history of philosophy more grotesque, more inconclu- sive, and bettor calculated to mislead, than the array of the hundretl and six witnesses to the universality of the philosophy of common sense. What these depo- nents unanimously attest is not the truth of Reid's char- acteristic dogmas, but the necessity of admitting inde- monstrable principles — a thesis which may be, and has been associated with many dissimilar systems. Sir Wil- liam woiUd have been swift to expose this fallacy had such an ir/noi-atio elenchi been detected in any victim of his critical lash.
Though the lectures of Sir William Hamilton giw an imperfect idea of his services and teaching, he effi- ciently promoted the cause of genuine philosophy by the spirit and breadth of his instructions, by his wonder- ful display of learning, by the ]icnctration and precision of his distinctions, by attracting earnest attention to the highest walks of speculation, and by training up a generation of enthusiastic inquirers in a branch of knowl- edge which had been misconceived and degraded by disregard of its loftiest developments. He was untiring in encouraging and guiding the studies of his pupils ; he was exacting in his demands upon their powers; but he was remarkably successful in securing their confi- dence and their affection ; and he deepened his influ- ence by the affability of his demeanor and by his im- pressive bearing. " Sir William," says one of his re- viewers, "enjoyed physical advantages almost as un- common as his intellectual attainments. . . . His frame was large and commanding; his head was cast in a classic mould ; his face was handsome and expressive ; his voice possessed great compass and mellifluous sweet- ness." With such a fortiuiate combination of natural endoAvments and cultivated acquirements, he was well adapted to become the "inagms Apollo" of a new sect of adorers. System, however, was foreign to his nature : the pursiut of truth was more than truth. He never evinced any desire to be the founder of a school : he may have been conscious that such a desire would have been futile, since he built on the substructions of Aris- totle, or repainted with his own colors and devices the ruinous walls of the peripatetic temple.
The years of Sir William's scholastic duty were illus- trated by other and more important productions than his lectures — productions which reveal more decisively the depth of his genius, and supply the best means for ascer- taining the complexion and constitution of his philoso- phy. It seems to be expected of a Scotch professor that he should produce a book either as a title to office or in vindication of his appointment. In accordance with this custom, if not in compliance with it. Sir AVilliam signal- ized his induction into his chair by an edition of Reid's works, accompanied with observations and illustrative discussions. The manner in which this task was ex- ecuted is characteristic of his habits. The notes were written as the text passed through the press ; the supple- mentary disputations were added some years afterwards: they were never completed ; the last that he published "breaks off in the middle," like the celebrated canto of Hudibras ; and the " copious indices subjoined," which had been announced in the tifle-pagc, remams an an- nouncement— to eternity. Sir William has nowhere given any systematic view of his doctrine, either in de- tail or in summary. He has left behind him elaborate essays on a few cardinal topics; many fragmentary no- tices of others ; and numerous suggestive, but undewl- oped hints. His relics are like the fossil remains of the mighty monsters of remote geological periods : here a tibia, there a maxilla; here a huge vertebra, there a ponderous scapula ; here a tusk, there a claw ; but no- where is found the complete form, or even the entire skeleton. Still, from the fragments ]ireserved, the phi- losophy of Hamilton may be reconstructed. The in- completeness of his labors may be ascribed in part to the polemical character of his procedure ; in part to the absence of distinct originality; in part to the vast and mimanageable extent of his information, to the variety
HAMILTON
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of hU meditations, ami to the fastidiousness of his judg- ment, which sought unattainable fuhiess and perfection in all the details; but nuich must be attributed to a more mournful cause— to the paralysis which crushed his streni,nh and ileprived him of the use of his right hand for the la-st ten years of his Ufe, compelling him to avail himself of the 'assistance of his wife aiid family for his correspondence and literary labors.
During his later years Sir William was chiefly occu- ])ied with the extension and application of his logical in- novations. These were expounded to his class as early as 1»40, and announced to the world in 1846. They provoked a bitter controversy with professor De Mor- gan. It is unnecessary to enter into the examination of a dispute in which the parties are satisfied neither with themselves nor with each other, and in which the language is so tortuous, rugged, and peculiar as to be al- most equally unintelligible in both.
Some critics have commended the style of Sir Wil- liam IlamUton as " unequalled for conciseness, precision, and force"— as " a model of philosophical clearness, con- ciseness, and energy" (iion cuicumque datum est habere nasum). Mr. De Morgan characterized the Harailtonian style as bontbinuns, whatever tliat may mean; and of one expression he says that it is " hard to make sense or EngUsh of it." The censure may be applied to both the combatants in this unseemly controversy. Sir William's dialect may be clear, precise, significant, when it has been mastered; but it is not English. It is a concrete of his own compounding, requiring special study just as much as any archaic patois. Berkeley and Hume, Stewart and Spencer, have shown that it is possible to write pliildsiiiihii-ally, and yet maintain a pure, transparent, natural Knghsh idiom. This Sir William rarely does.