pages.

But during Sir William's early years at the Bar their acquaintance was slight. "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; in other words, that he kept extremely aloof from party demonstrations of any kind." This is perhaps not quite the correct interpretation of Jeffrey's words; he may have considered Hamilton unpractical from the editorial point of view, and there can be no doubt that he was so, as Jeffrey's successor, Mr. Macvey Napier, afterwards found. Still, it is to be regretted that the more catholic and philosophical sympathies of the latter, which led to his enlisting Sir William as a contributor, did not operate with his more brilliant predecessor, otherwise Sir William might have had at least a dozen years' earlier start as a writer known to the world.

loss of all but honour in the cause of liberty, | ture made that he should contribute to its he was not an available partisan; he was, in fact, practically useless. He was not a man to spout at public meetings, to write telling articles and letters in newspapers, to busy himself in canvassing or committee work, or indeed to do anything for party purposes, of the kind which is usually regarded as constituting a claim to solid recognition. It may seem unreasonable to complain when such a man suffers neglect. For has he not deliberately chosen another path than that which leads to worldly success? Has he not turned his steps from the vulgar highway to the steep and secluded ascent which leads upwards to the habitations of the gods? Is it reasonable to demand that such a man should secure the double treasure of a life of high endeavour in the search for truth, and with it the material rewards that are the appanage of devotion to pursuits more practical? Perhaps not. Looked at from a point of view beyond that of a world of tradesmen's bills and taxes, looked at especially after the lapse of a century or two, when the name of Hamilton will still be remembered and revered, while no mortal can tell, without looking in an almanac, who were the Prime Ministers or Lord Presidents of his day, it may seem of small consequence whether he received much or little of this world's goods; it may even seem fitter that his fees were few and his fortune small. But looked at from the point of view of the time when he lived and moved among men who had it in their power to recognise his merits, we must still say that it was not well done, and perhaps, also, that in no other country would it have been so but in Britain. But we are anticipating. It might have been expected that in these circumstances Sir William would have devoted himself to literary composition, as an outlet for energy, and a means of increasing his income. But, rich as he was in stores of various knowledge, and gifted with no common power of clear and forcible expression, he was provokingly free from the cacoethes scribendi. He had in fact an extreme reluctance to begin the work of formal composition, and, as already mentioned, was severely fastidious in his choice of words. It seems, indeed, very probable that, but for the instigation of others, he would never have become known as an author during his lifetime; he had already reached the age of forty-two before he produced the first of those remarkable criticisms which spread his fame throughout Europe. It is somewhat surprising to find that, during the whole time of Jeffrey's editorship of the Edinburgh Review, there seems to have been no over

His mother took up her residence with him in 1815, and lived with him till her death in 1827. Not long after, a niece of hers, Miss Janet Marshall, became an inmate in the house, who afterwards became Sir William's wife. In 1817 he paid a short visit to Germany, in company with two of his professional brethren, Lockhart and Hyndman, for the purpose of inspecting a library at Leipzig, which he had recommended the Faculty to purchase. He again visited Germany in 1820, spending some time in Berlin and Dresden. About this time he secured for the Advocates' Library a valuable collection of tracts and pamphlets, chiefly in law and theology, known as the "Dieterichs Collection." With the exception of these events, there is nothing further on record of his life during the period from 1813 to 1820. We only know that he lived a retired and meditative life, sounding his solitary way in regions of research where few could follow him, but mingling cheerfully in society, and even at that early period occasionally sought out by visitors from foreign countries, attracted by the report of his learning. Among his principal friends were Wilson, Lockhart, and De Quincey, and at his own house and that of his brother, who had now retired from the army, and settled in Edinburgh, there was many a pleasant gathering of these and other friends. His intimacy with the Blackwood set of men was probably not approved of by some of his political friends. It has been even said, though with little probability, that he assisted at the concoction of the famous "Chaldee Ms." The exceptionally respectful description of him in it as "the great black

