[1]
James, Lord Hamilton = Princess Mary Stuart,
(d. 1479). | daughter of James II.
|
James, Lord Hamilton and 1st earl of Arran
(d. c. 1529).
|
James, duke of Chatelherault, and 2nd earl of Arran
(d. 1575).
|
James, 3rd earl of Arran
(d. 1609).
|
John, 1st marquess of Hamilton
(d. 1604).
|
James, 2nd marquess of Hamilton
(d. 1625).
|
James, 3rd marquess and 1st duke of Hamilton.
[2] See S. R. Gardiner in the _Dict. of Nat. Biography_.
[3] See S. R. Gardiner in the _Dict. of Nat. Biography_.
HAMILTON, JOHN (c. 1511-1571), Scottish prelate and politician, was a
natural son of James Hamilton, 1st earl of Arran. At a very early age he
became a monk and abbot of Paisley, and after studying in Paris he
returned to Scotland, where he soon rose to a position of power and
influence under his half-brother, the regent Arran. He was made keeper
of the privy seal in 1543 and bishop of Dunkeld two years later; in 1546
he followed David Beaton as archbishop of St Andrews, and about the same
time he became treasurer of the kingdom. He made vigorous efforts to
stay the growth of Protestantism, but with one or two exceptions
"persecution was not the policy of Archbishop Hamilton," and in the
interests of the Roman Catholic religion a catechism called _Hamilton's
Catechism_ (published with an introduction by T. G. Law in 1884) was
drawn up and printed, possibly at his instigation. Having incurred the
displeasure of the Protestants, now the dominant party in Scotland, the
archbishop was imprisoned in 1563. After his release he was an active
partisan of Mary queen of Scots; he baptized the infant James,
afterwards King James VI., and pronounced the divorce of the queen from
Bothwell. He was present at the battle of Langside, and some time later
took refuge in Dumbarton Castle. Here he was seized, and on the charge
of being concerned in the murders of Lord Darnley and the regent Murray
he was tried, and hanged on the 6th of April 1571. The archbishop had
three children by his mistress, Grizzel Sempill.
HAMILTON, PATRICK (1504-1528), Scottish divine, second son of Sir
Patrick Hamilton, well known in Scottish chivalry, and of Catherine
Stewart, daughter of Alexander, duke of Albany, second son of James II.
of Scotland, was born in the diocese of Glasgow, probably at bis
father's estate of Stanehouse in Lanarkshire. He was educated probably
at Linlithgow. In 1517 he was appointed titular abbot of Ferne,
Ross-shire; and it was probably about the same year that he went to
study at Paris, for his name is found in an ancient list of those who
graduated there in 1520. It was doubtless in Paris, where Luther's
writings were already exciting much discussion, that he received the
germs of the doctrines he was afterwards to uphold. From Alexander Ales
we learn that Hamilton subsequently went to Louvain, attracted probably
by the fame of Erasmus, who in 1521 had his headquarters there.
Returning to Scotland, the young scholar naturally selected St Andrews,
the capital of the church and of learning, as his residence. On the 9th
of June 1523 he became a member of the university of St Andrews, and on
the 3rd of October 1524 he was admitted to its faculty of arts. There
Hamilton attained such influence that he was permitted to conduct as
precentor a musical mass of his own composition in the cathedral. But
the reformed doctrines had now obtained a firm hold on the young abbot,
and he was eager to communicate them to his fellow-countrymen. Early in
1527 the attention of James Beaton, archbishop of St Andrews, was
directed to the heretical preaching of the young priest, whereupon he
ordered that Hamilton should be formally summoned and accused. Hamilton
fled to Germany, first visiting Luther at Wittenberg, and afterwards
enrolling himself as a student, under Franz Lambert of Avignon, in the
new university of Marburg, opened on the 30th of May 1527 by Philip,
landgrave of Hesse. Hermann von dem Busche, one of the contributors to
the _Epistolae obscurorum virorum_, John Frith and Tyndale were among
those whom he met there. Late in the autumn of 1527 Hamilton returned to
Scotland, bold in the conviction of the truth of his principles. He went
first to his brother's house at Kincavel, near Linlithgow, in which town
he preached frequently, and soon afterwards he married a young lady of
noble rank, whose name has not come down to us. Beaton, avoiding open
violence through fear of Hamilton's high connexions, invited him to a
conference at St Andrews. The reformer, predicting that he was going to
confirm the pious in the true doctrine by his death, resolutely accepted
the invitation, and for nearly a month was permitted to preach and
dispute, perhaps in order to provide material for accusation. At length,
however, he was summoned before a council of bishops and clergy presided
over by the archbishop; there were thirteen charges, seven of which were
based on the doctrines affirmed in the _Loci communes_. On examination
Hamilton maintained that these were undoubtedly true. The council
condemned him as a heretic on the whole thirteen charges. Hamilton was
seized, and, it is said, surrendered to the soldiery on an assurance
that he would be restored to his friends without injury. The council
convicted him, after a sham disputation with Friar Campbell, and handed
him over to the secular power. The sentence was carried out on the same
day (February 29, 1528) lest he should be rescued by his friends, and he
was burned at the stake as a heretic. His courageous bearing attracted
more attention than ever to the doctrines for which he suffered, and
greatly helped to spread the Reformation in Scotland. The "reek of
Patrick Hamilton infected all it blew on." His martyrdom is singular in
this respect, that he represented in Scotland almost alone the Lutheran
stage of the Reformation. His only book was entitled _Loci communes_,
known as "Patrick's Places." It set forth the doctrine of justification
by faith and the contrast between the gospel and the law in a series of
clear-cut propositions. It is to be found in Foxs's _Acts and
Monuments_.
HAMILTON, ROBERT (1743-1829), Scottish economist and mathematician, was
born at Pilrig, Edinburgh, on the 11th of June 1743. His grandfather,
William Hamilton, principal of Edinburgh University, had been a
professor of divinity. Having completed his education at the university
of Edinburgh, where he was distinguished in mathematics, Robert was
induced to enter a banking-house in order to acquire a practical
knowledge of business, but his ambition was really academic. In 1769 he
gave up business pursuits and accepted the rectorship of Perth academy.
In 1779 he was presented to the chair of natural philosophy at Aberdeen
University. For many years, however, by private arrangement with his
colleague Professor Copland, Hamilton taught the class of mathematics.
In 1817 he was presented to the latter chair.
Hamilton's most important work is the _Essay on the National Debt_,
which appeared in 1813 and was undoubtedly the first to expose the
economic fallacies involved in Pitt's policy of a sinking fund. It is
still of value. A posthumous volume published in 1830, _The Progress
of Society_, is also of great ability, and is a very effective
treatment of economical principles by tracing their natural origin and
position in the development of social life. Some minor works of a
practical character (_Introduction to Merchandise_, 1777; _Essay on
War and Peace_, 1790) are now forgotten.
