And this
is all I ever saw, and, so it has pleased God, all I shall see in
this world of a man whose friendly communications were among my
greatest social enjoyments, and greatest intellectual treats."
There is a very interesting memoir of Hamilton written by De Morgan,
in the "Gentleman's Magazine" for 1866, in which he produces an
excellent sketch of his friend, illustrated by personal reminiscences
and anecdotes. He alludes, among other things, to the picturesque
confusion of the papers in his study. There was some sort of order
in the mass, discernible however, by Hamilton alone, and any invasion
of the domestics, with a view to tidying up, would throw the
mathematician as we are informed, into "a good honest thundering
passion."
Hardly any two men, who were both powerful mathematicians, could have
been more dissimilar in every other respect than were Hamilton and De
Morgan. The highly poetical temperament of Hamilton was remarkably
contrasted with the practical realism of De Morgan. Hamilton sends
sonnets to his friend, who replies by giving the poet advice about
making his will. The metaphysical subtleties, with which Hamilton
often filled his sheets, did not seem to have the same attraction for
De Morgan that he found in battles about the quantification of the
Predicate.
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