mind, to 
 touch the moral and spiritual soul within, to quicken awe, and 
 thus to take from the keenness of the intellectual question- 
 ing, by teaching the hopelessness of an adequate speculative 
 comprehension of them. The imperfection of theory would 
 thus remain as the last result, as at once the sign of per- 
 sonal reverence, and the moral tribute of a great intellect to 
 the ultimate reach of a theme which is felt to surpass the 
 bounds alike of individual intelligence and of the experience 
 of the race, as far as that has yet been unfolded. Those 
 who were familiar with the daily life of Hamilton through 
 the greater part of its course, observed towards the close, and 
 while his intellect was vigorous as ever, that there appeared 
 in him an increasing feeling of that mysterious side of things, 
 the recognition of which it was the purport of his philosophy 
 to show to be rationally unavoidable on any view of human 
 experience that may be taken. In the questionings of his 
 prime, he reached what seemed to him the insuperable limi- 
 tations of thought regarding transcendent being ; gathering 
 withal gleams of faith and hope from the very barrier that 
 arrested speculative advance. If at that time he seemed to 
 dwell mainly on the limitation of knowledge, and merely to 
 indicate the suggestions of our natural faith regarding what is 
 beyond all that we definitely know, in the subsequent period 
 of his life he felt more strongly the force of the latter, and 
 
374 INSCRIPTION ON TOMBSTONE. 
 
 what had appeared the lesser light at noon grew gradually 
 greater and brighter as the shadows fell. In the one hour of 
 consciousness that preceded the close, he found expression for 
 his feelings in these words : " Thy rod and thy staff, they 
 comfort me." 
 
 On the tombstone in one of the vaults of St John's Chapel, 
 Edinburgh, where Sir William was laid, the following words 
 are inscribed : 
 
 En JWtemora of 
 
 SIR WILLIAM HAMILTON, BARONET, 
 
 PROFESSOR OF LOGIC AND METAPHYSICS 
 
 IN THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH, 
 WHO DIED 6TH MAY 1856, AGED 68 YEARS. 
 
 HIS AIM 
 WAS, BY A PURE PHILOSOPHY, TO TEACH 
 
 THAT 
 
 NOW WE SEE THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY, 
 NOW WE KNOW IN PART : 
 
 HIS HOPE 
 
 THAT, IN THE LIFE TO COME, 
 HE SHOULD SEE FACE TO FACE, 
 AND KNOW EVEN AS ALSO HE IS KNOWN. 
 
CONCLUDING CHAPTER 
 
 READING, COMMONPLACE-BOOK, AND LIBRARY. 
 
 IMPORTANCE ATTACHED TO READING BY HAMILTON READING AND NON- 
 READING PHILOSOPHERS LEIBNITZ AND HAMILTON RELATION BE- 
 TWEEN HIS READING AND THINKING VALUE OP HISTORICAL KNOW- 
 LEDGE IN HIS TIME CHARACTERISTICS OF HIS READING THE LARGE 
 
 COMMONPLACE - BOOK WORKS OF REFERENCE BIBLIOGRAPHIES 
 FORMATION OF LIBRARY MECHANICAL SKILL SIZING CONTENTS 
 OF LIBRARY ACUTE DICTA GENERAL REMARKS FELLOWSHIP 
 BUST. 
 
 SIR WILLIAM HAMILTON'S writings are obviously distinguished 
 by an extraordinary acquaintance with the literature of their 
 subjects, and a ready command of his stores of learning. It 
 may therefore be interesting to give some account, in a con- 
 cluding chapter, of his general habits of reading and study, 
 of his library, and of the modes by which he succeeded in 
 amassing, and making readily available, his minute, ample, 
 and varied learning. His habits of study, and the helps which 
 he used in reading, and conserving what he read, form matter 
 of general description rather than of narrative, characteristic 
 as they were of the man all through his life, from his college 
 days onwards. Nor can these points be properly described 
 without a reference to certain of the more prominent charac- 
 teristics of his mind. 
 
 To the mastery and treatment of a subject, the essential pre- 
 liminary with Sir W. Hamilton was reading. He must know, 
 in the first place, what had been thought and written by others 
 
376 LEIBNITZ AND HAMILTON. 
 
 on the point which he proposed to consider. In this respect 
 he may be taken as the extreme contrast of many men who 
 have given their attention to speculative questions. Hobbes, 
 Locke, Brown to say nothing of writers nearer the present 
 time were content with a very limited knowledge of the 
 conclusions of others on the subjects which they discussed. 
 Hamilton's writings show how little he sympathised with 
 men of the non-reading type how he was even blinded, to 
 some extent, to their proper merits as in his references to 
 Brown and Whately. In the universality of his reading, and 
 knowledge of philosophical opinions, he is to be ranked above 
 all those in Britain who have given their attention to specula- 
 tive questions since the time of Bacon, with the exception, 
 perhaps, of Cudworth. Dugald Stewart was probably his 
 superior in acquaintance with general literature, but cer- 
 tainly far from his equal in philosophical learning. On the 
 Continent, the name which in this respect can be placed most 
 fittingly alongside of Hamilton during the same period is 
 Leibnitz. 
 
 Between Leibnitz and Hamilton, indeed, amid essential 
 differences in their views of what is within the compass of 
 legitimate speculation, there are several points of resemblance. 
 The predominating interest of each lay in the pursuit of purely 
 intellectual ideals and wide- reaching general laws, especially 
 in the highest departments of metaphysics. Both were dis- 
 tinguished by rare acuteness, logical consecution, deductive 
 habit of mind, and love of system. They were greater think- 
 ers than observers ; more at home among abstract concep- 
 tions than concrete realities. Both had a deep interest in the 
 important intellectual and moral questions that open on the 
 vision of thoughtful men in the highest practical sphere of all 
 the border-land of metaphysics and theology ; both had the 
 truest sympathy with the moral side of speculation. In each 
 there was a firm conviction that our thoughts and feelings 
 about the reality and nature of Deity, His relation to the 
 world, human personality, freedom, responsibility, man's rela- 
 
LEIBNITZ AND HAMILTON. 377 
 
 tion to the Divine, were to be vitalised, to receive a meaning 
 and impulse, only from reflection on the ultimate nature and 
 reach of human thought. 
 
 To grasp, as far as possible, the entire domain of knowledge 
 at least, to be found absolutely ignorant in nothing was their 
 common intellectual ambition ; and yet, with all their love of 
 completeness and of system, the way in which each gave to 
 the world the results of his thought and erudition was exceed- 
 ingly desultory and fragmentary, and far short of the extremely 
 fastidious ideal mode which he had proposed to himself. 
 Both were learned classical scholars ; both were well read in 
 Greek philosophy; and if Leibnitz was more Platonic, Ham- 
 ilton was by far the greater Aristotelian. Both were deeply 
 versed in scholastic philosophy; zealous in historical anti- 
 quities; and a similar curiosity impelled them to fields of 
 out-of-the-way research fields untrodden in their generation 
 save by themselves. They had a like interest in ecclesiastical 
 history and theological controversies ; and both viewed with 
 a catholic and tolerant feeling the differences of the sects. 
 If Leibnitz was interested in physical research, and helped 
 to advance mathematics, Hamilton had the specialty of a 
 thoroughly scientific acquaintance with medicine, and was 
 a discoverer in physiology. In the matter of philosophical 
 reading, they were exceedingly alike. Their learning sus- 
 tained and coloured their thought. In philosophical com- 
 position that is at the same time distinctively original, the 
 nearest parallel to the prodigality of the learned references 
 in Hamilton's ' Beid,' is to be found in the ' Theodicee ' of Leib- 
 nitz : and the miscellaneous papers of the latter show how, like 
 Hamilton, he could extract unappreciated germinative princi- 
 ples from the 'De Anima' or the 'Metaphysics' of Aristotle, 
 and give life, colour, and fruitfulness to scholastic distinctions 
 which to other minds appeared only as barren subtleties. Each, 
 in a word, had the power of detecting the catholic forms of 
 human thought in the varied clothing and terminology which 
 they assume in different reflective epochs, and of making ap- 
 
378 IDEAL IN HEADING. 
 
 plications of them to the discussion of the problems of their 
 own time. And, to add to the parallel, both aimed at more 
 than they accomplished ; both had to regret unrealised ideals. 
 " Leibnitz," says Gibbon, " may be compared to those heroes 
 whose empire has been lost in the ambition of universal con- 
 quest." This is not with any completeness applicable to 
 Hamilton; but it is at least true that he too would have 
 done vastly more had he aimed at less. He would have left 
 results of at least greater bulk, had he been satisfied to 
 work more within the sphere of what he really knew, and 
 yielded less to that noble but somewhat fruitless restlessness 
 which carries the high minds of the race to the outmost cir- 
 cumference of human knowledge. 
 
 Sir W. Hamilton's ideal appears, indeed, to have been 
 the impossible one of mastering all all at least of any im- 
 portance that had been written on a given subject. To 
 exhaust the literature of a subject on which a man pro- 
 posed to write, appeared to him so completely a natural pre- 
 requisite that he regarded any shortcoming on this score as 
 quite a disgraceful deficiency one not to be tolerated.* The 
 terms in which he denounced it were among the strongest 
 in his vocabulary : " I have heard him," says Archdeacon 
 Sinclair, " charge an eminent soholar with ' brutal ignorance ' 
 for not being acquainted with some apposite passage in an 
 obscure author of the middle ages." Underrating, moreover, 
 as a rule, his own extraordinary attainments, he considered 
 other men shamefully deficient in knowledge if they betrayed 
 inferiority to himself in acquaintance with a subject. An 
 amusing example of this is given by Archdeacon Sinclair. 
 Speaking of Archbishop Whately's 'Khetoric,' Sir William said: 
 " The Archbishop is a clear, bold, powerful thinker ; but he is 
 a plagiarist. He fancies himself original, when he is anything 
 but original ; and delivers as his own remarks and opinions 
 which he should have known belonged to other men." The 
 Archdeacon inquired of Sir William the names of the authors 
 * See above, p. 95 Letter to Faculty of Advocates. 
 
IDEAL IN READING. 379 
 
 from whom Dr Whately had borrowed without due ac- 
 knowledgment. He mentioned several books and treatises, 
 most of them long ago forgotten. His friend replied that in 
 all probability the Archbishop had never seen nor heard of 
 the obsolete authorities in question. " So much the worse," 
 replied Sir William. " Why did he undertake to write a trea- 
 tise on rhetoric without knowing all that had been written 
 before upon the subject ?" 
 
 Sir William's critical habit of mind, and wonderful power of 
 systematising opinions, found in this wellnigh universal read- 
 ing their natural nourishment. That this insatiable appetite 
 for books this totalising, as it might be called, of the literature 
 of a subject absorbed intellectual power somewhat unduly, 
 and frequently led him to postpone, and even finally to aban- 
 don, a special definite handling by himself of the subject of his 
 reading, may frankly be admitted. He, probably as much as 
 any man devoted to this mode of working out intellectual 
 questions, was led into a hurtful extreme. But it would be 
 a very great misconception to suppose that he looked upon 
 reading as anything but a means to the end of thinking, or 
 that he really substituted the opinions with which he thus 
 became acquainted for his own final and definite conclusions on 
 the great questions of philosophy. In his Lectures, as already 
 noticed,* he certainly made a liberal use of his reading for 
 purposes of elementary instruction, and too frequently allowed 
 others to speak for him, especially on the more trite parts 
 of rudimentary logic and psychology. But this temporary 
 application of the results of his reading finds no parallel in 
 any of his deliberate writings.-)* 
 
 All of these show how thoroughly he made the results 
 of his reading subordinate to the efforts of his thought ; 
 
 * See above, p. 212. 
 
 t In a footnote to Reid's "Works, p. 632, on the Scientia Media, lie has, I 
 notice, unwittingly given the substance, and to a great extent the words, of a 
 passage from the ' Theodice'e ' of Leibnitz (Partie I. 39, 40). Anything of 
 this sort, however, in the writings published by himself, is, I am convinced, 
 extremely rare. 
 
380 IDEAL IN READING. 
 
 and how it was his habit powerfully to vitalise the passive 
 process of reception by the ardent activity of intelligence. 
 " My own direct acquaintance with Sir William Hamilton," 
 says Mr De Quincey, " soon apprised me that, of all great 
 readers, he was the one to whom it was most indispensable 
 that he should react by his own mind on what he read." 
 What he read he mastered, appreciated, subordinated, by his 
 great powers of comprehension and judgment. His progress 
 through the literature of philosophy is at one time as the 
 advance of a great light which brightens the obscure ; at 
 another, it is the presence of a quickening power which fruc- 
 tifies the unproductive; and, again, the touch of a master's 
 hand which gives completeness and symmetry to the frag- 
 mentary. Then he has none of that littleness of assump- 
 tion which, disregardful of anything but a superficial 
 knowledge of the past, rests in the narrow world of its own 
 individual impressions dignifying it with the name of ex- 
 perience. Men of this habit of mind are great in elaborate 
 rediscoveries of elementary psychological facts, which they 
 fondle as novel and important. The discoveries of some of 
 those writers remind one of what Johnson said of Gold- 
 smith's project of going abroad in order to acquire a know- 
 ledge of arts peculiar to the East, and introduce them into 
 Britain that the trophy of novelty he would in all proba- 
 bility carry home with him would be a " grinding-barrow," 
 which was to be seen in every street in London. Parallels 
 to Goldsmith's grinding-barrow in the logical and pyscho- 
 logical line are not far to seek. As a rule, such investi- 
 gators know nothing of the breadth and bearings of the really 
 vital speculative questions. We may rest assured of this, 
 however, that philosophical speculation will be nothing but 
 a series of novel beginnings and fruitless endings of petty 
 nibblings at this or that side of a wide problem so long as 
 it does not recognise the worth of past speculative efforts, and 
 fails to seek and to see, in the course of reflective thought, a 
 true progress towards unity amid apparent variety. Of the 
 
POWER OF REPRESENTING OPINIONS. 381 
 
 two extremes now noted the limited superficial acquaintance 
 with the forms of past thought, and the vain desire to know 
 and conquer even all that vast region the former is emi- 
 nently the more hurtful to the cause of philosophical truth, 
 and morally it is much the less respectable. This spirit, in 
 conceitedly neglecting the historical aspects of philosophical 
 questions, simply throws away data essential for a solution 
 of the questions themselves, and misses the only means of 
 ascertaining the true origin and import of present abstract 
 thought and expression. The horizon the experience of 
 any one individual must indeed be a wide one, if it can 
 be substituted for the whole sphere of the past thought of 
 our race. 
 
 And we may further note on this point that, in the cir- 
 cumstances of the place and time in which Hamilton worked 
 and wrote in an island whose speculative writers, how- 
 ever distinguished for force and originality of conception, 
 have never been pre-eminent either for catholicity of view 
 or for learning he accomplished the one thing that was 
 needed for speculative philosophy, by connecting the best 
 reflective thought of the country with that of the past and 
 the surrounding present ; thus freeing it from its insularity, 
 and, in the words of one than whom there was no more com- 
 petent judge in our day, " forming a bond between the Scotch, 
 Greek, and German philosophy." * 
 
 Of the literal accuracy, of the reach and variety, of Sir W. 
 Hamilton's philosophical reading there can be no question. 
 He stands out as the learned philosophical thinker of Britain. 
 This is admitted even by the one or two men who are most for- 
 ward to disparage his philosophical merits. But, as a foil to 
 this acknowledgment, it is alleged, that while " he knew with 
 extraordinary accuracy the or/ of every philosopher's doctrine, he 
 gave himself little trouble about the diort." The same author 
 adds : " I imagine he would have been much at a loss if he had 
 been required to draw up a philosophical estimate of the mind 
 
 * Professor Brandis. 
 
382 POWER OF REPRESENTING OPINIONS. 
 
 of any great thinker. .;' ;/. He is weak as to the mutual 
 relations of philosophical doctrines." * 
 
 There are two points in this criticism. The one refers to 
 what may be called the historical imagination as exercised in 
 philosophy. This is the power of entering into the mind of a 
 thinker, and seeing his system from his own point of view, ex- 
 hibiting its mutual bearings and relations, and making allow- 
 ance for the aspect or colouring under which the circumstances 
 of the times in which he lived led him to regard the problems 
 of philosophy. For this power Sir W. Hamilton does not 
 appear, from his writings, to have been especially remarkable ; 
 he has not left very much, indeed, from which we can form a fav- 
 ourable judgment of his capacity, and he has left just as little to 
 lead us to form a conclusion of his incompetency. In his notice 
 of the ' Epistolse Obscurorum Virorum' there is evidence of con- 
 siderable historical imagination ; and this power is not without 
 its manifestation in his more abstract discussions, in which, 
 however, as the relevant point was the consideration of doc- 
 trines rather than of men or entire systems, little pertinent 
 evidence can be looked for. 
 
 With regard, however, to the totally different point of the 
 mutual relations of philosophical doctrines, in the apprehen- 
 sion of which he is said to be weak, there can be nothing 
 more thoroughly the reverse of the fact. If strong in any- 
 thing, he was strong in this strong in the power of logi- 
 cal consecution, ready to apprehend the mutual connections 
 of doctrines ready to deduce their consequences, and able to 
 grasp a system in its logical coherence and entireness. No 
 one who reads with any intelligence either the article on 
 Cousin, or that on Perception, especially the latter part, 
 can doubt this. In regard to Hume, Eeid, and Brown, he has 
 certainly apprehended, and for the first time in this country, 
 their mutual relations, from the historical point of view. The 
 connection of their doctrines he has seized and emphasised 
 with clear, thoroughgoing, and resistless power. To show 
 * Mill, Examination, p. 554. 
 
HIS LITERAL ACCURACY. 
 
 on historical grounds that he has failed in this, would be to 
 adduce relevant evidence of his incapacity. Until this is 
 done, we must hold the charge unsupported by proof.* 
 
 Sir William Hamilton's method of reading and study was 
 exceedingly persistent, concentrative, and minute. The mo- 
 ment a book or subject was taken up, his whole mind was 
 given to it, whatever it might be. No amount of labour or 
 trouble was spared, so long as any point did not appear 
 thoroughly determined, or seemed capable of improvement 
 or emendation. No note was taken by him of the lapse 
 of time ; the hours of sleep were systematically disregarded, 
 and a task commenced in the evening would very frequently 
 hold him long past midnight to early morning. 
 
 He was careful and fastidious about literal accuracy in 
 everything to an extraordinary degree. Great as were his 
 intellectual powers, and wide and high as was their range, he 
 felt no constraint, apparently, in descending to the minutest 
 details of matters of fact. He seems, indeed, even to have de- 
 lighted in the minutise of style and editorship. This was espe- 
 cially shown in his labours on the Works of Keid and Stewart. 
 Proof-sheets were read and re-read, quotations searched out 
 and verified, punctuation corrected. The placing of a comma 
 or the division of a sentence occupied him as thoroughly as if 
 he had never risen to any higher mental exercise discussed 
 either absolute or infinite. With regard to punctuation he 
 was exceedingly careful, and used to say, " One must either 
 punctuate very much or very little." That he himself greatly 
 favoured the former mode, is obvious. In these lighter 
 labours his ardour diffused itself over his household, and 
 enlisted in the work all the available hands of the family. 
 
 Even in his later days, when illness had shattered his 
 bodily strength and frame, this peculiarity continued. " He 
 seemed always to enjoy," says one-f- who knew him well, and 
 cheerfully aided him in his researches, " the lighter task of 
 
 * For a criticism of the grounds of the opinions contained in the quotations 
 in the text, see Note C, on Hume, Leibnitz, and Aristotle, 
 t Miss Petre. 
 
384 CHARACTER OF HIS MEMORY. 
 
 revising and correcting, and seldom required much persua- 
 sion to engage in it. Even when sitting out of doors in the 
 country, though by no means insensible to the dolce far 
 niente apt to be induced by this practice, he was always 
 ready to read a proof or prepare a portion of an index ; and 
 once at work, gave his attention as undividedly as if sitting 
 in his parlour at home. Indeed I do not think he could do 
 anything by halves, except, as Lady Hamilton used to say, 
 listen to the reading of the newspapers." 
 
 Besides the exhaustiveness already noticed, a peculiarity of 
 Sir William's mode of reading and study was, as might have 
 been expected from his extremely logical cast of intellect, 
 his thorough love of order and system. This was mani- 
 fested in dealing with particular subjects, the various points 
 of which he carefully divided and arranged in his mind, 
 generally before commencing his researches. The orderli- 
 ness of his reading reflected the character of his memory, 
 which was singularly retentive, precise, and accurate, as 
 well as ready in reproducing what had been stored up in 
 it. In some memories that are even powerfully retentive, 
 impressions are yet so dim, and so overlie each other 
 the more remote buried under the more recent that what 
 is sought is not easily and promptly recalled. Then they 
 arise vague and inaccurate, the general outlines only being 
 preserved, the details faded. With Hamilton it was not so. 
 Intense attention and thought, the power of referring each 
 thing to its class and place, had been at work in the first pro- 
 cess of storing : it was not a mere passive recipiency, but an 
 active effort, an appreciation and digestion ; and hence the 
 facts or points noted remained clear and distinct, the more 
 recent not obscuring the more remote, but all lying, as it 
 were, side by side, capable of ready recall and immediate appli- 
 cation. This faculty was little, if at all, impaired, even to the 
 end of life ; and many of his students, even during the latter 
 years of his teaching, will remember the vast range, the 
 accuracy, the promptitude, of memory which he displayed on 
 
LARGE COMMONPLACE-BOOK. 385 
 
 those occasions when, as was the practice in the class, students 
 rose to give historical accounts of men or doctrines, of the 
 subjects of which he was beforehand totally unaware. 
 
 But this feature of his method of working was especially 
 shown in the large Commonplace-Book which he constructed, 
 and which contained in orderly arrangement the results of his 
 varied reading. From a very early period of his studies he 
 appears deliberately to have adopted the principle of a com- 
 monplace-book, and formed one after the model of Locke. 
 The volume known as the " Large Commonplace-Book " is as 
 old as 1813 ; it was probably preceded by others of a less 
 elaborate arrangement. " I think," he says, writing in 1853, 
 with his unfailing courtesy, in reply to the inquiry of a 
 stranger Mr H. W. Chandler, of Pembroke College, Ox- 
 ford " that Locke's plan of a commonplace - book is the 
 most convenient ; but on this matter I may perhaps be pre- 
 judiced, for having first become familiar with his method, to 
 me it may appear the best. His distribution of the index 
 is very good, but I would allow double space for his sub- 
 divisions by the vowels. Another recommendation is to have 
 the volume (which I suppose you to get made up) bound with 
 catches, so as to admit of insertions ; and especial care should 
 be taken never to place different matter on the opposite sides 
 of a leaf. This allows you, when necessary, to transfer pages 
 from one place to another. I have likewise found it useful to 
 state a problem, leaving room for the insertion of the authori- 
 ties who maintain the pro and the contra" 
 
 Locke's plan of a commonplace-book, which he himself 
 practised for twenty-five years, is fully stated by him. He 
 thus explains the principle of the index : " I divide the two 
 first pages that face one another by parallel lines into five- 
 and-twenty equal parts, every fifth line black, the others red. 
 I then cut them perpendicularly by other lines that I draw 
 from the top to the bottom of the page. I put about the 
 middle of each five spaces one of the twenty letters I design 
 to make use of, and a little forward in each space the five 
 
 2 B 
 
386 LARGE COMMONPLACE-BOOK. 
 
 vowels one below another in their natural order. This is the 
 index to the whole volume, how big soever it may be. 
 
 " The index being made after this manner, I leave a margin 
 in all the other pages of the book, of about the largeness of 
 an inch in a volume in folio, or a little larger, and in a less 
 volume smaller in proportion. 
 
 "If I would put anything in my Commonplace-Book, I 
 find out a head to which I may refer it. Each head ought to 
 be some important and essential word to the matter in hand, 
 and in that word regard is to be had to the first letter, and the 
 vowel that follows it, for upon these two letters depends all 
 the use of the index." * 
 
 Sir William's Large Commonplace-Book the treasure-house 
 of his stores of learning is a folio of some twelve hundred 
 pages, of which about eight hundred are devoted to psycholo- 
 gical and metaphysical topics, and four hundred to logical to 
 say nothing of numerous slips inserted between the paged 
 leaves. He had also several smaller commonplace-books, 
 arranged on less rigid principles. The entries in the large 
 volume are brief statements of general and special heads, with 
 the names of authorities who had maintained the various 
 opinions, and references to their works. There are also, pretty 
 frequently, statements more or less extended of personal opin- 
 ions. The divisions and subdivisions are planned on prin- 
 ciples of exact logical order so much so, that in the portion 
 devoted to logic itself, we have the skeleton outline of a 
 thoroughgoing and exhaustive logical treatise, with most of 
 the points illustrated by an ample array of opinions and 
 authorities. The book was made up and bound in black 
 leather with his own hands ; the arrangement, divisions, and 
 subdivisions of the topics were entirely the contrivance of 
 his active and methodical intellect. 
 
 The heads of " Attention " and " Expectation of Constancy of 
 Nature " have been selected as affording specimens of the con- 
 
 * For fuller details of the plan and its working, reference may be made to 
 Locke's Works, vol. iii. p. 431 et seq. (ed. 1714). 
 
LARGE COMMONPLACE-BOOK. 387 
 
 tents of the folio. The part on Attention fills one folio (f. 359) 
 of the Commonplace-Book ; that on the Expectation of the 
 Constancy of Nature is distributed over two folios (ff. 284-5). 
 
 Attention. 
 
 ( Reflection Observation.} 
 On, in general. 
 
 Vives, De Anima, p. 54. 
 Steeb, II. 675. 
 
 Tiedemann, Unters. I. 98. Psych. 
 Irwing, II. p. 209. 
 
 That Attention constitutes 
 1. Analysis. 
 
 Condillac, Log. c. 2 (implicite). 
 Fracastor., De Intell., Opera, f. 
 
 2. Abstraction. 
 
 Bilfinger, Dil. 262, p. 258 (explicite). 
 
 S' Gravesande, Introd. pp. 3, 111 (implicite). 
 
 Daube, He'd. p. 19. 
 
 Bonnet, Essai Anal. I. p. 180. Essai de Psych. 208, 209. 
 
 Tiedemann, Psych, p. 121. 
 
 Cams (F. A.), Psych. II. 254. 
 
 Laromiguiere, II. p. 
 
 Mazure, I. p. 385. 
 
 Ernesti, Init. Doct. Solid, p. 131, 132. 
 
 N.B. That exclusive Attention to one thing constitutes 
 Absence to others. Examples of Carneades and Cardan (Steeb, 
 II., 671), Tiedem. Unt. I. 59, 103. 
 
 3. Reflection. 
 
 Wolf, Psych. Emp. 257 (R. to W. not merely on self). 
 
 Denzinger, Log. 
 
 Ernesti, I. D. S. 130 (and Consideration). 
 
