Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 4.djvu/231

Rh brated sinking fund, and checked a nation in the career of extravagance, by displaying to it, in characters not to be mistaken, the unpalliated truth of its situation. Holding this in mind, we will be excused for giving to the world some minutice of this remarkable man, whom neither the events of his life in general, nor his connexion with the literary history of the age, would have rendered an object of much biographical interest Like many men who have signalized themselves for the originality or abstractness of their views, Hamilton in his early years suffered much from constitutional debility, an affliction from which his many after years were signally exempt, till his last illness, his only complaint being a frequent recurrence of lumbago, which gave him a characteristic stoop in walking. He is described as having shown, in the progress of his education, an appetite for almost every description of knowledge, and to have added to the species of information for which he has been celebrated, a minute acquaintance with classical and general philosophical subjects : a respected friend, long belonging to the circle of Hamilton's literary acquaintance, has described his mind as having less quickness in sudden apprehension of his subject, than power in grappling with all its bearings, and comprehending it thoroughly after it had been sometime submitted to his comprehension; it was exactly of that steady, strong, and trust-worthy order, on which teachers of sense and zeal love to bestow their labour. He was, in consequence, a general favourite with his instructors, and more especially with the celebrated Matthew Stewart, professor of mathematics in Edinburgh, who looked on the progress and prospects of his future scholar with pride and friendly satisfaction. The partiality of Mr Hamilton for a literary life he was compelled to yield to circumstances, which rendered it expedient that he should spend some time in the banking establishment of Messrs William Hogg & Son, as a preparatory introduction to a commercial or banking profession ; a method of spending his time, less to be regretted than it might have been in the case of most other literary men, as, if it did not give him the first introduction to the species of speculation in which he afterwards indulged, it must have early provided him with that practical information on the general money system of the country, which his works so strikingly exhibit. Soon after this, Mr Hamilton began to form the literary acquaintance of young men of his own standing and pursuits, some of whom gathered themselves into that knot of confidential literary communication, which afterwards expanded into a nursery of orators, statesmen, and philosophers, of the highest grade, now well known by the name of the Speculative Society. The manner in which the young political economist became acquainted with lord Kaimes, has something in it of the simplicity of that literary free masonry, which generally forms a chain of friendly intercourse between the celebrated men of any particular period, and those who are just rising to replace them in the regard arid admiration of the world. His lordship's attention having been attracted by the views on one of his own works, expressed in a criticism which had been anonymously supplied by Mr Hamilton, to one of the periodicals of the day he conveyed through the same paper a wish that the author of the critique, if already known, might become better known to him, and if a stranger, would communicate to him the pleasure of his acquaintance. The diffident critic was with difficulty prevailed on to accept the flattering offer; the elegant judge expressed considerable surprise at the youth of the writer, when compared with the justness and profundity of his views, and communicated to him by a general invitation to his house, the advantages of an intercourse with his refined and gifted circle of visitors. In 1766, Mr Hamilton, then only twenty-three years of age, was prevailed on by his friends to offer himself as a candidate for the mathematical chair of Marischal college in Aberdeen, then va-