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diff --git a/64649-0.txt b/64649-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c38cf34 --- /dev/null +++ b/64649-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6909 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Herschels and Modern Astronomy, by Agnes
+Mary Clerke
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
+www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you
+will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before
+using this eBook.
+
+Title: The Herschels and Modern Astronomy
+
+Author: Agnes Mary Clerke
+
+Release Date: February 27, 2021 [eBook #64649]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+Produced by: Fay Dunn, Charlie Howard, and the Online Distributed
+ Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+ produced from images generously made available by The Internet
+ Archive)
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HERSCHELS AND MODERN
+ASTRONOMY ***
+
+
+
+
+THE CENTURY SCIENCE SERIES.
+
+ EDITED BY SIR HENRY E. ROSCOE, D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.S.
+
+
+ THE HERSCHELS
+ AND
+ _MODERN ASTRONOMY_
+
+
+
+
+The Century Science Series.
+
+EDITED BY
+
+SIR HENRY E. ROSCOE, D.C.L., F.R.S., M.P.
+
+
+ =John Dalton and the Rise of Modern Chemistry.=
+ By Sir HENRY E. ROSCOE, F.R.S.
+
+ =Major Rennell, F.R.S., and the Rise of English Geography.=
+ By CLEMENTS R. MARKHAM, C.B., F.R.S., President of the Royal
+ Geographical Society.
+
+ =The Herschels and Modern Astronomy.=
+ By Miss AGNES M. CLERKE, Author of “A Popular History of
+ Astronomy during the 19th Century,” &c.
+
+
+ _In Preparation._
+
+ =Justus von Liebig: his Life and Work.=
+ By W. A. SHENSTONE, Science Master in Clifton College.
+
+ =Michael Faraday: his Life and Work.=
+ By Professor SILVANUS P. THOMPSON, F.R.S.
+
+ =Clerk Maxwell and Modern Physics.=
+ By R. T. GLAZEBROOK, F.R.S., Fellow of Trinity College,
+ Cambridge.
+
+ =Charles Lyell: his Life and Work.=
+ By Rev. Professor T. G. BONNEY, F.R.S.
+
+ =Humphry Davy.=
+ By T. E. THORPE, F.R.S., Principal Chemist of the Government
+ Laboratories.
+
+ =Pasteur: his Life and Work.=
+ By ARMAND RUFFER, Director of the British Institute of
+ Preventive Medicine.
+
+ =Charles Darwin and the Origin of Species.=
+ By EDWARD B. POULTON, M.A., F.R.S., Hope Professor of Zoology
+ in the University of Oxford.
+
+ =Hermann von Helmholtz.=
+ By A. W. RÜCKER, F.R.S., Professor of Physics in the Royal
+ College of Science, London.
+
+
+CASSELL & COMPANY, LIMITED, _London; Paris & Melbourne_.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: SIR WILLIAM HERSCHEL.
+
+_Ætat. 50._
+
+(_From Abbott’s painting in the National Portrait Gallery._)]
+
+
+
+
+ _THE CENTURY SCIENCE SERIES._
+
+ THE HERSCHELS
+ AND
+ _MODERN ASTRONOMY_
+
+ BY
+ AGNES M. CLERKE
+
+ AUTHOR OF
+ “A POPULAR HISTORY OF ASTRONOMY DURING THE 19TH CENTURY,”
+ “THE SYSTEM OF THE STARS,” ETC.
+
+
+ CASSELL AND COMPANY, LIMITED
+ _LONDON, PARIS & MELBOURNE_
+ 1895
+
+ ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+The chief authority for the Life of Sir William Herschel is Mrs. John
+Herschel’s “Memoir of Caroline Herschel” (London, 1876). It embodies
+Caroline’s Journals and Recollections, the accuracy of which is
+above suspicion. William himself, indeed, referred to her for dates
+connected with his early life. The collateral sources of information
+are few and meagre; they yield mere gleanings, yet gleanings worth
+collecting. Professor E. S. Holden has had recourse to many of them
+for his excellent little monograph entitled “Herschel, his Life and
+Works” (London, 1881), which is usefully supplemented by “A Synopsis
+of the Scientific Writings of Sir William Herschel,” prepared by the
+same author with the aid of Professor Hastings. It made part of the
+Smithsonian Report for 1880, and was printed separately at Washington
+in 1881. But the wonderful series of papers it summarises have still
+to be sought, one by one, by those desiring to study them effectually,
+in the various volumes of the _Philosophical Transactions_ in which
+they originally appeared. Their collection and republication is,
+nevertheless, a recognised desideratum, and would fill a conspicuous
+gap in scientific literature.
+
+Sir John Herschel’s life has yet to be written. The published materials
+for it are scanty, although they have been reinforced by the inclusion
+in the late Mr. Graves’s “Life of Sir William Rowan Hamilton” (Dublin,
+1882–9) of his correspondence with that remarkable man. The present
+writer has, however, been favoured by the late Miss Herschel, and by
+Sir William J. Herschel, with the perusal of a considerable number of
+Sir John Herschel’s, as well as of Sir William’s, manuscript letters.
+She also gratefully acknowledges the kind help afforded to her by Lady
+Gordon and Miss Herschel in connection with the portraits reproduced
+in this volume. For detailed bibliographical references, the articles
+on Sir John, Sir William, and Caroline Herschel, in the “Dictionary of
+National Biography,” may be consulted.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+ PAGE
+ CHAPTER
+ I.--EARLY LIFE OF WILLIAM HERSCHEL 9
+
+ II.--THE KING’S ASTRONOMER 32
+
+ III.--THE EXPLORER OF THE HEAVENS 53
+
+ IV.--HERSCHEL’S SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS 75
+
+ V.--THE INFLUENCE OF HERSCHEL’S CAREER ON MODERN ASTRONOMY 98
+
+ VI.--CAROLINE HERSCHEL 115
+
+ VII.--SIR JOHN HERSCHEL AT CAMBRIDGE AND SLOUGH 142
+
+ VIII.--EXPEDITION TO THE CAPE 162
+
+ IX.--LIFE AT COLLINGWOOD 183
+
+ X.--WRITINGS AND EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATIONS 203
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+
+ PAGE
+ PORTRAIT OF SIR WILLIAM HERSCHEL _Frontispiece_
+
+ PORTRAIT OF CAROLINE HERSCHEL 115
+
+ PORTRAIT OF SIR JOHN HERSCHEL 142
+
+
+
+
+THE HERSCHELS
+
+AND
+
+MODERN ASTRONOMY.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+EARLY LIFE OF WILLIAM HERSCHEL.
+
+
+William Herschel was descended from one of three brothers, whose
+Lutheran opinions made it expedient for them to quit Moravia early
+in the seventeenth century. Hans Herschel thereupon settled as a
+brewer at Pirna, in Saxony; his son Abraham rose to some repute as
+a landscape-gardener in the royal service at Dresden; and Abraham’s
+youngest son, Isaac, brought into the world with him, in 1707, an
+irresistible instinct and aptitude for music. Having studied at Berlin,
+he made his way in 1731 to Hanover, where he was immediately appointed
+oboist in the band of the Hanoverian Guard. A year later he married
+Anna Ilse Moritzen, by whom he had ten children. The fourth of these,
+Frederick William, known to fame as _William_ Herschel, was born
+November 15th, 1738.
+
+His brilliant faculties quickly displayed themselves. At the
+garrison-school he easily distanced his brother Jacob, his senior
+by four years, and learned besides, privately, whatever French and
+mathematics the master could teach him. He showed also a pronounced
+talent for music, and was already, at fourteen, a proficient on the
+hautboy and violin. In this direction lay his manifest destiny. His
+father was now bandmaster of the Guard; he was poor, and had no other
+provision to give his sons than to train them in his own art; and
+thus William, driven by necessity to become self-supporting while
+still a boy, entered the band as oboist in 1753. They were a family
+of musicians. Of the six who reached maturity, only Mrs. Griesbach,
+the elder daughter, gave no sign of personally owning a share in the
+common gift, which descended, nevertheless, to her five sons, all noted
+performers on sundry instruments.
+
+William Herschel accompanied his regiment to England in 1755, with his
+father and elder brother. He returned a year later, bringing with him
+a copy of Locke “On the Human Understanding,” upon which he had spent
+the whole of his small savings. Two of the three volumes thus acquired
+were recovered by his sister after seventy years, and transmitted to
+his son. The breaking-out of the Seven Years’ War proved decisive as to
+his future life. Campaigning hardships visibly told upon his health;
+his parents resolved, at all hazards, to rescue him from them; and
+accordingly, after the disaster at Hastenbeck, July 26th, 1757, they
+surreptitiously shipped him off to England. By this adventure, since he
+was in the military service of the Elector of Hanover, George III. of
+England, he incurred the penalties of desertion; but they were never
+exacted, and were remitted by the King himself in 1782.
+
+William Herschel was in his nineteenth year when he landed at Dover
+with a French crown-piece in his pocket. Necessity or prudence kept
+him for some time obscure; and we next hear of him as having played a
+solo on the violin at one of Barbandt’s concerts in London, February
+15th, 1760. In the same year he was engaged by the Earl of Darlington
+to train the band of the Durham Militia, when his shining qualities
+brought him to the front. The officers of the regiment looked with
+astonishment on the phenomenal young German who had dropped among them
+from some cloudy region; who spoke English perfectly, played like a
+virtuoso, and possessed a curious stock of varied knowledge. Their
+account of him at a mess-dinner excited the curiosity of Dr. Miller,
+organist and historian of Doncaster, who, having heard him perform a
+violin solo by Giardini, fell into a rapture, and invited him on the
+spot to live with him.
+
+He left nothing undone for the advancement of his _protégé_; procured
+for him tuitions and leading concert engagements; and encouraged him,
+in 1765, to compete for the post of organist at Halifax. Herschel’s
+special qualifications were small; his chief rival, Dr. Wainwright, was
+a skilled player, and at the trial performance evoked much applause
+by his brilliant execution. Only the builder of the organ, an odd
+old German named Schnetzler, showed dissatisfaction, exclaiming:
+“He run about the keys like one cat; he gif my pipes no time for to
+shpeak.” Then Herschel mounted the loft, and the church was filled
+with a majestic volume of sound, under cover of which a stately melody
+made itself heard. The “Old Hundredth” followed, with equal effect.
+Schnetzler was beside himself with delight. “I vil luf dis man,” he
+cried, “because he git my pipes time for to shpeak.” Herschel had
+virtually provided himself with four hands. A pair of leaden weights
+brought in his pocket served to keep down two keys an octave apart,
+while he improvised a slow air to suit the continuous bass thus
+mechanically supplied. The artifice secured him the victory.
+
+This anecdote is certainly authentic. It is related by Dr. Miller from
+personal knowledge. Nor is it inconsistent with a story told by Joah
+Bates, of King’s College, Cambridge, a passionate lover of music.
+Repairing to Halifax, his native place, to conduct the “Messiah” at
+the opening of a new organ, he was accosted in the church by a young
+man, who asked for an opportunity of practising on it. Although as yet,
+he said, unacquainted with the instrument, he aspired to the place of
+organist; and the absolute certitude of his manner so impressed Bates
+that he not only granted his request, but became his warm patron.
+The young man’s name was William Herschel. We hear, further, on Dr.
+Burney’s authority, that he played first violin in Bates’s orchestra.
+
+But the tide of his fortunes was flowing, and he knew how to “take it
+at the flood.” Early in 1766 he removed to Bath as oboist in Linley’s
+celebrated orchestra, which played daily in the Pump Room to enliven
+the parade of blushing damsels and ruffling gallants pictured to our
+fancy in Miss Austen’s novels. Bath was then what Beau Nash had made
+it--the very focus of polite society. Turbans nodded over cards; gigs
+threaded their way along Union Passage; Cheap Street was blocked with
+vehicles; the Lower Rooms witnessed the nightly evolutions of the
+country-dance; the Grove, as Doran reminds us, was brilliant with
+beauty, coquelicot ribbons, smart pelisses, laced coats, and ninepins.
+The feat of “tipping all nine for a guinea” was frequently performed;
+and further excitement might be had by merely plucking some lampoons
+from the trees, which seemed to bear them as their natural fruit.
+Music, too, was in high vogue. The theatres were thronged; and Miss
+Linley’s exquisite voice was still heard in the concert-halls.
+
+On the 4th of October, 1767, the new Octagon Chapel was opened for
+service, with Herschel as organist. How it was that he obtained this
+“agreeable and lucrative situation” we are ignorant; but he had that
+singular capacity for distinction which explains everything. The
+Octagon Chapel became a centre of fashionable attraction, and he soon
+found himself lifted on the wave of public favour. Pupils of high
+rank thronged to him, and his lessons often mounted to thirty-five a
+week. He composed anthems, psalm-tunes, even full services for his
+assiduously-trained choir. His family were made sharers in his success.
+He secured a post in Linley’s orchestra for his younger brother
+Alexander, in 1771; and he himself fetched his sister Caroline to Bath
+in 1772. Both were of very considerable help to him in his musical and
+other enterprises, the latter of which gradually gained ground over the
+former.
+
+Music was never everything to William Herschel. He cultivated it with
+ardour; composed with facility in the prevalent graceful Italian style;
+possessed a keen appreciation and perfect taste. But a musical career,
+however brilliant, did not satisfy him. The inner promptings of genius
+told him to look beyond. The first thirty-five years of his life
+were thus spent in diligently preparing to respond to an undeclared
+vocation. Nothing diverted him from his purpose of self-improvement.
+At first, he aimed chiefly at mastering the knowledge connected
+with his profession. With a view to the theory of music, “I applied
+myself early,” he said, in a slight autobiographical sketch sent to
+Lichtenberg at Göttingen, “to all the branches of the mathematics,
+algebra, conic sections, fluxions, etc. Contracting thereby an
+insatiable desire for knowledge in general, I extended my application
+to languages--French, Italian, Latin, English--and determined to devote
+myself entirely to the pursuit of knowledge, in which I resolved to
+place all my future enjoyment and felicity. This resolution I have
+never had occasion to change.” At Bath, in the midst of engrossing
+musical occupations, his zeal for study grew only the more intense.
+After fourteen or sixteen hours of teaching, he would “unbend his mind”
+by plunging into Maclaurin’s “Fluxions,” or retire to rest with a basin
+of milk, Smith’s “Opticks,” and Ferguson’s “Astronomy.” He had no
+sooner fallen under the spell of this last science than he “resolved to
+take nothing upon trust, but to see with my own eyes all that other men
+had seen before.”
+
+He hired, to begin with, a small reflector; but what it showed him
+merely whetted his curiosity. And the price of a considerably larger
+instrument proved to be more than he could afford to pay. Whereupon
+he took the momentous resolution of being, for the future, his own
+optician. This was in 1772. He at first tried fitting lenses into
+pasteboard tubes, with the poor results that can be imagined. Then he
+bought from a Quaker, who had dabbled in that line, the discarded
+rubbish of his tools, patterns, polishers, and abortive mirrors; and in
+June, 1773, when fine folk had mostly deserted Bath for summer resorts,
+work was begun in earnest. The house was turned topsy-turvy; the two
+brothers attacked the novel enterprise with boyish glee. Alexander,
+a born mechanician, set up a huge lathe in one of the bedrooms; a
+cabinet-maker was installed in the drawing-room; Caroline, in spite of
+secret dismay at such unruly proceedings, lent a hand, and kept meals
+going; William directed, inspired, toiled, with the ardour of a man
+who had staked his life on the issue. Meanwhile, music could not be
+neglected. Practising and choir-training went on; novelties for the
+ensuing season were prepared; compositions written, and parts copied.
+Then the winter brought the usual round of tuitions and performances,
+while all the time mirrors were being ground and polished, tried and
+rejected, without intermission. At last, after _two hundred_ failures,
+a tolerable reflecting telescope was produced, about five inches in
+aperture, and of five and a half feet focal length. The outcome may
+seem small for so great an expenditure of pains; but those two hundred
+failures made the Octagon Chapel organist an expert, unapproached
+and unapproachable, in the construction of specula. With his new
+instrument, on March 4th, 1774, he observed the Nebula in Orion; and a
+record of this beginning of his astronomical work is still preserved by
+the Royal Society.
+
+William Herschel was now, as to age, _in mezzo cammin_. He had numbered
+just so many years as had Dante when he began the “Divina Commedia.”
+But he had not, like Dante, been thrown off the rails of life. The
+rush of a successful professional career was irresistibly carrying him
+along. Almost any other man would have had all his faculties absorbed
+in it. Herschel’s were only stimulated by the occupations which it
+brought. Yet they were of a peculiarly absorbing nature. Music is
+the most exclusive of arts. In turning aside, after half a lifetime
+spent in its cultivation, to seek his ideal elsewhere, Herschel took
+an unparalleled course. And his choice was final. Music was long his
+pursuit, astronomy his pastime; a fortunate event enabled him to make
+astronomy his pursuit, while keeping music for a pastime.
+
+Yet each demands a totally different kind of training, not only of
+the intellect, but of the senses. From his earliest childhood William
+Herschel’s nerves and brain had been specially educated to discriminate
+impressions of sound, and his muscles to the peculiar agility needed
+for their regulated and delicate production; while, up to the age of
+thirty-five, he had used his eyes no more purposefully than other
+people. The eye, nevertheless, requires cultivation as much as the ear.
+“You must not expect to _see at sight_,” he told Alexander Aubert, of
+Loam Pit Hill, in 1782. And he wrote to Sir William Watson: “Seeing is
+in some respects an art which must be learnt. Many a night have I been
+practising to see, and it would be strange if one did not acquire a
+certain dexterity by such constant practice.” A critical observation,
+he added, could no more be expected from a novice at the telescope than
+a performance of one of Handel’s organ-fugues from a beginner in music.
+In this difficult art of vision he rapidly became an adept. Taking into
+account the full extent of his powers, the opinion has been expressed,
+and can scarcely be contradicted, that he never had an equal.
+
+At midsummer, 1774, Herschel removed from No. 7, New King Street, to a
+house situated near Walcot Turnpike, Bath. A grass-plot was attached
+to the new residence, and it afforded convenient space for workshops.
+For already he designed to “carry improvements in telescopes to their
+utmost extent,” and “to leave no spot of the heavens unvisited.” An
+unprecedented ambition! No son of Adam had ever before entertained
+the like. To search into the recesses of space, to sound its depths,
+to dredge up from them their shining contents, to classify these, to
+investigate their nature, and trace their mutual relations, was what he
+proposed to do, having first provided the requisite optical means. All
+this in the intervals of professional toils, with no resources except
+those supplied by his genius and ardour, with no experience beyond that
+painfully gained during the progress of his gigantic task.
+
+Since the time of Huygens, no systematic attempt had been made to add
+to the power of the telescope. For the study of the planetary surfaces,
+upon which he and his contemporaries were mainly intent, such addition
+was highly desirable. But Newton’s discovery profoundly modified the
+aims of astronomers. Their essential business then became that of
+perfecting the theories of the heavenly bodies. Whether or not they
+moved in perfect accordance with the law of gravitation was the crucial
+question of the time. Newton’s generalisation was on its trial. Now and
+again it almost seemed as if about to fail. But difficulties arose only
+to be overcome, and before the eighteenth century closed the superb
+mechanism of the planetary system was elucidated. Working flexibly
+under the control of a single dominant force, it was shown to possess a
+self-righting power which secured its indefinite duration. Imperishable
+as the temple of Poseidon, it might be swayed by disturbances, but
+could not be overthrown.
+
+The two fundamental conclusions--that the Newtonian law is universally
+valid, and that the solar system is a stable structure--were reached
+by immense and sustained labours. Their establishment was due, in the
+main, to the mathematical genius of Clairaut, D’Alembert, Lagrange,
+and Laplace. But refined analysis demands refined data; hence the need
+for increased accuracy of observation grew continually more urgent.
+Attention was accordingly concentrated upon measuring, with the utmost
+exactitude, the places at determinate epochs of the heavenly bodies.
+The one thing needful was to learn the “when” and “where” of each of
+them--that is, to obtain such information as the transit-instrument is
+adapted to give. In this way the deviations of the moon and planets
+from their calculated courses became known; and upon the basis of
+these “errors” improved theories were built, then again compared with
+corrected observations.
+
+For these ends, large telescopes would have been useless. They were
+not, however, those that Herschel had in view. The _nature_ of the orbs
+around us, not their motions, formed the subject of his inquiries,
+with which modern descriptive astronomy virtually originated. He was,
+moreover, the founder of sidereal astronomy. The stars had, until
+his career began, received little _primary_ attention. They were
+regarded and observed simply as reference-points by which to track the
+movements of planets, comets, and the moon. Indispensable for fiducial
+purposes, they almost escaped consideration for themselves. They were,
+indeed, thought to lie beyond the reach of effective investigation.
+Only the outbursts of temporary stars, and the fluctuations of two
+or three periodical ones, had roused special interest, and seemed
+deserving of particular inquiry.
+
+Of the dim objects called “nebulæ,” Halley had counted up half a
+dozen in 1714; Lacaille compiled a list of forty-two at the Cape,
+in 1752–55; and Messier published at Paris, in 1771, a catalogue of
+forty-five, enlarged to one hundred and three in 1781. He tabulated,
+only to rid himself of embarrassments from them. For he was _by trade_
+a comet-hunter, and, until he hit upon this expedient, had been much
+harassed in its exercise by mistakes of identity.
+
+But Herschel did not merely “pick up;” he explored. This was what no
+one before him had thought of doing. A “review of the heavens” was a
+complete novelty. The magnificence of the idea, which was rooted in his
+mind from the start, places him apart from, and above, all preceding
+observers.
+
+To its effective execution telescopic development was essential.
+The two projects of optical improvement and of sidereal scrutiny
+went together. The skies could be fathomed, if at all, only by means
+of light-collecting engines of unexampled power. Rays enfeebled by
+distance should be rendered effective by concentration. Stratum after
+stratum of bodies--
+
+ “Clusters and beds of worlds, and bee-like swarms
+ Of suns and starry streams,”
+
+previously unseen, and even unsuspected, might, by the strong focussing
+of their feebly-surviving rays, be brought to human cognisance. The
+contemplated “reviews” would then be complete just in proportion to the
+grasp of the instrument used in making them.
+
+The first was scarcely more than a reconnaissance. It was made in
+1775, with a small reflector of the Newtonian make.[A] Its upshot was
+to impress him with the utter disproportion between his daring plans
+and the means as yet at his disposal. Speculum-casting accordingly
+recommenced with fresh vigour. Seven- and ten-foot mirrors were
+succeeded by others of twelve, and even of twenty feet focal length.
+The finishing of them was very laborious. It was at that time a manual
+process, during the course of which the hands could not be removed from
+the metal without injury to its figure. One stretch of such work lasted
+sixteen hours, Miss Herschel meantime, “by way of keeping him alive,”
+putting occasional morsels of food into the diligent polisher’s mouth.
+His mode of procedure was to cast and finish many mirrors of each
+sort; then to select the best by trial, and repolish the remainder. In
+this manner he made, before 1781, “not less than 200 seven-foot, 150
+ten-foot, and about 80 twenty-foot mirrors, not to mention those of the
+Gregorian form.” Repolishing operations were, moreover, accompanied
+by constant improvements, so that each successive speculum tended to
+surpass its predecessors.
+
+ [A] In “Newtonian” telescopes the image formed by the large
+ speculum is obliquely reflected from a small plane mirror
+ to the side of the tube, where it is viewed with an
+ ordinary eye-piece. With a “Gregorian,” the observer looks
+ straight forward, the image being thrown back by a little
+ _concave_ mirror through a central perforation in the
+ speculum where the eye-piece is fitted.
+
+These absorbing occupations were interrupted by the unwelcome news
+that Dietrich, the youngest of the Herschel family, had decamped from
+Hanover “with a young idler” like himself. William instantly started
+for Holland, where the fugitive was supposed to be about to take
+ship for India, but missed his track; and, after having extended his
+journey to Hanover to comfort his anxious mother--his father had died
+in 1767--returned sadly to Bath. There, to his immense surprise, he
+found the scapegrace in strict charge of his sister, “who kept him to
+a diet of roasted apples and barley-water.” His ineffectual escapade
+had terminated with an attack of illness at Wapping, whither Alexander
+Herschel, on learning how matters stood, had posted off to take him in
+charge and watch his recovery. Musical occupation was easily procured
+for him at Bath, since he was an accomplished violinist--had, indeed,
+started on his unprosperous career in the guise of an infant prodigy;
+but he threw it up in 1779 and drifted back to Hanover, married a Miss
+Reif, and settled down to live out a fairly long term of shiftless,
+albeit harmless, existence.
+
+In 1776 William Herschel succeeded Thomas Linley, Sheridan’s
+father-in-law, as Director of the Public Concerts at Bath. His duties
+in this capacity, while the season lasted, were most onerous. He had to
+engage performers, to appease discontents, to supply casual failures,
+to write glees and catches expressly adapted to the voices of his
+executants, frequently to come forward himself as a soloist on the
+hautboy or the harpsichord. The services of his brother Alexander, a
+renowned violoncellist, and of his sister, by this time an excellent
+singer, were now invaluable to him. Nor for musical purposes solely.
+The vision of the skies was never lost sight of, and the struggle
+to realise it in conjunction with his sympathetic helpers absorbed
+every remnant of time. At meals the only topics of conversation were
+mechanical devices for improving success and averting failure. William
+ate with a pencil in his hand, and a project in his head. Between the
+acts at the theatre, he might be seen running from the harpsichord to
+his telescope. After a rehearsal or a morning performance, he would
+dash off to the workshop in periwig and lace ruffles, and leave it
+but too often with those delicate adjuncts to his attire torn and
+pitch-bespattered. Accidents, too, menacing life and limb, were a
+consequence of that “uncommon precipitancy which accompanied all his
+actions;” but he escaped intact, save for the loss of a finger-nail.
+
+His introduction to the learned world of Bath was thus described by
+himself:--
+
+ “About the latter end of December, 1779, I happened to be
+ engaged in a series of observations on the lunar mountains;
+ and the moon being in front of my house, late in the evening I
+ brought my seven-feet reflector into the street, and directed
+ it to the object of my observations. Whilst I was looking into
+ the telescope, a gentleman, coming by the place where I was
+ stationed, stopped to look at the instrument. When I took my
+ eye off the telescope, he very politely asked if he might be
+ permitted to look in, and this being immediately conceded, he
+ expressed great satisfaction at the view.”
+
+The inquisitive stranger called next morning, and proved to be Dr.
+(later Sir William) Watson. He formed on the spot an unalterable
+friendship for the moon-struck musician, and introduced him to a
+Philosophical Society which held its meetings at his father’s house.
+Herschel’s earliest essays were read before it, but they remained
+unpublished. His first printed composition appeared in the “Ladies’
+Diary” for 1780. It was an answer to a prize question on the vibration
+of strings.
+
+The long series of his communications to the Royal Society of London
+opened May 11th, 1780, with a discussion of his observations, begun in
+October, 1777, of Mira, the variable star in the neck of the Whale. As
+to the theory of its changes, he agreed with Keill that they could best
+be explained by supposing rotation on an axis to bring a lucid side and
+a side obscured by spots alternately into view. A second paper by him
+on the Mountains of the Moon was read on the same day. He measured, in
+all, about one hundred of these peaks and craters.
+
+In January, 1781, there came an essay stamped with the peculiar impress
+of his genius, entitled “Astronomical Observations on the Rotation of
+the Planets round their Axes, made with a view to determine whether the
+earth’s diurnal motion is perfectly equable.” It embodied an attempt to
+apply a definite criterion to the time-keeping of our planet. But the
+prospect is exceedingly remote of rating one planet-clock by the other.
+Herschel’s methods of inquiry are, however, aptly illustrated in this
+curiously original paper. His speculations always invited the control
+of facts. If facts were not at hand, he tried somehow to collect them.
+The untrammelled play of fancy was no more to his mind than it was to
+Newton’s. His ardent scientific imagination was thus, by the sobriety
+of his reason, effectively enlisted in the cause of progress.
+
+Herschel began in 1780 his second review of the heavens, using a
+seven-foot Newtonian, of 6¼ inches aperture, with a magnifying power
+of 227. “For distinctness of vision,” he said, “this instrument is,
+perhaps, equal to any that was ever made.” His praise was amply
+justified. As he worked his way with it through the constellation
+Gemini, on the night of March 13th, 1781, an unprecedented event
+occurred. “A new planet swam into his ken.” He did not recognise it as
+such. He could only be certain that it was not a fixed star. His keen
+eye, armed with a perfect telescope, discerned at once that the object
+had a disc; and the application of higher powers showed the disc to be
+a substantial reality. The stellar “patines of bright gold” will not
+stand this test. Being of purely optical production, they gain nothing
+by magnification.
+
+At that epoch new planets had not yet begun to be found by the dozen.
+Five, besides the earth, had been known from the remotest antiquity.
+Five, and no more, seemed to have a prescriptive right to exist. The
+boundaries of the solar system were of immemorial establishment. It was
+scarcely conceivable that they should need to be enlarged. The notion
+did not occur to Herschel. His discovery was modestly imparted to the
+Royal Society as “An Account of a Comet.” He had, indeed, noticed
+that the supposed comet moved in planetary fashion from west to east,
+and very near the ecliptic; and, after a few months, its true nature
+was virtually proved by Lexell of St. Petersburg. On November 28th,
+Herschel measured, with his freshly-invented “lamp-micrometer,” the
+diameter of this “singular star;” and it was not until a year later,
+November 7th, 1782, that he felt sufficiently sure of its planetary
+status to exercise his right of giving it a name. Yet this, in the
+long run, he failed to accomplish. The appellation “Georgium Sidus,”
+bestowed in honour of his patron, George III., never crossed the
+Channel, and has long since gone out of fashion amongst ourselves.
+Lalande tried to get the new planet called “Herschel;” but the title
+“Uranus,” proposed by Bode, of Berlin, was the “fittest,” and survived.
+
+This discovery made the turning-point of Herschel’s career. It
+transformed him from a music-master into an astronomer. Without it
+his vast abilities would probably have been in great measure wasted.
+No man could long have borne the strain of so arduous a double life
+as he was then leading. Relief from it came just in time. It is true
+that fame, being often more of a hindrance than a help, brought
+embarrassments in its train. In November, 1781, Herschel was compelled
+to break the complex web of his engagements at Bath by a journey to
+London for the purpose of receiving in person the Copley Medal awarded
+to him by the Royal Society, of which body he was, some days later,
+elected a Fellow. At home, he was persecuted by admirers; and they
+were invariably received with an easy suavity of manner that gave no
+hint of preoccupation. Everyone of scientific pretension who visited
+Bath sought an interview with the extraordinary man who, by way of
+interlude to pressing duties, had built telescopes of unheard-of
+power, and performed the startling feat of adding a primary member
+to the solar system. Among the few of these callers whose names have
+been preserved were Sir Harry Englefield, Sir Charles Blagden, and Dr.
+Maskelyne, then, and for thirty years afterwards, Astronomer-Royal.
+“With the latter,” Miss Herschel relates, “he (William) was engaged
+in a long conversation which to me sounded like quarrelling, and the
+first words my brother said after he was gone were, ‘That is a devil
+of a fellow!’” The phrase was doubtless meant as a sign of regard, for
+the acquaintance thus begun ripened into cordial intimacy. And William
+Herschel never lost or forgot a friend.
+
+As regards music alone, the winter of 1781–82 was an exceptionally busy
+one. He had arranged to conduct, jointly with Rauzzini, a Roman singer
+and composer, a series of oratorios; undertaking, besides, pecuniary
+responsibilities which turned out little to his advantage. The labour,
+vexation, and disappointment involved in carrying out this unlucky plan
+can readily be imagined. But neither the pressure of business, nor
+the distractions of celebrity, checked the ardour of his scientific
+advance. The review which afforded him the discovery of Uranus, and the
+materials for his first catalogue of 269 double stars, was completed
+in 1781; and a third, made with the same beautiful instrument, bearing
+the high magnifying power of 460, was promptly begun. This had for one
+of its special objects the ascertainment of possible changes in the
+heavens since Flamsteed’s time; and in the course of it many thousands
+of stars came under scrutiny, directed to ascertain their magnitude and
+colour, singleness or duplicity, hazy or defined aspect.
+
+The first of Herschel’s _effective_ twenty-foot telescopes was erected
+at 19, New King Street, in the summer of 1781. Enclosing a mirror
+twelve inches in diameter, it far surpassed any seeing-machine that had
+ever existed in the world. Yet its maker regarded it as only marking
+a step in his upward progress. A speculum of thirty-feet focus was
+the next object of his ambition. For its achievement no amount of
+exertion was counted too great. Its composition was regulated by fresh
+experiments on various alloys of copper and tin. Its weight and shape
+were again and again calculated, and the methods appropriate to its
+production earnestly discussed. “I saw nothing else,” Caroline Herschel
+tells us, “and heard nothing else talked of but these things when my
+brothers were together.”[B]
+
+ [B] In borrowing Miss Herschel’s lively narratives and
+ comments, some obvious slips in grammar and construction
+ have been corrected. Quotations, too, from the writings
+ of Sir William and Sir John Herschel are often slightly
+ abridged.
+
+“The mirror,” she continues, “was to be cast in a mould of loam
+prepared from horse-dung, of which an immense quantity was to be
+pounded in a mortar and sifted through a fine sieve. It was an endless
+piece of work, and served me for many an hour’s exercise; and Alex
+frequently took his turn at it, for we were all eager to do something
+towards the great undertaking. Even Sir William Watson would sometimes
+take the pestle from me when he found me in the work-room.”
+
+The matter was never out of the master’s thoughts. “If a minute could
+but be spared in going from one scholar to another, or giving one the
+slip, he called at home to see how the men went on with the furnace,
+which was built in a room below, even with the garden.”
+
+At last, the concert season being over, and everything in readiness
+for the operation of casting, “the metal,” we hear from the same
+deeply-interested eyewitness, “was in the furnace; but, unfortunately,
+it began to leak at the moment when ready for pouring, and both my
+brothers, and the caster with his men, were obliged to run out at
+opposite doors, for the stone flooring, which ought to have been taken
+up, flew about in all directions, as high as the ceiling. My poor
+brother William fell, exhausted with heat and exertion, on a heap of
+brickbats. Before the second casting was attempted, everything which
+could ensure success had been attended to, and a very perfect metal was
+found in the mould, which had cracked in the cooling.”
+
+This second failure terminated the enterprise. Not that it was
+abandoned as hopeless, but because of a total change in the current of
+affairs. Herschel’s fame had stirred the royal curiosity, and rumours
+had now and again reached Bath that he was to be sent for to court. In
+the spring of 1782 the actual mandate arrived; and on May 8th, leaving
+his pupils and his projects to shift for themselves, he set out for
+London. He carried with him his favourite seven-foot reflector, and all
+the apparatus necessary for viewing double stars and other objects of
+interest. On May 25th he wrote to his sister:--
+
+“I have had an audience of His Majesty this morning, and met with a
+very gracious reception. I presented him with the drawing of the solar
+system, and had the honour of explaining it to him and the Queen. My
+telescope is in three weeks’ time to go to Richmond, and meanwhile
+to be put up at Greenwich.... Tell Alexander that everything looks
+very like as if I were to stay here. The King enquired after him, and
+after my great speculum. He also gave me leave to come and hear the
+Griesbachs (Herschel’s nephews) play at the private concert which he
+has every evening.... All my papers are printing, and are allowed to
+be very valuable. You see, Lina, I tell you all these things. You
+know vanity is not my foible, therefore I need not fear your censure.
+Farewell.”
+
+His next letter is dated June 3rd, 1782. “I pass my time,” he informed
+“Lina,” “between Greenwich and London agreeably enough, but am rather
+at a loss for work that I like. Company is not always pleasing, and I
+would much rather be polishing a speculum. Last Friday I was at the
+King’s concert to hear George play. The King spoke to me as soon as he
+saw me, and kept me in conversation for half an hour. He asked George
+to play a solo-concerto on purpose that I might hear him.... I am
+introduced to the best company. To-morrow I dine at Lord Palmerston’s,
+next day with Sir Joseph Banks, etc. Among opticians and astronomers
+nothing now is talked of but _what they call_ my great discoveries.
+Alas! this shows how far they are behind, when such trifles as I have
+seen and done are called _great_. Let me but get at it again! I will
+make such telescopes and see such things--that is, I will endeavour to
+do so.”
+
+A comparison of his telescope with those at the Royal Observatory
+showed its striking superiority, although among them was one of Short’s
+famous Gregorians, of 9½ inches aperture. It had thus a reflecting
+surface above twice that of Herschel’s seven-foot, the competition
+with which was nevertheless so disastrous to its reputation that Dr.
+Maskelyne fell quite out of conceit with it, and doubted whether it
+_deserved_ the new stand constructed for it on the model of Herschel’s.
+
+In the midst of these scientific particulars, we hear incidentally that
+influenza was then so rife in London that “hardly one single person”
+escaped an attack.
+
+On July 2nd he made his first appearance as showman of the heavens to
+royalty. The scene of the display was Buckingham House (now Buckingham
+Palace). “It was a very fine evening,” he wrote to his sister. “My
+instrument gave general satisfaction. The King has very good eyes, and
+enjoys observations with telescopes exceedingly.”
+
+Next night, the King and Queen being absent at Kew, the Princesses
+desired an exhibition. But, since they objected to damp grass, the
+telescope, Herschel says, “was moved into the Queen’s apartments, and
+we waited some time in hopes of seeing Jupiter or Saturn. Meanwhile
+I showed the Princesses and several other ladies the speculum, the
+micrometers, the movements of the telescope, and other things that
+seemed to excite their curiosity. When the evening appeared to be
+totally unpromising, I proposed an artificial Saturn as an object,
+since we could not have the real one. I had beforehand prepared this
+little piece, as I guessed by the appearance of the weather in the
+afternoon we should have no stars to look at. This being accepted with
+great pleasure, I had the lamps lighted up, which illuminated the
+picture of a Saturn (cut out in pasteboard) at the bottom of the garden
+wall. The effect was fine, and so natural that the best astronomer
+might have been deceived. Their royal highnesses seemed to be much
+pleased with the artifice.” From a somewhat prolonged conversation,
+he judged them to be “extremely well instructed,” and “most amiable
+characters.”
+
+Shortly afterwards Herschel received the appointment of royal
+astronomer, with the modest salary of £200 a year. “Never,” exclaimed
+Sir William Watson on being made acquainted with its amount, “bought
+monarch honour so cheap!” The provision was assuredly not munificent;
+yet it sufficed to rescue a great man from submergence under the hard
+necessities of existence. The offer was critically timed. It was made
+precisely when teaching and concert-giving had come to appear an
+“intolerable waste of time” to one fired with a visionary passion.
+“Stout Cortes” staring at the Pacific, Ulysses starting from Ithaca to
+“sail beyond the sunset,” were not more eager for experience of the
+Unknown.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE KING’S ASTRONOMER.
+
+
+William Herschel was now an appendage to the court of George III. He
+had to live near Windsor, and a large dilapidated house on Datchet
+Common was secured as likely to meet his unusual requirements. The
+“flitting” took place August 1, 1782. William was in the highest
+spirits. There were stables available for workrooms and furnaces; a
+spacious laundry that could be turned into a library; a fine lawn for
+the accommodation of the great reflector. Crumbling walls and holes
+in the roof gave him little or no concern; and if butcher’s meat was
+appallingly dear (as his sister lamented) the family could live on
+bacon and eggs! In this sunny spirit he entered upon the career of
+untold possibilities that lay before him.
+
+Nevertheless the King’s astronomer did not find it all plain sailing.
+His primary duty was to gratify the royal taste for astronomy, and this
+involved no trifling expenditure of time and toil. The transport of the
+seven-foot to the Queen’s lodge could be managed in the daylight, but
+its return-journey in the dark, after the conclusion of the celestial
+raree-show, was an expensive and a risky business; yet fetched back it
+should be unless a clear night were to be wasted--a thing not possible
+to contemplate. This kind of attendance was, however, considerately
+dispensed with when its troublesome nature came to be fully understood.
+Herschel’s treatment by George III. has often been condemned as
+selfish and niggardly; but with scant justice. In some respects, no
+doubt, it might advantageously have been modified. Still, the fact
+remains that the astronomer of Slough was the gift to science of the
+poor mad King. From no other crowned head has it ever received so
+incomparable an endowment.
+
+Herschel’s salary was undeniably small. It gave him the means of
+living, but not of observing, as he proposed to observe. If the
+improvement of telescopes were to be “carried to its utmost limit,”
+additional funds must be raised. Without an ample supply of the “sinews
+of war,” fresh campaigns of exploration were out of the question. There
+was one obvious way in which they could be provided. Herschel’s fame as
+an optician was spread throughout Europe. His telescopes were wanted
+everywhere, but could be had from himself alone; for the methods by
+which he wrought specula to a perfect figure are even now undivulged.
+They constituted, therefore, a source of profit upon which he could
+draw to almost any extent. He applied himself, accordingly, to make
+telescopes for sale. They brought in large sums. Six hundred guineas
+a-piece were paid to him by the King for four ten-foot reflectors; he
+received at a later date £3,150 for a twenty-five foot, sent to Spain;
+and in 1814 £2,310 from Lucien Bonaparte for two smaller instruments.
+The regular scale of prices (later considerably reduced) began with 200
+guineas for a seven-foot, and mounted to 2,500 for a twenty-foot; and
+the commissions executed were innumerable.
+
+But Herschel did not come into the world to drive a lucrative trade.
+It was undertaken, not for itself, but for what was to come of it; yet
+there was danger lest the end should be indefinitely postponed in the
+endeavour to secure the means.
+
+“It seemed to be supposed,” Miss Herschel remarked, “that enough had
+been done when my brother was enabled to leave his profession that he
+might have time to make and sell telescopes. But all this was only
+retarding the work of a thirty or forty-foot instrument, which it was
+his chief object to obtain as soon as possible; for he was then on the
+wrong side of forty-five, and felt how great an injustice he would be
+doing to himself and the cause of astronomy by giving up his time to
+making telescopes for other observers.”
+
+This he was, fortunately, not long obliged to do. A royal grant of
+£2,000 for the construction of the designed giant telescope, followed
+by another of equal amount, together with an annual allowance of
+£200 for its repairs, removed the last obstacle to his success. The
+wide distribution of first-class instruments might, indeed, have
+been thought to promise more for the advancement of astronomy than
+the labours of a single individual. No mistake could be greater. Not
+an observation worth mentioning was made with any of the numerous
+instruments sent out from Datchet or Slough, save only those acquired
+by Schröter and Pond. The rest either rusted idly, or were employed
+ineffectually, aptly illustrating the saying that “the man at the
+eye-end” is the truly essential part of a telescope.
+
+No one knew this better than Herschel. Every serene dark night was
+to him a precious opportunity availed of to the last minute. The
+thermometer might descend below zero, ink might freeze, mirrors might
+crack; but, provided the stars shone, he and his sister worked on
+from dusk to dawn. In this way, his “third review,” begun at Bath,
+was finished in the spring of 1783. The swiftness with which it was
+conducted implied no want of thoroughness. “Many a night,” he states,
+“in the course of eleven or twelve hours of observation, I have
+carefully and singly examined not less than 400 celestial objects,
+besides taking measures, and sometimes viewing a particular star for
+half an hour together, with all the various powers.”
+
+The assiduity appears well-nigh incredible with which he gathered in
+an abundant harvest of nebulæ and double stars; his elaborate papers,
+brimful of invention and experience, being written by day, or during
+nights unpropitious for star-gazing. On one occasion he is said to
+have worked without intermission at the telescope and the desk for
+seventy-two hours, and then slept unbrokenly for twenty-six hours. His
+instruments were never allowed to remain disabled. They were kept,
+like himself, on the alert. Relays of specula were provided, and one
+was in no case removed from the tube for re-polishing, unless another
+was ready to take its place. Even the meetings of the Royal Society
+were attended only when moonlight effaced the delicate objects of his
+particular search.
+
+The summer of 1788 was spent in getting ready the finest telescope
+Herschel had yet employed. It was called the “large twenty-foot”
+because of the size of its speculum, which was nearly nineteen inches
+in diameter; and with its potent help he executed his fourth and
+last celestial survey. His impatience to begin led him into perilous
+situations.
+
+“My brother,” says Miss Herschel, “began his series of sweeps when the
+instrument was yet in a very unfinished state; and my feelings were
+not very comfortable when every moment I was alarmed by a crack or
+fall, knowing him to be elevated fifteen feet or more on a temporary
+cross-beam instead of a safe gallery. The ladders had not even their
+braces at the bottom; and one night, in a very high wind, he had hardly
+touched the ground before the whole apparatus came down. Some labouring
+men were called up to help in extricating the mirror, which was
+fortunately uninjured, but much work was cut out for carpenters next
+day.”
+
+In the following March, he himself wrote to Patrick Wilson, of Glasgow,
+son of Dr. Alexander Wilson, the well-known professor of astronomy:--“I
+have finished a second speculum to my new twenty-foot, very much
+superior to the first, and am now reviewing the heavens with it. This
+will be a work of some years; but it is to me so far from laborious
+that it is attended with the utmost delight.” He, nevertheless, looked
+upon telescopes as “yet in their infant state.”
+
+The ruinous mansion at Datchet having become uninhabitable, even
+by astronomers, their establishment was shifted, in June, 1785, to
+Clay Hall, near Old Windsor. Here the long-thought-of forty-foot was
+begun, but was not destined to be finished. A litigious landlady
+intervened. The next move, however, proved to be the last. It was to
+a commodious residence at Slough, now called “Observatory House”--“le
+lieu du monde,” wrote Arago, “où il a été fait le plus de découvertes.”
+Thither, without the loss of an hour, in April, 1786, the machinery and
+apparatus collected at Clay Hall were transported. Yet, “amidst all
+this hurrying business,” Caroline remembered “that every moment after
+daylight was allotted to observing. The last night at Clay Hall was
+spent in sweeping till daylight, and by the next evening the telescope
+stood ready for observation at Slough.”
+
+During the ensuing three months, thirty to forty workmen were
+constantly employed, “some in felling and rooting out trees, some in
+digging and preparing the ground for the bricklayers who were laying
+the foundation for the telescope.” “A whole troop of labourers” were,
+besides, engaged in reducing “the iron tools to a proper shape for the
+mirror to be ground upon.” Thus, each morning, when dawn compelled
+Herschel to desist from observation, he found a bevy of people awaiting
+instructions of all sorts from him. “If it had not been,” his sister
+says, “for the intervention of a cloudy or moonlit night, I know not
+when he, or I either, should have got any sleep.” The wash-house was
+turned into a forge for the manufacture of specially designed tools;
+heavy articles cast in London were brought by water to Windsor; the
+library was so encumbered with stores, models, and implements, that “no
+room for a desk or an atlas remained.”
+
+On July 3rd, 1786, Herschel, accompanied by his brother Alexander,
+started for Göttingen, commissioned by the King to present to the
+University one of the ten-foot reflectors purchased from him. He was
+elected a Member of the Royal Society of Göttingen, and spent three
+weeks at Hanover with his aged mother, whom he never saw again. During
+his absence, however, the forty-foot progressed in accordance with
+the directions he had taken care to leave behind. He trusted nothing
+to chance. “There is not one screwbolt,” his sister asserted, “about
+the whole apparatus but what was fixed under the immediate eye of
+my brother. I have seen him lie stretched many an hour in a burning
+sun, across the top beam, whilst the iron-work for the various motions
+was being fixed. At one time no less than twenty-four men (twelve and
+twelve relieving each other) kept polishing day and night; my brother,
+of course, never leaving them all the while, taking his food without
+allowing himself time to sit down to table.”
+
+At this stage of the undertaking it became the fashion with visitors to
+use the empty tube as a promenade. Dr. and Miss Burney called, in July,
+1786, “to see, and _take a walk_ through the immense new telescope.”
+“It held me quite upright,” the authoress of “Evelina” related, “and
+without the least inconvenience; so would it have done had I been
+dressed in feathers and a bell-hoop.”
+
+George III. and the Archbishop of Canterbury followed the general
+example; and the prelate being incommoded by the darkness and the
+uncertain footing, the King, who was in front, turned back to help him,
+saying: “Come, my lord bishop, I will show you the way to heaven.” On
+another occasion “God save the King” was sung and played within the
+tube by a large body of musicians; and the rumour went abroad that it
+had been turned into a ball-room!
+
+The University of Oxford conferred upon Herschel, in 1786, an honorary
+degree of LL.D.; but he cared little for such distinctions. Miss
+Burney characterised him as a “man without a wish that has its object
+in the terrestrial globe;” the King had “not a happier subject.” The
+royal bounty, she went on “enables him to put into execution all his
+wonderful projects, from which his expectations of future discoveries
+are so sanguine as to make his present existence a state of almost
+perfect enjoyment.” Nor was it possible to “admire his genius more
+than his gentleness.” Again, after taking tea in his company in the
+Queen’s lodge: “this very extraordinary man has not more fame to
+awaken curiosity than sense and modesty to gratify it. He is perfectly
+unassuming, yet openly happy; and happy in the success of those studies
+which would render a mind less excellently formed presumptuous and
+arrogant.” Mrs. Papendick, another court chronicler, says that “he was
+fascinating in his manner, and possessed a natural politeness, and the
+abilities of a superior nature.”
+
+His great telescope took rank, before and after its completion, as the
+chief scientific wonder of the age. Slough was crowded with sightseers.
+All the ruck of Grand Dukes and Serene Highnesses from abroad, besides
+royal, noble, and gentle folk at home, flocked to gaze at it and
+interrogate its maker with ignorant or intelligent wonder. The Prince
+of Orange was a particularly lively inquirer. On one of his calls at
+Slough, about ten years after the erection of the forty-foot, finding
+the house vacant, he left a memorandum asking if it were true, as the
+newspapers reported, that “Mr. Herschel had discovered a new star whose
+light was not as that of the common stars, but with swallow-tails, as
+stars in embroidery?”!
+
+Pilgrim-astronomers came, too--Cassini, Lalande, Méchain and Legendre
+from Paris, Oriani from Milan, Piazzi from Palermo. Sniadecki, director
+of the observatory of Cracow, “took lodgings,” Miss Herschel relates,
+“in Slough, for the purpose of seeing and hearing my brother whenever
+he could find him at leisure. He was a very silent man.” One cannot
+help fearing that he was also a very great bore. Von Magellan, another
+eminent foreign astronomer, communicated to Bode an interesting account
+of Herschel’s methods of observation. The multitude of entries in his
+books astonished him. In sweeping, he reported, “he lets each star pass
+at least three times through the field of his telescope, so that it is
+impossible that anything can escape him.” The thermometer in the garden
+stood that night, January 6th, 1785, at 13 deg. Fahrenheit; but the
+royal astronomer, his visitor remarked, “has an excellent constitution,
+and thinks about nothing else in the world but the celestial bodies.”
+
+In January, 1787, Herschel made trial with his twenty-foot reflector
+of the “front-view” plan of construction, suggested by Lemaire in
+1732, but never before practically tested. All that had to be done
+was to remove the small mirror, and slightly _tilt_ the large one.
+The image was then formed close to the upper margin of the tube, into
+which the observer, turning his back to the heavens, looked down. The
+purpose of the arrangement was to save the light lost in the second
+reflection; and its advantage was at once illustrated by the discovery
+of two Uranian moons--one (Titania) circling round its primary in about
+8¾ hours, the other (Oberon) in 13½ hours. In order to assure these
+conclusions, he made a sketch beforehand of what _ought_ to be seen on
+February 10th; and on that night, to his intense satisfaction, “the
+heavens,” as he informed the Royal Society, “displayed the original of
+my drawing by showing, in the situation I had delineated them, _the
+Georgian planet attended by two satellites_. I confess that this scene
+appeared to me with additional beauty, the little secondary planets
+seeming to give a dignity to the primary one which raises it into a
+more conspicuous situation among the great bodies of our solar system.”
+
+This brilliant result determined him to make a “front-view” of
+the forty-foot. Its advance towards completion was not without
+vicissitudes. The first speculum, when put into the tube, February
+19th 1787, was found too thin to maintain its shape. A second, cast
+early in 1788, cracked in cooling. The same metal having been recast
+February 16th, the artist tried it upon Saturn in October; but the
+effect disappointing his expectation, he wrought at it for ten months
+longer. At last, after a few days’ polishing with his new machine, he
+turned the great speculum towards Windsor Castle; when its high quality
+became at once manifest. And such was his impatience to make with it
+a crucial experiment, that--as he told Sir Joseph Banks--he directed
+it to the heavens (August 28th, 1789) before it had half come to its
+proper lustre. The stars came out well, and no sooner had he got hold
+of Saturn than a sixth satellite stood revealed to view! Its “younger
+brother” was detected September 17th; and the two could be seen, on
+favourable opportunities, threading their way, like beads of light,
+along the lucid line of the almost vanished ring. Herschel named them
+Enceladus and Mimas, and found, on looking up his former observations
+of Saturn, that Enceladus, the exterior and brighter object, had been
+unmistakably seen with the twenty-foot, August 19th, 1787. Mimas is a
+very delicate test of instrumental perfection.
+
+The mirror by which it was first shown measured nearly fifty inches
+across, and weighed 2,118 pounds. It was slung in a ring, and the
+sheet-iron tube in which it rested was thirty-nine and a-half feet
+long and four feet ten inches wide. Ladders fifty feet in length
+gave access to a movable stage, from which the observer communicated
+through speaking tubes with his assistants. The whole erection stood
+on a revolving platform; for the modern equatorial form of mount, by
+which the diurnal course of the heavens is automatically followed, was
+not then practically available, and the necessary movements had to be
+imparted by hand. This involved the attendance of two workmen, but was
+otherwise less inconvenient than might be supposed, owing to the skill
+with which the required mechanism was contrived.
+
+Herschel estimated that, with a magnifying-power of 1,000, this grand
+instrument could, in the climate of England, be effectively used during
+no more than one hundred hours of every year. A review with it of the
+whole heavens would hence have occupied eight centuries. In point of
+fact, he found the opportunities for its employment scarce. The machine
+took some time to get started, while the twenty-foot was ready in ten
+minutes. The speculum, moreover, proved unpleasantly liable to become
+dewed in moist weather, or frozen up in cold; and, in spite of all
+imaginable care, it preserved the delicacy of its polish no more than
+two years. An economist of minutes, such as its maker, could, then,
+do no otherwise than let the giant telescope lie by unless its powers
+were expressly needed. They were surprisingly effective. “With the
+forty-foot instrument,” he reported to the Royal Society in 1800, “the
+appearance of Sirius announced itself at a great distance like the dawn
+of the morning, till this brilliant star at last entered the field,
+with all the splendour of the rising sun, and forced me to take my eye
+from that beautiful sight.” Which, however, left the vision impaired
+in delicacy for nigh upon half-an-hour.
+
+Thus the results gathered from the realisation of Herschel’s crowning
+optical achievement fell vastly short of what his imagination had
+pictured. The promise of the telescope’s initial disclosures was not
+realised in its subsequent career. Yet it was a superb instrument.
+The discovery with it of Mimas gave certain proof that the figure of
+the speculum was as perfect as its dimensions were unusual. But its
+then inimitable definition probably fell off later. Its “broad bright
+eye” was, for the last time, turned towards the heavens January 19th,
+1811, when the Orion nebula showed its silvery wings to considerable
+advantage. But incurable dimness had already set in--incurable, because
+the artist’s hand had no longer the strength needed to cure the growing
+malady. The big machine was, however, left standing, framework and all.
+It figured as a landmark on the Ordnance Survey Map of England; and,
+stamped in miniature on the seal of the Royal Astronomical Society,
+aptly serves to illustrate its motto, “_Quicquid nitet notandum_.”
+At last, on New Years Eve, 1839, the timbers of the scaffolding
+being dangerously decayed, it was, with due ceremony, dismounted. A
+“Requiem,” composed by Sir John Herschel, was sung by his family,
+fourteen in number, assembled within the tube, which was then riveted
+up and laid horizontally on three stone piers in the garden at Slough.
+“It looks very well in its new position,” Sir John thought. Yet it has
+something of a _memento mori_ aspect. It seems to remind one that the
+loftiest human aspirations are sprinkled “with the dust of death.” The
+speculum adorns the hall of Observatory House.
+
+Herschel married, May 8th, 1788, Mary, the only child of Mr. James
+Baldwin, a merchant in the City of London, and widow of Mr. John Pitt.
+She was thirty-eight and he fifty. Her jointure relieved him from
+pecuniary care, and her sweetness of disposition secured his domestic
+happiness. They set up a curious double establishment, taking a house
+at Upton, while retaining that at Slough. Two maidservants were kept
+in each, and a footman maintained the communications. So at least runs
+Mrs. Papendick’s gossip. Miss Burney records in her Diary a tea at Mr.
+De Luc’s, where Dr. Herschel accompanied a pair of vocalists “very
+sweetly on the violin. His newly-married wife was with him, and his
+sister. His wife seems good-natured; she was rich, too! And astronomers
+are as able as other men to discern that gold can glitter as well as
+stars.”
+
+He was now at the height of prosperity and renown. Diplomas innumerable
+were showered upon him by Academies and learned societies. In a letter
+to Benjamin Franklin, he returned thanks for his election as a member
+of the American Philosophical Society, and acquainted him with his
+recent detection of a pair of attendants on the “Georgian planet.”
+A similar acknowledgment was addressed to the Princess Daschkoff,
+Directress of the Petersburg Academy of Sciences. The King of Poland
+sent him his portrait; the Empress Catherine II. opened negotiations
+for the purchase of some of his specula, Lucien Bonaparte repaired
+to Slough incognito; Joseph Haydn snatched a day from the turmoil
+of his London engagements to visit the musician-astronomer, and
+gaze at his monster telescopes. By universal agreement, Dr. Burney
+declared, Herschel was “one of the most pleasing and well-bred natural
+characters of the day, as well as the greatest astronomer.” They had
+much in common, according to Dr. Burney’s daughter. Both possessed an
+uncommon “suavity of disposition”; both loved music; and Dr. Burney had
+a “passionate inclination for astronomy.” They became friends through
+the medium of Dr. Burney’s versified history of that science. In
+September, 1797, he called at Slough with the manuscript in his valise.
+“The good soul was at dinner,” he relates; and, to his surprise, since
+he was ignorant of Herschel’s marriage, the company included several
+ladies, besides “a little boy.” He was, nothing loth, compelled to stay
+over-night; discussed with his host the plan of his work, and read to
+him its eighth chapter. Herschel listened with interest, and modestly
+owned to having learnt much from what he had heard; but presently
+dismayed the author by confessing his “aversion to poetry,” which
+he had generally regarded as “an arrangement of fine words without
+any adherence to the truth.” He added, however, that “when truth and
+science were united to those fine words,” they no longer displeased
+him. The readings continued at intervals, alternately at Slough and
+Chelsea, to the immense gratification of the copious versifier, who
+occasionally allowed his pleasure to overflow in his correspondence.
+
+“Well, but Herschel has been in town,” he wrote from Chelsea College,
+December 10th, 1798, “for short spurts and back again, two or three
+times, and I have had him here two whole days. I read to him the first
+five books without any one objection.” And again; “He came, and his
+good wife accompanied him, and I read four and a-half books; and on
+parting, still more humble than before, or still more amiable, he
+thanked me for the instruction and entertainment I had given him. What
+say you to that? Can anything be grander?”
