William Rowan Hamilton. 301 
We have just spoken of the metaphysical atmosphere which 
seems to pervade Hamilton’s Calculus of Quarternions; an 
was not alone because the culture and bias s mind unavoid- 
ably led him in this direction, that many of his mathematical 
investigations assume etaphysical turn, but because he, in 
he was also a poet. He was hea ay, “I live by mathemat- 
ics, but I am a poet.” If, by this aphorism, hd meant that, had 
he so chosen, he would have becom re emin ) 
of our greatest living philosophers who would perhaps say, “ By 
filial duty I am an astronomer, but I was born a chemist.” Of 
Hamilton counted among his friends, Coleridge, Southey, Mrs. 
Hemans, and Wordsworth. It is said that when Wordsworth 
through Hamilton’s enthusiasm, was enabled to get a glimpse of 
the inexpressible fascination which surrounds the daring and 
creative spirit of modern geometry, the old man was for the first 
: time inclined to admit even a mathematician into the charmed 
| Circle of the brotherhood of poets. The anecdote rests upon 
Am. Jour. Sct.—Seconp SERigEs, VoL. XLII, No. 126.—Nov., 1866. = 
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