eagle of the desert, whose cry is as the sound | didature must have seriously injured his of an unknown tongue, and whose dwelling further progress at the Bar. is in the tombs of the wise men," was doubtless the work of Lockhart. With Dugald Stewart he was but slightly acquainted, and Dr. Thomas Brown he does not appear to have known at all. That Hamilton had already arrived at conclusions in Philosophy hostile to the views of Brown is probable enough, but that they should have lived for some years in the same city without becoming acquainted is somewhat remarkable. The only anecdote on record relating to this period of his life is given by Professor Baynes. Dr. Parr, when on a visit to Edinburgh, met Sir William at the house of Professor John Thomson, the distinguished pathologist. The omniscient doctor was so astonished to find that the young advocate, whom he had never heard of, was not only able to accompany him in his discursive expatiation in the fields of Greek philosophy, but to keep pace with him in the least frequented tracks of classical, and mediæval, and modern Latin literature, capping his quotations, and even correcting his references, that at length he broke out with the inquiry, "Why, who are you, sir?"

On Dr. Brown's death in 1820, followed by the resignation of Mr. Stewart, the Moral Philosophy Chair in Edinburgh became vacant. There were several candidates, but it soon became apparent that the contest lay between Wilson and Hamilton. Of the superiority of Hamilton's claims, on the special ground of philosophical attainments, there can be no doubt. But as he happened to be a Whig, and Wilson a Tory, that, according to the usual rule in those days, set tled the matter. The contest was a bitter one on both sides, but only on the part of the candidates' supporters. It caused no interruption whatever of the kindly relations between themselves, a fact equally creditable to both. Hamilton was represented by the Tory partisans as a man of dangerous views in politics and theology, while Wilson was even more heartily denounced by the Whigs, as the very incarnation of all the evil that showed its face so unblushingly in the pages of Blackwood. We learn from Hamilton's own testimony that he was informed, from an influential quarter, that if he would "allow it simply to be said that he was not a Whig-not a political opponent of the then dominant party,-the election would be allowed to take its natural course." He refused to do so, and thereby sacrificed any chance he had, which, politics apart, was considerable, of obtaining the Chair. It has to be noted also, that the mere fact of his can

As some little compensation for this disappointment, he was in the following year elected to the Chair of Civil History, vacated by Mr. Fraser Tytler. The appointment was virtually in the hands of the Faculty of Advocates, who, though for the most part Tories, showed an honourable disregard for political considerations, by unanimously nominating their most learned member to the office. The salary was only £100 a year, and attendance on the class being optional, none of Sir William's predecessors had ever succeeded in forming a regular class. Sir William, however, not only prepared a course of lectures, but attracted for some years an average of from thirty to fifty students. The subject he chose was the history of Modern Europe, from the close of the fifteenth century to the year 1789. He also delivered some lectures on ancient politics, on Furopean literature, including that of the Middle Ages, the Feudal System, the Papal Supremacy, etc. Of the character of these lectures we learn, on the authori ty of Professor Wilson, that the most distinguished students of the University spoke with enthusiasm of their sagacity, learning, eloquence, and philosophical spirit. Latterly Sir William lectured only in alternate years, and when the salary ceased to be paid, in consequence of the bankruptcy of the city, he ceased to lecture altogether.

The next important landmark in Sir William's life was his marriage, in 1829, to his cousin, Miss Marshall. His mother's death was a heavy blow to him, and the two years that followed it were the only period of his life that could be called unhappy. For though in one sense a solitary thinker, his social sympathies and affections were so strong that even in his most abstruse studies he found aid rather than distraction in the companionship of those he loved. There is no aspect of his character more interesting than that in which he appears in his latter life, at work in the family parlour, surrounded by his wife and children, whose presence and ministry afforded him never-failing hap piness and help. During that dreary interval between his mother's death and his marriage, the proof of its being "not good that the man should be alone" was in his case somewhat ludicrously illustrated. Though naturally of very methodical and orderly habits, his sitting-room became gradually littered with books, which he had no heart to keep in order, till it became necessary to escape from the chaos by taking refuge in another room. There the same process followed, till at length, having passed