HAMILTON, THOMAS (1789-1842), Scottish writer, younger brother of the
philosopher, Sir William Hamilton, Bart., was born in 1789. He was
educated at Glasgow University, where he made a close friend of Michael
Scott, the author of _Tom Cringle's Log_. He entered the army in 1810,
and served throughout the Peninsular and American campaigns, but
continued to cultivate his literary tastes. On the conclusion of peace
he withdrew, with the rank of captain, from active service. He
contributed both prose and verse to _Blackwood's Magazine_, in which
appeared his vigorous and popular military novel, _Cyril Thornton_
(1827). His _Annals of the Peninsular Campaign_, published originally in
1829, and republished in 1849 with additions by Frederick Hardman, is
written with great clearness and impartiality. His only other work, _Men
and Manners in America_, published originally in 1833, is somewhat
coloured by British prejudice, and by the author's aristocratic dislike
of a democracy. Hamilton died at Pisa on the 7th of December 1842.
HAMILTON, WILLIAM (1704-1754), Scottish poet, the author of "The Braes
of Yarrow," was born in 1704 at Bangour in Linlithgowshire, the son of
James Hamilton of Bangour, a member of the Scottish bar. As early as
1724 we find him contributing to Allan Ramsay's _Tea Table Miscellany_.
In 1745 Hamilton joined the cause of Prince Charles, and though it is
doubtful whether he actually bore arms, he celebrated the battle of
Prestonpans in verse. After the disaster of Culloden he lurked for
several months in the Highlands and escaped to France; but in 1749 the
influence of his friends procured him permission to return to Scotland,
and in the following year he obtained possession of the family estate of
Bangour. The state of his health compelled him, however, to live abroad,
and he died at Lyons on the 25th of March 1754. He was buried in the
Abbey Church of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh. He was twice married--"into
families of distinction" says the preface of the authorized edition of
his poems.
Hamilton left behind him a considerable number of poems, none of them
except "The Braes of Yarrow" of striking originality. The collection is
composed of odes, epitaphs, short pieces of translation, songs, and
occasional verses. The longest is "Contemplation, or the Triumph of
Love" (about 500 lines). The first edition was published without his
permission by Foulis (Glasgow, 1748), and introduced by a preface from
the pen of Adam Smith. Another edition with corrections by himself was
brought out by his friends in 1760, and to this was prefixed a portrait
engraved by Robert Strange.
In 1850 James Paterson edited _The Poems and Songs of William
Hamilton_. This volume contains several poems till then unpublished,
and gives a life of the author.
HAMILTON, SIR WILLIAM (1730-1803), British diplomatist and
archaeologist, son of Lord Archibald Hamilton, governor of Greenwich
hospital and of Jamaica, was born in Scotland on the 13th of December
1730, and served in the 3rd Regiment of Foot Guards from 1747 to 1758.
He left the army after his marriage with Miss Barlow, a Welsh heiress
from whom he inherited an estate near Swansea upon her death in 1782.
Their only child, a daughter, died in 1775. From 1761 to 1764 he was
member of parliament for Midhurst, but in the latter year he was
appointed envoy to the court of Naples, a post which he held for
thirty-six years--until his recall in 1800. During the greater part of
this time the official duties of the minister were of small importance.
It was enough that the representative of the British crown should be a
man of the world whose means enabled him to entertain on a handsome
scale. Hamilton was admirably qualified for these duties, being an
amiable and accomplished man, who took an intelligent interest in
science and art. In 1766 he became a member of the Royal Society, and
between that year and 1780 he contributed to its Philosophical
Transactions a series of observations on the action of volcanoes, which
he had made, or caused to be made, at Vesuvius and Etna. He employed a
draftsman named Fabris to make studies of the eruption of 1775 and 1776,
and a Dominican, Resina, to make observations at a later period. He
published several treatises on earthquakes and volcanoes between 1776
and 1783. He was a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and of the
Dilettanti, and a notable collector. Many of his treasures went to
enrich the British Museum. In 1772 he was made a knight of the Bath. The
last ten years of his life presented a curious contrast to the elegant
peace of those which had preceded them. In 1791 he married Emma Lyon
(see the separate article on Lady Hamilton). The outbreak of the French
Revolution and the rapid extension of the revolutionary movement in
Western Europe soon overwhelmed Naples. It was a misfortune for Sir
William that he was left to meet the very trying political and
diplomatic conditions which arose after 1793. His health had begun to
break down, and he suffered from bilious fevers. Sir William was in fact
in a state approaching dotage before his recall, a fact which, combined
with his senile devotion to Lady Hamilton, has to be considered in
accounting for his extraordinary complaisance in her relations with
Nelson. He died on the 6th of April 1803.
See E. Edwards, _Lives of the Founders of the British Museum_ (London,
1870); and the authorities given in the article on Emma, Lady
Hamilton.
HAMILTON, SIR WILLIAM, Bart. (1788-1856), Scottish metaphysician, was
born in Glasgow on the 8th of March 1788. His father, Dr William
Hamilton, had in 1781, on the strong recommendation of the celebrated
William Hunter, been appointed to succeed _his_ father, Dr Thomas
Hamilton, as professor of anatomy in the university of Glasgow; and when
he died in 1790, in his thirty-second year, he had already gained a
great reputation. William Hamilton and a younger brother (afterwards
Captain Thomas Hamilton, q.v.) were thus brought up under the sole care
of their mother. William received his early education in Scotland,
except during two years which he spent in a private school near London,
and went in 1807, as a Snell exhibitioner, to Balliol College, Oxford.
He obtained a first-class _in literis humanioribus_ and took the degree
of B.A. in 1811, M.A. in 1814. He had been intended for the medical
profession, but soon after leaving Oxford he gave up this idea, and in
1813 became a member of the Scottish bar. His life, however, was mainly
that of a student; and the following years, marked by little of outward
incident, were filled by researches of all kinds, through which he daily
added to his stores of learning, while at the same time he was gradually
forming his philosophic system. Investigation enabled him to make good
his claim to represent the ancient family of Hamilton of Preston, and in
1816 he took up the baronetcy, which had been in abeyance since the
death of Sir Robert Hamilton of Preston (1650-1701), well known in his
day as a Covenanting leader.
Two visits to Germany in 1817 and 1820 led to his taking up the study of
German and later on that of contemporary German philosophy, which was
then almost entirely neglected in the British universities. In 1820 he
was a candidate for the chair of moral philosophy in the university of
Edinburgh, which had fallen vacant on the death of Thomas Brown,
colleague of Dugald Stewart, and the latter's consequent resignation,
but was defeated on political grounds by John Wilson (1785-1854), the
"Christopher North" of _Blackwood's Magazine_. Soon afterwards (1821) he
was appointed professor of civil history, and as such delivered several
courses of lectures on the history of modern Europe and the history of
literature. The salary was L100 a year, derived from a local beer tax,
and was discontinued after a time. No pupils were compelled to attend,
the class dwindled, and Hamilton gave it up when the salary ceased. In
January 1827 he suffered a severe loss in the death of his mother, to
whom he had been a devoted son. In March 1828 he married his cousin
Janet Marshall.
