# A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Hamilton, Elizabeth

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HAMILTON, ELIZABETH,
Was born in Belfast, in the year 1768. Her father was a merchant, of a Scottish family, and died early, leaving a widow and three children. The latter were educated and brought up by relatives in better circumstances;—Elizabeth, the youngest, being sent to Mr. Marshall, a farmer in Stirlingshire, married to her father's sister. Her brother obtained a cadetship in the East India Company's service, and an eider sister was retained in Ireland. A feeling of strong affection seems to have existed among these scattered members of the unfortunate family. Elizabeth found in Mr. and Mrs. Marshall all that could have been desired. She was adopted and educated with a care and tenderness that has seldom been equalled.
A taste for literature soon appeared in Elizabeth Hamilton. Wallace was the first hero of her studies; but meeting with Ogilvie's translation of the Iliad, she idolized Achilles, and dreamed of Hector. She had opportunities of visiting Edinburgh and Glasgow, after which she carried on a learned correspondence with Doctor Moyse, ​a philosophical lecturer. She wrote also many copies of verses—that ordinaiy outlet for the warm feelings and romantic sensibilities of youth. Her first appearance in print was accidental. Having accompanied a pleasure party to the Highlands, she kept a journal for the gratification of her aunt, and the good woman showing it to one of her neighbours, it was sent to a provincial magazine. Her retirement in Stirlingshire was, in 1773, gladdened by a visit from her brother, then about to sail for India. Mr. Hamilton seems to have been an excellent and able young man, and his subsequent letters and conversations on Indian affairs stored the mind of his sister with the materials for her Hindoo Rajah, a work equally remarkable for good sense and sprightliness. In 1778, Miss Hamilton lost her aunt, whose death was a heavy blow to the happy family. For the ensuing six years she devoted herself to the cares and duties of the household, her only literary employments being her correspondence with her brother, and the composition of two short papers which she sent to the Lounger. Mr. Hamilton returned from India in 1786, in order that he might better fulfil an important duty intrusted to him, the translation of the Mussulman Code of Laws. It would not be easy to paint the joy and affection with which he was received by his sister. They spent the winter together in Stirlingshire, and in 1789, when her kind friend and protector, Mr. Marshall, died, she quitted Scotland, and rejoined her brother in London. Mr. Hamilton was cut off by a premature death, in 1792. Shortly after this period commenced the literary life of Elizabeth Hamilton, and her first work was "The Letters of a Hindoo Rajah," published in 1796. The success of this work decided her to pursue the career of authorship. She wrote, successively, "The Modern Philosophers;" "Letters on Education," an excellent book; "Memoirs of Agrippina," a work of great research; and "Letters to the Daughters of a Nobleman." This was published in the year 1806; and soon afterwards Miss Hamilton became an active promoter of the House of Industry, at Edinburgh, an establishment for the education of females of the lowest class. For the benefit of these young persons she composed a little book, "Exercises in Religious Knowledge," which was published in 1809, receiving the sanction of Bishop Sandford and Mr. Alison. The previous year, 1808, she published her most original, popular, and useful work, "The Cottagers of Glenburnie." Of this novel, or moral tale, a learned reviewer remarks:—"It has probably been as effective in promoting domestic improvement among the rural population of Scotland as Johnson's Journey to the Hebrides was in encouraging the planting of trees by the landed proprietors. In both cases there was some exaggeration of colouring, but the pictures were too provokingly true and sarcastic to be laughed away or denied. They constituted a national reproach, and the only way to wipe it off was by timely reformation. There is still much to accomplish, but a marked improvement in the dwellings and internal economy of Scottish farm-houses and villages may be dated from the publication of the "Cottagers of Glenburnie."
She wrote two works after this, "Essays on the Human Mind," and "Hints to the Directors of Public Schools;" the subject of education being her favourite theme. Her health was delicate for several years before her decease, but neither disease or time had power to disturb her cheerful serenity of soul. As a maiden lady, ​she preserved her dignity and showed her good sense by never attempting to play the juvenile.
Mrs. Hamilton, as she was styled after she had put on her cap, has shown, in all her works, great power of analysis; she had studied well the human mind, and the best writers on metaphysics and morals may gain hints from her application of the truths of philosophy how to make their knowledge of practical use, particularly in the art of education. She has shown how the doctrine of the association of ideas may be applied in early education to the formation of habits of the temper, and of the principles of taste and morals. And also, she has shown how all that metaphysicians know of sensation and abstraction, can be applied in the cultivation of the attention, the judgment, and the imagination of children.
But more important still is the influence her writings have had in awakening the attention of mothers, and directing their inquiries rightly—much by exciting them to reflect upon their own minds, and to observe what passes in the minds of their children: she has opened a new field of investigation to women—a field fitted to their domestic habits—to their duties as mothers, and to their business as preceptors of youth, to whom it belongs to give the minds of children those first impressions and ideas which remain the longest, and which influence them often, the most powerfully, through the whole course of life.
Mrs. Hamilton died, after a protracted illness, which she bore with sweet patience, and devout submission to the will of God, on the 23rd. of July, 1816, aged fifty-eight.