Many of these
sheets relate to literary matters, but they are largely intermingled
With genial pleasantry, and serve at all events to show the affection
and esteem with which he was regarded by all who had the privilege of
knowing him. There are also the letters to the sisters whom he
adored, letters brimming over with such exalted sentiment, that most
ordinary sisters would be tempted to receive them with a smile in the
excessively improbable event of their still more ordinary brothers
attempting to pen such effusions. There are also indications of
letters to and from other young ladies who from time to time were the
objects of Hamilton's tender admiration. We use the plural
advisedly, for, as Mr. Graves has set forth, Hamilton's love affairs
pursued a rather troubled course. The attention which he lavished on
one or two fair ones was not reciprocated, and even the intense
charms of mathematical discovery could not assuage the pangs which
the disappointed lover experienced. At last he reached the haven of
matrimony in 1833, when he was married to Miss Bayly. Of his married
life Hamilton said, many years later to De Morgan, that it was as
happy as he expected, and happier than he deserved. He had two sons,
William and Archibald, and one daughter, Helen, who became the wife
of Archdeacon O'Regan.
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