In 1829 his career of authorship began with the appearance of the
well-known essay on the "Philosophy of the Unconditioned" (a critique of
Comte's _Cours de philosophie_)--the first of a series of articles
contributed by him to the _Edinburgh Review_. He was elected in 1836 to
the Edinburgh chair of logic and metaphysics, and from this time dates
the influence which, during the next twenty years, he exerted over the
thought of the younger generation in Scotland. Much about the same time
he began the preparation of an annotated edition of Reid's works,
intending to annex to it a number of dissertations. Before, however,
this design had been carried out, he was struck (1844) with paralysis of
the right side, which seriously crippled his bodily powers, though it
left his mind wholly unimpaired. The edition of Reid appeared in 1846,
but with only seven of the intended dissertations--the last, too,
unfinished. It was his distinct purpose to complete the work, but this
purpose remained at his death unfulfilled, and all that could be done
afterwards was to print such materials for the remainder, or such notes
on the subjects to be discussed, as were found among his MSS.
Considerably before this time he had formed his theory of logic, the
leading principles of which were indicated in the prospectus of "an
essay on a new analytic of logical forms" prefixed to his edition of
Reid. But the elaboration of the scheme in its details and applications
continued during the next few years to occupy much of his leisure. Out
of this arose a sharp controversy with Augustus de Morgan. The essay did
not appear, but the results of the labour gone through are contained in
the appendices to his _Lectures on Logic_. Another occupation of these
years was the preparation of extensive materials for a publication which
he designed on the personal history, influence and opinions of Luther.
Here he advanced so far as to have planned and partly carried out the
arrangement of the work; but it did not go further, and still remains in
MS. In 1852-1853 appeared the first and second editions of his
_Discussions in Philosophy, Literature and Education_, a reprint, with
large additions, of his contributions to the _Edinburgh Review_. Soon
after, his general health began to fail. Still, however, aided now as
ever by his devoted wife, he persevered in literary labour; and during
1854-1855 he brought out nine volumes of a new edition of Stewart's
works. The only remaining volume was to have contained a memoir of
Stewart, but this he did not live to write. He taught his class for the
last time in the winter of 1855-1856. Shortly after the close of the
session he was taken ill, and on the 6th of May 1856 he died in
Edinburgh.
Hamilton's positive contribution to the progress of thought is
comparatively slight, and his writings, even where reinforced by the
copious lecture notes taken by his pupils, cannot be said to present a
comprehensive philosophic system. None the less he did considerable
service by stimulating a spirit of criticism in his pupils, by
insisting on the great importance of psychology as opposed to the
older metaphysical method, and not least by his recognition of the
importance of German philosophy, especially that of Kant. By far his
most important work was his "Philosophy of the Unconditioned," the
development of the principle that for the human finite mind there can
be no knowledge of the Infinite. The basis of his whole argument is
the thesis, "To think is to condition." Deeply impressed with Kant's
antithesis between subject and object, the knowing and the known,
Hamilton laid down the principle that every object is known only in
virtue of its relations to other objects (see RELATIVITY OF
KNOWLEDGE). From this it follows limitless time, space, power and so
forth are humanly speaking inconceivable. The fact, however, that all
thought seems to demand the idea of the infinite or absolute provides
a sphere for faith, which is thus the specific faculty of theology. It
is a weakness characteristic of the human mind that it cannot conceive
any phenomenon without a beginning: hence the conception of the causal
relation, according to which every phenomenon has its cause in
preceding phenomena, and its effect in subsequent phenomena. The
causal concept is, therefore, only one of the ordinary necessary forms
of the cognitive consciousness limited, as we have seen, by being
confined to that which is relative or conditioned. As regards the
problem of the nature of objectivity, Hamilton simply accepts the
evidence of consciousness as to the separate existence of the object:
"the root of our nature cannot be a lie." In virtue of this assumption
Hamilton's philosophy becomes a "natural realism." In fact his whole
position is a strange compound of Kant and Reid. Its chief practical
corollary is the denial of philosophy as a method of attaining
absolute knowledge and its relegation to the academic sphere of mental
training. The transition from philosophy to theology, i.e. to the
sphere of faith, is presented by Hamilton under the analogous relation
between the mind and the body. As the mind is to the body, so is the
unconditioned Absolute or God to the world of the conditioned.
Consciousness, itself a conditioned phenomenon, must derive from or
depend on some different thing prior to or behind material phenomena.
Curiously enough, however, Hamilton does not explain how it comes
about that God, who in the terms of the analogy bears to the
conditioned mind the relation which the conditioned mind bears to its
objects, can Himself be unconditioned. He can be regarded only as
related to consciousness, and in so far is, therefore, not absolute or
unconditioned. Thus the very principles of Hamilton's philosophy are
apparently violated in his theological argument.
Hamilton regarded logic as a purely formal science; it seemed to him
an unscientific mixing together of heterogeneous elements to treat as
parts of the same science the formal and the material conditions of
knowledge. He was quite ready to allow that on this view logic cannot
be used as a means of discovering or guaranteeing facts, even the most
general, and expressly asserted that it has to do, not with the
objective validity, but only with the mutual relations, of judgments.
He further held that induction and deduction are correlative processes
of formal logic, each resting on the necessities of thought and
deriving thence its several laws. The only logical laws which he
recognized were the three axioms of identity, non-contradiction, and
excluded middle, which he regarded as severally phases of one general
condition of the possibility of existence and, therefore, of thought.
The law of reason and consequent he considered not as different, but
merely as expressing metaphysically what these express logically. He
added as a postulate--which in his theory was of importance--"that
logic be allowed to state explicitly what is thought implicitly."
In logic, Hamilton is known chiefly as the inventor of the doctrine of
the "quantification of the predicate," i.e. that the judgment "All A
is B" should really mean "All A is _all_ B," whereas the ordinary
universal proposition should be stated "All A is _some_ B." This view,
which was supported by Stanley Jevons, is fundamentally at fault since
it implies that the predicate is thought of in its extension; in point
of fact when a judgment is made, e.g. about men, that they are mortal
("All men are mortal"), the intention is to _attribute a quality_
(i.e. the predicate is used in connotation). In other words, we are
not considering the question "what kind are men among the various
things which must die?" (as is implied in the form "all men are some
mortals") but "what is the fact about men?" We are not stating a mere
identity (see further, e.g., H. W. B. Joseph, _Introduction to Logic_,
1906, pp. 198 foll.).
The philosopher to whom above all others Hamilton professed allegiance
was Aristotle. His works were the object of his profound and constant
study, and supplied in fact the mould in which his whole philosophy
was cast. With the commentators on the Aristotelian writings, ancient,
medieval and modern, he was also familiar; and the scholastic
philosophy he studied with care and appreciation at a time when it had
hardly yet begun to attract attention in his country. His wide reading
enabled him to trace many a doctrine to the writings of forgotten
thinkers; and nothing gave him greater pleasure than to draw forth
such from their obscurity, and to give due acknowledgment, even if it
chanced to be of the prior possession of a view or argument that he
had thought out for himself. Of modern German philosophy he was a
diligent, if not always a sympathetic, student. How profoundly his
thinking was modified by that of Kant is evident from the tenor of his
speculations; nor was this less the case because, on fundamental
points, he came to widely different conclusions.