+
+In spite of his “aversion,” Herschel had once, and once only, wooed the
+coy muse himself. The first evening paper that appeared in England, May
+3rd, 1788, contained some introductory quatrains by him. An excuse for
+this unwonted outburst may be found in the circumstance that the sheet
+in which they were printed bore the name of _The Star_. They began with
+the interrogation:
+
+ “What Star art thou, about to gleam
+ In Novelty’s bright hemisphere?”
+
+and continued:
+
+ “A Planet wilt thou roll sublime,
+ Spreading like Mercury thy rays?
+ Or chronicle the lapse of Time,
+ Wrapped in a Comet’s threatening blaze?”
+
+That they are of the schoolboy order need surprise no one. Such a mere
+sip at the “Pierian spring” could scarcely bring inspiration.
+
+Herschel’s grand survey of the heavens closed with his fourth review.
+His telescopic studies thereupon became specialised. The sun, the
+planets and their satellites, the lately discovered asteroids, certain
+double stars, and an occasional comet, in turn received attention.
+Laboratory experiments were also carried on, and discussions of
+profound importance were laid before the Royal Society. All this
+cost him but little effort. The high tension of his earlier life was
+somewhat relaxed; he allowed himself intervals of rest, and indulged
+in social and musical recreations. Concerts were now frequently given
+at his house; and the face of beaming delight with which he presided
+over them is still traditionally remembered. Visits to Sir William
+Watson at Dawlish gave him opportunities, otherwise rare, for talks on
+metaphysical subjects; and he stayed with James Watt at Heathfield in
+1810. He had been a witness on his side in an action for infringement
+of patent in 1793.
+
+Herschel rented a house on Sion Hill, Bath, for some months of the year
+1799; and from time to time stayed with friends in London, or sought
+change of air at Tunbridge Wells, Brighton, or Ramsgate. In July,
+1801, he went to Paris with his wife and son, made acquaintance with
+Laplace, and had an interview with the First Consul. It was currently
+reported that Bonaparte had astonished him by the extent of his
+astronomical learning; but the contrary was the truth. He had tried to
+be impressive, but failed. Herschel gave an account of what passed to
+the poet Campbell, whom he met at Brighton in 1813.
+
+“The First Consul,” he said, “did surprise me by his quickness and
+versatility on all subjects; but in science he seemed to know little
+more than any well-educated gentleman; and of astronomy much less,
+for instance, than our own king. His general air was something like
+affecting to know more than he did know.” Herschel’s election in 1802
+as one of the eight foreign Associates of the French Institute was
+probably connected with his Parisian experiences.
+
+He inspired Campbell with the most lively enthusiasm. “His simplicity,”
+he wrote, “his kindness, his anecdotes, his readiness to explain--and
+make perfectly conspicuous too--his own sublime conceptions of the
+universe, are indescribably charming. He is seventy-six, but fresh
+and stout; and there he sat, nearest the door at his friend’s house,
+alternately smiling at a joke, or contentedly sitting without share
+or notice in the conversation. Any train of conversation he follows
+implicitly; anything you ask, he labours with a sort of boyish
+earnestness to explain. Speaking of himself, he said, with a modesty of
+manner which quite overcame me, when taken together with the greatness
+of the assertion, ‘I have looked further into space than ever human
+being did before me; I have observed stars, of which the light, it can
+be proved, must take two millions of years to reach this earth.’ I
+really and unfeignedly felt at the moment as if I had been conversing
+with a supernatural intelligence. ‘Nay, more,’ said he, ‘if those
+distant bodies had ceased to exist two millions of years ago we should
+still see them, as the light would travel after the body was gone.’
+These were Herschel’s words; and if you had heard him speak them, you
+would not think he was apt to tell more than the truth.”
+
+The appearance of a bright comet, in October, 1806, drew much company
+to Slough. On the 4th, Miss Herschel narrates, “Two parties from the
+Castle came to see it, and during the whole month my brother had not
+an evening to himself. As he was then in the midst of polishing the
+forty-foot mirror, rest became absolutely necessary after a day spent
+in that most laborious work; and it has ever been my opinion that on
+the 14th of October his nerves received a shock from which he never
+got the better afterwards; for on that day he had hardly dismissed
+his troop of men when visitors assembled, and from the time it was
+dark, till past midnight, he was on the grass-plot surrounded by
+between fifty and sixty persons, without having had time to put on
+proper clothing, or for the least nourishment to pass his lips. Among
+the company I remember were the Duke of Sussex, Prince Galitzin, Lord
+Darnley, a number of officers, Admiral Boston, and some ladies.”
+
+A dangerous attack of illness in the spring of 1807 left Herschel’s
+strength permanently impaired. But he travelled to Scotland in the
+summer of 1810, and received the freedom of the City of Glasgow.
+Then, in 1814, he made a final, but fruitless attempt, to renovate
+the four-foot speculum. In the midst of the confusion attending upon
+the process, word was given to prepare for the reception of the Czar
+Alexander, the Duchess of Oldenburg, and sundry other grandees just
+then collected at Windsor for the Ascot races. The setting to rights
+was no small job; “but we might have saved ourselves the trouble,” his
+sister remarks drily, “for they were sufficiently harassed with public
+sights and festivities.”
+
+On April 5th, 1816, Herschel was created a Knight of the Royal
+Hanoverian Guelphic Order, and duly attended one of the Prince Regent’s
+levées in May. He went to town in 1819 to have his portrait painted
+by Artaud. The resulting fine likeness is in the possession of his
+grandson, Sir William James Herschel. The Astronomical Society chose
+him as its first President in 1821; and he contributed to the first
+volume of its memoirs a supplementary list of 145 double stars. The
+wonderful series of his communications to the Royal Society closed
+when he was in his eightieth year, with the presentation, June 11th,
+1818, of a paper on the Relative Distances of Star-clusters. On June
+1st, 1821, he inserted into the tube with thin and trembling hands
+the mirror of the twenty-foot telescope, and took his final look at
+the heavens. All his old instincts were still alive, only the bodily
+power to carry out their behests was gone. An unparalleled career of
+achievement left him unsatisfied with what he had done. Old age brought
+him no Sabbath rest, but only an enforced and wearisome cessation from
+activity. His inability to re-polish the four-foot speculum was the
+doom of his _chef d’œuvre_. He could not reconcile himself to it. His
+sunny spirits gave way. The old happy and buoyant temperament became
+overcast with despondency. His strong nerves were at last shattered.
+
+On August 15th, 1822, Miss Herschel relates:--“I hastened to the spot
+where I was wont to find him with the newspaper I was to read to him.
+But I was informed my brother had been obliged to return to his room,
+whither I flew immediately. Lady Herschel and the housekeeper were with
+him, administering everything which could be thought of for supporting
+him. I found him much irritated at not being able to grant Mr.
+Bulman’s[C] request for some token of remembrance for his father. As
+soon as he saw me, I was sent to the library to fetch one of his last
+papers and a plate of the forty-foot telescope. But for the universe I
+could not have looked twice at what I had snatched from the shelf, and
+when he faintly asked if the breaking-up of the Milky Way was in it,
+I said ‘Yes,’ and he looked content. I cannot help remembering this
+circumstance; it was the last time I was sent to the library on such
+an occasion. That the anxious care for his papers and workrooms never
+ended but with his life, was proved by his whispered inquiries if they
+were locked, and the key safe.”
+
+ [C] The grandson of one of Herschel’s earliest English friends.
+
+He died ten days later, August 25th, 1822. Above his grave, in the
+church of Saint Laurence at Upton, the words are graven:--“Coelorum
+perrupit claustra”--He broke through the barriers of the skies.
+
+William Herschel was endowed by nature with an almost faultless
+character. He had the fervour, without the irritability of genius; he
+was generous, genial, sincere; tolerant of ignorance; patient under the
+acute distress, to which his situation rendered him peculiarly liable,
+of unseasonable interruptions at critical moments: he was warm-hearted
+and open-handed. His change of country and condition, his absorption
+in science, the homage paid to him, never led him to forget the claims
+of kindred. Time and money were alike lavished in the relief of family
+necessities. He supported his brother Alexander after his retirement
+from the concert-stage in 1816, until his death at Hanover, March 15th,
+1821. Dietrich’s recurring misfortunes met his unfailing pity and
+help. He bequeathed to him a sum of £2,000, and to his devoted sister,
+Caroline, an annuity of £100.
+
+His correspondents, abroad and at home, were numerous; nor did he
+disdain to remove the perplexities of amateurs. In a letter, dated
+January 6th, 1794, we find him explaining to Mr. J. Miller of Lincoln’s
+Inn, “the circumstances which attend the motion of a race-horse upon
+a circle of longitude.” And he wrote shortly afterwards to Mr. Smith
+of Tewkesbury:--“You find fault with the principles of gravitation
+and projection because they will not account for the rotation of the
+planets upon their axes. You might certainly with as much reason find
+fault with your shoes because they will not likewise serve your hands
+as gloves. But, in my opinion, the projectile motion once admitted,
+sufficiently explains the rotatory motion; for it is hardly possible
+mechanically to impress the one without giving the other at the same
+time.”
+
+On religious topics he was usually reticent; but a hint of the reverent
+spirit in which his researches were conducted may be gathered from
+a sentence in the same letter. “It is certainly,” he said, “a very
+laudable thing to receive instruction from the great workmaster of
+nature, and for that reason all experimental philosophy is instituted.”
+
+To investigate was then, in his view, to “receive instruction”; and one
+of the secrets of his wonderful success lay in the docility with which
+he came to be taught.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE EXPLORER OF THE HEAVENS.
+
+
+“A knowledge of the construction of the heavens,” Herschel wrote
+in 1811, “has always been the ultimate object of my observations.”
+The “Construction of the Heavens”! A phrase of profound and novel
+import, for the invention of which he was ridiculed by Brougham in the
+_Edinburgh Review_; yet expressing, as it had never been expressed
+before, the essential idea of sidereal astronomy. Speculation there had
+been as to the manner in which the stars were grouped together; but the
+touchstone of reality had yet to be applied to them. This unattempted,
+and all but impossible enterprise Herschel deliberately undertook. It
+presented itself spontaneously to his mind as worth the expenditure
+of a life’s labour; and he spared nothing in the disbursement. The
+hope of its accomplishment inspired his early exertions, carried him
+through innumerable difficulties, lent him audacity, fortified him in
+perseverance. For this,
+
+ “He left behind the painted buoy
+ That tosses at the harbour’s mouth,”
+
+and burst his way into an unnavigated ocean.
+
+Herschel has had very few equals in his strength of controlled
+imagination. He held the balance, even to a nicety, between the
+real and the ideal. Meditation served in him to prescribe and guide
+experience; experience to ripen the fruit of meditation.
+
+“We ought,” he wrote in 1785, “to avoid two opposite extremes. If we
+indulge a fanciful imagination, and build worlds of our own, we must
+not wonder at our going wide from the path of truth and nature. On the
+other hand, if we add observation to observation without attempting to
+draw, not only certain conclusions, but also conjectural views from
+them, we offend against the very end for which only observations ought
+to be made.”
+
+This was consistently his method. If thought outran sight, he laboured
+earnestly that it should be overtaken by it: while sight, in turn,
+often took the initiative, and suggested thought. He was much more than
+a simple explorer. “Even at the telescope,” Professor Holden says, “his
+object was not discovery merely, but to know the inner constitution of
+the heavens.” He divined, at the same time that he observed.
+
+The antique conception of the heavens as a hollow sphere upon which
+the celestial bodies are seen projected, survived then, and survives
+now, as a convenient fiction for practical purposes. But in the
+eighteenth century the fiction assumed to the great majority a sort of
+quasi-reality. Herschel made an exception in being vividly impressed
+with the _depth_ of space. How to sound that depth was the first
+problem that he attacked. As a preliminary to further operations, he
+sought to fix a unit of sidereal measurement. The distances from the
+earth to the stars were then altogether unknown. All that had been
+ascertained was that they must be very great. Instrumental refinements
+had not, in fact, been carried far enough to make the inquiry
+profitable. Herschel did not underrate its difficulty. He recognised
+that, in pursuing it, _one hundredth of a second of arc_ “became a
+quantity to be considered.” Justly arguing, however, that previous
+experiments on stellar parallax had been unsatisfactory and indecisive,
+he determined to try again.
+
+He chose the “double star method,” invented by Galileo, but never, so
+far, effectually put to trial. The principle of it is perfectly simple,
+depending upon the perspective shifting to a spectator in motion, of
+objects at different distances from him. In order to apprehend it,
+one need only walk up and down before a lamp placed in the middle of
+a room, watching its apparent change of position relative to another
+lamp at the end of the same room. Just in the same way, a star observed
+from opposite sides of the earth’s orbit is sometimes found to alter
+its situation very slightly by comparison with another star close to it
+in the sky, but indefinitely remote from it in space. Half the small
+oscillation thus executed is called that star’s “annual parallax.” It
+represents the minute angle under which the radius of the terrestrial
+orbit would appear at the star’s actual distance. So vast, however, is
+the scale of the universe, that this tell-tale swing to and fro is,
+for the most part, imperceptible even with modern appliances, and was
+entirely inaccessible to Herschel’s observations. Yet they did not
+remain barren of results.
+
+“As soon as I was fully convinced,” he wrote in 1781, “that in the
+investigation of parallax the method of double stars would have many
+advantages above any other, it became necessary to look out for proper
+stars. This introduced a new series of observations. I resolved to
+examine every star in the heavens with the utmost attention that I
+might fix my observations upon those that would best answer my end.
+The subject promises so rich a harvest that I cannot help inviting
+every lover of astronomy to join with me in observations that must
+inevitably lead to new discoveries. I took some pains to find out
+what double stars had been recorded by astronomers; but my situation
+permitted me not to consult extensive libraries, nor, indeed, was it
+very material; for as I intended to view the heavens myself, Nature,
+that great volume, appeared to me to contain the best catalogue.”
+
+On January 10th, 1782, he presented to the Royal Society a catalogue
+of 269 double stars, of which 227 were of his own finding; and a
+second list of 434 followed in December, 1784. All were arranged in
+six classes, according to the distance apart of their components,
+ranging from one up to 120 seconds. The close couples he regarded as
+especially adapted for parallax-determinations; the wider ones might
+serve for criteria of stellar proper movements, or even of the sun’s
+transport through space. For the purpose of measuring the directions
+in which their members lay towards each other--technically called
+“position-angles”--and the intervals separating them, he invented
+two kinds of micrometers, and notes were added as to their relative
+brightness and colours. He was the first to observe the lovely
+contrasted or harmonised tints displayed by some of these objects.
+
+Herschel’s double stars actually fulfilled none of the functions
+assigned to them. He was thus left without any definite unit of
+measurement for sidereal space; and he never succeeded in supplying the
+want. In 1814 he was “still engaged,” though vainly, “in ascertaining
+a scale whereby the extent of the universe, so far as it is possible
+for us to penetrate into space, may be fathomed.” He knew only that
+the distances of the stars nearest the earth could not be less, and
+might be a great deal more, than light-waves, propagated at the rate
+of 186,300 miles a second, would traverse in three or four years. Only
+the _manner_ of stellar arrangement, then, remained open to his zealous
+investigations.
+
+The initial question presenting itself to an intelligent spectator of
+the nocturnal sky is: What relation does the dim galactic star-stream
+bear to the constellations amidst which it flows? And this question
+our interior position makes very difficult to be answered. We see
+the starry universe, it has been well said, “not in _plan_ but in
+_section_.” The problem is, from that section to determine the plan--to
+view the whole mentally as it would show visually from the outside. The
+general appearance to ourselves of the Milky Way leaves it uncertain
+whether it represents the projection upon the heavens of an immense
+stratum of equally scattered stars, or a ring-like accumulation,
+towards the middle of which our sun is situated. Herschel gave his
+preference, to begin with, to the former hypothesis, and then, with
+astonishing boldness and ingenuity, attempted to put it experimentally
+to the proof.
+
+His method of “star-gauging” was described in 1784. It consisted in
+counting the stars visible in successive fields of his twenty-foot
+telescope, and computing the corresponding depths of space. Admitting
+an average regularity of distribution, this was easily done. If the
+stars did not really lie closer together in one region than in another,
+then the more of them there were to be seen along a given line of
+vision, the further the system could be inferred to extend in that
+particular direction. The ratio of its extension would also be given.
+It would vary with the cube-roots of the number of stars in each count.
+
+Guided by this principle, Herschel ventured to lay down the boundaries
+of the stellar aggregation to which our sun belongs. So far as he
+“had yet gone round it,” in 1785, he perceived it to be “everywhere
+terminated, and in most places very narrowly too.” The differences,
+however, between his enumerations in various portions of the sky
+were enormous. In the Milky Way zone the stars presented themselves
+in shoals. He met fields--of just one quarter the area of the
+moon--containing nearly 600; so that, in fifteen minutes, 116,000
+were estimated to have marched past his stationary telescope. Here,
+the calculated “length of his sounding-line” was nearly 500 times the
+distance of Sirius, his standard star. Towards the galactic poles, on
+the contrary, stars were comparatively scarce; and the transparent
+blackness of the sky showed that in those quarters the supply of
+stars was completely exhausted. At right angles to the Milky Way,
+then, the stellar system might be termed shallow, while in its plane,
+it stretched out on all sides to an inconceivable, though not to an
+illimitable extent. Its shape appeared, accordingly, to be that of a
+flat disc, of very irregular contour, and with a deep cleft matching
+the bifid section of the Milky Way between Cygnus and Scorpio.
+
+Herschel regarded this conclusion only “as an example to illustrate
+the method.” Yet it was derived from the reckoning-up of 90,000 stars
+in 2,400 telescopic fields! Its validity rested on the assumption
+that stellar crowding indicated, not more stars in a given space, but
+more space stocked in the same proportion with stars. But his hope
+of thus getting a true mean result collapsed under the weight of his
+own observations. “It would not be difficult,” he stated in 1785, “to
+point out two or three hundred gathering clusters in our system.” The
+action of a “clustering power” drawing its component stars “into many
+separate allotments” grew continually clearer to him, and he admitted
+unreservedly in 1802 that the Milky Way “consists of stars very
+differently scattered from those immediately about us.”
+
+In 1811, he expressly abandoned his original hypothesis. “I must freely
+confess,” he wrote, “that by continuing my sweeps of the heavens
+my opinion of the arrangement of the stars has undergone a gradual
+change. An equal scattering of the stars may be admitted in certain
+calculations; but when we examine the Milky Way, or closely compressed
+clusters, it must be given up.”
+
+And in 1817: “Gauges, which on a supposition of an equality of
+scattering, were looked upon as gauges of distance, relate, in fact,
+more immediately to the scattering of the stars, of which they give
+valuable information.”
+
+The “disc-theory” was then virtually withdrawn not many years after it
+had been propounded. “The subtlety of nature,” according to Bacon’s
+aphorism, “transcends the subtlety both of the intellect and of the
+senses.” Herschel very soon perceived the inadequacy of his colossal
+experiment; and he tranquilly acquiesced, not being among those who
+seek to entrench theory against evidence. He found that he had
+undervalued the complexity of the problem. Yet it remained before his
+mind to the end. The supreme object of his scientific life was to
+ascertain the laws of stellar distribution in cubical space, and he
+devoted to the subject the two concluding memoirs of the sixty-nine
+contributed by him to the “Philosophical Transactions.” He was in his
+eightieth year when he opened, with youthful freshness, a new phase of
+arduous investigation.
+
+“The construction of the heavens,” he wrote in June, 1817, “can only
+be known when we have the situation of each body defined by its three
+dimensions. Of these three, the ordinary catalogues give but two,
+leaving the distance or profundity undetermined.” This element of
+“profundity” he went on to determine by the absolutely novel method of
+what may be called “photometric enumeration.”
+
+He began by asserting what is self-evident--that faint stars are, “one
+with another,” more remote than bright ones; and he argued thence,
+reasonably enough, that the relative mean distances of the stars, taken
+order by order, might be inferred from their relative mean magnitudes.
+Next he pointed out that more space would be available for their
+accommodation in proportion to the cubes of their mean distances.
+Here lies the value of the method. It sets up, as Herschel said, “a
+standard of reference” with regard to stellar distribution. It makes it
+possible to compare actual stellar density, at a given mean distance,
+with a “certain properly modified equality of scattering.” By patiently
+calling over the roll of successive magnitudes, information may be
+obtained regarding over- and under-populated districts of space.
+
+Herschel’s reasonings on the subject are perfectly valid, but for
+practical purposes far in advance of the time. Their application
+demanded a knowledge of stellar light-gradations, which, even now, has
+been only partially attained. His surprising anticipation of this mode
+of inquiry came, therefore, to nothing.
+
+His device of “limiting apertures” was a simultaneous invention. It
+was designed as a measure of relative star-distances. Pointing two
+similar telescopes upon two unequal stars, he equalised them to the
+eye by stopping down the aperture of the instrument directed towards
+the brighter object. Assuming each to emit the same quantity of light,
+their respective distances would then be inversely as the diameters of
+the reflecting surfaces by which they were brought to the same level of
+apparent lustre. But the enormous real diversities of stellar size and
+brightness render this plan of action wholly illusory. Even for average
+estimates, proper motion is apparently a safer criterion of distance
+than magnitude.
+
+Herschel employed the method of apertures with better success to
+ascertain the comparative extent of natural and telescopic vision. The
+boundary of the former was placed at “the twelfth order of distance.”
+Sirius, that is to say, removed to twelve times its actual remoteness,
+would be a barely discernible object to the naked eye. The same star
+carried seventy-five times further away still, could be seen as a faint
+light-speck with his twenty-foot telescope; and, transported 192 times
+beyond the visual limit, would make a similar appearance in the field
+of the forty-foot. These figures, multiplied by twelve, represented,
+in his expressive phrase, the “space-penetrating power” of his
+instruments. Their range extended respectively to 900 and 2,300 times
+the distance of his “standard star.” He estimated, moreover, that,
+through the agency of the larger, light might become sensible to the
+eye after a journey lasting nearly seven thousand years! So that, as he
+said, his telescopes penetrated both time and space.
+
+His last observation of the Milky Way showed it to be in parts
+“fathomless,” even with the forty-foot. No sky-background could be
+seen, but only the dim glow of “star-dust.” This effect he attributed
+to the immeasurable extension, in those directions, of the stellar
+system. The serried orbs composing it, as they lay further and further
+from the eye, became at last separately indistinguishable. Herschel, as
+has been said, formulated no second theory of galactic structure after
+that of 1784–5 had been given up. What he thought on the subject, with
+ripened experience for his guide, can only be gathered piecemeal from
+his various writings. The general appearance of
+
+ That “broad and ample road, whose dust is gold,
+ And pavement stars,”
+
+he described as “that of a zone surrounding our situation in the
+solar system, in the shape of a succession of differently condensed
+patches of brightness, intermixed with others of a fainter tinge.”
+And he evidently considered this _seeming_ to be in fair accord with
+reality. The “patches of brightness” stood for genuine clusters,
+incipient, visibly forming, or formed. They are made up of stars not
+less lustrous, but much more closely collected than Sirius, Arcturus,
+or Capella. The smallness of galactic stars would thus be an effect
+of distance, while their crowding is a physical fact. The whole of
+these clusters are (on Herschel’s view) aggregated into an irregular,
+branching ring, distinct from, although bound together into one system
+with the brilliants of the constellations. “Our sun,” he emphatically
+affirmed in 1817, “with all the stars we can see with the eye, are
+deeply immersed in the Milky Way, and form a component part of it.”
+
+He took leave of the subject which had engrossed so many of his
+thoughts in a paper read before the Royal Society, June 11th, 1818.
+In it he showed how the “equalising” principle could be applied to
+determine the relative distances of “globular and other clusters,”
+provided only that their component stars are of the rank of Sirius.
+It is improbable, however, that this condition is fulfilled. In open
+groups, such as the Pleiades, enormous suns are most likely connected
+with minute self-luminous bodies; but the stars compressed into
+“globular clusters” appear to be more uniform, and may, perhaps, be
+intermediate in magnitude. Yet here again, the only thing certain is
+the prevalence of endless variety. Celestial systems are not turned out
+by the dozen, like articles from a factory. Each differs from the rest
+in scale, in structure, in mechanism. Attempts to reduce all to any
+common standard must then prove futile. Disparities of distance are of
+course concerned in producing their varieties of aspect, coarse-looking
+“balls of stars” being, necessarily, on the whole, less remote than
+those of smoother texture. Finer graining, however, may also be due to
+a composition out of smaller and closer masses. The two causes concur,
+and the share of each in producing a certain effect cannot, in any
+individual case, be apportioned.
+
+Herschel was indeed far too philosophical to adopt rigid lines of
+argument. His reasoning did not extend “so far as to exclude a
+real difference, not only in the size, but also in the number and
+arrangement of the stars in different clusters.” Nevertheless,
+the discussion founded upon it is no longer convincing. To modern
+astronomers it appears to travel quite wide of the mark. Its interest
+consists in the proof given by it that the problem of sidereal
+distances, the original incentive to Herschel’s reviews of the
+heavens, attracted his attention to the very end of his thinking life.
+Throughout his long career, the profundities of the universe haunted
+him. He sought, _per fas, per nefas_, trustworthy measures of the
+“third dimension” of celestial space. The object of his search was out
+of reach, and has not even now been fully attained; but the path it led
+him by was strewn with discoveries.
+
+The nets spread in his “sweeps” brought in, besides double stars,
+plentiful takes of the filmy objects called “nebulæ.” He recognised
+with amazement their profusion in certain tracts of the sky; increased
+telescopic light-grasp never failed to render a further supply visible;
+the heavens teemed with them. He presented a catalogue of 1,000 to the
+Royal Society in 1786, a second equally comprehensive in 1789, and a
+supplementary list of 500 in 1802. Their natural history fascinated
+him. What they were, what they had been, and what they should come to,
+formed the subject of many of those ardent meditations which supplied
+motive power for his researches. He not only laid the foundation of
+nebular science, but carried the edifice to a considerable height,
+distinguishing the varieties of its objects, and classifying them
+according to their gradations of brightness. Some presented a most
+fantastic appearance.
+
+“I have seen,” he wrote in 1784, “double and treble nebulæ variously
+arranged; large ones with small, seeming attendants; narrow, but much
+extended lucid nebulæ or bright dashes; some of the shape of a fan,
+resembling an electric brush, issuing from a lucid point; others of
+the cometic shape, with a seeming nucleus in the centre, or like
+cloudy stars surrounded with a nebulous atmosphere; a different sort,
+again, contained a nebulosity of the milky kind, like that wonderful,
+inexplicable phenomenon about Theta Orionis; while others shine with a
+fainter mottled kind of light which denotes their being resolvable into
+stars.”
+
+He, “through the mystic dome,” discerned
+
+ “Regions of lucid matter taking form,
+ Brushes of fire, hazy gleams,
+ Clusters and beds of worlds, and bee-like swarms
+ Of suns and starry streams.”
+
+Annular and planetary nebulæ were _as such_, first described by him.
+“Among the curiosities of the heavens,” he announced in 1785, “should
+be placed a nebula that has a regular concentric dark spot in the
+middle, and is probably a ring of stars.” This was the famous annular
+nebula in Lyra, then a unique specimen, now the type of a class.
+
+The planetary kind, so-called from their planet-like discs, were
+always more or less of an enigma to him. The vividness and uniformity
+of their light appeared to cut them off from true nebulæ; on mature
+consideration, he felt driven to suppose them “compressed star-groups.”
+“If it were not, perhaps, too hazardous,” he went on, “to pursue
+a former surmise of a renewal in what I figuratively called the
+laboratories of the universe, the stars forming these extraordinary
+nebulæ, by some decay or waste of nature, being no longer fit for their
+former purposes, and having their projectile forces, if any such they
+had, retarded in each other’s atmospheres, rush at last together, and
+either in succession, or by one general tremendous shock, unite into a
+new body. Perhaps the extraordinary and sudden blaze of a new star in
+Cassiopeia’s Chair, in 1572, might possibly be of such a nature.”
+
+At that early stage of his inquiries, Herschel regarded all nebulæ
+indiscriminately as composed of genuine stars. It was almost inevitable
+that he should do so. For each gain in telescopic power had the effect
+of transferring no insignificant proportion of them from the nebular
+to the stellar order. There was no apparent reason for drawing a line
+anywhere. The inference seemed irresistible, that resolvability was
+simply a question of optical improvement. As Messier’s _nébuleuses sans
+étoiles_ had yielded to Herschel’s telescopes, so--it might fairly
+be anticipated--the “milky” streaks and patches seen by Herschel
+would curdle into stars under the compulsion of the still mightier
+instruments of the future. He was led on--to use his own expressions
+in 1791--“by almost imperceptible degrees from evident clusters,
+such as the Pleiades, to spots without a trace of stellar formation,
+the gradations being so well connected as to leave no doubt that all
+these phenomena were equally stellar.” They were what Lambert and Kant
+had supposed them to be--island-universes, vast congeries of suns,
+independently organised, and of galactic rank. They were, each and all,
+glorious systems, barely escaping total submergence in the illimitable
+ocean of space. Under the influence of these grandiose ideas, Herschel
+told Miss Burney, in 1786, that with his “large twenty-foot” he had
+“discovered 1,500 universes!” Fifteen hundred “whole sidereal systems,
+some of which might well outvie our Milky Way in grandeur.”
+
+His contemplations of the heavens showed him everywhere traces of
+progress--of progress rising towards perfection, then sinking into
+decay, though with a sure prospect of renovation. He was thus led to
+arrange the nebulæ in a presumed order of development. The signs of
+interior condensation traceable in nearly all, he attributed to the
+persistent action of central forces. Condensation, then, gave evidence
+of age. Aggregated stars drew closer and closer together with time. So
+that scattered or branching formations were to be regarded as at an
+early stage of systemic existence; globular clusters, as representing
+universes still in the prime of life; while objects of the planetary
+kind were set down as “very aged, and drawing on towards a period of
+change, or dissolution.”
+
+Our own nebula he characterised as “a very extensive, branching
+congeries of many millions of stars,” bearing upon it “fewer marks of
+profound antiquity than the rest.” Yet, in certain regions, he found
+“reason to believe that the stars are now drawing towards various
+secondary centres, and will in time separate into different clusters.”
+As an example of the ravages of time upon the galactic structure,
+he adverted to a black opening, four degrees wide, in the Zodiacal
+Scorpion, bordered on the west by an exceedingly compact cluster
+(Messier’s No. 80), possibly formed, he thought, of stars drawn from
+the adjacent vacancy. The chasm was to him one of the most impressive
+of celestial phenomena. His sister preserved an indelible recollection
+of hearing him, in the course of his observations, after a long, awful
+silence, exclaim, “Hier ist wahrhaftig ein Loch im Himmel!” (Here,
+truly, is a hole in the sky); and he recurred to its examination
+night after night and year after year, without ever clearing up, to
+his complete satisfaction, the mystery of its origin. The cluster
+significantly located at its edge was lit up in 1860 by the outburst of
+a temporary star.
+
+This was not the sole instance noted by Herschel of the conjunction
+of a chasm with a cluster; and chasms and clusters alike told the
+same story of dilapidation. He foresaw, accordingly, as inevitable,
+the eventual “breaking-up” of the Milky Way into many small, but
+independent nebulæ. “The state into which the incessant action of the
+clustering power has brought it at present,” he wrote in 1814, “is a
+kind of chronometer that may be used to measure the time of its past
+and future existence; and although we do not know the rate of going of
+this mysterious chronometer, it is, nevertheless, certain that since
+the breaking up of the Milky Way affords a proof that it cannot last
+for ever, it equally bears witness that its past duration cannot be
+admitted to be infinite.”
+
+Thus the idea of estimating the relative “ages” of celestial
+objects--of arranging them according to their progress in development,
+originated with Herschel in 1789. “This method of viewing the heavens,”
+he added, “seems to throw them into a new kind of light. They are
+now seen to resemble a luxuriant garden which contains the greatest
+variety of productions in different flourishing beds; and one
+advantage we may at least reap from it is that we can, as it were,
+extend the range of our experience to an immense duration. For, is
+it not almost the same thing whether we live successively to witness
+the germination, blooming, foliage, fecundity, fading, withering, and
+corruption of a plant, or whether a vast number of specimens, selected
+from every stage through which the plant passes in the course of its
+existence, be brought at once to our view?”
+
+But while he followed the line of continuity thus vividly traced,
+another crossing, and more or less interfering with it, opened out
+before him. The discovery of a star in Taurus, “surrounded with a
+faintly luminous atmosphere,” led him, in 1791, to revise his previous
+opinions regarding the nature of nebulæ. He was not at all ashamed of
+this fresh start. No fear of “committing himself” deterred him from
+imparting the thoughts that accompanied his multudinous observations.
+He felt committed to nothing but truth. He was advancing into an
+untrodden country. At every step he came upon unexpected points of
+view. The bugbear of inconsistency could not prevent him from taking
+advantage of each in turn to gain a wider prospect.
+
+Until 1791 Herschel never doubted that gradations of distance fully
+accounted for gradations of nebular resolvability. He had been led on,
+he explained, by almost imperceptible degrees from evident clusters
+to spots without a trace of stellar formation, no break anywhere
+suggesting the possibility of a radical difference of constitution.
+“When I pursued these researches,” he went on, “I was in the situation
+of a natural philosopher who follows the various species of animals
+and insects from the height of their perfection down to the lowest ebb
+of life; when, arriving at the vegetable kingdom, he can scarcely point
+out to us the precise boundary where the animal ceases and the plant
+begins; and may even go so far as to suspect them not to be essentially
+different. But, recollecting himself, he compares, for instance,
+one of the human species to a tree, and all doubt upon the subject
+vanishes. In the same manner we pass by gentle steps from a coarse
+cluster to an object such as the nebula in Orion, where we are still
+inclined to remain in the once adopted idea of stars exceedingly remote
+and inconceivably crowded, as being the occasion of that remarkable
+appearance. It seems, therefore, to require a more dissimilar object
+to set us right again. A glance like that of the naturalist, who casts
+his eye from the perfect animal to the perfect vegetable, is wanting
+to remove the veil from the mind of the astronomer. The object I have
+mentioned above is the phenomenon that was wanting. View, for instance,
+the nineteenth cluster of my sixth class, and afterwards cast your eye
+on this cloudy star, and the result will be no less decisive than that
+of the naturalist. Our judgment, I venture to say, will be that _the
+nebulosity about the star is not of a starry nature_.”
+
+In this manner he inferred the existence of real nebulous matter--of
+a “shining fluid” of unknown and unimaginable properties. Was it
+perhaps, he asked himself, a display of electrical illumination, like
+the aurora borealis, or did it rather resemble the “magnificent cone of
+the zodiacal light?” A boundless field of speculation was thrown open.
+“These nebulous stars,” he added, “may serve as a clue to unravel
+other mysterious phenomena.”
+
+As their close allies, he now recognised planetary nebulæ, the
+“milkiness, or soft tint of their light,” agreeing much better with the
+supposition of a fluid, than of a stellar condition. And he rightly
+placed in the same category the Orion nebula, and certain “diffused
+nebulosities” which he had observed just to tarnish the sky over wide
+areas. These last might, he considered, be quite near the earth, and
+the object in Orion not more distant than perhaps an average second
+magnitude star.
+
+The relations of the sidereal to the nebular “principle” exercised
+Herschel’s thoughts during many years. He had no sooner reasoned out
+the existence in interstellar space of a rarefied, self-luminous
+substance, than he began to interrogate himself as to its probable
+function. Nature was to him the expression of Supreme Reason. He could
+only conceive of her doings as directed towards an intelligible end.
+Hence his confidence that rational investigation must lead to truth.
+
+Already in 1791 he hinted at the conclusion which he foresaw. The
+envelope of a “cloudy star” was, he declared, “more fit to produce
+a star by its condensation than to depend upon the star for its
+existence.” And the surmise was confirmed by his detection, in a
+planetary nebula, of a sharp nucleus, or “generating star,” possibly to
+be completed in time by the further accumulation of luminous matter.
+
+His conjectures developed in 1811 into a formal theory. The cosmical
+fluid was met with in all stages of condensation. Nebulous tracts of
+almost evanescent lustre were connected in an unbroken series with
+slightly “burred” objects, wanting only a few last touches to make them
+finished stars. The extremes, as he said, had been, by his “critical
+examination of the nebulous system,” “connected by such nearly allied
+intermediate steps, as will make it highly probable that every
+succeeding state of the nebulous matter is the result of the action of
+gravitation upon it while in a foregoing one.”
+
+In 1814 he traced the progress towards maturity of binary systems.
+Originating in double nebulæ incompletely dissevered--Siamese-twin
+objects, of which he had collected 139 examples--they next appeared
+as nebulously-connected stars, finally as a pair materially isolated,
+and linked together by the sole tie of gravitation. Scattered clusters
+represented, in his scheme of celestial progress, a state antecedent
+to that of globular clusters. “The still remaining irregularity of
+their arrangement,” he said, “additionally proves that the action of
+the clustering power has not been exerted long enough to produce a more
+artificial construction.” He made, too, the important admission that
+clusters apparently “in, or very near the Milky Way,” were truly part
+and parcel of that complex agglomeration.
+
+But what of his “fifteen hundred universes,” which had now logically
+ceased to exist? The stellar and nebular “principles” had virtually
+coalesced; both were included in the galactic system. The question
+of “island universes” was accordingly left in abeyance; although
+Herschel certainly believed in 1818 that among the multitude of
+“ambiguous objects”--we should call them irresolvable nebulæ--many
+exterior firmaments were included. Yet what he had ascertained about
+the distribution of nebulæ should alone have sufficed to shatter this
+remnant of a conviction.
+
+The fact became clear to him during the progress of his “sweeps” that
+nebulæ, to some extent, _replace stars_. He found them to occur in
+“parcels,” more or less embedded with stars, “beds” and “parcels”
+together being surrounded by blank spaces. This arrangement grew so
+familiar to him that he used to notify his assistant, when stars
+thinned out in the zone he was traversing, “to prepare for nebulæ.”
+A wider relationship, brought within view by the large scale of
+his labours, was defined by his fortunate habit of charting, for
+convenience of identification, each newly-discovered batch of nebulæ.
+
+“A very remarkable circumstance,” he wrote in 1784, “attending the
+nebulæ and clusters of stars, is that they are arranged into strata,
+which seem to run on to a great length; and some of them I have already
+been able to pursue, so as to guess pretty well at their form and
+direction. It is probable enough that they may surround the whole
+apparent sphere of the heavens, not unlike the Milky Way.”
+
+In the following year he spoke no longer of a zone, but of two vast
+groupings of nebulæ about the opposite poles of the Milky Way. That
+is to say, where stars are scarcest nebulæ are most abundant. The
+correspondence did not escape him; but he did not recognise its
+architectonic meaning. He had traced out the main plan of the stellar
+world; he had discovered, not merely thousands of nebulæ, but the
+nebular system; he had shown that stars and nebulæ were intimately
+associated; he had even made it clear that nebular distribution was
+governed by the lines of galactic structure. It only remained to draw
+the obvious inference that these related parts made up one whole--that
+no more than a single universe is laid open to human contemplation.
+This was done by Whewell thirty years after his death.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+HERSCHEL’S SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS.
+
+
+Double stars were, when Herschel began to pay attention to them,
+regarded as mere chance productions. No suspicion was entertained
+that a real, physical bond united their components. Only the Jesuit
+astronomer, Christian Mayer, maintained that bright stars were often
+attended by faint ones; and since his observations were not such as
+to inspire much confidence, his assertions counted for very little.
+“In my opinion,” Herschel wrote in 1782, “it is much too soon to form
+any theories of small stars revolving round large ones.” He, indeed,
+probably even then, suspected that close _equal_ stars formed genuine
+couples; but he waited, if so, for evidence of the connection. The
+chief subject of his experiments on parallax was Epsilon Boötis, an
+exquisitely tinted, unequal pair. But he soon became aware that either
+stellar parallax was elusively small, or that he was on the wrong track
+for detecting it. And, since his favourite stars have proved to be a
+binary combination, it was, of course, drawing water in a sieve to make
+one the test of perspective shifting in the other.
+
+The number of Herschel’s double stars alone showed them to be integral
+parts of an express design. Such a crop of casualties was out of all
+reasonable question. And it was actually pointed out in 1784 by John
+Michell, a man of extraordinary sagacity, that the odds in favour of
+their physical union were truly “beyond arithmetic.”
+
+Herschel meantime kept them under watch and ward, and after the lapse
+of a score of years found himself in a position to speak decisively.
+On July 1, 1802, he informed the Royal Society that “casual situations
+will not account for the multiplied phenomena of double stars,” adding,
+“I shall soon communicate a series of observations proving that many
+of them have already changed their situation in a progressive course,
+denoting a periodical revolution round each other.” A year later he
+amply fulfilled this pledge. Discussing in detail the displacements
+brought to light by his patient measurements, he made it clear that
+they could be accounted for only by supposing the six couples in
+question to be “real binary combinations, intimately held together
+by the bond of mutual attraction.” His conclusion was, in each case,
+ratified by subsequent observation. The stars instanced by him--Castor,
+Gamma Leonis, Epsilon Boötis, Delta Serpentis, Gamma Virginis, and
+Zeta Herculis--are all noted binaries. Not satisfied with establishing
+the fact, Herschel assigned the periods of their revolutions. But he
+could only do so on the hypothesis of circular motion, while the real
+orbits are highly elliptical. His estimates then went necessarily wide
+of the mark. For one pair only, he was able to use an observation
+anterior to his own. Bradley had roughly fixed, in 1759, the relative
+position of the components of Castor, the finest double star in the
+northern heavens; and the preservation of the record in Dr. Maskelyne’s
+note-book extended by twenty years the basis of Herschel’s conclusions
+regarding this system.
+
+He continued, in 1803, his discussions of double stars; announced
+a leisurely circulation of both the pairs composing the typical
+“double-double star,” Epsilon Lyræ; and conjectured the union of the
+two into one grand whole--a forecast verified by the evidence of
+common proper motion. The Annus Magnus of the quadruple system cannot,
+according to Flammarion, be less than a million of years.
+
+The discovery of binary stars was, in Arago’s phrase, “one with a
+future.” In itself an amazing revelation, it marked the beginning of
+a series of investigations of immense variety and importance. By it,
+a science of sidereal mechanics was shown to be possible; the sway of
+gravitation received an unlimited extension; and the perception of
+order, which is the precursor of knowledge, ranged at once over the
+whole visible creation. Herschel, it is true, had not the means of
+formally proving that stellar orbits are described in obedience to the
+Newtonian law. His affirmative assertion rested only on the analogy of
+the solar system. But the rightness of his judgment has never seriously
+been called in question.
+
+His research into the transport of the solar system through space
+proved, as Bessel said, that the activity of his mind was independent
+of the stimulus supplied by his own observations. It was one of his
+most brilliant performances.
+
+The detection of progressive star-movements was due to Halley. It
+was announced in 1718. The bright objects spangling the sky are then
+“fixed” only in name. “But if the proper motion of the stars be
+admitted,” asked Herschel, “who can deny that of our sun?” The same
+idea had occurred to several earlier astronomers, but only one, Tobias
+Mayer, of Göttingen, had tried to test it practically; and he had
+failed. “To discern the proper motion of the sun between so many other
+motions of the stars,” Herschel might well designate “an arduous task.”
+Yet it was not on that account to be neglected. The conditions of the
+problem were perfectly clear to him. If the sun alone were in motion,
+the stars should unanimously appear to drift backward from the “apex,”
+or point on the sphere towards which his journey was directed. The
+heavens would open out in front of his advance, and close up behind.
+The effect was compared by Mayer to the widening prospect and narrowing
+vista of trees to a man walking through a forest. On this supposition,
+the perspective displacements of any two stars sufficiently far apart
+in the sky would suffice to determine the solar apex. For it should
+coincide with the intersection of the two great circles continuing the
+directions of those displacements. But the question is far from being
+of this elementary nature. The stars are all flitting about on their
+own account, after--to our apprehension--a haphazard fashion. The sole
+element of general congruity traceable among them is that “systematic,
+or higher, parallax,” by which each of them is, according to a
+determinate proportion, inevitably affected. If this can be elicited,
+the line of the sun’s progress becomes at once known.
+
+Herschel treated the subject in the simplest possible manner. Striking
+a balance between the proper motions of only seven stars, he deduced,
+in 1783, from simple geometrical considerations, an apex for the sun’s
+way, marked by the star Lambda Herculis. But while he seemed to proceed
+by rule, he was really led by the unerring instinct of genius. His
+mode of conducting an investigation, small in compass, yet almost
+inconceivably grand in import, distances praise. Its directness and
+apparent artlessness strike us dumb with wonder. Eminently suited to
+the materials at his command, it was summary, yet, within fairly narrow
+limits, secure. And the result has stood the test of time. It ranks,
+even now, as a valuable approximation to the truth. He himself regarded
+his essay as nothing more than an experimental effort. In a letter to
+Dr. Wilson, of Glasgow, he expressed his apprehensions lest his paper
+on the sun’s motion “might be too much out of the way to deserve the
+notice of astronomers.”
+
+Provided with Maskelyne’s table of thirty-six proper motions, he
+resumed the subject in 1805. He now employed a graphical method,
+drawing great circles to represent the observed stellar movements, and
+planting his apex impartially in the midst of their intersections. It
+was, however, less happily located than that of 1783. The constellation
+Hercules again just included it; but it lay certainly too far west,
+and probably too far north. The memoir conveying the upshot of the
+research is, none the less, a masterpiece. Philosophy and common-sense
+have rarely been so fortunately blended as in this discussion. Without
+any mathematical apparatus, the plan of attack upon a recondite problem
+is expounded with the utmost generality and precision. The reasoning
+is strong and sure; intelligible to the ignorant, instructive to the
+learned.
+
+In his earlier paper, Herschel, while venturing only to “offer a few
+distant hints” as to the _rate_ of the sun’s travelling, expressed
+the opinion that it could “certainly not be less than that which the
+earth has in her annual orbit.” That is to say, his minimum estimate
+was then nineteen miles per second. A direct inquiry, on the other
+hand, convinced him, in 1806, that the solar motion, viewed at right
+angles from the distance of Sirius, would cover yearly an arc of
+1″. 112. This he called “its quantity;” the corresponding velocity
+remained undetermined. We can, however, now, since the real distance
+of his assumed station has been determined, translate this angular
+value into a linear speed of about nine miles a second. The mean of
+his two estimates, or fourteen miles a second, probably differs little
+from the actual rate at which the solar system is being borne to its
+unimaginable destination.
+
+His conclusions regarding the solar translation obtained little notice,
+and less acceptance from his contemporaries and immediate successors.
+His son rejected them as untrustworthy; Bessel, the greatest authority
+of his time in the science of “how the heavens move,” declared in
+1818 that the sun’s apex might be situated in any other part of the
+sky with as much probability as in the constellation Hercules. Not
+until Argelander, by a strict treatment of multiplied and improved
+data, arrived in 1837 at practically the same result, did Herschel’s
+anticipatory efforts obtain the recognition they deserved. Scarcely in
+any department has there been put on record so well-directed a leap
+into the dark of coming discovery.
+
+The systematic light-measurement of the stars began with the same
+untiring investigator. He described in 1796 the method since named
+that of “sequences,” and presented to the Royal Society the first of
+six Photometric Catalogues embracing nearly all the 2,935 stars in
+Flamsteed’s “British Catalogue.” They gave comparative brightnesses
+estimated with the naked eye; classification by magnitudes was put
+aside as vague and misleading. The “sequences” serving for their
+construction were lists of stars arranged, by repeated trials, in
+order of lustre, and rendered mutually comparable by the inclusion
+in each of a few members of the preceding series. Their combination
+into a catalogue was then easily effected. “Simple as my method is in
+principle,” he remarked, “it is very laborious in its progress.” On a
+restricted scale it is still employed for following the gradations of
+change in variable stars.
+
+These researches lay, as Professor Holden expresses it, “directly on
+the line of Herschel’s main work.” The separation of the stars into
+light-ranks intimates at once something as to their distribution in
+space; but the intimations may prove deceptive unless the divisions be
+accurately established. Hence, stellar photometry is an indispensable
+adjunct to the study of sidereal construction. Herschel prosecuted
+the subject besides with a view to ascertaining the constancy of
+stellar lustre. He had been struck with singular discordances between
+magnitudes assigned at different dates. Not to mention stars obviously
+variable, there were others which seemed to be affected by a slow,
+secular waxing or waning. In some of the instances alleged by him,
+the alteration was no doubt fictitious--a record of antique errors;
+but there was a genuine residuum. Thus, the immemorially observed
+constituents of the Plough preserve no fixed order of relative
+brilliancy, now one, now another of the septett having, at sundry
+epochs, assumed the primacy; while a small star in the same group,
+Alcor, the “rider” of the second “horse,” has, in the course of a
+millennium, plainly thrown off some part of its former obscurity. The
+Arabs in the desert regarded it as a test of penetrating vision; and
+they were accustomed to oppose “Suhel” to “Suha” (Canopus to Alcor) as
+occupying respectively the highest and lowest posts in the celestial
+hierarchy. So that _Vidit Alcor, at non lunam plenam_, came to be a
+proverbial description of one keenly alive to trifles, but dull of
+apprehension for broad facts. Now, however, Alcor is an easy naked-eye
+object. One needs not be a “tailor of Breslau,” or a Siberian savage,
+to see it. The little star is unmistakably more luminous than of old.
+
+An inversion of brilliancy between Castor and Pollux, and between the
+two leading stars in the Whale, is further generally admitted to have
+taken place during the eighteenth century. The prevalence of such
+vicissitudes was deeply impressive to Herschel, especially through
+their bearing upon the past and future history of our own planet.
+“If,” he said, “the similarity of stars with our sun be admitted, how
+necessary will it be to take notice of the fate of our neighbouring
+_suns_, in order to guess at that of our own. The _star_ which we have
+dignified by the name of _Sun_ may to-morrow begin to undergo a gradual
+decay of brightness, like Alpha Ceti, Alpha Draconis, Delta Ursæ
+Majoris, and many other diminishing stars. It may suddenly increase
+like the wonderful star in Cassiopeia, or gradually come on like
+Pollux, Beta Ceti, etc. And, lastly, it may turn into a periodical one
+of twenty-five days’ duration (the solar period of rotation), as Algol
+is one of three days, Delta Cephei of five days, etc.” He found it,
+accordingly, “perhaps the easiest way of accounting for past changes
+in climate to surmise that our sun has been formerly sometimes more,
+sometimes less, bright than it is at present.” Herschel attempted,
+in 1798, to analyse star-colours by means of a prism applied to the
+eye-glasses of his reflector. Nothing of moment could at that time come
+of such experiments; but they deserve to be remembered as a sort of
+premonition of future methods of research into the physical condition
+of the stars.
+
+His attention to the sun might have been exclusive, so diligent was
+his scrutiny of its shining surface. Many of its peculiarities were
+first described by him, and none escaped him, except the “deeper
+deep,” or black nucleus of spots, detected by Dawes in 1852. The dusky
+“pores” and brilliant “nodules,” the corrugations, indentations, and
+ridges; the manifold aspects of spots, or “openings;” their “luminous
+shelving sides,” known as penumbræ; were all noted in detail, ranged in
+proper order, and studied in their mutual relations. Spots presented
+themselves to him as evident depressions in the luminous disc; faculæ,
+“so far from resembling torches,” appeared “like the shrivelled
+elevations upon a dried apple, extended in length, and most of them
+joined together, making waves, or waving lines.” Towards the north and
+south, he went on, “I see no faculæ; there is all over the sun a great
+unevenness, which has the appearance of a mixture of small points of
+an unequal light; but they are evidently a roughness of high and low
+parts.”
+
+His theory of the solar constitution was a development of Wilson’s.
+It was clearly conceived, firmly held, and boldly put forward. The
+definite picturesqueness, moreover, of the language in which it was
+clothed, at once laid hold of the public imagination, and gave it
+a place in public favour from which it was dislodged only by the
+irresistible assaults of spectrum analysis.
+
+The sun was regarded by Herschel as a cool dark body surrounded by
+an extensive atmosphere made up of various elastic fluids. Its upper
+stratum--Schröter named it the “photosphere”--was of cloud-like
+composition, and consisted of lucid matter precipitated from the
+elastic medium by which it was sustained. Its depth was estimated at
+two or three thousand miles, and the nature of its emissions suggested
+a comparison with the densest coruscations of the aurora borealis.
+Below lay a region of “planetary,” or protective clouds. Dense, opaque,
+and highly reflective, “they must add,” he said, “a most capital
+support to the splendour of the sun by throwing back so great a share
+of the brightness coming to them.” Their movements betrayed the action
+of vehement winds; and indeed the continual “luminous decompositions”
+producing the radiating shell, with the consequent regeneration of
+atmospheric gases beneath, “must unavoidably be attended with great
+agitations, such as with us might even be called hurricanes.” The
+formation and ascent of “empyreal gas” would cause, when moderate in
+quantity, pores, or small openings in the brilliant layers. But should
+it happen to be generated in uncommon quantities, “it will burst
+through the planetary regions of clouds, and thus will produce great
+openings; then, spreading itself above them, it will occasion large
+shallows, and, mixing afterwards gradually with other superior gases,
+it will promote the increase, and assist in the maintenance of the
+general luminous phenomena.”
+
+The solid globe thus girt round with cloud and fire was depicted as
+a highly eligible place of residence. An equable climate, romantic
+scenery, luxuriant vegetation, smiling landscapes, were to be found
+there. It might, accordingly, be admitted without hesitation that “the
+sun was richly stored with inhabitants.” For the lucid shell visible
+from the exterior possessed, according to this theory, none of the
+all-consuming ardour now attributed to it. Its blaze was a superficial
+display; beneath, “the immense curtain of the planetary clouds was
+everywhere closely drawn” round a world perfectly accommodated to vital
+needs.
+
+In order to reconcile this supposed state of things with the observed
+order of nature, it was suggested that traces of it subsist in the
+planets, “all of which, we have pretty good reason to believe, emit
+light in some degree.” The night-side illumination of Venus, the
+sinister glare of the eclipsed moon, the auroral glimmerings of the
+earth, were adduced as evidence to this effect. The contrast between
+the central body and its dependants was softened down to the utmost.
+
+“The sun, viewed in this light,” Herschel wrote in 1794, “appears to be
+nothing else than a very eminent, large, and lucid planet, evidently
+the first, or, in strictness of speaking, the only primary one of our
+system; all others being truly secondary to it. Its similarity to the
+other globes of the solar system with regard to its solidity, its
+atmosphere, and its diversified surface; the rotation upon its axis,
+and the fall of heavy bodies, lead us on to suppose that it is also
+most probably inhabited, like the rest of the planets, by beings whose
+organs are adapted to the peculiar circumstances of that vast globe.”
+
+To us, nearing the grey dawn of the twentieth century, the idea seems
+extravagant; it was, in the eighteenth, plausible and alluring. The
+philosophers of that age regarded the multiplicity of inhabited
+worlds as of axiomatic certainty. The widest possible diffusion of
+life followed, they held, as a corollary from the beneficence of the
+Creator; while their sense of economy rendered them intolerant of
+_wasted_ globes. Herschel was then reluctant to attribute to the sun
+a purely _altruistic_ existence. Only from the point of view of our
+small terrestrial egotism could so glorious a body figure as solely
+an attractive centre, and a focus of warmth and illumination to a
+group of planets. Besides, looking abroad through the universe, we see
+multitudes of stars which can exercise no ministerial functions. Those
+united to form compressed clusters, or simply joined in pairs, are
+unlikely, it was argued, to carry a train of satellites with them in
+their complex circlings. Unless, then, “we would make them mere useless
+brilliant points,” they must “exist for themselves,” and claim primary
+parts in the great cosmical life-drama.
+
+Herschel’s sun is to us moderns a wholly fabulous body. Still, there
+is a fantastic magnificence about the conception so strongly realised
+by his powerful imagination. Moreover, its scientific value was by
+no means inconsiderable. It represented the first serious effort to
+co-ordinate solar phenomena; it implied the spontaneous action of some
+sort of machinery for the production of light and heat. Spots were
+associated with a circulatory process; the photosphere was portrayed
+under its true aspect. The persistence of its hollows and heights, its
+pores and rugosities, convinced Herschel that the lustrous substance
+composing it was “neither a liquid nor an elastic fluid,” which should
+at once subside into an unbroken level. “It exists, therefore,” he
+inferred, “in the manner of lucid clouds swimming in the transparent
+atmosphere of the sun.”
+
+“The influence of this eminent body on the globe we inhabit,” he wrote,
+continuing the subject in 1801, “is so great, and so widely diffused,
+that it becomes almost a duty to study the operations which are carried
+on upon the solar surface.” This duty he fulfilled to perfection. His
+telescopic readings from the changeful solar disc were of extraordinary
+precision and comprehensiveness. They show his powers as an observer
+perhaps at their best. And, since reasoning was with him inseparable
+from seeing, the appearances he noted took, as if of their own accord,
+their proper places. The history of spots was completely traced. He
+recorded their birth by the enlargement of pores; their development
+and sub-division; established their connexion with faculous matter,
+piled up beside them like mountain-ranges round an Alpine lake, or
+flung across their cavities like blazing suspension-bridges; and
+watched finally their closing-up and effacement, not even omitting the
+post-mortem examination of the disturbances they left behind.
+
+One of Herschel’s curiously original enterprises was his attempt to
+ascertain a possible connexion between solar and terrestrial physics.
+“I am now much inclined to believe,” he stated in 1801, “that openings
+with great shallows, ridges, nodules, and corrugations, may lead us to
+expect a copious emission of heat, and, therefore, mild seasons. And
+that, on the contrary, pores, small indentations, and a poor appearance
+of the luminous clouds, the absence of ridges and nodules, and of
+large openings and shallows, will denote a spare emission of heat,
+and may induce us to expect severe seasons. A constant observation
+of the sun with this view, and a proper information respecting the
+general mildness or severity of the seasons in all parts of the world,
+may bring this theory to perfection, or refute it, if it be not well
+founded.”
+
+But the available data regarding weather-changes turning out to be
+exceedingly defective, he had recourse to the celebrated expedient of
+comparing the state of the sun in past years with the recorded prices
+of corn. Fully admitting the inadequacy of the criterion, he still
+thought that the sun being “the ultimate fountain of fertility, the
+subject may deserve a short investigation, especially as no other
+method is left for our choice.” He obtained, as the upshot, partial
+confirmation of the surmise that “some temporary defect of vegetation”
+ensued upon the subsidence of solar agitation. In plainer language,
+food-stuffs tended to become dear when sun-spots were few and small. No
+signs of cyclical change could, however, be made out. The discovery of
+the “sun-spot period” was left to Schwabe. This admirable preliminary
+effort to elicit the earth’s response to solar vicissitudes was
+denounced by Brougham as a “grand absurdity;” and the readers of the
+second number of the _Edinburgh Review_ were assured that “since the
+publication of ‘Gulliver’s Travels,’ nothing so ridiculous had ever
+been offered to the world!”
+
+Herschel did not neglect the planets. His observations of Venus
+extended from 1777 to 1793. Their principal object was to ascertain the
+circumstances of the planet’s rotation; but they eluded him; which,
+considering that they are still quite uncertain, is not surprising.
