The bishop seems to have thought, and not without reason, that
Hamilton's genius would rather recoil from much of the routine work
of an astronomical establishment. Now that Hamilton's whole life is
before us, it is easy to see that the bishop was entirely wrong. It
is quite true that Hamilton never became a skilled astronomical
observer; but the seclusion of the observatory was eminently
favourable to those gigantic labours to which his life was devoted,
and which have shed so much lustre, not only on Hamilton himself, but
also on his University and his country.
In his early years at Dunsink, Hamilton did make some attempts at a
practical use of the telescopes, but he possessed no natural aptitude
for such work, while exposure which it involved seems to have acted
injuriously on his health. He, therefore, gradually allowed his
attention to be devoted to those mathematical researches in which he
had already given such promise of distinction. Although it was in
pure mathematics that he ultimately won his greatest fame, yet he
always maintained and maintained with justice, that he had ample
claims to the title of an astronomer. In his later years he set
forth this position himself in a rather striking manner. De Morgan
had written commending to Hamilton's notice Grant's "History of
Physical Astronomy.
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