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MEMOIR

OF

SIR WILLIAM HAMILTON, BART.

PROFESSOR OF LOGIC AND METAPHYSICS IN THE

UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH

BY

JOHN VEITCH, M.A.

PROFESSOR OF LOGIC AND RHETORIC IN THE UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW

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THE following Memoir was undertaken at the request of the family of Sir William Hamilton. I have been furnished by them with the private letters and documents of which use has been made in this volume. am also mainly indebted to the members of the family for the facts relating to Sir William's private life as here recorded. To the same source, especially to Mr Hubert Hamilton, I owe numerous suggestions, which have served to make the Memoir more complete than it would otherwise have been.

To others besides the members of Sir William's family I am under obligations for materials supplied. These will be found duly acknowledged in the course of the Memoir. Where it appeared fitting, I have given narrative and description of facts and circumstances in the language of those communicating them, believing that the impressions of a man's personality are usually best conveyed in the words of those who felt them.

The present Work professes to be merely biographical. It was, at the same time, impossible, from the nature

of the life portrayed, to do justice to the man without a general reference to his philosophical opinions. I have also thought it right to point out, in the interest of historical truth, what appear to me to be incorrect representations of certain of Sir William Hamilton's philosophical doctrines. It was, however, no part of my design to expound his Philosophy, far less to attempt a critical estimate of it. I have sought only to portray the man as he lived, thought, taught, and wrote.

THE COLLEGE, GLASGOW,

April 1869.

J. VEITCH.

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