Any account of Hamilton would be incomplete which regarded him only as
a philosopher, for his knowledge and his interests embraced all
subjects related to that of the human mind. Physical and mathematical
science had, indeed, no attraction for him; but his study of anatomy
and physiology was minute and experimental. In literature alike
ancient and modern he was widely and deeply read; and, from his
unusual powers of memory, the stores which he had acquired were always
at command. If there was one period with the literature of which he
was more particularly familiar, it was the 16th and 17th centuries.
Here in every department he was at home. He had gathered a vast amount
of its theological lore, had a critical knowledge especially of its
Latin poetry, and was minutely acquainted with the history of the
actors in its varied scenes, not only as narrated in professed
records, but as revealed in the letters, table-talk, and casual
effusions of themselves or their contemporaries (cf. his article on
the _Epistolae obscurorum virorum_, and his pamphlet on the Disruption
of the Church of Scotland in 1843). Among his literary projects were
editions of the works of George Buchanan and Julius Caesar Scaliger.
His general scholarship found expression in his library, which, though
mainly, was far from being exclusively, a philosophical collection. It
now forms a distinct portion of the library of the university of
Glasgow.
His chief practical interest was in education--an interest which he
manifested alike as a teacher and as a writer, and which had led him
long before he was either to a study of the subject both theoretical
and historical. He thence adopted views as to the ends and methods of
education that, when afterwards carried out or advocated by him, met
with general recognition; but he also expressed in one of his articles
an unfavourable view of the study of mathematics as a mental
gymnastic, which excited much opposition, but which he never saw
reason to alter. As a teacher, he was zealous and successful, and his
writings on university organization and reform had, at the time of
their appearance, a decisive practical effect, and contain much that
is of permanent value.
His posthumous works are his _Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic_, 4
vols., edited by H. L. Mansel, Oxford, and John Veitch (_Metaphysics_,
1858; _Logic_, 1860); and _Additional Notes to Reid's Works_, from
Sir W. Hamilton's MSS., under the editorship of H. L. Mansel, D.D.
(1862). _A Memoir of Sir W. Hamilton_, by Veitch, appeared in 1869.
HAMILTON, WILLIAM GERARD (1729-1796), English statesman, popularly known
as "Single Speech Hamilton," was born in London on the 28th of January
1729, the son of a Scottish bencher of Lincoln's Inn. He was educated at
Winchester and at Oriel College, Oxford. Inheriting his father's fortune
he entered political life and became M.P. for Petersfield, Hampshire.
His maiden speech, delivered on the 13th of November 1755, during the
debate on the address, which excited Walpole's admiration, is generally
supposed to have been his only effort in the House of Commons. But the
nickname "Single Speech" is undoubtedly misleading, and Hamilton is
known to have spoken with success on other occasions, both in the House
of Commons and in the Irish parliament. In 1756 he was appointed one of
the commissioners for trade and plantations, and in 1761 he became chief
secretary to Lord Halifax, the lord-lieutenant of Ireland, as well as
Irish M. P. for Killebegs and English M. P. for Pontefract. He was
chancellor of the exchequer in Ireland in 1763, and subsequently filled
various other administrative offices. Hamilton was thought very highly
of by Dr Johnson, and it is certain that he was strongly opposed to the
British taxation of America. He died in London on the 16th of July 1796,
and was buried in the chancel vault of St Martin's-in-the-fields.
Two of his speeches in the Irish House of Commons, and some other
miscellaneous works, were published after his death under the title
_Parliamentary Logick_.
HAMILTON, SIR WILLIAM ROWAN (1805-1865), Scottish mathematician, was
born in Dublin on the 4th of August 1805. His father, Archibald
Hamilton, who was a solicitor, and his uncle, James Hamilton (curate of
Trim), migrated from Scotland in youth. A branch of the Scottish family
to which they belonged had settled in the north of Ireland in the time
of James I., and this fact seems to have given rise to the common
impression that Hamilton was an Irishman.
His genius first displayed itself in the form of a wonderful power of
acquiring languages. At the age of seven he had already made very
considerable progress in Hebrew, and before he was thirteen he had
acquired, under the care of his uncle, who was an extraordinary
linguist, almost as many languages as he had years of age. Among these,
besides the classical and the modern European languages, were included
Persian, Arabic, Hindustani, Sanskrit and even Malay. But though to the
very end of his life he retained much of the singular learning of his
childhood and youth, often reading Persian and Arabic in the intervals
of sterner pursuits, he had long abandoned them as a study, and employed
them merely as a relaxation.
His mathematical studies seem to have been undertaken and carried to
their full development without any assistance whatever, and the result
is that his writings belong to no particular "school," unless indeed we
consider them to form, as they are well entitled to do, a school by
themselves. As an arithmetical calculator he was not only wonderfully
expert, but he seems to have occasionally found a positive delight in
working out to an enormous number of places of decimals the result of
some irksome calculation. At the age of twelve he engaged Zerah Colburn,
the American "calculating boy," who was then being exhibited as a
curiosity in Dublin, and he had not always the worst of the encounter.
But, two years before, he had accidentally fallen in with a Latin copy
of _Euclid_, which he eagerly devoured; and at twelve he attacked
Newton's _Arithmetica universalis_. This was his introduction to modern
analysis. He soon commenced to read the _Principia_, and at sixteen he
had mastered a great part of that work, besides some more modern works
on analytical geometry and the differential calculus.
About this period he was also engaged in preparation for entrance at
Trinity College, Dublin, and had therefore to devote a portion of his
time to classics. In the summer of 1822, in his seventeenth year, he
began a systematic study of Laplace's _Mecanique Celeste_. Nothing
could be better fitted to call forth such mathematical powers as those
of Hamilton; for Laplace's great work, rich to profusion in analytical
processes alike novel and powerful, demands from the most gifted student
careful and often laborious study. It was in the successful effort to
open this treasure-house that Hamilton's mind received its final temper,
"Des-lors il commenca a marcher seul," to use the words of the
biographer of another great mathematician. From that time he appears to
have devoted himself almost wholly to original investigation (so far at
least as regards mathematics), though he ever kept himself well
acquainted with the progress of science both in Britain and abroad.
Having detected an important defect in one of Laplace's demonstrations,
he was induced by a friend to write out his remarks, that they might be
shown to Dr John Brinkley (1763-1835), afterwards bishop of Cloyne, but
who was then the first royal astronomer for Ireland, and an accomplished
mathematician. Brinkley seems at once to have perceived the vast talents
of young Hamilton, and to have encouraged him in the kindest manner. He
is said to have remarked in 1823 of this lad of eighteen: "This young
man, I do not say _will be_, but _is_, the first mathematician of his
age."