 4. Observation. 
 Thurot, II. p. 
 
 That Attention involves Will and active faculty. 
 Occam in Sent. L. ii. qu. 15. 
 Augustin, De Trin. L. ii. c. 2 (Fromondus, 558). 
 Wolf, Psych. Emp. 256. 
 
388 LARGE COMMONPLACE-BOOK. 
 
 Attention. 
 
 (Ref. Obs.) 
 
 Darjies, Metaph. II. p. 8, 78. 
 
 Gruyer, Ess. iii. p. 334. 
 
 Daube, Ideol. p. 23 (against Condillac). 
 
 Laromiguiere. 
 
 Mazure, I. pp. 
 
 Cousin on Laromiguiere in Biran's (Euvres. 
 
 That Attention involves desire and passive power. 
 Brown, Lect. p. 
 
 Pestutt Tracy, Ideol. I. p. 425, 441, &c. 
 Bonnet, Ess. Anal. I. 38, 133. 
 
 That Attention the condition of genius, &c. 
 Garve in Scheidler Hod. p. 186, sq. 
 Stewart, Elena. I. p. 107. 
 G&ruzez, p. ; .; 
 Ponelle, p. 370. 
 
 Cuvier in Toussaint, p. 218 (= Patience). 
 Reid, A. P., p. 81. 
 
 v. Dr Simpson's Address to Students (1842), p. 11. 
 Bonnet, Essai Anal. I. Pre"f. p. viii. 
 My Lectures (Met.) 
 
 [Slip stuck in.] 
 
 Attention made a sep. fac. by giving it a bit of Consciousness 
 and a bit of Will. 
 
 Must distinguish the will and the consciousness. 
 
 We do not walk without will, but who ever makes will in ana- 
 lysing the locomotive fac. except as a preliminary condition ? 
 
 Make a power out of an impotence of the mind. 
 
LARGE COMMONPLACE-BOOK. 389 
 
 Expectation of Constancy of Nature. 
 
 (See above, pp. 35, 157, 215, Adv. Log. 32 &.*) 
 Founded oil 
 
 1. Habit (v. infra Association, No. fy. 
 Wolf, Phil. Pract., . 
 Hobbes, H. N. ch. 4, p. 26. 
 
 2. Conclusion of Reasoning. 
 a. Conscious one. 
 
 Dainiron, Psych., I. 165 (result of generalisation). 
 Princ. Campbell (v. Stewart, Essays, 75, 76) ; (from 
 
 analogical experience and generalisation.) 
 6. Unconscious confused one (= Association ?). 
 
 Wolf, Ps. Emp. 503-508, v. Canzii Psychol. p. 
 Jacob, Psychol. p. 192. 
 
 3. Original Principle. 
 
 Reid Inq. c. vi. 24 (inductive principle) ; Ess. I. P. p. 
 
 603. 
 
 Stewart, El. Ess. p. 78. 
 
 Brown, Lect. p. 34, 51, 53. 
 
 4. Effect of Imagination. 
 
 Wetzel, Psychol. II. p. 64. 
 
 Fries, N. Kr. I. p. . Gesch. d. Ph. 
 
 5. Association of Ideas (v. supra Habit, No. 1). 
 Hume (v. Stewart, Ess. p. 75). 
 Priestley, 86. 
 
 ? Leibnitz, Monadol. 26. 
 Kirwan, Metaph. Essays, p. 390. 
 Fries, Anthrop. I. p. 70, 2d ed. 
 E. Reinhold, Lehrb. d. prop. Psychol. p. 87, 
 
 * Another of his commonplace-books. 
 
390 LARGE COMMONPLACE-BOOK. 
 
 Expectation of Constancy of Nature. 
 
 Recognised as a Principle or Law by 
 Aristotle. 
 
 Names given to it : 
 
 " Expectation or Presumption of the Future." 
 
 Hobbes, H. N. ch. 4. 
 
 On this Principle, v. 
 
 Leibnitz (on Nizol.), Opera, iv. p. i. p. 62. 
 Monadol., 26 (Poley on L. p. 146). 
 Royer Collard. 
 Krug, Lex. II. 460. 
 Lossius, Lex. v. Erfahrung. 
 Stewart's Elem. II. p. 220, alibi. 
 
 Berkeley, Siris. 252 sq. (Reiffenberg, Log. p. 207.) 
 Mendelssohn, Morgenstunde, p. 
 
LARGE COMMONPLACE-BOOK. 391 
 
 This opus magnum was his constant companion ; in the end 
 it became to him almost an object of affection. It was a 
 part of the man, as far as any object that did not participate 
 in his own sentiency could be. Is there any wonder that he 
 prized the old folio, and prized it increasingly as life waned ? 
 It was to him the symbol of the unresting energy of a whole 
 life ; of physical and mental powers such as are seldom granted 
 to man, spent nobly, ungrudgingly, self-sacrificingly, delight- 
 edly. Days, nights, years, had poured their contributions into 
 this treasure-house. It was with him when he was young, arid 
 his powers went forth in the abounding delight of their first 
 fresh vigour ; it carried with it the memories and associations 
 of youth and of manhood down through the declining years 
 of life. Its pages bear the record of a course of reading as 
 varied, inquisitive, and resolute, as was ever accomplished by 
 any man in the history of literature or philosophy. There are 
 indications in this folio of the thoughts of the men of nearly 
 all times and nations, who have risen above the common 
 routine of life to an interest in the great questions of speculative 
 philosophy. In a true, though not a literal sense, we may say 
 of him : 
 
 noXXw tfavdgw'X'uv 'ib&v affrea, KO.I VMV 'iyvca. 
 
 There is no part of the world of speculation which seems to 
 have been unvisited ; no height of Greek or German meta- 
 physics is unsealed ; no forest - brake of tangled medieval 
 logic untrod. Self-reliant, unwavering, courage, belief in his 
 work, had sustained him in many a solitary arid track, where 
 he had gone, beyond the sight and sympathy of men, in 
 search of the far-away fountain-heads of knowledge as little 
 known or visited as the sources of the Niger or the Nile. 
 And here he had before him the tracings of his explorations. 
 Magician -like, he had but to turn the wizard page of his 
 " Book of Might," and the forms of the dead of two thousand 
 years rose before his vision; he heard their words and read 
 their thoughts ; and what to most men were simply names 
 
392 OTHER AIDS IN READING. 
 
 the mere shadows of the past entered with him into living 
 and intelligible communion on every high problem of human 
 interest, on every point of subtle questioning which human 
 thought had pursued for the sake of the effort, or had wrestled 
 with for the sake of the truth, from the formal niceties of 
 logic to the realities of psychology and metaphysics the 
 mind, the world, and God. 
 
 In the same letter to Mr Chandler, Sir William alludes to 
 another mode of reference to his reading which he practised 
 very extensively. " I must confess," he says, " that I have been 
 very lazy about my commonplaces, having latterly [chiefly after 
 his illness] adopted the mode of distinguishing the more im- 
 portant passages in any author worthy of the trouble. This I 
 generally do by scoring with red ink, so as to obtain for the 
 eye a good analysis of the treatise. If you choose to be more 
 particular, differently coloured inks may be employed for differ- 
 ent kinds of notation. This supposes that you have the book 
 in property." He was also in the habit of jotting on the 
 fly-leaves and on the margin of the printed pages of a book 
 the subject of particular passages, but especially references to 
 parallel or apposite passages, in the same and other books. 
 Many of the volumes in the library bristle with such refer- 
 ences. This, added to the frequent motley appearance of the 
 text, the result of the application of " differently coloured inks," 
 hardly leaves need for the overt suggestion made above, that, 
 should any one put in practice these memorial devices, the 
 volume to be operated upon should be his own. 
 
 Besides the Commonplace - Book, his mechanical skill 
 found other means of preserving the results of his reading. 
 His MSS. had a tendency to multiply at an enormous rate, 
 and the problem was to keep them in order and available for 
 reference. His contrivances for this purpose were various and 
 admirable. " Sometimes the MSS. were distributed in pockets 
 of strong paper, very neat and convenient in their construc- 
 tion ; sometimes in trays of pasteboard, which served the pur- 
 pose of drawers. In each case labels frequently two, one 
 
WORKS OF REFERENCE. 393 
 
 general and one particular were attached to tell the nature of 
 the contents ; and this was also done when the drawers of a 
 cabinet were used as receptacles. Sometimes written papers 
 were preserved and arranged by being pasted into books of no 
 value. The complicated yet orderly way in which a number 
 of slips, containing insertions, additions, &c., were pasted to- 
 gether, often excites admiration." 
 
 The number of references which Sir William made to au- 
 thors and their opinions, and the abundance of apt quotations 
 with which he usually illustrated, sometimes overloaded, his 
 compositions, are marked peculiarities of his style. His wide 
 reading and careful noting of passages which struck him, 
 contributed to the general stores from which he drew his 
 quotations. He was, however, greatly aided by books of 
 reference, of which he made constant use. These contained 
 summaries of opinions on philosophical and other questions, 
 quotations of pregnant passages, and sayings in prose and 
 poetry. The works of this class most frequently consulted by 
 him were the ' Florilegia' of Langius,* Gruter,f and Magirus,J 
 the 'Adagia' of Erasmus, and the 'Encyclopaedia' of Alste- 
 dius.|| 
 
 To these books of reference should be added the lexicons, 
 medieval and modern, of which he had a large collection and 
 made much use. Among these may be mentioned the follow- 
 ing: Goclenius ('Lexicon Philosophicum Latinum'); Chauvin 
 (' Lexicon Philosophicum ') ; Faber ( Lexicon Eruditionis 
 Scholastics ') ; Hofmann (' Lexicon Universale ') ; Walch and 
 Krug (' Philosophisches Lexicon ') ; the ' Dictionnaire des 
 Sciences Philosophiques ' ; the ' Allgemeine Encyclopedic ' of 
 Ersch and Gruber ; above all, the rare Zedlerian Lexicon. 
 
 * Langii (Joseph!) Florilegium Magnum. Francof., 1621. 
 
 t Gruteri (Jani) Florilegium, sen Polyanthea. Argentorati, 1624. 
 
 i Magiri (Tobise) Polymnemon, seu Florilegium Locorum Communium 
 Ordinatum. Francof., 1628. A great favourite with Sir William. The copy 
 which he was in the habit of using (second ed. of 1661) is full of MS. additions. 
 
 The edition chiefly used by Sir William was the folio of 1629. 
 
 H Alstedii (J. H.) Eiicyclopsedia. Herbornae Nassov., 1630. 
 
394 BIBLIOGRAPHIES. 
 
 " I well remember the delight/' says Mr Hubert Hamilton, 
 " with which the late Count Krasinski, the accomplished 
 author of the ' History of Poland/ &c., while looking round 
 the library, lighted upon the thirty-four vellum-clad volumes 
 of this ponderous work. He wished to consult it on some 
 point of historical interest, but having in vain searched for it in 
 the public libraries of Great Britain, where the very existence 
 of the book was at that time unknown, he little expected to 
 fmd that it had a place in a private collection. There are now 
 copies in the Edinburgh University and Advocates' libraries." 
 
 Of bibliographies there was none which he consulted more 
 frequently than the ' Allgemeines Gelehrten Lexicon ' of Jocher, 
 of which Mr Hill Burton says : " As to bibliographies of the 
 present century aiming at "universality, the ' Allgemeines Ge- 
 lehrten Lexicon' of Jocher when accompanied by Adelurig's 
 Supplement, which is its better half for scholarship and com- 
 pleteness casts into shade anything produced either in France 
 or here. It is a guide which few people consult without pass- 
 ing a compliment, either internally or aloud, on the satisfac- 
 tory result. That it contains an account of every or nearly 
 every book is at once contradicted by its bulk ; yet it is often 
 remarked that no one appeals to it in vain a specialty which 
 seems to have arisen from the peculiar capacity of its editors 
 to dive, as it were, into the hearts of those likely to seek their 
 aid."* 
 
 Collecting books was a habit of Sir William's life second 
 only to the reading of them a relation between the two 
 habits that does not, however, always prevail. The foundation 
 of his library was laid at Oxford ; but the really valuable and 
 characteristic part of it was not acquired until a subsequent 
 period from about 1820 dow r nwards. With Nestler and Melle 
 of Hamburg he kept up a correspondence from about 1818, 
 getting from them at least one large parcel every year. He 
 was also in the habit of sending orders, though less frequently, 
 to booksellers at Augsburg, Leipsic, Frankfort, and Leyden. 
 
 * Book-Hunter (2d ed.), p. 231. 
 
FORMATION OF LIBRARY. 395 
 
 He was probably the only person in Britain at the time who 
 had any systematic acquaintance with the current philosophical 
 literature of Germany, or who kept up a regular correspondence 
 with the booksellers in this department. In Edinburgh second- 
 hand book-shops were places of pretty constant resort ; and of 
 course he was ever and anon, with the true book-hunter's com- 
 placency, getting most wonderful bargains at public auctions. 
 When the purchase happened to be a larger one than usual, 
 and he was put on his defence for " extravagance/' of course 
 the rarity and value of the tomes rose so greatly as he de- 
 fended his purchase, that he would end by declaring he had 
 really " got quite a present of them." Considerable additions 
 were made to his collection during the first four or five years 
 of his occupancy of the Logic Chair. At his death it num- 
 bered from 9000 to 10,000 volumes. 
 
 Occasionally friends or old students would send him books 
 which they knew would interest him. One acquisition made 
 in this way was a collection of MSS. (in fifty-eight volumes) 
 from the library of the Carthusian Monastery at Erfurt, which 
 he owed to the kindness of a former student, Mr John Broad. 
 These MSS. (which for the most part consisted of medieval 
 sermons and theological treatises by writers of no great fame, 
 together with some of the works of Aquinas) had a somewhat 
 curious history. From a short notice prefixed to a catalogue 
 of them by Mr Broad, we learn that " they were preserved at 
 Erfurt until 1805, when the library was broken up and dis- 
 persed on the occupation of the city by the French army, who 
 stabled their horses in the place where the books were depo- 
 sited, and burned many of them for fuel, while others were 
 carried away and secreted with a view to their safety." Some 
 of the latter were bought by the Count de Buelow, on whose 
 death they were purchased from the subsequent possessors by 
 Mr Broad. After Sir William's death they were presented 
 to the Bodleian Library, where they now are.* 
 
 The books were disposed in two rooms on the second floor 
 
 * Macruy's Annals of the Bodleian Library (1868), p. 285. 
 
396 MECHANICAL SKILL. 
 
 of the house, the larger of the two being the back drawing- 
 room, facing the north, the smaller, a sort of recess from this 
 room. There was also a considerable number of volumes, 
 chiefly historical, in the large front drawing-room. In a 
 small room down-stairs, which Sir William usually occupied 
 as a study, were about 300 volumes, being books in more 
 constant use. The room which contained the main part of 
 the library was filled from floor to ceiling. The volumes 
 were arranged mainly according to subject, and subordinately 
 according to size from folio through the various gradations 
 to duodecimo. 
 
 His mechanical skill, which was very remarkable, and which 
 showed itself readily in repairing a damaged article of furniture 
 or a broken toy of the children, found full scope in providing 
 accommodation for his books. He set about this, as was his 
 habit with everything he took in hand, whether mental or 
 mechanical, in a very elaborate way, and on a large and com- 
 prehensive scale. The size and structure of the bookcases, 
 their order and position, were entirely of his own devising. A 
 great deal even of the manual work was done with his own 
 hand. 
 
 " In the mending and renovating of his books he found both 
 amusement arid occupation. On the arrival of a new pur- 
 chase, his first care (after ascertaining that each volume was 
 complete) was to make a thorough examination of the binding, 
 and if it betrayed any signs of weakness, the glue-pot and 
 other apparatus were got out, and the defect was at once made 
 good. Sometimes the process of restoration was very elaborate, 
 and would form the work of a whole day ; one of us young- 
 sters generally assisting in the best way we could, and glad 
 if we escaped without being scolded for our awkwardness 
 and stupidity. The neatness with which he executed such 
 repairs, and the ingenuity with which he turned all kinds 
 of materials to use, was very remarkable. Paper to match 
 that of old books was always kept in store ; old leather chair- 
 covers were carefully preserved ; even pieces of dark-coloured 
 
SIZING. 397 
 
 silk or velvet were rescued from destruction, and (it might be) 
 used to adorn the back of an Aristotelian commentator." * 
 
 A large number of the volumes in the library have titles 
 written or printed with Sir William's own hand, and with 
 exceeding neatness. Where several treatises were bound 
 together in a single volume, or where the contents of a volume 
 were well marked off as referring to distinct subjects, the 
 commencement of each treatise or new subject was usually 
 indicated by a narrow strip of coloured paper pasted on the 
 leaf. 
 
 " An operation with which he sometimes occupied a leisure 
 day, was that of sizing to enable him to write upon 
 the unbound books which he got over every year from Ger- 
 many. The size was made by boiling down glue, and adding 
 a little alum. While still hot, this liquid was put into a 
 large stoneware jar or greybeard, where it soon congealed, and 
 by means of an antiseptic (corrosive sublimate) was kept for 
 years. From time to time, as required, a small quantity of 
 the gelatine was taken out, and mixed and diluted with warm 
 water in a common foot-pan. In this the books were one by 
 one immersed, care being taken to let the size soak thor- 
 oughly through the paper ; they were then put under a mode- 
 rate pressure, and the extra size squeezed out. Before being 
 sent to the binder the sized sheets were spread on a rack to 
 dry."* 
 
 Sir William's library had the peculiarity of being not 
 simply the result of his tastes as a book-collector, but the 
 reflex of his various mental tendencies and favourite studies. 
 His intellectual and moral interests led to the collection, 
 and this, in its turn, nourished the likings which had formed 
 it ; for no man could possibly make a more thorough use of 
 his books than Sir William did; and in his library there 
 was a certain completeness of character that gave an insight 
 into the whole life-studies of the man. 
 
 The following heads, being titles of drawers containing 
 
 * Mr Hubert Hamilton. 
 
398 CONTENTS OF LTBRAKY. 
 
 unbound tracts, give a good idea of the contents of the library 
 generally, and of Sir William's system of arrangement : 
 
 I. Philosophia in genere : cum Hist. Philos. Propped. 
 
 Bibliogr. 
 II. Philosophia Theoretica. 
 
 III. Philosophia Practica. 
 
 IV. Theologia Positiva, cum Hist. 
 
 Eccles. Patrum Doctr. 
 V. Historia et Antiquitates. 
 
 Polit. Artium. Morum, &c. 
 VI. Biographia. 
 VII. Paedagogia a) Superior. 
 
 Universitates Litterariae, &c. 
 VIII. Paedagogia b) Inferior. 
 
 Gymnasiae Scholae triviales, &c. 
 IX. Quodlibetica Farrago ad Epist. Obs. Vir. 
 X. Grammatica : Generalis. 
 
 Graeca Latina Barbara. 
 XI. Philologia: 
 
 a) Comment, in Auctores Veteres. 
 
 b) Auctores Ipsi. 
 
 Naturally, the department in which the library was most 
 rich was that of Philosophy. In particular, there was a great 
 number of the older metaphysical works, and of modern psy- 
 chologies, German and other. The collection of logics was 
 probably unequalled in this country. It numbered over 400 
 volumes, and, in addition to the older and rarer treatises (of 
 Hispanus, Duns Scotus, Blemmidas, Agricola, Eamus, Valla, 
 Melanchthon, &c.), included every logical work of importance 
 that had recently appeared in Germany or elsewhere abroad. 
 Very many of the volumes contain MS. notes and red-ink 
 markings by Sir William, showing how thorough had been 
 his study of their contents. Of works on ^Esthetics and the 
 History of Philosophy there was also a large number. 
 
 Befittingly placed in a central compartment of the room 
 which contained the principal portion of the library, several 
 rows of folios, in picturesque old bindings, attracted the eye ; 
 
CONTENTS OF LIBRARY. 399 
 
 these were the early commentaries on Aristotle with Hamil- 
 ton, the greatest name in philosophy, and the greatest power 
 in moulding his thought to whom he most appropriately ap- 
 plied the line : 
 
 " Ficta pedum pono pressis vestigia signis." 
 
 The principal of these works had been purchased by him at 
 Heber's sale in 1834. The collection was very full probably 
 the most complete in Britain. Glancing along the shelves one 
 could readily note the names of Alexander Aphrodisiensis, 
 Joannes Grammaticus, Simplicius, Ammonius HermiaB, Eus- 
 tratius, &c. A more careful examination showed that the 
 collection under each name was wellnigh complete, and 
 that the editions were, with few exceptions, Venetian and 
 Aldine. 
 
 Of other departments a very large space was occupied by 
 the Ancient Classics, and by works on the Greek and Latin 
 language and literature. Most of these books were acquired 
 while Sir William was a student at Oxford ; but the collec- 
 tion was constantly being added to, for to the last he retained 
 and indulged his scholarly tastes. The collection of modern 
 Latin poets has already been noticed. 
 
 The Latin authors of the classical period whom he preferred 
 were Lucretius, Cicero, and Seneca. His other favourite au- 
 thors of antiquity were Galen and Hippocrates, and, among 
 the fathers, Gregory Nazianzen, St Chrysostom, and St Augus- 
 tine. Of more modern authors, Bacon, Sir Thomas Browne, 
 Pascal, and Ancillon, were greatly prized. In English poetry, 
 among his preferences were, besides Milton and Shakespeare, 
 Sir John Davies, Butler, Pope, Prior, and Gray. Wordsworth 
 and Scott, also, came in for a large share of his liking. 
 
 His interest in educational matters was shown in the collec- 
 tion of works known as Pedagogics, which, especially the de- 
 partment that related to the educational systems of Germany, 
 was peculiarly rich and valuable. 
 
 Then there was the historical collection, civil and ecclesi- 
 
400 CONTENTS OF LIBRARY. 
 
 astical, one of considerable bulk, the tracts relating to the 
 Reformation period being of special value and interest. 
 
 Of works in Medical literature and in Theology there was 
 a tolerable gathering. 
 
 Biographical works, especially those relating to men whose 
 lives had left a mark on the literary or philosophical history 
 of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, formed a noticeable 
 feature in the library. Sir William's interest in this period 
 was a good deal connected with his inquiries regarding 
 Buchanan and the Scaligers. He at one time meditated a 
 work, ' De Vita, Genere, et Genio Scaligerorum.' In Barclay, 
 also, the author of ' Argenis/ he took a keen interest. 
 
 Another department of reading, analogous to the biographi- 
 cal, in which Sir William had a strong interest, and for which 
 he was known among his friends, was that of the Ana, or books 
 consisting of the table-talk or gathered opinions of men of 
 note generally pointed and sententious. Of this class of 
 works he had a large selection. Along with the A no, may be 
 noticed a curious collection of letters of men of note, among 
 others of Petrarch, Melanchthon, Clenardus, Camerarius, Mu- 
 retus, Koger Ascham, Joseph Scaliger, Erasmus. 
 
 The library was also rich in miscellanies, including 'Dis- 
 sertationes Academics,' 'Orationes,' 'Melanges/ &c., out of 
 which he gathered curious and interesting biographical facts, 
 and hints of the origin and history of philosophical and gen- 
 eral opinions unknown often to professed biographers and 
 historians. 
 
 Sir William was at all times enamoured of Acute Dicta. 
 To him the interest of a thought was greatly enhanced if it 
 were embodied in a terse, lucid, and pointed form. This arose 
 from his appreciation of force in thought and word, his very 
 remarkable sense of harmony between a thought and its ex- 
 pression, and his love of symmetry in style. His collections 
 of acute dicta are very large I should think in this country 
 unique. The choice of mottoes for his own writings was 
 always a matter of consideration and interest ; and any friend 
 
ACUTE DICTA. 401 
 
 who chanced to want a motto, was sure, on application to Sir 
 William, to be provided with something appropriate. His 
 own composition, which has a tendency to run in a strongly 
 antithetical groove, shows the great, sometimes lavish, use 
 which he made of his stores of acute dicta. 
 
 At one time Sir William seems to have thought of indicat- 
 ing the value which. he attached to particular books in the 
 library, by means of a printed label, to be pasted on the title- 
 page of each, bearing, in addition to the name " Gulielmi 
 Hamiltonii," the words " Liber servandus," " Liber rarus, 
 bonus, servandus," or " Adnotationibus manuscriptis," as the 
 case might be. Of these labels a great many were thrown off, 
 but beyond this, unfortunately, the design was not carried into 
 execution ; and thus we are deprived of what would have been 
 an interesting record of Sir William's opinion in regard to the 
 value of the contents of his library. So far as can be dis- 
 covered, the only book to which the label " Liber servandus " 
 is attached, is the edition of the ' Organon ' by Pacius, which 
 was his favourite companion from his Oxford days, and with 
 which he was so familiar, that, when fatigued by arduous 
 reading or thinking, he would frequently take it up merely for 
 relaxation. 
 
 The great public libraries of the city the College and Ad- 
 vocates' were laid by him under constant contribution. Books 
 which no other person read were taken out by him, and on 
 many of them the dust has lain undisturbed since his death. 
 If tradition is to be credited, the number of volumes which he 
 sometimes had out of the Advocates' Library was quite unpar- 
 alleled in its history. He was also familiar with the rarer 
 works in the College libraries of St Andrews and Glasgow, 
 and occasionally obtained books from them for purposes of 
 consultation. 
 
 From what has been said, it is obvious that there have 
 been few men at any time who have united so great width 
 and variety with so much minuteness and accuracy of learning, 
 
 2 c 
 
402 GENERAL REMARKS. 
 
 or brought such intensity and penetrative power to bear on so 
 vast a field of research. "The demon of energy," says one 
 who knew him, " was powerful within him ; and had it not 
 found work in the conquest of all human learning, must have 
 sought it elsewhere. You see in him the nature that must 
 follow up all inquiries, not by languid solicitation, but hot 
 pursuit. His conquests as he goes are rapid, but complete. 
 Summing up the thousands upon thousands of volumes upon 
 all matters of human study in many languages which he has 
 passed through his hands, you think he has merely dipped 
 into them, or skimmed them, or, in some other shape, put 
 them to superficial use. You are wrong ; he has found his 
 way at once to the very heart of the living matter of each 
 one ; between it and him there are henceforth no secrets ! " * 
 
 When to these capabilities of acquisition we add his mar- 
 vellous powers of thought, his acuteness, his comprehensive- 
 ness of grasp, his force and lucidity an individuality of 
 intellect which, amid all his familiarity with the opinions of 
 others, ever stood out clear-cut and persistent the fervour, 
 the native force of will and purpose, little sustained and as 
 little deflected by outward circumstances, which inspired and 
 directed the course of his life-studies, the profound and 
 catholic nature of the subjects of his speculations, and the 
 mark which he has left on them, we may fairly claim for Sir 
 W. Hamilton, without considering how far the conclusions of 
 his philosophy are to be accepted as final, a position among 
 the thinkers of metaphysical Scotland at once high, peculiar, 
 and permanent. 
 
