Graves’ Life of Hamilton (New York, 1882-1889), Vol. 3, p. 633.
[1716]. ... instead of seeking to attain consistency and uniformity of system, as some modern writers have attempted, by banishing this thought of time from the higher Algebra, I seek to attain the same object, by systematically introducing it into the lower or earlier parts of the science.—Hamilton, W. R.
Graves’ Life of Hamilton (New York, 1882-1889), Vol. 3, p. 634.
[1717]. The circumstances that algebra has its origin in arithmetic, however widely it may in the end differ from that science, led Sir Isaac Newton to designate it “Universal Arithmetic,” a designation which, vague as it is, indicates its character better than any other by which it has been attempted to express its functions—better certainly, to ordinary minds, than the designation which has been applied to it by Sir William Rowan Hamilton, one of the greatest mathematicians the world has seen since the days of Newton—“the Science of Pure Time;” or even than the title by which De Morgan would paraphrase Hamilton’s words—“the Calculus of Succession”—Chrystal, George.
Encyclopedia Britannica, 9th Edition; Article “Algebra”
[1718]. Time is said to have only one dimension, and space to have three dimensions.... The mathematical quaternion partakes of both these elements; in technical language it may be said to be “time plus space,” or “space plus time:” and in this sense it has, or at least involves a reference to, four dimensions....
And how the One of Time, of Space the Three,
Might in the Chain of Symbols girdled be.
—Hamilton, W. R.