Hamilton's career at College was perhaps unexampled. Amongst a number of
competitors of more than ordinary merit, he was first in every subject
and at every examination. He achieved the rare distinction of obtaining
an _optime_ for both Greek and for physics. How many more such honours
he might have attained it is impossible to say; but he was expected to
win both the gold medals at the degree examination, had his career as a
student not been cut short by an unprecedented event. This was his
appointment to the Andrews professorship of astronomy in the university
of Dublin, vacated by Dr Brinkley in 1827. The chair was not exactly
offered to him, as has been sometimes asserted, but the electors, having
met and talked over the subject, authorized one of their number, who was
Hamilton's personal friend, to urge him to become a candidate, a step
which his modesty had prevented him from taking. Thus, when barely
twenty-two, he was established at the Observatory, Dunsink, near Dublin.
He was not specially fitted for the post, for although he had a profound
acquaintance with theoretical astronomy, he had paid but little
attention to the regular work of the practical astronomer. And it must
be said that his time was better employed in original investigations
than it would have been had he spent it in observations made even with
the best of instruments,--infinitely better than if he had spent it on
those of the observatory, which, however good originally, were then
totally unfit for the delicate requirements of modern astronomy. Indeed
there can be little doubt that Hamilton was intended by the university
authorities who elected him to the professorship of astronomy to spend
his time as he best could for the advancement of science, without being
tied down to any particular branch. Had he devoted himself to practical
astronomy they would assuredly have furnished him with modern
instruments and an adequate staff of assistants.
In 1835, being secretary to the meeting of the British Association which
was held that year in Dublin, he was knighted by the lord-lieutenant.
But far higher honours rapidly succeeded, among which we may merely
mention his election in 1837 to the president's chair in the Royal Irish
Academy, and the rare distinction of being made corresponding member of
the academy of St Petersburg. These are the few salient points (other,
of course, than the epochs of his more important discoveries and
inventions presently to be considered) in the uneventful life of this
great man. He retained his wonderful faculties unimpaired to the very
last, and steadily continued till within a day or two of his death,
which occurred on the 2nd of September 1865, the task (his _Elements of
Quaternions_) which had occupied the last six years of his life.
The germ of his first great discovery was contained in one of those
early papers which in 1823 he communicated to Dr Brinkley, by whom,
under the title of "Caustics," it was presented in 1824 to the Royal
Irish Academy. It was referred as usual to a committee. Their report,
while acknowledging the novelty and value of its contents, and the
great mathematical skill of its author, recommended that, before being
published, it should be still further developed and simplified. During
the next three years the paper grew to an immense bulk, principally by
the additional details which had been inserted at the desire of the
committee. But it also assumed a much more intelligible form, and the
grand features of the new method were now easily to be seen. Hamilton
himself seems not till this period to have fully understood either the
nature or the importance of his discovery, for it is only now that we
find him announcing his intention of applying his method to dynamics.
The paper was finally entitled "Theory of Systems of Rays," and the
first part was printed in 1828 in the _Transactions of the Royal Irish
Academy_. It is understood that the more important contents of the
second and third parts appeared in the three voluminous supplements
(to the first part) which were published in the same _Transactions_,
and in the two papers "On a General Method in Dynamics," which
appeared in the _Philosophical Transactions_ in 1834-1835. The
principle of "Varying Action" is the great feature of these papers;
and it is strange, indeed, that the one particular result of this
theory which, perhaps more than anything else that Hamilton has done,
has rendered his name known beyond the little world of true
philosophers, should have been easily within the reach of Augustin
Fresnel and others for many years before, and in no way required
Hamilton's new conceptions or methods, although it was by them that he
was led to its discovery. This singular result is still known by the
name "conical refraction," which he proposed for it when he first
predicted its existence in the third supplement to his "Systems of
Rays," read in 1832.
The step from optics to dynamics in the application of the method of
"Varying Action" was made in 1827, and communicated to the Royal
Society, in whose _Philosophical Transactions_ for 1834 and 1835 there
are two papers on the subject. These display, like the "Systems of
Rays," a mastery over symbols and a flow of mathematical language
almost unequalled. But they contain what is far more valuable still,
the greatest addition which dynamical science had received since the
grand strides made by Sir Isaac Newton and Joseph Louis Lagrange. C.
G. J. Jacobi and other mathematicians have developed to a great
extent, and as a question of pure mathematics only, Hamilton's
processes, and have thus made extensive additions to our knowledge of
differential equations. But there can be little doubt that we have as
yet obtained only a mere glimpse of the vast physical results of which
they contain the germ. And though this is of course by far the more
valuable aspect in which any such contribution to science can be
looked at, the other must not be despised. It is characteristic of
most of Hamilton's, as of nearly all great discoveries, that even
their indirect consequences are of high value.
The other great contribution made by Hamilton to mathematical science,
the invention of Quaternions, is treated under that heading. The
following characteristic extract from a letter shows Hamilton's own
opinion of his mathematical work, and also gives a hint of the devices
which he employed to render written language as expressive as actual
speech. His first great work, _Lectures on Quaternions_ (Dublin,
1852), is almost painful to read in consequence of the frequent use of
italics and capitals.
"I hope that it may not be considered as unpardonable vanity or
presumption on my part, if, as my own taste has always led me to feel
a greater interest in _methods_ than in _results_, so it is by
METHODS, rather than by _any_ THEOREMS, which _can_ be separately
_quoted_, that I desire and hope to be remembered. Nevertheless it is
only human nature, to derive _some_ pleasure from being cited, now and
then, even about a 'Theorem'; especially where ... the quoter can
enrich the subject, by combining it with researches of _his own_."
The discoveries, papers and treatises we have mentioned might well
have formed the whole work of a long and laborious life. But not to
speak of his enormous collection of MS. books, full to overflowing
with new and original matter, which have been handed over to Trinity
College, Dublin, the works we have already called attention to barely
form the greater portion of what he has published. His extraordinary
investigations connected with the solution of algebraic equations of
the fifth degree, and his examination of the results arrived at by N.
H. Abel, G. B. Jerrard, and others in their researches on this
subject, form another grand contribution to science. There is next his
great paper on _Fluctuating Functions_, a subject which, since the
time of J. Fourier, has been of immense and ever increasing value in
physical applications of mathematics. There is also the extremely
ingenious invention of the hodograph. Of his extensive investigations
into the solution (especially by numerical approximation) of certain
classes of differential equations which constantly occur in the
treatment of physical questions, only a few items have been published,
at intervals, in the _Philosophical Magazine_. Besides all this,
Hamilton was a voluminous correspondent. Often a single letter of his
occupied from fifty to a hundred or more closely written pages, all
devoted to the minute consideration of every feature of some
particular problem; for it was one of the peculiar characteristics of
his mind never to be satisfied with a general understanding of a
question; he pursued it until he knew it in all its details. He was
ever courteous and kind in answering applications for assistance in
the study of his works, even when his compliance must have cost him
much time. He was excessively precise and hard to please with
reference to the final polish of his own works for publication; and it
was probably for this reason that he published so little compared with
the extent of his investigations.