 No man in this century has lived more completely in the 
 realm of past thought than Hamilton, and at the same time 
 set more conspicuously in the light of historical reflection ques- 
 tions that in themselves are of an interest to man too pressing 
 and constant to have only a past. He has entered the order 
 of abstract thinkers, taken up the course of their thought, and 
 continued their work ; and his name will go down to posterity 
 * Mr Hill Burton Book-Hunter, p. 119, 2<1 ed. 
 
HAMILTON FELLOWSHIP. 403 
 
 with the best known of them. No one could more truly than 
 he have appropriated to himself these words, to indicate what 
 he was when he lived, and what he would be in memory : 
 
 " My days among the dead are past ; 
 
 Around me I behold, 
 Where'er these casual eyes are cast, 
 
 The mighty minds of old : 
 My never-failing friends are they, 
 With whom I converse day by day. 
 
 " My hopes are with the dead ; anon 
 
 My place with them will be, 
 And I with them shall travel on 
 
 Through all futurity ; 
 Yet leaving here a name, I trust, 
 
 That will not perish in the dust." 
 
 Nine years after Sir William's death, a subscription was 
 commenced with the view of raising a fund to found a Philoso- 
 phical Fellowship in honour of his memory. This movement 
 was mainly carried through by Dr John Muir of Edinburgh, 
 to whom our universities are indebted for the Shaw Philoso- 
 phical Fellowship, and to whose zeal the cause of the higher 
 education in Scotland owes much. The sum raised, along with 
 the amount added to it by the Association for the Better 
 Endowment of the University of Edinburgh, has been set 
 apart to form the fund of " The Hamilton Philosophical 
 Fellowship." The annual proceeds of it are given to the 
 Master of Arts of the University of Edinburgh of not more 
 than three years' standing, who passes the best competitive 
 examination in Logic, Metaphysics, and Moral Philosophy. 
 The competition takes place once in three years. 
 
 Out of the fund collected for the Fellowship a sum was set 
 apart for providing a bust of Sir William. The execution of 
 this work was intrusted to Mr William Brodie, RS.A. The 
 bust, which is considered to be an excellent likeness, was, on its 
 completion, presented by the subscribers to the Senatus Aca- 
 demicus of the University, and was placed in the Senate Hall 
 of the College in December 1867. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 NOTE A. 
 
 ON THE REVIEW OF COUSIN; AND ALLEGED CONTRADICTION IN 
 
 SIR w. HAMILTON'S PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 THE nature and limits of the present work do not permit of any 
 adequate consideration of the philosophical doctrines of Sir W. 
 Hamilton, or extended examination of the criticisms to which they 
 have been recently subjected by Mr Mill and others. These criti- 
 cisms, even when most adverse, may fairly be taken as evidence of 
 the strength of the impulse which Hamilton has given to specu- 
 lative thought in eminently materialistic times. I cannot, how- 
 ever, even in the present work, omit referring generally to what 
 appears to me the gross, even ludicrous, misrepresentation of Hamil- 
 ton's doctrines especially on the subject of the review of Cousin 
 which Mr Mill has given to the world.* 
 
 It was obvious, from the first edition of the ' Examination,' that 
 Mr Mill's acquaintance with the questions which Hamilton dis- 
 cussed in the review of Cousin did not extend beyond what he 
 obtained from the author he was criticising, and that he had not 
 reached any adequate conception of the real drift of the Essay. The 
 alterations and modifications, avowed and silent, of the third edi- 
 tion, still show the same perfervid eagerness to demolish ; but they 
 do not evince any increased acquaintance with the real points of the 
 philosophy assailed. 
 
 * In regard, indeed, to the doctrine of the Conditioned, a minute examination 
 of these criticisms is the less called for after the admirably clear, acute, and 
 powerful exposure of Mr Mill's misconceptions of Sir W. Hamilton's doctrines 
 by Mr Mansel, in his ' Philosophy of the Conditioned.' 
 
APPENDIX. 405 
 
 Thus we find him persistently representing the main question of 
 the article as being whether we have, or have not, " an immediate (!) 
 intuition of God." * The truth is, that it is nothing of the sort ; 
 the question is not primarily or mainly this at all. The nature and 
 limits of our knowledge of Deity are, no doubt, points involved ; but 
 only indirectly. But the question as to whether our knowledge of 
 Deity is or is not immediate, is irrelevant to the real question of the 
 article. That question is, Does the alleged notion of the Infinito- 
 absolute, or the notion of the Absolute, or the notion of the Infi- 
 nite, afford us a knowledge of any object possible or real? Can we 
 realise in thought a concrete object that shall be at once infinite and 
 absolute, or either the one or the other 1 This question, in so far as 
 it relates to Deity at all, refers not to the process or mode by which 
 we know Deity whether immediate or inferential but to the 
 nature and degree of our conception of Deity. The question, What 
 is the amount of our knowledge of God ? still remains to be asked, 
 whether we hold that our knowledge of Deity is obtained by intui- 
 tion or by inference ; for the process by which we reach the reality 
 of Deity does not necessarily determine the extent of our know- 
 ledge of His nature and attributes ; that is, whether we know Him 
 in the fulness of His being, or, only partially, in certain of His mani- 
 festations. 
 
 Further, the central question of the discussion does not neces- 
 sarily refer to Deity at all. We may settle it, even affirmatively, 
 without conceiving an object that is identical with Deity. For 
 suppose we found and proved, as Mr Mill thinks he has proved, a 
 positive conception of time without end, or of space and time as 
 absolutely completed, we should have determined affirmatively the 
 question of the capacity of the mind with regard to an object infinite 
 or absolute, but surely not with regard to an object convertible with 
 Deity. Or, to refer to other aspects of the question, we may main- 
 tain such a knowledge of self, of our own being, or of the world 
 around us, as is altogether independent of their phenomenal mani- 
 festations that is, an absolute knowledge, in the strict historical 
 usage of the word. Theories of this nature were implied in the 
 dogmatic systems of metaphysics before Kant ; and they have been 
 explicitly held since his time. In discussing such doctrines we are 
 dealing with the question as to the nature and extent of our know- 
 ledge of reality, finite and infinite, but not properly or directly with 
 the reality of Deity. 
 
 * Examination, p. 43, 3d ed. 
 
406 APPENDIX. 
 
 Then, again, we may hold with some philosophers that it is com- 
 petent for the human mind to reach a conception of what is called 
 pure being being above space and time, that is neither one nor 
 many out of all relation, above every form or mode in which our 
 ordinary consciousness contemplates finite or relative existence, ?'.e., 
 the Unconditioned or Absolute, as it has been called. We actually 
 have in this one form of answer to the question of the Essay on the 
 Unconditioned ; yet we should hardly regard this as identical with 
 the notion of Deity, or think that we were now discussing any ques- 
 tion about our knowledge of Him or His reality.* 
 
 No doubt the decision of the question of the article in the nega- 
 tive affects by implication the view we take of the nature and extent 
 of our knowledge of Deity; for if we cannot conceive any object of 
 thought as infinite or absolute, Deity as an object of thought cannot 
 be conceived as either infinite or absolute. And this is really the 
 way in which the decision of the general question of the discussion is 
 brought to bear on M. Cousin's alleged notion of the Absolute, which 
 he identifies with God. M. Cousin not only maintains that we are 
 able, under the laws of our ordinary thought and consciousness, 
 to conceive God as absolute, but holds also that He is directly pre- 
 sented to us as absolute in our conscious experience. Hamilton 
 maintains, on the other hand, that M. Cousin's Absolute is not a 
 genuine conception of an absolute object that no such conception 
 is possible in human consciousness that he mistakes what is merely 
 a relative notion for the idea of an absolute object, and consequently 
 that he deceives himself in supposing that any object corresponding 
 either to the Absolute or the Infinite is directly given as a reality in 
 our conscious experience. 
 
 The confusion on this point has arisen chiefly from Mr Mill and 
 other critics not keeping in view the twofold application of the 
 terms, " the Absolute " and " the Infinite," when employed in a 
 wider and narrower meaning an application which it was one 
 special merit of Hamilton to detect and unfold. " The Absolute" and 
 " the Infinite " may each be employed to indicate the alleged union 
 of two contradictory notions, or alleged notions. These opposite 
 notions, or, as Hamilton calls them, "counter-imbecilities of the 
 
 * See Schelling's treatise, Vom Ich als Prinzip der Philosophic, oder liber 
 das unbedingte im menschlichen Wissen.' Schelling, speaking of this treatise, 
 says : " Die erste zeigt den Idealismus in seiner 'frischesten Erscheinung, urid 
 vielleicht in einem Sinn, den er spaterhin verlor. Wenigstens ist das Ich 
 noch uberall als absolutes, oder als IdentUat des Subjectiven mid Objcctiven 
 tcJileckthin. nicht als subjectives genommen." Vorrede, p. v. 
 
APPENDIX. 40T 
 
 human mind," * he distinguishes as "the unconditional negation of 
 limitation " the Infinite proper, and " the unconditional affirma- 
 tion of limitation" the Absolute proper.t The fictitious union 
 of these two opposites he names " the Unconditioned," or, as in 
 the title of the essay, " the Infinite-absolute." Now, what Hamil- 
 ton alleges against Cousin and others is, that they did not observe 
 this twofold application or extension of the terms Absolute or In- 
 finite, when used as they are by them as synonymous with " the 
 Unconditioned ; " that the terms Absolute or Infinite which 
 they used to indicate one supposed notion, really indicated the 
 sum of two contradictions an Infinite-absolute and, therefore, a 
 mere zero, which is incapable of being the predicate of anything 
 in the sphere of reality. What can be more explicit on this point 
 than the following? " It is the crowning irrationality of the Infinite- 
 absolutists that they have not merely accepted as objective what 
 is only subjective, but quietly assumed as the same what are not 
 only different but connective, not only connective but repugnant." J 
 Again : " The Unconditioned is self- contradictory, because it is 
 not a notion, either simple or positive, but only a fasciculus of 
 negations negations of the Conditioned in its opposite extremes. 
 . . . (The Unconditioned is merely a common name for what tran- 
 scends the laws of thought for informally illegitimate.)" Such 
 a pseudo-conception can of course be predicated neither of God nor 
 of any real object. This is an important point, which Hamilton 
 was the first to apprehend and analyse. The gist of Mr Mill's 
 complaint against him is that he did not perceive that the expres- 
 sions "the Absolute" and "the Infinite," when used as synonymous 
 with " the Unconditioned," were unmeaning. || Hamilton certainly 
 did not perceive them to be unmeaning, and that for the simple 
 reason that they are not so ; for we have an intelligible conception 
 of what are their requisites as notions i. e., of their meaning as 
 we have of what would form the notion of a square circle, though 
 such a conception is not actually realisable by us ; but they are, or 
 rather the Unconditioned is, as Hamilton has shown, inconceivable 
 unthinkable as a notion for the simple reason that it would 
 involve contradictory predicates in one object of thought. 
 
 But leaving this sense of the Unconditioned, or fictitious union 
 of two contradictories the Infinite and the Absolute we may ask 
 whether either of these by itself is possible to thought? for 
 
 * Discussions, p. 21, note. t Ibid., p. 28. t Ibid., p. 21, note. 
 
 Ibid., p. 17. || Examination, p. 70, compare p. 21, note. 
 
408 APPENDIX. 
 
 though both cannot be united in one notion, one or other may 
 possibly be conceivable. It is here that the salient point of 
 Hamilton's doctrine comes out. He maintains that while an 
 Infinite - absolute is an impossibility, because a contradiction in 
 thought, an infinite or an absolute object is, while inconceivable, yet 
 not an impossibility in thought on the ground of contradiction. 
 Each inconditionate is by itself simply inconceivable as violating 
 the law of Kelativity, which is a mere restraint on our thought, pre- 
 venting us from comprehending how a thing can be otherwise than 
 in some particular relation. Now, this mere inconceivability of each 
 Infinite or Absolute does not prove it to be really impossible as the 
 contradictory nature of the Infinite-absolute does. .For, according to 
 Hamilton, the non-fulfilinent of the law of Relativity only shows 
 that we from our constitution are unable to think the possibility of 
 an object, which nevertheless may really be.* Hence an absolute 
 commencement, or an endless regress, may be predicable of existence 
 in time, though we may be unable positively to conceive the possi- 
 bility either of the one or of the other ; while we may have inde- 
 pendent grounds for supposing the one to be credible rather than 
 the other. 
 
 The doctrine of the Conditioned, as taught by Hamilton, is not 
 without its difficulties, but thus to misrepresent it does not help 
 us in any way to a solution of them. 
 
 How very far Mr Mill is from getting at anything like a conception 
 of the nature of the discussion is further shown by his references to 
 the terms " Conditioned " and " Unconditioned," which Hamilton 
 employs, and which are to be met with everywhere in German 
 philosophy since the time of Kant. 
 
 In Hamilton's use, "the Conditioned" is a more general term 
 than "the Finite" or "the Relative," as including both; and "the 
 Unconditioned" embraces the two extremes, "the Infinite" and 
 " the Absolute " the latter as indicating " what is out of relation, as 
 finished, perfect, complete, total," being diametrically opposed to, 
 or contradictory of, " the infinite." t Mr Mill, utterly neglecting 
 to seek the historical meaning and application of these terms, yet 
 complains that Hamilton has given us 110 "definition" of them. 
 Hamilton, he says, " tells us what (in logical language) the terms de- 
 note, but not what they connote. An examination of things called by 
 
 * Discussions, p. 603, and Appendix I. (A.) passim. 
 
 t Discussions, p. 14. 
 
 J That is, in Mr Mill's perverted sense of the term connote, to express the 
 
APPENDIX. 409 
 
 a name is not a definition."* "The Conditioned," as employed 
 by Hamilton, indicates the element common to every conceivable 
 proposition or notion in a word, to every positive thought ; and 
 this in his view is some kind of relation between a plurality of 
 terms. This differs in no essential way from Kant's conception 
 of the Conditioned (das Bedingte) as that which depends on some- 
 thing else for its being ; for if there be no object of thought apart 
 from a relation to another no not-self without a self no attri- 
 bute without a subject no now without a then no here without 
 a there no this without a that, then is the thinking of the 
 one term i.e., its being as a thought dependent upon or condi- 
 tioned by the other. It is obvious, also, how the Conditioned 
 necessarily involves limitation, or restriction. As thus : the 
 summum genus of the conceivable, the Conditioned, is incapable 
 of logical definition, and can be shown to be what it is, only, as in 
 the case of the notion being, and others of the same class, by point- 
 ing to individual propositions or classes of propositions which em- 
 body it that is, by referring to the things which the term denotes, 
 not to what it connotes. And this Hamilton has done partly in 
 the essay on the Unconditioned, but especially in a full and explicit 
 manner in the ' Discussions,' Appendix I., ' On the Conditions of 
 the Thinkable.' He there develops and classifies the essential 
 forms or relations in which existence is conceivable by us e.g., 
 those of subject and object, of subject and attribute, of cause and 
 effect, &c., which make up the Conditioned for human thought. If 
 the Conditioned be thus in strictness indefinable, so also must be the 
 Unconditioned ; for this is an expression for the negation of relation 
 i.e., it is not a conception at all has no subjective reality but 
 is "a name for two counter-imbecilities of the human mind, ille- 
 gitimately transmuted into properties of the nature of things, "t To 
 desiderate a " definition " of such terms is simply to request a logi- 
 cal impossibility, and to show that the person who seeks it has not 
 even a rudimentary conception of the nature of the matter with 
 which he is dealing. 
 
 Mr Mill, besides misconceiving the true question of the essay, 
 misrepresents the scope of the argument. He alleges that Hamil- 
 
 comprehension as distinguished from the extension of a notion. On this see 
 Mr Hansel's Aldrich, ' Artis Logicae Eudimenta,' 3d ed., p. 16. On the various 
 meanings of denotative and connotative, see Arriaga, ' Cursus Philosophicus,' Dis. 
 I. In Summ., iv. 
 * Examination, p. 67. t Discussions, p. 21, note. 
 
410 APPENDIX. 
 
 ton's proof is only directed and valid against the abstractions, " the 
 Absolute," " the Infinite," but fails when viewed in relation to the 
 concrete something infinite or absolute. The first part of the 
 statement is an assumption that is wholly groundless, and in the 
 very face of the facts. Hamilton's proof is directed against the 
 positive comprehension alike of a concrete Infinite and Absolute ; 
 and he tests the question of the conceivability of both by reference 
 to concrete reality, more particularly space and time. Any other 
 course of argument would have been totally idle and irrelevant. 
 The expressions " the Absolute" and "the Infinite," which Mr Mill 
 thinks to be especially " meaningless " and " self-contradictory," and 
 therefore not requiring to be proved " unknowable/' are used by 
 Hamilton with perfect propriety as compendious expressions to 
 indicate negations of different fundamental relations in which objects 
 stand to the intelligence, just as the expressions "the Relative" and 
 " the Finite " are used to indicate the various relations in or under 
 which objects are conceivable by us. 
 
 "The Absolute" and "the Infinite," as thus employed, are as 
 necessary and proper expressions as "the Relative" and " the Finite;" 
 and the former no more necessarily mean only one thing or being, 
 because of the article prefixed, than do the latter just as we may 
 speak of " the unknowable " and " the knowable " without being 
 lawfully held to mean only one thing of either sort. Nor is any one 
 of the former terms a whit more self-contradictory than either of the 
 latter. We cannot, as Mr Mill says, conceive one object answering 
 to " the Absolute," for it would necessarily involve contradictory 
 predicates ; but we cannot any more conceive one object answering to 
 "the Finite," for it too must contain contradictory predicates seeing 
 that the Finite takes in the mental and the material, the organised 
 and the unorganised, the vertebrate and the invertebrate, &c. This 
 proves nothing against the possible application of the terms in suc- 
 cession to the different relations or negations of relations which they 
 may happen to represent. The real question still remains : Whe- 
 ther we can think or imagine an object or attribute that is Infinite- 
 or Absolute, or both, as we can an object that is Finite or Relative ? 
 Can we, for example, conceive " the Infinite " in time or space as we 
 can " the Finite" in those quantities 1 This is the main question to 
 which Hamilton addresses himself in the review of Cousin. The 
 further and higher ontological inquiries viz., whether there can be 
 conceived one being with attributes infinite or absolute, and whether, 
 if we can conceive such a being, it is exclusive of all others are, 
 
APPENDIX. 411 
 
 of course, points which will be settled in accordance with the con- 
 clusion to which we may come regarding the conceivability of the 
 Infinite or Absolute, in the case of the alleged relations to which these 
 terms are considered applicable. 
 
 The only thing in the shape of an argument by which Mr Mill 
 attempts to establish against Hamilton the actual cognition of the 
 Infinite in the concrete is the merest trifling. " To know space," 
 says Mr Mill, " as greater than anything finite, is not to know it as 
 finite;" we can know it as such, therefore we can know infinite 
 space. As is the case with most of his metaphysical premises, this 
 is ambiguous ; and it is not sufficient to prove that we actually or 
 in point of fact conceive or represent to ourselves space without end, 
 or infinite space. "To know space as greater than anything finite" 
 may mean that we can actually represent space without end in the 
 concrete, in which case the point to be proved is assumed ; or it 
 may mean that we believe that space always extends beyond any 
 finite part of it which we may realise in conception, in which case 
 we have proved nothing to the point. This only shows that there 
 is an infinite of space to be reached; it does not prove (what is the 
 only point at issue) that we have, in our conception, actually grasped 
 its infinity. Space is thus thought merely as that which cannot be 
 finished as the unfinishable and this so far from being actually 
 conceived is necessarily known or thought by us only as that which 
 passes the bounds of comprehension. It is obvious, from what Mr 
 Mill says on this whole matter, that, notwithstanding the confident 
 asseverations of his third edition, he has not mastered the distinc- 
 tion between the Infinite and the Indefinite. His definition of the 
 Indefinite as " that which has a limit, but a limit either variable in 
 itself or unknown to us," is entirely beside the point. It is utterly 
 unessential to the indefinite whether the quantity in which we find 
 it actually has a limit or not ; what is essential to the indefinite in 
 any thing or quantity is that we do not actually reach a limit, and 
 can still add to the sum of what we conceive or represent. In a 
 word, the indefinite expresses the relation of our thought to an 
 object or quantity, when conception merely fails to grasp it in its 
 entireness, or leaves something of it beyond what we compass in the 
 single act of thought. There is therefore with the indefinite the 
 possibility of addition. The infinite, on the other hand, refers to the 
 character of the thing, as actually without end or limit ; and, there- 
 fore, from its nature incapable of addition either in reality or in 
 conception. The indefinite indicates a subjective failure to grasp 
 
412 APPENDIX. 
 
 that which may or may not have a limit in reality ; the infinite in- 
 dicates that which has no limit objectively or in fact, and which, 
 therefore, always appears in positive thought not as it actually is, but 
 as an indefinite. Besides, if the indefinite be " that which has a 
 limit, but a limit either variable in itself or unknown to us," how 
 can we think either time or space as indefinite ? For these quantities 
 are surely supposed and believed by us to be without limit ; if, how- 
 ever, the indefinite be that which has a limit, there can be for us no 
 indefinite of space or time. The fact that the limit is said to be 
 variable in itself or unknown to us will not help us in this case, for 
 these qualifications must, from the definition, be held to apply only 
 to the limited which space and time are not.* 
 
 The burden of Mr Mill's ' Examination of Sir W. Hamilton's 
 Philosophy ' is the contradictory nature of Sir William's philoso- 
 phical opinions. After what we have seen of the character of Mr 
 Mill's representation of the most fundamental point in Sir Wil- 
 liam's philosophy, we may well doubt his capacity to exhibit truly 
 any inconsistencies or contradictions which it may contain. The first 
 requisite to the judgment that two opinions are inconsistent or con- 
 tradictory, is to be able to apprehend each by itself. It will be 
 found that, while Mr Mill has misrepresented Hamilton's doctrine 
 of the Absolute, he has as thoroughly missed the point of the 
 doctrine which he regards as inconsistent with it that of Natural 
 Realism. 
 
 The principal charge which Mr Mill makes against Sir W. 
 Hamilton's philosophy is that his doctrine of the Absolute, and that 
 of Natural Realism, are inconsistent or contradictory that in the one 
 he denies, and in the other affirms, a knowledge of more than the 
 relative. Let us look at the matter for a little. The gist of Mr Mill's 
 proof of this point is to be found in the following passage. Refer- 
 ring to what Sir W. Hamilton calls our immediate knowledge of the 
 qualities of the external world, Mr Mill says : "What, according to 
 Sir W. Hamilton, is this knowledge 1 Is it a knowledge of some- 
 what in the thing merely in its effects on us, or is it a knowledge of 
 somewhat in the thing ulterior to any effect on us ? He asserts in 
 the plainest terms that it is the latter. Then it is not a knowledge 
 wholly relative to us. If what we perceive in the thing is some- 
 thing of which we are only aware as existing and as causing impres- 
 
 * On Mr Mill's confusion of the infinite with the indefinite, see some pointed 
 remarks by Mr Mausel in the ' Contemporary Review ' for September 1867, 
 xxi. p. 24 et scq. 
 
APPENDIX. 413 
 
 sions on us, our knowledge of the thing is only relative. But if 
 what we perceive and cognise is not merely a cause of our subjective 
 impressions, but a thing possessing in its own nature and essence a 
 long list of properties Extension, Impenetrability, Number, Magni- 
 tude, Figure, Mobility, Position all perceived as 'essential attributes 1 
 of the thing as ' objectively existing ' all as ' modes of a not-self J and 
 by no means as an occult cause or causes of any modes of self, then I 
 am willing to believe that, in affirming this knowledge to be entirely 
 relative to self, such a thinker as Sir W. Hamilton had a meaning, 
 but I have no small difficulty in discovering what it is." * 
 
 Further, he tells us that, if what Sir W. Hamilton says of the 
 direct knowledge of the primary qualities of matter be true, " our 
 faculties, so far as the primary qualities are concerned, do cognise 
 and know matter as it is in itself, and not merely as an unknowable 
 and incomprehensible substratum ; they do cognise and know it as 
 it exists absolutely, and not merely in relation to us ; it is known to 
 us directly, and not as a mere inference from phenomena" t 
 
 We may note, first of all, in regard to this passage, that Sir W. 
 Hamilton would not have applied the term immediate to the know- 
 ledge of an occult cause, gained simply from its impressions on us ; 
 he would have regarded, and properly so, the impression as the 
 object immediately known the supposed or inferred cause as known 
 mediately, or in and through the effect on us. Mr Mill might therefore 
 have saved himself the trouble of assuming, even for a moment, the 
 possibility of Sir W. Hamilton meaning by immediate knowledge 
 any inferential knowledge of a cause from its effects. As regards 
 the second alternative, Sir W. Hamilton nowhere asserts, as Mr Mill 
 alleges, but would have explicitly denied, that immediate know- 
 ledge is " a knowledge of somewhat in the thing ulterior to any effect 
 on us." Such a statement is simply in flagrant contradiction with 
 Sir W. Hamilton's definition of immediate knowledge, and with his 
 express illustrations of it ; and it shows that Mr Mill has a very 
 confused apprehension of the distinction between immediate and 
 mediate knowledge. 
 
 But, secondly, while Mr Mill is wrong in his premise, he is not 
 less astray in his inference. "A knowledge of somewhat in the 
 thing ulterior to any effect on us," even if asserted, does not neces- 
 sarily imply a knowledge other than relative to us, as Mr Mill infers. 
 This proceeds on the assumption that the only notion of relativity 
 which is proper or allowable is that of our being " only aware of an 
 * Examination, p. 21, 3d ed. t Ibid., p. 25. 
 
414 APPENDIX. 
 
 object as existing and as causing impressions on us." If this be the 
 extent of our knowledge of the object, then, according to Mr Mill, 
 " our knowledge of the thing is only relative." Now this is not 
 the sense in which the expression is generally employed by Sir W. 
 Hamilton ; it is not the only, or the proper, or the primary, sense 
 of the relativity of knowledge ; and it is not the only important 
 sense. In fact, Sir W. Hamilton has expressly repudiated this 
 narrow sense of the term relative, which is common to Reid and 
 Brown, from the latter of whom Mr Mill no doubt borrowed it. 
 Hamilton has censured Reid for so employing it, when he re- 
 stricts it to our knowledge of the secondary qualities, as the occult 
 causes of impressions on us. Referring to Reid's statements, Ham- 
 ilton says : " By the expression * what they are in themselves ' in 
 reference to the primary qualities, and of * relative notion 1 in refer- 
 ence to the secondary, Reid cannot mean that the former are known 
 to us absolutely and in themselves that is, out of relation to our 
 cognitive faculties ; for he elsewhere admits that all our knowledge 
 is relative."* Again, when Reid remarks that " our notion of body 
 or matter, as distinguished from its qualities, is a relative notion," 
 Sir "W. Hamilton says : " That is, our notion of absolute body is 
 relative. This is incorrectly expressed. We can know, we can con- 
 ceive, only what is relative. Our knowledge of qualities or pheno- 
 mena is necessarily relative, for these exist only as they exist in rela- 
 tion to our faculties. The knowledge, or even the conception, of a 
 substance in itself, and apart from any qualities in relation, and 
 therefore cognisable or conceivable by our minds, involves a contra- 
 diction. Of such we can form only a negative notion that is, we 
 can merely conceive it as inconceivable. But to call this negative 
 notion a relative notion, is wrong : 1st, Because all our (positive) 
 notions are relative ; and, 2d, Because this is itself a negative notion 
 i.e., no notion at all simply because there is no relation. The 
 same improper application of the term relative was also made by 
 Reid when speaking of the secondary qualities." t 
 
 These passages alone clearly show that Sir W. Hamilton's sense 
 of relative was very much wider than that in which it is employed 
 by Mr Mill. The latter seeks to force on Sir W. Hamilton the 
 meaning which he has beforehand expressly repudiated. Whatever 
 the import of relativity with Hamilton may be, it is at least not 
 that which Mill assumes that it is, and on which he grounds his 
 
 * Reid's Works, p. 313, note*. t Ibid., p. 322-3, note. 
 
