Because many of us work with Hamiltonian mechanics, I think it interesting that William Rowan Hamilton made his living as an astronomer, but spent much of his life doing mathematics and writing poetry. I found the following in the Encyclopedia Britannica:

"...large audiences were attracted by the distinctly literary flavour of his lectures on astronomy. Throughout his life Hamilton was attracted to literature and considered the poet William Wordsworth among his friends, although Wordsworth advised him to write mathematics rather than poetry."

Was this Wordsworth's appraisal of Hamilton's poetry? Or did Wordsworth know, even back in the 1830's, that science was more profitable than poetry?

Jack