Like most men of great originality, Hamilton generally matured his
ideas before putting pen to paper. "He used to carry on," says his
elder son, William Edwin Hamilton, "long trains of algebraical and
arithmetical calculations in his mind, during which he was unconscious
of the earthly necessity of eating; we used to bring in a 'snack' and
leave it in his study, but a brief nod of recognition of the intrusion
of the chop or cutlet was often the only result, and his thoughts went
on soaring upwards."
For further details about Hamilton (his poetry and his association
with poets, for instance) the reader is referred to the _Dublin
University Magazine_ (Jan. 1842), the _Gentleman's Magazine_ (Jan.
1866), and the _Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society_
(Feb. 1866); and also to an article by the present writer in the
_North British Review_ (Sept. 1866), from which much of the above
sketch has been taken. His works have been collected and published by
R. P. Graves, _Life of Sir W. R. Hamilton_ (3 vols., 1882, 1885,
1889). (P. G. T.)
HAMILTON, a town of Dundas and Normanby counties, Victoria, Australia,
on the Grange Burne Creek, 197-1/2 m. by rail W. of Melbourne. Pop.
(1901) 4026. Hamilton has a number of educational institutions, chief
among which are the Hamilton and Western District College, one of the
finest buildings of its kind in Victoria, the Hamilton Academy, and the
Alexandra ladies' college, a state school, and a Catholic college. It
has a fine racecourse, and pastoral and agricultural exhibitions are
held annually, as the surrounding district is mainly devoted to
sheep-farming. Mutton is frozen and exported. Hamilton became a borough
in 1859.
HAMILTON (GRAND or ASHUANIPI), the chief river of Labrador, Canada. It
rises in the Labrador highlands at an elevation of 1700 ft., its chief
sources being Lakes Attikonak and Ashuanipi, between 65 deg. and 66 deg.
W. and 52 deg. and 53 deg. N. After a precipitous course of 600 m. it
empties into Melville Lake (90 m. long and 18 wide), an extension of
Hamilton inlet, on the Atlantic. About 220 m. from its mouth occur the
Grand Falls of Labrador. Here in a distance of 12 m. the river drops 760
ft., culminating in a final vertical fall of 316 ft. Below the falls are
violent rapids, and the river sweeps through a deep and narrow canyon.
The country through which it passes is for the most part a wilderness of
barren rock, full of lakes and lacustrine rivers, many of which are its
tributaries. In certain portions of the valley spruce and poplars grow
to a moderate size. From the head of Lake Attikonak a steep and rocky
portage of less than a mile leads to Burnt Lake, which is drained into
the St Lawrence by the Romaine river.
HAMILTON, one of the chief cities of Canada, capital of Wentworth
county, Ontario. It occupies a highly picturesque situation upon the
shore of a spacious land-locked bay at the western end of Lake Ontario.
It covers the plain stretching between the water-front and the
escarpment (called "The Mountain"), this latter being a continuation of
that over which the Falls of Niagara plunge 40 m. to the west. Founded
about 1778 by one Robert Land, the growth of Hamilton has been steady
and substantial, and, owing to its remarkable industrial development, it
has come to be called "the Birmingham of Canada." This development is
largely due to the use of electrical energy generated by water-power, in
regard to which Hamilton stands first among Canadian cities. The
electricity has not, however, been obtained from Niagara Falls, but from
De Cew Falls, 35 m. S.E. of the city. The entire electrical railway
system, the lighting of the city, and the majority of the factories are
operated by power obtained from this source. The manufacturing interests
of Hamilton are varied, and some of the establishments are of vast size,
employing many thousands of hands each, such as the International
Harvester Co. and the Canadian Westinghouse Co. In addition Hamilton is
the centre of one of the finest fruit-growing districts on the
continent, and its open-air market is a remarkable sight. The municipal
matters are managed by a mayor and board of aldermen. Six steam
railroads and three electric radial roads afford Hamilton ample
facilities for transport by land, while during the season of navigation
a number of steamboat lines supply daily services to Toronto and other
lake ports. Entrance into the broad bay is obtained through a short
canal intersecting Burlington Beach, which is crossed by two swing
bridges, whereof one--that of the Grand Trunk railway--is among the
largest of its kind in the world. Burlington Beach is lined with
cottages occupied by the city residents during the hot summer months.
Hamilton is rich in public institutions. The educational equipment
comprises a normal college, collegiate institute, model school and more
than a score of public schools, for the most part housed in handsome
stone and brick buildings. There are four hospitals, and the asylum for
the insane is the largest in Canada. There is an excellent public
library, and in the same building with it a good art school. Hamilton
boasts of a number of parks, Dundurn Castle Park, containing several
interesting relics of the war of 1812, being the finest, and, as it is
practically within the city limits, it is a great boon to the people.
Gore Park, in the centre of the city, is used for concerts, given by
various bands, one of which has gained an international reputation.
Since its incorporation in 1833 the history of Hamilton has shown
continuous growth. In 1836 the population was 2846; In 1851, 10,248; in
1861, 19,096; in 1871, 26,880; in 1881, 36,661; in 1891, 48,959; and in
1901, 52,634. The Anglican bishop of Niagara has his seat here, and also
a Roman Catholic bishop. Hamilton returns two members to the Provincial
parliament and two to the Dominion.
HAMILTON, a municipal and police burgh of Lanarkshire, Scotland. Pop.
(1891), 24,859; (1901), 32,775. It is situated about 1 m. from the
junction of the Avon with the Clyde, 10-3/4 m. S.E. of Glasgow by road,
and has stations on the Caledonian and North British railways. The town
hall in the Scottish Baronial style has a clock-tower 130 ft. high, and
the county buildings are in the Grecian style. Among the subjects of
antiquarian interest are Queenzie Neuk, the spot where Queen Mary rested
on her journey to Langside, the old steeple and pillory built in the
reign of Charles I., the Mote Hill, the old Runic cross, and the carved
gateway in the palace park. In the churchyard there is a monument to
four covenanters who suffered at Edinburgh, on the 7th of December 1600,
whose heads were buried here. Among the industries are manufactures of
cotton, lace and embroidered muslins, and carriage-building, and there
are also large market gardens, the district being famed especially for
its apples, and some dairy-farming; but the prosperity of the town
depends chiefly upon the coal and ironstone of the surrounding country,
which is the richest mineral field in Scotland. Hamilton originated in
the 15th century under the protecting influence of the lords of
Hamilton, and became a burgh of barony in 1456 and a royal burgh in
1548. The latter rights were afterwards surrendered and it was made the
chief burgh of the regality and dukedom of Hamilton in 1668, the third
marquess having been created duke in 1643. It unites with Airdrie,
Falkirk, Lanark and Linlithgow to form the Falkirk district of burghs,
which returns one member to parliament.
