622 
“* The sunshine, through the lofty window stealing, 
Lit up that vast and venerable fane, 
Ely’s Cathedral, in dark clouds and rain 
Wrapped lately, and shut up from joyous feeling : 
In its soft progress all around revealing 
Beauty or majesty unmarked before, 
It shed its type of heavenly comfort o’er 
Three kindred-kingdoms’ sons together kneeling. 
Oh, may that Church, Episcopal and pure, 
One Mother of that kneeling company, 
In essence one, in name and office three, 
Mid outward storm and darkness still endure : 
Be comforted of Christ in God’s good time, 
And share the sunshine of a heavenlier clime.” 
Herschel’s sonnet in reply (p. 494) was handed to 
Hamilton the following morning :— 
“ On A SCENE IN ELy CATHEDRAL 
*¢ The organ’s swell was hushed, but soft and low 
An echo, more than music, rang ; when he, 
The doubly-gifted, poured forth whisperingly, 
High-wrought and rich, his heart’s exuberant flow 
Beneath that vast and vaulted canopy. 
Plunging anon into the fathomless sea 
Of thought, he dived where rarer treasures grow, 
Gems of an unsunned warmth and deeper glow. 
Oh! born for either sphere! Whose soul can thrill 
With all that Poésy has soft or bright, 
Or wield the sceptre of the sage at will 
(That mighty mace which bursts its way to light). 
Soar as thou wilt ! or plunge—thy ardent mind 
Darts on—but cannot leave our love behind.” 
We have introduced these verses not so much on 
account of the poetical merit they possess, which we 
confess appears to us to be but slight. “They may, how- 
ever, serve 23 samples of those poetical effusions with 
which these volumes teem—indeed they give the im- 
pression that there must be some occult sympathy between 
poetry and astronomy. It is well known that Romney 
Robinson was a poet, and though it does not appear 
that Sir George Airy had plunged into verse, yet when he 
and Hamilton were together at Parsonstown there was 
an amusing contest between the two Royal Astronomers 
as to which could repeat most English poetry. The 
present writer has heard this scene described by the late 
Earl of Rosse, who said that Sir G. Airy was admitted to 
have carried off the honours. 
As an illustration of one of the less important mathe- 
matical labours of Hamilton we may mention his paper 
on the Hodograph, communicated to the Royal Irish 
Academy in 1846. This elegant conception is a curve 
whereof the radius vector to any point from the origin 
represents both in direction and in amount the velocity 
of a moving particle. Many inte:esting applications were 
made by Hamilton, and are referred to in correspondence 
with Whewell. A somewhat ludicrous incident in con- 
nection with the hodograph is recorded (p. 543). It 
appears that at the same meeting of the Academy in 
which the hodograph was discussed, Hamilton also ex- 
hibited Prof. Méadler’s just published work on “The 
Central Sun.” This precarious speculation was by the 
reporter injudiciously blended with the hodograph, and 
an astounding statement went the round of the papers 
asserting that Hamilton’s wonderful calculus had suc- 
ceeded in discovering the central point of the universe ! 
It is not, perhaps, generally known that the real dis- 
coverer of the hodograph was Bradley (see Rigaud’s 
edition of Bradley’s Memoirs, Oxford, 1832, p. 288). 
NATURE 
[ Oct. 29, 1885 
Bradley has there given a most elegant geometrical in- 
vestigation of that circle related to elliptic motion which 
Hamilton afterwards named the hodograph. 
The religious side of Hamilton’s character demands a 
few words of notice. He was a member of the Establish- 
ment, and many passages show that he had the sympa- 
thies of a sound churchman. He seems to have been an 
admirer of Pusey, with whom he was also personally 
acquainted. We also find occasional reference to the 
midnight vigils with which he awaited the new year, and 
to the fa-ting which he sometimes practised for devo- 
tional reasons. We should imagine, however, that such 
exercises were but very occasional to a student so laborious 
yet so irregular as Hamilton. 
He found time to be president of a local branch of the 
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. He assumed 
the duties of a churchwarden, and vanquished Archbishop 
Whateley in a controversy on the orthodoxy of an inscrip- 
tion on the church window at Castleknock. At Whitsun- 
tide we find him writing a dynamical theory of the 
ascension of our Lord, in which in medieval fashion he 
proceeds to evaluate the duration of the phenomenon, 
which he demonstrates to have been less than the interval 
between Holy Thursday and Whit Sunday. 
It is with evident pain that the biographer has felt 
himself compelled to record the one great failing of his 
illustrious friend. The excessive devotion of Hamilton 
to study and the engrossing nature of those mathematical 
reveries in which he indulged led to the formation of very 
irregular habits. He “too often found the dawn surprise 
him as he looked up to snuff his candles after some night 
of fascinating labour.” The necessary hours for rest and 
refreshment being disregarded, he was led to the dangerous 
practice of an undue recourse to alcohol, and occasional 
intemperance was the consequence. Two or three scenes 
arising from this cause have been described in this 
volume. There is one which can hardly have been wit- 
nessed except by the biographer himself, but which his 
conscientiousness has compelled him to record. There 
is a second on a public occasion which caused the 
deepest grief to Hamilton’s friends, one of whom called 
upon him with a kind remonstrance which was received 
by Hamilton ina manner worthy of his high character. 
There is also a third incident, perhaps the most painful 
of all, which illustrates the attempt of Hamilton to reform 
and the circumstances under which he relapsed. 
We certainly have no intention of citing these passages 
in this place, for if torn from their setting in the life 
of this great man they would probably convey an exagger- 
ated notion of the extent of his infirmity. We would 
ee record the words of Mr. Graves, where he says 
P- 335) -— 
“Tt is mournful that what seems to have been an in- 
considerate, and at first unconsciously indulged, defect in 
external regimen of life, for such in the inception was his 
infirmity, should avail to cast a shade over qualities so 
solid and so splendid as the moral and intellectual qualities 
of Hamilton.” 
We have still to look forward to the third and con- 
cluding volume of this important work. In it we are to 
read how Hamilton continued his stupendous labours 
which culminated in the appearance of his other great 
work, the “Elements of Quaternions.” We are also 