+He would probably have communicated nothing on the subject had he not
+been piqued into premature publication by Schröter’s statement that
+the mountains of Venus rose to “four, five, or even six times the
+perpendicular elevation of Chimborazo.” Herschel did not believe in
+them, and expressed his incredulity in somewhat sarcastic terms. “As to
+the mountains in Venus,” he wrote, “I may venture to say that no eye
+which is not considerably better than mine, or assisted by much better
+instruments, will ever get a sight of them.” He rightly inferred,
+however, the presence of an extensive atmosphere from the bending of
+the sun’s rays so as to form much more than a semicircular rim of light
+to the dark disc of the planet when near inferior conjunction--that is,
+when approximately in a right line between us and the sun. He fully
+ascertained, too, the unreality of the Cytherean phantom-satellite.
+The irritability visible in this paper made a solitary exception
+to Herschel’s customary geniality. It might have led to a heated
+controversy but for the excellent temper of Schröter’s reply.
+
+Although we may not be prepared to gainsay Herschel’s dictum that “the
+analogy between Mars and the earth is perhaps by far the greatest in
+the whole solar system,” we can hardly hold it to be so probable as he
+did that “its inhabitants enjoy a situation in many respects similar
+to ours.” Yet the modern epoch in the physical study of Mars began
+with his announcement in 1784 that its white polar caps spread and
+shrank as winter and summer alternated in their respective hemispheres.
+His conclusion of their being produced by snowy depositions from
+“a considerable, though moderate, atmosphere,” is not likely to be
+overthrown. He established, besides, the general permanence of the dark
+markings, notwithstanding minor alterations due, he supposed, to the
+variable distribution of clouds and vapours on the planet’s surface.
+
+This vigilant “watcher of the skies” laid before the Royal Society,
+May 6th, 1802, his “Observations of the two lately discovered Bodies.”
+These were Ceres and Pallas, which, with Juno and Vesta, picked up
+shortly afterwards, constituted the vanguard of the planetoid army.
+Herschel foresaw its arrival. He adopted unhesitatingly Olbers’s theory
+of their disruptive origin, and calculated that Mercury, the least
+of the true planets, might be broken up into 35,000 masses no larger
+than Pallas. An indefinite number of such fragments (about 420 are
+now known) were accordingly inferred to circulate between the orbits
+of Mars and Jupiter. He distinguished their peculiarities, and, since
+they could with propriety be designated neither planets nor comets, he
+proposed for them the name of “asteroids.” But here again he incurred,
+to use his own mild phrase, “the illiberal criticism of the _Edinburgh
+Review_.” “Dr. Herschel’s passion for coining words and idioms,”
+Brougham declared, “has often struck us as a weakness wholly unworthy
+of him. The invention of a name is but a poor achievement in him who
+has discovered whole worlds.” The reviewer forgot, however, that new
+things will not always fit into the framework of old terminology. He
+added the contemptible insinuation that Herschel had devised the word
+“asteroid” for the express purpose of keeping Piazzi’s and Olbers’s
+discoveries on a lower level than his own of Uranus.
+
+Herschel made no direct reply to the attack; only pointing out, in
+December, 1804, how aptly the detection of Juno had come to verify his
+forecasts. “The specific differences,” he said, “between planets and
+asteroids appear now, by the addition of a third individual of the
+latter species, to be more fully established; and that circumstance,
+in my opinion, has added more to the ornament of our system than the
+discovery of another planet could have done.”
+
+His endeavours to determine the diameters of these small bodies were
+ineffectual. Although he at first estimated those of Ceres and Pallas
+at 162 and 147 miles, he admitted later his inability to decide as to
+the reality of the minute discs shown by them; and they were first
+genuinely measured by Professor Barnard with the great Lick refractor
+in 1894.
+
+The “trade-wind theory” of Jupiter’s belts originated with Herschel;
+and he took note of the irregular drifting movements of the spots on
+his surface, and their consequent uselessness for determining the
+period of his rotation. That of Saturn’s he fixed quite accurately
+at ten hours sixteen minutes, with a marginal uncertainty of two
+minutes, the period now accepted being of ten hours fourteen minutes.
+The possession by this planet of a profound atmosphere was inferred
+from the changes in its belts, as well as from some curious phenomena
+attending the disappearance of its satellites. They were commonly
+seen to “hang on the limb”--that is, to pause during an appreciable
+interval on the brink of occultation. Mimas, on one occasion, remained
+thus poised during twenty minutes! For so long it was geometrically
+concealed, although visible by the effect of refraction. Saturn was
+an object of constant solicitude at Slough; and it was only with the
+surpassing instruments mounted there that much could be learned about
+Galileo’s _altissimo pianeta_. Herschel supposed, with Laplace, the
+rings to be solid structures; and he added that the interval of 2,500
+miles separating them “must be of considerable service to the planet
+in reducing the space that is eclipsed by the shadow of the ring.” The
+“crape ring” was _seen_, but not recognised. In one of his drawings it
+figures as a dusky belt crossing the body of the planet.
+
+His satellite discoveries proved exceedingly difficult to verify. The
+Saturnian pair were lost, after he left them, until his son once more
+drew them from obscurity. Regarding the outermost member of the system,
+Japetus, discovered by Cassini in 1671, Herschel noticed, in 1792, a
+singular circumstance. It was already known to vary in brightness; we
+receive from it, in fact, four and a-half times more light at certain
+epochs than at others. The novelty consisted in showing that this
+variation depended upon the satellite’s situation in its orbit in such
+a manner as to leave no doubt that, like our moon, it keeps the same
+face always directed inwards towards its primary. So that Japetus was
+inferred to turn on its axis in the period of its revolution round
+Saturn, that is, in seventy-nine and one-third days.
+
+“From its changes” he “concluded that by far the largest part of its
+surface reflects much less light than the rest; and that neither the
+darkest nor the brightest side of the satellite is turned towards the
+planet, but partly the one and partly the other.”
+
+Guessing at once that our moon and Japetus did not present the
+only examples of equality in the times of rotation and revolution,
+he continued: “I cannot help reflecting with some pleasure on the
+discovery of an analogy which shows that a certain uniform plan is
+carried on among the secondaries of our solar system; and we may
+conjecture that probably most of the satellites are governed by the
+same law, especially if it be founded upon such a construction of their
+figure as makes them more ponderous towards their primary planet.”
+This very explanation was long afterwards adopted by Hansen. The
+peculiarity in question may without hesitation be set down as an effect
+of primordial tides.
+
+In 1797 Herschel brought forward detailed evidence to shew that his
+generalisation applied to the Jovian system; but recent observations at
+Lick and Arequipa demand a suspension of judgment on the point.
+
+The Uranian train of attendants was left by Herschel in an unsettled
+condition. Two of them, as we have seen, he discovered in 1787; and
+he subsequently caught glimpses of what he took to be four others.
+But only Oberon and Titania have maintained their status; the four
+companions assigned to them are non-existent. An unmistakable interior
+pair--Ariel and Umbriel--was, however, discovered by Mr. Lassell, at
+Malta, in 1851; and they may possibly have combined with deceptive
+star-points to produce Herschel’s dubious quartette. He described in
+1798 the exceptional arrangement of the Uranian system. Its circulation
+is retrograde. The bodies composing it move from east to west, but in
+orbits so tilted as to deviate but slightly from perpendicularity to
+the plane of the ecliptic.
+
+No trifling sensation was created in 1783, and again in 1787, by the
+news that Herschel had seen three lunar volcanoes in violent eruption.
+“The appearance of the actual fire” in one of them was compared by him
+to “a small piece of burning charcoal when it is covered with a very
+thin coating of white ashes. All the adjacent parts of the volcanic
+mountain seemed to be faintly illuminated by the eruption, and were
+gradually more obscure as they lay at a greater distance from the
+crater.” He eventually became aware that his senses had imposed upon
+him; but the illusion was very complete and has since occasionally been
+repeated. What was really seen was probably the vivid reflection of
+earth-shine from some unusually white lunar summits.
+
+He never knowingly discovered a comet, although some few such bodies
+possibly ensconced themselves, under false pretences, in his lists
+of nebulæ. But he made valuable observations upon the chief of those
+visible in his time, and introduced the useful terms, corresponding to
+instructive distinctions, “head,” “nucleus,” and “coma.” He inferred
+from the partial phases of the comet of 1807, that it was in a measure
+self-luminous; and from their total absence in the great comet of 1811,
+that its light was almost wholly original. The head of this object,
+which shone with an even, planetary radiance, he determined to be
+127,000, the star-like nucleus within, 428 miles across. The tail he
+described as “a hollow, inverted cone,” one hundred millions of miles
+long, and fifteen millions broad. This prodigious appurtenance was,
+in grade of luminosity, an exact match for the Milky Way. That comets
+wear out by the waste of their substance at perihelion, he thought
+very probable; the extent of their gleaming appendages thus serving
+as a criterion of their antiquity. They might, indeed, arrive in the
+solar system already shorn of much of their splendour by passages round
+other suns than ours; but their “age” could, in any case, be estimated
+according to the progress made in their decline from a purely nebulous
+to an almost “planetary” state. He went so far as to throw out the
+conjecture that “comets may become asteroids;” although the converse
+proposition that “asteroids may become comets,” of which something has
+been heard lately, would scarcely have been entertained by him.
+
+Enough has been said to show how greatly knowledge of the solar system
+in all its parts was furthered by Herschel’s observational resources,
+fertility of invention, and indomitable energy. He was, so to speak,
+ubiquitous. He had taken all the heavens for his province. Nothing that
+they included, from the faintest nebula to the sun, and from the sun to
+a telescopic shooting-star, evaded his consideration. A whole cycle of
+discoveries and successful investigations began and ended with him.
+
+His fame as an astronomer has cast into the shade his merits as
+a physicist. He made pioneering experiments on the infra-red
+heat-rays,[D] and anticipated, by an admirable intuition, the fact
+ascertained with the aid of Professor Langley’s “bolometer,” that
+the invisible surpass in extent the visible portions of the solar
+spectrum.[E] A search for darkening glasses suitable to solar
+observations, led him to the inquiry. Finding that some coloured media
+transmitted much heat and little light, while others stopped heat and
+let through most of the light, he surmised that a different heating
+power might belong to each spectral tint. His own maxim that “it is
+sometimes of great use in natural philosophy to doubt of things that
+are commonly taken for granted,” here came in appropriately. With a
+free mind he set about determining the luminous and thermal powers of
+successive spectral regions. They seemed to vary quite disconnectedly.
+A thermometer exposed to red rays during a given interval, rose three
+and a half times as much as when exposed to violet rays; and he showed
+further, by tracing the heat- and light-curves of the prismatic
+spectrum, that its heat-maximum lay out of reach of the eye in the
+infra-red, while luminous intensity culminated in the yellow. He even
+threw out the sagacious conjecture that “the chemical properties of
+the prismatic colours” might be “as different as those which relate
+to light and heat;” adding that “we cannot too minutely enter into
+an analysis of light, which is the most subtle of all the active
+principles that are concerned in the operations of nature.”
+
+ [D] Phil. Trans. 1800, p. 255.
+
+ [E] _Ibid._, p. 291.
+
+The ardour with which he pursued the inquiry betrays itself in the
+rapid succession of four masterly essays communicated to the Royal
+Society in 1800. They contained the first exposition worth mentioning
+of the properties of radiant heat. They gave the details of experiments
+demonstrating its obedience to the same laws of reflection, refraction,
+and dispersion as light; and showing the varieties in the absorptive
+action upon it of different substances. In the third memoir of the
+series, Professor Holden finds himself at a loss “which to admire
+most--the marvellous skill evinced in acquiring such accurate data
+with such inadequate means, and in varying and testing such a number
+of questions as were suggested in the course of the investigation--or
+the intellectual power shown in marshalling and reducing to a system
+such intricate, and apparently self-contradictory phenomena.” There
+is, indeed, scarcely one of Herschel’s researches in which his
+initiative vigour and insight are more brilliantly displayed than in
+this _parergon_--this task executed, as it were, out of hours. It is
+only a pity that he felt compelled, by the incompatibility of their
+distribution in the spectrum, to abandon his original opinion in favour
+of the essential identity of light and radiant heat. The erroneous
+impression left on the public mind by his recantation has hardly yet
+been altogether effaced.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+THE INFLUENCE OF HERSCHEL’S CAREER ON MODERN ASTRONOMY.
+
+
+The powers of the telescope were so unexpectedly increased, that they
+may almost be said to have been discovered by William Herschel. No
+one before him had considered the advantages of large apertures. No
+one had seemed to remember that the primary function of an instrument
+designed to aid vision is to collect light. The elementary principle
+of space-penetration had not been adverted to. It devolved upon
+him to point out that the distances of similar objects are exactly
+proportional to the size of the telescopes barely sufficing to show
+them. The reason is obvious. Compare, for instance, a one-inch
+telescope with the naked eye. The telescope brings to a focus
+twenty-five times as much light as can enter the pupil, taken at
+one-fifth of an inch in diameter; therefore it will render visible
+a star twenty-five times fainter than the smallest seen without its
+help; or--what comes to the same thing--an intrinsically equal star
+at a five-fold distance. A one-inch glass hence actually quintuples
+the diameter of the visible universe, and gives access to seventy-five
+times the volume of space ranged through by the unassisted eye.
+
+This simple law Herschel made the foundation-stone of his sidereal
+edifice. He was the first to notice it, because he was the first
+practically to concern himself with the star-depths. The possibility
+of gauging the heavens rose with him above the horizon of science.
+Because untiring in exploration, he was insatiable of light; and being
+insatiable of light, he built great telescopes.
+
+His example was inevitably imitated and surpassed. Not through a vulgar
+ambition to “beat the record,” but because a realm had been thrown open
+which astronomers could not but desire to visit and search through for
+themselves. Lord Rosse’s six-foot reflector was the immediate successor
+of Herschel’s four-foot; Mr. Lassell’s beautiful specula followed; and
+the series of large _metallic_ reflectors virtually closed with that of
+four-feet aperture erected at Melbourne in 1870. The reflecting surface
+in modern instruments is furnished by a thin film of silver deposited
+on glass. It has the advantage of returning about half as much again of
+the incident light as the old specula, so that equal power is obtained
+with less size. Dr. Common’s five-foot is the grand exemplar in this
+kind; and it is fully equivalent to the Parsonstown six-foot.
+
+The improvement of refractors proceeded more slowly. Difficulties
+in the manufacture of glass stood in the way, and difficulties in
+the correction of colour. The splendid success, however, of the Lick
+thirty-six inch, and the fine promise of the Yerkes forty-inch, have
+turned the strongest current of hope for the future in the direction of
+this class of instrument. But all modern efforts to widen telescopic
+capacity primarily derive their impulse from Herschel’s passionate
+desire to see further, and to see better, than his predecessors.
+
+His observations demonstrate the rare excellence of his instruments.
+Experiments made on the asteroid Juno, in 1805, for the purpose
+of establishing a valid distinction between real and fictitious
+star-discs, prove, in Professor Holden’s opinion, the reflector
+employed to have been of almost ideal perfection; and his following of
+Saturn’s inner satellites right up to the limb, with the twenty-foot
+and the forty-foot, was a _tour de force_ in vision scarcely, if ever,
+surpassed.
+
+In the ordinary telescopes of those days really good definition was
+unknown; they showed the stars with rays or tails, distorted into
+triangles, or bulged into “cocked hats;” clean-cut, circular images
+were out of the question. Sitting next Herschel one day at dinner,
+Henry Cavendish, the great chemist, a remarkably taciturn man, broke
+silence with the abrupt question--“Is it true, Dr. Herschel, that you
+see the stars round?” “Round as a button,” replied the Doctor; and no
+more was said until Cavendish, near the close of the repast, repeated
+interrogatively, “Round as a button?” “Round as a button,” Herschel
+briskly reiterated, and the conversation closed.
+
+It seems probable that Herschel’s _caput artis_ lost some of its
+fine qualities with time. Great specula are peculiarly liable to
+deterioration. Their figure tends to become impaired by the stress of
+their own weight; their lustre is necessarily more or less evanescent.
+Re-polishing, however, is a sort of re-making; and the last felicitous
+touches, upon which everything depends, can never be reckoned upon with
+certainty. Hence, the original faultlessness of the great mirror was,
+perhaps, never subsequently reproduced.
+
+“Such telescopes as Herschel worked with,” Dr. Kitchiner wrote in
+1815, “could only be made by the man who used them, and only be used
+by the man who made them.” The saying is strictly true. His skill
+in one branch promoted his success in the other. He was as much at
+home with his telescopes as the Bedouin are with their horses. Their
+peculiarities made part of his most intimate experience. From the
+graduated varieties of his specula he picked out the one best suited
+to the purpose in hand. It was his principle never to employ a larger
+instrument than was necessary, agility of movement being taken into
+account no less than capacity for collecting light. The time-element,
+indeed, always entered into his calculations; he worked like a man who
+has few to-morrows.
+
+His sense of sight was exceedingly refined, and he took care to keep it
+so. In order to secure complete “tranquility of the retina,” he used to
+remain twenty minutes in the dark before attempting to observe faint
+objects; and his eye became so sensitive after some hours spent in
+“sweeping,” that the approach of a third-magnitude star obliged him to
+withdraw it from the telescope. A black hood thrown over his head while
+observing served to heighten this delicacy of vision. He despised no
+precaution. Details are “of consequence,” he wrote to Alexander Aubert,
+an amateur astronomer, “when we come to refinements, and want to _screw
+an instrument up to the utmost pitch_.”
+
+This was said in reference to his application of what seemed
+extravagantly high magnifying powers. He laid great stress upon it in
+the earlier part of his career. The method, he said, was “an untrodden
+path,” in which “a variety of new phenomena may be expected.” With
+his seven-foot Newtonian he used magnifications up to nearly 6,000,
+proceeding, however, “all along experimentally”--a plan far too much
+neglected in “the art of seeing.” “We are told,” he proceeded, “that
+we gain nothing by magnifying _too much_. I grant it, but shall never
+believe I magnify too much till by experience I find that I can see
+better with a lower power.” The innovation was received with a mixture
+of wonder, incredulity, and admiration.
+
+Herschel showed his customary judgment in this branch of astronomical
+practice. He established the distinctions still maintained, and
+laid down the lines still followed. It is true he went far beyond
+the point where modern observers find it advisable to stop. The
+highest power brought into use with the Lick refractor is 2,600; and
+Herschel’s instruments bore 5,800 (nominally 6,500) without injury to
+definition. But only at exceptional moments. His habitual sweeping
+power was 460; he “screwed-up” higher only for particular purposes,
+and under favourable conditions. Although his strong eye-pieces seem,
+for intelligible reasons, to have been laid aside on the adoption of
+the “front-view” form of construction, they had served him well in
+the division of close pairs, as well as for bringing faint stars into
+view--an effect correctly explained by him as due to the augmented
+darkness, under high powers, of the sky-ground. But the most important
+result of their employment was the discovery that the stars have
+no sensible dimensions. This became evident through the failure of
+attempts to magnify them; the higher the power applied, the smaller and
+more intense they appeared. Herschel accordingly pronounced stellar
+telescopic discs “spurious,” but made no attempt to explain their
+origin through diffraction.
+
+He never possessed an instrument mounted equatoreally--that is, so as
+automatically to follow the stars. In its absence, his work, had it not
+been accomplished, would have seemed to modern ideas impossible. No
+clockwork movement kept the objects he was observing in the field of
+view. His hands were continually engaged in supplying the deficiency.
+How, under these circumstances, he contrived to measure hundreds of
+double stars, and secure the places of thousands of nebulæ, would be
+incomprehensible but for the quasi-omnipotence of enthusiasm.
+
+The angle made with the meridian by the line joining two stars (their
+“position angle”) was never thought of as a quantity useful to be
+ascertained until Herschel, about 1779, invented his “revolving-wire
+micrometer.” This differed in no important respect from the modern
+“filar micrometer;” only spider-lines have been substituted for the
+original silk fibres. For measuring the distances of the wider classes
+of double stars, he devised in 1782 a “lamp-micrometer;” while those
+of the closest pairs were estimated in terms of the discs of the
+components. In compiling his second catalogue, however, he used the
+thread-micrometer for both purposes. It is true that “even in his
+matchless hands”--in Dr. Gill’s phrase--the results obtained were
+“crude;” but the fact remains that the whole system of micrometrical
+measurement came into existence through Herschel’s double-star
+determinations.
+
+Their consequences have developed enormously within the last few
+years. Mr. Burnham’s discoveries of excessively close pairs have been
+so numerous as to leave no reasonable doubt that their indefinite
+multiplication is only a question of telescopic possibility. Then
+in 1889, another power came into play; the spectroscope took up the
+work of resolving stars. Or rather, the spectroscope in alliance
+with the photographic camera; for the spectral changes indicating
+the direction and velocity of motion in the line of sight can be
+systematically studied, as a rule, only when registered on sensitive
+plates. The upshot has been to bring within the cognisance of science
+the marvellous systems known as “spectroscopic binaries.” They are of
+great variety. Some consist of a bright, others of a bright and dark,
+pair. Those that revolve in a plane nearly coinciding with our line
+of vision undergo mutual occultations. A further detachment seem to
+escape eclipse, yet vary in light for some unexplained reason, while
+they revolve. Others, like Spica Virginis, revolve without varying.
+Their orbital periods are counted by hours or days. The study of the
+disturbances of these remarkable combinations promises to open a new
+era in astronomical theory. For they are most likely all multiple.
+Irregularities indicating the presence of attractive, although obscure
+bodies, have, in several cases, been already noticed.
+
+The revolutions of spectroscopic binary stars can be studied to the
+greatest advantage when they involve light-change; and photometric
+methods have accordingly begun to play an important part in the
+sidereal department of gravitational science. And here again we meet
+with Herschel’s initiative. His method of sequences has been already
+explained; and he made the first attempt to lay down a definite scale
+of star-magnitudes. He failed, and it was hardly desirable that he
+should succeed. On his scale, the ratio of change from one grade to the
+next constantly diminished. In the modern system it remains always the
+same. A star of the second magnitude is by definition two and a-half
+(2·512) times less bright than one of the first; a star of the third
+magnitude is two and a-half times less bright than one of the second,
+the series descending without modification until beyond telescopic
+reach. This uniformity in the _proportionate_ value of a magnitude
+is indispensable for securing a practicable standard of measurement.
+Herschel, however, took the great step of introducing a principle of
+order.
+
+His estimates of stellar lustre were purely visual. And although
+various instruments, devised for the purpose, have since proved
+eminently useful, the ultimate appeal in all is to the eye. But there
+are many signs that, in the photometry of the future, not the eye but
+the camera will be consulted. Their appraisements differ markedly.
+Herschel’s incidental remark on the disturbance of light-valuation
+by colour touches a point of fundamental importance in photographic
+photometry. The chemical method gives to white stars a great advantage
+over yellow and red ones. They come out proportionately much brighter
+on the sensitive plate than they appear to the eye. And to these
+varieties of hue correspond spectral class-distinctions, the spectrum
+of an object being nothing but its colour written at full length. This
+systematic discrepancy between visual and photographic impressions of
+brightness, while introducing unwelcome complications in measures of
+magnitude, may serve to bring out important truths. The inference, for
+example, has been founded upon it that the Milky Way is composed almost
+exclusively of white, or “Sirian” stars; and there can be no question
+but that the arrangement of stars in space has some respect to their
+spectral types.
+
+Herschel’s plan of inquiry into the laws of stellar distribution by
+“photometric enumeration,” or gauging by magnitudes, was a bequest
+to posterity which has been turned to account with very little
+acknowledgment of its source. Argelander’s review of the northern
+heavens (lately completed photographically by Dr. Gill to the southern
+pole) afforded, from 1862, materials for its application on a large
+scale; but the magnitudes assigned to his 324,000 stars do not possess
+the regularity needed to make deductions based on them perfectly
+trustworthy. Otherwise the distance from the earth of the actual
+aggregations in the Milky Way could have been ascertained in a rough
+way from the numerical representation of the various photometric
+classes. As it is, the presumption is strong that the galactic clouds
+are wholly independent of stars brighter than the ninth magnitude--that
+they only begin to gather at a depth in space whence light takes _at
+least_ a thousand years to travel to our eyes. Confirmatory evidence,
+published in 1894, has been supplied by M. Easton’s research, based on
+the same principle, into the detailed relations of stars of various
+magnitudes to Milky Way structure. They are exhibited only by those of
+the ninth magnitude, or fainter; for with them sets in a significant
+crowding upon its condensed parts, attended by a scarcity over its
+comparative vacuities. Counts by magnitudes have, besides, made it
+clear that the stars, in portions of the sky removed from the Milky
+Way, thin out notably before the eleventh magnitude is reached; so
+that, outside the galactic zone, the stellar system is easily fathomed.
+
+Also on the strength of photometric enumerations, Dr. Gould, of Boston,
+came to the conclusion, in 1879, that there is an extra thronging of
+stars about our sun, which forms one of a special group consisting
+of some four or five hundred members. The publication, in 1890, of
+the “Draper Catalogue,” of 10,530 photographed stellar spectra, has
+thrown fresh light on this interesting subject. Mr. Monck, of Dublin,
+gave reasons for holding stars physically like the sun to be generally
+nearer to us than stars of the Sirian class; and Professor Kapteyn, of
+Gröningen, as the result of a singularly able investigation, concluded
+with much probability that the sun belongs to a strongly condensed
+group of mostly “solar” stars, nearly concentric with the galaxy. It
+might, in fact, be said that we live in a globular cluster, since our
+native star-collection should appear from a very great distance under
+that distinctive form.
+
+This modern quasi-discovery was anticipated by Herschel. He was
+avowedly indebted, it is true, to Michell’s “admirable idea” of the
+stars being divided into separate groups; but Michell did not trouble
+himself about the means of its possible verification, and Herschel did.
+He always looked round to see if there were not some touchstone of fact
+within reach.
+
+His discussion of the solar cluster, though brief and incidental, is
+not without present interest. He found the federative arrangement of
+the stars to be “every day more confirmed by observation.” The “flying
+synods of worlds” formed by them must gravitate one towards another as
+if concentrated at their several centres of gravity. Accordingly, “a
+star, or sun, such as ours, may have a proper motion within its own
+system of stars, while the whole may have another proper motion totally
+different in quantity and direction.” We may thus, he continued,
+“arrive in process of time, at a knowledge of all the real, complicated
+motions of the planet we inhabit; of the solar system to which it
+belongs; and even of the sidereal system of which the sun may possibly
+be a member.” He proceeded to explain how stars, making part of the
+solar cluster, might be discriminated from those exterior to it; the
+former showing the perspective influence only of the sun’s translation
+among themselves, while the latter would be affected besides by a
+“still remoter parallax”--a secular drift, compounded of the proper
+motion of the sun within its cluster, and of its cluster relatively to
+other clusters.
+
+The possibility of applying Herschel’s test is now fully recognised.
+Each fresh determination of the solar apex is scrutinised for symptoms
+of the higher “systematical parallax;” although as yet with dubious
+or negative results. Associated stellar groups are, nevertheless, met
+with in various parts of the sky. Herschel not only anticipated their
+existence, but suggested “a concurrence of proper motions” as the
+fittest means for identifying them.
+
+His anticipation has been realised by Mr. Proctor’s detection of
+“star-drift.” Several stars in the Plough thus form a squadron sailing
+the same course; and similar combinations, on an apparently smaller
+scale, have been pieced together in various constellations. But the
+principle of their connection has yet to be discovered. They are
+evidently not self-centred systems; hence their companionship, however
+prolonged, must finally terminate. The only pronounced cluster with a
+common proper motion is the Pleiades; and its drift seems to be merely
+of a perspective nature--a reflection of the sun’s advance.
+
+Bessel said of Herschel that “he aimed at acquiring knowledge, not of
+the motions, but of the constitution of the heavenly bodies, and of
+the structure of the sidereal edifice.” This, however, is a defective
+appreciation. He made, indeed, no meridian observations, and computed
+no planetary or cometary perturbations; yet if there ever was an
+astronomer who instinctively “looked before and after,” it was he.
+Could he have attained to a complete knowledge of the architecture
+of the heavens, as they stood at a given moment, it would not have
+satisfied him. To interpret the past and future by the present was his
+constant aim; from his “retired situation” on the earth, he watched
+with awe the grand procession of the sum of things defile through
+endless ages. He could not observe what was without at the same time
+seeking to divine what had been, and to forecast what was to come.
+
+His nebular theory is now accepted almost as a matter of course. The
+spectroscope has lent it powerful support by proving the _de facto_
+existence of the “lucid medium,” postulated by him as a logical
+necessity. This was done August 1st, 1864, when Dr. Huggins derived
+from a planetary nebula in Draco a spectrum characteristic of a gaseous
+body, because consisting of bright lines. Their wave-lengths, which
+turned out to be identical for all objects of the kind, with one or
+two possible exceptions, indicated a composition out of hydrogen
+mixed with certain unfamiliar aeriform substances. Herschel’s visual
+discrimination of gaseous nebulæ was highly felicitous. Modern science
+agrees with him in pronouncing the Orion nebula, as well as others
+of the irregular class, planetaries, diffused nebulosities, and the
+“atmospheres” of “cloudy stars,” to be masses of “shining fluid.” As
+for his “ambiguous objects,” they remain ambiguous still. “Clusters
+in disguise” through enormous distance, give apparently the same
+quality of light with irresolvable nebulæ. His inference that stars
+and nebulæ form mixed systems has, moreover, been amply confirmed. No
+one now denies their significant affinity, and very few their genetic
+relationship.
+
+Herschel gave a list in 1811 of fifty-two dim, indefinite nebulosities,
+covering in the aggregate 152 square degrees. “But this,” he added,
+“gives us by no means the real limits” of the luminous appearance;
+“while the depth corresponding to its superficial extent may be far
+beyond the reach of our telescopes;” so “that the abundance of nebulous
+matter diffused through such an expansion of the heavens must exceed
+all imagination.”
+
+“The prophetic spirit of these remarks,” Professor Barnard comments,
+“is being every day made more evident through the revelations of
+photography.” He is himself one of the very few who have telescopically
+verified any part of these suggestive observations.
+
+“I am familiar,” he wrote in _Knowledge_, January, 1892, “with a number
+of regions in the heavens where vast diffusions of nebulous matter are
+situated. One of these, in a singularly blank region, lies some five
+or six degrees north-west of Antares, and covers many square degrees.
+Another lies north of the Pleiades, between the cluster and the Milky
+Way; a portion of this has recently been successfully photographed
+by Dr. Archenhold. There is a large nebulous spot in that region,
+easily visible to the naked eye, which I have seen for many years. When
+sweeping there with a low power, the whole region between the Pleiades
+and the Milky Way is perceived to be nebulous. These great areas of
+nebulosity make their presence known by a singular dulling of the
+ordinarily black sky, as if a thin veil of dust intervened.” They “are
+specially suitable for the photographic plate, and it is only by such
+means that they can be at all satisfactorily located.”
+
+Some of Herschel’s milky tracts have been thus pictured; notably one
+in the Swan, shown on Dr. Max Wolf’s plates to involve the bright star
+Gamma Cygni; and another immense formation extending over sixty square
+degrees about the belt and sword of Orion, and joining on, Herschel was
+“pretty sure,” to the great nebula. This, never unmistakably _seen_
+except by him, portrayed itself emphatically in 1886 in Professor E.
+C. Pickering’s photographs. Herschel’s persuasion of the subordinate
+character of the original “Fish-mouth nebula” was well-grounded.
+On plates exposed by Professors W. H. Pickering and Barnard, it is
+disclosed as the mere nucleus of a tremendous spiral, sweeping round
+from Bellatrix to Rigel.
+
+Diffused nebulosities appear in photographs as far from homogeneous.
+They are not simple volumes of gas indefinitely expanding in all
+directions, after the manner of simple aeriform fluids. They possess,
+on the contrary, characteristic shapes. Structureless nebulæ, like
+structureless protoplasm, seem to be non-existent. In all, an
+organising principle is at work.
+
+Minute telescopic stars showed to Herschel as prevalently red, owing,
+he conjectured, to the enfeeblement of their blue rays during an
+uncommonly long journey through space “not quite destitute of some very
+subtle medium.” The argument is a remarkable one. It would be valid if
+the ethereal vehicle of light exercised absorption after the manner of
+ordinary attenuated substances. There is, however, reason to suppose
+that the symptomatic redness was only a subjective impression, not an
+objective fact. His colour-sense was not quite normal. The lower, to
+his perception, somewhat overbalanced the higher end of the spectrum,
+and his mirrors added to the inequality by reflecting a diminished
+proportion of blue light. Thus he recorded many stars as tinged with
+red which are now colourless, yet lie under no suspicion of change.
+
+Herschel was, in the highest and widest sense, the founder of sidereal
+astronomy. He organised the science and set it going; he laid down
+the principles of its future action; he accumulated materials for its
+generalisations, and gave examples of how best to employ them. His work
+was at once so stimulating and so practical that its abandonment might
+be called impossible. Others were sure to resume where he had left
+off. His son was his first and fittest successor; he was the only one
+who undertook in its entirety the inherited task. Yet there are to be
+found in every quarter of the world men imbued with William Herschel’s
+sublime ambitions. Success swells the ranks of an invading army; and
+the march of astronomy has, within the last decade, assumed a triumphal
+character. The victory can never be completely won; the march can never
+reach its final goal; but spoils are meanwhile gathered up by the
+wayside which eager recruits are crowding in to share. The heavens
+are, year by year, giving up secrets long and patiently watched for,
+while holding in reserve many others still more mysterious. There is no
+fear of interest being exhausted by disclosure.
+
+Herschel’s dim intuition that something might be learned about the
+physical nature of the stars from the diverse quality of their light,
+was verified after sixty-five years, by the early researches of
+Secchi, Huggins, and Miller; but he could not suspect that, through
+the chemical properties, which he guessed to belong in varying degrees
+to the different sections of their spectra, pictures of the heavenly
+bodies would be obtained more perfect than the telescopic views he
+rapturously gazed at. Still less could he have imagined that, owing
+to its faculty of accumulating impressions too weak to affect the
+eye separately, the chemical would, in great measure, supersede the
+telescopic method in carrying out the designs he had most at heart.
+
+Those designs have now grown to be of international importance. At
+eighteen northern and southern observatories a photographic review
+of the heavens is in progress. The combined results will be the
+registration, in place and magnitude, of fifteen to twenty millions
+of stars. The gauging of the skies will then be complete down to the
+fourteenth magnitude; and the “construction of the heavens” can be
+studied with materials of the best quality, and almost indefinite
+in quantity. By simply “counting the gauges” on Herschel’s early
+plan, much may be learnt; the amount of stellar condensation
+towards the plane of the Milky Way, for instance, and the extent
+of stellar denudation near its poles. A marked contrast between
+the measures of distribution in these opposite directions will most
+likely be brought into view. The application of his later method of
+enumeration by magnitudes ought to prove even more instructive, but
+may be very difficult. The obstacles, it is to be hoped, will not be
+insurmountable; yet they look just now formidable enough.
+
+The grand problem with which Herschel grappled all his life involves
+more complicated relations than he was aware of. It might be compared
+to a fortress, the citadel of which can only be approached after
+innumerable outworks have been stormed. That one man, urged on by
+the exalted curiosity inspired by the contemplation of the heavens,
+attempted to carry it by a _coup de main_, and, having made no
+inconsiderable breach in its fortifications, withdrew from the
+assault, his “banner torn, but flying,” must always be remembered with
+amazement.
+
+[Illustration: CAROLINE LUCRETIA HERSCHEL.
+
+(_From a portrait taken by Tielemann in 1829._)]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+CAROLINE HERSCHEL.
+
+
+Caroline Lucretia Herschel was born at Hanover, March 16th, 1750, and
+was thus more than eleven years younger than the brother with whose
+name hers is inseparably associated. She remembered the panic caused
+by the earthquake of 1755, and her experience barely fell short of the
+political earthquake of 1848; but the fundamental impressions of her
+long life were connected with “minding the heavens.”
+
+She was of little account in her family, except as a menial. Her
+father, indeed, a man of high character and cultivated mind, thought
+much of her future, and wished to improve her prospects by giving her
+some accomplishments. So he taught her to play the violin well enough
+to take part in concerted music. But her instruction was practicable
+only when her mother was out of the way, or in a particularly good
+humour. Essentially a “Hausfrau,” Anna Ilse had no sympathy with
+aspirations. She was hard-working and well-meaning, but narrow and
+inflexible, and she kept her second daughter strictly to household
+drudgery. Her literary education, accordingly, got no farther than
+reading and writing; even the third “R” was denied to her. But she was
+carefully trained in plain sewing and knitting, and supplied her four
+brothers with stockings from so early an age that the first specimen of
+her workmanship touched the ground while she stood upright finishing
+the toe! Few signs of tenderness were accorded to her. Her eldest
+brother, Jacob, a brilliant musician, and somewhat high-and-mighty
+in his ways, did not spare cuffs when she waited awkwardly at table;
+and her sister, Mrs. Griesbach, evidently took slight notice of her.
+William, however, showed her invariable affection; and him and her
+father she silently adored. In 1756, when they both returned from
+England with the Hanoverian Guard, she recalled how, on the day of
+their arrival,
+
+“My mother being very busy preparing dinner, had suffered me to go
+all alone to the parade to meet my father, but I could not find him
+anywhere, nor anybody whom I knew; so at last, when nearly frozen to
+death, I came home and found them all at table. My dear brother William
+threw down his knife and fork, and ran to welcome, and crouched down to
+me, which made me forget all my grievances. The rest were so happy at
+seeing one another again that my absence had never been perceived.”
+
+How well one can realise the disconsolate little expedition, the
+woe-begone entry of the six-year-old maiden, her heart-chill on finding
+herself forgotten, and the revulsion of joy at her soldier-brother’s
+cordial greeting!
+
+Isaac Herschel died March 22nd, 1767. He had never recovered the
+campaign of Dettingen, yet struggled, in spite of growing infirmities,
+to earn a livelihood by giving lessons and copying music. His daughter
+was thrown by his loss into a “state of stupefaction,” from which she
+roused herself, after some weeks, to consider the gloomy outlook of
+her destiny. She was seventeen, and was qualified, as she reflected
+with anguish, only to be a housemaid. She was plain in face and
+small in stature, and her father had often warned her that if she
+ever married it would be comparatively late in life, when her fine
+character had unfolded its attractions. Still, she did not lose hope
+of making her way single-handed. Although over-burthened with servile
+labours, she contrived, unknown to her mother, to get some teaching in
+fancy-work from a consumptive girl whose cough from across the street
+gave the signal for a daybreak rendezvous; trusting that, with this
+acquirement, and “a little notion of music, she might obtain a place
+as governess in some family where the want of a knowledge of French
+would be no objection.” There was “no kind of ornamental needlework,
+knotting, plaiting hair, stringing beads and bugles, of which she did
+not make samples by way of mastering the art.” She was then permitted
+to take some lessons in dressmaking and millinery. But the current of
+her thoughts was completely changed by an invitation from her brother
+William to join him at Bath. She was, if possible, to be made into
+a concert-singer. Yet her voice had never been tried, and its very
+existence was problematical. It may, then, be suspected that William’s
+primary motive was to come to the rescue of his poor little Cinderella
+sister.
+
+Months passed in “harassing uncertainty” as to whether she was to go or
+stay; months, too, during which her own mind was divided between the
+longing to follow her rising star, and a certain compunctious clinging
+to her duties at home. Time, however, did not pass in idleness.
+Taking no notice of the superior Jacob’s ridicule of her visionary
+transformation into an artist, she quietly set about practising, with a
+gag between her teeth, the solo parts of violin concertos, “shake and
+all,” so that, as she says, “I had gained a tolerable execution before
+I knew how to sing.” She occupied herself besides in making a store of
+prospective clothing for relatives, who, she could not but fear, would
+miss her services. For her withdrawal her mother, however, received
+from William money-compensation, which enabled her to keep a servant
+in lieu of her daughter. The parting, when he came to fetch her, in
+August, 1772, was none the less a sorrowful one; but Caroline had much
+to distract her mind from dwelling on those she had left behind. She
+had, besides, much discomfort to endure. Six days and nights in an
+open stage-carriage were followed by a tempestuous passage; the packet
+in which they embarked at Helvoetsluys reached Yarmouth dismasted and
+half-wrecked; and they were finally, not duly landed, but “thrown like
+balls by two sailors,” on the English coast. After a brief glimpse of
+London, they started, August 28th, in the night coach for Bath, where
+Caroline arrived “almost annihilated” by fatigue and want of sleep.
+
+Her training for an unfamiliar life began without delay. She had to
+learn English, arithmetic, and enough of account-keeping to qualify
+her for conducting the household affairs; a routine of singing-lessons
+and practising was entered upon; and she was sent out alone to market,
+Alexander Herschel lurking behind to see that she came safely out of
+the _mêlée_ of buyers and sellers, whence she brought home “whatever
+in her fright she could pick up.” She suffered many things, too, from
+her brother’s servant, “a hot-headed old Welshwoman,” whose _régime_
+was one of rack and ruin to domestic utensils; while _heimweh_ made
+formidable onslaughts on her naturally serene spirits.
+
+A visit to London, as the guest of Mrs. Colebrook, one of her
+brother’s pupils, gave her some experience of town gaieties. But the
+expenses of dress and chairmen shocked her frugal ideas; and she
+thought the young ladies, whose companionship was offered to her, “very
+little better than idiots.” As a vocalist, Miss Herschel came easily
+to the front. After a few months of study, her voice was in demand at
+evening parties; when her foreign accentuation had been corrected,
+she took the first soprano parts in “The Messiah,” “Samson,” “Judas
+Maccabæus,” and other oratorios; and sang as prima donna at the winter
+concerts both at Bath and Bristol. In accordance with her resolution
+to appear only where her brother conducted, she declined an engagement
+for a musical festival at Birmingham. A year’s training in deportment
+was a preliminary to her _début_; a celebrated dancing mistress
+being engaged--to use Caroline’s own phrase--“in drilling me for a
+gentlewoman. Heaven knows how she succeeded!” A gift of ten guineas
+from William provided her with a dress which made her, she was told,
+“an ornament to the stage;” and she was complimented by the Marchioness
+of Lothian on “pronouncing her words like an Englishwoman.” Her success
+was decided, and promised to be enduring enough to satisfy her modest
+ambition of supporting herself independently.
+
+It was, however, balked by an extraordinary turn of affairs; a turn
+at first not at all to her liking. After the lapse of half-a-century
+she still set it down as the grievance of her life that “I have been
+throughout annoyed and hindered in my endeavours at perfecting myself
+in any branch of knowledge by which I could hope to gain a creditable
+livelihood.”
+
+William Herschel, when Caroline joined him at Bath, was just feeling
+his way towards telescope-making. The fancy did not please her. The
+beginnings of great things are usually a disturbance and an anxiety.
+They imply a draft upon the future which may never be honoured, and
+they often play sad havoc with the present. And Miss Herschel was
+business-like and matter-of-fact. But her devotion triumphed over her
+common-sense. Keeping her misgivings to herself, she met unlooked-for
+demands with the utmost zeal, intelligence, and discretion. She was
+always at hand when wanted, yet never in the way. Through her care,
+some degree of domestic comfort was maintained amid the unwonted
+confusion of optical manufacture. During the tedious process of
+mirror-polishing, she sustained her brother physically and mentally,
+putting food into his mouth, and reading aloud “Don Quixote,” and the
+“Arabian Nights.” She was ready with direct aid, too, and “became in
+time as useful a member of the workshop as a boy might be to his master
+in the first year of his apprenticeship.” “Alex,” she continued, “was
+always very alert, assisting when anything new was going forward;
+but he wanted perseverance, and never liked to confine himself at
+home for many hours together. And so it happened that my brother
+William was obliged to make trial of my abilities in copying for him
+catalogues, tables, and sometimes whole papers which were lent him
+for his perusal.” Musical business, meantime, received due attention.
+Steady preparation was made for concerts and oratorios; choruses were
+instructed, rehearsals attended, parts diligently written out from
+scores. But the discovery of Uranus swept away the necessity for these
+occupations; and with a final performance in St. Margaret’s Chapel, on
+Whit-Sunday, 1782, the musical career of William and Caroline Herschel
+came to a close.
+
+Miss Herschel’s “thoughts were anything but cheerful” on the occasion.
+She saw the terrestrial ground cut from under her feet, and did not
+yet appreciate the celestial situation held in reserve for her. Music,
+in her opinion, was her true and only vocation; the contemplation
+of herself in the guise of an assistant-astronomer moved her to
+cynical self-scorn. As usual, however, her personal wishes were
+suppressed. Housewifely cares, too, weighed upon her. The dilapidated
+gazebo at Datchet provided no suitable shelter for a well-regulated
+establishment. It was roofed more in appearance than in reality; the
+plaster fell from the ceilings; the walls dripped with damp; rheumatism
+and ague were its rightful inmates. Then the prices of provisions
+appalled her, especially in view of the scarcity of five-pound notes
+since the opulence of Bath had been exchanged for the penury of a court
+precinct.
+
+Yet she set to work with a will to learn all that was needful for her
+untried office. Not out of books. “My dear brother William,” she wrote
+in 1831, “was my only teacher, and we began generally where we should
+have ended; he supposing I knew all that went before.” The lessons were
+of the most desultory kind. They consisted of answers to questions put
+by her as occasions arose, during breakfast, or at odd moments. The
+scraps of information thus snatched were carefully recorded in her
+commonplace book, where they constituted a miscellaneous jumble of
+elementary formulæ, solutions of problems in trigonometry, rules for
+the use of tables of logarithms, for converting sidereal into solar
+time, and the like. Nothing was entrusted to a memory compared by
+her instructor to “sand, in which everything could be inscribed with
+ease, but as easily effaced.” So that even the multiplication table was
+carried about in her pocket. She appears never to have spent a single
+hour in the systematic study of astronomy. Her method was that in vogue
+at Dotheboys Hall, to “go and know it,” by practising, as it were,
+blindfold, what she had been taught. Yet a computational error has
+never, we believe, been imputed to her; and the volume of her work was
+very great.
+
+Its progress was diversified by more exciting pursuits. She began, in
+1782, to “sweep for comets,” and discovered with a 27-inch reflector,
+in the autumn of 1783, two nebulæ of first-rate importance--one
+a companion to the grand object in Andromeda, the other a superb
+elliptical formation in Cetus. She was by this time more than
+reconciled to her astronomical lot; Von Magellan, indeed, reported in
+1785, that brother and sister were equally captivated with the stars.
+
+The original explorations, in which she was beginning to delight, were
+interrupted by the commencement of his with the “large twenty-foot.”
+Her aid was indispensable, and from December, 1783, she “became
+entirely attached to the writing-desk.” She was no mere mechanical
+assistant. A wound-up automaton would have ill served William
+Herschel’s turn. He wanted “a being to execute his commands with the
+quickness of lightning”; and his commands were various. For he was
+making, not following precedents, and fresh exigencies continually
+arose. Under these novel circumstances, his sister displayed incredible
+zeal, promptitude, and versatility. She would throw down her pen to
+run to the clock, to fetch and carry instruments, to measure the ground
+between the lamp-micrometer and the observer’s eye; discharging these,
+and many other successive tasks with a rapidity that kept pace with
+his swift proceedings. Fatigue, want of sleep, cold, were disregarded;
+and although nature often exacted next day penalties of weariness
+and depression for those nights of intense activity, the faithful
+amanuensis never complained. “I had the comfort,” she remarked simply,
+“to see that my brother was satisfied with my endeavours to assist
+him.” The service was not unaccompanied by danger. One night poor
+Caroline, running in the dark over ground a foot deep in melting snow,
+in order to make some alteration in the movement of the telescope,
+fell over a great hook, which entered her leg so deeply that a couple
+of ounces of her flesh remained behind when she was lifted off it.
+The wound was formidable enough, in Dr. Lind’s opinion, to entitle a
+soldier to six weeks’ hospital-nursing, but it was treated cursorily at
+Datchet; the patient consoling herself for a few nights’ disablement
+with the reflection that her brother, owing to cloudy weather, “was no
+loser through the accident.”
+
+Busy days succeeded watchful nights. From the materials collected at
+the telescope, she formed properly arranged catalogues, calculating, in
+all, the places of 2,500 nebulæ. She brought the whole of Flamsteed’s
+_British Catalogue_--then the _vade mecum_ of astronomers--into
+zones of one degree wide, for the purpose of William’s methodical
+examination; copied out his papers for the Royal Society; kept the
+observing-books straight, and documents in order. Then, in the long
+summer months, when “there was nothing but grinding and polishing to
+be seen,” she took her share of that too, and “was indulged with the
+last finishing of a very beautiful mirror for Sir William Watson.”
+
+On August 1st, 1786, her brother’s absence leaving her free to observe
+on her own account, she discerned a round, hazy object, suspiciously
+resembling a comet. Its motion within the next twenty-four hours
+certified it as such, and she immediately announced the apparition to
+her learned friends, Dr. Blagden and Mr. Aubert. The latter declared in
+reply, “You have immortalised your name,” and saw in imagination “your
+wonderfully clever and wonderfully amiable brother shedding,” upon
+receipt of the intelligence, “a tear of joy.” This was the first of a
+series of eight similar discoveries, in five of which her priority was
+unquestioned. They were comprised within eleven years, and were made,
+after 1790, with an excellent five-foot reflector mounted on the roof
+of the house at Slough. Considering that she swept the heavens only as
+an interlude to her regular duties, never for an hour forsaking her
+place beside the great telescopes in the garden, her aptitude for that
+fascinating pursuit must be rated very high. It was not until 1819 that
+Encke identified her seventh comet--detected November 7th, 1795--with
+one previously seen by Méchain in January, 1786. None other revolves
+so quickly, its returns to perihelion occurring at intervals of three
+and a quarter years. It has earned notoriety, besides, by a still
+unexplained acceleration of movement.
+
+Caroline Herschel was the first woman to discover a comet; and her
+remarkable success in what Miss Burney called “her eccentric vocation,”
+procured for her an European reputation. But the homage which she
+received did not disturb her sense of subordination. “Giving the sum of
+more to that which hath too much,” she instinctively transferred her
+meed of praise to her brother. She held her comets, notwithstanding,
+very dear. All the documents relating to them were found after her
+death neatly assorted in a packet labelled “Bills and Receipts of my
+Comets”; and the telescopes with which they had been observed ranked
+among the chief treasures of her old age. She presented the smaller one
+before her death to her friend Mr. Hausmann; the five-foot to the Royal
+Astronomical Society, where it is religiously preserved.
+
+The “celebrated comet-searcher” was described by Miss Burney in 1787
+as “very little, very gentle, very modest, and very ingenuous; and her
+manners are those of a person unhackneyed and unawed by the world,
+yet desirous to meet and return its smiles.” To Dr. Burney, ten years
+later, she appeared “all shyness and virgin modesty”; while Mrs.
+Papendick mentions her as “by no means prepossessing, but an excellent,
+kind-hearted creature.” She was, in 1787, officially appointed her
+brother’s assistant, with a salary of fifty pounds a year; “and in
+October,” she relates, “I received twelve pounds ten, being the first
+quarterly payment of my salary, and the first money I ever in all my
+lifetime thought myself to be at liberty to spend to my own liking.”
+The arrangement was made in anticipation of her brother’s marriage,
+when--to quote her one bitter phrase on the subject--“she had to give
+up the place of his housekeeper.” She did not readily accommodate
+herself to the change; and a significant gap of ten years in her
+journal suggests that she wrote much during that time of struggle
+which her calmer judgment counselled her to destroy. Her strong sense
+of right and habitual abnegation, however, came to her aid; the family
+relations remained harmonious; and she eventually became deeply
+attached to her gentle sister-in-law. But from 1788 onwards, she lived
+in lodgings, either at Slough or Upton, whence she came regularly to
+the observatory to do her daily or nightly work.
+
+Miss Herschel began in 1796, and finished in about twenty months,
+an Index to Flamsteed’s observations of the stars in the “British
+Catalogue.” A list of “errata” was added, together with a catalogue of
+561 omitted stars. The work, one of eminent utility, was published in
+1798, at the expense of the Royal Society. In August, 1799, she paid
+a visit to the Astronomer Royal, with the object of transcribing into
+his copy of Flamsteed’s Observations some memoranda upon them made by
+her brother. “But the succession of amusements,” we hear, “left me no
+alternative between contenting myself with one or two hours’ sleep per
+night during the six days I was at Greenwich, and going home without
+having fulfilled my purpose.” Needless to say that she chose the former.
+
+The Royal family paid her many attentions, partly, no doubt, because
+of her intimacy with one of the ladies-in-waiting to the Queen.
+This was Madame Beckedorff, who although of “gentle” condition, had
+attended the same dressmaking class with the bandmaster’s daughter at
+Hanover, in 1768. The distant acquaintanceship thus formed developed,
+at Windsor, into a firm friendship, transmitted in its full cordiality
+to a second generation. An entry in Caroline’s Diary tells of a dinner
+at Madame Beckedorff’s, February 23, 1801, when the “whole party
+left the dining-room on the Princesses Augusta and Amelia, and the
+Duke of Cambridge coming in to see me.” In May, 1813, during a visit
+to London, she passed several evenings at Buckingham House, “where I
+just arrived,” she says, on May 12, “as the Queen and the Princesses
+Elizabeth and Mary, and the Princess Sophia Matilda of Gloucester,
+were ready to step into their chairs, going to Carlton House, full
+dressed for a fête, and meeting me in the hall, they stopped for near
+ten minutes, making each in their turn the kindest inquiries how I
+liked London, etc. On entering Mrs. Beckedorff’s room, I found Madame
+D’Arblay (Miss Burney), and we spent a very pleasant evening.”
+
+Such Royal condescensions were frequent, and on occasions inconvenient.
+The Princesses Sophia and Amelia, in especial, took a strong liking
+for Miss Herschel’s conversation, and often required her attendance
+for many hours together. She was graciously singled out for notice at
+the Frogmore assemblages, and became quite inured to the reception
+at Slough of dignitaries and _savants_. Nothing deranged the simple
+composure of her deportment. One would give much to know what were her
+private impressions about the notabilities who crossed her path; but
+her memoranda are, in this respect, perfectly colourless. Names and
+dates are jotted down with the same brevity as her entries of “work
+done.” Even the personal troubles of years are curtly disposed of. Her
+brother Dietrich’s stay in England from 1809 to 1813, left her not a
+day’s respite from accumulated trouble and anxiety. Yet it occasioned
+only one little outburst, penned long afterwards.
+
+“He came,” she wrote, “ruined in health, spirit, and fortune, and,
+according to the old Hanoverian custom, I was the only one from whom
+all domestic comforts were expected. I hope I acquitted myself to
+everybody’s satisfaction, for I never neglected my eldest brother’s
+business” (Jacob Herschel died in 1792), “and the time I bestowed on
+Dietrich was taken entirely from my sleep, or what is generally allowed
+for meals, which were mostly taken running, or sometimes forgotten
+entirely. But why think of it now?”
+
+Her later journal is overshadowed with the fear of coming bereavement.
+Recurrences to the state of William’s health become ominously frequent.
+“He is not only unwell, but low in spirits,” she notes in February,
+1817; and the following account of his departure for Bath, April 2,
+1818, betrays her deep trouble:--
+
+“The last moments before he stepped into the carriage were spent in
+walking through his library and workrooms, pointing with anxious looks
+to every shelf and drawer, desiring me to examine all, and to make
+memorandums of them as well as I could. He was hardly able to support
+himself, and his spirits were so low, that I found difficulty in
+commanding my voice so far as to give him the assurance he should find
+on his return that my time had not been misspent.”
+
+“May 1st.--But he returned home much worse than he went, and for
+several days hardly noticed my handiworks.”
+
+His last note to her, indited with an uncertain hand on a discoloured
+slip of paper, July 4, 1819, she put by with the inscription: “I keep
+this as a relic. Every line _now_ traced by the hand of my dear brother
+becomes a treasure to me.”
+
+“Lina,” it ran, “there is a great comet. I want you to assist me. Come
+to dine and spend the day here. If you can come soon after one o’clock
+we shall have time to prepare maps and telescopes. I saw its situation
+last night--it has a long tail.”
+
+Through that long tail the earth had, eight days previously--according
+to Olbers’s calculations--cut its way; but the proposed observations at
+Slough, if made, were never published.
+
+In October, 1821, Caroline Herschel wrote this melancholy “Finis” to
+what seemed to herself the only part of her life worth living. “Here
+closed my day-book; for one day passed like another, except that I,
+from my daily calls, returned to my solitary and cheerless home with
+increased anxiety for each following day.”
+
+Eighteen months after her loss of “the dearest and best of brothers,”
+she at last gathered fortitude to put on paper her recollections of the
+“heartrending occurrences” witnessed by her during the closing months
+of her fifty years’ sojourn in England. In every line of what she then
+wrote, her absorbed fidelity to him, growing more and more tenacious
+as the end drew visibly nigher, comes out with unconscious pathos. The
+anguish with which she watched each symptom of decay seared her heart,
+but was refused any outward expression. She played out her rôle of
+self-suppression until the curtain fell. A last gleam of hope visited
+her July 8th, 1822, when she marked down in an almanac the cheering
+circumstance that her invalid had “walked with a firmer step than usual
+above three or four times the distance from the dwelling-house to the
+library, in order to gather and eat raspberries in his garden with me.
+But,” she added sadly, “I never saw the like again.”
+
+In the impetuosity of her grief, she made an irreparable mistake. Only
+a month earlier she had surrendered to her impecunious brother Dietrich
+her little funded property of £500; now, without reflecting on the
+consequences, she “gave herself, with all she was worth, to him and his
+family.” She was in her seventy-third year; her only remaining business
+in life, it seemed to her, was to quit it; the virtual close of her
+career had come; the actual close could not long be delayed. So she
+retired to her native place to die promptly, if that might be, but, at
+any rate, to mark the chasm that separated her from the past. She soon
+recognised, however, that she had taken a false step. “Why did I leave
+happy England?” was the cry sometimes on her lips, always in her heart,
+for a quarter of a century. She was taken aback by her own vitality.
+She found out too late that her powers of work, far from being
+exhausted, might have been turned to account for her nephew as they had
+been for her brother. And it was to him and his mother, after all, that
+her strong affections clung. Her relatives in Hanover, although they
+treated her with consideration, were hopelessly uncongenial. “From the
+moment I set foot on German ground,” she said, “I found I was alone.”
+Fifty years is a huge gap in a human life. Miss Herschel had been all
+that time progressing from the starting point where they had remained
+stationary. Their tastes were then necessarily incongruous with hers;
+nor could her interests be transplanted at will from the soil in which
+they were rooted. She was unable to perceive that the change was in
+herself. The “solitary and useless life” she led resulted, she was
+convinced, from her “not finding Hanover, or anyone in it, like what I
+left when the best of brothers took me with him to England in August,
+1772!”
+
+An exile in her old home, she felt pledged to remain there. She would
+not “take back her promise.” For a person of her frugal habits, she was
+well off. Her pension of fifty pounds would have supplied her small
+wants, and she was reluctantly compelled to accept the annuity of £100,
+left to her by her brother. And since she was most generous in the
+bestowal of her spare cash, her presence was of some material advantage
+to a poor household. It gave them credit, too; and notwithstanding that
+they “never could agree” in opinions, she faithfully nursed Dietrich
+Herschel until his death in January, 1827.
