The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1870-03-30
Lady Hamilton.

This passage brings US to one Of the most
beautiful and interesting points in noble
history. 1t is right that the world should
know-as those nearer at hand did-how
much the world owes to Lady Hamilton for
putting it in possession of the services OF her
great husband. Instead of being tale too
often told, it is tale too often omitted, to
let us know what the man of peculiar gifts
sometimes owes in rendering them available,
to the faithful partner of his days-tO the
encouraging, the assisting, and the directing
wife. The services rendered by Lady Hamil-
ton to her husband, and consequently to the
world, remind us of those rendered under
very similar circumstances by the late Mrs.
Austin to John Austin, the great jurist. 1t
was by her care that the fragmentary and
incomplete writings of her husband on juris-
prudence became accessible and Ineligible
to the public; and We are in truth indebted
to these two ladies for the preservation of
the most profound and abstruse discussions
of law and metaphysics which have appeared
in Britain in our time. Perhaps there never
was better picture than the following of
such an one, who, in the language of Scrip
ture was ga crown unto her husband" =
there certainly was never truer portrait
"From the first. Lady Hamilton devotion
to her husbands interest was untiriDg, and
her Identification with his work complete
Her rare practical ability was her husbands
never-failing ally. This was shown in
power of guidance and counsel, in the wo-
manly tact which can thread its way through
difficulties where mere intelligence is baffled,
and in the extent to which she relieved her
husband of the practical concerns that would
as matter of course have fallen to him, but
for the details of which he lacked patience
and capacity. To the labor involved in this
and in the ordinary duties of her position,
which she admirably fulfilled, was added the
nearly constant work of amanuensis to her
husband-for there was hardly, even from
the first, anything of Importance that Sir
William wrote that had not also to be copied
by Lady Hamilton. The number of pages
in her hand-writing-flled with abstruse
metaphysical matter, original and quoted,
and brstling with propositional and syllogis-
tic formule-that are still preserved, is per-
fectly marvellous. Everything that was sent
to the press, and all the courses of lectures,
were written by her, either to dictation or
from copy This work she did in the
truest spirit of love and devotion. She had
a power, moreover, of keeping her husband
up to what he had to do She contended
wisely against sort of energetic incidence
which characterised him, and which, while
he was always labOring, made him apt to put
aside the task actually before him-some.
times diverted by subjects of inquiry sug-
gested in the course of study on the matter
in hand, sometimes discouraged by the diff
Guilty of reducingto order the immense mass
of materials which he had accumulated in
connexion with it. Then her resolute and
cheerful disposition sustained and refreshed
him, and never more so than when during
the last twelve years of his life, his bodily
strength was broken, and his spirit, though
languid, yet ceased from mental TOLL
Edinburgh Review