GREAT ASTRONOMERS.
3io
In his early years at Dunsink, Hamilton did make some attempts at a practical use of the telescopes, but he posno natural aptitude for such work, while the exposure which it involved seems to have acted insessed
juriously on his health.
He, therefore, gradually allowed be devoted to those mathematical researches
his attention to
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 in
maintained with title of
he had ample claims to the In his later years he set forth
justice, that
an astronomer.
this position himself in a rather striking
Morgan had written commending
to
manner.
De
Hamilton's notice
After Physical Astronomy." Hamilton with the writes to book, becoming acquainted Grant's
of
"History
his friend as follows
" The book
:
very valuable, and very creditable to
is
its
composer. But your humble servant may be pardoned if he finds himself somewhat amused at the title, History '
of
Physical Astronomy from the Earliest Ages to the
Middle of the Nineteenth
Century,'
when he
fails
to
observe any notice of the discoveries of Sir W. R. Hamil' ton in the theory of the ' Dynamics of the Heavens.'
The intimacy between
the two correspondents will
account for the tone of this letter
;
and, indeed, Hamilton
which follow ample grounds for his tells how Jacobi spoke of him in Manchester
supplies in tha lines
complaint. He in 1842 as " le Lagrange de votre pays," and
had said
how Donkin
" The that, Analytical Theory of Dynamics as
exists at present
Poisson, Sir "W.
is
It.
it
due mainly to the labours of Lagrange, Hamilton, and Jacobi, whose researches