APPENDIX. 415 
 
 charge of contradiction. Sir W. Hamilton holds, and holds properly, 
 that knowledge may be relative, although we know more of the ob- 
 ject than that it is the occult cause of impressions on the mind.* 
 
 In its proper and primary sense, the phrase "relativity of know- 
 ledge" indicates a relation (of various kinds) between the mind 
 knowing and the object known. Whatever relations between these 
 the mind and the object can be shown to be necessary or essen- 
 tial to the act of knowledge to be its conditions, in fact are, 
 properly speaking, the relations of knowledge, and constitute the 
 relativity of knowledge. JSTo relation can properly be regarded as 
 constituting the relativity of knowledge, in the absence o.f which 
 knowledge would be possible. Now, measured by this test, Mr 
 Mill's view of the relativity of knowledge is neither primary nor 
 essential. It is not primary; for in supposing an object to be 
 known as the cause of impressions, it supposes the prior relation 
 of mind and object ; it supposes also the conceptions of one and 
 many, of self and not-self, of cause and effect, and of many simi- 
 lar relations. It is a secondary or derivative relativity, which 
 supposes and is rendered intelligible only by the assumption of 
 deeper and prior relations that is, of a more essential relativity. 
 It is these deeper and essential relations which Hamilton indi- 
 cates by the expression relativity of knowledge. But, further, Mr 
 Mill's relativity is not essential to knowledge. There may be, and 
 is, knowledge, by us, in the absence altogether of the relation be- 
 tween an unknown or supposed cause and its impression on the 
 mind. And this knowledge is still properly called relative. We 
 know the acts and states of our own mind ; but these are known 
 not as occult causes of impressions on our consciousness, but as the 
 forms of our consciousness itself not through the medium of an 
 effect or impression which they cause in us, but directly, immedi- 
 ately in themselves. Yet our knowledge of mind is relative, and 
 is declared to be so by Hamilton, as expressly as is our knowledge 
 of matter,' and in the very same sense ; so that either there is a true 
 relativity of knowledge which is not comprehended in Mr Mill's 
 sense of these words, or our knowledge of our own minds is not a 
 relative but an absolute knowledge. The alternatives are obvious ; 
 either we have an absolute knowledge when we directly know the 
 states of our own mind, or Mr Mill's definition of relative know- 
 
 * On the true import of the term relativity in Hamilton, Mr Mansel has 
 some very pertinent remarks. See, especially, 'Contemporary Review,' K"o. 
 xxi. p. 21. 
 
416 APPENDIX. 
 
 ledge is narrow and misleading. Must our knowledge of our own 
 mental phenomena be absolute, or more than relative, if we know 
 them otherwise than as the causes of impressions on the consciousness 
 if we know them directly or immediately 1 If not, why should 
 our knowledge of material phenomena be held to be absolute, or 
 more than relative, when it is spoken of in the same language as 
 direct or immediate, or as a knowledge of the thing in itself 1 The 
 obvious inference is, that Mr Mill's measuring-line stops far short 
 of the depths which he seeks to fathom. 
 
 In fact, Mr Mill's relativity of knowledge is not in any funda- 
 mental or crucial sense a relativity at all. For there may be know- 
 ledge and thought of objects apart altogether from the particular 
 relation that of supposed cause from known effects. To think or 
 know objects as merely the occult causes of known impressions is not 
 essential to thinking or knowledge. We may think and know apart 
 altogether from this particular mode of thinking. To suppose an 
 occult cause is only necessary in particular circumstances, or as one 
 out of several relations; and while, in these circumstances, we are 
 constrained to think it, we may think and know objects apart alto- 
 gether from this relation, and yet think and know them in essential 
 relations. There are relations apart from which we cannot know or 
 think an object, but that fixed on by Mr Mill is not of them. His 
 relativity is neither primary nor essential. 
 
 But Mr Mill further maintains that Hamilton explicitly contra- 
 dicted his doctrine of relativity by holding that we have a "direct" 
 or "immediate" knowledge of the qualities of body a knowledge 
 of these qualities " as they are in themselves" a knowledge of them 
 as "essential attributes," as "modes of a not-self." He interprets 
 these and similar expressions as implying that we "know matter 
 as it is in itself, and not merely as an unknowable and incompre- 
 hensible substratum," "as it exists absolutely and not merely in 
 relation to us," " as known directly and not as a mere inference from 
 phenomena." 
 
 But this interpretation is utterly unwarranted. It is putting into 
 words a meaning which they do not naturally bear. To allege that 
 Hamilton maintained a doctrine of Natural Eealism on the subject 
 of material existence is entirely irrelevant to establish the charge of 
 abandoning the relativity of knowledge. In order to prove this, it 
 must be shown that his doctrine implied that sensible reality 
 reality as we perceive it by any one of the senses, is identical with 
 super-sensible reality i.e., reality per se; for in this case sensible or 
 
APPENDIX. 417 
 
 perceived reality would have an existence, whether we perceive it or 
 not, and as we perceive it. In other words, our relative knowledge 
 of it would be convertible with its absolute existence, or being per 
 se. The lawfulness of asserting the convertibility of sensible and 
 super-sensible reality, while directly opposed to the whole scope 
 of Hamilton's philosophy, is besides denied by him whenever he 
 chances to come across the doctrine. Hamilton has beforehand 
 repudiated Mr Mill's interpretation of his words, both implicitly 
 and in express terms. 
 
 Reid, as already noticed, asserts that our knowledge, both of mind 
 and matter, is relative, and at the same time he speaks of a " direct 
 knowledge" of the primary qualities a knowledge of them " as they 
 are in themselves." And, curiously enough, Hamilton notices the ap- 
 parent inconsistency, and says that Eeid cannot here mean that things 
 are known "absolutely and in themselves"* that is, "out of relation 
 to our cognitive faculties" and, therefore, as apart from and above 
 their conditions of knowledge in time, space, &c., or as the things 
 might appear to other intelligences not subject to such conditions. 
 Hamilton thus perceives and admits that the term "absolute," or 
 " in themselves," cannot be applied to any knowledge which we have 
 of qualities or objects in time and space, in the sense of importing 
 that the knowledge is of the object per se or of the object as it 
 exists apart from our perception, if it Tiave such an existence. 
 
 He has, moreover, expressly repudiated the doctrine that, be- 
 tween knowing things in time and space merely through the im- 
 pressions which they make on the mind i.e., "merely as a cause 
 of subjective impressions" and perceiving or knowing "a thing as 
 possessing in its own nature and essence a long list of properties," 
 there is no intermediate position. " When," he says, " I perceive 
 a quality of the non-ego, of the object - object, as in immediate 
 relation to my mind, I am said to have of it an objective knowledge, 
 in contrast to the subjective knowledge I am said to have of it when 
 supposing it only as the hypothetical or occult cause of an affection 
 of which I am conscious, or thinking it only mediately through a 
 subject-object, or representation in, and of, the mind."t Again, 
 he tells us that he uses the expressions "immediate knowledge" 
 of a quality or object, and a knowledge of the quality "as it is 
 in itself," as convertible ; he tells us expressly that knowledge is 
 regarded as immediate, "in contrast to the knowledge of a thing in 
 a representation or mediately ;" and he denies that it means a know- 
 * Hamilton's Reid, p. 313, note*. t Reid, p. 846. 
 
 2 D 
 
418 APPENDIX. 
 
 ledge of the object " in its absolute existence that is, out of relation 
 to us."* He thus denies in toto that to perceive properties as "essen- 
 tial attributes" of the thing as " objectively existing" as "modes of 
 a not-self," and " by no means as an occult cause or causes of any 
 modes of self" at all implies that the thing possesses, or is known 
 to possess, in its own nature and essence, these properties. His 
 doctrine is, that of the nature and essence of the thing per se we 
 know nothing, and that these properties are the forms in which 
 the thing is known by and exists for us as a finite object i.e., an 
 object of time and space. On the nature of its existence or pro- 
 perties per se, or apart from its appearances to our faculties, he 
 refuses to dogmatise. With regard to absolute existence i.e., 
 being that is not temporal or spatial Hamilton would say that we 
 have reasons for believing or supposing that it exists ; but that we 
 have no warrant for attributing to it temporal or spatial properties. In 
 fact, the absolute, the positive knowledge of which Hamilton denies, is 
 that which negates time, or space, or both which transcends them ; 
 and the error he points out is the confusion of thought which, while 
 it deludes itself with the belief that it has reached this absolute, yet 
 clothes it in finite i.e., temporal or spatial, qualities. 
 
 Now what precisely does he mean by saying that the thing is 
 known immediately or in itself, and yet not absolutely, but relatively 
 to us, the knowers ? In regard to external objects, he explains this 
 by saying, "On this doctrine an external quality is said to be known 
 in itself, when it is known as the immediate and necessary cor- 
 relative of an internal quality of which I am conscious. Thus, 
 when I am conscious of the existence of an inorganic volition to 
 move, and aware that the members are obedient to my will ; but, 
 at the same time, aware that my limb is arrested in its motion by 
 some external impediment \ in this case, I cannot be conscious of 
 myself as the resisted relative, without at the same time being con- 
 scious, being immediately percipient, of a not-self as the resisting 
 correlative. In this cognition there is no sensation, no subjectivo- 
 organic affection. I simply know myself as a force in energy, the 
 not-self as a counter-force in energy." t 
 
 From this passage, which contains his most matured doctrine of 
 the perception of an external reality, taken along with the state- 
 ments before quoted, we gather : 
 
 1, That by the apprehension of a thing in itself, as applied to 
 external reality, Hamilton means an immediate (non-representative) 
 *Reid, p. 866. t Ibid., p. 866. 
 
APPENDIX. 419 
 
 knowledge of the thing, i.e., as he elsewhere explains, the appre- 
 hension of the thing as existing now, or now and here, in time, 
 or in time and space. 
 
 2, That this existence of the thing in itself, in time, or in time 
 and space, is not identical with the absolute existence of the 
 thing, whatever that may mean. That while the thing may have 
 an absolute reality, this, its immediately apprehended .existence, is 
 not forthwith to be identified with that absolute existence. 
 
 3, That nevertheless the quality of an external object may be 
 and is apprehended by us i.e., something more than a mere 
 sensation or form of our consciousness, or "impression on the 
 mind." And that the apprehension or immediate knowledge of 
 this quality, or knowledge of it in itself i.e., not in and through 
 any mode of the mind is a knowledge of a reality different from 
 the mind, from any one of its sensations, and, generally, its modes 
 of being. 
 
 4, That our knowledge of such a quality is always relative is the 
 correlative of some consciousness on our part of a state of the mind, 
 in this case an effort of locomotion, which is found to meet with 
 resistance. 
 
 There is thus in our knowledge relation between a quality in time 
 and space, such as a resisting force, and another quality in time, such 
 as a resisted mental effort or nisus. And further, this quality known 
 in time, or known in space, will in itself be relative ; for time is 
 a relation of succession, as space is a relation of coexistence ; 
 so that there may be and is, in perfectly intelligible language, a 
 twofold relation, even if the quality known be supposed to be an 
 existence or reality in space and time. There is the relation be- 
 tween the quality perceived and the percipient the relation, to 
 wit, of resistance and there is the relation in the quality itself 
 as succeeding other qualities in time, and as existing along with other 
 qualities in space. Our knowledge is thus relative, and of the rela- 
 tive. These relations are altogether independent of that supposed 
 to hold between (unknown) objects and the impressions which 
 they make on the mind or consciousness i. e., consciousness may 
 embrace more than its mere impressions ; while our knowledge is 
 still only of the real and of the relative. 
 
 Our knowledge, accordingly, or experience as we find it, is made up 
 of a real which is not ourselves, and of a real which is ourselves. We 
 do not know the real which is not ourselves apart from the real 
 which is self or ourselves as modified i. e., our knowledge of the ex- 
 
420 APPENDIX. 
 
 ternal real, as of the internal real, is relative, or a relation. Hamil- 
 ton's relative is not opposed to the real, as has been well remarked ; 
 it is opposed to the absolute of certain speculators, such as Schel- 
 ling and others. The absolute knowledge against which Hamilton 
 contends is the knowledge of an object that transcends time and 
 space, that transcends the conditions of human thought and con- 
 sciousness; the knowledge which is claimed by Schelling in his 
 intellectual intuition, and by others of the absolutist school, and 
 made by them the basis of deductive theories of knowledge and 
 being in Hamilton's view at once presumptuous, visionary, and 
 illegitimate. 
 
 Mr Mill's parade of " contradictions " in regard to this and other 
 parts of Hamilton's philosophy may, in the great majority of cases, 
 be shown to arise from the critic's misconception of the doctrines 
 with which he is dealing, from his overlooking the nature of the 
 higher speculative questions, which necessarily present apparently 
 contradictory aspects, and from his extracting meanings from state- 
 ments which they do not contain. Mr Mill's method of destruction 
 by "contradictions" reminds one of the savage war instrument 
 known as the boomerang, which when it hits its object is exceed- 
 ingly deadly, but when unskilfully employed is not less fatal in its 
 rebound on the person using it. Of Mr Mill's remarks on the 
 philosopher I shall say nothing, except that they are, in general, 
 very happy specimens of the art of disparagement, which consists 
 in damning by praise for second-rate feats, when higher were 
 attempted and accomplished, and that they are worthy of the 
 writer who regards Brown and Hartley as possessing an insight 
 "into the heart of great psychological questions which had never 
 been fathomed before," * while Hamilton had none ; who even 
 rates Whately as a thinker above Hamilton, and whose canons of 
 philosophic merit lead him to rank the latter with Mr Dugald 
 Stewart. 
 
 * Examination, p. 620. 
 
APPENDIX. 421 
 
 NOTE B. 
 
 ON THE INFLUENCE OF SIR W. HAMILTON'S WRITINGS 
 IN AMERICA. 
 
 THE following interesting communication on the influence of Sir 
 William Hamilton's writings in America is by Noah Porter, D.D., 
 Professor of Moral Philosophy and Metaphysics in Yale College : 
 " Sir William Hamilton was first known in the United States by 
 his articles in the * Edinburgh Review,' particularly by the two 
 entitled 'Philosophy of Perception' (October 1830), and 'Logic, 
 &c.' (April 1833). The article published previously on 'The 
 Philosophy of the Unconditioned,' &c. (October 1829), did not at 
 first attract general attention, because the writers to which it refers 
 were as yet scarcely known, even to our best scholars, and the sub- 
 jects treated of were strange to our speculations at least in the 
 form and phraseology in which they are there presented. This 
 article was afterwards often referred to and read with great interest. 
 The two articles named were extensively read in this country, and 
 were considered the most remarkable contributions to the history 
 and criticism of metaphysical science which had appeared in the 
 English language for that generation. The astounding erudition, 
 the vigorous thought, the masterly analysis, the acute criticism, and 
 the self-relying independence by which they were distinguished, 
 made a profound impression upon the many readers whom they at 
 once excited and astonished. There were not a few of these many 
 more than the writer himself would have suspected, or any person 
 who was not intimately conversant with the tastes and tendencies 
 of our thinking men, or had founded his conclusions upon the 
 amount of philosophical learning possessed by those who gave in- 
 struction in philosophy, or upon the knowledge possessed by their 
 most advanced pupils. Ill-provided as our country was at that time 
 with learned philosophers, it was furnished with a considerable 
 number of thinkers, who were prepared to accept with gratitude 
 these solid contributions of Hamilton to philosophical knowledge 
 
422 APPENDIX. 
 
 who could follow with interest his novel and subtle analyses, and 
 were competent to criticise his boldest positions. The fact is un- 
 questioned that Hamilton was not obliged to train among us an 
 interested audience or appreciating critics, but he found already 
 provided many readers who were prepared to study his speculations 
 with a keen interest, and to profit by the stimulus and instruction 
 which he so freely imparted. . . . 
 
 " Nearly up to the time when the writings of Hamilton began to 
 be read, the English and Scottish writers had been our only teachers 
 from abroad. The German and French metaphysicians were almost 
 unknown and unread. The ancient philosophers were known only 
 here and there to a classical student, and read in parts chiefly for 
 purely linguistic or philological purposes. The logicians of the 
 scholastic period rested in quiet on the shelves of a few old libraries. 
 The chief interest in speculative questions was excited by their 
 direct application to current theological discussions and controver- 
 sies. The principles recognised and the authorities referred to were 
 derived from the school of Locke and the Scottish metaphysicians. 
 Reid was known familiarly by some of our philosophical teachers. 
 Dugald Stewart had been very generally studied in our leading 
 colleges for a few years, and was admired for his cautious prudence 
 and his careful elegance of style. The lectures of Dr Thomas Brown 
 had passed through several editions, and their author had excited a 
 temporary furore of admiration by his subtle ingenuity, his confi- 
 dent criticism, and his affluent declamation. His treatise on Cause 
 and Effect had both puzzled and aroused our theologians. For 
 several years previous a very active and earnest controversy had 
 been agitating the entire New England school of theology, which 
 turned entirely upon the application of certain mooted psychological 
 and philosophical principles to the received evangelical doctrines. 
 This controversy continued for nearly thirty years, beginning about 
 1820, and effected some important ecclesiastical changes. It was in- 
 cidental to this controversy that the Presbyterian organisation was 
 rent in twain. The discussions of this controversy were conducted 
 with great earnestness, and excited the minds of thinking men of 
 all classes to look closely at the foundation principles of all faith 
 and all philosophy. In 1830, about the time when this controversy 
 was rising to its fever-heat, the philosophical writings of Mr S. T. 
 Coleridge were introduced to our country by a very earnest advocate, 
 James Marsh, D.D., one of our very best scholars and profoundest 
 thinkers. Dr Marsh was an earnest and patient student of the 
 
APPENDIX. 423 
 
 ancient philosophers, and had thoroughly acquainted himself with 
 the later German philosophy. Cousin's critique upon Locke's Essay 
 was translated by Dr Henry, and published in 1833. Eev. George 
 Eipley, then a Unitarian clergyman in Boston, had introduced some 
 novel philosophico-theologieal opinions into the very cultivated cir- 
 cles of that always active-minded city. These were but the result 
 of his very strong interest in the modern speculations of Germany, of 
 which he was an earnest student. The discussions connected with 
 this controversy served to increase the rising interest in speculative 
 studies, and prepared the way for the translation of important philo- 
 sophical papers, and some very earnest philosophical criticism. Mr 
 E. W. Emerson began at this time to express his dissent from the 
 received philosophies, and to advance opinions or to give expression 
 to utterances which served at least to increase the general excite- 
 ment in respect of the loftiest and the most difficult themes of theo- 
 logical inquiry and philosophical speculation. It was just begin- 
 ning to be the fashion with us to study the German language, and 
 many an ardent youth looked forward with eagerness to the time 
 when he should be able to read Kant in the original, or penetrate 
 the secret of Schelling and Hegel, by hearing these writers inter- 
 preted through a German professor. 
 
 " There was probably never a time in our history which could more 
 truly or appropriately be termed a period of fermentation and almost 
 of revolutionary anarchy in our philosophical thinking, than the 
 time when the articles of Sir William Hamilton began to be read 
 among us. It was most opportune for a truly great teacher to gain 
 a hearing, and to produce a strong and lasting impression. Each 
 of these articles treated of a special topic, it is true, but each of the 
 topics was fitted to interest many earnest thinkers ; while the learn- 
 ing, acuteness, and strength which were so lavishly expended on the 
 discussion of each, could not fail to be responded to by the appreciat- 
 ing regard of many youthful students who were just waking to the 
 sublime but critical attractions of philosophical inquiry. The first 
 article, on the Philosophy of the Unconditioned, was, as has been 
 explained, a year or two before its time for American readers, for 
 Cousin was known only to a few before his criticism of Locke was 
 translated by Dr Henry. The article on the Philosophy of Percep- 
 tion attracted attention among all our philosophical students, and 
 established at once the highest reputation for its then unknown 
 author. There were hundreds teachers and students who had 
 studied this subject very carefully in Eeid, Stewart, and Erown, 
 
424 APPENDIX. 
 
 and the reputation of Dr Brown was too recent and too dear with 
 many to permit so bold and damaging an attack upon his ac- 
 curacy and acuteness to pass by without the closest scrutiny. 
 This article became at once a classical treatise on the subject, 
 which it was necessary for every thorough student to read and 
 master. The brief exposure of the defects of Johnson's trans- 
 lation of Tennemann's Manual (1832) was very timely in Ame- 
 rica, for just at this time the attention of our students in philo- 
 sophy was directed to German authors, and the double caution was 
 greatly needed not to confide in the competence of every translator, 
 and especially not in every case to interpret what might be the 
 sound sense of the original by the bad sense or the non-sense which 
 a translator made of his meaning. The article on Logic also made a 
 strong impression, for Whately was beginning to be our popular 
 idol, and his treatise on Logic had been generally regarded as com- 
 prehending all that was attainable or desirable in the art of all arts. 
 The critic who could so readily expose his limited knowledge of the 
 history of the science which he expounded, and who elaborated the 
 results of his own surprising erudition with such power of critical 
 judgment, was placed highest among English logicians. Henceforth 
 Hamilton was regarded as the greatest writer and teacher among 
 living Englishmen. It was not at all surprising that his reputation 
 should be fixed at once with a people of so decided an interest in 
 speculative studies, but of limited reading, whose teachers had been 
 accustomed to look to Scotland and Edinburgh for their authorities 
 in philosophy, and who had no local traditions or prejudices to pre- 
 vent them from accepting, as the most worthy of their confidence, 
 the writer who could best instruct them. Henceforward all the 
 writings of Hamilton were eagerly sought for. His edition of the 
 works of Dr Reid was well known, though never reprinted. The 
 notes and dissertations in the Appendix, so far as they were com- 
 plete, as well as the most important of Hamilton's philosophical 
 articles, were collected into a volume by Mr 0. W. Wight, and 
 edited with notes, &c., by him in 1853, under the title of 'The 
 Philosophy of Sir William Hamilton.' In 1853 the * Discussions 
 on Philosophy and Literature ' were reprinted, with an Introductory 
 Essay by R. Turnbull, D.D. The ' Lectures on Metaphysics and 
 Logic' were promptly reprinted in the years 1859 and 1860, and 
 have been very extensively circulated and read. They were adopted 
 as text-books in many of the colleges and higher seminaries. Both 
 these works have been abridged for the special uses of instruction 
 
APPENDIX. 425 
 
 the l Lectures on Metaphysics/ by Professor Francis Bowen of Har- 
 vard University (1861), and the 'Lectures on Logic' (1863), by 
 Professor Henry N. Day, formerly of the Western Reserve College 
 in Ohio. Not a few articles have been published in our reviews 
 and literary journals, for the exposition and criticism of Hamilton's 
 philosophy. 
 
 " The influence which Hamilton has exercised in America has been 
 almost exclusively by means of his writings. Very few, if any, 
 native Americans are known to have been his pupils, certainly none 
 who have been at all conspicuous as teachers or writers upon philo- 
 sophical topics, or who have been ardently devoted to the propaga- 
 tion of his opinions. And yet there is no part of the country where 
 his writings have not produced a deep and permanent impression, 
 and where he is not revered as one of the greatest thinkers of our 
 times. He has greatly enlarged the knowledge of multitudes in 
 regard to the reach and importance of the discussions which are 
 recorded in the history of philosophy. He has redeemed the history 
 itself from the contempt and reproach under which it had fallen, as 
 being but a dry catalogue of the disputes of learned triflers and the 
 subtleties of pedantic logomachists. Locke, Reid, Stewart, and 
 Brown had all taught their readers the same lesson, and that was 
 to despise the researches and results of the great philosophers of 
 antiquity and of the middle ages, as occupied about questions which 
 were either entirely beyond the reach of the human intellect, or as 
 fatally embarrassed by defective methods. The study of them, in 
 their view, was only an investigation of the curiosities of the human 
 intellect, promising little solid utility to the enlightened scholars'of 
 the nineteenth century, who had been trained in the school of Bacon 
 after the maxims of the inductive method. Hamilton taught us 
 just the opposite, and he enforced his lesson by the splendid ex- 
 ample of the value of historical studies which he furnished in him- 
 self. He showed us most clearly that the questions which still 
 stimulate our curiosity and baffle our efforts to resolve them were 
 the same which at once excited and disappointed the great thinkers 
 of other generations ; and that some of them had been more justly 
 conceived and more wisely answered by them than by those who 
 boasted of their training in the school of Bacon and of Locke. He 
 has, in fact, done more than any and than all of the writers of his 
 time to waken the historic spirit among our philosophers. At the 
 same time he has guided it most wisely and to the most solid results, 
 teaching it to be critical as well as curious, to be self-reliant as well 
 
426 APPENDIX. 
 
 as reverent. The clearness of his own judgment, the candour of his 
 temper, the sagacity of his interpretations, the vigour and indepen- 
 dence of his own critical estimates, as they were constantly exem- 
 plified in his treatment of the writers to whom he so often referred, 
 and from whom he so largely quoted, were most salutary to his 
 American readers, who were in danger of being blindly credulous or 
 ignorantly self-reliant either too contemptuous or too irreverent of 
 the past either excessively conceited or excessively partisan. He 
 was also most useful as an example of what a philosopher should be, 
 at a time when such an example was greatly needed, in the then 
 forming period of our philosophy. The clearness and strength of 
 his own thinking were at once an example and a reproof to not a 
 few who were tempted to substitute imaginative vagaries for dis- 
 criminating analysis. The conciseness and strength of his diction 
 acted like a charm upon those who affected rhetorical diffuseness 
 and ambitious declamation. The moral tone and spirit of his writ- 
 ings were invariably pure and invigorating, and the impression of 
 these characteristics could not but be felt, although his treatment of 
 ethical questions and his recognition of moral truth were only in- 
 cidental and indirect. His simple love of truth and his frank and 
 outspoken utterance of his convictions were of themselves an effi- 
 cient ethical discipline. His believing spirit was never called in 
 question, though many of his readers belonged to a class who are 
 proverbially suspicious of the influence of all metaphysics as neces- 
 sarily anti-Christian. His very decided assertion that Faith is re- 
 quired by men as the supplement and condition of philosophy, went 
 far towards making favour with many for his doctrine of the Un- 
 conditioned. 
 