Immediately east of the town is Hamilton palace, the seat of the duke
of Hamilton and Brandon, premier peer of Scotland. It occupies most of
the site of the original burgh of Netherton. The first mansion was
erected at the end of the 16th century and rebuilt about 1710, to be
succeeded in 1822-1829 by the present palace, a magnificent building
in the classical style. Its front is a specimen of the enriched
Corinthian architecture, with a projecting pillared portico after the
style of the temple of Jupiter Stator at Rome, 264 ft. in length and
60 ft. in height. Each of the twelve pillars of the portico is a
single block of stone, quarried at Dalserf, midway between Hamilton
and Lanark, and required thirty horses to draw it to its site. The
interior is richly decorated and once contained the finest collection
of paintings in Scotland, but most of them, together with the Hamilton
and Beckford libraries, were sold in 1882. Within the grounds, which
comprise nearly 1500 acres, is the mausoleum erected by the 10th duke,
a structure resembling in general design that of the emperor Hadrian
at Rome, being a circular building springing from a square basement,
and enclosing a decorated octagonal chapel, the door of which is a
copy in bronze of Ghiberti's gates at Florence. At Barncluith, 1 m.
S.E. of the town, may be seen the Dutch gardens which were laid down
in terraces on the steep banks of the Avon. Their quaint shrubbery and
old-fashioned setting render them attractive. They were planned in
1583 by John Hamilton, an ancestor of Lord Belhaven, and now belong
to Lord Ruthven. About 2 m. S.E. of Hamilton, within the western High
Park, on the summit of a precipitous rock 200 ft. in height, the foot
of which is washed by the Avon, stand the ruins of Cadzow Castle, the
subject of a spirited ballad by Sir Walter Scott. The castle had been
a royal residence for at least two centuries before Bannockburn
(1314), but immediately after the battle Robert Bruce granted it to
Sir Walter FitzGilbert Hamilton, the son of the founder of the family,
in return for the fealty. Near it is the noble chase with its ancient
oaks, the remains of the Caledonian Forest, where are still preserved
some of the aboriginal breed of wild cattle. Opposite Cadzow Castle,
in the eastern High Park, on the right bank of the Avon, is
Chatelherault, consisting of stables and offices, and imitating in
outline the palace of that name in France.
HAMILTON, a village of Madison county, New York, U.S.A., about 29 m.
S.W. of Utica. Pop. (1890), 1744; (1900), 1627; (1905) 1522; (1910)
1689. It is served by the New York, Ontario & Western railway. Hamilton
is situated in a productive agricultural region, and has a large trade
in hops; among its manufactures are canned vegetables, lumber and knit
goods. There are several valuable stone quarries in the vicinity. The
village owns and operates its water-supply and electric-lighting system.
Hamilton is the seat of Colgate University, which was founded in 1819,
under the name of the Hamilton Literary and Theological Institution, as
a training school for the Baptist ministry, was chartered as Madison
University in 1846, and was renamed in 1890 in honour of the Colgate
family, several of whom, especially William (1783-1857), the soap
manufacturer, and his sons, James Boorman (1818-1904), and Samuel
(1822-1897), were its liberal benefactors. In 1908-1909 it had a
university faculty of 33 members, 307 students in the college, 60 in the
theological department, and 134 in the preparatory department, and a
library of 54,000 volumes, including the Baptist Historical collection
(about 5000 vols.) given by Samuel Colgate. The township in which the
village is situated and which bears the same name (pop. in 1910, 3825)
was settled about 1790 and was separated from the township of Paris in
1795. The village was incorporated in 1812.
HAMILTON, a city and the county-seat of Butler county, Ohio, U.S.A., on
both sides of the Great Miami river, 25 m. N. of Cincinnati. Pop.
(1890), 17,565; (1900), 23,914, of whom 2949 were foreign-born; (1910
census), 35,279. It is served by the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton, and
the Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Chicago & St Louis railways, and by
interurban electric lines connecting with Cincinnati, Dayton and Toledo.
The valley in which Hamilton is situated is noted for its fertility. The
city has a fine public square and the Lane free library (1866); the
court house is its most prominent public building. A hydraulic canal
provides the city with good water power, and in 1905, in the value of
its factory products ($13,992,574, being 31.3% more than in 1900),
Hamilton ranked tenth among the cities of the state. Its most
distinctive manufactures are paper and wood pulp; more valuable are
foundry and machine shop products; other manufactures are safes, malt
liquors, flour, woollens, Corliss engines, carriages and wagons and
agricultural implements. The municipality owns and operates the
water-works, electric-lighting plant and gas plant. A stockade fort was
built here in 1791 by General Arthur Saint Clair, but it was abandoned
in 1796, two years after the place had been laid out as a town and named
Fairfield. The town was renamed, in honour of Alexander Hamilton, about
1796. In 1803 Hamilton was made the county-seat; in 1810 it was
incorporated as a village; in 1854 it annexed the town of Rossville on
the opposite side of the river; and in 1857 it was made a city. In 1908,
by the annexation of suburbs, the area and the population of Hamilton
were considerably increased. Hamilton was the early home of William Dean
Howells, whose recollections of it are to be found in his _A Boy's
Town_; his father's anti-slavery sentiments made it necessary for him to
sell his printing office, where the son had learned to set type in his
teens, and to remove to Dayton.
HAMIRPUR, a town and district of British India, in the Allahabad
division of the United Provinces. The town stands on a tongue of land
near the confluence of the Betwa and Jumna, 110 m. N.W. of Allahabad.
Pop. (1901), 6721. It was founded, according to tradition, in the 11th
century by Hamir Deo, a Karchuli Rajput expelled from Alwar by the
Mahommedans.
The district has an area of 2289 sq. m., and encloses the native states
of Sarila, Jigni and Bihat, besides portions of Charkhari and Garrauli.
Hamirpur forms part of the great plain of Bundelkhand, which stretches
from the banks of the Jumna to the central Vindhyan plateau. The
district is in shape an irregular parallelogram, with a general slope
northward from the low hills on the southern boundary. The scenery is
rendered picturesque by the artificial lakes of Mahoba. These
magnificent reservoirs were constructed by the Chandel rajas before the
Mahommedan conquest, for purposes of irrigation and as sheets of
ornamental water. Many of them enclose craggy islets or peninsulas,
crowned by the ruins of granite temples, exquisitely carved and
decorated. From the base of this hill and lake country the general plain
of the district spreads northward in an arid and treeless level towards
the broken banks of the rivers. Of these the principal are the Betwa and
its tributary the Dhasan, both of which are unnavigable. There is little
waste land, except in the ravines by the river sides. The deep black
soil of Bundelkhand, known as _mar_, retains the moisture under a dried
and rifted surface, and renders the district fertile. The staple produce
is grain of various sorts, the most important being gram. Cotton is also
a valuable crop. Agriculture suffers much from the spread of the _kans_
grass, a noxious weed which overruns the fields and is found to be
almost ineradicable wherever it has once obtained a footing. Droughts
and famine are unhappily common. The climate is dry and hot, owing to
the absence of shade and the bareness of soil, except in the
neighbourhood of the Mahoba lakes, which cool and moisten the
atmosphere.
