196 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH, [Great King Street,
in July, .1836, was appointed to the chair of logic
and metaphysics, in succession to Professor David
Ritchie. In the interval between his appointment
and the commencement of the college session, in
the November of the same year, he was assiduously
occupied in preparing to discharge the
duties of the chair, which (according to the
practice of the University) consist in the delivery
of a course of lectures on the subjects assigned
to it.
On his appointment at first, Sir William
Hamilton would seem to have experienced
considerable difficulty in deciding on the character
of the course of lectures on Philosophy, which,
while doing justice to the subject, would at the
same time meet the requirements of his auditors,
usually comparatively young students in the second
year of their University curriculum. His first
course of lectures fell to be written during the
currency of the session 1836-7. He was in the
habit of delivering three in each week; and each
lecture was usually written on the day, or more
probably on the evening and night, before its
delivery. His ? Course of Metaphysics? was the
result of this nightly toil.
His lectures on Logic were not composed until
the following session, 1837-8. A commonplace
book which he left among his papers, exhibits in a
very remarkable degree Sir William?s power of
appreciating and making use of every available
hint scattered through the obscurer regions of
thought, through which his extensive reading
conducted him, says the editor of his collected
work, and no part of his writings more completely
verifies the remark of his American critic, Mr.
Tyler :-? There seems to be not even a random
thought of any value which has been dropped
along any, even obscure, path of mental activity,
in any age or country, that his diligence has not
recovered, his sagacity appreciated, and his
judgment husbanded in the stores of his knowledge.?
The lectures of Sir William Hamilton, apart from
their very great intrinsic merit, possess a high
acapemical and historic interest From 1836 to
1856-twenty consecutive years-his courses of
Logic and Metaphysics were the means by which
this great, good, and amiable man sought to imbue
with his philosophical opinions the young men
who assembled in considerable numbers from his
native country, from England, and elsewhere ; ?? and
while by these prelections,? says his editor in
1870, ? the author supplemented, developed, and
moulded the National Philosophy-leaving thereon
the ineffaceable impress of his genius and learning
-he at the same time and by the same means
exercised over the intellects and feelings of his
pupils an influence which for depth, intensity, and
elevation, was certainly never surpassed by that of
any philosophical instructor. Among his pupils
are not a few who, having lived for a season under
the constraining power of his intellect, and been
Led to reflect on those great, questions regarding
the character, origin, and bounds of human
knowledge which his teaching stirred and
quickened, bear the memory of their beloved and
revered instructor inseparably blended with what
is highest in their present intellectual life, as well
as in their practical aims and aspirations.?
At the time of his death, in 1856, he resided,
as has beeu stated, in No. 16 Great King Street,
and he was succeeded by his eldest son, Willigm,
an officer ofthe Royal Artillery. Since his death
a memoir of him has appeared from the pen of
Professor Veitch, of the University of Glasgow.
In No. 72 of the same street lived and died
another great Scotsman, Sir William Allan, R.A.,
whose fame and reputation as an artist extended
over many years, and whose works are still his
monument. We have already referred to his .
latter years in our account of the Royal Academy
and the ateZier of his earlier days in the Parliament
Close, where, after his wanderings in foreign lands,
and in the first years of the century, he was wont
to figure ?by way of robe-de-chambre, in a dark
Circassian vest, the breast of which was loaded
with innumerable quilted lurking-places, originally,
no doubt, intended for weapons of warfare, but
now occupied with the harmless shafts of hair
pencils, while he held in his hand the smooth
cherry-wood stalk of a Turkish tobacco-pipe,
apparently converted very happily into a palette
guard. A swarthy complexion and profusion of
black hair, tufted in a wild but not ungraceful
manner, together with a pair of large sparkling
eyes looking out from under strong shaggy brows
full of vivacious and ardent expressiveness, were
scarcely less speaking witnesses of the life of
romantic and roaming adventure I was told this
fine artist had led.? In spite of his bad health,
which (to quote ?Peter?s Letters?) ?was indeed
but too evident, his manners seemed to be full of
a light and playful sportiveness, which is by no
means common among the people of our nation,
and still less among the people of Scotland;
and this again was every now and then exchanged
for a depth of enthusiastic earnestness still more
evidently derived from a sojourn among men
whose blood flows through their veins with a heat
and rapidity to which the North is a stranger.?