+
+“I am still unsettled,” she wrote to her nephew, December 26th, 1822,
+“and cannot get my books and papers in any order, for it is always noon
+before I am well enough to do anything, and then visitors run away with
+the rest of the day till the dinner-hour, which is two o’clock. Two or
+three evenings in each week are spoiled by company. And at the heavens
+there is no getting, for the high roofs of the opposite houses. But
+within my room I am determined nothing shall be wanting that can please
+my eye. Exactly facing me is a bookcase placed on a bureau, to which I
+will have some glass doors made, so that I can see my books. Opposite
+this, on a sofa, I am seated, with a sofa-table and my new writing-desk
+before me; but what good I shall do there the future must tell.”
+
+Seated at that “new desk,” she completed her most important work. This
+was the reduction into a catalogue, and the arrangement into zones, of
+all Sir William Herschel’s nebulæ and clusters. Despatched to Sir John
+Herschel in April, 1825, it made his review of those objects feasible.
+From it, he drew up his “working-list” for each night’s observations;
+and from it, in constructing his “General Catalogue” of 1864, he
+took the places of such nebulæ as he had not been able to examine
+personally. In the course of the needful comparisons, “I learned,” he
+said, “fully to appreciate the skill, diligence, and accuracy which
+that indefatigable lady brought to bear on a task which only the most
+boundless devotion could have induced her to undertake, and enabled
+her to accomplish.” For its execution, the Gold Medal of the Royal
+Astronomical Society was awarded to her in 1828--an honour by which
+she was “more shocked than gratified.” Her “Zone-Catalogue” was styled
+by Sir David Brewster “an extraordinary monument of the unextinguished
+ardour of a lady of seventy-five in the cause of abstract science.”
+
+In 1835, she was created an honorary member of the Royal Astronomical
+Society, Mrs. Somerville being associated with her in a distinction
+never before or since conferred upon a woman. Three years later, she
+was surprised by the news that the Royal Irish Academy had similarly
+enrolled her. “I cannot help,” she wrote, “crying out aloud to myself,
+every now and then, What is that for?” The arrival, on another
+occasion, of presentation-copies of Mrs. Somerville’s “Connexion of the
+Physical Sciences,” and of Baily’s “Account of Flamsteed,” agitated her
+painfully. “Coming to _me_ with such things,” she exclaimed, “an old,
+poor, sick creature in her dotage.” “I think it is almost mocking me,”
+she added in 1840, “to look upon me as a Member of an Academy; I that
+have lived these eighteen years without finding as much as a single
+comet.”
+
+Her local celebrity, nevertheless, diverted her. It struck her as a
+capital joke that she was “stared at for a learned lady.” Down to 1840
+she regularly attended plays and concerts, and rarely left the theatre
+without a “_Wie geht’s?_” from His Majesty. And to find herself--“a
+_little_ old woman”--conspicuous in the crowd, produced a sense of
+exhilaration. Her presence or absence was a matter of public concern,
+and she very seldom appeared otherwise than alert and cheerful. When
+close upon eighty her “nimbleness in walking,” she remarked, “has
+hitherto gained me the admiration of all who know me; but the good
+folks are not aware of the arts I make use of, which consist in never
+leaving my room in the daytime except I am able to trip it along as
+if nothing were the matter.” Music gave her unfailing pleasure. She
+heard Catalani in 1828; shared in the Paganini _furore_ of 1831, and
+conversed with him through an interpreter. With Ole Bull she was
+“somewhat disappointed,” finding his performance “more like conjuration
+than playing on a violin.”
+
+But her “painful solitude” was most of all cheered by the visits and
+communications of eminent men. No one of distinction in science came
+to Hanover without calling upon her. Humboldt, Gauss, Mädler, Encke,
+Schumacher, paid her their respects, personally or by letter, if not in
+both ways. “Next to listening to the conversation of learned men,” she
+told the younger Lady Herschel, “I like to hear about them; but I find
+myself, unfortunately, among beings who like nothing but smoking, big
+talk on politics, wars, and such-like things.” Her situation remained,
+to the end, displeasing to her. She made the best of it; but the best
+was, to her thinking, bad. Having wilfully flung herself out of the
+current of life, she was nevertheless surprised at being stranded.
+She recurred, with inextinguishable pain, to the crippling effects of
+circumstances and old age.
+
+“I lead a very idle life,” she wrote in 1826. “My sole employment
+consists in keeping myself in good humour, and not being disagreeable
+to others.” And in 1839: “I get up as usual, every day, change my
+clothing, eat, drink, and go to sleep again on the sofa, except I am
+roused by visitors; then I talk till I can talk no more--nineteen to
+the dozen!” While at nights “the few, few stars I can get at out of my
+window only cause me vexation, for to look for the small ones on the
+globe my eyes will not serve me any longer.”
+
+She followed, however, with intense delight the progress of her
+nephew’s career, in which she beheld the continuation of his father’s.
+The intelligence of his having opened a nebular campaign in 1825, was
+like the sound of the trumpet to a disabled war-horse. Nothing but
+the decline of her powers, she assured him, would have prevented her
+“coming by the first steamboat to offer you the same assistance as, by
+your father’s instructions, I was enabled to afford him.” And again,
+in 1831: “You have made me completely happy with the account you sent
+me of the double stars; but it vexes me more and more that in this
+abominable city there is no one who is capable of partaking in the
+joy I feel on this revival of your father’s name. His observations on
+double stars were, from first to last, the most interesting subject; he
+never lost sight of it. And I cannot help lamenting that he could not
+take to his grave the satisfaction I feel at seeing his son doing him
+such ample justice by endeavouring to perfect what he could only begin.”
+
+Sir John’s trip to the Cape roused her ardent sympathy. “Ja!” she
+exclaimed, on hearing of the project, “If I were thirty or forty years
+younger, and could go too. In Gottes Namen!” But she was eighty-two,
+and could only give vent to her feelings by “jingling glasses
+with Betty” after dinner on his birthday, while mistress and maid
+together cried, “Es lebe Sir John! Hoch! Hurrah!” The reports of his
+achievements in the southern hemisphere were, she said, “like a drop
+of oil supplying my expiring lamp.” “At first, on reading them,” she
+wrote to Lady Herschel, “I could turn wild; but this is only a flash;
+for soon I fall into a reverie on what my dear nephew’s father would
+have felt if such letters could have been directed to him, and cannot
+suppress my wish that _his_ life instead of _mine_ had been spared
+until this present moment.”
+
+The joyful intelligence of her nephew’s safe return to England was
+sent to Miss Herschel by the Duke of Cambridge, whose attentions to
+her were unfailing; and she lived to hold in her hands the volume of
+“Cape Results,” by which her brother’s great survey of the heavens
+was rounded off to completion. But by that time the lassitude of
+approaching death was upon her.
+
+Three visits from her nephew broke the monotony of separation. In
+October, 1824, he stopped at Hanover on his way homeward from the
+Continent. Before his arrival, her “arms were longing to receive him”;
+after his departure, she “followed him in idea every inch he moved
+farther” away from her. Six years passed, and then he came again.
+
+“I found my aunt,” he reported, June 19th, 1832, “wonderfully well, and
+very nicely and comfortably lodged, and we have since been on the full
+trot. She runs about the town with me, and skips up her two flights of
+stairs as light and fresh at least as some folks I could name who are
+not a fourth part of her age. In the morning till eleven or twelve she
+is dull and weary; but as the day advances she gains life, and is quite
+‘fresh and funny’ at ten or eleven p.m., and sings old rhymes, nay,
+even dances! to the great delight of all who see her.”
+
+Their final meeting was in 1838, when Sir John’s Cape laurels were just
+gathered; and he brought with him his eldest son, aged six. But the
+old lady was terrified lest the child should come to harm; his food,
+his sleep, his scramblings, his playthings, were all subjects of the
+deepest anxiety. Then Sir John, desiring to spare her “the sadness of
+farewell,” perpetrated a moonlight flitting, which left her dismayed
+and desolate at the abrupt termination of the visit, and smarting
+with the intolerable consciousness of opportunities lost for saying
+what could now never be said. “All that passed,” she said, “was like
+Sheridan’s Chapter of Accidents.” It was too much for her; she did not
+desire the repetition of a pleasure rated at a price higher than she
+could afford to pay. “I would not wish on any account,” she told Lady
+Herschel in 1842, “to see either my nephew or you, my dear niece, again
+in this world, for I could not endure the pain of parting once more;
+but I trust I shall find and know you in the next.”
+
+She lived habitually in the past, and found the present--as Mrs.
+Knipping, Dietrich’s daughter said--“not only strange, but annoying.”
+Sometimes she would rouse herself from a “melancholy lethargy” to spend
+a few moments “in looking over my store of astronomical and other
+memorandums of upwards of fifty years’ collecting, and destroying
+all that might produce nonsense when coming through the hands of a
+Block-kopf into the Zeitungen.” Again she would dip back into the
+career of the “forty-foot,” or recall the choral performance to
+which the tube had resounded not far from sixty years before, “when
+I was one of the nimblest and foremost to get in and out of it. But
+now--lack-a-day--I can hardly cross the room without help. But what of
+that? Dorcas, in the _Beggars’ Opera_, says:
+
+ “‘One cannot eat one’s cake and have it too!’”
+
+That venerable instrument marked for her the _ne plus ultra_ of optical
+achievement. She would not admit the sacrilegious thought of its being
+outdone. “I believe I have water on my brains,” she informed her nephew
+in August, 1842, “and all my bones ache so that I can hardly crawl;
+and, besides, sometimes a whole week passes without anybody coming
+near me, till they stumble on a paragraph in the newspaper about
+Gruithuisen’s discoveries, or Lord Queenstown’s great telescope, which
+_shall_ beat Sir William Herschel’s all to nothing; and such a visit
+sometimes makes me merry for a whole day.”
+
+From time to time she wrote books of “Recollections,” which she
+forwarded, with anxious care, to England. They contain nearly all that
+is intimately known of Sir William Herschel’s life. The entries in her
+“Day-book” ceased finally only on September 3rd, 1845. In the hope of
+giving permanent form to the memories that haunted her, she began, at
+ninety-two, “a piece of work which I despair of finishing before my
+eyesight and life leave me in the lurch. You will, perhaps, wonder what
+such a thing can be as I may pretend to do; but I cannot help it, and
+shall not rest till I have wrote the history of the Herschels.” “You
+remember,” she added, “you take the work in whatever state I may leave
+it, and make the best of it at your leisure.” It remained a piquant
+fragment. The fervour of her start was soon quenched by physical
+collapse, and she acknowledged her powerlessness “to do anything beside
+keeping herself alive.” Her last letter to Collingwood was finished
+with difficulty, December 3rd, 1846. Monthly reports of her state,
+however, continued to be sent thither by Miss Beckedorff, who, with
+Mrs. Knipping, cared for her to the last.
+
+In honour of her ninety-sixth birthday, the King of Prussia sent her,
+through Humboldt’s friendly hands, the Gold Medal of Science; and on
+the following anniversary, March 16th, 1847, she entertained the Crown
+Prince and Princess for two hours. Not only with conversation; she
+sang to them, too, a composition of Sir William’s, “Suppose we sing a
+Catch.” She had a new gown and smart cap for the occasion; and seemed
+“more revived than exhausted” by her efforts. Her last message to her
+nephew and his family--sent March 31st--was to say, with her “best
+love” “that she often wished to be with them, often felt alone, did not
+quite like old age with its weaknesses and infirmities, but that she,
+too, sometimes laughed at the world, liked her meals, and was satisfied
+with Betty’s services.”
+
+On the 9th of January, 1848, she tranquilly breathed her last, and “the
+unquiet heart was at rest.” She was buried beside her parents in the
+churchyard of the Gartengemeinde, at Hanover, with an epitaph of her
+own composition.[F] It records that the eyes closed in death had in
+life been turned towards the “starry heavens,” as her discoveries of
+comets, and her participation in her brother’s “immortal labours,” bear
+witness to future ages. By her special request a lock of “her revered
+brother’s” hair, and an old almanac used by her father, were placed in
+her coffin, which was escorted to the grave by royal carriages, and
+covered with wreaths of laurel and cypress from the royal gardens at
+Herrenhausen.
+
+ [F] “Der Blick der Verklärten war hienieden dem gestirnten
+ Himmel zugewandt; die eigenen Cometen-Entdeckungen,
+ und die Theilnahme an den unsterblichen Arbeiten ihres
+ Bruders, Wilhelm Herschel, zeugen davon bis in die späteste
+ Nachwelt.”
+
+Caroline Herschel was not a woman of genius. Her mind was sound and
+vigorous, rather than brilliant. No abstract enthusiasm inspired her;
+no line of inquiry attracted her; she seems to have remained ignorant
+even of the subsequent history of her own comets. She prized them as
+trophies, but not unduly. The assignment of property in comets reminded
+her, she humorously remarked, when in her ninety-third year, of the
+children’s game, “He who first cries ‘Kick!’ shall have the apple.”
+Yet her faculties were of no common order, and they were rendered
+serviceable by moral strength and absolute devotedness. Her persistence
+was indomitable, her zeal was tempered by good sense; her endurance,
+courage, docility, and self-forgetfulness went to the limits of what
+is possible to human nature. With her readiness of hand and eye, her
+precision, her rapidity, her prompt obedience to a word or glance, she
+realised the ideal of what an assistant should be.
+
+Herself and her performances she held in small esteem. Compliments and
+honours had no inflating effect upon her. Indeed, she deprecated them,
+lest they should tend to diminish her brother’s glory. “Saying too
+much of what I have done,” she wrote in 1826, “is saying too little
+of him, for he did all. I was a mere tool which _he_ had the trouble
+of sharpening and adapting for the purpose he wanted it, for lack of
+a better. A little praise is very comforting, and I feel confident
+of having deserved it for my patience and perseverance, but none for
+great abilities or knowledge.” Again: “I did nothing for my brother but
+what a well-trained puppy-dog would have done; that is to say, I did
+what he commanded me.” And her entire and touching humility appears
+concentrated in the following sentence from a letter to her nephew: “My
+only reason for saying so much of myself is to show with what miserable
+assistance your father made shift to obtain the means of exploring the
+heavens.”
+
+The aim in life of this admirable woman was not to become learned
+or famous, but to make herself useful. Her function was, in her own
+unvarying opinion, a strictly secondary one. She had no ambition.
+Distinctions came to her unsought and incidentally. She was accordingly
+content with the slight and fragmentary supply of knowledge sufficing
+for the accurate performance of her daily tasks. No inner craving
+tormented her into amplifying it. The following of any such impulse
+would probably have impaired, rather than improved, her efficiency.
+The turn of her mind was, above all things, practical. She used
+formulæ as other women use pins, needles and scissors, for certain
+definite purposes, but with complete indifference as to the mode of
+their manufacture. What was required of her, however, she accomplished
+superlatively well, and this was the summit of her desires. She shines,
+and will continue to shine, by the reflected light that she loved.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+SIR JOHN HERSCHEL AT CAMBRIDGE AND SLOUGH.
+
+
+“The little boy is entertaining, comical, and promising,” Dr. Burney
+wrote after his visit to Slough in 1797. John Frederick William
+Herschel was then five years old, having been born “within the shadow
+of the great telescope” March 7, 1792. He was an industrious little
+fellow, especially in doing mischief. “When one day I was sitting
+beside him,” his aunt relates, “listening to his prattle, my attention
+was drawn by his hammering to see what he might be about, and I found
+that it was the continuation of many days’ labour, and that the ground
+about the corner of the house was undermined, the corner-stone entirely
+away, and he was hard at work going on with the next. I gave the alarm,
+and old John Wiltshire, a favourite carpenter, came running, crying
+out, ‘God bless the boy, if he is not going to pull the house down!’”
+And she wrote to him at Feldhausen; “I see you now in idea, running
+about in petticoats among your father’s carpenters, working with little
+tools of your own, and John Wiltshire crying out, ‘Dang the boy, if he
+can’t drive in a nail as well as I can!’”
+
+[Illustration: SIR JOHN FREDERICK WILLIAM HERSCHEL, BART.
+
+(_From a portrait painted by Pickersgill for St. John’s College,
+Cambridge._)]
+
+“John and I,” she told his wife, “were the most affectionate friends,
+and many a half or whole holiday spent with me was dedicated to making
+experiments in chemistry, in which generally all boxes, tops of
+tea-canisters, pepper-boxes, teacups, etc., served for the necessary
+vessels, and the sand-tub furnished the matter to be analysed. I only
+had to take care to exclude water, which would have produced havoc on
+my carpet.”
+
+From a preparatory school kept by Dr. Gretton at Hitcham, he was sent,
+a delicate, blue-eyed lad, to Eton. His mother, however, happening to
+see him maltreated by a stronger boy, brought him home after a few
+months, and his education was continued by a Scotch mathematician named
+Rogers, a man of considerable ability. His pupil held him in high
+respect; yet, though he learned Euclid accurately from him, he told
+Dr. Pritchard afterwards that “he knew no more of its real bearing and
+intention than he knew of the man in the moon.” The results of the home
+tuition were, none the less, exceedingly brilliant.
+
+Herschel entered St. John’s College, Cambridge, at the age of
+seventeen, and his aunt noted in her Diary that, from the time of his
+admittance to the University until he quitted it, he gained all the
+first prizes without exception. He graduated as Senior Wrangler and
+First Smith’s Prizeman in 1813, a year in which honours were not cheap.
+Peacock, subsequently Dean of Ely, took second place, Fearon Fallows,
+the first Royal Astronomer at the Cape of Good Hope, came third, and
+Babbage withdrew from the competition, judging himself unable to beat,
+and not caring to be beaten by Herschel. Rivalry did not disturb their
+friendship. Having entered, together with Peacock, into a juvenile
+compact to do what in them lay “to leave the world wiser than they
+found it,” they, in 1812, set about fulfilling it by the establishment
+of the “Analytical Society of Cambridge.” Its object was to substitute
+in England for Newton’s fluxional method the more flexible and powerful
+calculus in use on the Continent; or, as Babbage expressed it, punning
+on the required change of notation, “to uphold the principles of pure
+D-ism in opposition to the _Dot_-age of the University.” The trio of
+innovators were full of enthusiasm, and they carried through a reform
+vital to the progress of British science. Herschel laboured zealously
+in the cause. In combination with his two allies, he translated
+Lacroix’s elementary treatise on the Differential Calculus, which
+became a text-book at Cambridge; and published, in 1820, an admirable
+volume of “Examples.” “In a very few years,” to use Babbage’s words,
+“the change from dots to d’s was accomplished; and thus at last the
+English cultivators of mathematical science, untrammelled by a limited
+and imperfect system of signs, entered on equal terms into competition
+with their Continental rivals.” Herschel, writing in the _Quarterly
+Review_, playfully described the process by which this was brought
+about. “The brows of many a Cambridge moderator,” he said, “were
+elevated, half in ire, half in admiration, at the unusual answers which
+began to appear in examination-papers. Even moderators are not made
+of impenetrable stuff; their souls were touched, though fenced with
+seven-fold Jacquier, and tough bull-hide of Vince and Wood. They were
+carried away with the stream, in short, or replaced by successors full
+of their newly acquired powers. The modern analysis was adopted in its
+largest extent.”
+
+John Herschel was one of Babbage’s “chief and choicest companions,” who
+breakfasted with him every Sunday after chapel, and discussed, during
+three or four delightful hours, “all knowable, and many unknowable
+things.” His life-long friendship with Whewell began after his election
+to a Fellowship of his College. It lent charm to the occasional
+residences at Cambridge, which terminated in 1816, on his attaining the
+dignity of Master of Arts. He celebrated his coming of age at home,
+and was with his father at Brighton when Campbell characterised him as
+“a prodigy in science, and fond of poetry, but very unassuming.” His
+first publication was a paper on “Cotes’s Theorem,” sent, in October,
+1812, to the Royal Society, of which body he was chosen a member, May
+27, 1813. This was followed by a series of memoirs on various points
+of analysis, their signal merit being recognised, in 1821, by the
+bestowal of the Copley Medal. His investigations in pure mathematics
+were carried no further; but he had done enough to show his power and
+originality, and materially to widen the scope of the new methods.
+
+He was in no hurry to choose a profession. Evenly balanced inclinations
+demanded, circumstances indulged delay; so he paused. His father wished
+him to enter the Church; but he preferred the law, and was enrolled
+a student at Lincoln’s Inn, January 24, 1814. The step was a simple
+formality. It committed him to nothing. And, in fact, while nominally
+reading for the Bar, his thoughts were running in a totally different
+direction. Dr. Wollaston, whose acquaintance he made in London,
+fascinated him, and his influence served to steady the helm of his
+intentions. Having decided finally for a scientific career, he returned
+to Slough, and plunged into experiments in chemistry and physical
+optics.
+
+On September 10th, 1816, he informed a correspondent that he was
+“going, under his father’s direction, to take up star-gazing.” This
+brief sentence gives the first tidings of an astronomical element in
+his life. Its growth was slow. He had no instinctive turn that way. It
+was through filial reverence that he resolved to tread in his father’s
+footsteps. His self-denial received a magnificent reward. He took a
+place expressly reserved for him, as it might seem, beside his father
+as an explorer of the skies on the grandest scale. But for this moral
+purpose, he might have squandered time in a multiplicity of partial
+researches. So late as 1830 he told Sir William Rowan Hamilton: “I find
+it impossible to dwell for very long on one subject, and this renders
+my pursuit of any branch of science necessarily very desultory.” His
+nebulæ and double stars saved him from being “everything by turns,
+and nothing long.” Their collection and revisal, begun as a duty,
+grew to be irresistibly attractive, and John Herschel pledged himself
+definitively to astronomy.
+
+His earliest undertaking was the re-examination of his father’s
+double stars. Entered upon at Slough in 1816, it was continued from
+1821 to 1823 at the observatory in Blackman Street, Southwark, of
+Mr., afterwards Sir James South, where, with two excellent refracting
+telescopes, of five and seven feet focal length, the colleagues
+measured 380 of Sir William Herschel’s original pairs. Double stars
+want a great deal of looking after. Their discovery should be the
+prelude to long processes of investigation. It is of little interest
+unless diligently followed up. Each represents a system, individual
+in its peculiarities, and probably of most complex organisation.
+The more such systems are studied, the more wonderful they appear.
+Two associated stars have often proved, on keener scrutiny, to be
+themselves very closely double; and in other cases, disturbed motion
+has revealed the existence of obscure masses--planets on a colossal
+scale, possibly the spacious abodes of unimaginable forms of life.
+
+The “Astronomy of the Invisible,” however, was still in the future when
+Herschel and South did their work. Facts relating to binary revolutions
+were scantily forthcoming, and the science to be founded on them had
+been rather indicated than established. Fresh observations were then
+needed to ascertain how the circling stars had behaved since 1802. The
+results proved highly satisfactory. In Francis Baily’s words, “The
+remarkable phenomena first brought to light by Sir William Herschel
+were abundantly confirmed, and many new objects pointed out as worthy
+the attention of future observers.” To take a couple of examples. Eta
+Coronæ was found to have described, since 1781, one entire round,
+and to be just starting on a second. Again, Tau Ophiuchi had been
+perceived, by the elder Herschel, at his first sight of it in April,
+1783, to be “elongated.” “One half of the small star,” he said, “if
+not three-quarters, seems to be behind the large star.” This effect
+was imperceptible to his son. It had become entirely effaced in the
+course of forty years. The star was, in 1823, perfectly round; it had,
+as it were, absorbed its companion. By slow degrees, however, the two
+came into separate view, and now form an easy telescopic object. Their
+period of revolution is not less than two centuries. Another point of
+special interest was the detection of marked eccentricity in a stellar
+orbit--that of Xi Ursæ Majoris. These stars perform their circuits in
+just sixty years; but in 1821 their apparent speed was so great that
+changes in their relative positions could be determined from month to
+month. For these observations, published with notes and discussions in
+the _Philosophical Transactions_ for 1824, Herschel and South received
+the Lalande Prize of the French Academy in 1825, and the Gold Medal of
+the Astronomical Society in 1826. In the latter distinction, Wilhelm
+Struve and Amici of Modena were associated with them. These four were
+the only double star observers then living.
+
+Their exertions served to define more closely the circumstances of
+stellar movement. The crucial question could now be put, whether they
+are governed by the force that binds the planets to the sun, or by
+some other form of attractive influence. In other words, is the law of
+gravitation universal? An answer could only be obtained experimentally,
+by computing, on gravitational principles, the paths of the best-known
+pairs, and then _trying the fit_. If the stars, as time went on, kept
+near their predicted places, the unity of nature in this respect might
+be safely inferred; although considerable discrepancies might in any
+case be expected, owing to errors of measurement minute in themselves,
+but large relatively to curves reduced by distance to hair-breadth
+dimensions.
+
+This kind of inquiry was fairly started in 1827, when Savary computed
+the orbit of Xi Ursæ. His success made it almost certain that the pair
+moved under the planetary regimen, conformed to, there is no reason
+to doubt, by all binaries. John Herschel, although not the first, was
+the most effective early investigator of stellar orbits. His method,
+described before the Royal Astronomical Society January 13, 1832, and
+approved by the award of its Gold Medal in 1833, went to the root of
+the matter. The author declared it a mere waste of time to attempt to
+deal, by any refined or intricate process of calculation, with data so
+uncertain and irregular as those at hand. “Uncertain and irregular,”
+it must be repeated, because referred to a scale on which tenths of
+a second assume large proportions. He accordingly discarded, as mere
+pedantic trifling, such analytical formulæ as those employed by Savary
+and Encke, and had recourse to a graphical process, in which “the
+aid of the eye and hand” was used to “guide the judgment in a case
+where judgment only, and not calculation, could be of any avail.” The
+operation which he went on to explain was commended by Sir George Airy
+for its “elegance and practical utility.” Nothing more appropriate
+could have been devised than this plan, at once simple, ingenious, and
+accommodating, for drawing a curve representative of the successive
+relative positions of double stars. Its invention effectively promoted
+acquaintance with their orbits; most of those at present known having,
+indeed, been calculated with its aid.
+
+In 1821, Herschel travelled, in Babbage’s company, through Switzerland
+and Italy. His only recorded adventure was an ascent of Monte Rosa.
+In the following year he visited Holland with James Grahame, the
+learned author of a “History of America”; and on the removal of
+South’s observatory to Passy, he again went abroad, starting with
+Babbage, but returning alone. This time he made a number of scientific
+acquaintances. His father’s name worked like a spell. “I find myself,”
+he said, “for his sake, received by all men of science with open arms.”
+His modesty forbade him to remember that his own merits were already
+conspicuous. In Paris, Arago and Fourier showed him all possible
+attentions; he was welcomed at Turin “like a brother” by Plana, “one
+of the most eminent mathematicians of the age;” at Modena, Amici was,
+if possible, still more cordial. “He is the only man,” Herschel told
+his aunt, “who has, since my father, bestowed great pains on the
+construction of specula.” “Among other of your inquiring friends,” he
+continued, “I should not omit the Abbé Piazzi, whom I found ill in
+bed at Palermo, and who is a fine, respectable old man, though, I am
+afraid, not much longer for this world. He remembered you personally,
+having himself visited Slough.”
+
+On July 3 Herschel “made the ascent of Etna, without particular
+difficulty, though with excessive fatigue.” On the summit, reached
+before sunrise, by “a desperate scramble up a cone of lava and ashes,
+one thousand feet high,” he found himself “enveloped in suffocating
+sulphurous vapours”; and “was glad enough to get down,” after having
+made a reading of the barometer in concert with the simultaneous
+observations of the brothers Gemellaro at Catania and Nicolosi. The
+same night he arrived at Catania “almost dead” from the morning’s
+arduous climb, “and the dreadful descent of nearly thirty miles, where
+the mules could scarce keep their feet.”
+
+In traversing Germany, he deviated to Erlangen, where Pfaff was
+engaged in translating Sir William Herschel’s writings; and visited
+Encke, Lindenau, and Harding, at Seeberg, Gotha, and Göttingen. With
+Göttingen he had a special tie through his creation, in 1816, an
+honorary member of the University; and at Göttingen, too, he hoped to
+meet Gauss--a man of strange, and--to the lay mind--unintelligible
+powers. “Gauss was a god,” one of his fellow-mathematicians said of
+him; but the “god” was on this occasion absent--feasting with the
+“blameless Ethiopians,” perhaps, like the Homeric deities when wanted.
+He was reported “inconsolable” for the lost opportunity, which seems
+never to have recurred.
+
+From Munich Herschel wrote to his aunt, in view of his approaching
+visit to Hanover:--“I hope you haven’t forgotten your English, as
+I find myself not quite so fluent in this language (German) as I
+expected. In fact, since leaving Italy, I have so begarbled my German
+with Italian that it is unintelligible both to myself and to everyone
+that hears it: and what is very perverse, though when in Italy I could
+hardly talk Italian fit to be heard, I can now talk nothing else, and
+whenever I want a German word, pop comes the Italian one in its place.
+I made the waiter to-day stare (he being a Frenchman) by calling to
+him, ‘Wollen Sie avere la bontà den acet zu apportaren!’ But this, I
+hope, will soon wear off.”
+
+His next foreign holiday was spent in France. He had designed a new
+instrument for measuring the intensity of the sun’s radiations, and
+was eager to experiment with it alternately at high and low levels,
+for the purpose of determining the proportion of solar heat absorbed
+by the earth’s atmosphere. This method was employed with fine effect
+by Professor Langley on Mount Whitney in 1881. Herschel carried his
+“actinometer” to the top of the Puy de Dôme in September 1826, and
+waited at Montpellier for “one day of intense sunshine,” in order
+to procure his second term of comparison. The Puy de Dôme, with its
+associated three hundred summits, strongly allured him. “I have been
+rambling over the volcanoes of Auvergne,” he wrote from Montpellier,
+September 17, “and propose, before I quit this, to visit an extinct
+crater which has given off two streams of lava at Agde, a town about
+thirty miles south of this place on the road to the Spanish frontier.
+Into Spain, however, I do not mean to go--having no wish to have my
+throat cut. I am told that a regular diligence runs between this and
+Madrid, and is as regularly stopped and robbed on the way.”
+
+This exploratory turn alarmed Miss Herschel. “I fear,” she replied,
+“you must often be exposed to great dangers by creeping about in holes
+and corners among craters of volcanoes.” He was, nevertheless, only
+dissuaded by his mother’s anxious remonstrances from pursuing their
+study in Madeira and Teneriffe.
+
+In the autumn of 1827, Babbage accompanied him to Ireland. The young
+Astronomer Royal, Sir W. R. Hamilton, was unluckily absent at the time
+of their visit; but he sent Herschel, by way of compensation, one of
+his brilliant optical essays, and a correspondence sprang up from which
+a lasting friendship developed.
+
+Herschel’s scientific occupations at home were meanwhile various and
+pressing. He co-operated in the foundation of the Astronomical Society,
+and became in 1821 its first foreign secretary. In 1824 he undertook
+the more onerous duties of secretary to the Royal Society, and rented a
+house in Devonshire Street for the three years of his term of office.
+Astronomy, it might have been feared, should be at least temporarily
+shelved; yet he informed his aunt, April 18, 1825, “A week ago I had
+the twenty-foot directed on the nebulæ in Virgo, and determined the
+right ascensions and polar distances of thirty-six of them. These
+curious objects I shall now take into my especial charge--nobody else
+can see them.”
+
+His telescope, in fact, then held the championship. It was constructed
+in 1820 by himself, under his father’s directions, on the “front view”
+plan, the speculum being eighteen inches in diameter, and of twenty
+feet focal length. With it he executed, in 1824, a fine drawing of the
+Orion Nebula, with which “inexplicable phenomenon” he was profoundly
+impressed. It suggested to him no idea of a starry composition, and he
+likened its aspect to that presented by the “breaking up of a mackerel
+sky, when the clouds of which it consists begin to assume a cirrous
+appearance.”
+
+In July, 1828, he succeeded in discerning the two Uranian satellites,
+Oberon and Titania, _authentically_ discovered by his father. They had
+not been seen, except incidentally at Slough, for thirty years. His
+pursuit of them, continued at intervals until 1832, had the result
+of confirming, while slightly correcting, Sir William Herschel’s
+elements of their motions. On September 23, 1832, he perceived Biela’s
+comet as a round, hazy object without a tail. It closely simulated a
+pretty large nebula. A small knot of very faint stars lay directly
+in its path, and, having before long overtaken them, it “presented,
+when on the cluster, the appearance of a nebula partly resolved into
+stars, the stars of the cluster being visible through the comet.” They
+shone undimmed, he estimated, from behind a veil of cometary matter
+50,000 miles thick. Yet, only a month later, the remote prospect of a
+collision with this tenuous body threw Europe into a panic.
+
+After Sir William Herschel’s death, his son formed the project of
+collecting into a memorial volume all his published papers; but he
+decided before long that he could add more to his fame by pursuing
+and verifying his observations than by reprinting them. The keynote
+of his life’s activity was struck in these words. His review of the
+2,500 Herschelian nebulæ, more than half of which were invisible with
+any instrument except his own, was begun in the summer of 1825, and
+terminated in 1833. The assiduity with which it was prosecuted appeared
+by its completion in little more than half the time judged necessary
+for the purpose by the original discoverer. Yet he was not exempt
+from discouragement. “Two stars last night,” he wrote, July 23, 1830,
+“and sat up till two waiting for them. Ditto the night before. Sick
+of star-gazing--mean to break the telescopes and melt the mirrors.”
+Very few glimpses of this seamy side to the occupation are afforded us
+by either of the Slough observers. Modern astronomers, by comparison,
+would seem, like the Scotchman’s barometer, to have “lost all control
+over the weather.”
+
+The efficacious promptitude with which John Herschel swept the skies
+appears truly wonderful when we remember that he was without a skilled
+assistant. No ready pen was at hand to record what he saw, and how
+he saw it; he was, by necessity, his own amanuensis; and writing by
+lamplight unfits the eye for receiving delicate impressions. Yet a
+multitude of the objects for which quest was being made were of the
+last degree of faintness. The results were none the less admirable.
+Embodied in a catalogue of 2,307 nebulæ, of which 525 were new, they
+were presented to the Royal Society July 1, 1833, and printed in the
+_Philosophical Transactions_ (vol. cxxiii.). Annotations of great
+interest, and over one hundred beautiful drawings, enhanced the value
+of the memoir.
+
+Herschel was struck, in the course of his review, by the nebulous
+relations of double stars. A close, faint pair at the exact centre of
+a small round nebula in Leo; stellar foci in nebular ellipses; and a
+strange little group consisting of a trio of equidistant stars relieved
+against a nebulous shield, were specimen-instances illustrating “a
+point of curious and high physical interest.”
+
+He also drew attention to “the frequent and close proximity to
+planetary nebulæ of minute stars which suggest the idea of accompanying
+satellites. Such they may possibly be.” If so, their revolutions might
+eventually be ascertained; and he urged the desirability of exact and
+persistent determinations of the positions of these satellite-stars.
+“I regret,” he concluded, “not having sufficiently attended to this in
+my observations, the few measures given being hurried, imperfect, and
+discordant.” Up to the present, these supposed systems have remained
+sensibly fixed; but they have been a good deal neglected. Mr. Burnham’s
+observations, however, with the Lick refractor in 1890–1, may supply a
+basis for the future detection of their movements in periods probably
+to be reckoned by millenniums.
+
+The orbital circulation of compound nebulæ must be at least equally
+slow. They are most diverse in form and arrangement. “All the varieties
+of double stars as to distance, position, and relative brightness,”
+Herschel wrote, “have their counterparts in nebulæ; besides which, the
+varieties of form and gradation of light in the latter afford room for
+combinations peculiar to this class of objects.” Such, for instance, as
+the disparate union of an immensely long nebulous ray in Canes Venatici
+with a dim round companion, a small intermediate star occupying
+possibly the centre of gravity of the system.
+
+Herschel’s drawings of double nebulæ have gained significance through
+their discussion, in 1892, by Dr. T. J. J. See of Chicago. They are
+now perceived to form a series aptly illustrative of the process,
+theoretically investigated by Poincaré and Darwin, by which a cooling
+and contracting body, under the stress of its consequently accelerated
+rotation, divides into two. If it be homogeneous in composition,
+its “fission” gives rise to two equal masses, presumed to condense
+eventually into a pair of equal stars. Disparity, on the other hand,
+between the products of fission indicates original heterogeneity;
+so that a large nebula must be of denser consistence than a smaller
+one physically connected with it. The chemical dissimilarity of the
+stars developed from them might explain the colour-contrasts often
+presented by unequal stellar couples. This view as to the origin of
+double nebulæ, and through them of double stars, although doubtless
+representing only a fragment of the truth, gives wonderful coherence to
+Herschel’s faithful delineations of what his telescope showed him.
+
+No one before him had completely seen the “Dumb-bell” nebula in
+Vulpecula. Sir William Herschel had perceived the “double-headed shot”
+part of this “most amazing object,” but had missed the hazy sheath
+which his successor noticed as filling in the elliptic outline. He
+perceived similarly (unaware of Schröter’s observation) that the
+interior of the Ring-nebula in Lyra is not entirely dark; and compared
+the effect to that of fine gauze stretched over a hoop. An exceedingly
+long, nebular ellipse in Andromeda, with a narrow interior vacuity,
+left him “hardly a doubt of its being a thin, flat ring of enormous
+dimensions, seen very obliquely.” A photograph taken by Dr. Roberts, in
+1891, corresponds strikingly with Herschel’s drawing. Some specimens of
+“rifted nebulæ,” were also included in the collection of 1833. They are
+double or even triple parallel rays, fragments, apparently, of single
+primitive formations. Herschel might well assert that “some of the most
+remarkable peculiarities of nebulæ had escaped every former observer.”
+
+Both by the Royal, and by the Royal Astronomical Societies, medals
+were, in 1836, adjudged to this fine work. Its progress was
+accompanied by the discovery of 3,347 double stars, as well as by the
+re-measurement of a large number of pairs already known. The whole
+were drawn up into eight catalogues, presented at intervals to the
+Astronomical Society, and printed in their Memoirs. A good many of
+them would, nevertheless, be rejected by modern astronomers as “not
+worth powder and shot,” the stars composing them being too far apart to
+give more than an infinitesimal chance of mutual connection. From May
+1828 onwards, these measures were made with “South’s _ci-devant_ great
+equatorial,” purchased by Herschel. The object-glass, by Tulley, was
+five inches in diameter. With a twelve-inch refractor, its successor
+in South’s observatory on Campden Hill, Herschel detected, on its
+trial-night, February 13, 1830, the sixth star in the “trapezium” of
+Orion. This minute object was then about one-third as bright as the
+fifth star in the same group, discovered by Robert Hooke in 1664, but
+forgotten, and re-discovered by Struve in 1826. A slow gain of light in
+Herschel’s star is not improbable.
+
+He refused, in 1826, to compete for the Lucasian Professorship of
+Mathematics at Cambridge. It was practically at his disposal, since all
+agreed that no one could better than Herschel have filled the chair
+once occupied by Newton. He was, however, disinclined for an University
+career, and had undertaken labours incompatible with it. In 1830 he
+stood as the “scientific candidate” for the presidentship of the Royal
+Society, against the Duke of Sussex. His defeat was by “a ridiculously
+small majority.” “I had no personal interest in the contest,” he
+wrote to Sir William Hamilton. “Had my private wishes and sense of
+individual advantage weighed with me in opposition to what, under the
+circumstances, was an imperative duty, I should have persisted in my
+refusal to be brought forward; but there are situations where one _has_
+no choice, and such was mine.”
+
+He made Hamilton’s personal acquaintance at a dinner of notabilities,
+given by the Duke of Sussex, in March, 1832. An invitation to Slough
+followed, and Hamilton, arriving “in a beautiful star-time,” enjoyed
+celestial sights that seemed the opening of a new firmament.
+
+Herschel married, March 3, 1829, Margaret Brodie, second daughter of
+the Rev. Alexander Stewart, of Dingwall, in Ross-shire. The event--not
+merely by convention a “happy” one--gave great satisfaction to his
+numerous friends. Miss Herschel was beside herself with glad emotion.
+“I have spent four days,” she informed him on his wedding-day, “in
+vain endeavours to gain composure enough to give you an idea of the
+joyful sensation caused by the news. But I can at this moment find no
+words which would better express my happiness than those of Simeon:
+“Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace.” But there was
+no finality in her desires for this brilliant scion of her race.
+His domestic felicity did not long content her; she craved worldly
+distinctions. When, after the accession of William IV., a shower of
+honours was let fall, she began to think plain “John Herschel, Esq.,”
+an address very inadequate to his merits. “Dr. Grosskopf,” the husband
+of one of her nieces, “has been _zum Ritter ernannt_ by his present
+Majesty,” she wrote discontentedly. “So was Dr. Mükry last week. If all
+is betitled in England and Germany, why is not my nephew, J. H., a lord
+or a wycount (_sic_) at least? General Komarzewsky used to say to your
+father, ‘Why does not King George III. make you Duke of Slough?’”
+
+An instalment of her wishes was granted by his creation, in 1831, a
+Knight of the Royal Hanoverian Guelphic Order; and she lived to see him
+a baronet. She had no inkling of his approaching journey to the Cape
+when he came to see her in June, 1832, although the visit was designed
+as a farewell. Hanover itself, too, had for him an ancestral charm.
+
+“It was only this evening,” he wrote home, “that, escaping from a
+party at Mrs. Beckedorff’s, I was able to indulge in what my soul has
+been yearning for ever since I came here--a solitary ramble out of
+town, among the meadows which border the Leine-strom, from which the
+old, tall, sombre-looking Marktthurm, and the three beautiful lanthorn
+steeples of Hanover are seen as in the little picture I have often
+looked at with a sort of mysterious wonder when a boy, as that strange
+place in foreign parts that my father and uncle used to talk so much
+about, and so familiarly. The _likeness_ is correct, and I soon found
+the point of view.”
+
+Almost from the beginning of his surveying operations, Herschel
+cherished the hope of extending them to the southern hemisphere. But
+during his mother’s lifetime, he took no steps towards its realisation.
+The separation would have been cruel. Her death, however, on January
+6th, 1832, at the age of eighty-one, removed this obstacle, and
+the scheme rapidly took shape. The station originally thought of
+was Parramatta, in New South Wales; but Dunlop’s observations there
+anticipated him, and he reflected with disappointment that “the cream
+of the southern hemisphere had been skimmed” before his turn came. He
+learned afterwards that nothing important in the “sweeping” line had
+been done at Parramatta; he had virgin skies to explore. A trip to the
+Himalayas was his next ambition; and one of the recommendations of the
+Cape of Good Hope was its being “within striking distance of India.”
+But to India he never went. The Cape was beyond question the most
+suitable locality for his purpose, and it would have been waste of time
+to have left it, even temporarily, for any other. He was offered a free
+passage thither in a ship of war, but preferred to keep his enterprise
+altogether on a private footing. So having embarked with his wife,
+three children, and instrumental outfit, on board the _Mountstuart
+Elphinstone_, he left the shores of England, November 13, 1833.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+EXPEDITION TO THE CAPE.
+
+
+The voyage was prosperous, but long. Nine weeks and two days passed
+before the welcome cry of “Land” was heard; and it was in the dawn
+of January 15, 1835, that Table Mountain at last stood full in view,
+“with all its attendant range down to the farthest point of South
+Africa,” outlined, ghost-like, in clear blue. The disembarkation of the
+instruments and luggage took several days. They filled fifteen large
+boats, and a single onslaught of the south-easterly gale, by which at
+that time of the year Cape Town is harried, might easily have marred
+the projected campaign. All, however, went well.
+
+The travellers were welcomed by Dr. Stewart, one of Lady Herschel’s
+brothers, and enthusiastically greeted by the Royal Astronomer, Sir
+Thomas Maclear. They made no delay in fixing their headquarters.
+
+“For the last two or three days,” Herschel wrote to his aunt, January
+21, “we have been looking for houses, and have all but agreed for one,
+a most beautiful place four or five miles out of town, called ‘The
+Grove.’ In point of situation it is a perfect paradise in rich and
+magnificent mountain scenery, and sheltered from all winds, even the
+fierce south-easter, by thick surrounding woods. I must reserve for my
+next all description of the gorgeous display of flowers which adorns
+this splendid country, as well as the astonishing brilliancy of the
+constellations.”
+
+“The Grove” resumed its old Dutch name of “Feldhausen” during
+Herschel’s occupation of it; and as “Feldhausen” it will always
+be memorable in astronomical history as the scene of the first
+effective exploration of the southern heavens. The place is
+essentially unchanged. Only an avenue of fir-trees has been planted
+by way of approach to the house, a solid Dutch structure, with a
+disconsolate-looking garden in front; while in an adjacent field,
+carpeted with yellow lupins every spring, and redolent of their
+perfume, an obelisk has been erected on the former site of the great
+reflector. Above, to the west, towers the _gable-end_ of Table
+Mountain, and an exuberant growth of oaks and pines softens the
+sternness of its “mural precipices.”
+
+The neighbourhood was, in those days, lonely in the human sense,
+although otherwise over- and ill-populated. Wolves and jackals abounded
+in the forests; venomous snakes slid through the grass; baboons had the
+run of the country; even the lion and the hippopotamus were scarcely
+yet extinct in the Cape Peninsula. Many a wild hyæna-shriek startled
+the astronomer at his nightly toil; and Dr. Whewell reported that he
+had “spent one night in tiger-hunting, but seemed to think it poor
+sport compared with the _chasse aux étoiles doubles_.” _Tiger_, it
+should be explained, is a local name for a species of leopard: no true
+tigers have ever been encountered in Africa.
+
+His twenty-foot began its activity February 22nd, and the refractor,
+which was equatorially mounted in a revolving dome, was ready early
+in June. “But I am sorry to say,” he told Miss Herschel, “that the
+nights in which it can be used to advantage are rare.” And he lamented
+to his brother-in-law and intimate friend, Mr. James C. Stewart,
+that, during the hot season, “the stars tremble, swell, and waver most
+formidably.” The Cape heavens are indeed often exasperating. On nights
+meteorologically quite fine, the dismayed astronomer not uncommonly
+sees the stars “walking about” in the field of view; and a mere handful
+of cloud will, at other times, with incredible swiftness, spread over
+the whole face of the sky. Still, compensation is, sooner or later,
+sure to come in a run of magnificent observing weather. This was
+Herschel’s experience. He informed Francis Baily, October 23rd, 1834,
+that “the definition was far beyond anything experienced in England.”
+After rain especially, superb opportunities were afforded, when
+
+ “The starry sequence of nocturnal hours”[G]
+
+ [G] R. Garnett, “Iphigenia in Delphi.”
+
+might be unbroken, perhaps for a week together, by a single adverse
+incident of climate.
+
+Herschel took three specula with him to the Cape; one made by his
+father, another by himself with his father’s aid, and a third, of his
+own exclusive manufacture. Their rapid tarnishing kept them in constant
+circulation from the tube to the polisher. After half a dozen nights
+they had lost all brilliancy; at the end of three months, they were
+more than purblind. He acquired, however, such facility and skill in
+the use of his polishing machine, that he was able, in 1835, to report
+his mirrors as “more perfect than at any former time.”
+
+He made astonishingly quick progress in observation. On October 24th,
+1835, Miss Herschel was informed, “I have now very nearly gone over
+the whole southern heavens, and over much of it often. In short, I
+have, to use a homely phrase, broken the neck of the work, and my main
+object now is to secure and perfect what is done.”
+
+His sweeps yielded a harvest of 1,202 double stars, and 1,708 nebulæ
+and clusters, only 439 of which had been previously registered. Among
+the novelties were a faint, delicate miniature of the ring-nebula
+in Lyra, and five planetaries. One of these he described as “of a
+beautiful greenish-blue colour, a full and intense tint.” This lovely
+object, situated in Centaur, is sometimes distinguished as “_the_ blue
+planetary”; although its hue is shared by all the members of its class.
+The nature of their spectrum, in fact, obliges them to be more or less
+green.
+
+Sir John Herschel applied the term “falcated” to two curious nebulæ
+belonging, undoubtedly, to the later recognised “spiral” class. He
+perceived besides in oval nebulæ the annular lines of structure
+emphasised in Dr. Roberts’s photographs. He remarked, further, that “as
+the condensation increases toward the middle, the ellipticity of the
+strata diminishes.”
+
+His study of the Magellanic Clouds gave the first idea of their
+composition. He showed them to be aggregations on a vast scale of
+every variety of cosmical product. “When examined through powerful
+telescopes, the constitution of the Nubeculæ, and especially of the
+Nubecula Major, is found to be of astonishing complexity.” He drew up
+a preliminary catalogue of 1,163 stars, nebulæ and clusters included
+in them, the conjunction of which was really decisive as to nebular
+status. For he showed, from the elementary principles of trigonometry,
+that, taking the Greater Cloud to be roughly spherical in shape, its
+nearest and remotest parts could differ in distance from ourselves
+by little more than one-tenth the distance of its centre. The fact
+was thus demonstrated that seventh and eighth-magnitude stars and
+irresolvable nebulæ co-exist within those limits. He stopped short,
+however, of the conclusion drawn by Whewell and Spencer, that the
+stellar and nebular sub-kingdoms are not only locally intermixed, but
+inseparably united.
+
+The Magellanic Clouds are the most conspicuous features of the barren
+south polar heavens. Round the Lesser Cloud especially, the sky,
+Herschel said, “is most oppressively desolate.” And again: “The access
+to the Nubecula Minor on all sides is through a desert.” One of the
+separate inmates of the Larger Cloud is the “great looped nebula,”
+compared by Herschel to “an assemblage of loops,” the complicated
+windings of which make it “one of the most extraordinary objects which
+the heavens present.” To the eye of the present writer it resembled
+a shining strip of cellular tissue hung up against the sky. The
+“lace-work nebula” in Cygnus is of the same type; but here the tracery
+of nebula is closely followed by a tracery of stars. Truly, “A most
+wonderful phenomenon!” as Herschel exclaimed in contemplating it.
+
+The first photographs of the Magellanic Clouds were taken in 1890–91
+by Mr. Russell of Sydney. They contained an extraordinary revelation.
+Both objects came out in them as gigantic spirals. Their miscellaneous
+contents are then arranged according to the dictates of a prevalent,
+though unexplained cosmical law. The Nubecula Major is a double vortex,
+and the extent of its outlying portions, invisible except to the
+camera, is at least eight times that of the central mass; but they
+conform to the same helical lines.
+
+Herschel catalogued 1,203 stars strewn over the surface of the famous
+Argo nebula, and devoted several months to its delineation. This he
+found “a work of great labour and difficulty.” While at the telescope
+he often half surrendered to despair “of ever being able to transfer to
+paper, with even tolerable correctness, its endless details.” “Language
+cannot easily convey,” he said, “a full impression of the beauty and
+sublimity of the spectacle this nebula offers when viewed in a sweep,
+ushered in by so glorious and innumerable a procession of stars, to
+which it forms a sort of climax.” Only the Orion nebula may be thought
+to surpass it in “magnitude, complexity, and brightness.” Its most
+characteristic feature is an abrupt vacuity, of a “lemniscate oval”
+shape, from which it derives the name of the “Keyhole Nebula.” The
+value of Herschel’s drawing of this grand object has been accentuated
+by its photographic portrayal. Their comparison betrays, in fact,
+the occurrence in the interval of what appears to be a vast change.
+Already, in 1871, Mr. Russell missed with surprise a prominent feature
+in the Feldhausen picture; and its failure to appear on photographic
+plates exposed for eight hours, yet impressed with innumerable stars
+previously unseen, raised something more than a presumption that, as
+Mr. Russell said, “a well-defined and brilliant portion of this nebula
+vanished between 1837 and 1871.” Its disappearance was independently
+verified by Dr. Gill, Royal Astronomer at the Cape. With a total
+exposure of more than twelve hours, in March, 1892, he secured a
+magnificent representation of this wonderful object, fundamentally
+agreeing with Herschel’s, save only as regards the mass of bright
+nebulosity vainly looked for by Mr. Russell. The “swan-shaped” or
+“trident-like” structure was clean gone! That is to say, the matter
+composing it had ceased to be luminous. It should be added that Mr.
+Ranyard, whose special experience lent weight to his opinion, thought
+it unsafe to trust much to comparisons of drawings of such baffling
+objects, either among themselves or with photographs.
+
+Before leaving the Cape, Herschel witnessed an event testifying
+surprisingly to the _vitality_ of this nebula. In a condensed tract
+close to the dark “keyhole,” he was accustomed to see the bright star
+Eta Argûs. It gave no sign of being variable until, on December 16,
+1837, he perceived with amazement that it had, all at once, nearly
+tripled in brightness. After this sudden leap, it mounted gradually
+to the level of Alpha Centauri, then slowly declined. It just matched
+Aldebaran when Herschel lost sight of it in March, 1838. A second, and
+even more vigorous outburst was watched by Sir Thomas Maclear in 1843.
+It then overtopped every star except Sirius, and for seven subsequent
+years rivalled the splendour of Canopus. No notice was at first taken
+of its colour; but it was redder than Mars in 1850, and reddish it
+still remains, in its low estate of invisibility to the naked eye. But
+since bright lines of hydrogen show in its photographed spectrum, we
+may suspect that--
+
+ “Even in its ashes live its former fires,”
+
+and that, consequently, its vicissitudes are not yet terminated. The
+instability of its character was virtually discovered at Feldhausen.
+Except by Burchell, the African traveller, no previous suspicion of
+it had been entertained; the numerous facts denoting that the star’s
+past behaviour had been abnormal were collected by Sir John Herschel
+after it had been caught _in flagrante delicto_. In his belief, it
+had no physical connection with, but was merely projected upon, the
+nebula. But since then the nebular relations of blazing stars have
+been strongly underlined. The mass of circumstantial evidence now
+accumulated on the point fully warrants the assertion that Eta Argûs
+makes an integral part of the formation it once illuminated.
+
+A cluster in the constellation of the Cross, unique in the varied and
+brilliant tints of its principal components, was compared by Herschel
+to “a gorgeous piece of fancy jewellery.” Within the space of 1/48th
+part of a square degree, he determined the places of no less than 110
+of them, referred to Kappa Crucis, a rosy orb round which they are
+irregularly scattered. The colour-effects in this beautiful ornament of
+the sky need large apertures for their full display.
+
+An object showing to the eye as a hazy star of the fourth magnitude
+was entitled by Bayer in 1603 Omega Centauri. Herschel’s twenty-foot
+disclosed it as “a noble globular cluster, beyond all comparison the
+richest and largest in the heavens.” Dr. Gill obtained an admirable
+photograph of it May 25, 1892. The stars composing it are literally
+countless. On a plate exposed for two hours at Arequipa, Mr. Solon I.
+Bailey reckoned nearly 6,400; yet he made no allowance for those “too
+faint and closely packed” to be perceptible except as a “mottled grey
+background between the distinct images.”
+
+Somewhat inferior to Omega Centauri in size, though not at all in
+beauty, is 47 Toucani. So obvious is it to the naked eye that, for
+several nights after his arrival in Peru, Humboldt took it for a comet.
+Central condensation in this cluster appeared to Herschel as if marked
+off into three distinct stages; and to his delighted perception the
+whole interior offered, by its roseate hue, an exquisite contrast to
+the silvery radiance of the outer portions. No other observer has,
+however, noticed this chromatic peculiarity. The structure of 47
+Toucani is almost perfectly uniform. It is broken by none of the “dark
+lanes,” rifts, or tunnels which so curiously diversify many globular
+clusters. The usual hirsute aspect lent by the spreading abroad of
+_tentacles_, or radiating stellar streams, is likewise scarcely
+distinguishable either in 47 Toucani or Omega Centauri. Indeed, Mr.
+Bailey noticed that the photographic images of both were all but
+perfectly circular. In a future age this may be otherwise. Streams of
+stars will, perhaps, set outward from these grand assemblages, leaving
+vacancies behind. Thus, if it be permissible to judge of the relative
+antiquity of clusters by their advance towards disruption, 47 Toucani
+and Omega Centauri may be reckoned among the youngest of the globular
+kind existing in the heavens.
+
+The mechanism of clusters has received little attention from any
+astronomer beside Herschel. And a solution of an ideal case of the
+problem it presented was the utmost he could achieve.
+
+“A quiescent spherical form,” he wrote in 1833, “may subsist as the
+bounding outline of an immense number of equal stars, uniformly
+distributed through its extent. In such a state of things each star
+might describe an ellipse in any plane, and in any direction in that
+plane, about the common centre without the possibility of collision.
+If the form be not spherical, and the distribution of the stars not
+homogeneous, the dynamical relations become too complicated to be
+distinctly apprehended.”
+
+But the more closely these aggregations are examined, the less likely
+does it seem that they in any sense represent “quiescent forms.” The
+arrangement of the stars composing them rather suggests their being
+outward bound into the ocean of surrounding space, although the orders
+that they carry are to us sealed.
+
+Herschel subsequently altered his views regarding the composition
+of clusters, and threw out in 1847 “the possibility of masses of
+luminous matter--of whatever density or rarity, of whatever bulk or
+minuteness--forming a connected system, and being prevented from
+collapse or from mutual interference by the resistance of a transparent
+and non-luminous medium.” For a “dynamical” he, in short, substituted
+a “statical equilibrium,” the interposed medium lending unity to the
+mixed aggregate, and enabling it to rotate, as a whole, upon an axis.
+But the rotation is more than questionable. It seems to be precluded
+by the ragged contours and indeterminate boundaries of all starry
+collections. Photographic evidence, on the other hand, favours Sir John
+Herschel’s surmise as to the composite nature of clusters. Some at
+least evidently unite within themselves the “two sidereal principles.”
+The stellar points they mainly consist of are immersed in, or linked
+together by, shining nebulous stuff.
+
+Herschel provided a southern sequel to his father’s star-gauging work
+by counting 70,000 stars in 2,300 fields. Their distribution was in
+complete accordance with the results of the earlier experiments.
+“Nothing can be more striking,” Sir John wrote, “than the gradual,
+but rapid increase of density on either side of the Milky Way as we
+approach its course.” The existence of an “ecliptic of the stars” (in
+Lambert’s almost prophetic phrase) was demonstrated. Or, as Herschel
+himself put it, the plane of the Galaxy “is to sidereal, what the
+ecliptic is to planetary astronomy, a plane of ultimate reference, the
+ground-plan of the sidereal system.” He estimated, from the basis of
+his gauge-reckonings, that his twenty-foot reflector was capable of
+showing, in both hemispheres, about five and a half million stars. The
+smallest of these would be of 14·5 magnitude, on the strict photometric
+scale. But, unless his valuation was greatly too small, there must
+be a conspicuous falling off in stellar density beyond the region of
+tenth or eleventh magnitude. If this be so, scarcely one-quarter of
+the expected stars will make their appearance on the plates of the
+International Survey.
+
+The grand feature of southern celestial scenery is the splendour of the
+Milky Way. One of the galactic condensations in Sagittarius actually
+seems to start out from the sky in a definite globular form; and the
+darkness of the great rift beginning near the Cross is so intensified
+by contrast with the strongly luminous branches it separates, as to
+throw the blackness of the exterior heavens _into the shade_. This
+part of the Milky Way may even be seen in southern latitudes--as it
+was by the present writer--reflected from a glassy ocean-surface. The
+section passing from Centaur through the Ship to Orion is, in some
+respects, still more striking. Captain Jacob remarked at Madras that
+“the general blaze from this portion of the sky is such as to render
+a person immediately aware of its having risen above the horizon,
+though he should not be at the time looking at the heavens.” Herschel
+commented on the singular interruptions of the shining zone by obscure
+spaces in Scorpio, near Alpha Centauri, and elsewhere; and admired
+the enhancement afforded to its magnificence by “a marvellous fringe
+of stars” attached pretty regularly to its southern border. “It is
+impossible,” he wrote to Sir William Hamilton in June, 1836, “to resist
+the conviction that the Milky Way is not a stratum, but a ring.”