 "If it was Hamilton's distinguishing merit to have reanimated 
 philosophy in Great Britain, when it was near to breathing out its 
 life under the hands of its guardians and devotees if it will be re- 
 membered to his honour that he restored it to a position of higher 
 dignity than it had enjoyed for centuries before, and this at a time 
 when the prevailing devotion to material interests had wellnigh 
 materialised philosophy itself, and when the splendid triumphs of 
 physical discovery might naturally render men indifferent to those 
 less obtrusive metaphysical truths on which all discovery depends, 
 it was his privilege in America to act upon the rising philosophical 
 spirit which had never been discouraged or suppressed, and at a 
 critical moment when it most needed wise direction, and a stimu- 
 lating as well as a safe example. Hamilton found us just as we 
 
APPENDIX. 427 
 
 were becoming interested in what the French and Germans could 
 teach us, and when not a few were ready to be dazzled by systems 
 that were largely imaginative and fantastic, provided that erudition 
 and genius made them plausible. Hamilton was so learned that he 
 could not but command respect. He was critical enough to inspire 
 confidence. He was daring enough to satisfy the aspirations of the 
 most adventurous. He was wise and solid enough to quietly dis- 
 place pretentious assertion by well-reasoned truth, and to effectually 
 set aside ambitious rhapsody by discriminating logic. While he has 
 not by any means been the only teacher of this generation while 
 his own writings have directed and encouraged us to study the phi- 
 losophers of the Continent yet his influence has been most potent 
 to repress what might otherwise have been magniloquent pretension, 
 and to stimulate those who but for him would have been discour- 
 aged by uncertainty and bewildered by scepticism. 
 
 " Some of the peculiar opinions of Hamilton have not been gen- 
 erally accepted among us. There have been no very earnest advo- 
 cates, though there have been a few faithful adherents, of his 
 doctrine of the Unconditioned and the necessary limitations of 
 religious thought. His doctrines on these points have 'not been 
 canvassed or criticised in our journals so earnestly and often as 
 would be desirable. But there are thousands living at this moment 
 who cherish a grateful and reverent sense of the service which he 
 has rendered in their training, and who feel as greatly indebted 
 to him as to any writer living or dead. Indeed it may be asserted 
 with truth, that the intellectual and moral respect which his writ- 
 ings have inspired cannot be weakened by the efforts of critics to 
 expose inconsistencies in his doctrines or flaws in his reasonings. 
 His opinions must of course be subjected to the ordeal of criticism 
 and of time. Whatever results, however, this trial may evolve, it 
 cannot shake the esteem of his American pupils for his eminent in- 
 tellectual power, for his sincere faith in and hearty love of philosophi- 
 cal truth, and for his earnest devotion to the higher interests of man. 
 
 " I may add that I have used his ' Lectures on Metaphysics ' ever 
 since they were published, as a text-book for daily examination or 
 recitation in my classes ; and though I have not always been able 
 to agree with him, and have greatly regretted that some of the more 
 important topics for an elementary course of instruction were treated 
 so briefly, yet I have preferred this to any other book for its stimu- 
 lating and invigorating effect upon the minds of my pupils. Of 
 more than 1000 pupils whom I have conducted through this course, 
 
428 APPENDIX. 
 
 many have failed to master all his doctrines or to appreciate all 
 his thought ; but I believe the number to be very small of those 
 who, however stupid and negligent, have not been impressed by his 
 mental superiority. I am confident that the number is large of 
 those who have been excited and instructed by his comprehension 
 of the aims of philosophy, by his liberal culture, and by the strength 
 and acuteness of his arguments and elucidations. His influence in 
 all these respects will long live, as I trust. I am confident that 
 no critic can weaken these impressions in the mind of any earnest 
 student of Hamilton ; and however successful any such critic may 
 seem to be in setting aside any of his teachings, he will not add 
 force to his own arguments by attempting to depreciate his surpass- 
 ing excellence, or to lower the estimate of his distinguished services 
 to philosophy and to man." 
 
 Among those who in America have come under the influence of 
 Hamilton, and by their writings have contributed to spread the 
 knowledge of his doctrines, Dr Samuel Tyler, the well-known jurist, 
 is especially deserving of notice. Dr Tyler is the author of a work, 
 'The Progress of Philosophy in the Past and in the Future,' in 
 which he gives an able account of the philosophical opinions of 
 Hamilton, and manifests a remarkable insight into the logical co- 
 herence of his philosophy. 
 
APPENDIX. 429 
 
 NOTE C. 
 
 SIR W. HAMILTON ON HUME, LEIBNITZ, AND ARISTOTLE. 
 
 As Mr Mill refers particularly to Sir W. Hamilton's notices of the 
 systems of Hume and Leibnitz, in support of the charges mentioned 
 in the text, a few words are needed to show at once the worthless- 
 ness of his criticism and the groundlessness of his inference. 
 
 First, with regard to Hume. It appears to Mr Mill that Sir W. 
 Hamilton " has misunderstood the essential character of Hume's 
 mind." " Respecting the general scope and purpose, the pervading 
 spirit, of Hume's speculations, Sir "W. Hamilton does give an 
 opinion, and, I venture to think, a wrong one. He regards Hume's 
 philosophy as scepticism in its legitimate sense. Hume's object, 
 he thinks, was to prove the uncertainty of all knowledge. With 
 this intent he represents him as reasoning from premises 'not 
 established by himself,' but ' accepted only as principles univer- 
 sally conceded in the previous schools of philosophy/ These 
 premises Hume showed (according to Sir W. Hamilton) to lead to 
 conclusions which contradicted the evidence of consciousness ; thus 
 proving, not that consciousness deceives, but that the premises 
 generally accepted on the authority of philosophers, and leading 
 to these conclusions, must be false."* "This is certainly the use 
 which has been made of Hume's arguments by Reid. . . . That 
 Hume had any foresight of his arguments being put to this use, 
 either for a dogmatical or a purely sceptical purpose, appears to me 
 supremely improbable. I think that Hume sincerely accepted both 
 the premises and the conclusions, "t 
 
 Where, it may be asked, does Mr Mill obtain proof of this state- 
 ment regarding Sir W. Hamilton's opinion of Hume's philosophy ? 
 
 In the passage of the ' Discussions ' to which Mr Mill more imme- 
 diately refers, Hamilton says : " Scepticism is not an original or 
 
 * Discussions, p. 87, 88, and elsewhere (Mr Mill's reference), 
 t Mill, p. 626, note, 3d ed. 
 
430 APPENDIX. 
 
 independent method, it is the correlative and consequent of dogma- 
 tism ; and, so far from being an enemy to truth, it arises only from 
 a false philosophy, as its indication and its cure. . . . The sceptic 
 must not himself establish, but from the dogmatist accept his prin- 
 ciples ; and his conclusion is only a reduction of philosophy to zero, 
 on the hypothesis of the doctrine from which his premises are bor- 
 rowed. . . . 
 
 " As a legitimate sceptic, Hume could not assail the foundations 
 of knowledge in themselves. His reasoning is from their subsequent 
 contradiction to their original falsehood; and his premises, not 
 established by himself, are accepted only as principles universally 
 conceded in the previous schools of philosophy. On the assumption 
 that what was thus unanimously admitted by philosophers must be 
 admitted of philosophy itself, his argument against the certainty of 
 knowledge was triumphant." * 
 
 Hamilton elsewhere censures Reid for criticising Hume as a dog- 
 matist as positively laying down certain principles, and for blam- 
 ing him for not doubting of his premises "a part altogether incon- 
 sistent with his vocation." t 
 
 Hamilton is here, and elsewhere, speaking and speaking only, of 
 Hume's system or mode of establishing the conclusions at which 
 he arrived in a word, of the nature and method of his general 
 argument. It is easy to adduce ample proof of the points that 
 Hume so borrowed the principles from which he reasoned, that 
 he showed that those principles led to conclusions inconsistent 
 with the alleged instincts of sense and with the instincts leading 
 us to believe in our own personality and identity, &c. in a word, 
 with the testimony of consciousness, and, consequently, that on 
 those principles we have no reasonable certainty ; and it may be 
 further shown, on the assumption that these are the only pos- 
 sible principles of philosophy, that our intelligence, as self-contra- 
 dictory, is not to be trusted. J 
 
 Hume himself thus sums up his reasoning regarding the notion of 
 external reality : " The first philosophical objection to the evidence of 
 sense, or to the opinion of external existence, consists in this, that such 
 
 * Discussions, p. 87, 88. 
 
 t Reid's Works, p. 129, note * ; compare p. 444, 457, 489. 
 
 J See Hume's statement in a letter to Reid, Burton's Life, ii. p. 154, or n 
 Stewart's Life of Reid, Reid's Works, p. 8 ; Treatise of Human Nature, Part 
 ii., 26 ; iv., 26 ; Essay on the Academical Philosophy, p. 369, 370, 372, 
 ed. 1758. 
 
APPENDIX. 431 
 
 an opinion, if rested on natural instinct, is contrary to reason; and if 
 referred to reason, is contrary to natural instinct, and at the same 
 time carries no rational evidence with it. ... The second objection 
 goes further, and represents this opinion as contrary to reason, at 
 least if it be a principle of reason that all sensible qualities are in 
 the mind, not in the object."* 
 
 Thus, what instinct prompts us to hold, reason rejects ; and what 
 reason counsels, instinct repudiates. There is, therefore, no satisfactory 
 ground of the opinion. We are under the necessity of acting on the 
 belief, but we cannot rationally vindicate the grounds of our belief. 
 
 That the hypothetical form of scepticism was the mode in which 
 Hume presented the results of his reflection to the world, there can 
 be no question. Hamilton, in the above passage in the 'Discus- 
 sions ' and elsewhere, refers, with perfect accuracy, to this fact. The 
 question as to whether Hume believed or was convinced that his 
 borrowed premises were the only principles of philosophy, or the 
 principles which we must accept if we reason on the matters to 
 whi^h they refer, is wholly irrelevant to that of the manner in 
 which he deals with the principles themselves, and the nature of 
 the inferences which he draws from them. To maintain that 
 Hume held the principles from which he reasoned " the common 
 ones," as he himself says to be the only possible the principles 
 of reason itself is, of course, to allege that he veiled an absolute 
 scepticism regarding reason under the form of a relative or hypotheti- 
 cal scepticism grounded on the principles of philosophers. Even if 
 Hume did dogmatically accept those principles as the true and only 
 principles of philosophy, the question as to the personal or social 
 considerations that led him to adopt the hypothetical way of putting 
 them is not less irrelevant to the nature of his argument than the 
 supposed fact itself. At any rate, Sir W. Hamilton does not pro- 
 nounce on this point, as for any pertinent appreciation and criticism 
 of Hume's system of thought he was not required to do. And 
 most certainly Hamilton nowhere says, as Mr Mill represents him, 
 that Hume believed that he had proved " not that consciousness 
 deceives, but that the premises generally accepted on the authority 
 of philosophers, and leading to these [contradictory] conclusions, must 
 be false." Hamilton, indeed, says that "Hume could not assail the 
 foundations of knowledge in themselves. His reasoning is from 
 their subsequent contradiction to their original falsehood." This is 
 a statement simply of the way in which Hume invalidates the prin- 
 * Acad. Phil., p. 369, 4to ed. 
 
432 APPENDIX. 
 
 ciples of reason. The meaning is, not that Hume held these 
 premises to be false, because they contradicted instinct or con- 
 sciousness, but that his reasoning ended in showing that instinct 
 and reason were, as contradictory of each other, alike incapable of 
 yielding certainty or a satisfactory ground of conviction. Mr Mill's 
 groundless interpretation of Hamilton's words makes him represent 
 Hume as maintaining the trustworthiness of our instinctive beliefs 
 in an external world, and in our own personality, and thus as being 
 no longer a sceptic, but a dogmatist i. e., not as denying the cer- 
 tainty of all, but as affirming the certainty of some knowledge viz., 
 that portion of it which is instinctive. If we take Mr Mill's account 
 of Hamilton's view of Hume's opinions, Hamilton must regard Hume 
 as seeking to prove " the uncertainty of all knowledge," and at the 
 same time as doing the reverse, in having discovered by his method 
 the falseness of the received principles of philosophers, and, there- 
 fore, found for true the opinions (opposed to those principles) that 
 are based on the instinctive feelings of mankind. But this account 
 of Hamilton's view of Hume's philosophy is not even self-consistent ; 
 and it is entirely opposed to Hamilton's repeated statements that 
 Hume's position is that of a sceptic, not of a dogmatist. 
 
 Hamilton further says that, in order to prove human knowledge ab- 
 solutely or in itself uncertain, it must be assumed that the principles 
 of the philosophers borrowed by Hume are also the only principles 
 of philosophy. If Hume maintained an absolute scepticism, this 
 was the assumption which he must be regarded as tacitly maintaining. 
 Hamilton may perhaps be regarded as inclining to the view that 
 this was the real conviction of Hume, though he cannot be held as 
 having definitely asserted it. 
 
 Mr Mill thus entirely fails to show that Hamilton has misunder- 
 stood "the essential character of Hume's mind" a point which was 
 really not in question. He only shows that he himself has mixed 
 together two totally different points, and has misunderstood a per- 
 fectly distinct view (be it a right or wrong one) of Hume's system 
 of thought. 
 
 It may be added with regard to the personal question of Hume's 
 relation to his system, that a good deal might be adduced to show 
 that Hume had at least "a foresight" of the use in a dogmatic 
 interest to which his system might be, and actually was, put. 
 First of all, he pronounces absolute scepticism, or the doctrine of 
 the " absolute fallaciousness of the mental faculties," to be in 
 itself not less absurd and contradictory, not less suicidal, than the 
 
APPENDIX. 433 
 
 reasonings of the dogmatism to which this scepticism is opposed. 
 " Eeason," he says, " must remain restless and unquiet, even with 
 regard to that scepticism to which she is led by these seeming 
 absurdities and contradictions. . . . Nothing can be more scep- 
 tical, or more full of doubt and hesitation than this scepticism 
 itself." * And he shows a way out of the contradictions that lead 
 to this universal scepticism. " It seems to me not impossible to 
 avoid these absurdities and contradictions, if it be admitted that 
 there is no such thing as abstract or general ideas," &c.t that is, 
 in other words, if the principles of the philosophers be abandoned. 
 
 Secondly, there are the practical lessons which he draws from 
 Pyrrhonism, as teaching us to abjure dogmatism, on many ques- 
 tions, and the need for "the limitation of our enquiries to such 
 subjects as are best adapted to the narrow capacity of the human 
 understanding." J If there be a sphere in which the exercise of 
 human intelligence is illegitimate, there is necessarily a sphere in 
 which the operation of the same faculty is legitimate, and yields 
 reliable results. 
 
 Thirdly, there are his letters to Reid and Hutcheson, in which he 
 expressly forecasts the use which has actually been made of his spec- 
 ulations. Hume, writing to Reid regarding the ' Inquiry,' says : 
 " I shall only say that if you have been able to clear up these 
 abstruse and important subjects, instead of being mortified, I shall 
 be so vain as to pretend to a share of the praise ; and shall think 
 that my errors, by having at least some coherence, had led you to 
 make a more strict review of my principles, which were the common 
 ones, and to perceive their futility" Again, writing to Hutcheson 
 (1740), Hume says : " I assure you that icithout running any of the 
 heights of scepticism, I am apt, in a cool hour, to suspect in general, 
 that most of my reasonings will be more useful by furnishing hints 
 and exciting people's curiosity, than as containing any principles that 
 will augment the stock ofknowledge that must pass to future ages." || 
 
 Several other statements to the same effect might readily be 
 adduced. But nothing further is required to show that Mr Mill 
 entirely fails in his assault on Hamilton, and is himself wrong in 
 supposing that Hume had no "foresight" of his arguments being 
 possibly turned to the use to which they were actually put. Hume's 
 system, hypothetically taken, has led to all the important develop- 
 
 * Essay on Academical Philosophy, p. 370. t Ibid. J Ibid., p. 373. 
 Stewart's Account of the Life and Writings of Reid, Reid's Works, p. 8 ; 
 Burton's Life, ii. 154. || Burton's Life, i. 118. 
 
 2E 
 
434 APPENDIX. 
 
 ments of philosophy since his time; the same system, absolutely 
 taken, is the preliminary requirement of Comtism, that without 
 which thoroughgoing Comtism is impossible, and from which such 
 a system is legitimate and necessary. Hume, in this aspect, may be 
 held as having done for Comte and his followers what they have 
 never succeeded in doing for themselves. 
 
 But, according to Mr Mill, it is in the case of Leibnitz that Sir 
 W. Hamilton has shown his marked deficiencies in dealing with 
 philosophical systems. The charge is given thus : " He [Sir W. 
 Hamilton] never seems to look at any opinion of a philosopher in 
 connection with the same philosopher's other opinions. Accordingly, 
 he is weak as to the mutual relations of philosophical doctrines. 
 He seldom knows any of the corollaries from a thinker's opinions, 
 unless the thinker has himself drawn them; and even then he 
 knows them, not as corollaries, but only as opinions. One of the 
 most striking examples he affords of this inability is in the case of 
 Leibnitz; and it is worth while to analyse this instance, because 
 nothing can more conclusively show how little capable he was of 
 entering into the spirit of a system unlike his own. 
 
 "If ever there was a thinker whose system of thought could, 
 without difficulty, be conceived as a connected whole, it was that of 
 Leibnitz. Hardly any philosopher has taken so much pains to dis- 
 play the filiation of all his main conceptions in a manner at once 
 satisfactory to his own mind and intelligible to the world. And 
 there is hardly any one in whom the filiation is more complete these 
 various conceptions being all applications of one common principle. 
 Yet Sir W. Hamilton understands them so ill as to be able to say, 
 after giving an account of the Pre-established Harmony, that its 
 ' author himself probably regarded it more as a specimen of ingenuity 
 than as a serious doctrine.'* And again, 'It is a disputed point 
 whether Leibnitz was serious in his Monadology and Pre-established 
 Harmony.' t To say nothing of the injustice done by this surmise 
 to the deep sincerity and high philosophic earnestness of that emi- 
 nent man, it is obvious to those who study opinions in their relation 
 to the mind entertaining them, that a person who could thus think 
 concerning the Pre-established Harmony and the Monadology, how- 
 ever correctly he may have seized any particular opinions of Leibnitz, 
 had never taken into his mind a conception of Leibnitz himself as 
 a philosopher. Tliese theories were necessitated by Leibnitz's other 
 opinions. They were the only outlet from the difficulties of the 
 * Lectures, i. 304. t Footnote to Reid, p. 309. 
 
APPENDIX. 435 
 
 fundamental doctrine of his philosophy, the principle of Sufficient 
 Reason."* 
 
 The proof, then, of this conspicuous inability of Hamilton to 
 enter into the mind of Leibnitz and the spirit of his system to 
 apprehend the filiation of his doctrines, &c. is made to rest on the 
 two sentences here quoted. The first question that occurs is, Do 
 they prove, or even really illustrate, this striking defect ? 
 
 With regard to the note quoted from Reid's Works, it contains 
 a statement simply of a matter of fact, and it would be quite rele- 
 vant to prove it to be inaccurate, which Mr Mill does not do, and 
 does not attempt to do. The statement is perfectly accurate, as any 
 one may satisfy himself by referring to the ' Leibnitii Yita ' of 
 Brucker (Opera, ed. Dutens, t. i. p. 128) ; to the ' Praefatio Generalis ' 
 of Dutens himself (Opera, i. p. 7-12) ; and to 'Pfaffii Dissertationes 
 Anti-Bay lianae,' Tubingse, 1720, Dissert, iii. p. 9; to say nothing of 
 Gibbon's < Antiquities of the House of Brunswick,' p. 779, ed. 1837, 
 and Stewart's 'Dissertation,' p. 130, ed. 1855, where the controversy 
 is referred to. That Hamilton was aware of the controversy, and 
 noted the fact of its having taken place, is a very astounding proof 
 of his inability to enter into the mind of Leibnitz ! 
 
 But the other sentence, in which Hamilton says that Leibnitz 
 " probably regarded the theory [Pre-established Harmony] more as a 
 specimen of ingenuity than as a serious doctrine," is perhaps more 
 to the point. 
 
 This sentence, be it observed, is from the Lectures ; but, as 
 usual, it is quoted by Mr Mill as of co-ordinate authority with the 
 note in Reid, which was published by Sir William himself. M"o 
 allowance whatever is made for the fact that the sentence is an 
 isolated one, that its substance is nowhere repeated in the author's 
 writings that, in fact, it is a casual expression of opinion written 
 on the spur of the moment, and under the exigency of getting up a 
 lecture for delivery next morning, when he was not himself dis- 
 cussing the doctrines of Leibnitz, but merely giving from Laro- 
 miguiere an account of the scheme of Pre-established Harmony, along 
 with other hypotheses. An expression of opinion in this manner 
 on a point so important, though qualified as a mere probability, is 
 certainly not to be approved. But it is one thing to censure this, and 
 quite another to treat a sentence so given as if it were the writer's 
 deliberate and conclusive utterance on the subject to which it refers. 
 
 I have little doubt that when Hamilton wrote the sentence in 
 * Examination, p. 627, 628. 
 
436 APPENDIX. 
 
 question, he was thinking of Leibnitz's letter to Pfaff, who had 
 said to Leibnitz himself that he supposed him not to be serious in 
 his Monadology and Pre-established Harmony. Leibnitz in reply 
 to Pfaff who would seem to have been a theologian of the respect- 
 able but dull type wrote, but, as has been shrewdly surmised, 
 ironically, or as we now should say, in chaff: " Ita prorsus est, vir 
 summe reverende, uti scribis, de Theodicea mea. Rem acu tetigisti, 
 et miror, neminem hactenus fuisse, qui sensum hunc meuni senserit. 
 JSTeque enim Philosophorum est rem serio semper agere ; qui in fin- 
 gendis hypothesibus, uti bene mones, ingenii sui vires experiuntur. 
 Tu, qui theologus, in refutandis erroribus Theologum ages." * 
 
 The evidence appears to me to show that Leibnitz regarded the 
 Pre-established Harmony as more than a specimen of ingenuity as, 
 in fact, a serious doctrine. And accordingly, I think Sir William's 
 statement is not accurate, and unfortunate in its phraseology. It 
 should, however, be observed that Sir W. Hamilton's words do not 
 imply that he concurred with those who believed and said that 
 Leibnitz secretly agreed with Bayle while professing to reply to 
 him.f What Hamilton really meant to convey was probably that 
 Leibnitz proposed his theory rather as a plausible hypothesis as an 
 ingenious possible solution of the difficulties of the problem than as 
 convinced of its being the actual or only possible solution. This 
 view of Hamilton's meaning is confirmed by what he says elsewhere 
 when referring, among other theories, to the scheme of Pre-established 
 Harmony as devised to meet the difficulty of a doctrine of Repre- 
 sentative Perception that is, to explain how it is possible that the 
 mind can represent or mediately know a real world which it does 
 not, in the first instance, apprehend. " The mind," he says, " either 
 blindly determines itself, or is blindly determined by an extrinsic 
 and intelligent cause. . . . The absurdity of this supposition [the 
 former alternative] has constrained the profoundest cosmothetic 
 idealists, notwithstanding their rational abhorrence of a supernatu- 
 ral assumption, to embrace the second alternative. To say nothing 
 of less illustrious schemes, the systems of Divine Assistance, of a 
 Pre-established Harmony, and of the vision of all things in the 
 Deity, are only so many subsidiary hypotheses so many attempts 
 to bridge, by supernatural machinery, the chasm between the repi*e- 
 sentation and the reality, which all human ingenuity had found, by 
 natural means, to be insuperable. . . . The hypothetical realist," he 
 
 * Leibnitii Opera, Prsefatio Generalis, Dutens, i. 8. 
 
 f Gibbon's Antiquities of the House of Brunswick, p. 779. 
 
APPENDIX. 437 
 
 adds, " in his effort to be * wise above knowledge,' like the dog in 
 the fable, loses the substance in attempting to realise the shadow." 
 " Les hommes " (says Leibnitz, with a truth of which he was not 
 himself aware) " les hommes cherchent ce qu'ils savent, et ne savent 
 pas ce qiiils cherchent"* This is Sir W. Hamilton's deliberate 
 opinion of the theory of Pre-established Harmony and of the ground 
 which led to its adoption. Had Mr Mill pondered this passage, he 
 might have got both a truer view of Sir W. Hamilton's opinion on 
 the point, and also a more correct appreciation of the necessity out 
 of which the scheme of Pre-established Harmony arose, than, as we 
 shall show, he has reached. Sir William's view of the theory, as 
 now stated, is not very far from what Leibnitz himself says of the 
 Pre-established Harmony, being all that he claims for it viz., that 
 it was "a very possible hypothesis," i.e., conceivable, not self-re- 
 pugnant, and that it rises to " something more than an hypothesis," 
 by serving to explain, better than any other theory, the facts of the 
 case, t 
 
 But supposing Hamilton did hold it to be probable that Leibnitz 
 gave forth the Pre-established Harmony "more as a specimen of 
 ingenuity than as a serious doctrine," must he, therefore, be held not 
 to have apprehended " the connection of this doctrine with the other 
 opinions of Leibnitz," and to have failed " to enter into the spirit 
 of the system," and "take into his mind a conception of Leibnitz as 
 a philosopher"] 
 
 Between having doubts of a philosopher's seriousness, and not 
 apprehending his system as a whole, or the relations of its parts, 
 there does not seem to be such a connection as to render the latter 
 an inevitable corollary from the former. The supposition of want of 
 seriousness may do injustice to the philosopher as a man it may 
 even prevent a proper insight into the relation between the man and 
 his opinions ; but it is surely compatible with an understanding of 
 the filiation of his system of opinions of the logical connection of 
 any particular opinion with all the others held by the same person, 
 if there chance to be such a connection. This ground is but a 
 sorry foundation for such an inference, even regarding Hamilton's 
 view of Leibnitz ; to say nothing of the wide conclusion which we 
 are invited to draw regarding his catholic incapacity of entering 
 into the minds of philosophers generally. 
 
 * Discussions, p. 67, 68. 
 
 t See Systeme Nouveau de la Nature et de la Communication des Sub- 
 stances, 15-17. 
 
