objects of Hamilton's tender admiration. We use the plural
advisedly, for, as Mr. Graves has set forth, Hamilton's love affairs
pursued a rather troubled course. The attention which he lavished on
one or two fair ones was not reciprocated, and even the intense
charms of mathematical discovery could not assuage the pangs which
the disappointed lover experienced. At last he reached the haven of
matrimony in 1833, when he was married to Miss Bayly. Of his married
life Hamilton said, many years later to De Morgan, that it was as
happy as he expected, and happier than he deserved. He had two sons,
William and Archibald, and one daughter, Helen, who became the wife
of Archdeacon O'Regan.

[PLATE: SIR W. ROWAN HAMILTON.]

The most remarkable of Hamilton's friendships in his early years was
unquestionably that with Wordsworth. It commenced with Hamilton's
visit to Keswick; and on the first evening, when the poet met the
young mathematician, an incident occurred which showed the mutual
interest that was aroused. Hamilton thus describes it in a letter to
his sister Eliza:--

"He (Wordsworth) walked back with our party as far as their lodge,
and then, on our bidding Mrs. Harrison good-night, I offered to walk
back with him while my party proceeded to the hotel. This offer he
accepted, and our conversation had become so interesting that when we
had arrived at his home, a distance of about a mile, he proposed to
walk back with me on my way to Ambleside, a proposal which you may be
sure I did not reject; so far from it that when he came to turn once
more towards his home I also turned once more along with him. It was
very late when I reached the hotel after all this walking."