Aunt Sydney recorded that the moment Willie got back to Trim he was
desirous of at once resuming his former pursuits. He would not eat
his breakfast till his uncle had heard him his Hebrew, and he
comments on the importance of proper pronunciation. At five he was
taken to see a friend, to whom he repeated long passages from
Dryden. A gentleman present, who was not unnaturally sceptical about
Willie's attainments, desired to test him in Greek, and took down a
copy of Homer which happened to have the contracted type, and to his
amazement Willie went on with the greatest ease. At six years and
nine months he was translating Homer and Virgil; a year later his
uncle tells us that William finds so little difficulty in learning
French and Italian, that he wishes to read Homer in French. He is
enraptured with the Iliad, and carries it about with him, repeating
from it whatever particularly pleases him. At eight years and one
month the boy was one of a party who visited the Scalp in the Dublin
mountains, and he was so delighted with the scenery that he forthwith
delivered an oration in Latin. At nine years and six months he is
not satisfied until he learns Sanscrit; three months later his thirst
for the Oriental languages is unabated, and at ten years and four
months he is studying Arabic and Persian. When nearly twelve he
prepared a manuscript ready for publication. It was a "Syriac
Grammar," in Syriac letters and characters compiled from that of
Buxtorf, by William Hamilton, Esq., of Dublin and Trim. When he was
fourteen, the Persian ambassador, Mirza Abul Hassan Khan, paid a
visit to Dublin, and, as a practical exercise in his Oriental
languages, the young scholar addressed to his Excellency a letter in
Persian; a translation of which production is given by Mr. Graves.
When William was fourteen he had the misfortune to lose his father;
and he had lost his mother two years previously. The boy and his