438 APPENDIX. 
 
 Sir W. Hamilton has nowhere given a general exposition of the 
 system of Leibnitz, and we have therefore no complete data for 
 gathering his view of it, and pronouncing on the point as to 
 whether he rightly comprehended it as a whole or not. But we 
 have in the notes to Eeid a few isolated references to the main opin- 
 ions of Leibnitz ; and it might have been to the point had Mr Mill 
 fairly collected and noticed these statements, and shown from them, 
 if he could, how badly Sir W. Hamilton understood the connection 
 of the system of Leibnitz. He might possibly have found there 
 some statements of Hamilton's views on parts of the system, which 
 would have afforded material more relevant to the conclusion he was 
 seeking to draw than the scraps he has quoted. Sir William there 
 refers to the principle of Sufficient Eeason, and to the Pre-established 
 Harmony. His views differ considerably from those of Mr Mill, both 
 on the nature of the principle itself, and on the relation of the Pre- 
 established Harmony to what Mr Mill regards as " the fundamental 
 principle" of the philosophy of Leibnitz, and in both instances 
 Hamilton, as appears to me, approaches the truth precisely in degree 
 as he differs from Mill. 
 
 Let us see how the matter stands. According to Mr Mill, Leib- 
 nitz's " system of thought can, without difficulty, be conceived as a 
 connected whole."* " He has taken pains to display the filiation of 
 all his main conceptions in a manner at once satisfactory to Ms own 
 mind and intelligible to the world. And there is hardly any philo- 
 sopher in whom the filiation is more complete, these various con- 
 ceptions being all applications of one common principle" " These 
 theories [Pre-established Harmony and Monadology] were necessi- 
 tated by Leibnitz's other opinions. They were the only outlet from 
 the difficulties of the fundamental doctrine of his philosophy, the 
 principle of Sufficient Reason" f Mr Mill then proceeds to expound 
 the philosophy of Leibnitz as an evolution from this so-called fun- 
 damental principle. The exposition may be taken as a specimen of 
 what can be done by one who, unlike Sir W. Hamilton, can really 
 enter into the mind of a philosopher. 
 
 Now there are a few points that fall to be noted here. In the 
 first place, it is not the fact that the principle of Sufficient Eeason 
 is " the fundamental doctrine of the philosophy " of Leibnitz. The 
 principle of Non-Contradiction is a doctrine of the philosophy of 
 Leibnitz it is expressly laid down as such along with the principle 
 of Sufficient Eeason and, from it's nature, it is more fundamental 
 * Examination, p. 628. t Ibid. 
 
APPENDIX. 439 
 
 in that philosophy than the principle of Sufficient Eeason ; for while 
 the violation of the law of Contradiction gives what is impossible in 
 thought and in reality, and its fulfilment only the possible, the law 
 of Sufficient Eeason comes after this to determine what is real among 
 the possibilities. " Duobus utor in demonstrando principiis, quorum 
 unum est : falsum esse quod implicat contradictionem ; alterum est : 
 omnis veritatis (quae immediata sive identica non est) reddi possi 
 rationem" * The law of Contradiction thus stands at the gateway of 
 the knowledge of reality ; and Leibnitz by it marked off the bounds 
 within which, according to his view, a science of reality is pos- 
 sible, and in so doing gave a distinctive character to his philosophy, 
 before even the law of Sufficient Eeason came into operation at all. 
 And Leibnitz expressly excepts from the operation of the principle 
 of Sufficient Eeason all immediate or identical truths, thus pointing 
 to a body of knowledge that is of a more essential and fundamental 
 character than the derivative truths determined by the principle of 
 Sufficient Eeason. 
 
 Secondly, Leibnitz recognises another principle of philosophy, 
 co-ordinate with that of the Sufficient Eeason, which may fairly be 
 regarded as not less influential in determining his principal opin- 
 ions, and even several of his subordinate doctrines, than the latter. 
 This is what he calls the Law of Continuity. This principle he 
 explains in a letter to Bayle, an extract from which is given in 
 Erdmann's edition, p. 104, entitled *Sur un Principe General, utile 
 a 1'Explication des Lois de la Nature.' He regards himself as the 
 discoverer of the principle.t He expressly places it on the same level 
 with the principle of Perfection, one of his names for the Suffi- 
 cient Eeason. " Les phenomenes actuels de la nature sont menages 
 et doivent 1'etre de telle sorte, qu'il ne se rencontre jamais rien 
 ou la loi de la Continuite (que j'ai introduite, et dont j'ai fait la 
 premiere mention dans les Nouvelles de la Eepublique des Lettres 
 de M. Bayle), et toutes les autres regies les plus exactes des 
 Mathematiques soient violees. Et bien loin de cela, les choses ne 
 sauroient etre rendues intelligibles que par ces regies, seules capa- 
 bles, avec celles de Harmonie, ou de la Perfection, que la veritable 
 Metaphysique fournit, de nous faire entrer dans les raisons et vues 
 de 1'auteur des choses." * 
 
 While the principle of Sufficient Eeason led Leibnitz to reject 
 
 * De Scientia Universal!, Erdmann, p. 83. 
 
 t Theod. 348, Opera, Dutens, i. 366. 
 
 t RSplique aux Reflexions de Bayle, Erdmann, p. 189. 
 
440 APPENDIX. 
 
 the Cartesian notion, that the essence of body consists in exten- 
 sion, because extension is not sufficient to render a reason of all the 
 properties of body particularly natural inertia, or resistance to 
 motion the principle of Continuity led him to the positive con- 
 ception of the Monad as a self-developing power, and also to the 
 conception of the subordinate gradations among the Monads them- 
 selves. One principal point in the theory of Monadology, as laid 
 down by himself, is " Que chacune de ces substances contient dans 
 sa nature legem continuationis seriei suarum operationum, et tout ce 
 qui lui est arrive" et arrivera."* To the law of Continuity we owe, 
 besides, his doctrines of the impossibility of atoms or perfectly 
 hard bodies of latent mental modifications and that the soul 
 always thinks. A celebrated disciple of Leibnitz no doubt attempted, 
 what he himself did not think of, to deduce the law of Continuity 
 from that of the Sufficient Reason. But the only effect of this was 
 to render the principle of Sufficient Reason somewhat more vague 
 and elastic, and therefore more useless, than it was even in the 
 hands of Leibnitz. 
 
 The truth is, that it was only such specific principles as the law 
 of Continuity that made the application of the law of Sufficient 
 Reason possible, and put a definite meaning into it. 
 
 Thirdly, to say that the philosophical opinions of Leibnitz flowed 
 from the one common principle of the Sufficient Reason, is to state 
 an utterly barren and unimportant commonplace, that throws no 
 real light on his opinions or their connections. And, further, to 
 maintain that these opinions were " necessitated " by this principle, 
 and were " the only outlet " from its difficulties, and therefore were 
 connected by it with a true logical coherence, is to maintain what 
 can be shown not to be the case. 
 
 The truth is, that the principle of Sufficient Reason, in the hands 
 of Leibnitz, is as vague and indefinite a conception as possibly can be. 
 Nay, it is not a single principle ; it is employed by him in meanings 
 which virtually render it at least two different principles, one of 
 which an opponent may admit, and, at the same time, fairly deny 
 the other. It is used, moreover, in such a sense by Leibnitz in the 
 so-called deduction of his opinions, as on the most essential points 
 to involve a petitio principii. It is, therefore, utterly useless as the 
 basis of any demonstrative system of philosophy ; it does not afford 
 any true filiation of a system, and does not help us to conceive such, 
 or to make it " intelligible." 
 
 * Lettre a M. Arnauld, Erdmaun, p. 107. 
 
APPENDIX. 441 
 
 Reid, Stewart, Hamilton to say nothing of others have all 
 noticed the vagueness of the principle of the Sufficient Reason.* 
 Leibnitz himself tells us that it applies to the existence of things, 
 the occurrence of events, and the notion of a truth, t It is thus a 
 real or metaphysical principle that is, there must be a sufficient 
 reason or cause of each thing and of each event; and it is a 
 logical principle that is, there must be a reason or ground of 
 every truth that is not immediate or identical. In each case the 
 reason is such as, if known, to render intelligible or conceivable to 
 us how the thing, event, or truth is, and is as it is. This is the 
 element in the principle common to all the various cases or appli- 
 cations of it. But Leibnitz did not maintain, as Mr Mill makes 
 him do, that " the antecedent ground in reason " is always " cognis- 
 able by reason," if by reason is meant human reason ; for Leibnitz 
 expressly allows the existence of sufficient reasons of theological 
 mysteries reasons which, if known, would render their how intel- 
 ligible or conceivable but holds, at the same time, that these 
 are cognisable by the Divine Reason alone. J 
 
 It is pretty obvious, however, that a principle so general as this 
 could hardly give a distinctive character to a philosophical system, 
 beyond requiring it to be a reasoned one. The principle might be 
 admitted by entirely opposite thinkers, and might give rise to en- 
 tirely opposite conclusions on essential points such as the connec- 
 tion of the mind and body, and the nature of Divine action ; for 
 the essential point to be settled is as to what ought to be regarded 
 as a sufficient reason in any given case, and this would fall to be 
 determined by the other distinctive philosophical principles or canons 
 which each party might hold. It was thus that Clarke could allow 
 to Leibnitz the principle of Sufficient Reason, and yet legitimately 
 dispute his inferences. In a word, it is the principles which regulate 
 the application of the law of Sufficient Reason which must necessarily 
 make a difference in the conclusions drawn from it. As a major 
 premise, it is thoroughly vague and colourless, and may be made to 
 guarantee conclusions of the most conflicting character regarding the 
 reason or cause deemed sufficient. Hence it is that the distinctive 
 theories of Leibnitz the Monadology and the Pre-established Har- 
 mony arose directly not from the principle of Sufficient Reason, but 
 from the assumptions of the law of Continuity of what is Perfect 
 
 * Reid's Works, p. 624, n.t. Stewart, Dissertation, p. 130. 
 
 t Monadologie, 32-36. J See Theodice'e, 60 et seq. 
 
 Troisieme Replique de Mr Clarke, Erdmann, p. 753. 
 
442 APPENDIX. 
 
 and Imperfect in Divine action and from other subordinate laws 
 that regulated the applications of the principle of Sufficient Reason. 
 Negatively, the law of Sufficient Reason yielded no fair logical 
 result. Supposing it admitted that we cannot conceive the how or 
 possibility of physical influence, and of the action of mind on body, 
 it by no means follows that that action is to be denied as a fact. 
 Positively taken, it does not necessarily lead to the theory of Pre- 
 established Harmony for, as Hamilton has well remarked, "this 
 opinion of Leibnitz [Pre-established Harmony] stands apart alto- 
 gether from his doctrine of the Sufficient Reason. That doctrine is 
 equally applicable in the theory of Malebranche, who viewed the 
 Deity as the proximate efficient cause of every effect in nature; and 
 to the theory of Leibnitz himself, who held that the Deity operated 
 in the universe once and for all." * And why 1 Obviously because 
 Divine Power may equally well be conceived sufficient to produce 
 the effect in question, whether the action itself is single, as with 
 Leibnitz, or plural, as with Malebranche. It is the same agency in 
 both cases, and therefore equally sufficient for the effect ; and so 
 far as our being able to conceive the how or mode of the action is 
 concerned, the general and single action is not a whit more con- 
 ceivable or intelligible to us than the special and repeated action. 
 So far as the principle of Sufficient Reason is concerned, we are 
 perfectly free to adopt either hypothesis. Now it is here that the 
 fatal ambiguity of the principle of Sufficient Reason comes out, 
 which leads not to the demonstration but to the begging of the 
 point at issue. " This hypothesis " [Occasional Causes or Divine 
 Assistance], says Mr Mill, " as it supposed nothing less than a stand- 
 ing miracle, was wholly inadmissible by Leibnitz. It was inconsist- 
 ent with the idea which he had formed to himself of the perfections 
 of Deity. . . . Leibnitz could not find in God any Sufficient 
 Reason why so roundabout a mode of governing the universe should 
 have been chosen by Him. He was thus thrown upon the hypo- 
 thesis of a Pre-established Harmony as his only refuge ; and there 
 can be no doubt that he accepted it with the full conviction of an 
 intellect accustomed to pursue given premises to their consequences 
 with all the vigour of geometrical demonstration." t 
 
 If this be the reasoning of Leibnitz, the principle of Sufficient 
 Reason has been made to assume a character that is not implied in 
 its terms, and a character, moreover, that leads directly to the com- 
 plete begging of the point at issue. The mere sufficiency of the 
 * Eeid's Works, p. 626, note. t Examination, p. 730-31. 
 
APPENDIX. 443 
 
 cause or reason is equally fulfilled on the scheme of Divine Assist- 
 ance as on that of Pre-established Harmony. The conceivableness 
 of the one scheme is neither greater nor less than that of the other. 
 But the assumption is made that the hypothesis of Pre-established 
 Harmony gives us a conception of greater perfection in Deity, or in 
 the Divine mode of action, than the other. The idea of greater per- 
 fection, or of a more perfect mode of action, is tacitly assumed to be 
 identical with an adequate or sufficient mode of action, reason, or 
 cause ; and the Sufficient Reason thus disguised, or converted into the 
 reason of greater perfection, is made the basis of the inference that 
 the scheme of Pre-established Harmony is the true one. And thus 
 the real question at issue between the upholders of the hypothesis of 
 Divine Assistance and those of the Pre-established Harmony viz., as 
 to which shows more fully the perfections of Deity is begged. The 
 point begged is paraded as the Sufficient Reason, and we have " the 
 necessary corollary," "the only outlet from the difficulties of the 
 principle of the Sufficient Reason," in the theory of Pre-established 
 Harmony. If this be " the filiation of the system" of Leibnitz 
 if this be " the one common principle" from which his whole philo- 
 sophy flows alas for the connection of the system and for the logic 
 of its expounder ! Any critic of the system of Leibnitz who does 
 not distinguish the really opposite meanings involved in the prin- 
 ciple of Sufficient Reason, and holds it to be more than nominally 
 the one and fundamental principle of the system, has but a sorry 
 insight into the merely verbal coherency of the system itself. 
 
 One point more, and we shall leave Mr Mill and his ' Examina- 
 tion,' at least for the present. It refers to the subject of this note, 
 Sir W. Hamilton's " inability to enter into the mind of another 
 thinker," which of course means Mr Mill's view of the thinker's 
 mind a view which is often quite peculiar to himself. Sir W. 
 Hamilton held that, " considered as ends, and in relation to each 
 other, the knowledge of truths is not supreme, but subordinate to 
 the cultivation of the knowing mind." By "knowledge," he tells 
 us, is meant " the mere possession of truths ; " and by " cultivation" 
 "intellectual cultivation" he means "the power, acquired 
 through exercise by the higher faculties, of a more varied, vigorous, 
 and protracted activity."* He maintained this view in a practical 
 interest that of the higher education. " According to the solution 
 [of this question] at which we arrive, must we accord the higher or 
 the lower rank to certain great departments of study ; and, what is 
 * Lectures, i. 8, 9. 
 
444 APPENDIX. 
 
 of more importance, the character of its solution, as it determines 
 the aim, regulates from first to last the method which an enlightened 
 science of education must adopt."* 
 
 Mr Mill represents Sir W. Hamilton's opinion as being " that not 
 truth, but the search for truth, is the important matter; and that the 
 pursuit of it is not for the sake of the attainment, but of the mental 
 activity and energy developed in the search." t 
 
 This statement leaves out the important qualification, that in regard 
 to practical knowledge or truth moral, religious, and political 
 Sir W. Hamilton makes its value depend, not on the mental exercise 
 involved in its pursuit, but on its being put into exercise or practice. J 
 
 But even in regard to speculative knowledge or truth, the state- 
 ment is not correct. Sir W. Hamilton never said that " not truth, 
 but the search for truth, is the important matter," as if truth were 
 unimportant ; what he says is, that of the two the latter is the more 
 important. Nor does he say " that the pursuit of truth is not for 
 the sake of the attainment, but of the mental activity and energy 
 developed in the search." For this would imply that the attain- 
 ment is not to be a motive for the pursuit that truth is not to be 
 sought for its own sake, but for the sake of a certain accompaniment 
 viz., the mental exercise. What he does say is, that of the two 
 ends, the attainment or possession of truth is not so important as 
 the activity elicited by its pursuit. His statement is comparative, 
 not absolute. To use his own words " Knowledge is itself princi- 
 pally valuable as a means of intellectual education." 
 
 Sir William cites Plato and Aristotle in support of the view which 
 he takes. Mr Mill sees in this only another instance of his " inabil- 
 ity to enter into the very mind of another thinker." || To discuss 
 the whole question here raised would lead us much too far. With 
 regard to Plato, Hamilton's view is substantially that countenanced 
 by Mr Grote, whose authority on such a point may, to say the least 
 of it, be very fairly set off against any mere ipse dixit of Mr Mill. IF 
 
 With regard to Aristotle, it would not be at all difficult to show 
 that, apart from any express statement by him on the subject, the 
 opinion which Sir W. Hamilton attributes to him, is in harmony 
 with the general tenor of his philosophy. The principles, psycho- 
 logical and metaphysical, of Aristotle, are quite in the line of the 
 alternative which Hamilton attributes to him. There can be no 
 doubt that, according to Aristotle, energy or actuality (evegye/a,) is 
 
 * Lect. i. 8, 9. t Examination, p. 632. J Lect. i. 9, 10. 
 
 Ibid. i. 7. || Examination, p. 632. U See above, p. 205. 
 
APPENDIX. 445 
 
 higher than power, capacity (Suva/tig). In fact, the conception of 
 the superiority of svsgyeia over dvva/j,i$ is at the root of his whole 
 metaphysical system. Energy is superior to and more excellent 
 than potentiality ; for what is potential may develop in either of 
 two contrary modes, whereas the actual must subsist in one of the 
 two at the same time.* Then he is at pains explicitly to distinguish 
 between perfect and imperfect energy. The energy or activity which 
 contains its end in itself is energy proper, as vision or cognition ; 
 and it is higher than that activity whose end is external to itself, as 
 the act of learning or motion. There is the difference here between 
 what is completed and what is simply in the way of completion 
 the becoming. t As knowledge, or " the possession of truth," is not 
 necessarily more than simply a Suva/jug, for we may not always 
 actually realise, or have present before the mind, the truths which 
 we possess, as the contents of memory, the actuality or energy 
 of cognition will be the higher perfection of the two. 
 
 That, as Hamilton quotes, " the intellect is perfected by activity," 
 may be regarded as even explicitly stated by Aristotle, for in the fol- 
 lowing passages he makes both the reality and the perfection of intel- 
 ligence consist in actuality or energy. A.vr(>v ds voel 6 vov$ xara 
 XjAj//v rou voqrov" voqrbs yag ytyvsrai Qiyydvcav %a} vouv, uare 
 vov$ xai voqrov. TO yag d&xrixbv rD vo?jrou xat rq$ ovfftas vovc. svegytT 
 fie g%wi/.^ 'H yfy voD tvsgytia ^w^, exe?vo$ 6s i] svsoysia" evigysia ds 
 j) xad' avrviv exst'vov &} ag/Vrj xai atdiog. "On 5' svigyttot, irgorsgov, 
 fjt,a?rvgs7 ' Ava%ay6gu$ (6 ya^ vovg svegysiq). || 
 
 Then his doctrine of the pleasurable in our mental life is com- 
 patible only with the view that activity is superior to the simple 
 possession of truths, even when we are actually conscious of the 
 truth possessed. For if, as he maintains, the intellect reaches its 
 reality and perfection in energy in the actual cognition of an 
 object ; and if, as he further maintains, the power of cognition 
 energises perfectly which is well disposed with respect to the best 
 of all the objects that fall under it; and if perfect energy be 
 that accompanied by the greatest feeling of pleasure, it will fol- 
 low that the perfect condition of our intellectual life is that which 
 avoids the pains of imperfect or overstrained energy. IT But cogni- 
 tive energy continued beyond a certain period, however valuable the 
 knowledge it may hold, will cause pain. Consequently, it will always 
 be more desirable will conduce more to the perfect state of our 
 
 * Met. viii. 9. f Ibid. viii. 6. J Ibid. xi. 7. Compare xii. 9. 
 
 Ibid. xi. 7. II Ibid. xi. 6. H Nic. Ethics, x. 4, 5. 
 
446 APPENDIX. 
 
 intellectual life that we should have a change of energy, than that 
 an energy, whatever it may be cognisant of, should remain constantly 
 with us. A mere change, therefore, or series of successive energies, 
 will be superior, as a state of our inteDectual life, to the continu- 
 ance of the same energy in other words, activity will be more 
 desirable as a condition of intelligence than the mere possession of 
 knowledge. 
 
 But, be the Aristotelic doctrine as it may, the point is chiefly 
 interesting as illustrating Mr Mill's remarkable style of criticism, 
 and showing what weight is to be attached to his premises, even 
 when they relate to matters of fact. 
 
 With reference to the circumstance that Hamilton cites Aristotle as 
 supporting his view of the relative superiority of the quest of truth 
 to the actual possession of it, Mr Mill remarks : " In Aristotle's 
 case, the assertion rests on a mistake of the Aristotelian word 
 svigyeia,, which did not signify energy, but fact as opposed to possi- 
 bility actus to potential * The obvious inference from this state- 
 ment is, that Sir "William Hamilton regarded m^e/a as signifying 
 something different from actus in fact, power or forcible activity, 
 the popular and abusive sense of the term energy. Now the truth 
 is, that Sir William Hamilton interpreted svegyeia in no such sense, 
 and was probably the first in Britain, in this century, at least, 
 to point out its true Aristotelic significance. Take only the fol- 
 lowing passage : " Poiver, faculty, capacity, disposition, habit, are 
 all different expressions for potential or possible existence ; act, 
 operation, energy, for actual or present existence. Thus the power 
 of imagination expresses the unexerted capability of imagining ; the 
 act of imagination denotes that power elicited into immediate, into 
 present, existence. The different synonyms for potential existence 
 are existence sv dvvd^si, in potentia, in posse, in power ; for actual 
 existence, sv tvegysfq, or sv hriXs^stcf,, in actu, in esse, in act, in opera- 
 tion, in energy. The term energy is precisely the Greek term for act 
 or operation, but it has vulgarly obtained the meaning of forcible 
 activity." t 
 
 The person who makes this statement is represented as mistaking 
 " the meaning of the Aristotelian word evsgyua, which did not sig- 
 nify energy, but fact as opposed to possibility actus to potentia" ! 
 
 This is Hamilton's explicit statement of the meaning of the term ; 
 nor is there a single word in the whole of the discussion relative to 
 the comparative superiority of the quest of truth over the possession 
 * Examination, p. 632. t Lectures, i. 180. 
 
APPENDIX. 447 
 
 of it, which implies that the term evsgyeia, is understood in any 
 other sense than that here given to it. Mr Mill adds in a note : 
 " The very passage quoted in support of this representation of 
 him [Aristotle] shows that he was using the word in his own and 
 not in Sir W. Hamilton's sense. T&\og 5' jj mg/s/a, xal rourou %ag/v 
 XafJbSdvsrai . . . Ka) rqv IftlglffgX^f (e%ovffiv) i'va dsueSjffw 
 ov dsugovffiv Iva dsu^Tix.^ e%u(Hv" Now, in the first place, this 
 passage is not " quoted "at all by Sir W. Hamilton, but by his 
 editors ; and, in the second place, the passage does not prove what 
 Mr Mill says it proves. Sir W. Hamilton is using the word 
 svegysiu precisely in Aristotle's sense. " Every power," he says, 
 " exists for the sake of action" i. e., not of forcible activity, but of 
 an actual realisation of the power. It so happens that, in the case of 
 contemplation, the present existence of the capability is also a state 
 of activity ; and Mr Mill confounds this accidental coincidence with 
 the essential meaning of the term. It may be added that the term 
 " fact," by which Mr Mill translates s^ye/a, is about the most inap- 
 propriate word in the English language that could have been selected. 
 But Mr Mill proceeds : " One hardly knows what to say to a 
 writer who understands TtXog od yvuffts aXXu Kgafys to mean ' The 
 intellect is perfected, not by knowledge, but by activity.' " * Now 
 there is absolutely no warrant for saying that Sir W. Hamil- 
 ton understood these words in this meaning. Sir W. Hamilton 
 quotes, as from Aristotle, the words, "The intellect is perfected, 
 not by knowledge, but by activity." But he himself gives no 
 reference to the original, or to the words Te\o$ ou yvuaiz dXXa 
 TTPag/?. The words are adduced by the editors of his Lectures 
 in a note to the text, for which Sir "W. Hamilton was just as little 
 responsible as Mr Mill; a fact which is patent to any one who 
 exercises ordinary fairness in dealing with the materials before 
 him. The note appended to Sir W. Hamilton's statement is as 
 follows : " Said of moral knowledge, Eth. Nic. L 3. TsXo$ ou 
 yvuffis aXXa cr^ag/g ; Cf. Ibid., i. 7, 13 ; i. 8, 9 ; ix. 7, 4; xi. 
 9, 7 ; x. 7, 1; Met. xi. 7: 'H voD evegysia ^uyj. ED." This is 
 a purely editorial statement. It does not amount to saying that 
 the original of the quotation from Aristotle had been discovered ; 
 it contains merely references to passages in Aristotle that bear on 
 the statements of the text regarding the two points of moral or 
 practical and speculative truth. It was perfectly open to Mr Mill 
 to show that there is no passage in Aristotle that can fairly be 
 * Examination, p. 632. 
 
448 APPENDIX. 
 
 translated as Sir "W. Hamilton's text implies ; that the editors were 
 wrong in their statement regarding the import of the passage quoted ; 
 and that the other references had no relevancy : but it is an utterly 
 unwarrantable and gratuitous proceeding to charge Sir "W. Hamil- 
 ton with understanding words which he does not quote, and to 
 which possibly enough he did not even refer, in a sense opposed 
 to their obvious meaning. 
 
 I have nothing more to add on Mr Mill and his criticism. I 
 have simply to ask How are we appropriately to characterise such 
 criticism as that of which the foregoing is an average specimen 1 
 Far be it from me to suggest that Mr Mill is consciously and delib- 
 erately unfair in his representation of Sir "W. Hamilton's opinions. 
 But I shall say, what I think has been proved, that Mr Mill is 
 from some cause, perhaps constitution of mind and habit of thought, 
 a conspicuous example of what he is so ready to charge upon the 
 person whom he criticises that is, " inability to enter into the mind 
 of another philosopher." 
 
INDEX. 
 
 ABERCROMBTE, Dr, and Sir William 
 Hamilton, 143. 
 
 Absolute, its twofold application, 406 
 its meaning with Hamilton, 410 
 et seq. 
 
 Absolute knowledge, 405, 406. 
 
 "Admirable Crichton," the, Hamil- 
 ton on, 315. 
 
 Advocate's Library at Edinburgh, the, 
 75 the Dieterichs collection se- 
 cured for it by Hamilton, 92 his 
 letter with regard to its manage- 
 ment, 93. 
 
 Albuera, Captain Hamilton wounded 
 at, 19. 
 
 Alexander, Rev. Dr W. Lindsay, let- 
 ter from, 341. 
 
 Analytic of Logical Forms, Sir Wil- 
 liam's proposed work on, 297. 
 
 Anderston Club at Glasgow, 7. 
 
 Angus, Mr, Sir "William Hamilton 
 under, 13. 
 
