Excerpt:
HAMILTON, SIR WILLIAM ROWAN, Royal Astronomer of Ireland, one of the most distinguished of living men of science, was born in Dublin on the 4th of August, 1805. There are few instances on record of more vast development of intellectual power than he early exhibited. At the age of six he had acquired the elements of Greek and Latin, and at thirteen he was acquainted with thirteen languages, including Syriac, Persian, Arabic, Sanscrit, Hindostanee, and Malay.