from room to room, he finally established | taphysics. Dr. Spurzheim, on the occasion himself in the upper flat. Here he found of his visit to Edinburgh in 1828, wished life a little more tolerable, having a cheerful to have a public discussion with him on view of the northern suburbs, the Firth of Phrenology, and to have the decision of the Forth, and the distant hills. The influence question referred to the vote of the audience, of his marriage on the character and sub- but Sir William wisely declined the prosequent career of Sir William was of the posal. The effect of one of his papers on best and happiest kind; and it may be said, Phrenology, on a hearer of more than orwithout any reserve, that no man ever was dinary capacity, is characteristically demore indebted to the devotion, good sense, scribed by Mr. Carlyle, in his interesting and practical ability of his wife. How, contribution to this biography, which has without any pretension to be versed in the been so abundantly quoted that we shall subjects of her husband's labours, she iden- extract only a few passages. The first part tified herself so thoroughly with all he did; refers to a period in 1819 or 1820, when how, after he entered on his professional the writer was a student at the University work, she sat up with him till the winter of Edinburgh. He has made an unimdawning, three nights a week, copying his portant mistake in regard to Sir William's lectures as he composed them; how, with residence, which was then in Howe Street: her own hand, she wrote out for the press every fragment of his composition; how she kept her husband up to his work by the inspiration of cheerfulness and resolution, wisely contending, as Mr. Veitch happily expresses it, "against a sort of energetic indolence which characterized him ;" above all, how she upheld and ministered to him during the years of his bodily infirmity;-all this it was necessary, to a true delineation of Sir William Hamilton's life, that the world should know. His biographer has told it well, and the example it presents may be said to form one of the most instructive and interesting features of the biography.

Among the chief things to be noted regarding the period between 1820 and 1829, are Sir William's researches on the subject of Phrenology, which at that time was attracting much attention, its principal expounder in this country being Mr. George Combe. Sir William opposed no doctrine on the ground of novelty alone, and, as might be expected, took the deepest interest in any new development of the science of mind. In the phenomena of Mesmerism, for example, he recognised a scientific reality, deserving of the most careful investigation, and the subject continued to interest him to the latest period of his life. In Phrenology he was a total disbeliever, but on no merely theoretical grounds. His conclusions were the result of minute and extensive personal experiment and observation, including, as regarded the functions of the cerebellum, the dissection and weighing of "above a thousand brains, of above fifty species of animals." On this subject he read two papers before the Royal Society, and delivered two lectures in the University in 1826 and 1827. He afterwards contributed the brain to some scientific journals, which are now to be found collected in the appendix to his lectures on Me

papers on

"Somewhere in Gabriel's Road, 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 conspicuous 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.

as a fine, silent neighbourhood,' thought I; Inhabitant within I never noticed by any other a fine north light, and wishes to save it all.' symptom; but from my comrades soon learned whose house and place of study this was.

"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 permanent 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 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 ambition in this dark ambiguous world. A man honourable to me, a man lovingly enviable; to whom, in silence, I heartly bade good speed. It was also an interesting circumstance, which did not fail of mention, that of the Cameronians at Bothwell Brig, and had his ancestor Hamilton of Preston, was leader 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,

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 corngrains, 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 abundantly luminous; promptitude, solid sense, free-flowing intelligibility always the characteristics. The tones of his voice were themselves attractive, physiognomic of the man: a strong, carelesslymelodious, tenor voice, the sound of it betokening seriousness and cheerfulness; occasionally something of slightly remonstrative was in the undertones, indicating, well in the

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 engaging; 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.

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 intelligence 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, 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. . . . I re-background, possibilities of virtuous wrath and collect 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, etc. etc. 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 the 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.... On German bibliography and authors, especially of the learned kind-Erasmus, Ruhnken, Ulrich von Hutten-he could descant copiously, and liked to be inquired of. On Kant, Reid, 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 interviews. 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 thinking them, for his

"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."