 Animal magnetism, views of Sir Wil- 
 liam Hamilton on, 117. 
 
 Aristotle, his 'De Anima,' Sir Wil- 
 liam Hamilton on, 311 cited by 
 Hamilton in support of his view of 
 the superiority of the quest of truth 
 over the possession of it, and the 
 citation vindicated, 444 et seq. 
 quoted in reference to this point, 
 445 his theory of the pleasurable, 
 
 445 Hamilton's alleged mistake 
 regarding the meaning of frepyfia, 
 
 446 et seq. 
 
 Association, fragments of letters on, 
 
 356. 
 
 Auchtertool, residence at, 367. 
 Austin, Mrs, letter to, in connection 
 
 with the review of Cousin, 151 
 
 letter from Sir William to, 175. 
 Authors, Sir William Hamilton's 
 
 kindness to, 130. 
 
 BAILLIE, Dr, 62. 
 
 Balde, James, Hamilton's admiration 
 of his Latin poems, 110. 
 
 2 
 
 Balliol College, Oxford, Sir William 
 Hamilton at, 28 et seq. 
 
 Barclay, Dr John, 100. 
 
 Bayle, 436, 439. 
 
 Baynes, Professor, sketch of Sir W. 
 Hamilton by, 220 account of the 
 management and discipline of the 
 class, 221 reminiscences of Sir 
 William by, 310 et seq. 
 
 ( Be not Schismatics. &c. , ' publication 
 of, 267. 
 
 Benecke, Dr, 93. 
 
 Bibliography, Hamilton on, 94. 
 
 Black, Adam, his denunciation of the 
 religious objection to Sir W. Hamil- 
 ton, 197. 
 
 ' Blackwood's Magazine,' connection 
 of Captain Hamilton with, 88. 
 
 Boole, Professor, letter from, on the 
 Discussions, 342. 
 
 Bowen, Professor Francis, 425. 
 
 Brain, the, Sir W. Hamilton's physi- 
 ological researches on it in connec- 
 tion with phrenology, 114, 116. 
 
 Bromley, Sir W. Hamilton's school 
 life at, 14. 
 
 Broun, James, letter from, 340. 
 
 Brown, Dr Thomas, 425 his influence 
 in Edinburgh, 83 his death, 96 
 his influence in America, 422. 
 
 Bruce, Hugh, 197. 
 Brucker, 435. 
 
 Buchanan, George, Hamilton's study 
 of, 109 Hamilton on his poetry, 315. 
 Burton, J. Hill, 141. 
 
 CAIRNS, Dr, reminiscences of Sir W. 
 
 Hamilton by, 225 et seq., 271 etseq. 
 
 correspondence of Sir William 
 
 with, 299 et seq. 
 Carlyle, Dr, account of Dr Robert 
 
 Hamilton by, 6. 
 Carlyle, Thomas, 120 reminiscences 
 
 of Sir William by him, 121 et seq. 
 
 letter to Sir William from, 126. 
 Cerebellum, researches into its func- 
 tion, &c., 114, 116, 117. 
 
450 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Chaldee MS., alleged contribution of 
 Hamilton to, 87. 
 
 Chiefswood, the residence of Captain 
 Hamilton, 129. 
 
 Chretien, Rev. C. P., letter from, on 
 the Discussions, 339. 
 
 Christie, J. H., his intimacy at Ox- 
 ford with Sir W. Hamilton, 36 
 sketch of Sir W. by him, 39. 
 
 Civil History, appointment of Sir W. 
 Hamilton to the Chair of, 103 sub- 
 jects of his lectures, &c., 104 et seq. 
 
 Clark, Rev. John, 232 note. 
 
 Class honours, Sir William's system 
 of recording, 248. 
 
 Classical learning, Hamilton's article 
 on, 174. 
 
 Cleghorn, Dr, 23 account of Dr W. 
 Hamilton by, 11. 
 
 Clenardus, the letters of, 321. 
 
 Cockburn, Lord, his account of Edin- 
 burgh politics, 76 on Edinburgh 
 society in the early part of the cen- 
 tury, 79. 
 
 Coleridge, S. T., 422. 
 
 Colquhoun, J. C., the author of ' Isis 
 Revelata,' 118, 119. 
 
 Combe, George, discussion between 
 him and Sir William on Phrenolo- 
 gy, 115 a candidate for the Logic 
 Chair, 185. 
 
 Commonplace-book, Sir W. Hamil- 
 ton's, its arrangement, &c., 385. 
 
 Conditioned, its use by Hamilton, 
 408, 409. 
 
 Continent, the reception of the review 
 of Cousin on, 149. 
 
 Continuity, law of, as held by Leib- 
 nitz, 439 et seq. 
 
 Copleston, E., influence of, at Oxford, 
 55. 
 
 Cordale, residence at, 362. 
 
 Corehouse, Lord, on Sir W. Hamilton 
 as candidate for the Moral Philo- 
 sophy Chair, 99. 
 
 Cousin, Victor, Sir W. Hamilton's 
 review of his philosophy, 146 his 
 reception of it, 149 friendship be- 
 tween them, 151 letters between 
 them regarding the review, 152 
 letter to, on the Philosophy of Per- 
 ception, 157 his report on German 
 schools, and letter on it, 171 letter 
 to, regarding the Logic Chair, 186 
 his reply and testimonial, 187, 
 192 letter to, after the election to 
 the Logic Chair, 198 his answer,200 
 letters between him and Sir Wil- 
 liam, 233, 263, 275 correspondence 
 with, after the publication of Reid, 
 294 review of his ' Cours de Philo- 
 sophie,' 404 question involved, 405 
 
 et seq. Hamilton's charge against, 
 that he did not perceive the double 
 meaning of the Unconditioned, 407 
 Hamilton's criticism of, 407 et 
 seq. See Hamilton, Infinite, Abso- 
 lute, Conditioned, Unconditioned. 
 
 Craig, Miss, account of Sir W. Ham- 
 ilton during his illness by, 282. 
 
 Craik, Professor, letters to, 296, 303, 
 350. 
 
 'Cyril Thornton,' publication of, 129. 
 
 DAVIDOFF, Count, 86. 
 
 Day, Professor Henry W. , 425. 
 
 Deaf and dumb, article by Hamilton 
 
 on the, 172. 
 Dean, Dr, Sir W. Hamilton under, 
 
 14 et seq. 
 Degrees, examinations for, Hamilton 
 
 on the system of, 171. 
 De Morgan, Professor, his controversy 
 
 with Hamilton, 297. 
 De Quincey, sketch of Sir "W. Ham- 
 ilton by, 84. 
 Deputy-keepership of the Great Seal, 
 
 application for, 258. 
 Dieterichs collection of tracts, &c., 
 
 the, 92. 
 Discussions, the, their publication, 
 
 338 letters relating to them, 339 
 
 Dissenters, their right of admission 
 to the universities, Sir William's 
 article on, 164, 166. 
 
 Douza, Janus, the Latin poems of, 
 112. 
 
 EDINBURGH, state of politics in, dur- 
 ing the early part of the century, 
 76, 77 its literary society, 79 et 
 seq. controversy of Sir W. Hamil- 
 ton with the Town Council about 
 fees, 240 et seq. and regarding his 
 second class, 242. 
 
 ' Edinburgh Review,' its influence on 
 politics, 77 publication of Sir 
 William's essay on Cousin in it, 
 146 of his article on the Philo- 
 sophy of Perception, 156 and of 
 that on Logic, 158 Sir William's 
 papers on the universities, 164 et 
 seq. articles on the deaf and dumb, 
 and on the study of mathematics, 
 172 on classical learning, 174 
 and on idealism, 175 collection 
 and publication of articles from the, 
 338. 
 
 Edinburgh University, vacancy in the 
 Moral Philosophy Chair, 96 elec- 
 tion of Wilson, 100 Sir W. Ham- 
 ilton appointed to the Chair of 
 Civil History in, 103 vacancy in 
 
INDEX. 
 
 451 
 
 the Logic Chair, and Sir W. 
 Hamilton's appointment, 183 et 
 seq. the system of patronage, 184. 
 
 Emerson, R. W., 423. 
 
 Energy, its literal and abusive mean- 
 ing, 446. 
 
 England, state of philosophy in, at 
 the time Sir William's review of 
 Cousin appeared, 147. 
 
 English Universities and University 
 Reform, Sir William's articles on, 
 164 et seq. 
 
 Erasmus, the Adagia, &c., of, 162. 
 
 Epistolae Obscurorum Virorum, the, 
 162, 163. 
 
 FAIRY tales, Sir William's fondness 
 for, 308. 
 
 Fees, controversy with the Edinburgh 
 Town Council regarding, 241. 
 
 Ferrier, Professor, 282, 283 char- 
 acter of Sir W. Hamilton by, 372. 
 
 Fracastorius, the Latin poems of, 111. 
 
 Eraser, Professor, 232, note. 
 
 GAISFORD, Mr, list of the books given 
 up by Hamilton at Oxford by, 57. 
 
 Gerard, Alexander, 311. 
 
 German, Sir William's mode of study- 
 ing, 92. 
 
 German universities, Hamilton on, 94 
 the system of patronage in, 169. 
 
 Germany, visits of Sir W. Hamilton 
 to, 89, 91. 
 
 Gibbon, 435. 
 
 Gibson, James, Sir W. Hamilton 
 under, 13. 
 
 Gillies, R. P., 118 his reminiscences 
 of Sir William, 119 et seq. 
 
 Glasgow, sketch of, in 1788, 2 the 
 university, ib. et seq. 
 
 Glasgow Grammar- School, Sir W. 
 Hamilton at, 13. 
 
 Glasgow University, Sir W. Hamil- 
 ton at, 18 the professors at this 
 time, 19. 
 
 Gleig, Rev. G. R., 37. 
 
 Graduation, Sir W. Hamilton's views 
 regarding, 254, 257. 
 
 Grammar, Greek and Latin, Sir W. 
 Hamilton's studies on its theory, 
 113. 
 
 Gray, Rev. J. H. , anecdote of Hamil- 
 ton by, 51. 
 
 Gray, Mrs Hamilton, her introduc- 
 tion to Sir William, 130 sketch of 
 him by her, 144. 
 
 Greek and Latin grammar, studies on 
 the theory of, 113. 
 
 Grote, George, referred to, 444. 
 
 Gymnastics, Hamilton's fondness for, 
 46. 
 
 HAMILTON, Lord Archibald, letter 
 from, on the election to the Moral 
 Philosophy Chair, 101. 
 Hamilton, Sir John de, ancestor of 
 
 the Hamiltons of Preston, 69. 
 Hamilton, Sir Gilbert de, ancestor of 
 
 the Hamiltons, 69. 
 Hamilton, Dr Robert, Professor of 
 
 Anatomy at Glasgow, 5. 
 Hamilton, Sir Robert, the Covenanter, 
 
 572. 
 
 Hamilton, Dr Thomas, 6. 
 Hamilton, Captain Thomas, 2, 14 
 under Dr Sommers at Midcalder, 
 his early character, &c., 16 at 
 Glasgow University, 18 in the 
 army, 19 his retirement from the 
 army and residence in Edinburgh, 
 87 his connection with ' Black- 
 wood's Magazine,' 88 his early 
 appreciation of Wordsworth, ib. 
 sketch of, by Carlyle, 125 resident 
 in Edinburgh, 128 publication of 
 'Cyril Thornton,' &c., 129 visits 
 America, ib. his ' Men and Man- 
 ners ' there, 130 letter from him 
 regarding Sir William's lectures, 
 202 his death, 266. 
 Hamilton, Lieut., letters from home 
 
 to, 322 et seq., 357, 360 et seq. 
 Hamilton, Dr Wm., father of Sir Wil- 
 liam, 1 his lineage, &c., 4 et seq. 
 sketch of his life, &c., 8 et seq. 
 Hamilton, Sir William, birth and 
 lineage of, 1 sketch of his father 
 by him, 9 his mother, 12 early 
 life and habits, ib. at Glasgow 
 Grammar-School, 13 removed to 
 Dr Dean's, 14 letter to his mother 
 from thence, 15 under Dr Som- 
 mers at Midcalder, 16 his charac- 
 ter, &c., there, 17 enters Glasgow 
 University, and life there, 18 
 account of him by Dr Sommers, 21 
 taste for book-collecting, 23 
 studies medicine in Edinburgh, and 
 letters from thence, 24 at Oxford, 
 and his life there, 28 his friends 
 there, 36 sketches of him at this 
 time, 39 anecdotes of his college 
 life, 47, 50 his character as thus 
 illustrated, 51 teaching at Oxford 
 during his residence, 53 et seq. 
 his examination, and the books 
 selected by him, 57 extracts from 
 his Oxford testimonials, 59 aban- 
 dons the study of medicine for the 
 bar, 63 death of his friend Scott, 
 64 letter on his connection with 
 the Preston family, 65 finally 
 adopts the bar, 67 assumes the 
 baronetcy, 69, 72 his experience 
 
452 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 at the bar, and residence in Edin- 
 burgh, 73 his reputation as a 
 lawyer, 74 his political views, 
 and obstacles these presented to 
 his advancement, 76 his position 
 in relation to his own party, 78 
 sketch of him by De Quincey, 84 
 foreign visitors, 86 continued in- 
 timacy with Lockhart, 87 alleged 
 connection with ' Blackwood's 
 Magazine,' ib. first visit to Ger- 
 many, 89 his dog Hermann, 90 
 breach with Lockhart, 90 again 
 visits Germany, 91 his exertions 
 on behalf of the Advocates' Libra- 
 ry, 92 extracts from his letter on 
 its management, 93 a candidate 
 for the Chair of Moral Philosophy, 
 96 et seq. his testimonials, 99 
 effect of politics in the election, 
 100 letter from Lord A. Hamil- 
 ton, 101 appointed professor of 
 Civil History, 103 his lectures in 
 that capacity, 104 visit to St 
 Andrews, 107 his study of modern 
 Latin poetry, 109 anecdote of him 
 and Dr Parr, 112 his studies in 
 the theory of Greek and Latin 
 grammar, 113 physiological re- 
 searches in relation to phrenology, 
 114 his rejection of it, and con- 
 troversies with Combe, Spurzheim, 
 &c., 115 researches and experi- 
 ments on the brain, 117 views on 
 animal magnetism and clairvoy- 
 ance, 118 R. P. Gillies's reminis- 
 cences of him, 118 et seq. Thomas 
 Carlyle's, 120 et seq. letter from 
 the latter to him, 127 visits to his 
 brother at Chiefswood, &c., 129 
 consulted by authors, and his kind- 
 ness to them, 130 commencement 
 of his intimacy with George Moir, 
 131 Archdeacon Sinclair, and his 
 work on Episcopacy, 132 Dr Von 
 Scheel's account of him, 133 death 
 of his mother, and its effect on 
 him, 134 marriage to his cousin, 
 135 his house in Manor Place, 
 138 his library, and its arrange- 
 ment, 139, 394 et seq. friends 
 and country walks, and his habits 
 during these, 140 his character 
 in society, 141, 142 Mrs Hamil- 
 ton Gray's picture of him, 144 
 his views on mesmerism, 145 
 commencement of his contribu- 
 tions to the 'Edinburgh Review,' 
 145 his article on Cousin, 146 et 
 seq. letter from him to Mrs Aus- 
 tin, 151 correspondence with 
 Cousin, 152 article on the Phi- 
 
 losophy of Perception, 156 letter 
 to Cousin on it, 157 article on 
 Logic, 158 connection of these 
 three articles, 160 letter from 
 Macvey Napier on the article on 
 Logic, 161 his study of the litera- 
 ture of the fifteenth and sixteenth 
 centuries, 162 his interest in uni- 
 versities, 163 articles on that of 
 Oxford, 164 et seq. correspondence 
 with Lord Radnor on university re- 
 form, 166 influence of his articles 
 on the subject, 167 letter from 
 Rev. G. H. Johnson on the subject, 
 ib. and from Dean Stanley and 
 Maurice, 168 article on the patron- 
 age of universities, 169 articles on 
 the revolutions of medicine, Tenne- 
 mann's Manual, and Cousin's Report 
 on German Schools, 171 on the 
 deaf and dumb, and on mathe- 
 matics, 172 letters from Macvey 
 Napier, 173 article on classical 
 learning, 174 and on idealism, 
 175 letter to Mrs Austin, 175 
 appointed Solicitor of Teinds, ib. 
 letter from Professor Mylne in 
 regard to the Chair of Moral 
 Philosophy in Glasgow, 176 
 physiological researches, 179 ex- 
 periments with morphia, 181 
 vacancy in the Logic Chair, 183 
 mode of election, 184 the candi- 
 dates for it, 185 letter to Cousin 
 on it, 186 reply of the latter, 
 187 his other testimonials, 191 
 his refusal to canvass person- 
 ally, ib. the charge of obscurity of 
 style, 192 theological objection to 
 him, 194 his election to the Chair, 
 197 letter to Cousin on it, 198 
 preparation of his lectures, 201 
 his introductory lecture, 203 its 
 character and reception, 203, 204 
 general scheme of his course, 205 
 his Lectures on Metaphysics, and 
 habits while preparing them, 206 
 death of a son, 207 commencement 
 of his edition of Reid, 207 pre- 
 paration of his Lectures on Logic, 
 208 their position as an exposition 
 of his philosophy, 209 et seq. re- 
 sults of his appointment as to phi- 
 losophical thought and teaching, 
 213 his influence as a teacher, 214 
 et seq. his influence upon his stu- 
 dents, 217 characteristics of his 
 lectures, 219 his personal appear- 
 ance, 220 his management of the 
 business of the class, 221 Dr 
 Cairns's reminiscences of him, 225 et 
 seq. correspondence with Cousin, 
 
INDEX. 
 
 453 
 
 233 seniorclass of Logic, 239 con- 
 troversy with the Town Council 
 regarding fees, 240 and afterwards 
 regarding his second class, 242 his 
 system of awarding honours, &c., 
 247 record of these, 248 et seq. 
 mechanical contrivances in the 
 class-room, 250 et seq. his rela- 
 tions with his colleagues in the 
 Senatus, 252 his proposals regard- 
 ing graduation in arts, 254 his 
 system of extra graduation honours, 
 ib. 255 its results, 256 contro- 
 versy regarding the Reid Fund, 257 
 applications for legal appoint- 
 ments, 258 letter to Lord Mel- 
 bourne, 259 and to the Lord Ad- 
 vocate, 262 elected member of the 
 Institute of France, 263 letters 
 from and to Cousin, 263, 275 
 made doctor of divinity, 264 his 
 connection with the Royal Society, 
 265 -death of his brother, 266 
 his pamphlet on the Non-intrusion 
 question, 267 his interest in theo- 
 logical questions, 270 Dr Cairns's 
 reminiscences of him, 271 et seq. 
 his illness, 278 et seq. affection 
 shown to him, 281 his conduct 
 during it, 282 death of a daughter, 
 283 application fora pension, 284 
 et seq. his declinature of the 
 amount offered, 286 conduct of 
 Lord John Kussell in the matter, 288 
 letter to Lord John Russell in 
 reference to pension, 289 pension 
 to Lady Hamilton, 291 able to re- 
 sume work, and publication of Reid, 
 293 correspondence with Cousin on 
 it, 294 promised works, 297 con- 
 troversy with De Morgan, ib. an- 
 swer to Archdeacon Hare on Luther, 
 298 letter from Dr Cairns, 299 
 letters to him, 300 et seq. letter to 
 Prof. Craik, 303 his conduct under 
 illness, ib., 304 his domestic life 
 and habits, 305 et seq. his sense of 
 the ludicrous, 310 Prof. Bayne's 
 reminiscences of him, ib. et seq. let- 
 ters to his son, 322 et seq. Luther 
 and his writings, 331 et seq. ex- 
 tracts from preface to intended work 
 on him, 332 et seq. collections made 
 for it, 335 preparation and publi- 
 cation of the Discussions, 338 let- 
 ters relating to them, 339 letter 
 on the proposed abolition of univer- 
 sity tests in Scotland, 350, 351 
 students' parties, and social habits 
 at this time, 351 visits of stran- 
 gers, 353 Dr Porter's sketch of 
 him, 354 letters on Association, 
 
 356 editing of Dugald Stewart's 
 works, 357 letters from home, 358, 
 361 life in the country, 359 se- 
 vere accident to him, 360 at Cor- 
 dale, 362 et seq.&t Auchtertool, 
 367 return to Edinburgh, 368 
 his last illness, 371 his death, 372 
 general remarks on his character 
 and work, ib. et seq. burial-place 
 and epitaph, 374 importance at- 
 tached by him to reading, 375 
 resemblances to Leibnitz, 376 his 
 ideal in reading, 378 power of re- 
 presenting opinions, 381, 382 his 
 literal accuracy, 383 his love of 
 order and system, and memory, 
 384 his large commonplace-book, 
 385 example of its arrangement, 
 &c., 387 other aids in reading, 
 392 arrangement of papers, ib. 
 works of reference, 393 bib- 
 liographies, 394 formation of li- 
 brary, 395 arrangement, mending, 
 renovating, and sizing his books, 
 396 ct seq. contents of library, 398 
 et seq. his fondness for acute dicta, 
 400 general remarks, 402 the 
 Hamilton Fellowship, and bust of 
 him, 403 his review of the Cours 
 de Philosophic of Cousin, 404 et seq. 
 the question involved, 405, 406 
 his merit in analysing the meanings 
 of the terms absolute and infinite, 
 unconditioned, 406, 407 the sali- 
 ent point of his doctrine regarding 
 the infinite-absolute, 408 his use 
 of the terms conditioned and un- 
 conditioned, 408, 409 the contra- 
 diction in his philosophy chal- 
 lenged and rebutted, 412 et seq. 
 his application of the phrase 
 immediate knowledge, 413 his use 
 of the term relative, 414 et seq. 
 the true meaning of his doctrine of 
 Natural Realism, 416 et seq. his 
 influence in America, 421, 428 on 
 Hume, Leibnitz, and Aristotle, 429, 
 448 his view of Hume's philosophy 
 429 et seq. vindicated from Mr 
 Mill's criticism, 429, 434- charge 
 against him of misunderstanding 
 the philosophy of Leibnitz, 434 et 
 seq. his true view stated, 436, 437 
 the grounds of the charge exa- 
 mined, 437, 443 cites Plato and 
 Aristotle in support of his view of 
 the superiority of the quest of truth 
 over the possession of it, 443, 444 
 Mr Mill's misrepresentations of 
 his statements on this point of the 
 superiority of the quest of truth 
 over the possession, 444 his cita- 
 
454 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 tion of Plato supported by Mr 
 Grote, 444 his citation of Aris- 
 totle vindicated, 444 et seq. falsely 
 charged by Mr Mill with quoting 
 and misunderstanding passages in 
 Aristotle on this subject, 446, 448. 
 
 Hamilton, Mrs, mother of Sir Wil- 
 liam, 1 her character, &c., 12, 13 
 letter from school to her, and her 
 reply, 15 letters of Sir William to 
 her, 17, 24 et seq. letters to her 
 from Oxford, 29 et seq. letters to 
 her on the Preston baronetcy, 66 
 et seq. she removes to Edinburgh, 
 73 death of, 134. 
 
 Hamilton, Lady, and the preparation 
 of Sir William's lectures, 206, 208, 
 209 pension to, 291 her devotion 
 to Sir William, 304 letters to her 
 son from, 322 et seq. 
 
 Hamilton, Mr, the phrenologist, 115. 
 
 Hamilton Fellowship, the, 403. 
 
 Hamiltons of Airdrie, the 4, 5. 
 
 Hamiltons of Preston, the, 4 letter 
 of Sir William's on his connection 
 with them, 65 his researches into 
 it, 67 he assumes the baronetcy, 
 69 sketch of the family, ib. et seq. 
 
 Hare, Archdeacon, controversy with, 
 298. 
 
 Harris, the author of ' Hermes,' 313. 
 
 Hawkins, Rev. Dr, 37. 
 
 Hegel, 423. 
 
 Henry, Dr, 423. 
 
 " Hermann," Sir William Hamilton's 
 dog, 90. 
 
 History, Sir William Hamilton's lec- 
 tures on, 104 et seq. 
 
 Hobbes, Sir William Hamilton on, 311. 
 
 Hodge Podge Club at Glasgow, the, 8. 
 
 Homer, Leonard, 141. 
 
 Hume, David, his philosophy as re- 
 presented by Hamilton, 429 et seq. 
 his personal relation to his sys- 
 tem of thought, 432 et seq. ex- 
 tracts from his letters to Reid and 
 Hutcheson, 433 his relation to 
 subsequent systems of philosophy, 
 433, 434. 
 
 Hunter, Principal, paper read by Sir 
 William Hamilton in reply to, 113. 
 
 Hunter, William, the anatomist, Dr 
 W. Hamilton a pupil of, 9, 10. 
 
 Hutten, Hamilton's high estimate of, 
 163. 
 
 Hydropathy, Hamilton's opinion of, 
 316. 
 
 IDEALISM, Hamilton's article on, 175. 
 Infinite- Absolute, 405. 
 Infinite, its twofold application, 406 
 its meaning with Hamilton, 410 
 
 et seq. and indefinite distinction 
 between, 411, 412. 
 
 Institute of France, Sir William 
 Hamilton elected a member of the, 
 263. 
 
 Ireland, Mr, a friend of Hamilton's 
 at Oxford, 50, 64. 
 
 Irving, Edward, Sir William Hamil- 
 ton on, 144. 
 
 JARDINE, Professor, 20. 
 
 Jeffrey, his literary influence, and 
 
 character of his criticism, 82 
 
 Hamilton's opinion of him, 83. 
 Jenkyns, Dr, Master of Balliol, 99 
 
 testimonial to Hamilton from, 59. 
 Jesuit missionaries, Hamilton on the, 
 
 320. 
 
 Johnson, Rev. G. H., 167. 
 Johnson, his translation of Tenne- 
 
 mann, 424. 
 
 KANT, 423 his Critique of the Pure 
 Reason, its influence on philosophy, 
 147. 
 
 Kelland, Professor, 253. 
 
 Knowledge, the quest and the pos- 
 session of, their relative importance, 
 443 et seq. 
 
 Krasinski, Count, 394. 
 
 LARGO, Sir W. Hamilton at, and ac- 
 cident to him there, 360. 
 
 Latin poetry, modern, Hamilton's 
 study of, 109. 
 
 Leibnitz, parallel between, and Ha- 
 milton, 376 his philosophy, 434 
 et seq controversy regarding his 
 seriousness, 435 et seq. Hamilton's 
 charge against, ib. et seq. Hamil- 
 ton's true view of the Pre-established 
 Harmony, 436, 437 the principles 
 of his philosophy, 438 et seq. 
 vagueness of the principle of Suffi- 
 cient Reason, 441 et seq. Monadol- 
 ogy, 440 Pre-established Harmony 
 and Occasional Causes, 442, 443. 
 
 Leslie, Mr, the Father Keith of ' Re- 
 ginald Dalton,' 50. 
 
