from Trinity College, Dublin, also sent in their claims. It was not
until Hamilton received an urgent letter from his tutor Boyton, in
which he was assured of the favourable disposition of the Board
towards his candidature, that he consented to come forward, and on
June 16th, 1827, he was unanimously chosen to succeed the Bishop of
Cloyne as Professor of Astronomy in the University. The appointment
met with almost universal approval. It should, however, be noted
that Brinkley, whom Hamilton succeeded, did not concur in the general
sentiment. No one could have formed a higher opinion than he had
done of Hamilton's transcendent powers; indeed, it was on that very
ground that he seemed to view the appointment with disapprobation.
He considered that it would have been wiser for Hamilton to have
obtained a Fellowship, in which capacity he would have been able to
exercise a greater freedom in his choice of intellectual pursuits.
The bishop seems to have thought, and not without reason, that
Hamilton's genius would rather recoil from much of the routine work
of an astronomical establishment. Now that Hamilton's whole life is
before us, it is easy to see that the bishop was entirely wrong. It
is quite true that Hamilton never became a skilled astronomical
observer; but the seclusion of the observatory was eminently
favourable to those gigantic labours to which his life was devoted,
and which have shed so much lustre, not only on Hamilton himself, but
also on his University and his country.

In his early years at Dunsink, Hamilton did make some attempts at a
practical use of the telescopes, but he possessed no natural aptitude
for such work, while exposure which it involved seems to have acted
injuriously on his health. He, therefore, gradually allowed his
attention to be devoted to those mathematical researches in which he
had already given such promise of distinction. Although it was in