After his marriage Sir William removed to Manor Place, where he resided till 1839, when he went back to his former house, 16 Great King Street, in which he spent the remainder of his life. The time had come at last for him to justify to the world, in the form of published writing, his reputation among a limited circle as a thinker and scholar. The editorship of the Edinburgh Review came, in 1829, into the hands of Mr. Macvey Napier, who was a great friend of Sir William's, and took much interest in metaphysical studies. He was determined to have a philosophical contribution from his friend in his first number, and the subject he proposed was the recently published Introduction to Cousin's Cours de Philosophie, which was then making a sensation in the

found learning. His last contribution was in 1839. These were collected in a volume in 1852, with large appendices, and speedily reached a second edition. The most important of the philosophical articles, after the first, were those on Perception and on Logic. The former was the natural sequel and com

positive side of the philosophy which he professed, of which the basis was the authority of Consciousness, as the other had presented its negative aspect, in a denial of the possibility of any knowledge beyond that of phenomenal reality. The article on Logic may be called the first really scientific exposition of the province and principles of that science in this country, and displayed an extraordinary range and minuteness of knowledge of the subject and its literature. It contained a somewhat severe criticism of Whately's work, and as a specimen of the author's powers in that line may be read with enjoyment by persous ignorant of Logic. Speaking of these three articles as related, though apparently isolated, contributions to Philosophy, and embodying in a real unity the author's fundamental doctrines, his biographer well remarks:—

intellectual world of Paris. Sir William was very reluctant to undertake the task, for two reasons. He felt assured that a thorough discussion of the subject could not be made intelligible to British readers, and he had the highest admiration for M. Cousin, of whose philosophy it would be necessary for him to demonstrate the radical unsound-plement of his first article, expounding the ness. The editor's persistency, however, fortunately prevailed, and the criticism, hastily written, made its appearance in October 1829, under the title "On the philosophy of the Unconditioned, in reference to Cousin's Infinite-Absolute." Mr. Veitch correctly says, that, with the exception of the fragmentary utterances of Coleridge, this famous review was the first indication that any one in Britain had become aware of the true import of the highest philosophical thought of this century. It formed a new landmark in the history of speculation, and though in this country at first considered incomprehensible, it was the beginning of that strong revival of interest in the higher questions of philosophy, which Hamilton's subsequent writings and teaching contributed so powerfully to stimulate. On the Continent its merits were at once recognised, and by no one with such chivalrous en thusiasm as by the philosopher whose fundamental doctrine it so vigorously attacked. M. Cousin pronounced it "a masterpiece," so excellent that he thought "there could not be fifty persons in England competent to understand it." He naturally considered his critic wrong in his objections, but added, "I must do him the justice to say that he has profoundly studied and perfectly understood me." A warm friendship between the two philosophers was the result of this criticism, and though they never met, they kept up a pretty regular correspondence, and took the deepest mutual interest in each other's labours and personal welfare. M. Cousin's letters to his "très cher confrère" are very interesting, and full of the kindliest sympathy. One winds up with this naïve little outburst apropos of Brown's Lec

tures:

"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 possessorappeared, 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 proportions, 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."

His articles on University Reform, especially with reference to Oxford, excited much attention, and also much hostility, which they were eminently calculated to provoke. For, with a knowledge of the subject probably beyond that of any other man in Britain, they combined a somewhat oldfashioned strength and outspokenness of lan

"Je reçois en ce moment la 7ime édition de Brown. Mon Dieu! Luttez, mon cher Monsieur, luttez sans cesse contre cette funeste pop-guage in denouncing what he considered to ularité. En vous sont toutes mes espérances pour la philosophie en Angleterre. Dieu donc vous soit en aide, et vous donne ce que je sonhaite à tous mes amis et à moi-même: courage et constance. C'est mon perpétuel refrain."

Sir William was now fairly enlisted as a contributor to the Review, and during the next seven years contributed fourteen articles, all full of the most solid thought and pro

be abuses. They produced a powerful effect, and bore fruit after many days, both in England and in Scotland. Of his other articles the most notable are the one on the Epistolæ Obscurorum Virorum, which displayed prodigious learning and research, and for the first time settled conclusively the authorship of that famous satire, and that on the study of Mathematics, which, among other results, called forth an irrepressible protest from the