 Literature, Hamilton on its encour- 
 agement in Germany, 94 that of 
 the fifteenth and sixteenth centu- 
 ries, Hamilton's study of it, 162. 
 
 Locke, 425 his plan of a common- 
 place-book, 385. 
 
 Lockhart, J. Gibson, early intimacy 
 with Hamilton, 37 his continued 
 intimacy with Hamilton, 87 the 
 breach between them, 90 letter 
 from, on Sir William's illness, 282. 
 
 Logic, Sir William's article in the 
 ' Edinburgh Review ' on, 158 its 
 
INDEX. 
 
 455 
 
 aim and character, 159 letter from 
 Napier on its style, &c., 161 
 vacancy in the Chair at Edinburgh, 
 183 the system of patronage, 184 
 Sir W. Hamilton as candidate, 
 ib. the other candidates, 185 
 his election to it, 197 Sir William 
 Hamilton's Lectures on, 208 their 
 relation to his philosophical sys- 
 tem, 209 et seq. how taught in the 
 Scotch universities at the time of 
 Hamilton's appointment, 214 for- 
 mation of a senior class, 239. 
 Luther, Sir William Hamilton's in- 
 tended work on, 298, 331 extracts 
 from the preface, 332 collections 
 made for it, 335. 
 
 MACDOUGALL, P. C., a candidate for 
 
 the Logic Chair, 185. 
 Mackintosh, Sir James, the Moral 
 Philosophy Chair offered to, 97 
 note. 
 
 Maclagan, Dr Douglas, 180 account 
 of Sir W. Hamilton's illness by, 
 279. 
 
 M'Crie, Dr, 100. 
 
 Malebranche, 442. 
 
 Mansel, Dr, 294 his philosophy of 
 " the Conditioned," 404 his refer- 
 ence to Mr Mill's use of connotative, 
 408, 409 his reference to Mr Mill's 
 confusion of Infinite and Indefinite, 
 412 referred to on the term rela- 
 tivity, 415. 
 
 Mantuanus, Sir W. Hamilton's ad- 
 miration of, 111. 
 
 Marsh, James, D.D., 422. 
 
 Marshall, Miss Janet, afterwards 
 Lady Hamilton, 73, 74 her mar- 
 riage to Sir Wm. Hamilton, 135. 
 
 Martyn, Henry, Hamilton on, 320. 
 
 Masson, David, 232, note. 
 
 Mathematics, article by Hamilton on 
 their study, 172 letters from Na- 
 pier on it, 173. 
 
 Maurice, Rev. F. D., on university 
 reform, 168. 
 
 Medicine, the revolutions of, article 
 by Sir W. Hamilton on, 171. 
 
 Medicine, Sir W. Hamilton on its 
 present state, 316. 
 
 Melbourne, Lord, letter from Sir W. 
 Hamilton to, 259. 
 
 ' Men and Manners in America,' pub- 
 lication of, 130. 
 
 Mesmerism, Sir W. Hamilton on, 
 145. See Animal Magnetism. 
 
 Metaphysics, SirW. Hamilton's Lec- 
 tures on, mode of their preparation, 
 &c., 206 et seq. how taught in 
 Scotch universities at the time of 
 
 Hamilton's appointment, 214 Lec- 
 tures on, used in America as a text- 
 book, 427. 
 
 Metaphysical society, formation of a, 
 232. 
 
 Midcalder, Sir W. Hamilton's school - 
 life at, 16. 
 
 Mill, J. Stuart, charges against Ham- 
 ilton by, 196 note notices of his 
 'Examination' of Hamilton, 209, 
 213 note its character, 404 mis- 
 states the question in the review 
 of Cousin's Cours de Philosophic, 
 
 405, 406 origin of the mistake, 
 
 406, 407 absurdly requires a de- 
 finition of Conditioned and Uncon- 
 ditioned, 408 et seq. misrepresents 
 the scope of Hamilton's argument 
 in review of Cousin, 409-411 char- 
 acter of his argument to prove the 
 actual cognition of the Infinite, 
 
 411, 412 misses the point of the 
 doctrine of Natural Realism, 412 
 gist of his argument on this subject, 
 
 412, 413 criticism of the argu- 
 ment, 413, 414 proper and pri- 
 mary sense of the phrase relativity 
 of knowledge, 415 his relativity 
 of knowledge is neither primary 
 nor essentiaX 415, 416 his alle- 
 gation of contradiction in Sir W. 
 Hamilton's philosophy groundless, 
 416-420 his remarks on Hamil- 
 ton as a philsopher, 420 his 
 statement of Hamilton's view of 
 Hume's philosophy, 429 shown 
 to be erroneous, 430, 432 his view 
 of Hume's personal relation to his 
 system criticised, 432 - 434 his 
 charge against Hamilton of misun- 
 derstanding the philosophy of Leib- 
 nitz, 434 his own view of that 
 philosophy criticised, 434, 435 his 
 grounds of proof of Hamilton's 
 misunderstanding of Leibnitz stat- 
 ed and criticised, 435 et seq. his 
 view of the fundamental doctrine 
 of the philosophy of Leibnitz criti- 
 cised, 438-440 his view of the 
 ground of the Pre-established Har- 
 mony criticised, 442, 443 his 
 misrepresentations of Hamilton's 
 statements regarding Aristotle, 443, 
 446, 447, 448 the character of his 
 criticism of Hamilton, 448. 
 
 Millar, James, Sir W. Hamilton 
 
 under, 23. 
 Missions and missionaries, Hamilton 
 
 on, 319. 
 Mitchell, Major, author of the 'Life of 
 
 Wallenstein,' 89. 
 Moir, George, on Jeffrey and Hamil- 
 
456 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 ton, 83 on Hamilton's admiration 
 of the poems of Balde, 110 notices 
 of Sir William Hamilton by, 129 
 his introduction to Sir William, 
 and subsequent intimacy, 131 his 
 translation of Wallenstein revised 
 by Sir William, 132 letter on the 
 refusal of pension to Sir William, 
 290. 
 
 Monadology of Leibnitz, its origin, 
 441, 442. 
 
 Monboddo, Lord, 312, 313. 
 
 Moore, Dr, the author of ' Zeluco,' 
 7,8. 
 
 Moral Philosophy Chair at Edinburgh, 
 vacancy in it, 96 Sir W. Hamil- 
 ton's candidature for it, 97 elec- 
 tion of Wilson, 100. 
 
 More, Miss, sketch of Sir Win. 
 Hamilton by, 352. 
 
 Morphia, experiments on himself 
 with, by Sir W. Hamilton, 180. 
 
 Mylne, Professor, 21 proposal from 
 him to Sir W. Hamilton, 176. 
 
 NAPIER, Macvey, a candidate for the 
 Moral Philosophy Chair, 98 be- 
 comes editor of the * Edinburgh Re- 
 view,' 145 Sir William's first con- 
 tribution to it under him, 146 let- 
 ter from him on the article on Logic, 
 161 suggests those on the univer- 
 sities, 164 letters from, on the 
 article on mathematics, 173 on 
 the election to the Logic Chair, 198 
 letter on the controversy with 
 the Town Council, 245 letter on 
 the edition of Reid, 296. 
 
 Narcotics, insensibility of Sir W. 
 Hamilton to, 180. 
 
 Natural Realism, Hamilton's doctrine 
 of, falsely alleged to be inconsistent 
 with his theory of the relativity of 
 knowledge, 412 et seq. Mr Mill's 
 misrepresentation of, 413 et seq. 
 Hamilton's true doctrine of, stated, 
 418-420. 
 
 New England school of theology, 
 422. 
 
 Nicoll, Alex., afterwards Professor of 
 Hebrew, 37 account of Hamilton's 
 Oxford examination by, 60. 
 
 Non-intrusion controversy, Sir W. 
 Hamilton's pamphlet on, 267. 
 
 Novels, favourite, 307. 
 
 OCCASIONAL Causes, see Leibnitz. 
 
 Owen, Joannes, the Latin poems of, 
 112. 
 
 Oxford, Sir W. Hamilton at, 28 ct 
 seq. its influence on Hamilton, 52 
 teaching there in his time, 53 
 
 rise of Copleston, Whately, &c., 55 
 the new examination statutes, 
 56 Sir William's articles on, 164 
 
 et seq. 
 
 PALMERSTON, Lord, refuses increased 
 pension to Sir William, 291. 
 
 Parr, Samuel, 100 letter to Dugald 
 Stewart on Sir W. Hamilton, 103 
 anecdote of him and Sir William, 
 112. 
 
 Parsons, Dr, Master of Balliol, his 
 opinion of Hamilton, 53. 
 
 Patronage and superintendence of 
 universities, Sir William's article 
 on, 165, 169. 
 
 Perception, Sir W. Hamilton's article 
 on, 156 Hamilton's doctrine of, 
 as developed in the notes to Reid, 
 210. 
 
 Petre, Miss, 363. 
 
 Pfaff, 435 -his letter to Leibnitz, 436. 
 
 Philoponus, the commentator on Aris- 
 totle, 311, 313. 
 
 Philosophy, its state in England when 
 Sir William's review of Cousin ap- 
 peared, 147 its low position in the 
 Scotch universities at the time of 
 Hamilton's appointment to the 
 Logic Chair, 214 its advance un- 
 der him, 215 et seq. 
 
 Philosophy of Perception, publication 
 of Sir William Hamilton's article 
 on, 156. 
 
 Phrenology, investigations of Sir W. 
 Hamilton in relation to it, 113 
 his rejection of it, and controversy 
 with its supporters, 115 et seq. 
 
 Pilgrim's Progress, early fondness of 
 Sir W. Hamilton for, 12. 
 
 Pillans, Professor, 185, 187. 
 
 Plato, 444. 
 
 Politics, state of, in Scotland dur- 
 ing the early part of the century, 
 76 influence of, in the election 
 to the Moral Philosophy Chair, 
 100. 
 
 Porteucross, residence of Sir W. Ha- 
 milton at, 201. 
 
 Porter, Dr Noah, of Yale College, 
 sketch of Sir W. Hamilton by, 
 354 his account of the influence 
 of Sir W. Hamilton's writings in 
 America, 421-428. 
 
 Powell, the ' Daniel Barton ' of Regi- 
 nald Dalton, 41. 
 
 Pre-established Harmony, see Leib- 
 nitz. 
 Protestantism and Romanism, Sir W. 
 
 Hamilton on, 273. 
 
 Pyrrhonism, its use according to 
 Hume, 433. 
 
INDEX, 
 
 457 
 
 RADNOR, Lord, on university reform, 
 166. 
 
 Reading, importance attached by Sir 
 
 /W. Hamilton to, 375 his ideal of 
 it, 378. 
 
 Reid, Dr Thomas, 4, 425 his influ- 
 ence on philosophy, 147 com- 
 mencement of Hamilton's edition of, 
 circumstances which led to it, &c. , 
 207 the notes, &c., to it the latest 
 development of Hamilton's philo- 
 sophy, 210 et seq. its publication, 
 293 his statements about the rela- 
 tivity of knowledge, 417 censured 
 by Hamilton, ib. 
 
 Reid Fund, discussions with the 
 Senatus regarding the, 257. 
 
 Relativity, law of, what its non-ful- 
 filment implies, 408. 
 
 Relativity of knowledge, Hamilton's 
 doctrine of, stated, 414 et seq Mr 
 Mill's doctrine of, stated and criti- 
 cised, 415 et seq. 
 
 Reuchlin, Hamilton's estimate of, 
 163. 
 
 Richardson, Professor, 19. 
 
 Riddell, John, 68. 
 
 Ripley, Rev. George, 423. 
 
 Ritchie, Dr David, his resignation of 
 the Chair of Logic, 179, 183. 
 
 Royal Society of Edinburgh, paper on 
 the Greek aorists read before, 113 
 and on phrenology, 115 Sir W. 
 Hamilton's connection with it, 265. 
 
 RusseU, Archibald, on Sir W. Hamil- 
 ton's Lectures on History, 107. 
 
 Russell, Lord John, his reception of 
 Hamilton's claim to a pension, 286 
 et seq. letter from Hamilton to 
 him, 289 pension offered, 291. 
 
 Rutherfurd, Lord Advocate, letter 
 from Sir W. Hamilton to, 262 
 correspondence with, regarding pen- 
 sion, 286, 287. 
 
 ST ANDREWS, visit of Sir W. Hamil- 
 ton to, and his pursuits there, 107 
 et seq. 
 
 St Andrews University, the library 
 of, 108. 
 
 St Andrew's day, celebration of, at 
 Oxford, 49, 50. 
 
 St John's Church, tomb of Sir Wil- 
 liam Hamilton in, 374. 
 
 Sannazarius, the Latin poem of, 111. 
 
 Scaligers, the Latin poems of the, 
 112 their works, 162. 
 
 Scepticism, its character, 429, 430 
 Hume's view of absolute scepticism, 
 432, 433. 
 
 Schelling, 423 quoted on Uncondi- 
 tioned, 406. 
 
 Scotch politics, state of, in the early 
 
 part of the century, 76. 
 Scott, Alexander, his intimacy with 
 Hamilton at Oxford, 37 visit of 
 Hamilton to, 63 his last illness 
 and death, 64. 
 Scott, Michael, author of 'Tom 
 
 Cringle,' 18. 
 
 Scott, Sir Walter, 81, 82. 
 Scottish universities, the recent re- 
 forms in their patronage, 70 Sir 
 William Hamilton on the abolition 
 of tests in them, 350, 351. 
 Semple, J. W., 141. 
 Senatus Academicus, Sir William 
 
 Hamilton's discussions with, 253. 
 Shaw, Rev. William, 256. 
 Simon, T. C., correspondence with, 
 
 on the Discussions, 344. 
 Simson, Robert, the mathematician, 
 the Anderston Club originated by, 
 7. 
 
 Sinclair, Archdeacon, account of a 
 phrenological discussion by, 115 
 his work on Episcopacy, and Sir 
 William's counsels regarding it, 
 132, 142 on Hamilton's articles 
 on Oxford, 165 on the Non-intru- 
 sion controversy, 269 anecdote of 
 Sir W. Hamilton by, 378. 
 Smith, Adam, a Snell Exhibitioner 
 
 at Oxford, 28. 
 Snell Exhibitions, the, 28. 
 Society, Sir William Hamilton's 
 
 habits in, 141. 
 
 Sommers, Dr, Sir W. Hamilton under, 
 16 sketch of Sir William by him, 
 21, 22. 
 Spittal, Sir James (Lord Provost of 
 
 Edinburgh), 197. 
 
 Spurzheim, Dr, discussion between 
 him and Sir William on phrenology, 
 115. 
 
 Stanley, Dean, letter from, on uni- 
 versity reform, 168. 
 Stewart, Dugald, 425, 435 his re- 
 tirement from the Moral Philosophy 
 Chair, 96, 97 at first supports 
 Napier and afterwards Hamilton, 
 98 his influence in philosophy, 
 147 Sir W. Hamilton's edition of 
 his works, 357. 
 Stirling, Elizabeth, mother of Sir 
 
 William, her lineage, &c., 1. 
 Stirlings of Bankeir, &c., 1. 
 Sufficient Reason, principle of, its true 
 place in the philosophy of Leibnitz, 
 438 et seq. See Leibnitz. 
 Swartz the missionary, 320. 
 
 TAIT, Mr, and Sir W. Hamilton's 
 
 edition of Reid, 207. 
 G 
 
458 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Taylor, Isaac, a candidate for the 
 Logic Chair, 185, 198. 
 
 Teaching, defective state of, at Ox- 
 ford in Hamilton's time, 52 et seq. 
 
 Teinds, appointment of Hamilton to 
 Solicitorship of, 175. 
 
 Tennemann's ' Manual of Philosophy,' 
 article by Sir William on, 171. 
 
 Tests, Sir W. Hamilton on the aboli- 
 tion of, in the Scottish universities, 
 350, 351. 
 
 Thomson, Dr John, 100, 112. 
 
 Thomson, Mr, of Oxford, 323. 
 
 Town Council of Edinburgh as pa- 
 trons of the University, 184. 
 
 Trail, James, his intimacy with Sir 
 W. Hamilton at Oxford, 36 sketch 
 of the latter by him, 43. 
 
 Turnbull, Dr R., 424. 
 
 Tyler, Dr Samuel, 428. 
 
 Tytler, Patrick Fraser, 141 his re- 
 tirement from the Chair of Civil 
 History, 103. 
 
 UNCONDITIONED, its twofold meaning, 
 407 its use by Hamilton, 408, 409. 
 
 Universities, Sir William's interest in 
 their history, &c., 163 his articles 
 on the subject in the ' Edinburgh 
 Review,' 164. 
 
 Universities of Scotland, low position 
 of philosophy in them at the time of 
 Hamilton's appointment, 214. 
 
 University patronage, articles of Sir 
 Wm. Hamilton on, 169. 
 
 Utility, Sir William Hamilton on, 
 204. 
 
 VIDA, the Latin poems of, 111. 
 
 Villers, Rev. William, 37 account 
 of Hamilton's Oxford examination 
 by, 59, 60. 
 
 Von Scheel, Dr, sketch of Sir Wil- 
 liam Hamilton by, 133. 
 
 WATSON, Dr James, a schoolfellow of 
 Sir W. Hamilton, 14. 
 
 Wedderburn, the Solicitor-General, 
 letter from Dugald Stewart to him 
 on Sir William. Hamilton, 99. 
 
 Welsh, Dr, his intimacy with Sir 
 William, 141. 
 
 Whately, Dr, 424 his influence at 
 Oxford, 55, 56 his Logic in Ame- 
 rica, 424. 
 
 Whewell, Dr, letter from, on the 
 Discussions, 339. 
 
 Whigs, the, their neglect of Sir W. 
 Hamilton, 78, 79. 
 
 Wight, 0. W., 424. 
 
 Williams, Archdeacon, 37. 
 
 Wilson, Professor John, candidate 
 for the Moral Philosophy Chair at 
 Edinburgh, 97 his election, 100 
 on Hamilton's Lectures on History, 
 107 pension to, 293. 
 
 Wilson, Rev. Andrew, 232, note. 
 
 Wirgmann's New Testament, Hamil- 
 ton on, 314. 
 
 Wood, John A., 232 note. 
 
 YONGE, Rev. James, 37. 
 Young, John, Professor of Greek at 
 Glasgow, 20. 
 
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 SYMBOLISM; 
 
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 MIND, MATTER, AND LANGUAGE AS THE NECESSARY 
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 BY JAMES HAIG, M.A. 
 
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POETRY 
 
 lays of the Scottish Cavaliers, and other Poems. By 
 
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POETRY 
 
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WOKKS OF FICTION 
 
 Tales from " Blackwood," Complete in Twelve Volumes, 
 
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 VOL. I. The Glenmutchkin Railway. Vandefdecken's Message Home. The Floating Beacon. 
 
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 The Wearyful Woman. 
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 PUBLISHED BY W. BLACKWOOD AND SONS, 
 
GEOGKAPHICAL WORKS 
 
 NEW GENERAL ATLAS. 
 
 DEDICATED BY SPECIAL PERMISSION TO HER MAJESTY. 
 
 THE KOYAL ATLAS 
 
 OF 
 
 MODERN GEOGEAPHY 
 
 IN A SERIES OF ENTIRELY ORIGINAL AND AUTHENTIC MAPS. 
 
 BY A. KEITH JOHNSTON, F.E.S.E. F.R.G.S. 
 
 Author of the " Physical Atlas," &c. 
 
 With a complete Index of easy reference to each Map, comprising nearly 
 
 150,000 Places contained in this Atlas. 
 Imperial Folio, half -bound in russia or morocco, 5, 15s. 6d. 
 
 Athenaeum, August 10, 1861. 
 
 Under the name of " The Royal Atlas of Modern Geography," Messrs Blackwood and Sons 
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 love clear forms and delicate bold type we need say no more. All that maps should be, these 
 
 maps are : honest, accurate, intelligible guides to narrative or description Of the 
 
 many noble atlases prepared by Mr Johnston and published by Messrs Blackwood and Sons, 
 this Royal Atlas will be the most useful to the public, and will deserve to be the most popular. 
 
 Saturday Review. 
 
 The completion of Mr Keith Johnston's Royal Atlas of Modern Geography claims a special notice 
 at our hands. While Mr Johnston's maps are certainly unsurpassed by any for legibility and 
 uniformity of drawing, as well as for accuracy and judicious selection, this eminent geographer's 
 Atlas has a distinguishing merit in the fact that each map is accompanied by a special index of 
 remarkable fulness. The labour and trouble of reference are in this way reduced to a minimum. 
 .... The number of places enumerated in the separate indices is enormous. We believe, 
 indeed, that every name which appears in the maps is registered in the tables ; and as each 
 place is indicated by two letters, which refer to the squares formed by the parallels of latitude 
 
 and longitude, the method of using the index is extremely easy and convenient We 
 
 know no series of maps which we can more warmly recommend. The accuracy, wherever we 
 have attempted to put it to the test, is really astonishing. 
 
 Morning Herald. 
 
 The culmination of all attempts to depict the face of the world appears in the Royal Atlas, 
 than which it is impossible to conceive anything more perfect. 
 
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 complete of all existing atlases. 
 
 Examiner. 
 
 There has not, we believe, been produced for general public use a body of maps equal in 
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 Scotsman. 
 
 An almost daily reference to, and comparison of, it with others, since the publication of the 
 first part some two years ago until now, enables us to say, without the slightest hesitation, that 
 this is by far the most complete and authentic atlas that has yet been issued. 
 
 EDINBURGH AND LONDON. 
 
GEOGBAPJIICAL WORKS 
 
 Index ffeograpMcus : Being a List, Alphabetically ar- 
 
 RANGED, of the PRINCIPAL PLACES ON THE GLOBE, with the COUNTRIES AND 
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 Volume Imperial Octavo, pp. 676, price 21s. 
 
 The Physical Atlas of Natural Phenomena, By Alex. 
 
 KEITH JOHNSTON, F.R.S.E., &c., Geographer to the Queen for Scotland. A New 
 and Enlarged Edition, consisting of 35 Folio Plates, 27 smaller ones, printed in 
 Colours, with 135 pages of Letterpress, and Index. 
 
 SUBJECTS TKEATED OF. 
 
 Geography and Orography, .... 11 Plates. 
 
 Hydrography, 6 
 
 Meteorology and Magnetism, . . ... 6 
 
 Botanical Geography, 2 
 
 Zoological Geography, 6 
 
 Ethnology and Statistics, 4 
 
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 which we live. " Quarterly Review. 
 
 The Physical Atlas, By Alexander Keith Johnston, 
 
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 Imperial Folio. This Edition Contains Twenty-Five Maps, including a Pal;e- 
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 " Executed with remarkable care, and is as accurate, and, for all educational purposes, as valu- 
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 Eclectic Review. 
 
 Atlas of Scotland, 31 Maps of the Counties of Scotland, 
 
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 in Cloth Case, Is. 
 
 A Geological Map of Europe, exhibiting the different 
 
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 the Geological Survey of Great Britain and Ireland ; and JAMES NICOL, F.R.S.E., 
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 inches. In Sheets, 3, 3s ; in a Cloth Case, 4to, 3, 10s. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY W. BLACKWOOD AND SONS, 
 
GEOGKAPHICAL WORKS 
 
 Keith Johnston's School Atlases :- 
 
 i. 
 
 General and Descriptive Geography, exhibiting the Actual 
 
 and Comparative Extent of all the Countries in the World, with their 
 present Political Divisions. A New and Enlarged Edition. Corrected to 
 the present time. With a complete Index. 26 Maps. Half-bound, 12s. 6d. 
 
 II. 
 
 Physical Geography, illustrating, in a Series of Original 
 
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 Natural History. A New and Enlarged Edition. 20 Maps, including 
 coloured Geological Maps of Europe and of the British Isles. Half-bound, 
 12s. 6d. 
 
 in. 
 
 Classical Geography: Comprising, in Twenty-three Plates, 
 
 Maps and Plans of all the important Countries and Localities referred to 
 by Classical Authors ; accompanied by a pronouncing Index of Places, by T. 
 HARVEY,' M.A. Oxon. A New and Kevised Edition. Half-bound, 12s. 6d. 
 
 xv. 
 
 Astronomy. An Entirely New Edition. Notes and Descrip- 
 tive Letterpress to each Plate, embodying all recent Discoveries in Astro- 
 nomy. 20 Maps. Half-bound, 12s. 6d. 
 
 v. 
 
 Elementary School Atlas of General and Descriptive Geogra- 
 phy for the Use of Junior Classes. A New and Cheaper Edition. 20 Maps, 
 including a Map of Canaan and Palestine. Half-bound, 5s. 
 
 " They are as superior to all School Atlases within our knowledge, as were the larger works 
 of the same Author in advance of those that preceded them." Educational Times. 
 
 " Decidedly the best School Atlases we have ever seen." English Journal of Education. 
 
 "... The Physical Atlas seems to us particularly well executed. . . . The last gene- 
 ration had no such help to learning as is afforded iu these excellent elementary maps. The Class- 
 ical Atlas is a great improvement on what has usually gone by that name ; not only is it fuller, 
 but in some cases it gives the same country more than once in different periods of time. Thus it 
 approaches the special value of a historical atlas. . . . The General Atlas is wonderfully full 
 and accurate for its scale. . . . Finally, the Astronomical Atlas, in which Mr Hiiid is respon- 
 sible for the scientific accuracy of the maps, supplies an admitted educational want. No better 
 companion to an elementary astronomical treatise could be found than this cheap and convenient 
 collection of maps." Saturday Review. 
 
 " The plan of these Atlases is admirable, and the excellence of the plan is rivalled by the beauty 
 of the execution. . . . The best security for the accuracy and substantial value of a School 
 Atlas is to have it from the hands of a man like our Author, who has perfected his skill by the 
 execution of much larger works, and gained a character which he will be careful not to jeopar- 
 dise by attaching his name to anything that is crude, slovenly, or superficial. "Scotsman. 
 
 Atlas of Plans of Countries, Battles, Sieges, & Sea-Fights, 
 
 Illustrative of the History of Europe from the Commencement of the French 
 Revolution to the Battle of Waterloo. Constructed by A. KEITH JOHNSTON, 
 F.R.S.E., &c. &c. With Vocabulary of Military and Marine Terms. 109 
 Plates, Demy Quarto, price 3, 3s. Another Edition, in Crown Quarto, 
 1, 11s. 6d. 
 
 EDINBURGH AND LONDON. 
 
GEOGEAPHICAL WOKKS 
 
 A New Map of Europe, By A, Keith Johnston, F.R.S.E,, 
 
 F.R.G.S., Geographer to the Queen. The Map is fully coloured, and measures 
 4 feet 2 inches by 3 feet 5 inches. Price, mounted on Cloth and Mahogany 
 Roller, Varnished, or Folded in Quarto in a handsome Cloth Case, 21s. 
 
 Geological Map of Scotland. From the most Eecent Au- 
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