



HAMMOND. JAMKS. 



t7 



A* UM* who knew Sir William Hamilton through bis writing* only 

 eanaotdn fall justice la the multifariousoees of his knowing*; K> like- 

 ie such as look chWny to those of hi* writing which h.l personal 

 bewiof*. will do po-uive ioju.tice to the real likeableness of liii 

 personal charmetrr. He was undoubtedly a itro, and keen, and ofton 

 r controversialist, occasionally .ren a haughty one; in debate he 

 beat about for smooth word*; and, abeorbed ID his love for 

 and learning, he sometimes forgot to be gentle towards those 

 whom he thought to be erring or knew to be comparatively ignorant 

 lie wa watchfully jealoua, also, (and once or twice, aa in hu contro- 

 versy with Mr. iJe Morgan. ue-dicasly anil unjustly so,) of anything 

 that looked like interference with hi* olaimi to originality in points 

 he had thought out for himself. But even in controversy, if he did hit 

 bard, be never struck a man from behind ; and the same chivalrous 

 opsosses marked all hi* dealing*. Under the combative trn<l> m-r, 

 moreover, there lay great generosity, great kindliness and warmth of 

 heart: he wai invaritbly amiable when oocaiou did not force ou 

 polemics: be wai an active and steady friend, beloved a* well aa 

 esteemed by thoee who were admitted to hu friendship. 



About his erudition there cannot well be two opinions among those 

 who have had opportunities and competency for judging. It* mere man 

 wa a thing extraordinary: it wai minutely eznct in all those poinU 

 which raise the question of accurate scholarship : it spread over tracts 



I" r. ading the most obscure and neglected : and it was, everywhere, 

 the real knowledge of a thinking man, not the word-crnmrnin? of a 

 ] c.lsnL His range embraced all the great divisions of knowledge, 

 except mathematics and physical science ; while here too it did not 



xclude anatomy, with physiology and tome other branches of medicine. 

 He waa a thorough linguist in the classical tongues, and in Oerman. 

 With as little ss possible of the poetical temperament, he was well 

 read in the great poets ; and his historical information was unusually 

 extensive. In philosophy, he was familiar with the Greek writers one 

 and all: Aristotle and his commentators he had probably studied 

 more extensively aud profoundly than any even of pur Teutonic 

 neighbours. He knew the whole course of the scholastic philosophy, 

 ss no man else has ever known it since the middle sges departed. 

 With British systems it is needless to say that he waa familiar in all 

 directions; and he was the only man among us who came near to 

 having studied and nowhere either carelessly or at second-hand all 

 the German systems that have emerged or diverged from that of Kant. 



On the other hand, this question may be put : not whether 

 Hamilton was the most original of philosophers ; but whether there 

 has ever been any philosopher who, to learning even half as great as 

 bjs, united so much of real and active originality as a thinker. In I 

 his treatment of details he has a favourite manner, which often I 

 disguises his independence. He likes the position of an interpreter : he 

 is wont to speak as if the best way of discovering philosophical truths i 

 were by decyphcring them in some mediaeval text through the dust of 

 centuries. lie takes a pride in quietly fathering, on some schoolman 

 or other, a doctrine or an argument which many men would have been 

 too glad to take credit for as their own ; and sometimes, half-hidden 

 in a brief note, there is given, as an obvious and matter-of-course 

 comment on a scholastic brocard or term, some assertion which proves 

 on close inspection to presuppose a wide process of new inference. 

 The outlines, however, of those sections in his own philosophical creed 

 which he has taken the trouble to expound, are laid down broadly 

 enough to let their character be seen clearly. Be his leading doctrines 

 held true or false, valuable or worthless, they are at least his own, 

 as much his own as very many systems which all of us rightly admit 

 to be essentially novel, aa much his own, it may be said, as any 

 system of philosophical opinions can be, unless it ignores everything 

 that great thinkers have ever thought before. 