+
+His telescopic analysis disclosed in it a variety and complexity of
+structure for which he was wholly unprepared. “Great cirrous masses
+and streaks” of galactic light presented themselves in Sagittarius;
+and, as the telescope moves, the appearance is that of clouds passing
+in a _scud_.” “The Milky Way,” he continued, “is like sand, not strewn
+evenly as with a sieve, but as if flung down by handfuls, and both
+hands at once, leaving dark intervals, and all consisting of stars
+of the lowest magnitudes,” down to nebulosity, in a most astonishing
+manner.” As he proceeded, the stars became “inconceivably numerous and
+minute. There must be millions on millions, and all most unequally
+massed together; yet they nowhere run to nuclei, or clusters much
+brighter in the middle.”
+
+In some regions, the formation proved unfathomable; all traces of
+stellar _texture_ disappeared. In others, it was plainly perceived to
+consist of portions differing exceedingly in distance, but brought by
+projection into nearly the same visual line. Near the Trifid Nebula,
+“we see foreshortened,” he said, “a vast and illimitable area scattered
+over with discontinuous masses and aggregates of stars, in the manner
+of the cumuli of a mackerel-sky, rather than of a stratum of regular
+thickness and homogeneous formation.”
+
+These varied observations compelled him to reject decisively Olbers’s
+hypothesis of light-extinction in space. For, if the possible range of
+ethereal messages be restricted in one direction, it must be equally
+restricted in all. “We are not at liberty,” he reasoned, “to argue that
+in one part of the circumference of the galaxy our view is limited by
+this sort of cosmical veil which extinguishes the smaller magnitudes,
+cuts off the nebulous light of distant masses, and closes our view in
+impenetrable darkness; while, at another, we are compelled, by the
+clearest evidence telescopes can afford, to believe that star-strewn
+spaces _lie open_, exhausting their powers and stretching out beyond
+their utmost reach.” These objections seem fatal to what we may
+call the “agnostic” theory of the sidereal world--the theory that
+investigations into its construction are for ever barred by failure
+of the means of communication--that we can never see more than a
+necessarily meaningless part of a possibly infinite, and, in any case,
+absolutely inscrutable whole.
+
+The general telescopic exploration of the Milky Way began and ended
+with the Herschels. Their great reflectors have been superseded by
+the photographic camera. This particular application of its versatile
+powers encountered special difficulties; but they were happily
+overcome by Professor Barnard in July, 1889. A six-inch portrait
+lens afforded the two chief requisites of a powerful light-grasp and
+an extensive field; and plates exposed with it for some three hours
+showed accordingly, for the first time, “in all their delicacy and
+beauty” (to quote Professor Barnard’s words), “the vast and wonderful
+cloud-forms, with their remarkable structure of lanes, holes, and black
+gaps, and sprays of stars, as no eye or telescope can ever hope to see
+them.” The work has since been continued by him and others, notably
+by Mr. Russell at Sydney, and by Professor Max Wolf at Heidelberg,
+so that the complete round of the “circling zone” will, before long,
+have its varied aspects permanently recorded. They frequently present
+strange and significant forms. Branching, leaf-like, spiral, elliptical
+structures abound; individual stars are disposed in circlets, streams,
+parallel rows, curves of sundry kinds. A “clustering power” of unknown
+nature is ubiquitously active; orderly development is in progress.
+A creative purpose can be _felt_, although it cannot be distinctly
+followed by the mind.
+
+Herschel’s “sweeps” in southern skies were continued until January,
+1838; but with frequent intermissions. He was ready for every
+interesting object that came in his way--comets among the rest.
+“Encke’s--_yours_,” he informed his aunt, October 24, 1835, “escaped me
+owing to trees and the Table Mountain, though I cut away a good gap in
+our principal oak avenue to get at it.” Four days later he caught sight
+of Halley’s comet at its second predicted return. But for the stellar
+aspect of this body his observations of it would have begun much
+earlier; for, in the absence of an exact ephemeris, it was impossible
+to pick it out from among the stars it long precisely counterfeited.
+“I am sure,” he said, “that I must often have swept with a night-glass
+over the very spot where it stood in the mornings before sunrise; and
+never was surprise greater than mine at seeing it riding high in the
+sky, broadly visible to the naked eye, when pointed out to me by a note
+from Mr. Maclear, who saw it with no less amazement on the 24th.”
+
+“This comet,” he wrote to Miss Herschel, March 8, 1836, “has been a
+great interruption to my sweeps, and I _hope_ and _fear_ it may yet
+be visible another month.” It lingered on just two. He watched with
+astonishment the changes it underwent. “Within the well-defined head,”
+he wrote in his “Cape Observations,” “and somewhat eccentrically
+placed, was seen a vividly luminous nucleus, or rather, an object
+which I know no better way to describe than by calling it a miniature
+comet, having a nucleus, head, and tail of its own, perfectly distinct,
+and considerably exceeding in intensity of light the nebulous disc or
+envelope.”
+
+This strangely organised body was a very Proteus for instability of
+form. It alternately lost and recovered its tail. It contracted into
+the likeness of a star, then dilated into a nebulous globe, which
+at last vanished as if through indefinite diffusion. The whole mass
+“seemed touched, seemed turned to finest air.” During one week at
+the end of January--it had passed perihelion November 16--Sir John
+estimated that the cometary Amœba had increased its bulk no less than
+forty times!
+
+The paraboloidal form characteristic of this comet and many others, was
+to him “inconceivable,” apart from the play of repulsive, in addition
+to attractive forces; and he suggested that high electrical excitement
+due to vaporisation, if of the same kind with a permanent charge on
+the sun, would plausibly account for the enigmatical appearances he
+had witnessed. From their close study at Königsberg, Bessel had
+already concluded “the emission of the tail to be a purely electrical
+phenomenon.”
+
+In March, 1836, Herschel attacked the subject of southern stellar
+photometry. Carrying further the “method of sequences,” he determined
+the relative brightness of nearly five hundred stars, which he disposed
+in order on a single descending scale, and linked on by careful
+comparisons to the northern stars, as they “lightened into view” on the
+homeward voyage. By the device of an “artificial standard star,” he was
+besides enabled to obtain numerical values for the lustre of each star
+examined, in terms of that of Alpha Centauri. Most important of all, he
+rectified the current system of magnitudes, and introduced a definite
+“light ratio,” which has since been extended, and more strictly
+defined, but not altered.
+
+His “astrometer” gave Herschel the means of _balancing_ the lustre of
+Alpha Centauri against full moonlight. The latter proved to be 27,500
+times more powerful. And Wollaston having determined the ratio of
+moonlight to sunlight at 1/800000 (corrected by Zöllner to 1/600000),
+it became feasible to compare the brightness of any particular star,
+_as we see it_, with the brightness of the sun. Alpha Centauri, for
+example, sends us, according to Herschel, 1/22 thousand millionth of
+the light we receive from our domestic luminary. Moreover, when the
+distance of the star came to be measured (it amounts to twenty-five
+billions of miles), _light received_ could at once be translated into
+_light emitted_. And the result has been to show that the components of
+this splendid binary are, taken together, four times more luminous than
+the sun. Through Sir John Herschel’s photometric researches, then, the
+real light-power of stars at known distances became an ascertainable
+quantity; and it is an element of great importance to astrophysical
+inquiries.
+
+On January 10, 1837, he wrote from Feldhausen to his brother-in-law:
+“I am now at work on the spots in the sun, and the general subject
+of solar radiation.” The sun was just then at an exceptionally high
+maximum of disturbance. Spots of enormous size frequently obscured
+its disc. One was estimated by Herschel, March 29, 1837, to cover,
+independently of others, an area of 3,780 millions of square miles. So
+that it considerably exceeded in dimensions the great spot-group of
+February, 1892, the largest ever photographed at Greenwich. The study
+of a series of such phenomena led him to propound the “cyclone-theory”
+of their origin. It marked a decided advance in solar physics, if
+only because it rested upon the fact--until then unaccountably
+overlooked--that spot-production is intimately connected with the
+sun’s rotation. He regarded it as a kind of disturbance incidental to
+a system of fluid circulation analogous to the terrestrial trade- and
+anti-trade winds. “The spots,” he said, “in this view of the subject
+would come to be assimilated to those regions on the earth’s surface
+where, for the moment, hurricanes and tornadoes prevail; the upper
+stratum being temporarily carried downwards, displacing by its impetus
+the two strata of luminous matter beneath, the upper of course to a
+greater extent than the lower, and thus wholly or partially denuding
+the opaque surface of the sun below.”
+
+But the fundamental cause of our atmosphere’s flow and counter-flow
+is absent in the sun. The earth is heated from the outside, and
+therefore unequally; hence the air rushes along, turning westward
+as it goes, from the chilly poles to the torrid zone of vertical
+sunshine. No reason is, however, apparent why the solar equator should
+be hotter than the solar poles. That adduced by Herschel is certainly
+inadequate. He supposed that, by a retention of heat at the equator due
+to the accumulation there, consequent upon his rotation, of the sun’s
+absorbing atmosphere, a difference of temperature might be maintained
+sufficient to keep the solar trade-winds blowing. But the effect is too
+slight to be detected. And, in fact, the main drift of the photospheric
+layers is along parallels of latitude. Polar and equatorial currents
+are insignificant and uncertain.
+
+Herschel and Pouillet contemporaneously, although at opposite sides
+of the globe, succeeded in 1837 in measuring the intensity of solar
+radiation. They were the first to apprehend the true bearings of the
+question, which in principle are simple enough. All that is required
+is to determine the heating effects, in a given time, of direct
+sunshine. Its despoilment by our air has, indeed, to be allowed for.
+Here the chief element of uncertainty comes in. Herschel put the loss
+at one-third the original thermal power of vertical rays; Pouillet
+pronounced it nearly one-half; Langley, using the most refined
+appliances, concludes it to be four-tenths. Striking an average between
+his own and the French results, Herschel calculated that, at the sun’s
+surface, a shell of ice forty feet thick would melt in one minute, the
+rate being reduced, at the distance of the earth, to an inch in two
+hours and twelve minutes. And it is now practically certain that this
+estimate was too small by about half its amount.
+
+By way of illustrating the effects obtained with his philosophical
+apparatus, he constructed a popular kind of actinometer, in the shape
+of an “American dispatch,” made of a few pieces of wood and two panes
+of glass, in which eggs were roasted, and beef-steaks broiled, by
+sun-heat alone. The viands thus _cosmically cooked_ were “eaten with no
+small relish by the entertained bystanders.”
+
+Mimas and Enceladus, Saturn’s innermost moons, had persistently eluded
+Herschel’s search for them in England; but, to his great delight, both
+favoured him at the Cape. His observations of them in 1835–6 were the
+first since his father’s time. The next detection of Mimas was by Mr.
+Lassell in 1846.
+
+The extent, variety, and completeness of the work done at Feldhausen
+strike one with ever-fresh admiration. It seems scarcely credible that
+so much was accomplished in four years by a single unaided individual.
+Herschel’s only assistant was an honest mechanic named John Stone,
+faithful, serviceable, in his way skilful, but not a “being” of the
+“quick as lightning” sort, imagined and realised by Caroline Herschel.
+It is related that during his observations of Halley’s comet, Sir John
+on one occasion fell asleep, and while he remained in this condition
+of peril (owing to the elevation and insecurity of his perch), Stone
+kept dutifully turning the telescope. At last the astronomer awoke,
+rubbed his eyes, looked down the great tube, saw nothing, rubbed his
+eyes again, and exclaimed, “Why, John, where’s the comet?” The comet
+had meantime set, and the telescope was duly directed towards its place
+behind Table Mountain!
+
+The splendid fulfilment of his astronomical tasks did not represent
+the whole of Herschel’s activity at the Cape. He collected a large
+store of tidal data for Dr. Whewell; started scientific meteorology;
+established a system of national education still working beneficially,
+and presided over the South African Literary and Scientific
+Institution, the members of which presented him with a gold medal on
+his departure. His visit made an epoch in the development of the Colony.
+
+To himself personally it was a time of intense enjoyment. His labours,
+arduous though they were, proceeded calmly, disembarrassed from
+jostling claims and counter-claims. They were carried on with absorbed
+enthusiasm, inspired in part by their sublime nature, in part by the
+excitement of novelty. His family throve and multiplied at Feldhausen.
+Sir Thomas Maclear’s friendship supplied unfailing social pleasure. An
+exhilarating climate, moreover, enchanting scenery, translucent skies,
+blossoming glens and hillsides worthy of Maeldune’s Isle of Flowers,
+contributed to render his southern sojourn a radiant episode. He wrote
+of it to Mr. Stewart as “the sunny spot in my whole life, where my
+memory will always love to bask.” But “the dream,” he added, “was too
+sweet not to be dashed by the dread of awakening.” The spell was broken
+when in the middle of March, 1838, he sailed in the _Windsor Castle_
+for England.
+
+The interest created by his romantic expedition spread to the other
+side of the Atlantic. A grotesque narrative, published in the _New
+York Sun_ for September, 1835, of lunar discoveries made at the Cape
+with the combined aid of the twenty-foot reflector and the Drummond
+limelight, was eagerly read and believed by thousands, was reprinted,
+re-circulated, and re-read. Nor were common gulls the only victims
+to the hoax. The truth of the story was gravely debated by the Paris
+Academy of Sciences.
+
+Herschel’s home-coming was a triumph. He was overwhelmed with applause
+and gratulation. His fellow-countrymen offered him what compensation
+they could for the disappearance from his horizon of the Southern
+Cross. He was created a baronet at the Queen’s Coronation, received
+an honorary degree of D.C.L. at Oxford in 1839, and was offered, but
+declined, reimbursement from the Treasury for the entire cost of his
+trip. He peremptorily refused as well to represent the University of
+Cambridge in Parliament, or to be nominated for the Presidentship of
+the Royal Society. His utmost desire was for a quiet and laborious
+life. A banquet, however, given in honour of his return, June 15,
+1838, could not be shunned; the less so that the celebration had a
+typical character. “In honouring a man,” Sir William Hamilton said, in
+proposing his health, “we honour science too.” For “the cultivators and
+lovers of Science have chosen Herschel for their chief--say, rather,
+have as such received him by inheritance.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+LIFE AT COLLINGWOOD.
+
+
+Herschel’s career as an observing astronomer came to a virtual end with
+his departure from the Cape. He was then forty-six, two years younger
+than his father when he began his course of prodigious activity at
+Slough. Sir William’s craving to see and to know was insatiable; Sir
+John’s was appeased by the accomplishment of one grand enterprise. His
+was a many-sided mind; dormant interests of sundry kinds revived on the
+first opportunity; new ones sprang up; and curiosity to interrogate the
+skies ceased to “prick the sides of his intent.” So the instruments
+taken down at Feldhausen in 1838 were not remounted in England; and
+their owner is never again recorded to have used a telescope. One
+cannot but regret that, in the plenitude of his powers, and instructed
+by rare experience, he should have put by his weapons of discovery.[H]
+The immense stock of observations with which they had furnished him
+remained, it is true, in their primitive, rough-hewn state; and he may
+have considered that wise husbandry required him to save one harvest
+before planting another. This, at any rate, was the course that he
+pursued.
+
+ [H] The three specula of the twenty-foot are in the possession
+ of Sir William J. Herschel; the tube remains in good
+ preservation at Collingwood.
+
+But it was often and in many ways interrupted. The demands on his
+time and thoughts were innumerable. Having settled his family
+for the season in London, he paid his third and last visit to his
+venerable aunt, and, in returning, dined with Dr. Olbers, the
+physician-astronomer of Bremen, then in his eightieth year. A fortnight
+later he was on his way to Newcastle, where the British Association
+met, August 20th. He was received with acclamation, but overwhelmed
+by scientific exactions. The proceedings were to him “a dreadful wear
+and tear,” and they left behind “mixed and crowded recollections.” No
+wonder. Besides acting as President of the Mathematical Section, he
+found himself involved in varied responsibilities. He was placed on a
+Committee for bringing down to date the places of Lacaille’s 10,000
+southern stars; on another for revising stellar nomenclature. The
+reduction of a body of meteorological observations made on a plan of
+his devising was entrusted to him; above all, he was charged with the
+development of Humboldt’s international scheme for securing systematic
+and world-wide observations on terrestrial magnetism. He drew up a
+memorial to the Government; compiled the Instructions for Sir James
+Clark Ross’s Antarctic expedition; and elaborately reported progress
+at several successive meetings of the British Association. His heart
+was in the work. He contributed an article dwelling on its importance
+to the _Quarterly Review_ for June, 1840; and in 1845 he expressed the
+opinion that “terrestrial physics form a subject every way worthy to be
+associated with astronomy as a matter of universal interest and public
+support.”
+
+The constellations gave him still more trouble than the vagaries of
+poised needles. They were in a riot of disorder. Celestial maps had
+become “a system of derangement and confusion”--of confusion “worse
+confounded.” New asterisms carved out of old existed precariously,
+recognised by some, ignored by others; waste places in the sky had
+been annexed by encroaching astronomers as standing-ground for their
+glorified telescopes, quadrants, sextants, clocks; a chemical apparatus
+had been set up by the shore of the river Eridanus, itself a meandering
+and uncomfortable figure; while serpents and dragons trailed their
+perplexing convolutions through hour after hour of right ascension.
+There were constellations so large that Greek, Roman, and Italic
+alphabets had been used up in designating the included stars; there
+were others separated by debatable districts, the stars in which often
+duplicated those situated within the authentic form of one of the
+neighbouring celestial monsters. Identification was thus in numberless
+cases difficult; in some, impossible.
+
+In conjunction with Francis Baily, Herschel undertook the almost
+hopeless task of rectifying this intolerable disorder. After much
+preliminary labour, he submitted to the Royal Astronomical Society,
+in 1841, a drastic scheme of constellational reform--a stellar
+redistribution-bill, framed on radical principles. Its alarming
+completeness, however, caused it to be let drop; and he finally
+proposed, in his report of 1844 to the British Association, a less
+ambitious but more practicable measure. Although not adopted in its
+entirety, it paved the way for ameliorations. The boundaries of
+the constellations have since been defined; interlopers have been
+ejected; one--the Ship Argo--especially obnoxious for its unwieldy
+dimensions, has been advantageously trisected. Nevertheless, individual
+star-nomenclature grows continually more perplexed; partial systems
+have become intermingled and entangled; double stars are designated in
+one way, variables in another, quick-moving stars in a third, red stars
+in a fourth, while any one of many catalogue-numbers may be substituted
+at choice; palpable blunders, unsettled discrepancies, anomalies of
+all imaginable kinds, survive in an inextricable web of arbitrary
+appellations, until it has come to pass that a star has often as many
+aliases as an accomplished swindler.
+
+In the spring of 1840 Herschel removed from Slough to Collingwood,
+a spacious country residence situated near Hawkhurst, in Kent. Here
+he devoted himself, in good earnest, to the preparation of his Cape
+results for the press. It was no light task. The transformation of
+simple registers of sweeps into a methodical catalogue is a long and
+irksome process; and Herschel was in possession of the “sweepings”
+of nearly four hundred nights. He executed it single-handed, being
+averse to the employment of paid computers. This was unfortunate.
+Monotonous drudgery was not at all in his line; as well put Pegasus
+between shafts. He had always found in himself “a great inaptitude”
+for numerical calculations; and he now acknowledged to Baily that
+attention to figures during two or three consecutive hours distressed
+him painfully. Whewell lamented in the _Quarterly Review_ the lavish
+expenditure of his time and energy upon “mere arithmetic”--computations
+which a machine would have been more competent to perform than a
+finely organised human brain. At last, however, in November, 1842, the
+necessary reductions were finished; and the letterpress to accompany
+the catalogues of double stars and nebulæ left his hands a couple of
+years later. The preparation of the plates occasioned further vexatious
+delays; and it was not until 1847 that the monumental work entitled
+“Results of Astronomical Observations at the Cape of Good Hope” issued
+from the press. The expenses of its production were generously defrayed
+by the Duke of Northumberland. In sending a copy to his aunt, then in
+her ninety-eighth year, he wrote: “You will have in your hands the
+completion of my father’s work--‘The Survey of the Nebulous Heavens.’”
+The publication was honoured with the Copley Medal by the Royal
+Society, and with a special testimonial by the Astronomical Society.
+
+Bessel, the eminent director of the Königsberg observatory, made
+Herschel’s personal acquaintance at the Manchester meeting of the
+British Association in 1842, and paid him a visit at Collingwood. The
+subject of a possible trans-Uranian planet was discussed between them.
+The German astronomer regarded its existence as certain, and disclosed
+the plot he had already formed for waylaying it on its remote path. The
+premonition stirred Herschel deeply. “There ought to be a hue and cry
+raised!” he exclaimed in a letter to Baily. And in resigning the Chair
+of the British Association, September 10, 1846, he spoke with full
+assurance of the still undiscovered body. “We see it,” he declared,
+“as Columbus saw America from the shores of Spain. Its movements have
+been felt, trembling along the far-reaching line of our analysis, with
+a certainty hardly inferior to that of ocular demonstration.” Within a
+fortnight, Neptune, through Le Verrier’s indications, was captured at
+Berlin.
+
+“I hope you agreed with me,” he wrote, November 19, 1846, to Sir
+William Hamilton, “that it is perfectly possible to do justice to
+Adams’s investigations without calling in question M. Le Verrier’s
+_property_ in his discovery. The fact is, I apprehend, that the
+Frenchmen are only just beginning to be aware _what a narrow escape Mr.
+Neptune had of being born an Englishman_. Poor Adams aimed at his bird,
+it appears, first, and as well as Le Verrier, but his gun hung fire,
+and the bird dropped on the other side of the fence!”
+
+It is well known that Le Verrier and Adams personally ignored
+controversy as to their respective claims to the planetary _spolia
+opima_. They were together at Collingwood in July, 1847, with Struve as
+their fellow-guest. During those few days King Arthur (in the person of
+Sir John Herschel) “sat in hall at old Caerleon.”
+
+He was elected President of the Royal Astronomical Society for the
+usual biennial term in 1828, 1840, and 1847; on the last occasion
+through the diplomatic action of Professor De Morgan. The Society
+was passing through a crisis; he apprehended its dissolution, and
+judged that it could only be saved by getting Herschel’s consent to
+become its nominal head. “The President,” he wrote to Captain Smyth,
+“must be a man of brass (practical astronomer)--a micrometer-monger,
+a telescope-twiddler, a star-stringer, a planet-poker, and a
+nebula-nabber. If we give bail that we won’t let him do anything if he
+would, we shall be able to have him, I hope. We must all give what is
+most wanted, and his name is even more wanted than his services. We can
+do without his services, not without loss, but without difficulty. I
+see we shall not, without great difficulty, dispense with his name.”
+
+And to Herschel himself: “We have been making our arrangements for
+the Society for the ensuing year; and one thing is that you are not
+to be asked to do anything, or wished to do anything, or wanted to do
+anything. But we want your _name_.” It was lent; and its credit seems
+to have had the desired effect.
+
+Dr. Whewell vainly tried to inveigle him, in November, 1838, into
+accepting the presidentship of the Geological Society; but he had to
+submit, in 1842, to be elected Rector of Marischal College, Aberdeen;
+and he consented to preside over the meeting of the British Association
+at Cambridge in June, 1845. His dignity on the occasion was not allowed
+to interfere with his usefulness. He wrote home June 22: “We have been
+on the Magnetic Committee working hard all the morning, in a Babel of
+languages and a Babylonian confusion of ideas, which crystallised into
+something like distinctness at last.” By that time the long-desired
+particulars regarding terrestrial magnetism were rapidly accumulating.
+_Facts_, as Herschel announced from the Presidential Chair, were
+plentifully at hand. “What we now want is _thought_, steadily directed
+to single objects, with a determination to avoid the besetting evil
+of our age--the temptation to squander and dilute it upon a thousand
+different lines of inquiry.”
+
+Herschel observed the great comet of 1843 from the roof of his house
+at Collingwood, on March 17, the first evening of its visibility in
+England. All that could be seen was “a perfectly straight narrow band
+of considerably bright, white cloud, thirty degrees in length, and
+about one and a half in breadth.” It was not until the following night
+that he recognised in this strange “luminous appearance” “the tail of
+a magnificent comet, whose head at the times of both observations was
+below the horizon.”
+
+In December, 1850, he was appointed Master of the Mint--a position
+rendered especially appropriate to him by Newton’s prior occupation of
+it. The duties connected with it were just then peculiarly onerous.
+Previously of a temporary and political character, the office now
+became permanent, and simply administrative. Many other changes
+accompanied this fundamental one. “The whole concern,” he said, “is in
+process of reorganisation.” This fresh start demanded much “personal
+and anxious attendance.” Notwithstanding his anxious regard for the
+interests of subordinates, the reconstruction could not but be attended
+by serious friction. No amount of oiling will get rusty wheels to
+revolve smoothly all at once. “Things progress rather _grumpily_,” he
+reported privately, “owing to the extreme discontent of some parties.”
+Further contentious business devolved upon him as a member of the
+jury on scientific instruments at the Great Exhibition. His time was
+fully and not agreeably occupied. Rising at six, he worked at home
+until half-past nine, then hurried to the Mint, which he exchanged
+between three and four o’clock for the Exhibition, and there, until the
+closing of its doors, examined the claims, and appeased the quarrels of
+rival candidates for distinction. He also sat on the Royal Commission
+appointed in 1850 to inquire into the University system. Its
+recommendations, agreed to by him in 1855, greatly disgusted Whewell;
+but their friendship remained unaltered by this discordance of opinion.
+
+These accumulated responsibilities were too much for Herschel’s
+sensitive nature; and the burthen was made heavier by a partial
+separation from his family. He was never alone in Harley Street, but
+the joyous life of Collingwood could not be transported thither;
+and the arid aspect of a vast metropolis, suggesting business and
+pleasure in excess, but little of enjoyment in either, oppressed him
+continually. His health suffered, and in 1855 he withdrew definitively
+into private life. His resignation of the Mint was most reluctantly
+accepted.
+
+“I find,” playfully remarked De Morgan, “that Newton and Herschel added
+each one coin to the list: Newton, the gold quarter-guinea, which was
+in circulation until towards the end of the century; Herschel, the gold
+quarter-sovereign, which was never circulated.”
+
+It was not the repose of inaction that Herschel sought at Collingwood.
+“Every day of his long and happy life,” Professor Tait said truly,
+“added its share to his scientific services.” Thenceforward he devoted
+himself chiefly to the formidable task of collecting and revising
+his father’s results and his own. His “General Catalogue of Nebulæ,”
+published in the _Philosophical Transactions_ for 1864, was in itself
+a vast undertaking. It comprised 5,079 nebulæ and clusters, to which
+it served as a universal index of reference. It averted the mischief
+of duplicate discoveries, settled the sidereal status of many a
+pseudo-comet, and quickly became the authoritative guide of both
+comet- and nebula-hunters. In the enlarged form given to it by Dr.
+Dreyer in 1888, it is likely long to hold its place. Herschel next, in
+1867, amalgamated into a regular catalogue of 812 entries his father’s
+various classed lists of double stars (Memoirs, Royal Astronomical
+Society, xxxv.). A far more comprehensive work was then taken in hand.
+He desired to do for double stars what he had done for nebulæ--to
+compile an exhaustive register of them in the shape of a catalogue,
+accompanied by a short descriptive account of each pair. But he was not
+destined to put this coping-stone to the noble monument erected by his
+genius. Strength failed him to digest and dispose the immense mass of
+materials he had collected. Nor was it possible for another to gather
+up the loose threads of his unfinished scheme. All that could be done
+was to preserve the imposing fragment as he left it. An ordered list
+of the 10,320 multiple stars he had proposed to treat was accordingly
+published in the fortieth volume of the same Society’s _Memoirs_ under
+the care of Professor Pritchard and Mr. Main. But it hardly possesses
+more than a commemorative value.
+
+Maria Edgeworth was an old friend of Sir John Herschel’s. In March,
+1831, she paid him a three days’ visit at Slough, which, she told a
+friend in Ireland, “has far surpassed my expectations, raised as they
+were, and warm from the fresh enthusiasm kindled by his last work” (the
+“Preliminary Discourse”). Mrs. Herschel she described as “very pretty,”
+sensible, and sympathetic, and possessed of the art of making guests
+happy without effort. On Sunday, after service, the philosopher showed
+off the dazzling colour-effects of polarised light, and at night,
+with the twenty-foot, “Saturn and his rings, and the moon and her
+volcanoes.”
+
+After twelve years, she came again, this time to Collingwood. “I should
+have written before,” Herschel assured Sir William Hamilton, December
+1st, 1843, “but Miss Edgeworth has been here, and that, among all
+people who know how to enjoy her, is always considered an excellent
+reason for letting correspondence and all other worldly things ‘gang
+their ain gate.’ She is more truly admirable now, I think, than at any
+former time, though in her seventy-fifth year.”
+
+Maria herself wrote from Collingwood in the following spring: “Here are
+Lord and Lady Adare, Sir Edward Ryan, and ‘Jones on Rent.’ Jones and
+Herschel are very fond of one another, always differing, but always
+agreeing to differ, like Malthus and Ricardo.”
+
+Sir William Hamilton spent a week under the same hospitable roof in
+1846. He was delighted, and, as was his wont, compressed the expression
+of his pleasure “within the Sonnet’s scanty plot of ground.” In the
+first of a pair entitled “Recollections of Collingwood,” he celebrated
+the “thoughtful walk” with his host, and the “social hours” in a family
+circle,
+
+ “Where all things graceful in succession come;
+ Bright blossoms growing on a lofty stalk,
+ Music and fairy-lore in Herschel’s home.”[I]
+
+ [I] The lines are quoted in Graves’s “Life of Hamilton,” vol.
+ ii. p. 525.
+
+The second dealt with “high Mathesis,” and
+
+ “dimly traced Pythagorean lore;
+ A westward-floating, mystic dream of FOUR.”
+
+Although not, like his friend, an incorrigible and impenitent
+sonnetteer, Herschel was “very guilty” of at least one specimen of the
+art. They were staying together, in June, 1845, at Ely, in the house of
+Dean Peacock. Hamilton’s inevitable sonnet came duly forth, and “next
+morning,” he related to De Morgan, “as my bedroom adjoined Herschel’s,
+and thin partitions did my madness from his great wit divide, I easily
+heard what Burns might have called a ‘crooning,’ and was not much
+surprised (being familiar with the symptoms of the attack)[J] when,
+before we sat down to breakfast at the Deanery, Lady Herschel handed
+me, in her husband’s name and her own, a sonnet of _his_ to _me_,
+which, unless the spirit of egotism shall seize me with unexpected
+strength, I have no notion of letting you see.”
+
+ [J] “Aut insanit, aut versos facit.”
+
+The circulation of Herschel’s fervid eulogy would assuredly have put
+his modesty to the blush. Headed “On a Scene in Ely Cathedral,” it runs
+as follows:--
+
+ “The organ’s swell was hushed, but soft and low
+ An echo, more than music, rang; when he,
+ The doubly-gifted, poured forth whisperingly,
+ High-wrought and rich, his heart’s exuberant flow
+ Beneath that vast and vaulted canopy.
+ Plunging anon into the fathomless sea
+ Of thought, he dived where rarer treasures grow,
+ Gems of an unsunned warmth and deeper glow.
+ O born for either sphere! whose soul can thrill
+ With all that Poesy has soft or bright,
+ Or wield the sceptre of the sage at will
+ (That mighty mace which bursts its way to light),
+ Soar as thou wilt!--or plunge--thy ardent mind
+ Darts on--but cannot leave our love behind.”
+
+Of Hamilton’s abstruse invention, the method of “Quaternions” (here
+alluded to), Herschel was, from the first, an enthusiastic admirer.
+He characterised it in 1847 as “a perfect cornucopia, from which, turn
+it on which side you will, something rich and valuable is sure to drop
+out.” The “power and pregnancy” of the new calculus were supremely
+delightful to him, and he advised every mathematician to gain mastery
+over it as a “working tool.” As such it has not yet been brought into
+ordinary use, yet it remains in the armoury of science, ready for
+emergencies.
+
+Miss Mitchell of Nantucket, the discoverer of a comet, and a professor
+of astronomy, published in 1889 (in the _Century_ magazine) her
+reminiscences of a short stay at Collingwood in 1858. Her host “was
+at that time sixty-six, but he looked much older, being lame and much
+bent in his figure. His mind, nevertheless, was full of vigour. He
+was engaged in re-writing the ‘Outlines of Astronomy.’” “Sir John’s
+forehead,” she says, “was bold but retreating; his mouth was very good.
+He was quick in motion and in speech. He was remarkably a gentleman;
+more like a woman in the instinctive perception of the wants and wishes
+of a guest.”
+
+“In the evening,” she relates, “we played with letters, putting out
+charades and riddles, and telling anecdotes, Sir John joining the
+family party and chatting away like the young people.” He propounded
+the question: If one human pair, living in the time of Cheops, had
+doubled, and their descendants likewise, once every thirty years, could
+the resulting population find room on the earth? The company thought
+not. “But if they stood closely, and others stood on their shoulders,
+man, woman, and child, how many layers would there be?” “Perhaps
+three,” replied Miss Mitchell. “How many feet of men?” he insisted.
+“Possibly thirty.” “Enough to reach to the moon,” said his daughter.
+“To the sun,” exclaimed another. “More, more!” cried Sir John, exulting
+in the general astonishment. “To Neptune,” was the next bid. “Now you
+burn,” he allowed. “_Take one hundred times the distance of Neptune,
+and it is very near._” “That,” he added, “is my way of whitewashing
+war, pestilence, and famine.”
+
+He further entertained his American guest with accounts of the
+paradoxical notions communicated to him by self-taught or would-be
+astronomers. One had inferred the non-existence of the moon from
+Herschel’s chapters on lunar physics and motions. Another enclosed
+half-a-crown for a horoscope. A third wrote, “Shall I marry, and have
+I seen her?” In reference to the efforts then being made to introduce
+decimal coinage into England, he remarked, “We stick to old ways, but
+we are not cemented to them.”
+
+The portrait of Caroline Herschel, painted by Tielemann in 1829,
+which she herself declared to “look like life itself,” hung in the
+drawing-room. (It is that reproduced in this volume.) “You would say in
+looking at it,” Miss Mitchell wrote, ‘she must have been handsome when
+she was young.’ Her ruffled cap shades a mild face, whose blue eyes
+were even then full of animation. But it was merely the beauty of age.”
+
+Herschel was no exception to the rule that astronomers love music
+and flowers. He was never tired of gardening, and--to quote James
+Nasmyth--“his mechanical and manipulative faculty enabled him to take a
+keen interest in all the technical arts which so materially aid in the
+progress of science.” The manufacture of specula naturally came home
+to him, and he watched with genuine pleasure Nasmyth’s grinding and
+polishing operations. He spent several days with him at Hammerfield in
+1864. “Of all the scientific men I have had the happiness of meeting,”
+Nasmyth wrote in his “Autobiography,” “Sir John stands supremely at
+the head of the list. He combined profound knowledge with perfect
+humility. He was simple, earnest, and companionable. He was entirely
+free from assumptions of superiority, and, still learning, would listen
+attentively to the humblest student. He was ready to counsel and
+instruct, as well as to receive information.”
+
+Herschel’s correspondence with De Morgan extended over nearly forty
+years, and became latterly of an intimate character. “Looking back on
+our long friendship,” he wrote to the widow shortly after De Morgan’s
+death in the spring of 1871, “I do not find a single point on which we
+failed to sympathise; and I recall many occasions on which his sound
+judgment and excellent feeling have sustained and encouraged me. Many
+and very distinct indications tell me that I shall not be long after
+him.”
+
+It fell out as he had predicted. The obituary memoirs of the two are
+printed close together in the Astronomical Society’s “Monthly Notices.”
+After a prolonged decline of strength, Sir John Herschel died at
+Collingwood, in his seventy-ninth year, May 5th, 1871, his intellect
+remaining unclouded to the last. He was buried in Westminster Abbey,
+near the grave of Newton. The words engraven above his resting-place,
+“Coelis exploratis, hic prope Newtonum requiescit,” tell what he did,
+and what he deserved.
+
+His death created an universal sense of sorrow and of loss. He left
+vacant a place which could never be filled. His powers, his qualities,
+and his opportunities made a combination impossible to be reproduced.
+His genius showed curious diversities from his father’s. He lacked
+his profound absorption, his penetrating insight, his unaccountable
+intuitions. A tendency to discursiveness, happily kept in check
+by strength of will and devotion to an elevated purpose, replaced
+in him his father’s enraptured concentration. On the other hand,
+his appreciative instinct for the recondite beauty of mathematical
+conceptions was wanting to his father. William Herschel possessed fine
+mathematical abilities; but he cultivated them no further than was
+necessary for the execution of his designs; and elementary geometry
+served his turn. But Sir John might have taken primary rank as a pure
+mathematician. Possibly his inventive faculty would have developed
+in that line more strongly than in any other. The grasp of his mind
+was indeed so wide that many possibilities of greatness were open
+to him. That he chose rightly the one to make effective, no one
+can doubt. The neglect on his part of astronomy would have been a
+scientific delinquency. His splendid patrimony of telescopic results
+and facilities was inalienable. It was a talent entrusted to him,
+which he had not the right to bury in the ground. He laboured with it
+instead to the last farthing. Not for his own glory. He aspired only
+to fill up, for the honour of his father’s name, the large measure of
+his achievements. In doing so he performed an unparalleled feat. He
+swept from pole to pole the entire surface of the hollow sphere of the
+sky. It is unlikely to be repeated. The days of celestial pioneering
+are past. Nothing on the scale of a general survey will in future
+be undertaken except with photographic help. The use of the direct
+telescopic method tends to become more and more restricted. This is
+a loss as well as a gain. A _hortus siccus_ is to a blooming garden
+very much what a collection of photographs is to the luminous flowers
+of the sky. They are depicted more completely, more significantly,
+more conveniently for purposes of investigation, than they can be
+seen; but the splendour of them is gone. Their direct contemplation
+has an elevating effect upon the mind, which indirect study, however
+diligent and instructive, is incapable of producing. The sublimity of
+the visions drawn from the abyss of space cannot be reasoned about. It
+strikes home to the spectator’s inner consciousness without waiting for
+the approval of his understanding. Thus to Herschel, no less expressly
+than to the Psalmist three thousand years earlier, “the heavens told
+the glory of God.” He lived at his telescope a life apart, full of
+incommunicable experiences.
+
+“To Herschel,” as Mr. Proctor expressed it, “astronomy was not a
+matter of right ascension and declination; of poising, clamping, and
+reading-off; of cataloguing and correcting.” “It was his peculiar
+privilege,” Dean Stanley remarked in his funeral sermon, “to combine
+with those more special studies such a width of view and such a power
+of expression as to make him an interpreter, a poet of science, even
+beyond his immediate sphere.” Hence the popularity of his books, and
+the favoured place he occupied in public esteem.
+
+His character was of a more delicate fibre than his father’s. It was
+also, by necessary consequence, less robust. Sir William Herschel
+surmounted adversity. Sir John would have endured it, had his lot been
+so appointed. But it never came his way. He was one of those rarest of
+rare individuals--
+
+ “Whose even thread the Fates spin round and full,
+ Out of their choicest and their whitest wool.”
+
+His life was a tissue of felicities. For him there was no weary
+waiting, no heart-sickening disappointment, no vicissitudes of
+fortune, no mental or moral tempests. Success attended each one of
+his efforts; he could look back without regret; he could look forward
+with confident hope; his family relations brought him unalloyed
+happiness. He suffered, indeed, one bereavement in the untimely death
+of his daughter, Mrs. Marshall, the wife of a nephew of Dr. Whewell;
+but Christian resignation sweetened his sorrow. His religion was
+unpretending and efficacious. No duty was left by him unfulfilled; and
+he wore, from youth to age, “the white flower of a blameless life.”
+A discriminating onlooker said of him, that his existence “was full
+of the serenity of the sage and the docile innocence of a child.”
+He was retiring almost to a fault, careless of applause, candid
+in accepting criticism. Although habitually indulgent, he was no
+flatterer, “Anyone,” Mr. Proctor said, “who objected to be set right
+when in error, might well be disposed to regard Sir John Herschel as
+a merciless correspondent, notwithstanding the calm courtesy of his
+remarks. He set truth in the first place, and by comparison with her,
+neither his own opinions, nor those of others, were permitted to have
+any weight whatever.” Beginners invariably met with his sympathy and
+encouragement. He felt for difficulties which he himself had never
+experienced.
+
+Being thus constituted, he could not but inspire affection. The French
+physicist, Biot, when asked by Dr. Pritchard, after the death of
+Laplace, who, in his opinion, was his worthiest successor, replied,
+“If I did not love him so much, I should unhesitatingly say, John
+Herschel.” His own attachments were warm and constant; and the few
+scientific controversies in which he engaged, were carried on with his
+habitual gentleness and urbanity.
+
+Herschel left eight daughters and three sons, of whom the eldest, Sir
+William James Herschel, succeeded him in the baronetcy, while the
+second, Professor Alexander Stewart Herschel, has earned celebrity
+by his meteoric researches. The election of the third, Colonel John
+Herschel, to a Fellowship of the Royal Society, in recognition of his
+spectroscopic examination of southern nebulæ, threw a gleam of joy over
+his father’s deathbed. Lady Herschel survived her husband upwards of
+thirteen years.
+
+The learned societies of Europe vied with each other in enrolling
+the name of Sir John Herschel; and he was nominated, in 1855, on the
+death of Gauss, one of the eight foreign members of the French Academy
+of Science. As we have seen, he received the Copley Medal from the
+Royal Society twice, their Royal Medal thrice, and from the Royal
+Astronomical Society, two Gold Medals and a testimonial. Compliments
+and homage, however, left him as they found him--quiet, intent, and
+unobtrusive.
+
+Several portraits of him are in existence. One was executed in oils
+by Pickersgill for St. John’s College, Cambridge, at a comparatively
+early period of his life. It is here (page 142) reproduced from an
+admirable engraving. His later aspect is finely represented in a
+painting by his eldest daughter, Lady Gordon. The eyes in it are
+sunken, though brilliant; the shape of the head is concealed by a
+mane of grey hair. There is about it something of leonine grandeur,
+disjointed from leonine fierceness. It perpetuates, indeed, the
+countenance of a man replete with human tenderness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+WRITINGS AND EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATIONS.
+
+
+Could the whole of Sir John Herschel’s astronomical career be
+obliterated, and the whole of his contributions to pure mathematics be
+forgotten, he would still merit celebrity as a physicist. Experimental
+optics, above all, engaged his attention. “Light,” he himself said,
+“was his first love,” and he was never wholly forgetful of it. In 1830
+he described himself as “forcibly drawn aside from his optical studies”
+by the claims of nebulæ and double stars. How strong he felt those
+claims to be, can best be understood by considering the firmness with
+which he averted his mind, out of regard to them, from the intricate
+and bewitching subject of his early devotion.
+
+“I understand from Peacock,” Dr. Whewell wrote to him, June 19, 1818,
+“that you are untwisting light like whipcord, examining every ray that
+passes within half a mile, and putting the awful question, ‘Polarised,
+or not polarised?’ to thousands that were never before suspected of any
+intention but that of moving in a straight line.” These interrogatories
+brought out a remarkable diversity in the action upon light of quartz,
+and other similar substances, corresponding with the two different
+modes of crystallisation belonging to each of them. Here, in Lord
+Kelvin’s phrase, is “one of the most notable meeting-places between
+natural history and natural philosophy.”
+
+The nascent science of spectrum analysis was materially promoted by
+Herschel. He noticed in 1819 the distinctive light-absorbing qualities
+of coloured media, studied the spectra of various flames, adverted
+to the definiteness and individuality of the bright lines composing
+them, and recommended their employment for purposes of chemical
+identification.
+
+A year later, he developed and modified Brewster’s explanation of the
+colours of mother-of-pearl. They do not, like the iridescence of a
+fly’s wing, result from the interference of waves of light reflected
+from two closely adjacent surfaces, but from interference brought about
+by the finely striated texture of the shell’s surface, and a cast of
+the rainbow-tinted surface in black sealing-wax will display the same
+sheen of colour as the original. Herschel detected, however, a second
+more closely striated structure which cannot be impressed upon plastic
+matter.
+
+Up to this time he accepted unreservedly the emission theory of
+light. But a candid study of Young’s and Fresnel’s writings produced
+a fundamental change in his opinions; and in an article on “Light,”
+written for the “Encyclopædia Metropolitana” in 1827, he expounded
+the undulatory theory with all the ardour of a neophyte. He brought
+thereby one of the grandest generalisations of science into universal
+currency, and enforced its acceptance by the cogency of his
+arguments, the logical order of his method, and the lucidity of his
+style. The treatise was translated into French by Quetelet; and no
+reader, Professor Pritchard remarked, “could escape the charm of the
+half-suppressed enthusiasm which carried him along.”
+
+Whewell ranked him “among the _very_ small number of those who, in the
+singularly splendid and striking researches of physical optics, had
+both added important experimental laws to those previously known, and
+weighed the relations of these discoveries to the refined and recondite
+theory towards which they seemed to point.” He contributed to the
+same Encyclopædia scarcely less brilliant essays on Heat, Sound, and
+Physical Astronomy.
+
+“Do not observe too much in cold weather,” Miss Herschel advised her
+nephew, in anticipation of the winter of 1831–2; “write rather books to
+make folks stare at your profound knowledge.”
+
+He followed the positive part of her counsel. Indeed, his “Preliminary
+Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy” had made its appearance
+in the previous year, as the introductory volume to Lardner’s “Cabinet
+Cyclopædia.” It was greeted with a chorus of approbation. Gauss
+reviewed it in the _Gelehrte Anzeigen_, Whewell in the _Quarterly
+Review_. Translated into French, German, and Italian, it delighted
+“all sorts and conditions” of readers with the justice and breadth of
+the views set forth in it agreeably, easily, and without pretension
+to superiority. The book included a survey of the actual state
+of scientific knowledge, and a philosophy of its augmentation.
+Students derived from it, Gauss remarked, both information as to how
+accepted results had been obtained, and guidance for their personal
+investigations. Herschel was exceptionally qualified, Whewell wrote,
+“to expound the rules and doctrines of that method of research to which
+modern science has owed its long-continued, steady advance, and present
+flourishing condition.” He had the knowledge, without the narrowness,
+of a specialist in almost every department of experimental physics.
+“With singular alacrity,” he came to the front wherever there seemed a
+chance of pushing back the barriers of ignorance. A disciple of Bacon,
+he had the advantage over his master of being habitually conversant
+with the practical working of inductive methods. The treatise was
+styled by Whewell “an admirable comment on the ‘Novum Organum.’” One,
+however, possesses the indefinable quality of _greatness_; it stands
+out from the centuries a solid structure, clothed with visionary
+magnificence; the other is elegant, attractive, wise, acute, even
+profound, but not in any degree, or from any point of view, _great_.
+
+It was followed, in 1833, by “A Treatise on Astronomy,” published in
+the same series. An “Edinburgh Reviewer” (doubtless Brougham once more)
+perused it with regret. “The proper position of Sir John Herschel” he
+considered to be “at the head of those who are nobly, though it may
+be silently and without notice, endeavouring to extend the present
+limits of human knowledge,” rather than among “the ranks of those whose
+office it is to herald the triumphs of science, and point out its
+treasures and results to the admiration of the vulgar.” This ostensibly
+flattering estimate was made the basis for an imputation of vanity. The
+inducements, according to the critic, were strong “to descend from the
+airy summits of abstract science to the level at which the great body
+of the reading public can appreciate and applaud. Philosophers, like
+other writers, naturally wish to be read, and to have reputation; and
+reputation, as was remarked by d’Alembert, depends more upon the number
+than the merit of those who praise.” Sir John Herschel would have been
+better employed in pursuing the track of original discoveries, leaving
+new truths to “find their way to the drawing-room as best they might.”
+The whole tenour of his life refuted these insinuations.
+
+The “Treatise on Astronomy” was enlarged in 1849 into the deservedly
+famous “Outlines of Astronomy.” Twelve editions of this book were
+published, the last in 1873; it was translated into Chinese and Arabic,
+as well as into most European languages, including Russian; it made a
+profound and lasting impression upon the public mind. No science has
+perhaps ever received so masterly a general interpretation. Methodical
+in plan, inspiriting in execution, it demands readers willing to share
+some part of the pains, for the sake of partaking in the high pleasures
+of the writer. For it is popular in the sense of eschewing mathematical
+formulæ, not in the sense of evading difficulties.
+
+The work fittest to be set by its side is the “Exposition du Système
+du Monde.” But Laplace restricted his view to the sun’s domain, while
+Herschel excluded from his no part of the sidereal universe. Laplace
+was, besides, a geometer in the first, an astronomer only in the second
+place. The movements of the heavenly bodies interested him because
+they afforded opportunities for analytical triumphs. Their intricacy
+notwithstanding, he was elated to find that they could not baffle his
+ingenuity in constructing formulæ to correspond. Their balance, their
+harmony, their obedience to a single and simple law, gratified the
+orderly instincts of his powerful yet frigid mind. Where he could not
+explain, however, he did not admire. Mystery had no attraction for
+him. Knowledge, to _be_ knowledge in his eyes, should have definite,
+clear-cut outlines. His scheme of the universe was like the map of the
+world laid down by Hecatæus, neatly finished off with a circumfluent
+ocean-stream; it included no intimations of a _beyond_. Herschel’s, on
+the contrary, might be compared to the map of Herodotus, in which some
+details were filled in, while the external boundary had been abolished.
+The most essential part of the progress made in the interval consisted
+in leaving verge and scope for the unknown. Next to nothing remained
+to be learned of the heavens, as they presented themselves to the
+author of the “Mécanique Céleste”; while Herschel saw everywhere only
+beginnings, possibilities of discovery, and dim prospects of “ultimate
+attainments,” as to the realisation of which “it would be unwise to be
+sanguine, and unphilosophical to despair” (Playfair). At the head of
+very many of his chapters he might, without presumption, have written:
+“Quorum pars magna fui.” They gave largely the results of his personal
+investigations, and were vivified by immediate acquaintanceship
+with the objects described. Hence the unsought picturesqueness of
+his descriptive epithets, and the sublimity of trains of thought
+communicated to him direct from the unveiled heavens.
+
+Herschel invented in 1825, jointly with Babbage, the “astatic,” or
+neutralised magnetic needle--a little instrument which was no sooner
+available than it was found to be indispensable. “Nihil tetigit
+quod non ornavit.” And many and various were the things touched by
+his versatile genius. He had a narrow escape of becoming for life a
+chemist. At the very outset of his career he applied for the vacant
+chair of that science at Cambridge; but was left, as he himself
+humorously expressed it, “in a glorious minority of one.” The chemical
+inquiries, nevertheless, which he carried on at Slough brought to
+his notice one set of relations of no trifling importance. This was
+the solvent effect upon salts of silver of the hyposulphites of soda,
+potash, etc. The discovery was turned to account by himself in 1840
+for the “fixing” of photographic images. It secured the future of the
+embryo art. By the agency of hyposulphite of soda in washing away the
+unaffected chloride of silver, while leaving untouched the parts of the
+deposit decomposed and darkened by exposure, permanent light-pictures,
+capable of indefinite multiplication, were at length secured.
+
+On March 14th, 1839, unaware that he had been anticipated by Fox
+Talbot, Herschel presented to the Royal Society twenty-three prints
+made by the sensitised paper process. A memoir communicated in 1840
+was full of suggestive novelties. In it he described experiments on
+“the chemical analysis of the solar spectrum,” pointing out that the
+character and amount of the action exercised by the various rays
+depend mainly upon the nature of the substance acted upon. He made
+a start, too, with spectral photography, and his detection of the
+“lavender-grey” effect to the eye of the ultra-violet section might
+be said to have added a new note to the prismatic gamut. In the
+opposite, or infra-red end, by simply letting the solar spectrum fall
+upon a strip of paper moistened with alcohol, he detected, through the
+different rates of drying where they fell, some of the “cold bands,”
+by which the invisible heat-rays are furrowed. The photo-spectroscopic
+apparatus devised for the purpose of these researches formed part
+of the Loan Collection of Scientific Instruments exhibited at South
+Kensington in 1876.
+
+Still more essential was the improvement of substituting for paper,
+glass plates spread with a sensitive film. A photograph of the old
+forty-foot telescope, taken by this method in 1839, and preserved in
+the South Kensington Museum, is of unrivalled antiquarian value as
+regards the history of photography. The terms “positive” and “negative”
+received in this remarkable paper their now familiar photographic
+meaning. Its merits were acknowledged in 1840 by the award of a Royal
+Medal.
+
+Sir John Herschel would, doubtless, at that time have set aside as
+a chimera the notion that the art he was engaged in promoting was
+destined, in large measure, to supersede visual methods in astronomy;
+that the great telescopes of the future would find their most useful
+employment in concentrating the rays of celestial objects upon
+sensitive plates. He soon perceived, however, the importance of
+photography as an adjunct to direct observation, and recommended,
+in 1847, the automatic self-registration of sun-spots. This
+hint--emphasised in 1848--was acted upon in 1858, when the regular
+collection of documentary evidence as to the sun’s condition was begun
+at Kew with De la Rue’s “photoheliograph.”
+
+In 1845 he published the first effective investigation of
+“fluorescence,” called by him “epipolic,” or superficial, “dispersion.”
+This curious phenomenon consists in the illumination to the eye of
+certain substances, such as sulphate of quinine and canary glass,
+under the play of _invisible_ light. Sir George Stokes showed in 1852
+that the impinging rays have their undulations actually lengthened by
+the action of such kinds of matter, so as to become degraded in the
+spectrum, and thus brought within the range of vision.
+
+The Herschelian theory of the sun was adopted, and long retained by
+Sir John. He believed in a cool, solid interior globe sheltered by
+a succession of aërial envelopes, rent, locally and temporarily,
+by tornadoes of fire. The presence of inhabitants on the globe so
+circumstanced was credible to him, although he abstained from dwelling
+upon the advantages of their state. He carefully followed, however, the
+progress of solar science, and in 1864 explained his altered views in
+the _Quarterly Journal of Science_. He now regarded the sun as a wholly
+gaseous mass--a conclusion in which he was anticipated only by Father
+Secchi. He added that it must be largely composed of matter kept in an
+intermediate condition between liquid and vaporous by “high temperature
+and enormous pressure.” The spot-period, he suggested, might be that of
+a revolving meteoric ring with condensations.
+
+He was vividly interested in the “willow-leaf” controversy, raised in
+1862 by Nasmyth’s misinterpreted observations. The objects seen were
+simply Sir William Herschel’s “nodules”--the luminous elements of the
+sun, held by Sir John in 1867 “to be permanently solid matter, having
+that sort of fibrous or filamentous structure which fits them, when
+juxtaposed by drifting about, and jostling one against another, to
+collect in flocks as _flue_ does in a room.” He concluded with the
+remarkable assertion that the sun has no real surface, “the density
+diminishing from that below the photosphere to _nil_ in the higher
+regions, where the pressure is _nil_.”
+
+Herschel’s “Cape Observations” stands alone in astronomical literature
+for the wide and permanent interest of its contents. They are
+exceedingly various. Chapters on Halley’s Comet, on Sun-spots, the
+Satellites of Saturn, Astrometry, the Constitution of the Southern
+Galaxy, are associated with discussions on the nature and distribution
+of nebulæ, with monographs of two, and incidental notes on many of
+these enigmatical objects. The volume is illustrated with over sixty
+beautiful steel engravings of nebulæ and clusters, of sun-spots, and of
+the comet.
+
+The speculations it includes regarding the nature of nebulæ, deserve
+even now to be remembered. Sir John was, at the outset, an unwavering
+adherent of the theory developed by his father in 1811. They were
+composed, he held in 1825, of a “self-luminous; or phosphorescent
+material substance, in a highly dilated or gaseous state, but gradually
+subsiding, by the mutual gravitation of its molecules, into stars
+and sidereal systems.” His personal experience, however, ran counter
+to this view. In 1833 he had become convinced that a nebula is, in
+general, “nothing more than a cluster of discrete stars.”
+
+The successful resolution into stars, with the great Parsonstown
+specula, of many nebulæ until then called irresolvable, carried him
+still further in the same direction. To him, as to other thinkers,
+the presence in space of a self-luminous cosmic fluid became more
+than doubtful. In his Presidential Address to the British Association
+in 1845, he dwelt with enthusiasm on the completion of the Rosse
+reflector--“an achievement of such magnitude, that I want words to
+express my admiration of it.” He regarded “as one of the grand fields
+open for discovery with such an instrument, those marvellous and
+mysterious bodies, or systems of bodies, the nebulæ.” Their frequent
+resolution, actual or indicated, with increased optical power, led
+him to attribute recalcitrance in this respect to the smallness and
+closeness of the stars of which they consist; he held them, in short,
+to be “optically, and not physically, nebulous.”
+
+A new consideration was thus introduced into discussions on nebulæ. The
+whole burthen of accounting for their varieties in telescopic aspect
+need no longer be thrown upon differences of remoteness; diversities
+in the size and closeness of nebular _molecules_ would answer the same
+purpose. So that pulverulent agglomerations, it was thought, might pass
+by insensible gradations into collections of truly sun-like bodies. All
+distinction between nebulæ and clusters was then abolished, the members
+of both classes consisting, like the sun’s photosphere, of shining
+granules, supported in an obscure medium, varying in real magnitude
+from _floccules_ to great globes, while each vast compound body rotated
+_en masse_ on an axis. Whatever the merits of this scheme, it at least
+harmonises with the now prevalent opinion that nebulæ and clusters
+belong to one unbroken cosmical series. “They are divided,” Mr. Cowper
+Ranyard wrote in 1893, “by no hard and fast line. The larger nebulæ may
+be described as groups of stars surrounded by bright nebulosity, and
+star-clusters as groups of stars surrounded by faint nebulosity.”
+
+Herschel’s assimilation of nebulæ to clusters was not meant to apply
+to “those extraordinary objects resembling the wisps and curls of a
+cirrous cloud,” which confront the astronomer in Orion, Argo, and
+elsewhere. “The wildest imagination,” he said, “can conceive nothing
+more capricious than their forms. With their resolution,” he averred,
+“and that of elliptic nebulæ, the idea of a nebulous matter, in the
+nature of a shining fluid or condensible gas, would cease to derive
+any support from observation.” He, in fact, discarded it absolutely on
+the deceptive analysis into stars at Parsonstown and Harvard College
+of the Orion and Andromeda nebulæ. The discredited hypothesis was
+nevertheless triumphantly reinstated by Dr. Huggins’s spectroscopic
+observations in 1864.
+
+One-third of the whole nebular contents of the heavens Herschel found
+to be collected into a broad, irregular patch, the central point of
+which in Virgo coincides almost precisely with the northern pole of
+the Milky Way. He compared it to a canopy surmounting the galactic
+zone. In the other hemisphere the arrangement, although less distinctly
+characterised, is on the same general plan. Plainly, then, nebular
+distribution has an opposite correspondence with stellar distribution,
+and the two partial systems are complementary one to another, Herschel,
+however, contented himself with the somewhat ambiguous statement that
+“the nebulous system is distinct from the sidereal, though involving
+and, to a certain extent, intermixed with it.”
