ed books for him, copied out and corrected his lectures,
and relieved him of all business which she felt herself competent to
undertake. Indeed, her conduct as a wife was nothing short of heroic;
and it is probable that but for her devoted and more than wifely help,
and her rare practical ability, the greatest of her husband's works
would never have seen the light. He was by nature unmethodical and
disorderly, and she supplied him with method and orderliness. His
temperament was studious but indolent, while she was active and
energetic. She abounded in the qualities which he most lacked. He had
the genius, to which her vigorous nature gave the force and impulse.

When Sir William Hamilton was elected to his Professorship, after a
severe and even bitter contest, his opponents, professing to regard him
as a visionary, predicted that he could never teach a class of students,
and that his appointment would prove a total failure. He determined,
with the help of his wife, to justify the choice of his supporters,
and to prove that his enemies were false prophets. Having no stock of
lectures on hand, each lecture of the first course was written out day
by day, as it was to be delivered on the following morning. His wife sat
up with him night after night, to write out a fair copy of the lectures
from the rough sheets, which he drafted in the adjoining room. "On some
occasions," says his biographer, "the subject of the lectures would
prove less easily managed than on others; and then Sir William would be
found writing as late as nine o'clock in the morning, while his faithful
but wearied amanuensis had fallen asleep on a sofa." [2020]

Sometimes the finishing touches to the lecture were left to be given
just before the class-hour. Thus helped, Sir William completed his
course; his reputation as a lecturer was established; and he eventually
became recognised throughout Europe as one of the leading intellects of
his time. [2021]

The woman who soothes anxiety by her presence, who charms and allays
irritability by her sweetness of temper, is a consoler as well as a true
helper. Niebuhr always spoke of his wife as a fellow-worker with him
in this sense. Without the peace and consolation which be found in her
society, his nature would have fretted in comparative uselessness. "Her
sweetness of temper and her love," said he, "raise me above the earth,
and in a manner separate me from this life." But she was a helper in
another and mor