What may be the correctness, snd what the value, of his peculiar 

 opinions, is a question on which, if it were to be adjudged at present, 

 contradictory verdicts would be given. Probably no one will be 

 competent to decide it justly, till there has taken place a long and 

 intelligent sifting of speculations, which travel in a track, not only at 

 several points new in itself, but likewise, everywhere, little familiar to 

 most thinkers in this country. Hamilton's writings are Uermanio 

 rather than British ; and that not merely in the freedom with which he 

 baa taken German doctrines and methods (with a large admixture of 

 Scholasticism) as materials to be distilled in his own alembic. The 

 exotic character is observable, both in bis highly speculative aims, and 

 in bis severe exactness of technical expression. The former of these 

 characteristics is distinctively alien to the broadly practical English 

 mind ; and the latter is one which has never, before him at least, 

 been made to take root in the philosophic mind of Scotland. Nor can 

 bis writings be mastered without pains. He never cares for doing more 

 than raying what be thinks to bo worth saying saying it unequivocally, 

 and saying it in the smallest number of words that is consistent with 

 safety. He will not turn aside to amuse ns ; he will not hurry or rise 

 to excite us. He is a hard thinker, and a hard, vigorous, precise, dry, 

 writer. But for such as will take the trouble to follow his course of 

 thought, and reflect on its contents, there nre perhaps no philosophical 

 discussions, certainly none of our times, that are so suggestive of 

 processes of thought processes wide in range, dofiuito iu direction, 

 nd lofty in design and in possible result 



Of Hamilton's Psychological and Metaphysical doctrines, nothing 



special requires to be said. They are before us, in certain parts, in 

 his own exposition ; and that they have already been much discussed, 

 and have in some quarters excited a powerful influence on speculation, 

 is a good oinen for philosophy. We have, especially, bis treatment of 

 three great problems in philosophy. First, there is his theory of the 

 two kinds of human knowledge, Immediate and Mediate. Sooondly, 

 there is a special application of this theory to the construction of a 

 theory of External Perception. Thirdly, there is an exhaustive system 

 of Metaphysics Proper, or Ontology, in his ' Philosophy of the Con- 

 ditioned,' or ' Conditions of the Thinkable 'a vast and noble idea, 

 traced out for us, as yet, in nothing but a tantalising fragment, 



Regarding his Logical system, our public information is still very 

 unsatisfactory. It is to bo gathered from an appendix to his ' Dis- 

 cussions,' nnd an authorised but meagre publication from lectures, 

 Baynes' s ' New Analytic.' These materials will probably convey no 

 distinct notion of the system, unless to readers who are familiar with 

 the German methods of logical analysis silica Kant The leading point < 

 may bo said to be four; aud it is perhaps possible to make these 

 intelligible, very briefly, to persons acquainted with the outlines of 

 the science in its received forms. 1. 11 unilton insists on hivim:, iu 

 all propositions through common terms which arc set forth for logical 

 scrutiny, n i-un of quantity prefixed to predicate as well an to su 

 The point, though merely one of form, is curiously suggestive of diffi- 

 culties, and hence of solutions. 2. Instead of recognising only four 

 forms of propositions, the A, E, I, O, of the old logicians, he insists on 

 admitting all the eight forms which are pos-iblc. (See Thomson and 

 Solly.) 3. He widens the range of the syllogism, by admitting all 

 moods which can validly be constructed by any combination of any 

 of his eight kinds of propositions. 4. The 1'ort-Koyal doctrine, of the 

 inverse ratio of the extension and comprehension of terms, is worked 

 out by him iu its reference to the syllogism. This application of the 

 doctrine has certainly not been anticipated by any logician ; and, 

 when elaborated to its results, it throws many now lights on the 

 character and mutual relations of the syllogistic lin 



HAMILTON, WILLIAM, of Scotch descent, but probably born in 

 London about the middle of the 18th century, studied at a very early 

 age under Zucchi, the painter of ornaments, at Home. After his 

 return he soon obtained general employment He was engaged in 

 various works, such as the Shakapeare Gallery, Macklin's Bible, ic. 

 He excelled in ornament, to which he gave propriety, richness, and 

 a classic appearance. He died in 1801. 



HAMMOND, H E X R Y, a learned and excellent div ine of the Church 

 of England, was born at Chert sey, August 18, 1605. Having been 

 educated at Eton, nnd Magdalen College, Oxford, of which be became 

 Fellow, he was presented to the rectory of Penshurat iu Kent, in 1683, 

 ten years after which he was appointed archdeacon of Chichester. I'.y 

 birth and education a confirmed royalist, he retired to Oxford soon 

 after the civil war broke out, continued to reside there while that city 

 waa held by the king, and attended the king's commissioners to Ux- 

 bridge, where he disputed with Vines, a Presbyterian minister. He 

 was appointed canon of ChrUtchurch and public orator in lt!45, and 

 attended Charles L as hia chaplain from the time when he fell into 

 the hands of the army until the end of 1647, when the king's attend- 

 ants were sent away from him. Hammond then returned to Oxford, 

 and was chosen sub-dean of ChrUtchurch, from which situation he 

 waa expelled in March 1648, by the parliamentary visitors, and placed 

 for some time in confinement. On his release he repaired to West- 

 wood in Worcestershire, the seat of Sir John Packwood, where the 

 remainder of his life was spent in literary labour, " doing much good 

 to the day of his death, iu which time he had the disposal of great 

 charities reposed in his hands, as being the most zealous promoter of 

 almsgiving that lived iu England since the change of religion.'' . . . 

 He died after long suffering from a complication of disorders, April 25, 

 1660. It is said that Charles II. intended for him the bishopric of 

 Worcester. Hammond was a man of great learning, as well in the 

 classics and general philology, as in doctrinal and school divinity, 

 and possessed considerable natural ability. Of his numerous works, 

 chiefly controversial, the following are some of the most remarkable : 

 'Practical Catechism,' 1644; 'Humble Address to the Right Hon. 

 the Lord Fairfax and his Council of War,' 1649, concerning the im- 

 pending trial of Charles I. ; ' Paraphrase and Annotations on the 

 New Testament,' 1653, best edition 1702. lie began a similar para- 

 phrase of the Old Testament, but advanced no farther than the Psalms, 

 1669, and one chapter of Proverbs. His works, iu four volumes folio, 

 were collected by his amanuensis Fulmnu, 4 vols. folio, 1674-84. 

 (bishop Fell, Life; Wood, Athen. Oxon.) 



HAMMOND, JAMES, was born in 1710, and was the second son 

 of Anthony Hammond, Esq., of Somersham Place, Huntingdonshire. 

 He was educated at Westminster; sat in Parliament for Truro, on the 

 interest of the Prince of Wales, whose equerry he was, and died in 

 1742. His verses are mostly elegiac, and addressed in the vapid style 

 of p Mtornl sentiment, then in fashion, to a fictitious object, whom he 

 names Delia. He is said to have been in love witu a Miss Dashwood, 

 who refused him if she read his poems it is hard to say how she 

 could do otherwise and to have lost his intellects in consequence of 

 her cruelty. Few in this age are likely to differ from Dr. John 

 his somewhat oracular opinion that " these elegies have neither passion, 

 nature, nor manners." 