+
+His verdict as to the ground-plan of the sidereal edifice might be
+summed up in the phrase, “Not a stratum, but an annulus,” our own
+situation being in a relatively vacant interior space. Hence, the sun
+belongs, not to the Milky Way proper--as it should on the stratum
+theory--but to the system of which the Milky Way forms part. This
+conclusion was in itself a distinct advance towards the solution of an
+exorbitantly difficult problem. The grand question as to the remoteness
+of the star-clouds in that gleaming sky-girdle was definitely raised
+by it; and the question is not, in the nature of things, unanswerable.
+Herschel’s annulus was not a neat structure with a cylindrical
+section, but “a flat ring, or some other re-entering form of immense
+and irregular breadth and thickness.” It is cloven over one-third of
+its circumference; it is interrupted by huge chasms; it is bent, and
+shattered and broken, and probably set with tentacular appendages,
+giving rise, by their foreshortening, to very complex visual effects.
+All of which modifying circumstances Herschel implicitly recognised.
+He was the first to gather any direct intimations of the existence
+of that “solar cluster” which, guessed at by the elder Herschel, has
+of late assumed a sort of elusive reality. A zone of bright stars,
+including those of Orion, Canis Major, the Ship, the Cross, and the
+Centaur, struck him at once as a conspicuous feature in the scenery of
+the southern heavens. Its aspect led him to “suspect that our nearest
+neighbours in the sidereal system form part of a subordinate sheet, or
+stratum,” inclined at an angle of twenty degrees to the plane of the
+Milky Way. To Dr. Gould at Cordoba, in 1879, “few celestial phenomena”
+appeared “more palpable” than this projected star-belt; and, since
+it traces out a great circle on the sphere, the sun must be placed
+within it, and pretty accurately in its plane; yet the difficulty
+of associating it intimately with our particular star seems all but
+insurmountable.
+
+Herschel’s minor and occasional writings were neither few nor
+unimportant. He contributed articles on “Isoperimetrical Problems”
+and “Mathematics” to Brewster’s _Edinburgh Cyclopædia_, and on
+“Meteorology,” “Physical Geography,” and “The Telescope,” to the
+eighth edition of the _Encyclopædia Britannica_. These last were
+printed separately as well. He edited in 1849 the Admiralty “Manual
+of Scientific Inquiry,” and criticised in the _Edinburgh_ and
+_Quarterly Reviews_ Mrs. Somerville’s “Mechanism of the Heavens,”
+Whewell’s “History of the Inductive Sciences,” Humboldt’s “Kosmos,”
+and Quetelet’s “Theory of Probabilities.” His addresses as President
+of the Royal Astronomical Society were models of their kind, and the
+same might be said of his memoirs of Baily and Bessel in the “Monthly
+Notices.” Most of them were collected in 1857, with his review
+articles, into a volume of “Essays;” and his attractive “Familiar
+Lectures on Scientific Subjects,” published in 1867, gave permanence to
+some popular discourses delivered in the school-house of Hawkhurst, as
+well as to articles from _Good Words_ on Light and other subjects. No
+less than 152 papers by him are included in scientific repertories.
+
+He had a considerable faculty for translating poetry, and its exercise
+made one of his favourite recreations. Having adopted the literal
+theory of the art, he kept strictly to the original metres, and thus
+fettered, got over the ground with more grace and ease than might have
+been expected. His first attempt with English hexameters was in a
+version of Schiller’s “Walk,” privately printed in 1842. He had come
+to love the poem through its association in his mind with a favourite
+stroll up the side of Table Mountain; and a translation of it in the
+_Edinburgh Review_ leaving, as he thought, something to be desired,
+he tried his hand, and distributed the result “among his friends as
+his Christmas sugar plum.” The various acknowledgments made an amusing
+collection. One lady said that she “found it difficult to get into the
+_step_ of the _Walk_.” Another correspondent declared that the _Walk_
+had got into a _Run_ through ceaseless borrowing. A third qualified his
+encomium upon the ideas by adding, “To the _verse_ I am _averse_.”
+Joanna Baillie, however, and her sister were delighted with both the
+substance and form of the poem, and it was included among Whewell’s
+“English Hexameter Translations” in 1847.
+
+His success encouraged him, after twenty years, to undertake an
+indefinitely more difficult task. Pope’s Iliad he described happily as
+“a magnificent adumbration” of the original; but he aimed rather at
+producing a “fac-simile,” in
+
+ “Hexameters no worse than daring Germany gave us.”
+
+His version should come as near as he could bring it to a photograph
+of a grand piece of architecture; and as a measure of its fidelity, he
+printed in italics all the words _not_ in the text. Whewell remarked
+that it was “curious to see how few he had managed to make them,” and
+preferred his translation to any other with which he was acquainted.
+But English hexameters were a hobby of the Master of Trinity, who
+accordingly viewed with partiality what Tennyson called the “burlesque
+barbarous experiment” of thus lamely rendering “the strong-wing’d music
+of Homer.”
+
+De Morgan, too, was one of the “averse.” “Many thanks for the
+hexameters,” he wrote, on receiving an instalment of the Collingwood
+Iliad; “they are as good as they can be, but all the logic in the
+world does not make me feel them to be English metre, and they give
+satisfaction only by reminding one of the Greek: just as, mark you,
+a flute-player--which I have been these forty-five years--only plays
+Haydn and Mozart because he has the assistance of the orchestral
+accompaniment which arises in his head with the melody. The hexameter,
+it is clear, does not fix itself in the popular mind. The popular mind
+knows neither quantity nor accent, but that which is to last bites its
+own way in, without any effort.”
+
+Yet Herschel’s translation is not without merit. It is disfigured
+neither by affectation nor by magniloquence, and it catches here and
+there something of the greatness of the unapproached original. Let us
+take two specimens; this from the “Shield of Achilles”:--
+
+ “There he depicted the earth, and the canopied sky, and the ocean;
+ There the unwearied sun, and the full-orb’d moon in their courses.
+ All the configured stars, which gem the circuit of heaven,
+ Pleiads and Hyads were there, and the giant force of Orion.
+ There the revolving Bear, which the Wain they call, was
+ ensculptured,
+ Circling on high, and in all its course regarding Orion;
+ Sole of the starry train which refuses to bathe in the Ocean.”
+
+The next likewise appeals to the astronomer. It is the famous simile
+from the end of the Eighth Book:--
+
+ “As when around the glowing moon resplendent in ether,
+ Shines forth the heavenly host, and the air reposes in stillness;
+ Gleams every pointed rock, stands forth each buttress in prospect;
+ Shimmers each woodland vale; and from realms of unspeakable glory
+ Op’ning, the stars are revealed; and the heart of the shepherd
+ rejoices.
+ Such, and so many the fires, by the Trojans kindled, illumined
+ Eddying Xanthus’ stream, and the ships, and the walls of the city.”
+
+Sir John Herschel corresponded with Mr. Proctor, during the last two
+years of his life, on the subject of sidereal construction; and his
+replies to the arguments put before him show that his mind retained,
+even then, its openness and flexibility. He had none of the contempt
+for speculative excursions which sometimes walls up the thinking-powers
+of observers. “In the midst of so much darkness,” he held that “we
+ought to open our eyes as wide as possible to any glimpse of light,
+and utilise whatever twilight may be accorded us, to make out, though
+but indistinctly, the forms that surround us.” “_Hypotheses fingo_ in
+this style of our knowledge,” he went on, “is quite as good a motto
+as Newton’s _non fingo_--provided always they be not hypotheses as to
+modes of physical action for which experience gives no warrant.” And
+again: “We may--indeed, must--form theories as we go along; and they
+serve as guides for inquiry, or suggestions of things to inquire; but
+as yet we must hold them rather loosely, and for many years to come
+keep looking out for side-lights.”
+
+These were his last words on the philosophy of discovery: and they
+constituted his last advice to scientific inquirers. But, good as
+were his precepts, his example was better. There was no discrepancy
+between his work and his thought. Both combined to inculcate aloofness
+from prejudice, readiness of conviction in unequivocal circumstances,
+suspension of judgment in dubious ones, and in all, candour, sobriety,
+and an earnest seeking for truth.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX.
+
+
+ Actinometer, J. Herschel’s, 152, 179, 180
+
+ Adams, J. C., at Collingwood, 188
+
+ Ages of heavenly bodies, 68, 94, 170
+
+ Alexander, the Czar, 49
+
+ Amici, of Modena, 148, 150
+
+ Apertures, method of, 61, 63
+
+ Apex, solar, 78, 80
+
+ Archbishop of Canterbury, and George III., 38
+
+ Argelander, 80, 106
+
+ Asteroids, 46, 90–1, 95, 100
+
+ Astrometer, J. Herschel’s, 177
+
+ Astronomical Society, 49, 152, 188
+
+ Aubert, Alexander, 16, 101, 124
+
+
+ Babbage, companionship with J. Herschel, 143–4, 149, 152;
+ astatic needle, 208
+
+ Bailey, S. I., 169, 170
+
+ Baily, Francis, 164, 185, 186, 187
+
+ Barnard, diameters of asteroids, 91;
+ nebulosities, 110–11;
+ photographs of Milky Way, 174
+
+ Bates, Joah, anecdote of W. Herschel, 12
+
+ Bath, centre of fashion, 12;
+ Herschel’s residences there, 17, 26, 47
+
+ Beckedorff, Mrs., 126, 127, 160;
+ Miss, 138
+
+ Bessel, solar movement, 80;
+ estimate of W. Herschel, 109;
+ Halley’s comet, 177;
+ at Collingwood, 187;
+ memoir of, 216
+
+ Biot, estimate of J. Herschel, 201
+
+ Bonaparte, Lucien, 33, 44
+
+ Bonaparte, Napoleon, Herschel’s interview with, 47
+
+ Bradley, observation of Castor, 76
+
+ Brougham, Lord, 53, 88, 90, 207
+
+ Burney, Dr., notices of W. Herschel, 12, 44, 45–6;
+ walk through forty-foot, 38;
+ notices of Caroline and J. Herschel, 125, 142
+
+ Burney, Miss, meetings with W. Herschel, 38–9;
+ with Mrs. and Miss Herschel, 44, 124, 125, 127
+
+ Burnham, double stars, 103;
+ planetary nebulæ, 155
+
+
+ Campbell, Thomas, admiration for W. Herschel, 47–8;
+ notice of his son, 145
+
+ Cavendish, anecdote of, 100
+
+ Clay Hall, 36
+
+ Climate, changes of, 82
+
+ Comet, of October 1806, 48;
+ of 1811, 94;
+ Encke’s, 124, 175;
+ of 1819, 128–9;
+ Biela’s, 153;
+ Halley’s, 175–6, 180, 211
+
+ Comets, decay of, 94;
+ Miss Herschel’s, 124, 125
+
+ Common, Dr., five-foot reflector, 99
+
+ Construction of the Heavens, 53, 60, 113–114, 214–15
+
+
+ Dante and the “Divina Commedia,” 15
+
+ Datchet, house at, 32, 36
+
+ Dawes, sun-spot nuclei, 83
+
+ De la Rue, photoheliograph, 210
+
+ De Morgan, letter to Captain Smyth, 188–9;
+ Herschel and the coinage, 191;
+ friendship with, 197;
+ dislike to hexameters, 217
+
+ Dreyer, Catalogue of Nebulæ, 192
+
+
+ Easton, Milky Way structure, 106
+
+ Edgeworth, Miss, at Slough and Collingwood, 192–3
+
+
+ Feldhausen, 163, 180, 181
+
+ Flamsteed, British Catalogue, 80, 123, 126
+
+
+ Galileo, double-star method of parallaxes, 55
+
+ Gauss, 151, 201, 205
+
+ George III., patronage of Herschel, 10, 24, 28–9, 30, 32, 33;
+ taste for astronomy, 30, 47;
+ walk through great telescope, 38
+
+ Gill, Dr., Herschel’s micrometers, 103;
+ photographic catalogue, 106;
+ photographs of Argo nebula, 167;
+ of Omega Centauri, 169
+
+ Gordon, Lady, portrait of Sir J. Herschel, 202
+
+ Gould, Dr., solar cluster, 107, 215
+
+ Grahame, James, 149
+
+ Gravitation, extension of to stellar systems, 77, 148
+
+ Gregorian reflectors, 20, 29
+
+ Griesbach, Mrs., 10, 116;
+ her sons, 10, 28, 29
+
+
+ Halley, list of nebulæ, 19;
+ stellar motions, 77
+
+ Hamilton, Sir W. R., communications with J. Herschel, 146, 152,
+ 158, 173, 188;
+ speech by, 182;
+ at Collingwood, 193;
+ quaternions, 194–5
+
+ Haydn, visit to Slough, 44
+
+ Heat-rays in solar spectrum, 95–6
+
+ Herschel, Alexander, assisted his brother, 13, 21, 27, 120;
+ accompanied him to Göttingen, 37;
+ supported by him, 51;
+ care for his sister, 118
+
+ Herschel, Professor Alexander, meteoric researches, 201
+
+ Herschel, Caroline, fetched to Bath, 15, 118;
+ help in speculum making, 15, 20, 124;
+ a singer, 21, 117, 119;
+ remarks, 25, 27, 34, 49;
+ letters from W. Herschel, 28, 29, 30, 129;
+ household cares, 32, 118, 121;
+ reminiscences, 35, 36, 37, 39, 48, 50, 68;
+ annuity, 51, 131;
+ birth and childhood, 115–16;
+ education, 115, 118, 121;
+ visits to London, 121, 127;
+ discoveries of nebulæ, 122;
+ of comets, 124–5, 139;
+ her brother’s assistant, 122–3, 125;
+ catalogues nebulæ, 123, 132;
+ Index to Flamsteed’s observations, 126;
+ royal attentions, 126, 127, 133, 135, 139;
+ anxiety about her brother’s health, 128–9;
+ return to Hanover, 130–1;
+ Gold Medals bestowed on, 132, 138;
+ joy in her nephew’s career, 134–5, 159;
+ his visits, 135–36, 159;
+ Recollections and Journals, 137, 138;
+ death, 139;
+ personality, 139–41;
+ anecdotes of J. Herschel’s childhood, 142;
+ his letters to her, 151, 152, 153, 162–3, 164, 175, 176, 187;
+ her portrait, 196;
+ her advice to him, 205
+
+ Herschel, Dietrich, 20–1, 51, 127–8, 130, 131
+
+ Herschel, Sir John, dismantling of great telescope, 43;
+ catalogues of nebulæ, 132, 155, 191–2;
+ visits to Hanover, 135–6, 151, 159–60, 184;
+ nebular observations, 136, 153, 154–7, 165–7;
+ Cape Expedition, 135, 159–2, 181–2;
+ birth and childhood, 142;
+ university career, 143–5;
+ medals awarded to, 145, 148, 149, 157, 187, 201;
+ work on double stars, 134, 146–48, 157;
+ method for computing orbits, 148–9;
+ general catalogue, 192;
+ ascents of Monte Rosa and Etna, 149–50;
+ explorations in Auvergne, 152;
+ experiments on solar radiation, 151–2, 179;
+ visit to Ireland, 152;
+ cometary observations, 153, 175–6, 180, 189;
+ telescopes, 153, 158, 164, 183;
+ discovery of star in Orion-trapezium, 158;
+ marriage, 159;
+ Feldhausen, 163, 180–1;
+ Cape climate, 164;
+ Magellanic Clouds, 165–6;
+ Argo nebula, 167;
+ Eta Argûs, 168–9;
+ globular clusters, 169–71, 213;
+ star-gauging, 171–2;
+ comets, 175–6;
+ stellar photometry, 177;
+ solar theory, 178–9, 211;
+ Saturnian satellites, 180;
+ magnetic work, 184, 189, 208;
+ constellational reform, 185;
+ removal to Collingwood, 186;
+ Cape Results, 186–7, 211–12;
+ President Astronomical Society, 188;
+ Master of the Mint, 190–1;
+ guests at Collingwood, 188, 193, 195;
+ sonnet, 194;
+ family life, 195–6;
+ death, 197;
+ powers and character, 198–201;
+ books, 205–8;
+ photographic experiments, 209–10;
+ nature of nebulæ, 212–14;
+ solar cluster, 215;
+ poetical performances, 216–18;
+ philosophy of discovery, 219
+
+ Herschel, Colonel John, examination of nebular spectra, 201
+
+ Herschel, Isaac, 9, 21, 115, 116
+
+ Herschel, Jacob, 116, 117, 128
+
+ Herschel, Lady, the elder, 44, 50, 152, 160
+
+ Herschel, Lady, the younger, 159, 192, 194, 201
+
+ Herschel, Sir William, birth, 9;
+ musical career, 10–16, 21, 26, 121;
+ telescope, making, 14–15, 17, 19, 20, 22;
+ thirty-foot, 26–8,
+ seven-foot, 28–9;
+ for sale, 33;
+ forty-foot, 34, 37, 38, 41–3, 49, 50, 100, 137, 210;
+ twenty-foot, 35–6, 40, 50;
+ front-view telescopes, 40, 41, 102, 153;
+ space-penetrating power of, 61, 98;
+ reviews of the heavens, 19, 20, 26, 35, 36, 42, 46;
+ early papers, 22–3;
+ discovery of Uranus, 24–5, 120;
+ observations of double stars, 26, 49, 55–6, 75;
+ interviews with the king, 28–30;
+ royal astronomer, 30, 32–3;
+ mode of observing, 30, 122;
+ discovery of Uranian satellites, 40, 93, 153;
+ of Saturnian satellites, 41, 43, 92;
+ marriage, 44;
+ aversion to poetry, 45–6;
+ interview with Bonaparte, 47;
+ observations of comets, 48, 94, 128–9;
+ failure of health, 49–50, 128–9;
+ death and character, 51;
+ construction of the heavens, 53–4, 60, 114;
+ star distances, 54–5, 57, 60–1, 64, 75;
+ star-gauging, 57–8, 113;
+ nature of the Milky Way, 57–9, 62–3;
+ chasms in, 68;
+ method of apertures, 61;
+ catalogues of nebulæ, 64;
+ varieties, 65;
+ island universes, 66–7, 72;
+ development, 67–8;
+ nebulous fluid, 69–70;
+ condensation into stars, 71–2, 109;
+ nebular distribution, 73;
+ discovery of binary stars, 76–7, 147;
+ transport of the solar system, 77, 80, 108;
+ stellar photometry, 80–2, 174–5;
+ theory of the sun, 83–6, 211;
+ sun spots and weather, 87–8;
+ observations of Venus, 88;
+ of Mars, 89;
+ of the asteroids, 90;
+ of Saturn, 91;
+ law of satellite-rotation, 92;
+ lunar volcanoes, 93;
+ detection of infra-red heat-rays, 95–7;
+ use of high powers, 101–2;
+ micrometers, 103;
+ photometric enumeration, 106;
+ solar cluster, 107–8;
+ diffused nebulosities, 110–11;
+ a founder of sidereal astronomy, 112
+
+ Herschel, Sir William J., 49, 136, 183, 201
+
+ Huggins, Dr., spectra of nebulæ, 109, 214;
+ of stars, 113
+
+ Humboldt, 133, 138, 170, 184
+
+ Huygens, improvement of telescopes, 17
+
+
+ Jacob, southern Milky Way, 172
+
+ Japetus, rotation of, 92
+
+ Jupiter, trade wind theory of, 91;
+ rotation of satellites, 93
+
+
+ Kapteyn, solar cluster, 107
+
+ Knipping, Mrs., 137, 138
+
+
+ Lacaille, southern nebulæ, 19
+
+ Langley, bolometer, 95;
+ atmospheric absorption, 152, 179
+
+ Laplace, 18, 47, 91, 201, 207
+
+ Lassell, Uranian satellites, 93;
+ reflectors, 99;
+ observation of Mimas, 180
+
+ Le Verrier, 187, 188
+
+ Lexell, orbit of Uranus, 24
+
+
+ Maclear, Sir Thomas, 162, 168, 176, 181
+
+ Magellan, Von, accounts of William and Caroline Herschel, 40, 122
+
+ Magellanic clouds, 165–6
+
+ Magnitudes, stellar, 81, 104–5, 177
+
+ Mars, analogy with the earth, 89
+
+ Maskelyne, 25, 29, 76
+
+ Mayer, Christian, satellite-stars, 75
+
+ Mayer, Tobias, solar translation, 77, 78
+
+ Michell, revolving stars, 75;
+ solar group, 107
+
+ Micrometer, lamp, 24, 103;
+ wire, 56, 103
+
+ Milky Way, rifts in, 50, 67–8, 173, 175, 215;
+ structure, 57–59, 62, 173–4, 214–15;
+ spectral peculiarity, 105;
+ distance, 106, 173, 214;
+ splendour in southern hemisphere, 172;
+ photographic portrayal, 174–5
+
+ Miller, Dr., 11, 12
+
+ Mitchell, Miss, visit to Collingwood, 195–6
+
+ Monck, stellar spectroscopic distribution, 107
+
+ Moon, mountains of, 22, 23;
+ volcanoes, 93–4.
+
+
+ Nasmyth, opinion of J. Herschel, 196–7;
+ solar willow leaves, 211
+
+ Nebula, Orion, 15, 43, 65, 70, 71, 110, 111, 153, 167, 214;
+ Dumb-bell, 157;
+ Argo, 167;
+ Andromeda, 214
+
+ Nebulæ, catalogues, 19, 64, 123, 132, 191–2;
+ discoveries, 35, 64, 122, 165;
+ nature, 66, 212–4;
+ development, 67, 69, 109–10;
+ distribution, 73, 214
+
+ Nebulæ, annular, 65, 157, 165
+
+ Nebulæ, double, 72, 156
+
+ Nebulæ, planetary, 65, 67, 71;
+ spectrum, 109;
+ satellites to, 155;
+ colour, 165
+
+ Nebulæ, rifted, 157
+
+ Nebular theory, 71–2, 109
+
+ Newton, law of gravitation, 17, 77;
+ reflectors, 20, 23;
+ mode of investigation, 23, 206
+
+
+ Olbers, origin of asteroids, 90;
+ comet of 1819, 129;
+ light extinction, 174;
+ visit from J. Herschel, 184
+
+ Orange, Prince of, enquiries at Slough, 39
+
+
+ Papendick, Mrs., remarks on William and Caroline Herschel, 39, 44, 125
+
+ Peacock, Dean, 143, 194, 203
+
+ Photography, of stellar spectra, 104, 107;
+ of nebulæ, 110–11, 113, 166–7;
+ star charting by, 113, 172, 199;
+ of clusters, 169–70, 171;
+ of solar spectrum, 209;
+ of sun-spots, 210
+
+ Photometric enumeration, 60, 106, 107, 114;
+ catalogues, 80
+
+ Photometry, stellar, 81, 104, 177;
+ photographic, 105
+
+ Piazzi, visit to Slough, 39, 150
+
+ Pickering, E. C. and W. H., photographs of Orion nebula, 111
+
+ Pouillet, solar radiation, 179
+
+ Pritchard, Dr., 143, 192, 201, 204
+
+ Proctor, star-drift, 108;
+ estimate of Sir J. Herschel, 199, 200;
+ correspondence with, 218
+
+
+ Ranyard, A. C., changes in nebulæ, 168;
+ clusters, 213
+
+ Roberts, Dr., photographs of nebulæ, 157, 165
+
+ Rosse reflector, 99, 212
+
+ Russell, H. C., photographs of Magellanic clouds, 166;
+ of Argo nebula, 167;
+ of Milky Way, 175
+
+
+ Saturn, artificial, 30;
+ satellites, 41, 43, 91, 92, 180;
+ rings, 91–2
+
+ Savary, stellar orbits, 148, 149
+
+ Schröter, 34, 84, 88–9
+
+ Secchi, 113, 211
+
+ See, Dr., double nebulæ, 156
+
+ Sirius, brilliancy, 42, 168;
+ standard star, 58, 61, 63, 80
+
+ Slough, W. Herschel’s residence at, 36, 44;
+ birthplace of J. Herschel, 142
+
+ Sniadecki, stay at Slough, 39
+
+ Solar cluster, 107, 215
+
+ Solar radiation, 151–2, 179
+
+ Somerville, Mrs., 132
+
+ South, Sir James, 146, 147, 149
+
+ Spectrum analysis, 84, 204, 209
+
+ Spencer, unity of sidereal system, 166
+
+ Stanley, Dean, on J. Herschel, 199
+
+ Star-clusters, 49, 59, 63, 67, 72, 169–71, 213
+
+ Star-gauging, 57–8, 113, 171–2
+
+ Stars, binary, 72, 156;
+ discovery, 76–7, 147;
+ orbits, 147–9
+
+ Stars, double, observations of, 55–6, 103, 146–8, 157;
+ colours, 56, 112, 156;
+ nebular relations, 155
+
+ Stars, distribution of, 58–9, 60, 73, 81, 106, 171–2
+
+ Stars, movements of, 77, 107–8
+
+ Stars, nebulous, 69, 70, 71
+
+ Stars, spectra of, 83, 105
+
+ Stars, spectroscopic binary, 104
+
+ Stars, temporary, 66–7
+
+ Stars, variable, 23, 81–2, 168–9
+
+ Stokes, Sir G., fluorescence, 210
+
+ Stone, Herschel’s assistant, 180
+
+ Struve, W., 148, 158, 188
+
+ Sun, translation, 77–80, 108;
+ vicissitudes, 82, 87, 88;
+ constitution, 83–6, 178–9, 211
+
+ Sussex, Duke of, 158
+
+
+ Telescopes, Improvement of, 17, 19, 20, 24–6, 33, 36, 98–100
+
+
+ Uranus, discovery of, 24–5, 26, 120;
+ satellites, 40, 93, 153
+
+
+ Watson, Sir W., 16, 22, 27, 30, 47, 124
+
+ Watt, James, 47
+
+ Whewell, Dr., unity of sidereal system, 76, 166;
+ friendship with J. Herschel, 145, 163, 191, 200;
+ tidal data, 181;
+ articles in Quarterly Review, 186, 205–6;
+ Geological Society, 189;
+ on optical enquiries, 203–4;
+ hexameters, 217
+
+ Wolf, Dr. Max, photographs of nebulæ, 111;
+ of Milky Way, 175
+
+ Wollaston, 145, 177
+
+ Worlds, inhabited, 85, 86, 89, 147.
+
+
+PRINTED BY CASSELL & COMPANY, LIMITED, LA BELLE SAUVAGE PRINTING WORKS,
+LONDON, E.C.
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber’s Notes
+
+
+Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a
+predominant preference was found in the original book; otherwise they
+were not changed.
+
+Simple typographical errors were corrected; unbalanced quotation
+marks were remedied when the change was obvious, and otherwise left
+unbalanced.
+
+Illustrations in this eBook have been positioned between paragraphs
+and outside quotations. In versions of this eBook that support
+hyperlinks, the page references in the List of Illustrations lead to
+the corresponding illustrations.
+
+The index was not checked for proper alphabetization or correct page
+references.
+
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+<div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Herschels and Modern Astronomy, by Agnes Mary Clerke</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
+at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you
+are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the
+country where you are located before using this eBook.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: The Herschels and Modern Astronomy</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Agnes Mary Clerke</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: February 27, 2021 [eBook #64649]</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Fay Dunn, Charlie Howard, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)</div>
+
+<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HERSCHELS AND MODERN ASTRONOMY ***</div>
+
+<div class="transnote">
+<p class="center larger">Transcriber’s Note</p>
+
+<p>Larger versions of most illustrations may be seen by right-clicking them
+and selecting an option to view them separately, or by double-tapping and/or
+stretching them.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="newpage figcenter" style="max-width: 30em;">
+ <img src="images/cover.jpg" alt="cover" />
+</div>
+
+<div class="narrow">
+<p class="newpage p4"><span class="u">THE CENTURY SCIENCE SERIES.</span></p>
+
+<p class="right smaller"><span class="u"><span class="smcap">Edited by</span> SIR HENRY E. ROSCOE, D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.S.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<h1 class="p2 center vspace wspace">
+<span class="larger">THE HERSCHELS</span><br />
+<span class="xxsmall">AND</span><br />
+<span class="smaller"><i>MODERN ASTRONOMY</i></span>
+</h1>
+
+<div class="chapter"><div class="bbox" id="ad">
+<p class="center xlarge wspace b1">The Century Science Series.</p>
+
+<p class="center vspace wspace"><span class="smaller">EDITED BY</span><br />
+
+<span class="larger">SIR HENRY E. ROSCOE, D.C.L., F.R.S., M.P.</span></p>
+
+<hr class="narrow" />
+
+<p class="bold">John Dalton and the Rise of Modern Chemistry.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>By Sir <span class="smcap">Henry E. Roscoe</span>, F.R.S.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="bold">Major Rennell, F.R.S., and the Rise of English Geography.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>By <span class="smcap">Clements R. Markham</span>, C.B., F.R.S., President
+of the Royal Geographical Society.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="bold">The Herschels and Modern Astronomy.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>By Miss <span class="smcap">Agnes M. Clerke</span>, Author of “A Popular
+History of Astronomy during the 19th Century,” &c.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="p1 center"><i>In Preparation.</i></p>
+
+<p class="bold">Justus von Liebig: his Life and Work.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>By <span class="smcap">W. A. Shenstone</span>, Science Master in Clifton College.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="bold">Michael Faraday: his Life and Work.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>By Professor <span class="smcap">Silvanus P. Thompson</span>, F.R.S.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="bold">Clerk Maxwell and Modern Physics.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>By <span class="smcap">R. T. Glazebrook</span>, F.R.S., Fellow of Trinity College,
+Cambridge.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="bold">Charles Lyell: his Life and Work.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>By Rev. Professor <span class="smcap">T. G. Bonney</span>, F.R.S.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="bold">Humphry Davy.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>By <span class="smcap">T. E. Thorpe</span>, F.R.S., Principal Chemist of the
+Government Laboratories.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="bold">Pasteur: his Life and Work.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>By <span class="smcap">Armand Ruffer</span>, Director of the British Institute of
+Preventive Medicine.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="bold">Charles Darwin and the Origin of Species.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>By <span class="smcap">Edward B. Poulton</span>, M.A., F.R.S., Hope Professor
+of Zoology in the University of Oxford.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="bold">Hermann von Helmholtz.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>By <span class="smcap">A. W. Rücker</span>, F.R.S., Professor of Physics in the
+Royal College of Science, London.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="p1 center">CASSELL & COMPANY, <span class="smcap">Limited</span>, <i>London; Paris & Melbourne</i>.</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<div id="i_frontis" class="figcenter" style="max-width: 28em;">
+ <img src="images/i_002.jpg" alt="" />
+ <div class="caption"><p>SIR WILLIAM HERSCHEL.</p>
+
+<p class="small"><i>Ætat. 50.</i></p>
+
+<p class="p1 smaller">(<cite>From Abbott’s painting in the National Portrait Gallery.</cite>)</p></div></div>
+
+<hr />
+
+<div class="chapter"><div class="newpage p4 center vspace wspace larger">
+
+<p><i class="u">THE CENTURY SCIENCE SERIES.</i></p>
+
+<p class="p4 vspace3"><span class="smcap gesperrt xxlarge">The Herschels</span><br />
+<span class="xsmall">AND</span><br />
+<i class="large">MODERN ASTRONOMY</i></p>
+
+<p class="p4 vspace"><span class="small">BY</span><br />
+<span class="larger">AGNES M. CLERKE</span></p>
+
+<p class="p2 xsmall">AUTHOR OF<br />
+“A POPULAR HISTORY OF ASTRONOMY DURING THE 19TH CENTURY,”<br />
+“THE SYSTEM OF THE STARS,” ETC.</p>
+
+<p class="p4"><span class="smcap larger">CASSELL and COMPANY, Limited</span><br />
+<span class="smaller"><i>LONDON, PARIS & MELBOURNE</i><br />
+1895</span></p>
+
+<p class="p2 xsmall">ALL RIGHTS RESERVED</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<div id="if_i_004" class="newpage figcenter" style="max-width: 8em;">
+ <img src="images/i_004.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+
+<hr />
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_v">v</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="PREFACE">PREFACE.</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class="in0"><span class="firstword">The</span> chief authority for the Life of Sir William
+Herschel is Mrs. John Herschel’s “Memoir of Caroline
+Herschel” (London, 1876). It embodies Caroline’s
+Journals and Recollections, the accuracy of which
+is above suspicion. William himself, indeed, referred
+to her for dates connected with his early life. The
+collateral sources of information are few and meagre;
+they yield mere gleanings, yet gleanings worth collecting.
+Professor E. S. Holden has had recourse to
+many of them for his excellent little monograph
+entitled “Herschel, his Life and Works” (London,
+1881), which is usefully supplemented by “A Synopsis
+of the Scientific Writings of Sir William Herschel,”
+prepared by the same author with the aid of Professor
+Hastings. It made part of the Smithsonian
+Report for 1880, and was printed separately at Washington
+in 1881. But the wonderful series of papers it
+summarises have still to be sought, one by one, by
+those desiring to study them effectually, in the various
+volumes of the <i>Philosophical Transactions</i> in which
+they originally appeared. Their collection and republication
+is, nevertheless, a recognised desideratum,
+and would fill a conspicuous gap in scientific literature.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_vi">vi</span></p>
+
+<p>Sir John Herschel’s life has yet to be written.
+The published materials for it are scanty, although
+they have been reinforced by the inclusion in the late
+Mr. Graves’s “Life of Sir William Rowan Hamilton”
+(Dublin, 1882–9) of his correspondence with that
+remarkable man. The present writer has, however,
+been favoured by the late Miss Herschel, and by
+Sir William J. Herschel, with the perusal of a
+considerable number of Sir John Herschel’s, as well
+as of Sir William’s, manuscript letters. She also
+gratefully acknowledges the kind help afforded to
+her by Lady Gordon and Miss Herschel in connection
+with the portraits reproduced in this volume. For
+detailed bibliographical references, the articles on
+Sir John, Sir William, and Caroline Herschel, in
+the “Dictionary of National Biography,” may be
+consulted.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_vii">vii</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CONTENTS">CONTENTS.</h2>
+</div>
+
+<table id="toc" summary="Contents">
+<tr class="small">
+ <td> </td>
+ <td> </td>
+ <td class="tdr">PAGE</td>
+</tr>
+<tr class="smaller">
+ <td class="tdr top"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td class="tdr top">I.—</td>
+ <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Early Life of William Herschel</span></td>
+ <td class="tdr"><a href="#toclink_9">9</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td class="tdr top">II.—</td>
+ <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The King’s Astronomer</span></td>
+ <td class="tdr"><a href="#toclink_32">32</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td class="tdr top">III.—</td>
+ <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Explorer of the Heavens</span></td>
+ <td class="tdr"><a href="#toclink_53">53</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td class="tdr top">IV.—</td>
+ <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Herschel’s Special Investigations</span></td>
+ <td class="tdr"><a href="#toclink_75">75</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td class="tdr top">V.—</td>
+ <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Influence of Herschel’s Career on Modern Astronomy</span></td>
+ <td class="tdr"><a href="#toclink_98">98</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td class="tdr top">VI.—</td>
+ <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Caroline Herschel</span></td>
+ <td class="tdr"><a href="#toclink_115">115</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td class="tdr top">VII.—</td>
+ <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Sir John Herschel at Cambridge and Slough</span></td>
+ <td class="tdr"><a href="#toclink_142">142</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td class="tdr top">VIII.—</td>
+ <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Expedition to the Cape</span></td>
+ <td class="tdr"><a href="#toclink_162">162</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td class="tdr top">IX.—</td>
+ <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Life at Collingwood</span></td>
+ <td class="tdr"><a href="#toclink_183">183</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td class="tdr top">X.—</td>
+ <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Writings and Experimental Investigations</span></td>
+ <td class="tdr"><a href="#toclink_203">203</a></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<hr />
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_viii">viii</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="ILLUSTRATIONS">ILLUSTRATIONS.</h2>
+</div>
+
+<table id="loi" summary="Illustrations">
+<tr class="small">
+ <td> </td>
+ <td class="tdr">PAGE</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Portrait of Sir William Herschel</span></td>
+ <td class="tdr lpad"><a href="#i_frontis"><i>Frontispiece</i></a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Portrait of Caroline Herschel</span></td>
+ <td class="tdr"><a href="#ip_115">115</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Portrait of Sir John Herschel</span></td>
+ <td class="tdr"><a href="#ip_142">142</a></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<hr />
+
+<div id="toclink_9" class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">9</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="The_Herschels"><span class="larger"><span class="smcap large">The Herschels</span><br />
+<span class="subhead"><span class="xsmall">AND</span><br /><br />
+MODERN ASTRONOMY.</span></span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<hr />
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I.<br />
+
+<span class="subhead">EARLY LIFE OF WILLIAM HERSCHEL.</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class="in0"><span class="firstword">William Herschel</span> was descended from one of three
+brothers, whose Lutheran opinions made it expedient
+for them to quit Moravia early in the seventeenth
+century. Hans Herschel thereupon settled as a
+brewer at Pirna, in Saxony; his son Abraham rose to
+some repute as a landscape-gardener in the royal service
+at Dresden; and Abraham’s youngest son, Isaac,
+brought into the world with him, in 1707, an irresistible
+instinct and aptitude for music. Having
+studied at Berlin, he made his way in 1731 to Hanover,
+where he was immediately appointed oboist in
+the band of the Hanoverian Guard. A year later he
+married Anna Ilse Moritzen, by whom he had ten
+children. The fourth of these, Frederick William,
+known to fame as <em>William</em> Herschel, was born
+November 15th, 1738.</p>
+
+<p>His brilliant faculties quickly displayed themselves.
+At the garrison-school he easily distanced his
+brother Jacob, his senior by four years, and learned
+besides, privately, whatever French and mathematics<span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">10</span>
+the master could teach him. He showed also a pronounced
+talent for music, and was already, at fourteen,
+a proficient on the hautboy and violin. In this direction
+lay his manifest destiny. His father was now bandmaster
+of the Guard; he was poor, and had no other
+provision to give his sons than to train them in his
+own art; and thus William, driven by necessity to
+become self-supporting while still a boy, entered the
+band as oboist in 1753. They were a family of
+musicians. Of the six who reached maturity, only
+Mrs. Griesbach, the elder daughter, gave no sign of
+personally owning a share in the common gift, which
+descended, nevertheless, to her five sons, all noted
+performers on sundry instruments.</p>
+
+<p>William Herschel accompanied his regiment to
+England in 1755, with his father and elder brother.
+He returned a year later, bringing with him a copy of
+Locke “On the Human Understanding,” upon which
+he had spent the whole of his small savings. Two
+of the three volumes thus acquired were recovered
+by his sister after seventy years, and transmitted to
+his son. The breaking-out of the Seven Years’ War
+proved decisive as to his future life. Campaigning
+hardships visibly told upon his health; his parents
+resolved, at all hazards, to rescue him from them;
+and accordingly, after the disaster at Hastenbeck,
+July 26th, 1757, they surreptitiously shipped him off
+to England. By this adventure, since he was in the
+military service of the Elector of Hanover, George III.
+of England, he incurred the penalties of desertion;
+but they were never exacted, and were remitted by
+the King himself in 1782.</p>
+
+<p>William Herschel was in his nineteenth year
+when he landed at Dover with a French crown-piece<span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">11</span>
+in his pocket. Necessity or prudence kept him for
+some time obscure; and we next hear of him as
+having played a solo on the violin at one of Barbandt’s
+concerts in London, February 15th, 1760. In the same
+year he was engaged by the Earl of Darlington to train
+the band of the Durham Militia, when his shining
+qualities brought him to the front. The officers of the
+regiment looked with astonishment on the phenomenal
+young German who had dropped among them
+from some cloudy region; who spoke English perfectly,
+played like a virtuoso, and possessed a curious
+stock of varied knowledge. Their account of him at
+a mess-dinner excited the curiosity of Dr. Miller,
+organist and historian of Doncaster, who, having
+heard him perform a violin solo by Giardini, fell into
+a rapture, and invited him on the spot to live with
+him.</p>
+
+<p>He left nothing undone for the advancement of
+his <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">protégé</i>; procured for him tuitions and leading
+concert engagements; and encouraged him, in 1765,
+to compete for the post of organist at Halifax.
+Herschel’s special qualifications were small; his chief
+rival, Dr. Wainwright, was a skilled player, and at
+the trial performance evoked much applause by his
+brilliant execution. Only the builder of the organ,
+an odd old German named Schnetzler, showed dissatisfaction,
+exclaiming: “He run about the keys like
+one cat; he gif my pipes no time for to shpeak.”
+Then Herschel mounted the loft, and the church was
+filled with a majestic volume of sound, under cover of
+which a stately melody made itself heard. The “Old
+Hundredth” followed, with equal effect. Schnetzler
+was beside himself with delight. “I vil luf dis man,”
+he cried, “because he git my pipes time for to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">12</span>
+shpeak.” Herschel had virtually provided himself
+with four hands. A pair of leaden weights brought
+in his pocket served to keep down two keys an octave
+apart, while he improvised a slow air to suit the continuous
+bass thus mechanically supplied. The artifice
+secured him the victory.</p>
+
+<p>This anecdote is certainly authentic. It is related
+by Dr. Miller from personal knowledge. Nor is it
+inconsistent with a story told by Joah Bates, of
+King’s College, Cambridge, a passionate lover of
+music. Repairing to Halifax, his native place, to
+conduct the “Messiah” at the opening of a new
+organ, he was accosted in the church by a young
+man, who asked for an opportunity of practising
+on it. Although as yet, he said, unacquainted
+with the instrument, he aspired to the place of
+organist; and the absolute certitude of his manner so
+impressed Bates that he not only granted his request,
+but became his warm patron. The young man’s
+name was William Herschel. We hear, further, on
+Dr. Burney’s authority, that he played first violin in
+Bates’s orchestra.</p>
+
+<p>But the tide of his fortunes was flowing, and he
+knew how to “take it at the flood.” Early in 1766
+he removed to Bath as oboist in Linley’s celebrated
+orchestra, which played daily in the Pump Room to
+enliven the parade of blushing damsels and ruffling
+gallants pictured to our fancy in Miss Austen’s novels.
+Bath was then what Beau Nash had made it—the
+very focus of polite society. Turbans nodded over
+cards; gigs threaded their way along Union Passage;
+Cheap Street was blocked with vehicles; the Lower
+Rooms witnessed the nightly evolutions of the
+country-dance; the Grove, as Doran reminds us, was<span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">13</span>
+brilliant with beauty, coquelicot ribbons, smart pelisses,
+laced coats, and ninepins. The feat of “tipping
+all nine for a guinea” was frequently performed;
+and further excitement might be had by merely
+plucking some lampoons from the trees, which seemed
+to bear them as their natural fruit. Music, too, was
+in high vogue. The theatres were thronged; and
+Miss Linley’s exquisite voice was still heard in the
+concert-halls.</p>
+
+<p>On the 4th of October, 1767, the new Octagon
+Chapel was opened for service, with Herschel as
+organist. How it was that he obtained this “agreeable
+and lucrative situation” we are ignorant; but
+he had that singular capacity for distinction which
+explains everything. The Octagon Chapel became a
+centre of fashionable attraction, and he soon found
+himself lifted on the wave of public favour. Pupils
+of high rank thronged to him, and his lessons
+often mounted to thirty-five a week. He composed
+anthems, psalm-tunes, even full services for
+his assiduously-trained choir. His family were made
+sharers in his success. He secured a post in Linley’s
+orchestra for his younger brother Alexander, in 1771;
+and he himself fetched his sister Caroline to Bath in
+1772. Both were of very considerable help to him in
+his musical and other enterprises, the latter of which
+gradually gained ground over the former.</p>
+
+<p>Music was never everything to William Herschel.
+He cultivated it with ardour; composed with facility
+in the prevalent graceful Italian style; possessed a
+keen appreciation and perfect taste. But a musical
+career, however brilliant, did not satisfy him. The
+inner promptings of genius told him to look beyond.
+The first thirty-five years of his life were thus spent<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">14</span>
+in diligently preparing to respond to an undeclared
+vocation. Nothing diverted him from his purpose of
+self-improvement. At first, he aimed chiefly at
+mastering the knowledge connected with his profession.
+With a view to the theory of music, “I
+applied myself early,” he said, in a slight autobiographical
+sketch sent to Lichtenberg at Göttingen,
+“to all the branches of the mathematics, algebra,
+conic sections, fluxions, etc. Contracting thereby an
+insatiable desire for knowledge in general, I extended
+my application to languages—French, Italian, Latin,
+English—and determined to devote myself entirely to
+the pursuit of knowledge, in which I resolved to place
+all my future enjoyment and felicity. This resolution
+I have never had occasion to change.” At Bath, in
+the midst of engrossing musical occupations, his zeal
+for study grew only the more intense. After fourteen
+or sixteen hours of teaching, he would “unbend his
+mind” by plunging into Maclaurin’s “Fluxions,” or
+retire to rest with a basin of milk, Smith’s “Opticks,”
+and Ferguson’s “Astronomy.” He had no sooner
+fallen under the spell of this last science than he
+“resolved to take nothing upon trust, but to see
+with my own eyes all that other men had seen
+before.”</p>
+
+<p>He hired, to begin with, a small reflector; but
+what it showed him merely whetted his curiosity.
+And the price of a considerably larger instrument
+proved to be more than he could afford to pay.
+Whereupon he took the momentous resolution of
+being, for the future, his own optician. This was in
+1772. He at first tried fitting lenses into pasteboard
+tubes, with the poor results that can be imagined.
+Then he bought from a Quaker, who had dabbled in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">15</span>
+that line, the discarded rubbish of his tools, patterns,
+polishers, and abortive mirrors; and in June, 1773,
+when fine folk had mostly deserted Bath for summer
+resorts, work was begun in earnest. The house was
+turned topsy-turvy; the two brothers attacked the
+novel enterprise with boyish glee. Alexander, a born
+mechanician, set up a huge lathe in one of the bedrooms;
+a cabinet-maker was installed in the drawing-room;
+Caroline, in spite of secret dismay at such
+unruly proceedings, lent a hand, and kept meals
+going; William directed, inspired, toiled, with the
+ardour of a man who had staked his life on the issue.
+Meanwhile, music could not be neglected. Practising
+and choir-training went on; novelties for the ensuing
+season were prepared; compositions written, and
+parts copied. Then the winter brought the usual
+round of tuitions and performances, while all the time
+mirrors were being ground and polished, tried and
+rejected, without intermission. At last, after <em>two
+hundred</em> failures, a tolerable reflecting telescope was
+produced, about five inches in aperture, and of five
+and a half feet focal length. The outcome may seem
+small for so great an expenditure of pains; but those
+two hundred failures made the Octagon Chapel
+organist an expert, unapproached and unapproachable,
+in the construction of specula. With his new
+instrument, on March 4th, 1774, he observed the
+Nebula in Orion; and a record of this beginning of
+his astronomical work is still preserved by the Royal
+Society.</p>
+
+<p>William Herschel was now, as to age, <i xml:lang="it" lang="it">in mezzo
+cammin</i>. He had numbered just so many years as
+had Dante when he began the “Divina Commedia.”
+But he had not, like Dante, been thrown off the rails<span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">16</span>
+of life. The rush of a successful professional career
+was irresistibly carrying him along. Almost any
+other man would have had all his faculties absorbed
+in it. Herschel’s were only stimulated by the occupations
+which it brought. Yet they were of a peculiarly
+absorbing nature. Music is the most exclusive
+of arts. In turning aside, after half a lifetime spent
+in its cultivation, to seek his ideal elsewhere, Herschel
+took an unparalleled course. And his choice was
+final. Music was long his pursuit, astronomy his
+pastime; a fortunate event enabled him to make
+astronomy his pursuit, while keeping music for a
+pastime.</p>
+
+<p>Yet each demands a totally different kind of
+training, not only of the intellect, but of the senses.
+From his earliest childhood William Herschel’s nerves
+and brain had been specially educated to discriminate
+impressions of sound, and his muscles to the peculiar
+agility needed for their regulated and delicate production;
+while, up to the age of thirty-five, he had
+used his eyes no more purposefully than other people.
+The eye, nevertheless, requires cultivation as much as
+the ear. “You must not expect to <em>see at sight</em>,” he
+told Alexander Aubert, of Loam Pit Hill, in 1782.
+And he wrote to Sir William Watson: “Seeing is in
+some respects an art which must be learnt. Many a
+night have I been practising to see, and it would be
+strange if one did not acquire a certain dexterity by
+such constant practice.” A critical observation, he
+added, could no more be expected from a novice at
+the telescope than a performance of one of Handel’s
+organ-fugues from a beginner in music. In this difficult
+art of vision he rapidly became an adept. Taking
+into account the full extent of his powers, the opinion<span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">17</span>
+has been expressed, and can scarcely be contradicted,
+that he never had an equal.</p>
+
+<p>At midsummer, 1774, Herschel removed from
+No. 7, New King Street, to a house situated near
+Walcot Turnpike, Bath. A grass-plot was attached
+to the new residence, and it afforded convenient space
+for workshops. For already he designed to “carry
+improvements in telescopes to their utmost extent,”
+and “to leave no spot of the heavens unvisited.” An
+unprecedented ambition! No son of Adam had ever
+before entertained the like. To search into the
+recesses of space, to sound its depths, to dredge up
+from them their shining contents, to classify these,
+to investigate their nature, and trace their mutual
+relations, was what he proposed to do, having first
+provided the requisite optical means. All this in the
+intervals of professional toils, with no resources except
+those supplied by his genius and ardour, with no
+experience beyond that painfully gained during the
+progress of his gigantic task.</p>
+
+<p>Since the time of Huygens, no systematic attempt
+had been made to add to the power of the telescope.
+For the study of the planetary surfaces, upon which
+he and his contemporaries were mainly intent, such
+addition was highly desirable. But Newton’s discovery
+profoundly modified the aims of astronomers.
+Their essential business then became that of perfecting
+the theories of the heavenly bodies. Whether or not
+they moved in perfect accordance with the law of gravitation
+was the crucial question of the time. Newton’s
+generalisation was on its trial. Now and again it
+almost seemed as if about to fail. But difficulties
+arose only to be overcome, and before the eighteenth
+century closed the superb mechanism of the planetary<span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">18</span>
+system was elucidated. Working flexibly under the
+control of a single dominant force, it was shown to
+possess a self-righting power which secured its indefinite
+duration. Imperishable as the temple of
+Poseidon, it might be swayed by disturbances, but
+could not be overthrown.</p>
+
+<p>The two fundamental conclusions—that the Newtonian
+law is universally valid, and that the solar
+system is a stable structure—were reached by immense
+and sustained labours. Their establishment was due,
+in the main, to the mathematical genius of Clairaut,
+D’Alembert, Lagrange, and Laplace. But refined
+analysis demands refined data; hence the need for increased
+accuracy of observation grew continually more
+urgent. Attention was accordingly concentrated upon
+measuring, with the utmost exactitude, the places at
+determinate epochs of the heavenly bodies. The one
+thing needful was to learn the “when” and “where”
+of each of them—that is, to obtain such information
+as the transit-instrument is adapted to give. In
+this way the deviations of the moon and planets
+from their calculated courses became known; and
+upon the basis of these “errors” improved theories
+were built, then again compared with corrected
+observations.</p>
+
+<p>For these ends, large telescopes would have been
+useless. They were not, however, those that Herschel
+had in view. The <em>nature</em> of the orbs around us, not
+their motions, formed the subject of his inquiries,
+with which modern descriptive astronomy virtually
+originated. He was, moreover, the founder of sidereal
+astronomy. The stars had, until his career began,
+received little <em>primary</em> attention. They were regarded
+and observed simply as reference-points by which to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">19</span>
+track the movements of planets, comets, and the
+moon. Indispensable for fiducial purposes, they almost
+escaped consideration for themselves. They were,
+indeed, thought to lie beyond the reach of effective
+investigation. Only the outbursts of temporary stars,
+and the fluctuations of two or three periodical ones,
+had roused special interest, and seemed deserving of
+particular inquiry.</p>
+
+<p>Of the dim objects called “nebulæ,” Halley had
+counted up half a dozen in 1714; Lacaille compiled a
+list of forty-two at the Cape, in 1752–55; and Messier
+published at Paris, in 1771, a catalogue of forty-five,
+enlarged to one hundred and three in 1781. He
+tabulated, only to rid himself of embarrassments
+from them. For he was <em>by trade</em> a comet-hunter,
+and, until he hit upon this expedient, had been much
+harassed in its exercise by mistakes of identity.</p>
+
+<p>But Herschel did not merely “pick up;” he
+explored. This was what no one before him had
+thought of doing. A “review of the heavens” was a
+complete novelty. The magnificence of the idea,
+which was rooted in his mind from the start, places
+him apart from, and above, all preceding observers.</p>
+
+<p>To its effective execution telescopic development
+was essential. The two projects of optical improvement
+and of sidereal scrutiny went together. The
+skies could be fathomed, if at all, only by means of
+light-collecting engines of unexampled power. Rays
+enfeebled by distance should be rendered effective by
+concentration. Stratum after stratum of <span class="locked">bodies—</span></p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+<div class="poetry">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <div class="verse indentq">“Clusters and beds of worlds, and bee-like swarms</div>
+ <div class="verse indent0">Of suns and starry streams,”</div>
+ </div>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p class="in0">previously unseen, and even unsuspected, might, by
+the strong focussing of their feebly-surviving rays, be<span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">20</span>
+brought to human cognisance. The contemplated
+“reviews” would then be complete just in proportion
+to the grasp of the instrument used in making them.</p>
+
+<p>The first was scarcely more than a reconnaissance.
+It was made in 1775, with a small reflector of the
+Newtonian make.<a id="FNanchor_1" href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">A</a> Its upshot was to impress him
+with the utter disproportion between his daring plans
+and the means as yet at his disposal. Speculum-casting
+accordingly recommenced with fresh vigour.
+Seven- and ten-foot mirrors were succeeded by others
+of twelve, and even of twenty feet focal length. The
+finishing of them was very laborious. It was at that
+time a manual process, during the course of which the
+hands could not be removed from the metal without
+injury to its figure. One stretch of such work lasted
+sixteen hours, Miss Herschel meantime, “by way of
+keeping him alive,” putting occasional morsels of food
+into the diligent polisher’s mouth. His mode of procedure
+was to cast and finish many mirrors of each
+sort; then to select the best by trial, and repolish the
+remainder. In this manner he made, before 1781,
+“not less than 200 seven-foot, 150 ten-foot, and about
+80 twenty-foot mirrors, not to mention those of the
+Gregorian form.” Repolishing operations were, moreover,
+accompanied by constant improvements, so that
+each successive speculum tended to surpass its predecessors.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_1" href="#FNanchor_1" class="fnanchor">A</a> In “Newtonian” telescopes the image formed by the large
+speculum is obliquely reflected from a small plane mirror to the side
+of the tube, where it is viewed with an ordinary eye-piece. With a
+“Gregorian,” the observer looks straight forward, the image being
+thrown back by a little <em>concave</em> mirror through a central perforation
+in the speculum where the eye-piece is fitted.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>These absorbing occupations were interrupted by
+the unwelcome news that Dietrich, the youngest of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">21</span>
+the Herschel family, had decamped from Hanover
+“with a young idler” like himself. William instantly
+started for Holland, where the fugitive was supposed
+to be about to take ship for India, but missed his
+track; and, after having extended his journey to
+Hanover to comfort his anxious mother—his father
+had died in 1767—returned sadly to Bath. There, to
+his immense surprise, he found the scapegrace in
+strict charge of his sister, “who kept him to a diet
+of roasted apples and barley-water.” His ineffectual
+escapade had terminated with an attack of illness at
+Wapping, whither Alexander Herschel, on learning
+how matters stood, had posted off to take him in
+charge and watch his recovery. Musical occupation
+was easily procured for him at Bath, since he was an
+accomplished violinist—had, indeed, started on his
+unprosperous career in the guise of an infant prodigy;
+but he threw it up in 1779 and drifted back to
+Hanover, married a Miss Reif, and settled down to
+live out a fairly long term of shiftless, albeit harmless,
+existence.</p>
+
+<p>In 1776 William Herschel succeeded Thomas
+Linley, Sheridan’s father-in-law, as Director of the
+Public Concerts at Bath. His duties in this capacity,
+while the season lasted, were most onerous. He had
+to engage performers, to appease discontents, to
+supply casual failures, to write glees and catches
+expressly adapted to the voices of his executants,
+frequently to come forward himself as a soloist on
+the hautboy or the harpsichord. The services of his
+brother Alexander, a renowned violoncellist, and of
+his sister, by this time an excellent singer, were now
+invaluable to him. Nor for musical purposes solely.
+The vision of the skies was never lost sight of, and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">22</span>
+the struggle to realise it in conjunction with his sympathetic
+helpers absorbed every remnant of time. At
+meals the only topics of conversation were mechanical
+devices for improving success and averting failure.
+William ate with a pencil in his hand, and a project
+in his head. Between the acts at the theatre, he
+might be seen running from the harpsichord to his
+telescope. After a rehearsal or a morning performance,
+he would dash off to the workshop in periwig
+and lace ruffles, and leave it but too often with
+those delicate adjuncts to his attire torn and pitch-bespattered.
+Accidents, too, menacing life and limb,
+were a consequence of that “uncommon precipitancy
+which accompanied all his actions;” but he escaped
+intact, save for the loss of a finger-nail.</p>
+
+<p>His introduction to the learned world of Bath was
+thus described by <span class="locked">himself:—</span></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>“About the latter end of December, 1779, I happened to be
+engaged in a series of observations on the lunar mountains;
+and the moon being in front of my house, late in the evening
+I brought my seven-feet reflector into the street, and directed
+it to the object of my observations. Whilst I was looking into
+the telescope, a gentleman, coming by the place where I was
+stationed, stopped to look at the instrument. When I took
+my eye off the telescope, he very politely asked if he might be
+permitted to look in, and this being immediately conceded, he
+expressed great satisfaction at the view.”</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The inquisitive stranger called next morning, and
+proved to be Dr. (later Sir William) Watson. He
+formed on the spot an unalterable friendship for the
+moon-struck musician, and introduced him to a
+Philosophical Society which held its meetings at his
+father’s house. Herschel’s earliest essays were read
+before it, but they remained unpublished. His first
+printed composition appeared in the “Ladies’ Diary”<span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">23</span>
+for 1780. It was an answer to a prize question on
+the vibration of strings.</p>
+
+<p>The long series of his communications to the
+Royal Society of London opened May 11th, 1780,
+with a discussion of his observations, begun in October,
+1777, of Mira, the variable star in the neck of the
+Whale. As to the theory of its changes, he agreed
+with Keill that they could best be explained by supposing
+rotation on an axis to bring a lucid side and a
+side obscured by spots alternately into view. A
+second paper by him on the Mountains of the Moon
+was read on the same day. He measured, in all,
+about one hundred of these peaks and craters.</p>
+
+<p>In January, 1781, there came an essay stamped
+with the peculiar impress of his genius, entitled
+“Astronomical Observations on the Rotation of the
+Planets round their Axes, made with a view to determine
+whether the earth’s diurnal motion is perfectly
+equable.” It embodied an attempt to apply a definite
+criterion to the time-keeping of our planet. But the
+prospect is exceedingly remote of rating one planet-clock
+by the other. Herschel’s methods of inquiry are,
+however, aptly illustrated in this curiously original
+paper. His speculations always invited the control of
+facts. If facts were not at hand, he tried somehow to
+collect them. The untrammelled play of fancy was
+no more to his mind than it was to Newton’s. His
+ardent scientific imagination was thus, by the sobriety
+of his reason, effectively enlisted in the cause of
+progress.</p>
+
+<p>Herschel began in 1780 his second review of the
+heavens, using a seven-foot Newtonian, of 6¼ inches
+aperture, with a magnifying power of 227. “For
+distinctness of vision,” he said, “this instrument is,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">24</span>
+perhaps, equal to any that was ever made.” His
+praise was amply justified. As he worked his way
+with it through the constellation Gemini, on the night
+of March 13th, 1781, an unprecedented event occurred.