In 1901 the pop. was 458,542, showing a decrease of 11% in the decade,
due to the famine of 1895-1897. Export trade is chiefly in agricultural
produce and cotton cloth. Rath is the principal commercial centre. The
Midland branch of the Great Indian Peninsula railway passes through the
south of the district.
From the 9th to the 12th century this district was the centre of the
Chandel kingdom, with its capital at Mahoba. The rajas adorned the town
with many splendid edifices, remains of which still exist, besides
constructing the noble artificial lakes already described. At the end of
the 12th century Mahoba fell into the hands of the Mussulmans. In 1680
the district was conquered by Chhatar Sal, the hero of the Bundelas, who
assigned at his death one-third of his dominions to his ally the peshwa
of the Mahrattas. Until Bundelkhand became British territory in 1803
there was constant warfare between the Bundela princes and the Mahratta
chieftains. On the outbreak of the Mutiny in 1857, Hamirpur was the
scene of a fierce rebellion, and all the principal towns were plundered
by the surrounding chiefs. After a short period of desultory guerrilla
warfare the rebels were effectually quelled and the work of
reorganization began. The district has since been subject to cycles of
varying agricultural prosperity.
HAMITIC RACES AND LANGUAGES. The questions involved in a consideration
of Hamitic races and Hamitic languages are independent of one another
and call for separate treatment.
I. _Hamitic Races._--The term Hamitic as applied to race is not only
extremely vague but has been much abused by anthropological writers. Of
the few who have attempted a precise definition the most prominent is
Sergi,[1] and his classification may be taken as representing one point
of view with regard to this difficult question.
Sergi considers the Hamites, using the term in the racial sense, as a
branch of his "Mediterranean Race"; and divides them as follows:--
1. _Eastern Branch_--
(a) Ancient and Modern Egyptian (excluding the Arabs).
(b) Nubians, Beja.
(c) Abyssinians.
(d) Galla, Danakil, Somali.
(e) Masai.
(f) Wahuma or Watusi.
2. _Northern Branch_--
(a) Berbers of the Mediterranean, Atlantic and Sahara.
(b) Tibbu.
(c) Fula.
(d) Guanches (extinct).
With regard to this classification the following conclusions may be
regarded as comparatively certain: that the members of groups d, e
and f of the first branch appear to be closely inter-connected by
ties of blood, and also the members of the second branch. The
Abyssinians in the south have absorbed a certain amount of Galla
blood, but the majority are Semitic or Semito-Negroid. The question of
the racial affinities of the Ancient Egyptians and the Beja are still
a matter of doubt, and the relation of the two groups to each other is
still controversial. Sergi, it is true, arguing from physical data
believes that a close connexion exists; but the data are so extremely
scanty that the finality of his conclusion may well be doubted. His
"Northern Branch" corresponds with the more satisfactory term "Libyan
Race," represented in fair purity by the Berbers, and, mixed with
Negro elements, by the Fula and Tibbu. This Libyan race is
distinctively a white race, with dark curly hair; the Eastern Hamites
are equally distinctively a brown people with frizzy hair. If, as
Sergi believes, these brown people are themselves a race, and not a
cross between white and black in varying proportions, they are found
in their greatest purity among the Somali and Galla, and mixed with
Bantu blood among the Ba-Hima (Wahuma) and Watussi. The Masai seem to
be as much Nilotic Negro as Hamite. This Galla type does not seem to
appear farther north than the southern portion of Abyssinia, and it is
not unlikely that the Beja are very early Semitic immigrants with an
aboriginal Negroid admixture. It is also possible that they and the
Ancient Egyptians may contain a common element. The Nubians appear
akin to the Egyptians but with a strong Negroid element.
To return to Sergi's two branches, besides the differences in skin
colour and hair-texture there is also a cultural difference of great
importance. The Eastern Hamites are essentially a pastoral people and
therefore nomadic or semi-nomadic; the Berbers, who, as said above,
are the purest representatives of the Libyans, are agriculturists. The
pastoral habits of the Eastern Hamites are of importance, since they
show the utmost reluctance to abandon them. Even the Ba-Hima and
Watussi, for long settled and partly intermixed with the agricultural
Bantu, regard any pursuit but that of cattle-tending as absolutely
beneath their dignity.
It would seem therefore that, while sufficient data have not been
collected to decide whether, on the evidence of exact anthropological
measurements, the Libyans are connected racially with the Eastern
Hamites, the testimony derived from broad "descriptive
characteristics" and general culture is against such a connexion. To
regard the Libyans as Hamites solely on the ground that the languages
spoken by the two groups show affinities would be as rash and might be
as false as to aver that the present-day Hungarians are Mongolians
because Magyar is an Asiatic tongue. Regarding the present state of
knowledge it would be safer therefore to restrict the term "Hamites"
to Sergi's first group; and call the second by the name "Libyans." The
difficult question of the origin of the ancient Egyptians is discussed
elsewhere.
As to the question whether the Hamites in this restricted sense are a
definite race or a blend, no discussion can, in view of the paucity of
evidence, as yet lead to a satisfactory conclusion, but it might be
suggested very tentatively that further researches may possibly
connect them with the Dravidian peoples of India. It is sufficient for
present purposes that the term Hamite, using it as coextensive with
Sergi's Eastern Hamite, has a definite connotation. By the term is
meant a brown people with frizzy hair, of lean and sinewy physique,
with slender but muscular arms and legs, a thin straight or even
aquiline nose with delicate nostrils, thin lips and no trace of
prognathism. (T. A. J.)
II. _Hamitic Languages._--The whole north of Africa was once inhabited
by tribes of the Caucasian race, speaking languages which are now
generally called, after Genesis x., Hamitic, a term introduced
principally by Friedrich Muller. The linguistic coherence of that race
has been broken up especially by the intrusion of Arabs, whose language
has exercised a powerful influence on all those nations. This splitting
up, and the immense distances over which those tribes were spread, have
made those languages diverge more widely than do the various tongues of
the Indo-European stock, but still their affinity can easily be traced
by the linguist, and is, perhaps, greater than the corresponding
anthropologic similarity between the white Libyan, red Galla and swarthy
Somali. The relationship of these languages to Semitic has long been
noticed, but was at first taken for descent from Semitic (cf. the name
"Syro-Arabian" proposed by Prichard). Now linguists are agreed that the
Proto-Semites and Proto-Hamites once formed a unity, probably in
Arabia. That original unity has been demonstrated especially by
Friedrich Muller (_Reise der osterreichischen Fregatte Novara_, p. 51,
more fully, _Grundriss der Sprachwissenschaft_, vol. iii. fasc. 2, p.
226); cf. also A. H. Sayce, _Science of Language_, ii. 178; R. N. Cust,
_The Modern Languages of Africa_, i. 94, &c. The comparative grammars of
Semitic (W. Wright, 1890, and especially H. Zimmern, 1898) demonstrate
this now to everybody by comparative tables of the grammatical elements.