' The
compliment was welcomed by immense applause."
A more substantial recognition of the labours of Hamilton took place
subsequently. He thus describes it in a letter to Mr. Graves of 14th
of November, 1843:--
"The Queen has been pleased--and you will not doubt that it was
entirely unsolicited, and even unexpected, on my part--'to express
her entire approbation of the grant of a pension of two hundred
pounds per annum from the Civil List' to me for scientific services.
The letters from Sir Robert Peel and from the Lord Lieutenant of
Ireland in which this grant has been communicated or referred to have
been really more gratifying to my feelings than the addition to my
income, however useful, and almost necessary, that may have been."
The circumstances we have mentioned might lead to the supposition
that Hamilton was then at the zenith of his fame but this was not
so. It might more truly be said, that his achievements up to this
point were rather the preliminary exercises which fitted him for the
gigantic task of his life. The name of Hamilton is now chiefly
associated with his memorable invention of the calculus of
Quaternions. It was to the creation of this branch of mathematics
that the maturer powers of his life were devoted; in fact he gives us
himself an illustration of how completely habituated he became to the
new modes of thought which Quaternions originated.
Pages:
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351