+“A new planet swam into his ken.” He did not
+recognise it as such. He could only be certain that it
+was not a fixed star. His keen eye, armed with a
+perfect telescope, discerned at once that the object
+had a disc; and the application of higher powers
+showed the disc to be a substantial reality. The stellar
+“patines of bright gold” will not stand this test.
+Being of purely optical production, they gain nothing
+by magnification.</p>
+
+<p>At that epoch new planets had not yet begun to
+be found by the dozen. Five, besides the earth, had
+been known from the remotest antiquity. Five, and
+no more, seemed to have a prescriptive right to exist.
+The boundaries of the solar system were of immemorial
+establishment. It was scarcely conceivable
+that they should need to be enlarged. The notion
+did not occur to Herschel. His discovery was modestly
+imparted to the Royal Society as “An Account of a
+Comet.” He had, indeed, noticed that the supposed
+comet moved in planetary fashion from west to east,
+and very near the ecliptic; and, after a few months,
+its true nature was virtually proved by Lexell of St.
+Petersburg. On November 28th, Herschel measured,
+with his freshly-invented “lamp-micrometer,” the
+diameter of this “singular star;” and it was not until
+a year later, November 7th, 1782, that he felt sufficiently
+sure of its planetary status to exercise his
+right of giving it a name. Yet this, in the long run,
+he failed to accomplish. The appellation “Georgium
+Sidus,” bestowed in honour of his patron, George III.,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">25</span>
+never crossed the Channel, and has long since gone
+out of fashion amongst ourselves. Lalande tried
+to get the new planet called “Herschel;” but the
+title “Uranus,” proposed by Bode, of Berlin, was the
+“fittest,” and survived.</p>
+
+<p>This discovery made the turning-point of Herschel’s
+career. It transformed him from a music-master into
+an astronomer. Without it his vast abilities would
+probably have been in great measure wasted. No
+man could long have borne the strain of so arduous a
+double life as he was then leading. Relief from it
+came just in time. It is true that fame, being often
+more of a hindrance than a help, brought embarrassments
+in its train. In November, 1781, Herschel was
+compelled to break the complex web of his engagements
+at Bath by a journey to London for the purpose
+of receiving in person the Copley Medal awarded
+to him by the Royal Society, of which body he was,
+some days later, elected a Fellow. At home, he was
+persecuted by admirers; and they were invariably
+received with an easy suavity of manner that gave no
+hint of preoccupation. Everyone of scientific pretension
+who visited Bath sought an interview with the
+extraordinary man who, by way of interlude to pressing
+duties, had built telescopes of unheard-of power,
+and performed the startling feat of adding a primary
+member to the solar system. Among the few of
+these callers whose names have been preserved were
+Sir Harry Englefield, Sir Charles Blagden, and
+Dr. Maskelyne, then, and for thirty years afterwards,
+Astronomer-Royal. “With the latter,” Miss Herschel
+relates, “he (William) was engaged in a long conversation
+which to me sounded like quarrelling, and the first
+words my brother said after he was gone were, ‘That<span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">26</span>
+is a devil of a fellow!’” The phrase was doubtless
+meant as a sign of regard, for the acquaintance thus
+begun ripened into cordial intimacy. And William
+Herschel never lost or forgot a friend.</p>
+
+<p>As regards music alone, the winter of 1781–82 was
+an exceptionally busy one. He had arranged to
+conduct, jointly with Rauzzini, a Roman singer and
+composer, a series of oratorios; undertaking, besides,
+pecuniary responsibilities which turned out little to
+his advantage. The labour, vexation, and disappointment
+involved in carrying out this unlucky plan can
+readily be imagined. But neither the pressure of
+business, nor the distractions of celebrity, checked the
+ardour of his scientific advance. The review which
+afforded him the discovery of Uranus, and the
+materials for his first catalogue of 269 double stars,
+was completed in 1781; and a third, made with the
+same beautiful instrument, bearing the high magnifying
+power of 460, was promptly begun. This had for
+one of its special objects the ascertainment of possible
+changes in the heavens since Flamsteed’s time; and
+in the course of it many thousands of stars came
+under scrutiny, directed to ascertain their magnitude
+and colour, singleness or duplicity, hazy or defined
+aspect.</p>
+
+<p>The first of Herschel’s <em>effective</em> twenty-foot telescopes
+was erected at 19, New King Street, in the
+summer of 1781. Enclosing a mirror twelve inches
+in diameter, it far surpassed any seeing-machine that
+had ever existed in the world. Yet its maker regarded
+it as only marking a step in his upward progress. A
+speculum of thirty-feet focus was the next object of
+his ambition. For its achievement no amount of
+exertion was counted too great. Its composition was<span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">27</span>
+regulated by fresh experiments on various alloys of
+copper and tin. Its weight and shape were again and
+again calculated, and the methods appropriate to its
+production earnestly discussed. “I saw nothing else,”
+Caroline Herschel tells us, “and heard nothing else
+talked of but these things when my brothers were
+together.”<a id="FNanchor_2" href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">B</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_2" href="#FNanchor_2" class="fnanchor">B</a> In borrowing Miss Herschel’s lively narratives and comments,
+some obvious slips in grammar and construction have been corrected.
+Quotations, too, from the writings of Sir William and Sir John
+Herschel are often slightly abridged.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>“The mirror,” she continues, “was to be cast in a
+mould of loam prepared from horse-dung, of which an
+immense quantity was to be pounded in a mortar and
+sifted through a fine sieve. It was an endless piece
+of work, and served me for many an hour’s exercise;
+and Alex frequently took his turn at it, for we were
+all eager to do something towards the great undertaking.
+Even Sir William Watson would sometimes
+take the pestle from me when he found me in the
+work-room.”</p>
+
+<p>The matter was never out of the master’s thoughts.
+“If a minute could but be spared in going from one
+scholar to another, or giving one the slip, he called at
+home to see how the men went on with the furnace,
+which was built in a room below, even with the
+garden.”</p>
+
+<p>At last, the concert season being over, and everything
+in readiness for the operation of casting, “the
+metal,” we hear from the same deeply-interested eyewitness,
+“was in the furnace; but, unfortunately, it
+began to leak at the moment when ready for pouring,
+and both my brothers, and the caster with his men,
+were obliged to run out at opposite doors, for the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">28</span>
+stone flooring, which ought to have been taken up,
+flew about in all directions, as high as the ceiling.
+My poor brother William fell, exhausted with heat
+and exertion, on a heap of brickbats. Before the
+second casting was attempted, everything which could
+ensure success had been attended to, and a very
+perfect metal was found in the mould, which had
+cracked in the cooling.”</p>
+
+<p>This second failure terminated the enterprise.
+Not that it was abandoned as hopeless, but because of
+a total change in the current of affairs. Herschel’s
+fame had stirred the royal curiosity, and rumours had
+now and again reached Bath that he was to be sent
+for to court. In the spring of 1782 the actual mandate
+arrived; and on May 8th, leaving his pupils and
+his projects to shift for themselves, he set out for
+London. He carried with him his favourite seven-foot
+reflector, and all the apparatus necessary for
+viewing double stars and other objects of interest.
+On May 25th he wrote to his <span class="locked">sister:—</span></p>
+
+<p>“I have had an audience of His Majesty this
+morning, and met with a very gracious reception. I
+presented him with the drawing of the solar system,
+and had the honour of explaining it to him and the
+Queen. My telescope is in three weeks’ time to go
+to Richmond, and meanwhile to be put up at
+Greenwich.... Tell Alexander that everything
+looks very like as if I were to stay here. The King
+enquired after him, and after my great speculum.
+He also gave me leave to come and hear the Griesbachs
+(Herschel’s nephews) play at the private concert
+which he has every evening.... All my
+papers are printing, and are allowed to be very
+valuable. You see, Lina, I tell you all these things.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">29</span>
+You know vanity is not my foible, therefore I need
+not fear your censure. Farewell.”</p>
+
+<p>His next letter is dated June 3rd, 1782. “I pass
+my time,” he informed “Lina,” “between Greenwich
+and London agreeably enough, but am rather at a loss
+for work that I like. Company is not always pleasing,
+and I would much rather be polishing a speculum.
+Last Friday I was at the King’s concert to hear
+George play. The King spoke to me as soon as he
+saw me, and kept me in conversation for half an hour.
+He asked George to play a solo-concerto on purpose
+that I might hear him.... I am introduced to
+the best company. To-morrow I dine at Lord
+Palmerston’s, next day with Sir Joseph Banks, etc.
+Among opticians and astronomers nothing now is
+talked of but <em>what they call</em> my great discoveries.
+Alas! this shows how far they are behind, when such
+trifles as I have seen and done are called <em>great</em>. Let
+me but get at it again! I will make such telescopes
+and see such things—that is, I will endeavour to do so.”</p>
+
+<p>A comparison of his telescope with those at the
+Royal Observatory showed its striking superiority,
+although among them was one of Short’s famous
+Gregorians, of 9½ inches aperture. It had thus a
+reflecting surface above twice that of Herschel’s
+seven-foot, the competition with which was nevertheless
+so disastrous to its reputation that Dr. Maskelyne
+fell quite out of conceit with it, and doubted whether
+it <em>deserved</em> the new stand constructed for it on the
+model of Herschel’s.</p>
+
+<p>In the midst of these scientific particulars, we
+hear incidentally that influenza was then so rife in
+London that “hardly one single person” escaped an
+attack.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">30</span></p>
+
+<p>On July 2nd he made his first appearance as
+showman of the heavens to royalty. The scene of
+the display was Buckingham House (now Buckingham
+Palace). “It was a very fine evening,” he wrote to
+his sister. “My instrument gave general satisfaction.
+The King has very good eyes, and enjoys observations
+with telescopes exceedingly.”</p>
+
+<p>Next night, the King and Queen being absent at
+Kew, the Princesses desired an exhibition. But, since
+they objected to damp grass, the telescope, Herschel
+says, “was moved into the Queen’s apartments, and
+we waited some time in hopes of seeing Jupiter or
+Saturn. Meanwhile I showed the Princesses and
+several other ladies the speculum, the micrometers,
+the movements of the telescope, and other things that
+seemed to excite their curiosity. When the evening
+appeared to be totally unpromising, I proposed an
+artificial Saturn as an object, since we could not have
+the real one. I had beforehand prepared this little
+piece, as I guessed by the appearance of the weather
+in the afternoon we should have no stars to look at.
+This being accepted with great pleasure, I had the
+lamps lighted up, which illuminated the picture of a
+Saturn (cut out in pasteboard) at the bottom of the
+garden wall. The effect was fine, and so natural that
+the best astronomer might have been deceived.
+Their royal highnesses seemed to be much pleased
+with the artifice.” From a somewhat prolonged conversation,
+he judged them to be “extremely well
+instructed,” and “most amiable characters.”</p>
+
+<p>Shortly afterwards Herschel received the appointment
+of royal astronomer, with the modest salary of
+£200 a year. “Never,” exclaimed Sir William Watson
+on being made acquainted with its amount, “bought<span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">31</span>
+monarch honour so cheap!” The provision was
+assuredly not munificent; yet it sufficed to rescue a
+great man from submergence under the hard necessities
+of existence. The offer was critically timed. It
+was made precisely when teaching and concert-giving
+had come to appear an “intolerable waste of time” to
+one fired with a visionary passion. “Stout Cortes”
+staring at the Pacific, Ulysses starting from Ithaca to
+“sail beyond the sunset,” were not more eager for
+experience of the Unknown.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<div id="toclink_32" class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">32</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II.<br />
+
+<span class="subhead">THE KING’S ASTRONOMER.</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class="in0"><span class="firstword">William Herschel</span> was now an appendage to the
+court of George III. He had to live near Windsor, and
+a large dilapidated house on Datchet Common was
+secured as likely to meet his unusual requirements.
+The “flitting” took place August 1, 1782. William was
+in the highest spirits. There were stables available
+for workrooms and furnaces; a spacious laundry that
+could be turned into a library; a fine lawn for the
+accommodation of the great reflector. Crumbling
+walls and holes in the roof gave him little or no
+concern; and if butcher’s meat was appallingly dear
+(as his sister lamented) the family could live on bacon
+and eggs! In this sunny spirit he entered upon the
+career of untold possibilities that lay before him.</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless the King’s astronomer did not find it
+all plain sailing. His primary duty was to gratify the
+royal taste for astronomy, and this involved no trifling
+expenditure of time and toil. The transport of the
+seven-foot to the Queen’s lodge could be managed in
+the daylight, but its return-journey in the dark, after
+the conclusion of the celestial raree-show, was an
+expensive and a risky business; yet fetched back it
+should be unless a clear night were to be wasted—a
+thing not possible to contemplate. This kind of
+attendance was, however, considerately dispensed with
+when its troublesome nature came to be fully understood.
+Herschel’s treatment by George III. has often<span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">33</span>
+been condemned as selfish and niggardly; but with
+scant justice. In some respects, no doubt, it might
+advantageously have been modified. Still, the fact
+remains that the astronomer of Slough was the gift
+to science of the poor mad King. From no other
+crowned head has it ever received so incomparable an
+endowment.</p>
+
+<p>Herschel’s salary was undeniably small. It gave
+him the means of living, but not of observing, as he
+proposed to observe. If the improvement of telescopes
+were to be “carried to its utmost limit,” additional
+funds must be raised. Without an ample supply of
+the “sinews of war,” fresh campaigns of exploration
+were out of the question. There was one obvious way
+in which they could be provided. Herschel’s fame as
+an optician was spread throughout Europe. His
+telescopes were wanted everywhere, but could be had
+from himself alone; for the methods by which he
+wrought specula to a perfect figure are even now
+undivulged. They constituted, therefore, a source of
+profit upon which he could draw to almost any extent.
+He applied himself, accordingly, to make telescopes
+for sale. They brought in large sums. Six hundred
+guineas a-piece were paid to him by the King for four
+ten-foot reflectors; he received at a later date £3,150
+for a twenty-five foot, sent to Spain; and in 1814
+£2,310 from Lucien Bonaparte for two smaller instruments.
+The regular scale of prices (later considerably
+reduced) began with 200 guineas for a seven-foot, and
+mounted to 2,500 for a twenty-foot; and the commissions
+executed were innumerable.</p>
+
+<p>But Herschel did not come into the world to drive
+a lucrative trade. It was undertaken, not for itself,
+but for what was to come of it; yet there was danger<span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">34</span>
+lest the end should be indefinitely postponed in the
+endeavour to secure the means.</p>
+
+<p>“It seemed to be supposed,” Miss Herschel
+remarked, “that enough had been done when my
+brother was enabled to leave his profession that he
+might have time to make and sell telescopes. But all
+this was only retarding the work of a thirty or forty-foot
+instrument, which it was his chief object to
+obtain as soon as possible; for he was then on the
+wrong side of forty-five, and felt how great an injustice
+he would be doing to himself and the cause of
+astronomy by giving up his time to making telescopes
+for other observers.”</p>
+
+<p>This he was, fortunately, not long obliged to do.
+A royal grant of £2,000 for the construction of the
+designed giant telescope, followed by another of equal
+amount, together with an annual allowance of £200
+for its repairs, removed the last obstacle to his success.
+The wide distribution of first-class instruments might,
+indeed, have been thought to promise more for
+the advancement of astronomy than the labours of
+a single individual. No mistake could be greater.
+Not an observation worth mentioning was made with
+any of the numerous instruments sent out from
+Datchet or Slough, save only those acquired by
+Schröter and Pond. The rest either rusted idly, or
+were employed ineffectually, aptly illustrating the
+saying that “the man at the eye-end” is the truly
+essential part of a telescope.</p>
+
+<p>No one knew this better than Herschel. Every
+serene dark night was to him a precious opportunity
+availed of to the last minute. The thermometer
+might descend below zero, ink might freeze, mirrors
+might crack; but, provided the stars shone, he and his<span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">35</span>
+sister worked on from dusk to dawn. In this way, his
+“third review,” begun at Bath, was finished in the
+spring of 1783. The swiftness with which it was
+conducted implied no want of thoroughness. “Many
+a night,” he states, “in the course of eleven or twelve
+hours of observation, I have carefully and singly
+examined not less than 400 celestial objects, besides
+taking measures, and sometimes viewing a particular
+star for half an hour together, with all the various
+powers.”</p>
+
+<p>The assiduity appears well-nigh incredible with
+which he gathered in an abundant harvest of nebulæ
+and double stars; his elaborate papers, brimful of invention
+and experience, being written by day, or during
+nights unpropitious for star-gazing. On one occasion
+he is said to have worked without intermission at
+the telescope and the desk for seventy-two hours,
+and then slept unbrokenly for twenty-six hours. His
+instruments were never allowed to remain disabled.
+They were kept, like himself, on the alert. Relays of
+specula were provided, and one was in no case removed
+from the tube for re-polishing, unless another was
+ready to take its place. Even the meetings of the
+Royal Society were attended only when moonlight
+effaced the delicate objects of his particular search.</p>
+
+<p>The summer of 1788 was spent in getting ready
+the finest telescope Herschel had yet employed. It
+was called the “large twenty-foot” because of the size
+of its speculum, which was nearly nineteen inches in
+diameter; and with its potent help he executed his
+fourth and last celestial survey. His impatience to
+begin led him into perilous situations.</p>
+
+<p>“My brother,” says Miss Herschel, “began his
+series of sweeps when the instrument was yet in a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">36</span>
+very unfinished state; and my feelings were not very
+comfortable when every moment I was alarmed by a
+crack or fall, knowing him to be elevated fifteen feet
+or more on a temporary cross-beam instead of a safe
+gallery. The ladders had not even their braces at the
+bottom; and one night, in a very high wind, he had
+hardly touched the ground before the whole apparatus
+came down. Some labouring men were called up to
+help in extricating the mirror, which was fortunately
+uninjured, but much work was cut out for carpenters
+next day.”</p>
+
+<p>In the following March, he himself wrote to Patrick
+Wilson, of Glasgow, son of Dr. Alexander Wilson, the
+well-known professor of astronomy:—“I have finished
+a second speculum to my new twenty-foot, very much
+superior to the first, and am now reviewing the heavens
+with it. This will be a work of some years; but it is
+to me so far from laborious that it is attended with
+the utmost delight.” He, nevertheless, looked upon
+telescopes as “yet in their infant state.”</p>
+
+<p>The ruinous mansion at Datchet having become
+uninhabitable, even by astronomers, their establishment
+was shifted, in June, 1785, to Clay Hall, near
+Old Windsor. Here the long-thought-of forty-foot was
+begun, but was not destined to be finished. A litigious
+landlady intervened. The next move, however, proved
+to be the last. It was to a commodious residence at
+Slough, now called “Observatory House”—“<span xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">le lieu du
+monde</span>,” wrote Arago, “où il a été fait le plus de
+découvertes.” Thither, without the loss of an hour, in
+April, 1786, the machinery and apparatus collected at
+Clay Hall were transported. Yet, “amidst all this
+hurrying business,” Caroline remembered “that every
+moment after daylight was allotted to observing. The<span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">37</span>
+last night at Clay Hall was spent in sweeping till daylight,
+and by the next evening the telescope stood
+ready for observation at Slough.”</p>
+
+<p>During the ensuing three months, thirty to forty
+workmen were constantly employed, “some in felling
+and rooting out trees, some in digging and preparing
+the ground for the bricklayers who were laying the
+foundation for the telescope.” “A whole troop of
+labourers” were, besides, engaged in reducing “the
+iron tools to a proper shape for the mirror to be
+ground upon.” Thus, each morning, when dawn compelled
+Herschel to desist from observation, he found
+a bevy of people awaiting instructions of all sorts from
+him. “If it had not been,” his sister says, “for the
+intervention of a cloudy or moonlit night, I know not
+when he, or I either, should have got any sleep.” The
+wash-house was turned into a forge for the manufacture
+of specially designed tools; heavy articles cast in
+London were brought by water to Windsor; the
+library was so encumbered with stores, models, and
+implements, that “no room for a desk or an atlas
+remained.”</p>
+
+<p>On July 3rd, 1786, Herschel, accompanied by his
+brother Alexander, started for Göttingen, commissioned
+by the King to present to the University one of the
+ten-foot reflectors purchased from him. He was
+elected a Member of the Royal Society of Göttingen,
+and spent three weeks at Hanover with his aged
+mother, whom he never saw again. During his
+absence, however, the forty-foot progressed in accordance
+with the directions he had taken care to leave
+behind. He trusted nothing to chance. “There is not
+one screwbolt,” his sister asserted, “about the whole
+apparatus but what was fixed under the immediate<span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">38</span>
+eye of my brother. I have seen him lie stretched
+many an hour in a burning sun, across the top beam,
+whilst the iron-work for the various motions was
+being fixed. At one time no less than twenty-four
+men (twelve and twelve relieving each other) kept
+polishing day and night; my brother, of course, never
+leaving them all the while, taking his food without
+allowing himself time to sit down to table.”</p>
+
+<p>At this stage of the undertaking it became the
+fashion with visitors to use the empty tube as a
+promenade. Dr. and Miss Burney called, in July,
+1786, “to see, and <em>take a walk</em> through the immense
+new telescope.” “It held me quite upright,” the
+authoress of “Evelina” related, “and without the
+least inconvenience; so would it have done had I been
+dressed in feathers and a bell-hoop.”</p>
+
+<p>George III. and the Archbishop of Canterbury
+followed the general example; and the prelate being
+incommoded by the darkness and the uncertain
+footing, the King, who was in front, turned back to
+help him, saying: “Come, my lord bishop, I will
+show you the way to heaven.” On another occasion
+“God save the King” was sung and played within
+the tube by a large body of musicians; and the
+rumour went abroad that it had been turned into a
+ball-room!</p>
+
+<p>The University of Oxford conferred upon Herschel,
+in 1786, an honorary degree of LL.D.; but he cared
+little for such distinctions. Miss Burney characterised
+him as a “man without a wish that has its
+object in the terrestrial globe;” the King had “not
+a happier subject.” The royal bounty, she went on
+“enables him to put into execution all his wonderful
+projects, from which his expectations of future<span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">39</span>
+discoveries are so sanguine as to make his present
+existence a state of almost perfect enjoyment.” Nor
+was it possible to “admire his genius more than his
+gentleness.” Again, after taking tea in his company
+in the Queen’s lodge: “this very extraordinary man
+has not more fame to awaken curiosity than sense and
+modesty to gratify it. He is perfectly unassuming,
+yet openly happy; and happy in the success of those
+studies which would render a mind less excellently
+formed presumptuous and arrogant.” Mrs. Papendick,
+another court chronicler, says that “he was fascinating
+in his manner, and possessed a natural politeness, and
+the abilities of a superior nature.”</p>
+
+<p>His great telescope took rank, before and after its
+completion, as the chief scientific wonder of the age.
+Slough was crowded with sightseers. All the ruck of
+Grand Dukes and Serene Highnesses from abroad,
+besides royal, noble, and gentle folk at home, flocked
+to gaze at it and interrogate its maker with ignorant
+or intelligent wonder. The Prince of Orange was a
+particularly lively inquirer. On one of his calls at
+Slough, about ten years after the erection of the forty-foot,
+finding the house vacant, he left a memorandum
+asking if it were true, as the newspapers reported, that
+“Mr. Herschel had discovered a new star whose light
+was not as that of the common stars, but with swallow-tails,
+as stars in embroidery?”!</p>
+
+<p>Pilgrim-astronomers came, too—Cassini, Lalande,
+Méchain and Legendre from Paris, Oriani from Milan,
+Piazzi from Palermo. Sniadecki, director of the
+observatory of Cracow, “took lodgings,” Miss Herschel
+relates, “in Slough, for the purpose of seeing and
+hearing my brother whenever he could find him at
+leisure. He was a very silent man.” One cannot<span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">40</span>
+help fearing that he was also a very great bore. Von
+Magellan, another eminent foreign astronomer, communicated
+to Bode an interesting account of Herschel’s
+methods of observation. The multitude of entries in
+his books astonished him. In sweeping, he reported,
+“he lets each star pass at least three times through
+the field of his telescope, so that it is impossible that
+anything can escape him.” The thermometer in the
+garden stood that night, January 6th, 1785, at 13 deg.
+Fahrenheit; but the royal astronomer, his visitor remarked,
+“has an excellent constitution, and thinks
+about nothing else in the world but the celestial bodies.”</p>
+
+<p>In January, 1787, Herschel made trial with his
+twenty-foot reflector of the “front-view” plan of construction,
+suggested by Lemaire in 1732, but never
+before practically tested. All that had to be done was
+to remove the small mirror, and slightly <em>tilt</em> the large
+one. The image was then formed close to the upper
+margin of the tube, into which the observer, turning
+his back to the heavens, looked down. The purpose
+of the arrangement was to save the light lost in the
+second reflection; and its advantage was at once illustrated
+by the discovery of two Uranian moons—one
+(Titania) circling round its primary in about 8¾ hours,
+the other (Oberon) in 13½ hours. In order to assure
+these conclusions, he made a sketch beforehand of
+what <em>ought</em> to be seen on February 10th; and on that
+night, to his intense satisfaction, “the heavens,” as he
+informed the Royal Society, “displayed the original
+of my drawing by showing, in the situation I had
+delineated them, <em>the Georgian planet attended by two
+satellites</em>. I confess that this scene appeared to me
+with additional beauty, the little secondary planets
+seeming to give a dignity to the primary one which<span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">41</span>
+raises it into a more conspicuous situation among the
+great bodies of our solar system.”</p>
+
+<p>This brilliant result determined him to make a
+“front-view” of the forty-foot. Its advance towards
+completion was not without vicissitudes. The first
+speculum, when put into the tube, February 19th
+1787, was found too thin to maintain its shape. A
+second, cast early in 1788, cracked in cooling. The
+same metal having been recast February 16th, the
+artist tried it upon Saturn in October; but the effect
+disappointing his expectation, he wrought at it for ten
+months longer. At last, after a few days’ polishing
+with his new machine, he turned the great speculum
+towards Windsor Castle; when its high quality became
+at once manifest. And such was his impatience to
+make with it a crucial experiment, that—as he told Sir
+Joseph Banks—he directed it to the heavens (August
+28th, 1789) before it had half come to its proper lustre.
+The stars came out well, and no sooner had he got
+hold of Saturn than a sixth satellite stood revealed to
+view! Its “younger brother” was detected September
+17th; and the two could be seen, on favourable opportunities,
+threading their way, like beads of light, along
+the lucid line of the almost vanished ring. Herschel
+named them Enceladus and Mimas, and found, on
+looking up his former observations of Saturn, that
+Enceladus, the exterior and brighter object, had been
+unmistakably seen with the twenty-foot, August 19th,
+1787. Mimas is a very delicate test of instrumental
+perfection.</p>
+
+<p>The mirror by which it was first shown measured
+nearly fifty inches across, and weighed 2,118 pounds.
+It was slung in a ring, and the sheet-iron tube in which
+it rested was thirty-nine and a-half feet long and four<span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">42</span>
+feet ten inches wide. Ladders fifty feet in length gave
+access to a movable stage, from which the observer communicated
+through speaking tubes with his assistants.
+The whole erection stood on a revolving platform; for
+the modern equatorial form of mount, by which the
+diurnal course of the heavens is automatically followed,
+was not then practically available, and the necessary
+movements had to be imparted by hand. This
+involved the attendance of two workmen, but was
+otherwise less inconvenient than might be supposed,
+owing to the skill with which the required mechanism
+was contrived.</p>
+
+<p>Herschel estimated that, with a magnifying-power
+of 1,000, this grand instrument could, in the climate of
+England, be effectively used during no more than one
+hundred hours of every year. A review with it of
+the whole heavens would hence have occupied eight
+centuries. In point of fact, he found the opportunities
+for its employment scarce. The machine took some
+time to get started, while the twenty-foot was ready in
+ten minutes. The speculum, moreover, proved unpleasantly
+liable to become dewed in moist weather, or
+frozen up in cold; and, in spite of all imaginable care,
+it preserved the delicacy of its polish no more than
+two years. An economist of minutes, such as its
+maker, could, then, do no otherwise than let the giant
+telescope lie by unless its powers were expressly
+needed. They were surprisingly effective. “With
+the forty-foot instrument,” he reported to the Royal
+Society in 1800, “the appearance of Sirius announced
+itself at a great distance like the dawn of the morning,
+till this brilliant star at last entered the field, with all
+the splendour of the rising sun, and forced me to take
+my eye from that beautiful sight.” Which, however,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">43</span>
+left the vision impaired in delicacy for nigh upon
+half-an-hour.</p>
+
+<p>Thus the results gathered from the realisation of
+Herschel’s crowning optical achievement fell vastly
+short of what his imagination had pictured. The
+promise of the telescope’s initial disclosures was not
+realised in its subsequent career. Yet it was a superb
+instrument. The discovery with it of Mimas gave
+certain proof that the figure of the speculum was as
+perfect as its dimensions were unusual. But its then
+inimitable definition probably fell off later. Its “broad
+bright eye” was, for the last time, turned towards the
+heavens January 19th, 1811, when the Orion nebula
+showed its silvery wings to considerable advantage.
+But incurable dimness had already set in—incurable,
+because the artist’s hand had no longer the strength
+needed to cure the growing malady. The big machine
+was, however, left standing, framework and all. It
+figured as a landmark on the Ordnance Survey
+Map of England; and, stamped in miniature on
+the seal of the Royal Astronomical Society, aptly
+serves to illustrate its motto, “<i xml:lang="la" lang="la">Quicquid nitet
+notandum</i>.” At last, on New Years Eve, 1839,
+the timbers of the scaffolding being dangerously
+decayed, it was, with due ceremony, dismounted. A
+“Requiem,” composed by Sir John Herschel, was sung
+by his family, fourteen in number, assembled within
+the tube, which was then riveted up and laid horizontally
+on three stone piers in the garden at Slough.
+“It looks very well in its new position,” Sir John
+thought. Yet it has something of a <em>memento mori</em>
+aspect. It seems to remind one that the loftiest human
+aspirations are sprinkled “with the dust of death.”
+The speculum adorns the hall of Observatory House.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">44</span></p>
+
+<p>Herschel married, May 8th, 1788, Mary, the only
+child of Mr. James Baldwin, a merchant in the City
+of London, and widow of Mr. John Pitt. She was
+thirty-eight and he fifty. Her jointure relieved him
+from pecuniary care, and her sweetness of disposition
+secured his domestic happiness. They set up a
+curious double establishment, taking a house at
+Upton, while retaining that at Slough. Two
+maidservants were kept in each, and a footman
+maintained the communications. So at least runs
+Mrs. Papendick’s gossip. Miss Burney records in her
+Diary a tea at Mr. De Luc’s, where Dr. Herschel
+accompanied a pair of vocalists “very sweetly on the
+violin. His newly-married wife was with him, and
+his sister. His wife seems good-natured; she was rich,
+too! And astronomers are as able as other men to
+discern that gold can glitter as well as stars.”</p>
+
+<p>He was now at the height of prosperity and
+renown. Diplomas innumerable were showered upon
+him by Academies and learned societies. In a
+letter to Benjamin Franklin, he returned thanks for
+his election as a member of the American Philosophical
+Society, and acquainted him with his recent
+detection of a pair of attendants on the “Georgian
+planet.” A similar acknowledgment was addressed to
+the Princess Daschkoff, Directress of the Petersburg
+Academy of Sciences. The King of Poland sent him
+his portrait; the Empress Catherine II. opened
+negotiations for the purchase of some of his specula,
+Lucien Bonaparte repaired to Slough incognito;
+Joseph Haydn snatched a day from the turmoil of
+his London engagements to visit the musician-astronomer,
+and gaze at his monster telescopes. By
+universal agreement, Dr. Burney declared, Herschel<span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">45</span>
+was “one of the most pleasing and well-bred natural
+characters of the day, as well as the greatest
+astronomer.” They had much in common, according
+to Dr. Burney’s daughter. Both possessed an uncommon
+“suavity of disposition”; both loved music;
+and Dr. Burney had a “passionate inclination for
+astronomy.” They became friends through the medium
+of Dr. Burney’s versified history of that science. In
+September, 1797, he called at Slough with the
+manuscript in his valise. “The good soul was at
+dinner,” he relates; and, to his surprise, since he was
+ignorant of Herschel’s marriage, the company included
+several ladies, besides “a little boy.” He was, nothing
+loth, compelled to stay over-night; discussed with his
+host the plan of his work, and read to him its eighth
+chapter. Herschel listened with interest, and modestly
+owned to having learnt much from what he had
+heard; but presently dismayed the author by confessing
+his “aversion to poetry,” which he had
+generally regarded as “an arrangement of fine words
+without any adherence to the truth.” He added,
+however, that “when truth and science were united
+to those fine words,” they no longer displeased him.
+The readings continued at intervals, alternately at
+Slough and Chelsea, to the immense gratification of
+the copious versifier, who occasionally allowed his
+pleasure to overflow in his correspondence.</p>
+
+<p>“Well, but Herschel has been in town,” he wrote
+from Chelsea College, December 10th, 1798, “for short
+spurts and back again, two or three times, and I have
+had him here two whole days. I read to him the first
+five books without any one objection.” And again;
+“He came, and his good wife accompanied him, and I
+read four and a-half books; and on parting, still more<span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">46</span>
+humble than before, or still more amiable, he thanked
+me for the instruction and entertainment I had given
+him. What say you to that? Can anything be
+grander?”</p>
+
+<p>In spite of his “aversion,” Herschel had once, and
+once only, wooed the coy muse himself. The first
+evening paper that appeared in England, May 3rd,
+1788, contained some introductory quatrains by him.
+An excuse for this unwonted outburst may be found
+in the circumstance that the sheet in which they were
+printed bore the name of <i>The Star</i>. They began
+with the interrogation:</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+<div class="poetry">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <div class="verse indentq">“What Star art thou, about to gleam</div>
+ <div class="verse indent2">In Novelty’s bright hemisphere?”</div>
+ </div>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p class="in0">and continued:</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+<div class="poetry">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <div class="verse indentq">“A Planet wilt thou roll sublime,</div>
+ <div class="verse indent2">Spreading like Mercury thy rays?</div>
+ <div class="verse indent0">Or chronicle the lapse of Time,</div>
+ <div class="verse indent2">Wrapped in a Comet’s threatening blaze?”</div>
+ </div>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>That they are of the schoolboy order need surprise
+no one. Such a mere sip at the “Pierian spring”
+could scarcely bring inspiration.</p>
+
+<p>Herschel’s grand survey of the heavens closed with
+his fourth review. His telescopic studies thereupon
+became specialised. The sun, the planets and their
+satellites, the lately discovered asteroids, certain double
+stars, and an occasional comet, in turn received
+attention. Laboratory experiments were also carried
+on, and discussions of profound importance were laid
+before the Royal Society. All this cost him but little
+effort. The high tension of his earlier life was somewhat
+relaxed; he allowed himself intervals of rest,
+and indulged in social and musical recreations.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">47</span>
+Concerts were now frequently given at his house; and
+the face of beaming delight with which he presided
+over them is still traditionally remembered. Visits to
+Sir William Watson at Dawlish gave him opportunities,
+otherwise rare, for talks on metaphysical
+subjects; and he stayed with James Watt at Heathfield
+in 1810. He had been a witness on his side in
+an action for infringement of patent in 1793.</p>
+
+<p>Herschel rented a house on Sion Hill, Bath, for
+some months of the year 1799; and from time to time
+stayed with friends in London, or sought change of
+air at Tunbridge Wells, Brighton, or Ramsgate. In
+July, 1801, he went to Paris with his wife and son,
+made acquaintance with Laplace, and had an interview
+with the First Consul. It was currently reported that
+Bonaparte had astonished him by the extent of his
+astronomical learning; but the contrary was the
+truth. He had tried to be impressive, but failed.
+Herschel gave an account of what passed to the poet
+Campbell, whom he met at Brighton in 1813.</p>
+
+<p>“The First Consul,” he said, “did surprise me by his
+quickness and versatility on all subjects; but in science
+he seemed to know little more than any well-educated
+gentleman; and of astronomy much less, for instance,
+than our own king. His general air was something
+like affecting to know more than he did know.”
+Herschel’s election in 1802 as one of the eight foreign
+Associates of the French Institute was probably connected
+with his Parisian experiences.</p>
+
+<p>He inspired Campbell with the most lively enthusiasm.
+“His simplicity,” he wrote, “his kindness,
+his anecdotes, his readiness to explain—and make
+perfectly conspicuous too—his own sublime conceptions
+of the universe, are indescribably charming. He<span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">48</span>
+is seventy-six, but fresh and stout; and there he sat,
+nearest the door at his friend’s house, alternately
+smiling at a joke, or contentedly sitting without share
+or notice in the conversation. Any train of conversation
+he follows implicitly; anything you ask, he
+labours with a sort of boyish earnestness to explain.
+Speaking of himself, he said, with a modesty of
+manner which quite overcame me, when taken
+together with the greatness of the assertion, ‘I have
+looked further into space than ever human being did
+before me; I have observed stars, of which the light,
+it can be proved, must take two millions of years to
+reach this earth.’ I really and unfeignedly felt at the
+moment as if I had been conversing with a supernatural
+intelligence. ‘Nay, more,’ said he, ‘if those
+distant bodies had ceased to exist two millions of years
+ago we should still see them, as the light would travel
+after the body was gone.’ These were Herschel’s
+words; and if you had heard him speak them, you
+would not think he was apt to tell more than the
+truth.”</p>
+
+<p>The appearance of a bright comet, in October,
+1806, drew much company to Slough. On the 4th,
+Miss Herschel narrates, “Two parties from the Castle
+came to see it, and during the whole month my
+brother had not an evening to himself. As he was then
+in the midst of polishing the forty-foot mirror, rest
+became absolutely necessary after a day spent in that
+most laborious work; and it has ever been my opinion
+that on the 14th of October his nerves received a
+shock from which he never got the better afterwards;
+for on that day he had hardly dismissed his troop of
+men when visitors assembled, and from the time it
+was dark, till past midnight, he was on the grass-plot<span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">49</span>
+surrounded by between fifty and sixty persons, without
+having had time to put on proper clothing, or for the
+least nourishment to pass his lips. Among the
+company I remember were the Duke of Sussex,
+Prince Galitzin, Lord Darnley, a number of officers,
+Admiral Boston, and some ladies.”</p>
+
+<p>A dangerous attack of illness in the spring of 1807
+left Herschel’s strength permanently impaired. But
+he travelled to Scotland in the summer of 1810, and
+received the freedom of the City of Glasgow. Then,
+in 1814, he made a final, but fruitless attempt, to
+renovate the four-foot speculum. In the midst of
+the confusion attending upon the process, word was
+given to prepare for the reception of the Czar
+Alexander, the Duchess of Oldenburg, and sundry
+other grandees just then collected at Windsor for the
+Ascot races. The setting to rights was no small job;
+“but we might have saved ourselves the trouble,” his
+sister remarks drily, “for they were sufficiently
+harassed with public sights and festivities.”</p>
+
+<p>On April 5th, 1816, Herschel was created a Knight
+of the Royal Hanoverian Guelphic Order, and duly
+attended one of the Prince Regent’s levées in May.
+He went to town in 1819 to have his portrait painted
+by Artaud. The resulting fine likeness is in the
+possession of his grandson, Sir William James
+Herschel. The Astronomical Society chose him as its
+first President in 1821; and he contributed to the
+first volume of its memoirs a supplementary list of
+145 double stars. The wonderful series of his
+communications to the Royal Society closed when he
+was in his eightieth year, with the presentation, June
+11th, 1818, of a paper on the Relative Distances of
+Star-clusters. On June 1st, 1821, he inserted into the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">50</span>
+tube with thin and trembling hands the mirror of
+the twenty-foot telescope, and took his final look at
+the heavens. All his old instincts were still alive,
+only the bodily power to carry out their behests was
+gone. An unparalleled career of achievement left
+him unsatisfied with what he had done. Old age
+brought him no Sabbath rest, but only an enforced
+and wearisome cessation from activity. His inability
+to re-polish the four-foot speculum was the doom of
+his <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">chef d’œuvre</i>. He could not reconcile himself to
+it. His sunny spirits gave way. The old happy and
+buoyant temperament became overcast with despondency.
+His strong nerves were at last shattered.</p>
+
+<p>On August 15th, 1822, Miss Herschel relates:—“I
+hastened to the spot where I was wont to find him
+with the newspaper I was to read to him. But I was
+informed my brother had been obliged to return to
+his room, whither I flew immediately. Lady Herschel
+and the housekeeper were with him, administering
+everything which could be thought of for supporting
+him. I found him much irritated at not being able to
+grant Mr. Bulman’s<a id="FNanchor_3" href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">C</a> request for some token of remembrance
+for his father. As soon as he saw me, I was
+sent to the library to fetch one of his last papers and
+a plate of the forty-foot telescope. But for the
+universe I could not have looked twice at what I had
+snatched from the shelf, and when he faintly asked if
+the breaking-up of the Milky Way was in it, I said
+‘Yes,’ and he looked content. I cannot help
+remembering this circumstance; it was the last
+time I was sent to the library on such an occasion.
+That the anxious care for his papers and workrooms
+never ended but with his life, was proved by<span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">51</span>
+his whispered inquiries if they were locked, and the
+key safe.”</p>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_3" href="#FNanchor_3" class="fnanchor">C</a> The grandson of one of Herschel’s earliest English friends.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>He died ten days later, August 25th, 1822. Above
+his grave, in the church of Saint Laurence at Upton,
+the words are graven:—“<span xml:lang="la" lang="la">Coelorum perrupit claustra</span>”—He
+broke through the barriers of the skies.</p>
+
+<p>William Herschel was endowed by nature with an
+almost faultless character. He had the fervour, without
+the irritability of genius; he was generous, genial,
+sincere; tolerant of ignorance; patient under the acute
+distress, to which his situation rendered him peculiarly
+liable, of unseasonable interruptions at critical
+moments: he was warm-hearted and open-handed.
+His change of country and condition, his absorption
+in science, the homage paid to him, never led him to
+forget the claims of kindred. Time and money were
+alike lavished in the relief of family necessities. He
+supported his brother Alexander after his retirement
+from the concert-stage in 1816, until his death at
+Hanover, March 15th, 1821. Dietrich’s recurring
+misfortunes met his unfailing pity and help. He
+bequeathed to him a sum of £2,000, and to his
+devoted sister, Caroline, an annuity of £100.</p>
+
+<p>His correspondents, abroad and at home, were
+numerous; nor did he disdain to remove the perplexities
+of amateurs. In a letter, dated January 6th,
+1794, we find him explaining to Mr. J. Miller of
+Lincoln’s Inn, “the circumstances which attend the
+motion of a race-horse upon a circle of longitude.”
+And he wrote shortly afterwards to Mr. Smith of
+Tewkesbury:—“You find fault with the principles
+of gravitation and projection because they will not
+account for the rotation of the planets upon their
+axes. You might certainly with as much reason find<span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">52</span>
+fault with your shoes because they will not likewise
+serve your hands as gloves. But, in my opinion, the
+projectile motion once admitted, sufficiently explains
+the rotatory motion; for it is hardly possible mechanically
+to impress the one without giving the other at
+the same time.”</p>
+
+<p>On religious topics he was usually reticent; but a
+hint of the reverent spirit in which his researches
+were conducted may be gathered from a sentence in
+the same letter. “It is certainly,” he said, “a very
+laudable thing to receive instruction from the great
+workmaster of nature, and for that reason all experimental
+philosophy is instituted.”</p>
+
+<p>To investigate was then, in his view, to “receive
+instruction”; and one of the secrets of his wonderful
+success lay in the docility with which he came to be
+taught.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<div id="toclink_53" class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">53</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III.<br />
+
+<span class="subhead">THE EXPLORER OF THE HEAVENS.</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class="in0"><span class="firstword">“A knowledge</span> of the construction of the heavens,”
+Herschel wrote in 1811, “has always been the ultimate
+object of my observations.” The “Construction of
+the Heavens”! A phrase of profound and novel
+import, for the invention of which he was ridiculed
+by Brougham in the <i>Edinburgh Review</i>; yet expressing,
+as it had never been expressed before, the
+essential idea of sidereal astronomy. Speculation
+there had been as to the manner in which the stars
+were grouped together; but the touchstone of reality
+had yet to be applied to them. This unattempted,
+and all but impossible enterprise Herschel deliberately
+undertook. It presented itself spontaneously to his
+mind as worth the expenditure of a life’s labour; and
+he spared nothing in the disbursement. The hope
+of its accomplishment inspired his early exertions,
+carried him through innumerable difficulties, lent
+him audacity, fortified him in perseverance. For this,</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+<div class="poetry">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <div class="verse indentq">“He left behind the painted buoy</div>
+ <div class="verse indent2">That tosses at the harbour’s mouth,”</div>
+ </div>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p class="in0">and burst his way into an unnavigated ocean.</p>
+
+<p>Herschel has had very few equals in his strength
+of controlled imagination. He held the balance, even
+to a nicety, between the real and the ideal. Meditation
+served in him to prescribe and guide experience;
+experience to ripen the fruit of meditation.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">54</span></p>
+
+<p>“We ought,” he wrote in 1785, “to avoid two
+opposite extremes. If we indulge a fanciful imagination,
+and build worlds of our own, we must not wonder
+at our going wide from the path of truth and nature.
+On the other hand, if we add observation to observation
+without attempting to draw, not only certain
+conclusions, but also conjectural views from them, we
+offend against the very end for which only observations
+ought to be made.”</p>
+
+<p>This was consistently his method. If thought
+outran sight, he laboured earnestly that it should be
+overtaken by it: while sight, in turn, often took the
+initiative, and suggested thought. He was much
+more than a simple explorer. “Even at the telescope,”
+Professor Holden says, “his object was not discovery
+merely, but to know the inner constitution of the
+heavens.” He divined, at the same time that he
+observed.</p>
+
+<p>The antique conception of the heavens as a hollow
+sphere upon which the celestial bodies are seen
+projected, survived then, and survives now, as a
+convenient fiction for practical purposes. But in the
+eighteenth century the fiction assumed to the great
+majority a sort of quasi-reality. Herschel made
+an exception in being vividly impressed with the
+<em>depth</em> of space. How to sound that depth was the
+first problem that he attacked. As a preliminary to
+further operations, he sought to fix a unit of sidereal
+measurement. The distances from the earth to the
+stars were then altogether unknown. All that
+had been ascertained was that they must be very
+great. Instrumental refinements had not, in fact,
+been carried far enough to make the inquiry
+profitable. Herschel did not underrate its difficulty.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">55</span>
+He recognised that, in pursuing it, <em>one hundredth of
+a second of arc</em> “became a quantity to be considered.”
+Justly arguing, however, that previous experiments on
+stellar parallax had been unsatisfactory and indecisive,
+he determined to try again.</p>
+
+<p>He chose the “double star method,” invented by
+Galileo, but never, so far, effectually put to trial. The
+principle of it is perfectly simple, depending upon the
+perspective shifting to a spectator in motion, of objects
+at different distances from him. In order to apprehend
+it, one need only walk up and down before a
+lamp placed in the middle of a room, watching its
+apparent change of position relative to another lamp
+at the end of the same room. Just in the same way,
+a star observed from opposite sides of the earth’s orbit
+is sometimes found to alter its situation very slightly
+by comparison with another star close to it in the sky,
+but indefinitely remote from it in space. Half the
+small oscillation thus executed is called that star’s
+“annual parallax.” It represents the minute angle
+under which the radius of the terrestrial orbit would
+appear at the star’s actual distance. So vast, however,
+is the scale of the universe, that this tell-tale
+swing to and fro is, for the most part, imperceptible
+even with modern appliances, and was entirely
+inaccessible to Herschel’s observations. Yet they did
+not remain barren of results.</p>
+
+<p>“As soon as I was fully convinced,” he wrote in
+1781, “that in the investigation of parallax the method
+of double stars would have many advantages above any
+other, it became necessary to look out for proper stars.
+This introduced a new series of observations. I
+resolved to examine every star in the heavens with
+the utmost attention that I might fix my observations<span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">56</span>
+upon those that would best answer my end. The
+subject promises so rich a harvest that I cannot help
+inviting every lover of astronomy to join with me in
+observations that must inevitably lead to new discoveries.
+I took some pains to find out what double
+stars had been recorded by astronomers; but my
+situation permitted me not to consult extensive
+libraries, nor, indeed, was it very material; for as I
+intended to view the heavens myself, Nature, that
+great volume, appeared to me to contain the best
+catalogue.”</p>
+
+<p>On January 10th, 1782, he presented to the Royal
+Society a catalogue of 269 double stars, of which 227
+were of his own finding; and a second list of 434
+followed in December, 1784. All were arranged in six
+classes, according to the distance apart of their
+components, ranging from one up to 120 seconds.
+The close couples he regarded as especially adapted
+for parallax-determinations; the wider ones might
+serve for criteria of stellar proper movements, or even
+of the sun’s transport through space. For the purpose
+of measuring the directions in which their
+members lay towards each other—technically called
+“position-angles”—and the intervals separating them,
+he invented two kinds of micrometers, and notes were
+added as to their relative brightness and colours.
+He was the first to observe the lovely contrasted
+or harmonised tints displayed by some of these
+objects.</p>
+
+<p>Herschel’s double stars actually fulfilled none of
+the functions assigned to them. He was thus left
+without any definite unit of measurement for sidereal
+space; and he never succeeded in supplying the want.
+In 1814 he was “still engaged,” though vainly, “in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">57</span>
+ascertaining a scale whereby the extent of the universe,
+so far as it is possible for us to penetrate into space,
+may be fathomed.” He knew only that the distances
+of the stars nearest the earth could not be less, and
+might be a great deal more, than light-waves,
+propagated at the rate of 186,300 miles a second,
+would traverse in three or four years. Only the
+<em>manner</em> of stellar arrangement, then, remained open
+to his zealous investigations.</p>
+
+<p>The initial question presenting itself to an
+intelligent spectator of the nocturnal sky is: What
+relation does the dim galactic star-stream bear to
+the constellations amidst which it flows? And this
+question our interior position makes very difficult to
+be answered. We see the starry universe, it has been
+well said, “not in <em>plan</em> but in <em>section</em>.” The problem
+is, from that section to determine the plan—to view
+the whole mentally as it would show visually from the
+outside. The general appearance to ourselves of the
+Milky Way leaves it uncertain whether it represents
+the projection upon the heavens of an immense
+stratum of equally scattered stars, or a ring-like
+accumulation, towards the middle of which our sun
+is situated. Herschel gave his preference, to begin
+with, to the former hypothesis, and then, with
+astonishing boldness and ingenuity, attempted to put
+it experimentally to the proof.</p>
+
+<p>His method of “star-gauging” was described in
+1784. It consisted in counting the stars visible in
+successive fields of his twenty-foot telescope, and
+computing the corresponding depths of space. Admitting
+an average regularity of distribution, this was
+easily done. If the stars did not really lie closer
+together in one region than in another, then the more<span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">58</span>
+of them there were to be seen along a given line
+of vision, the further the system could be inferred
+to extend in that particular direction. The ratio
+of its extension would also be given. It would vary
+with the cube-roots of the number of stars in each
+count.</p>
+
+<p>Guided by this principle, Herschel ventured to lay
+down the boundaries of the stellar aggregation to
+which our sun belongs. So far as he “had yet gone
+round it,” in 1785, he perceived it to be “everywhere
+terminated, and in most places very narrowly too.”
+The differences, however, between his enumerations in
+various portions of the sky were enormous. In the
+Milky Way zone the stars presented themselves in
+shoals. He met fields—of just one quarter the area
+of the moon—containing nearly 600; so that, in
+fifteen minutes, 116,000 were estimated to have
+marched past his stationary telescope. Here, the
+calculated “length of his sounding-line” was nearly
+500 times the distance of Sirius, his standard star.
+Towards the galactic poles, on the contrary, stars were
+comparatively scarce; and the transparent blackness
+of the sky showed that in those quarters the supply
+of stars was completely exhausted. At right angles
+to the Milky Way, then, the stellar system might be
+termed shallow, while in its plane, it stretched out on
+all sides to an inconceivable, though not to an
+illimitable extent. Its shape appeared, accordingly,
+to be that of a flat disc, of very irregular contour, and
+with a deep cleft matching the bifid section of the
+Milky Way between Cygnus and Scorpio.</p>
+
+<p>Herschel regarded this conclusion only “as an
+example to illustrate the method.” Yet it was derived
+from the reckoning-up of 90,000 stars in 2,400 telescopic<span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">59</span>
+fields! Its validity rested on the assumption
+that stellar crowding indicated, not more stars in a
+given space, but more space stocked in the same proportion
+with stars. But his hope of thus getting a
+true mean result collapsed under the weight of his
+own observations. “It would not be difficult,” he
+stated in 1785, “to point out two or three hundred
+gathering clusters in our system.” The action of a
+“clustering power” drawing its component stars “into
+many separate allotments” grew continually clearer
+to him, and he admitted unreservedly in 1802 that
+the Milky Way “consists of stars very differently
+scattered from those immediately about us.”</p>
+
+<p>In 1811, he expressly abandoned his original
+hypothesis. “I must freely confess,” he wrote, “that
+by continuing my sweeps of the heavens my opinion
+of the arrangement of the stars has undergone a
+gradual change. An equal scattering of the stars may
+be admitted in certain calculations; but when we
+examine the Milky Way, or closely compressed
+clusters, it must be given up.”</p>
+
+<p>And in 1817: “Gauges, which on a supposition of
+an equality of scattering, were looked upon as gauges
+of distance, relate, in fact, more immediately to the
+scattering of the stars, of which they give valuable
+information.”</p>
+
+<p>The “disc-theory” was then virtually withdrawn
+not many years after it had been propounded. “The
+subtlety of nature,” according to Bacon’s aphorism,
+“transcends the subtlety both of the intellect and
+of the senses.” Herschel very soon perceived the
+inadequacy of his colossal experiment; and he tranquilly
+acquiesced, not being among those who seek to
+entrench theory against evidence. He found that he<span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">60</span>
+had undervalued the complexity of the problem. Yet
+it remained before his mind to the end. The supreme
+object of his scientific life was to ascertain the laws of
+stellar distribution in cubical space, and he devoted to
+the subject the two concluding memoirs of the sixty-nine
+contributed by him to the “Philosophical Transactions.”
+He was in his eightieth year when he
+opened, with youthful freshness, a new phase of
+arduous investigation.</p>
+
+<p>“The construction of the heavens,” he wrote in
+June, 1817, “can only be known when we have the
+situation of each body defined by its three dimensions.
+Of these three, the ordinary catalogues give but two,
+leaving the distance or profundity undetermined.”
+This element of “profundity” he went on to determine
+by the absolutely novel method of what may be called
+“photometric enumeration.”</p>
+
+<p>He began by asserting what is self-evident—that
+faint stars are, “one with another,” more remote than
+bright ones; and he argued thence, reasonably enough,
+that the relative mean distances of the stars, taken
+order by order, might be inferred from their relative
+mean magnitudes. Next he pointed out that more
+space would be available for their accommodation in
+proportion to the cubes of their mean distances.
+Here lies the value of the method. It sets up,
+as Herschel said, “a standard of reference” with
+regard to stellar distribution. It makes it possible
+to compare actual stellar density, at a given mean
+distance, with a “certain properly modified equality
+of scattering.” By patiently calling over the roll of
+successive magnitudes, information may be obtained
+regarding over- and under-populated districts of space.</p>
+
+<p>Herschel’s reasonings on the subject are perfectly<span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">61</span>
+valid, but for practical purposes far in advance of the
+time. Their application demanded a knowledge of
+stellar light-gradations, which, even now, has been
+only partially attained. His surprising anticipation
+of this mode of inquiry came, therefore, to nothing.</p>
+
+<p>His device of “limiting apertures” was a simultaneous
+invention. It was designed as a measure of
+relative star-distances. Pointing two similar telescopes
+upon two unequal stars, he equalised them to the eye
+by stopping down the aperture of the instrument
+directed towards the brighter object. Assuming each
+to emit the same quantity of light, their respective
+distances would then be inversely as the diameters of
+the reflecting surfaces by which they were brought to
+the same level of apparent lustre. But the enormous
+real diversities of stellar size and brightness render
+this plan of action wholly illusory. Even for average
+estimates, proper motion is apparently a safer
+criterion of distance than magnitude.</p>
+
+<p>Herschel employed the method of apertures with
+better success to ascertain the comparative extent of
+natural and telescopic vision. The boundary of the
+former was placed at “the twelfth order of distance.”
+Sirius, that is to say, removed to twelve times its
+actual remoteness, would be a barely discernible object
+to the naked eye. The same star carried seventy-five
+times further away still, could be seen as a faint light-speck
+with his twenty-foot telescope; and, transported
+192 times beyond the visual limit, would make a
+similar appearance in the field of the forty-foot. These
+figures, multiplied by twelve, represented, in his
+expressive phrase, the “space-penetrating power” of
+his instruments. Their range extended respectively
+to 900 and 2,300 times the distance of his “standard<span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">62</span>
+star.” He estimated, moreover, that, through the
+agency of the larger, light might become sensible to
+the eye after a journey lasting nearly seven thousand
+years! So that, as he said, his telescopes penetrated
+both time and space.</p>
+
+<p>His last observation of the Milky Way showed it
+to be in parts “fathomless,” even with the forty-foot.
+No sky-background could be seen, but only the dim
+glow of “star-dust.” This effect he attributed to the
+immeasurable extension, in those directions, of the
+stellar system. The serried orbs composing it, as they
+lay further and further from the eye, became at last
+separately indistinguishable. Herschel, as has been
+said, formulated no second theory of galactic structure
+after that of 1784–5 had been given up. What he
+thought on the subject, with ripened experience for
+his guide, can only be gathered piecemeal from his
+various writings. The general appearance of</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+<div class="poetry">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <div class="verse indent0">That “broad and ample road, whose dust is gold,</div>
+ <div class="verse indent0">And pavement stars,”</div>
+ </div>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p class="in0">he described as “that of a zone surrounding our
+situation in the solar system, in the shape of a
+succession of differently condensed patches of brightness,
+intermixed with others of a fainter tinge.” And
+he evidently considered this <em>seeming</em> to be in fair
+accord with reality. The “patches of brightness”
+stood for genuine clusters, incipient, visibly forming,
+or formed. They are made up of stars not less
+lustrous, but much more closely collected than Sirius,
+Arcturus, or Capella. The smallness of galactic stars
+would thus be an effect of distance, while their crowding
+is a physical fact. The whole of these clusters
+are (on Herschel’s view) aggregated into an irregular,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">63</span>
+branching ring, distinct from, although bound together
+into one system with the brilliants of the constellations.
+“Our sun,” he emphatically affirmed in 1817, “with
+all the stars we can see with the eye, are deeply
+immersed in the Milky Way, and form a component
+part of it.”</p>
+
+<p>He took leave of the subject which had engrossed
+so many of his thoughts in a paper read before the
+Royal Society, June 11th, 1818. In it he showed how
+the “equalising” principle could be applied to determine
+the relative distances of “globular and other
+clusters,” provided only that their component stars
+are of the rank of Sirius. It is improbable, however,
+that this condition is fulfilled. In open groups, such
+as the Pleiades, enormous suns are most likely connected
+with minute self-luminous bodies; but the
+stars compressed into “globular clusters” appear to
+be more uniform, and may, perhaps, be intermediate
+in magnitude. Yet here again, the only thing certain
+is the prevalence of endless variety. Celestial systems
+are not turned out by the dozen, like articles from a
+factory. Each differs from the rest in scale, in
+structure, in mechanism. Attempts to reduce all to
+any common standard must then prove futile.
+Disparities of distance are of course concerned in
+producing their varieties of aspect, coarse-looking
+“balls of stars” being, necessarily, on the whole, less
+remote than those of smoother texture. Finer
+graining, however, may also be due to a composition
+out of smaller and closer masses. The two causes
+concur, and the share of each in producing a certain
+effect cannot, in any individual case, be apportioned.</p>
+
+<p>Herschel was indeed far too philosophical to adopt
+rigid lines of argument. His reasoning did not extend<span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">64</span>
+“so far as to exclude a real difference, not only in the
+size, but also in the number and arrangement of the
+stars in different clusters.” Nevertheless, the discussion
+founded upon it is no longer convincing. To
+modern astronomers it appears to travel quite wide of
+the mark. Its interest consists in the proof given by
+it that the problem of sidereal distances, the original
+incentive to Herschel’s reviews of the heavens,
+attracted his attention to the very end of his thinking
+life. Throughout his long career, the profundities of
+the universe haunted him. He sought, <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">per fas, per
+nefas</i>, trustworthy measures of the “third dimension”
+of celestial space. The object of his search was out of
+reach, and has not even now been fully attained; but
+the path it led him by was strewn with discoveries.</p>
+
+<p>The nets spread in his “sweeps” brought in,
+besides double stars, plentiful takes of the filmy
+objects called “nebulæ.” He recognised with amazement
+their profusion in certain tracts of the sky;
+increased telescopic light-grasp never failed to render
+a further supply visible; the heavens teemed with
+them. He presented a catalogue of 1,000 to the
+Royal Society in 1786, a second equally comprehensive
+in 1789, and a supplementary list of 500 in
+1802. Their natural history fascinated him. What
+they were, what they had been, and what they should
+come to, formed the subject of many of those ardent
+meditations which supplied motive power for his
+researches. He not only laid the foundation of
+nebular science, but carried the edifice to a considerable
+height, distinguishing the varieties of its objects,
+and classifying them according to their gradations
+of brightness. Some presented a most fantastic
+appearance.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">65</span></p>
+
+<p>“I have seen,” he wrote in 1784, “double and
+treble nebulæ variously arranged; large ones with
+small, seeming attendants; narrow, but much extended
+lucid nebulæ or bright dashes; some of the shape of
+a fan, resembling an electric brush, issuing from a
+lucid point; others of the cometic shape, with a
+seeming nucleus in the centre, or like cloudy stars
+surrounded with a nebulous atmosphere; a different
+sort, again, contained a nebulosity of the milky kind,
+like that wonderful, inexplicable phenomenon about
+Theta Orionis; while others shine with a fainter
+mottled kind of light which denotes their being
+resolvable into stars.”</p>
+
+<p>He, “through the mystic dome,” discerned</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+<div class="poetry">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <div class="verse indentq">“Regions of lucid matter taking form,</div>
+ <div class="verse indent2">Brushes of fire, hazy gleams,</div>
+ <div class="verse indent0">Clusters and beds of worlds, and bee-like swarms</div>
+ <div class="verse indent2">Of suns and starry streams.”</div>
+ </div>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>Annular and planetary nebulæ were <em>as such</em>, first
+described by him. “Among the curiosities of the
+heavens,” he announced in 1785, “should be placed a
+nebula that has a regular concentric dark spot in the
+middle, and is probably a ring of stars.” This was
+the famous annular nebula in Lyra, then a unique
+specimen, now the type of a class.</p>
+
+<p>The planetary kind, so-called from their planet-like
+discs, were always more or less of an enigma to
+him. The vividness and uniformity of their light
+appeared to cut them off from true nebulæ; on
+mature consideration, he felt driven to suppose them
+“compressed star-groups.” “If it were not, perhaps,
+too hazardous,” he went on, “to pursue a former surmise
+of a renewal in what I figuratively called the
+laboratories of the universe, the stars forming these<span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">66</span>
+extraordinary nebulæ, by some decay or waste of
+nature, being no longer fit for their former purposes,
+and having their projectile forces, if any such they
+had, retarded in each other’s atmospheres, rush at last
+together, and either in succession, or by one general
+tremendous shock, unite into a new body. Perhaps
+the extraordinary and sudden blaze of a new star in
+Cassiopeia’s Chair, in 1572, might possibly be of such
+a nature.”</p>
+
+<p>At that early stage of his inquiries, Herschel
+regarded all nebulæ indiscriminately as composed of
+genuine stars. It was almost inevitable that he should
+do so. For each gain in telescopic power had the
+effect of transferring no insignificant proportion of
+them from the nebular to the stellar order. There
+was no apparent reason for drawing a line anywhere.
+The inference seemed irresistible, that resolvability
+was simply a question of optical improvement. As
+Messier’s <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">nébuleuses sans étoiles</i> had yielded to
+Herschel’s telescopes, so—it might fairly be anticipated—the
+“milky” streaks and patches seen by
+Herschel would curdle into stars under the compulsion
+of the still mightier instruments of the
+future. He was led on—to use his own expressions in
+1791—“by almost imperceptible degrees from evident
+clusters, such as the Pleiades, to spots without a trace of
+stellar formation, the gradations being so well connected
+as to leave no doubt that all these phenomena were
+equally stellar.” They were what Lambert and Kant
+had supposed them to be—island-universes, vast
+congeries of suns, independently organised, and of
+galactic rank. They were, each and all, glorious
+systems, barely escaping total submergence in the
+illimitable ocean of space. Under the influence of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">67</span>
+these grandiose ideas, Herschel told Miss Burney,
+in 1786, that with his “large twenty-foot” he had
+“discovered 1,500 universes!” Fifteen hundred “whole
+sidereal systems, some of which might well outvie our
+Milky Way in grandeur.”</p>
+
+<p>His contemplations of the heavens showed him
+everywhere traces of progress—of progress rising
+towards perfection, then sinking into decay, though
+with a sure prospect of renovation. He was thus led
+to arrange the nebulæ in a presumed order of development.
+The signs of interior condensation traceable
+in nearly all, he attributed to the persistent action
+of central forces. Condensation, then, gave evidence
+of age. Aggregated stars drew closer and closer
+together with time. So that scattered or branching
+formations were to be regarded as at an early stage
+of systemic existence; globular clusters, as representing
+universes still in the prime of life; while
+objects of the planetary kind were set down as
+“very aged, and drawing on towards a period of
+change, or dissolution.”</p>
+
+<p>Our own nebula he characterised as “a very
+extensive, branching congeries of many millions of
+stars,” bearing upon it “fewer marks of profound
+antiquity than the rest.” Yet, in certain regions, he
+found “reason to believe that the stars are now
+drawing towards various secondary centres, and will
+in time separate into different clusters.” As an
+example of the ravages of time upon the galactic
+structure, he adverted to a black opening, four degrees
+wide, in the Zodiacal Scorpion, bordered on the west
+by an exceedingly compact cluster (Messier’s No. 80),
+possibly formed, he thought, of stars drawn from the
+adjacent vacancy. The chasm was to him one of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">68</span>
+most impressive of celestial phenomena. His sister
+preserved an indelible recollection of hearing him,
+in the course of his observations, after a long,
+awful silence, exclaim, “Hier ist wahrhaftig ein
+Loch im Himmel!” (Here, truly, is a hole in the
+sky); and he recurred to its examination night after
+night and year after year, without ever clearing up,
+to his complete satisfaction, the mystery of its
+origin. The cluster significantly located at its edge
+was lit up in 1860 by the outburst of a temporary
+star.</p>
+
+<p>This was not the sole instance noted by Herschel
+of the conjunction of a chasm with a cluster; and
+chasms and clusters alike told the same story of
+dilapidation. He foresaw, accordingly, as inevitable,
+the eventual “breaking-up” of the Milky Way into
+many small, but independent nebulæ. “The state
+into which the incessant action of the clustering power
+has brought it at present,” he wrote in 1814, “is a
+kind of chronometer that may be used to measure
+the time of its past and future existence; and although
+we do not know the rate of going of this mysterious
+chronometer, it is, nevertheless, certain that since
+the breaking up of the Milky Way affords a proof
+that it cannot last for ever, it equally bears witness
+that its past duration cannot be admitted to be
+infinite.”</p>
+
+<p>Thus the idea of estimating the relative “ages”
+of celestial objects—of arranging them according
+to their progress in development, originated with
+Herschel in 1789. “This method of viewing the
+heavens,” he added, “seems to throw them into
+a new kind of light. They are now seen to resemble
+a luxuriant garden which contains the greatest variety<span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">69</span>
+of productions in different flourishing beds; and
+one advantage we may at least reap from it is
+that we can, as it were, extend the range of our
+experience to an immense duration. For, is it not
+almost the same thing whether we live successively
+to witness the germination, blooming, foliage, fecundity,
+fading, withering, and corruption of a plant,
+or whether a vast number of specimens, selected
+from every stage through which the plant passes in
+the course of its existence, be brought at once to
+our view?”</p>
+
+<p>But while he followed the line of continuity thus
+vividly traced, another crossing, and more or less
+interfering with it, opened out before him. The
+discovery of a star in Taurus, “surrounded with a
+faintly luminous atmosphere,” led him, in 1791, to
+revise his previous opinions regarding the nature of
+nebulæ. He was not at all ashamed of this fresh
+start. No fear of “committing himself” deterred
+him from imparting the thoughts that accompanied
+his multudinous observations. He felt committed to
+nothing but truth. He was advancing into an untrodden
+country. At every step he came upon
+unexpected points of view. The bugbear of inconsistency
+could not prevent him from taking advantage
+of each in turn to gain a wider prospect.</p>
+
+<p>Until 1791 Herschel never doubted that gradations
+of distance fully accounted for gradations of nebular
+resolvability. He had been led on, he explained, by
+almost imperceptible degrees from evident clusters to
+spots without a trace of stellar formation, no break
+anywhere suggesting the possibility of a radical
+difference of constitution. “When I pursued these
+researches,” he went on, “I was in the situation of a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">70</span>
+natural philosopher who follows the various species of
+animals and insects from the height of their perfection
+down to the lowest ebb of life; when, arriving at the
+vegetable kingdom, he can scarcely point out to us
+the precise boundary where the animal ceases and the
+plant begins; and may even go so far as to suspect
+them not to be essentially different. But, recollecting
+himself, he compares, for instance, one of the human
+species to a tree, and all doubt upon the subject
+vanishes. In the same manner we pass by gentle steps
+from a coarse cluster to an object such as the nebula
+in Orion, where we are still inclined to remain in the
+once adopted idea of stars exceedingly remote and
+inconceivably crowded, as being the occasion of that
+remarkable appearance. It seems, therefore, to require
+a more dissimilar object to set us right again. A
+glance like that of the naturalist, who casts his eye
+from the perfect animal to the perfect vegetable, is
+wanting to remove the veil from the mind of the
+astronomer. The object I have mentioned above is
+the phenomenon that was wanting. View, for instance,
+the nineteenth cluster of my sixth class, and afterwards
+cast your eye on this cloudy star, and the
+result will be no less decisive than that of the
+naturalist. Our judgment, I venture to say, will
+be that <em>the nebulosity about the star is not of a
+starry nature</em>.”</p>
+
+<p>In this manner he inferred the existence of real
+nebulous matter—of a “shining fluid” of unknown and
+unimaginable properties. Was it perhaps, he asked
+himself, a display of electrical illumination, like the
+aurora borealis, or did it rather resemble the “magnificent
+cone of the zodiacal light?” A boundless field
+of speculation was thrown open. “These nebulous<span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">71</span>
+stars,” he added, “may serve as a clue to unravel
+other mysterious phenomena.”</p>
+
+<p>As their close allies, he now recognised planetary
+nebulæ, the “milkiness, or soft tint of their light,”
+agreeing much better with the supposition of a fluid,
+than of a stellar condition. And he rightly placed in
+the same category the Orion nebula, and certain
+“diffused nebulosities” which he had observed just to
+tarnish the sky over wide areas. These last might, he
+considered, be quite near the earth, and the object in
+Orion not more distant than perhaps an average
+second magnitude star.</p>
+
+<p>The relations of the sidereal to the nebular
+“principle” exercised Herschel’s thoughts during
+many years. He had no sooner reasoned out the
+existence in interstellar space of a rarefied, self-luminous
+substance, than he began to interrogate
+himself as to its probable function. Nature was to
+him the expression of Supreme Reason. He could
+only conceive of her doings as directed towards an
+intelligible end. Hence his confidence that rational
+investigation must lead to truth.</p>
+
+<p>Already in 1791 he hinted at the conclusion
+which he foresaw. The envelope of a “cloudy star”
+was, he declared, “more fit to produce a star by its
+condensation than to depend upon the star for
+its existence.” And the surmise was confirmed by
+his detection, in a planetary nebula, of a sharp
+nucleus, or “generating star,” possibly to be completed
+in time by the further accumulation of
+luminous matter.</p>
+
+<p>His conjectures developed in 1811 into a formal
+theory. The cosmical fluid was met with in all stages
+of condensation. Nebulous tracts of almost evanescent<span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">72</span>
+lustre were connected in an unbroken series with
+slightly “burred” objects, wanting only a few last
+touches to make them finished stars. The extremes,
+as he said, had been, by his “critical examination of
+the nebulous system,” “connected by such nearly
+allied intermediate steps, as will make it highly
+probable that every succeeding state of the nebulous
+matter is the result of the action of gravitation upon
+it while in a foregoing one.”</p>
+
+<p>In 1814 he traced the progress towards maturity
+of binary systems. Originating in double nebulæ
+incompletely dissevered—Siamese-twin objects, of
+which he had collected 139 examples—they next
+appeared as nebulously-connected stars, finally as a
+pair materially isolated, and linked together by the
+sole tie of gravitation. Scattered clusters represented,
+in his scheme of celestial progress, a state antecedent
+to that of globular clusters. “The still remaining
+irregularity of their arrangement,” he said, “additionally
+proves that the action of the clustering power has not
+been exerted long enough to produce a more artificial
+construction.” He made, too, the important admission
+that clusters apparently “in, or very near the Milky
+Way,” were truly part and parcel of that complex
+agglomeration.</p>
+
+<p>But what of his “fifteen hundred universes,” which
+had now logically ceased to exist? The stellar and
+nebular “principles” had virtually coalesced; both
+were included in the galactic system. The question
+of “island universes” was accordingly left in abeyance;
+although Herschel certainly believed in 1818 that
+among the multitude of “ambiguous objects”—we
+should call them irresolvable nebulæ—many exterior
+firmaments were included. Yet what he had<span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">73</span>
+ascertained about the distribution of nebulæ should
+alone have sufficed to shatter this remnant of a
+conviction.</p>
+
+<p>The fact became clear to him during the progress
+of his “sweeps” that nebulæ, to some extent, <em>replace
+stars</em>. He found them to occur in “parcels,” more or
+less embedded with stars, “beds” and “parcels”
+together being surrounded by blank spaces. This
+arrangement grew so familiar to him that he used to
+notify his assistant, when stars thinned out in the
+zone he was traversing, “to prepare for nebulæ.” A
+wider relationship, brought within view by the large
+scale of his labours, was defined by his fortunate habit
+of charting, for convenience of identification, each
+newly-discovered batch of nebulæ.</p>
+
+<p>“A very remarkable circumstance,” he wrote in
+1784, “attending the nebulæ and clusters of stars,
+is that they are arranged into strata, which seem
+to run on to a great length; and some of them I
+have already been able to pursue, so as to guess
+pretty well at their form and direction. It is probable
+enough that they may surround the whole
+apparent sphere of the heavens, not unlike the Milky
+Way.”</p>
+
+<p>In the following year he spoke no longer of a zone,
+but of two vast groupings of nebulæ about the opposite
+poles of the Milky Way. That is to say, where stars
+are scarcest nebulæ are most abundant. The correspondence
+did not escape him; but he did not recognise
+its architectonic meaning. He had traced out
+the main plan of the stellar world; he had discovered,
+not merely thousands of nebulæ, but the nebular
+system; he had shown that stars and nebulæ were
+intimately associated; he had even made it clear that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">74</span>
+nebular distribution was governed by the lines of
+galactic structure. It only remained to draw the
+obvious inference that these related parts made up
+one whole—that no more than a single universe is
+laid open to human contemplation. This was done by
+Whewell thirty years after his death.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<div id="toclink_75" class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">75</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV.<br />
+
+<span class="subhead">HERSCHEL’S SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS.</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class="in0"><span class="firstword">Double</span> stars were, when Herschel began to pay attention
+to them, regarded as mere chance productions.
+No suspicion was entertained that a real, physical
+bond united their components. Only the Jesuit
+astronomer, Christian Mayer, maintained that bright
+stars were often attended by faint ones; and since his
+observations were not such as to inspire much confidence,
+his assertions counted for very little. “In my
+opinion,” Herschel wrote in 1782, “it is much too soon
+to form any theories of small stars revolving round
+large ones.” He, indeed, probably even then, suspected
+that close <em>equal</em> stars formed genuine couples; but he
+waited, if so, for evidence of the connection. The
+chief subject of his experiments on parallax was
+Epsilon Boötis, an exquisitely tinted, unequal pair.
+But he soon became aware that either stellar parallax
+was elusively small, or that he was on the wrong track
+for detecting it. And, since his favourite stars have
+proved to be a binary combination, it was, of course,
+drawing water in a sieve to make one the test of
+perspective shifting in the other.</p>
+
+<p>The number of Herschel’s double stars alone
+showed them to be integral parts of an express design.
+Such a crop of casualties was out of all reasonable
+question. And it was actually pointed out in 1784
+by John Michell, a man of extraordinary sagacity,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">76</span>
+that the odds in favour of their physical union were
+truly “beyond arithmetic.”</p>
+
+<p>Herschel meantime kept them under watch and
+ward, and after the lapse of a score of years found
+himself in a position to speak decisively. On July 1,
+1802, he informed the Royal Society that “casual
+situations will not account for the multiplied
+phenomena of double stars,” adding, “I shall soon
+communicate a series of observations proving that
+many of them have already changed their situation
+in a progressive course, denoting a periodical revolution
+round each other.” A year later he amply
+fulfilled this pledge. Discussing in detail the
+displacements brought to light by his patient measurements,
+he made it clear that they could be accounted
+for only by supposing the six couples in question to be
+“real binary combinations, intimately held together
+by the bond of mutual attraction.” His conclusion
+was, in each case, ratified by subsequent observation.
+The stars instanced by him—Castor, Gamma Leonis,
+Epsilon Boötis, Delta Serpentis, Gamma Virginis, and
+Zeta Herculis—are all noted binaries. Not satisfied
+with establishing the fact, Herschel assigned the
+periods of their revolutions. But he could only do so
+on the hypothesis of circular motion, while the real
+orbits are highly elliptical. His estimates then went
+necessarily wide of the mark. For one pair only, he
+was able to use an observation anterior to his own.
+Bradley had roughly fixed, in 1759, the relative
+position of the components of Castor, the finest
+double star in the northern heavens; and the preservation
+of the record in Dr. Maskelyne’s note-book
+extended by twenty years the basis of Herschel’s
+conclusions regarding this system.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">77</span></p>
+
+<p>He continued, in 1803, his discussions of double
+stars; announced a leisurely circulation of both the
+pairs composing the typical “double-double star,”
+Epsilon Lyræ; and conjectured the union of the two
+into one grand whole—a forecast verified by the
+evidence of common proper motion. The Annus
+Magnus of the quadruple system cannot, according to
+Flammarion, be less than a million of years.</p>
+
+<p>The discovery of binary stars was, in Arago’s
+phrase, “one with a future.” In itself an amazing
+revelation, it marked the beginning of a series of
+investigations of immense variety and importance.
+By it, a science of sidereal mechanics was shown to be
+possible; the sway of gravitation received an unlimited
+extension; and the perception of order, which is the
+precursor of knowledge, ranged at once over the whole
+visible creation. Herschel, it is true, had not the
+means of formally proving that stellar orbits are
+described in obedience to the Newtonian law. His
+affirmative assertion rested only on the analogy of the
+solar system. But the rightness of his judgment has
+never seriously been called in question.</p>
+
+<p>His research into the transport of the solar system
+through space proved, as Bessel said, that the activity
+of his mind was independent of the stimulus supplied
+by his own observations. It was one of his most
+brilliant performances.</p>
+
+<p>The detection of progressive star-movements was
+due to Halley. It was announced in 1718. The bright
+objects spangling the sky are then “fixed” only in
+name. “But if the proper motion of the stars be
+admitted,” asked Herschel, “who can deny that of our
+sun?” The same idea had occurred to several earlier
+astronomers, but only one, Tobias Mayer, of Göttingen,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">78</span>
+had tried to test it practically; and he had failed.
+“To discern the proper motion of the sun between so
+many other motions of the stars,” Herschel might
+well designate “an arduous task.” Yet it was not on
+that account to be neglected. The conditions of the
+problem were perfectly clear to him. If the sun alone
+were in motion, the stars should unanimously appear
+to drift backward from the “apex,” or point on the
+sphere towards which his journey was directed. The
+heavens would open out in front of his advance, and
+close up behind. The effect was compared by Mayer
+to the widening prospect and narrowing vista of trees
+to a man walking through a forest. On this supposition,
+the perspective displacements of any two stars sufficiently
+far apart in the sky would suffice to determine
+the solar apex. For it should coincide with the intersection
+of the two great circles continuing the directions
+of those displacements. But the question is far
+from being of this elementary nature. The stars are
+all flitting about on their own account, after—to our
+apprehension—a haphazard fashion. The sole element
+of general congruity traceable among them is that
+“systematic, or higher, parallax,” by which each of
+them is, according to a determinate proportion, inevitably
+affected. If this can be elicited, the line of
+the sun’s progress becomes at once known.</p>
+
+<p>Herschel treated the subject in the simplest
+possible manner. Striking a balance between the
+proper motions of only seven stars, he deduced, in
+1783, from simple geometrical considerations, an apex
+for the sun’s way, marked by the star Lambda
+Herculis. But while he seemed to proceed by rule,
+he was really led by the unerring instinct of genius.
+His mode of conducting an investigation, small in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">79</span>
+compass, yet almost inconceivably grand in import,
+distances praise. Its directness and apparent artlessness
+strike us dumb with wonder. Eminently suited to
+the materials at his command, it was summary, yet,
+within fairly narrow limits, secure. And the result
+has stood the test of time. It ranks, even now, as a
+valuable approximation to the truth. He himself
+regarded his essay as nothing more than an experimental
+effort. In a letter to Dr. Wilson, of Glasgow,
+he expressed his apprehensions lest his paper on the
+sun’s motion “might be too much out of the way to
+deserve the notice of astronomers.”</p>
+
+<p>Provided with Maskelyne’s table of thirty-six
+proper motions, he resumed the subject in 1805. He
+now employed a graphical method, drawing great
+circles to represent the observed stellar movements,
+and planting his apex impartially in the midst of
+their intersections. It was, however, less happily
+located than that of 1783. The constellation Hercules
+again just included it; but it lay certainly too far
+west, and probably too far north. The memoir
+conveying the upshot of the research is, none the
+less, a masterpiece. Philosophy and common-sense
+have rarely been so fortunately blended as in this
+discussion. Without any mathematical apparatus,
+the plan of attack upon a recondite problem is expounded
+with the utmost generality and precision.
+The reasoning is strong and sure; intelligible to the
+ignorant, instructive to the learned.</p>
+
+<p>In his earlier paper, Herschel, while venturing
+only to “offer a few distant hints” as to the <em>rate</em> of
+the sun’s travelling, expressed the opinion that it
+could “certainly not be less than that which the earth
+has in her annual orbit.” That is to say, his minimum<span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">80</span>
+estimate was then nineteen miles per second. A
+direct inquiry, on the other hand, convinced him, in
+1806, that the solar motion, viewed at right angles
+from the distance of Sirius, would cover yearly an
+arc of 1″. 112. This he called “its quantity;” the
+corresponding velocity remained undetermined. We
+can, however, now, since the real distance of his
+assumed station has been determined, translate this
+angular value into a linear speed of about nine miles
+a second. The mean of his two estimates, or fourteen
+miles a second, probably differs little from the actual
+rate at which the solar system is being borne to its
+unimaginable destination.</p>
+
+<p>His conclusions regarding the solar translation
+obtained little notice, and less acceptance from his
+contemporaries and immediate successors. His son
+rejected them as untrustworthy; Bessel, the greatest
+authority of his time in the science of “how the
+heavens move,” declared in 1818 that the sun’s apex
+might be situated in any other part of the sky with
+as much probability as in the constellation Hercules.
+Not until Argelander, by a strict treatment of multiplied
+and improved data, arrived in 1837 at
+practically the same result, did Herschel’s anticipatory
+efforts obtain the recognition they deserved. Scarcely
+in any department has there been put on record so
+well-directed a leap into the dark of coming discovery.</p>
+
+<p>The systematic light-measurement of the stars
+began with the same untiring investigator. He
+described in 1796 the method since named that of
+“sequences,” and presented to the Royal Society the
+first of six Photometric Catalogues embracing nearly
+all the 2,935 stars in Flamsteed’s “British Catalogue.”
+They gave comparative brightnesses estimated with<span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">81</span>
+the naked eye; classification by magnitudes was
+put aside as vague and misleading. The “sequences”
+serving for their construction were lists of stars
+arranged, by repeated trials, in order of lustre, and
+rendered mutually comparable by the inclusion in each
+of a few members of the preceding series. Their combination
+into a catalogue was then easily effected.
+“Simple as my method is in principle,” he remarked,
+“it is very laborious in its progress.” On a restricted
+scale it is still employed for following the gradations
+of change in variable stars.</p>
+
+<p>These researches lay, as Professor Holden expresses
+it, “directly on the line of Herschel’s main work.”
+The separation of the stars into light-ranks intimates
+at once something as to their distribution in space;
+but the intimations may prove deceptive unless the
+divisions be accurately established. Hence, stellar
+photometry is an indispensable adjunct to the study
+of sidereal construction. Herschel prosecuted the
+subject besides with a view to ascertaining the constancy
+of stellar lustre. He had been struck with
+singular discordances between magnitudes assigned at
+different dates. Not to mention stars obviously
+variable, there were others which seemed to be affected
+by a slow, secular waxing or waning. In some of the
+instances alleged by him, the alteration was no doubt
+fictitious—a record of antique errors; but there
+was a genuine residuum. Thus, the immemorially
+observed constituents of the Plough preserve no fixed
+order of relative brilliancy, now one, now another of
+the septett having, at sundry epochs, assumed the
+primacy; while a small star in the same group, Alcor,
+the “rider” of the second “horse,” has, in the course
+of a millennium, plainly thrown off some part of its<span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">82</span>
+former obscurity. The Arabs in the desert regarded
+it as a test of penetrating vision; and they were
+accustomed to oppose “Suhel” to “Suha” (Canopus
+to Alcor) as occupying respectively the highest and
+lowest posts in the celestial hierarchy. So that <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">Vidit
+Alcor, at non lunam plenam</i>, came to be a proverbial
+description of one keenly alive to trifles, but dull of
+apprehension for broad facts. Now, however, Alcor is
+an easy naked-eye object. One needs not be a “tailor
+of Breslau,” or a Siberian savage, to see it. The little
+star is unmistakably more luminous than of old.</p>
+
+<p>An inversion of brilliancy between Castor and
+Pollux, and between the two leading stars in the
+Whale, is further generally admitted to have taken
+place during the eighteenth century. The prevalence
+of such vicissitudes was deeply impressive to Herschel,
+especially through their bearing upon the past and
+future history of our own planet. “If,” he said, “the
+similarity of stars with our sun be admitted, how
+necessary will it be to take notice of the fate of our
+neighbouring <em>suns</em>, in order to guess at that of our
+own. The <em>star</em> which we have dignified by the name
+of <em>Sun</em> may to-morrow begin to undergo a gradual
+decay of brightness, like Alpha Ceti, Alpha Draconis,
+Delta Ursæ Majoris, and many other diminishing
+stars. It may suddenly increase like the wonderful
+star in Cassiopeia, or gradually come on like Pollux,
+Beta Ceti, etc. And, lastly, it may turn into a
+periodical one of twenty-five days’ duration (the
+solar period of rotation), as Algol is one of three days,
+Delta Cephei of five days, etc.” He found it, accordingly,
+“perhaps the easiest way of accounting for past
+changes in climate to surmise that our sun has been
+formerly sometimes more, sometimes less, bright than<span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">83</span>
+it is at present.” Herschel attempted, in 1798, to
+analyse star-colours by means of a prism applied to
+the eye-glasses of his reflector. Nothing of moment
+could at that time come of such experiments; but
+they deserve to be remembered as a sort of premonition
+of future methods of research into the physical
+condition of the stars.</p>
+
+<p>His attention to the sun might have been exclusive,
+so diligent was his scrutiny of its shining
+surface. Many of its peculiarities were first described
+by him, and none escaped him, except the “deeper
+deep,” or black nucleus of spots, detected by Dawes in
+1852. The dusky “pores” and brilliant “nodules,”
+the corrugations, indentations, and ridges; the manifold
+aspects of spots, or “openings;” their “luminous
+shelving sides,” known as penumbræ; were all noted
+in detail, ranged in proper order, and studied in
+their mutual relations. Spots presented themselves
+to him as evident depressions in the luminous disc;
+faculæ, “so far from resembling torches,” appeared “like
+the shrivelled elevations upon a dried apple, extended
+in length, and most of them joined together, making
+waves, or waving lines.” Towards the north and
+south, he went on, “I see no faculæ; there is all over
+the sun a great unevenness, which has the appearance
+of a mixture of small points of an unequal light;
+but they are evidently a roughness of high and low
+parts.”</p>
+
+<p>His theory of the solar constitution was a development
+of Wilson’s. It was clearly conceived, firmly
+held, and boldly put forward. The definite picturesqueness,
+moreover, of the language in which it was
+clothed, at once laid hold of the public imagination,
+and gave it a place in public favour from which it<span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">84</span>
+was dislodged only by the irresistible assaults of
+spectrum analysis.</p>
+
+<p>The sun was regarded by Herschel as a cool dark
+body surrounded by an extensive atmosphere made
+up of various elastic fluids. Its upper stratum—Schröter
+named it the “photosphere”—was of cloud-like
+composition, and consisted of lucid matter precipitated
+from the elastic medium by which it was
+sustained. Its depth was estimated at two or three
+thousand miles, and the nature of its emissions
+suggested a comparison with the densest coruscations
+of the aurora borealis. Below lay a region of
+“planetary,” or protective clouds. Dense, opaque,
+and highly reflective, “they must add,” he said, “a
+most capital support to the splendour of the sun by
+throwing back so great a share of the brightness
+coming to them.” Their movements betrayed the
+action of vehement winds; and indeed the continual
+“luminous decompositions” producing the radiating
+shell, with the consequent regeneration of atmospheric
+gases beneath, “must unavoidably be attended with
+great agitations, such as with us might even be called
+hurricanes.” The formation and ascent of “empyreal
+gas” would cause, when moderate in quantity, pores,
+or small openings in the brilliant layers. But should
+it happen to be generated in uncommon quantities,
+“it will burst through the planetary regions of clouds,
+and thus will produce great openings; then, spreading
+itself above them, it will occasion large shallows, and,
+mixing afterwards gradually with other superior gases,
+it will promote the increase, and assist in the maintenance
+of the general luminous phenomena.”</p>
+
+<p>The solid globe thus girt round with cloud and fire
+was depicted as a highly eligible place of residence.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">85</span>
+An equable climate, romantic scenery, luxuriant
+vegetation, smiling landscapes, were to be found there.
+It might, accordingly, be admitted without hesitation
+that “the sun was richly stored with inhabitants.”
+For the lucid shell visible from the exterior possessed,
+according to this theory, none of the all-consuming
+ardour now attributed to it. Its blaze was a superficial
+display; beneath, “the immense curtain of the
+planetary clouds was everywhere closely drawn” round
+a world perfectly accommodated to vital needs.</p>
+
+<p>In order to reconcile this supposed state of things
+with the observed order of nature, it was suggested
+that traces of it subsist in the planets, “all of which,
+we have pretty good reason to believe, emit light in
+some degree.” The night-side illumination of Venus,
+the sinister glare of the eclipsed moon, the auroral
+glimmerings of the earth, were adduced as evidence to
+this effect. The contrast between the central body
+and its dependants was softened down to the utmost.</p>
+
+<p>“The sun, viewed in this light,” Herschel wrote in
+1794, “appears to be nothing else than a very eminent,
+large, and lucid planet, evidently the first, or, in
+strictness of speaking, the only primary one of our
+system; all others being truly secondary to it. Its
+similarity to the other globes of the solar system with
+regard to its solidity, its atmosphere, and its diversified
+surface; the rotation upon its axis, and the fall of
+heavy bodies, lead us on to suppose that it is also most
+probably inhabited, like the rest of the planets, by
+beings whose organs are adapted to the peculiar
+circumstances of that vast globe.”</p>
+
+<p>To us, nearing the grey dawn of the twentieth
+century, the idea seems extravagant; it was, in the
+eighteenth, plausible and alluring. The philosophers<span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">86</span>
+of that age regarded the multiplicity of inhabited
+worlds as of axiomatic certainty. The widest possible
+diffusion of life followed, they held, as a corollary from
+the beneficence of the Creator; while their sense of
+economy rendered them intolerant of <em>wasted</em> globes.
+Herschel was then reluctant to attribute to the sun a
+purely <em>altruistic</em> existence. Only from the point of
+view of our small terrestrial egotism could so glorious
+a body figure as solely an attractive centre, and a focus
+of warmth and illumination to a group of planets.
+Besides, looking abroad through the universe, we see
+multitudes of stars which can exercise no ministerial
+functions. Those united to form compressed clusters,
+or simply joined in pairs, are unlikely, it was argued,
+to carry a train of satellites with them in their
+complex circlings. Unless, then, “we would make
+them mere useless brilliant points,” they must “exist
+for themselves,” and claim primary parts in the great
+cosmical life-drama.</p>
+
+<p>Herschel’s sun is to us moderns a wholly fabulous
+body. Still, there is a fantastic magnificence about
+the conception so strongly realised by his powerful
+imagination. Moreover, its scientific value was by no
+means inconsiderable. It represented the first serious
+effort to co-ordinate solar phenomena; it implied
+the spontaneous action of some sort of machinery for
+the production of light and heat. Spots were associated
+with a circulatory process; the photosphere was
+portrayed under its true aspect. The persistence of
+its hollows and heights, its pores and rugosities,
+convinced Herschel that the lustrous substance composing
+it was “neither a liquid nor an elastic fluid,”
+which should at once subside into an unbroken level.
+“It exists, therefore,” he inferred, “in the manner of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">87</span>
+lucid clouds swimming in the transparent atmosphere
+of the sun.”</p>
+
+<p>“The influence of this eminent body on the globe
+we inhabit,” he wrote, continuing the subject in 1801,
+“is so great, and so widely diffused, that it becomes
+almost a duty to study the operations which are
+carried on upon the solar surface.” This duty he
+fulfilled to perfection. His telescopic readings from the
+changeful solar disc were of extraordinary precision and
+comprehensiveness. They show his powers as an
+observer perhaps at their best. And, since reasoning
+was with him inseparable from seeing, the appearances
+he noted took, as if of their own accord, their
+proper places. The history of spots was completely
+traced. He recorded their birth by the enlargement
+of pores; their development and sub-division;
+established their connexion with faculous matter,
+piled up beside them like mountain-ranges round an
+Alpine lake, or flung across their cavities like blazing
+suspension-bridges; and watched finally their closing-up
+and effacement, not even omitting the post-mortem
+examination of the disturbances they left behind.</p>
+
+<p>One of Herschel’s curiously original enterprises
+was his attempt to ascertain a possible connexion
+between solar and terrestrial physics. “I am now
+much inclined to believe,” he stated in 1801, “that
+openings with great shallows, ridges, nodules, and
+corrugations, may lead us to expect a copious emission
+of heat, and, therefore, mild seasons. And that, on
+the contrary, pores, small indentations, and a poor
+appearance of the luminous clouds, the absence of
+ridges and nodules, and of large openings and shallows,
+will denote a spare emission of heat, and may induce
+us to expect severe seasons. A constant observation<span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">88</span>
+of the sun with this view, and a proper information
+respecting the general mildness or severity of the
+seasons in all parts of the world, may bring this theory
+to perfection, or refute it, if it be not well founded.”</p>
+
+<p>But the available data regarding weather-changes
+turning out to be exceedingly defective, he had
+recourse to the celebrated expedient of comparing the
+state of the sun in past years with the recorded prices
+of corn. Fully admitting the inadequacy of the
+criterion, he still thought that the sun being “the
+ultimate fountain of fertility, the subject may deserve
+a short investigation, especially as no other method is
+left for our choice.” He obtained, as the upshot, partial
+confirmation of the surmise that “some temporary
+defect of vegetation” ensued upon the subsidence
+of solar agitation. In plainer language, food-stuffs
+tended to become dear when sun-spots were few and
+small. No signs of cyclical change could, however, be
+made out. The discovery of the “sun-spot period”
+was left to Schwabe. This admirable preliminary
+effort to elicit the earth’s response to solar vicissitudes
+was denounced by Brougham as a “grand absurdity;”
+and the readers of the second number of the
+<i>Edinburgh Review</i> were assured that “since the
+publication of ‘Gulliver’s Travels,’ nothing so
+ridiculous had ever been offered to the world!”</p>
+
+<p>Herschel did not neglect the planets. His observations
+of Venus extended from 1777 to 1793. Their
+principal object was to ascertain the circumstances of
+the planet’s rotation; but they eluded him; which,
+considering that they are still quite uncertain, is not
+surprising. He would probably have communicated
+nothing on the subject had he not been piqued into
+premature publication by Schröter’s statement that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">89</span>
+the mountains of Venus rose to “four, five, or even six
+times the perpendicular elevation of Chimborazo.”
+Herschel did not believe in them, and expressed his
+incredulity in somewhat sarcastic terms. “As to the
+mountains in Venus,” he wrote, “I may venture to say
+that no eye which is not considerably better than
+mine, or assisted by much better instruments, will
+ever get a sight of them.” He rightly inferred, however,
+the presence of an extensive atmosphere from
+the bending of the sun’s rays so as to form much more
+than a semicircular rim of light to the dark disc of
+the planet when near inferior conjunction—that is,
+when approximately in a right line between us and
+the sun. He fully ascertained, too, the unreality of
+the Cytherean phantom-satellite. The irritability
+visible in this paper made a solitary exception to
+Herschel’s customary geniality. It might have led to
+a heated controversy but for the excellent temper of
+Schröter’s reply.</p>
+
+<p>Although we may not be prepared to gainsay
+Herschel’s dictum that “the analogy between Mars
+and the earth is perhaps by far the greatest in
+the whole solar system,” we can hardly hold it to be
+so probable as he did that “its inhabitants enjoy a
+situation in many respects similar to ours.” Yet the
+modern epoch in the physical study of Mars began
+with his announcement in 1784 that its white polar
+caps spread and shrank as winter and summer alternated
+in their respective hemispheres. His conclusion
+of their being produced by snowy depositions from
+“a considerable, though moderate, atmosphere,” is not
+likely to be overthrown. He established, besides, the
+general permanence of the dark markings, notwithstanding
+minor alterations due, he supposed, to the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">90</span>
+variable distribution of clouds and vapours on the
+planet’s surface.</p>
+
+<p>This vigilant “watcher of the skies” laid before
+the Royal Society, May 6th, 1802, his “Observations
+of the two lately discovered Bodies.” These were
+Ceres and Pallas, which, with Juno and Vesta, picked
+up shortly afterwards, constituted the vanguard of the
+planetoid army. Herschel foresaw its arrival. He
+adopted unhesitatingly Olbers’s theory of their disruptive
+origin, and calculated that Mercury, the least of
+the true planets, might be broken up into 35,000 masses
+no larger than Pallas. An indefinite number of such
+fragments (about 420 are now known) were accordingly
+inferred to circulate between the orbits of Mars
+and Jupiter. He distinguished their peculiarities, and,
+since they could with propriety be designated neither
+planets nor comets, he proposed for them the name
+of “asteroids.” But here again he incurred, to use his
+own mild phrase, “the illiberal criticism of the
+<i>Edinburgh Review</i>.” “Dr. Herschel’s passion for
+coining words and idioms,” Brougham declared, “has
+often struck us as a weakness wholly unworthy of
+him. The invention of a name is but a poor achievement
+in him who has discovered whole worlds.” The
+reviewer forgot, however, that new things will not
+always fit into the framework of old terminology. He
+added the contemptible insinuation that Herschel had
+devised the word “asteroid” for the express purpose
+of keeping Piazzi’s and Olbers’s discoveries on a lower
+level than his own of Uranus.</p>
+
+<p>Herschel made no direct reply to the attack; only
+pointing out, in December, 1804, how aptly the
+detection of Juno had come to verify his forecasts.
+“The specific differences,” he said, “between planets<span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">91</span>
+and asteroids appear now, by the addition of a third
+individual of the latter species, to be more fully
+established; and that circumstance, in my opinion,
+has added more to the ornament of our system than
+the discovery of another planet could have done.”</p>
+
+<p>His endeavours to determine the diameters of
+these small bodies were ineffectual. Although he at
+first estimated those of Ceres and Pallas at 162 and
+147 miles, he admitted later his inability to decide
+as to the reality of the minute discs shown by them;
+and they were first genuinely measured by Professor
+Barnard with the great Lick refractor in 1894.</p>
+
+<p>The “trade-wind theory” of Jupiter’s belts
+originated with Herschel; and he took note of the
+irregular drifting movements of the spots on his
+surface, and their consequent uselessness for determining
+the period of his rotation. That of Saturn’s
+he fixed quite accurately at ten hours sixteen
+minutes, with a marginal uncertainty of two minutes,
+the period now accepted being of ten hours fourteen
+minutes. The possession by this planet of a profound
+atmosphere was inferred from the changes in its
+belts, as well as from some curious phenomena
+attending the disappearance of its satellites. They
+were commonly seen to “hang on the limb”—that is,
+to pause during an appreciable interval on the brink
+of occultation. Mimas, on one occasion, remained
+thus poised during twenty minutes! For so long it
+was geometrically concealed, although visible by the
+effect of refraction. Saturn was an object of constant
+solicitude at Slough; and it was only with the surpassing
+instruments mounted there that much could
+be learned about Galileo’s <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">altissimo pianeta</i>. Herschel
+supposed, with Laplace, the rings to be solid structures;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">92</span>
+and he added that the interval of 2,500 miles separating
+them “must be of considerable service to
+the planet in reducing the space that is eclipsed by
+the shadow of the ring.” The “crape ring” was <em>seen</em>,
+but not recognised. In one of his drawings it figures
+as a dusky belt crossing the body of the planet.</p>
+
+<p>His satellite discoveries proved exceedingly difficult
+to verify. The Saturnian pair were lost, after he left
+them, until his son once more drew them from
+obscurity. Regarding the outermost member of the
+system, Japetus, discovered by Cassini in 1671,
+Herschel noticed, in 1792, a singular circumstance. It
+was already known to vary in brightness; we receive
+from it, in fact, four and a-half times more light at
+certain epochs than at others. The novelty consisted
+in showing that this variation depended upon the
+satellite’s situation in its orbit in such a manner as to
+leave no doubt that, like our moon, it keeps the same
+face always directed inwards towards its primary. So
+that Japetus was inferred to turn on its axis in the
+period of its revolution round Saturn, that is, in seventy-nine
+and one-third days.</p>
+
+<p>“From its changes” he “concluded that by far the
+largest part of its surface reflects much less light than
+the rest; and that neither the darkest nor the
+brightest side of the satellite is turned towards the
+planet, but partly the one and partly the other.”</p>
+
+<p>Guessing at once that our moon and Japetus did
+not present the only examples of equality in the times
+of rotation and revolution, he continued: “I cannot
+help reflecting with some pleasure on the discovery of
+an analogy which shows that a certain uniform plan
+is carried on among the secondaries of our solar
+system; and we may conjecture that probably most<span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">93</span>
+of the satellites are governed by the same law,
+especially if it be founded upon such a construction
+of their figure as makes them more ponderous towards
+their primary planet.” This very explanation was
+long afterwards adopted by Hansen. The peculiarity
+in question may without hesitation be set down as an
+effect of primordial tides.</p>
+
+<p>In 1797 Herschel brought forward detailed evidence
+to shew that his generalisation applied to the
+Jovian system; but recent observations at Lick and
+Arequipa demand a suspension of judgment on the
+point.</p>
+
+<p>The Uranian train of attendants was left by
+Herschel in an unsettled condition. Two of them, as
+we have seen, he discovered in 1787; and he subsequently
+caught glimpses of what he took to be four
+others. But only Oberon and Titania have maintained
+their status; the four companions assigned to them
+are non-existent. An unmistakable interior pair—Ariel
+and Umbriel—was, however, discovered by Mr.
+Lassell, at Malta, in 1851; and they may possibly have
+combined with deceptive star-points to produce
+Herschel’s dubious quartette. He described in 1798
+the exceptional arrangement of the Uranian system.
+Its circulation is retrograde. The bodies composing
+it move from east to west, but in orbits so tilted
+as to deviate but slightly from perpendicularity to
+the plane of the ecliptic.</p>
+
+<p>No trifling sensation was created in 1783, and
+again in 1787, by the news that Herschel had seen
+three lunar volcanoes in violent eruption. “The
+appearance of the actual fire” in one of them was
+compared by him to “a small piece of burning
+charcoal when it is covered with a very thin coating<span class="pagenum" id="Page_94">94</span>
+of white ashes. All the adjacent parts of the volcanic
+mountain seemed to be faintly illuminated by the
+eruption, and were gradually more obscure as they lay
+at a greater distance from the crater.” He eventually
+became aware that his senses had imposed upon him;
+but the illusion was very complete and has since
+occasionally been repeated. What was really seen
+was probably the vivid reflection of earth-shine from
+some unusually white lunar summits.</p>
+
+<p>He never knowingly discovered a comet, although
+some few such bodies possibly ensconced themselves,
+under false pretences, in his lists of nebulæ. But
+he made valuable observations upon the chief of
+those visible in his time, and introduced the useful
+terms, corresponding to instructive distinctions,
+“head,” “nucleus,” and “coma.” He inferred from
+the partial phases of the comet of 1807, that it was
+in a measure self-luminous; and from their total
+absence in the great comet of 1811, that its light was
+almost wholly original. The head of this object, which
+shone with an even, planetary radiance, he determined
+to be 127,000, the star-like nucleus within, 428 miles
+across. The tail he described as “a hollow, inverted
+cone,” one hundred millions of miles long, and fifteen
+millions broad. This prodigious appurtenance was, in
+grade of luminosity, an exact match for the Milky
+Way. That comets wear out by the waste of their
+substance at perihelion, he thought very probable;
+the extent of their gleaming appendages thus serving
+as a criterion of their antiquity. They might, indeed,
+arrive in the solar system already shorn of much
+of their splendour by passages round other suns than
+ours; but their “age” could, in any case, be estimated
+according to the progress made in their decline from<span class="pagenum" id="Page_95">95</span>
+a purely nebulous to an almost “planetary” state. He
+went so far as to throw out the conjecture that “comets
+may become asteroids;” although the converse proposition
+that “asteroids may become comets,” of which
+something has been heard lately, would scarcely have
+been entertained by him.</p>
+
+<p>Enough has been said to show how greatly
+knowledge of the solar system in all its parts was
+furthered by Herschel’s observational resources,
+fertility of invention, and indomitable energy. He
+was, so to speak, ubiquitous. He had taken all the
+heavens for his province. Nothing that they included,
+from the faintest nebula to the sun, and from the sun
+to a telescopic shooting-star, evaded his consideration.
+A whole cycle of discoveries and successful investigations
+began and ended with him.</p>
+
+<p>His fame as an astronomer has cast into the shade
+his merits as a physicist. He made pioneering
+experiments on the infra-red heat-rays,<a id="FNanchor_4" href="#Footnote_4" class="fnanchor">D</a> and anticipated,
+by an admirable intuition, the fact ascertained
+with the aid of Professor Langley’s “bolometer,” that
+the invisible surpass in extent the visible portions of
+the solar spectrum.<a id="FNanchor_5" href="#Footnote_5" class="fnanchor">E</a> A search for darkening glasses
+suitable to solar observations, led him to the inquiry.
+Finding that some coloured media transmitted much
+heat and little light, while others stopped heat and
+let through most of the light, he surmised that a
+different heating power might belong to each spectral
+tint. His own maxim that “it is sometimes of great
+use in natural philosophy to doubt of things
+that are commonly taken for granted,” here came in
+appropriately. With a free mind he set about
+determining the luminous and thermal powers of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_96">96</span>
+successive spectral regions. They seemed to vary
+quite disconnectedly. A thermometer exposed to red
+rays during a given interval, rose three and a half
+times as much as when exposed to violet rays; and he
+showed further, by tracing the heat- and light-curves
+of the prismatic spectrum, that its heat-maximum
+lay out of reach of the eye in the infra-red, while
+luminous intensity culminated in the yellow. He even
+threw out the sagacious conjecture that “the chemical
+properties of the prismatic colours” might be “as
+different as those which relate to light and heat;”
+adding that “we cannot too minutely enter into an
+analysis of light, which is the most subtle of all the
+active principles that are concerned in the operations
+of nature.”</p>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_4" href="#FNanchor_4" class="fnanchor">D</a> Phil. Trans. 1800, p. 255.</p>
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_5" href="#FNanchor_5" class="fnanchor">E</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 291.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>The ardour with which he pursued the inquiry
+betrays itself in the rapid succession of four masterly
+essays communicated to the Royal Society in 1800.
+They contained the first exposition worth mentioning
+of the properties of radiant heat. They gave the
+details of experiments demonstrating its obedience to
+the same laws of reflection, refraction, and dispersion
+as light; and showing the varieties in the absorptive
+action upon it of different substances. In the third
+memoir of the series, Professor Holden finds himself
+at a loss “which to admire most—the marvellous skill
+evinced in acquiring such accurate data with such
+inadequate means, and in varying and testing such a
+number of questions as were suggested in the course
+of the investigation—or the intellectual power shown
+in marshalling and reducing to a system such intricate,
+and apparently self-contradictory phenomena.”
+There is, indeed, scarcely one of Herschel’s researches
+in which his initiative vigour and insight are more<span class="pagenum" id="Page_97">97</span>
+brilliantly displayed than in this <em>parergon</em>—this task
+executed, as it were, out of hours. It is only a pity
+that he felt compelled, by the incompatibility of their
+distribution in the spectrum, to abandon his original
+opinion in favour of the essential identity of light and
+radiant heat. The erroneous impression left on the
+public mind by his recantation has hardly yet been
+altogether effaced.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<div id="toclink_98" class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_98">98</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V.<br />
+
+<span class="subhead">THE INFLUENCE OF HERSCHEL’S CAREER ON MODERN
+ASTRONOMY.</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class="in0"><span class="firstword">The</span> powers of the telescope were so unexpectedly
+increased, that they may almost be said to have been
+discovered by William Herschel. No one before him
+had considered the advantages of large apertures. No
+one had seemed to remember that the primary
+function of an instrument designed to aid vision is to
+collect light. The elementary principle of space-penetration
+had not been adverted to. It devolved
+upon him to point out that the distances of similar
+objects are exactly proportional to the size of the
+telescopes barely sufficing to show them. The reason
+is obvious. Compare, for instance, a one-inch telescope
+with the naked eye. The telescope brings to a
+focus twenty-five times as much light as can enter the
+pupil, taken at one-fifth of an inch in diameter;
+therefore it will render visible a star twenty-five times
+fainter than the smallest seen without its help; or—what
+comes to the same thing—an intrinsically equal
+star at a five-fold distance. A one-inch glass hence
+actually quintuples the diameter of the visible
+universe, and gives access to seventy-five times the
+volume of space ranged through by the unassisted eye.</p>
+
+<p>This simple law Herschel made the foundation-stone
+of his sidereal edifice. He was the first to
+notice it, because he was the first practically to concern
+himself with the star-depths. The possibility of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_99">99</span>
+gauging the heavens rose with him above the horizon
+of science. Because untiring in exploration, he was
+insatiable of light; and being insatiable of light, he
+built great telescopes.</p>
+
+<p>His example was inevitably imitated and surpassed.
+Not through a vulgar ambition to “beat the record,”
+but because a realm had been thrown open which
+astronomers could not but desire to visit and search
+through for themselves. Lord Rosse’s six-foot
+reflector was the immediate successor of Herschel’s
+four-foot; Mr. Lassell’s beautiful specula followed;
+and the series of large <em>metallic</em> reflectors virtually
+closed with that of four-feet aperture erected at
+Melbourne in 1870. The reflecting surface in modern
+instruments is furnished by a thin film of silver
+deposited on glass. It has the advantage of returning
+about half as much again of the incident light as the
+old specula, so that equal power is obtained with less
+size. Dr. Common’s five-foot is the grand exemplar in
+this kind; and it is fully equivalent to the Parsonstown
+six-foot.</p>
+
+<p>The improvement of refractors proceeded more
+slowly. Difficulties in the manufacture of glass stood
+in the way, and difficulties in the correction of colour.
+The splendid success, however, of the Lick thirty-six
+inch, and the fine promise of the Yerkes forty-inch,
+have turned the strongest current of hope for the
+future in the direction of this class of instrument.
+But all modern efforts to widen telescopic capacity
+primarily derive their impulse from Herschel’s
+passionate desire to see further, and to see better, than
+his predecessors.</p>
+
+<p>His observations demonstrate the rare excellence
+of his instruments. Experiments made on the asteroid<span class="pagenum" id="Page_100">100</span>
+Juno, in 1805, for the purpose of establishing a valid
+distinction between real and fictitious star-discs, prove,
+in Professor Holden’s opinion, the reflector employed
+to have been of almost ideal perfection; and his following
+of Saturn’s inner satellites right up to the limb,
+with the twenty-foot and the forty-foot, was a <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">tour de
+force</i> in vision scarcely, if ever, surpassed.</p>
+
+<p>In the ordinary telescopes of those days really
+good definition was unknown; they showed the stars
+with rays or tails, distorted into triangles, or bulged
+into “cocked hats;” clean-cut, circular images were
+out of the question. Sitting next Herschel one day
+at dinner, Henry Cavendish, the great chemist, a
+remarkably taciturn man, broke silence with the
+abrupt question—“Is it true, Dr. Herschel, that you
+see the stars round?” “Round as a button,” replied
+the Doctor; and no more was said until Cavendish,
+near the close of the repast, repeated interrogatively,
+“Round as a button?” “Round as a button,”
+Herschel briskly reiterated, and the conversation
+closed.</p>
+
+<p>It seems probable that Herschel’s <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">caput artis</i> lost
+some of its fine qualities with time. Great specula
+are peculiarly liable to deterioration. Their figure tends
+to become impaired by the stress of their own weight;
+their lustre is necessarily more or less evanescent.
+Re-polishing, however, is a sort of re-making; and
+the last felicitous touches, upon which everything
+depends, can never be reckoned upon with certainty.
+Hence, the original faultlessness of the great mirror
+was, perhaps, never subsequently reproduced.</p>
+
+<p>“Such telescopes as Herschel worked with,” Dr.
+Kitchiner wrote in 1815, “could only be made by the
+man who used them, and only be used by the man<span class="pagenum" id="Page_101">101</span>
+who made them.” The saying is strictly true. His
+skill in one branch promoted his success in the other.
+He was as much at home with his telescopes as the
+Bedouin are with their horses. Their peculiarities
+made part of his most intimate experience. From
+the graduated varieties of his specula he picked out
+the one best suited to the purpose in hand. It was
+his principle never to employ a larger instrument than
+was necessary, agility of movement being taken into
+account no less than capacity for collecting light.
+The time-element, indeed, always entered into his
+calculations; he worked like a man who has few
+to-morrows.</p>
+
+<p>His sense of sight was exceedingly refined, and he
+took care to keep it so. In order to secure complete
+“tranquility of the retina,” he used to remain twenty
+minutes in the dark before attempting to observe
+faint objects; and his eye became so sensitive
+after some hours spent in “sweeping,” that the
+approach of a third-magnitude star obliged him to
+withdraw it from the telescope. A black hood thrown
+over his head while observing served to heighten this
+delicacy of vision. He despised no precaution. Details
+are “of consequence,” he wrote to Alexander Aubert,
+an amateur astronomer, “when we come to refinements,
+and want to <em>screw an instrument up to the
+utmost pitch</em>.”</p>
+
+<p>This was said in reference to his application of
+what seemed extravagantly high magnifying powers.
+He laid great stress upon it in the earlier part of his
+career. The method, he said, was “an untrodden
+path,” in which “a variety of new phenomena may
+be expected.” With his seven-foot Newtonian he
+used magnifications up to nearly 6,000, proceeding,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_102">102</span>
+however, “all along experimentally”—a plan far too
+much neglected in “the art of seeing.” “We are told,”
+he proceeded, “that we gain nothing by magnifying <em>too
+much</em>. I grant it, but shall never believe I magnify
+too much till by experience I find that I can see
+better with a lower power.” The innovation was
+received with a mixture of wonder, incredulity, and
+admiration.</p>
+
+<p>Herschel showed his customary judgment in this
+branch of astronomical practice. He established the
+distinctions still maintained, and laid down the lines
+still followed. It is true he went far beyond the
+point where modern observers find it advisable to
+stop. The highest power brought into use with the
+Lick refractor is 2,600; and Herschel’s instruments
+bore 5,800 (nominally 6,500) without injury to
+definition. But only at exceptional moments. His
+habitual sweeping power was 460; he “screwed-up”
+higher only for particular purposes, and under
+favourable conditions. Although his strong eye-pieces
+seem, for intelligible reasons, to have been laid
+aside on the adoption of the “front-view” form of
+construction, they had served him well in the division
+of close pairs, as well as for bringing faint stars into
+view—an effect correctly explained by him as due to
+the augmented darkness, under high powers, of the
+sky-ground. But the most important result of their
+employment was the discovery that the stars have no
+sensible dimensions. This became evident through
+the failure of attempts to magnify them; the higher
+the power applied, the smaller and more intense they
+appeared. Herschel accordingly pronounced stellar
+telescopic discs “spurious,” but made no attempt to
+explain their origin through diffraction.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_103">103</span></p>
+
+<p>He never possessed an instrument mounted
+equatoreally—that is, so as automatically to follow the
+stars. In its absence, his work, had it not been
+accomplished, would have seemed to modern ideas
+impossible. No clockwork movement kept the objects
+he was observing in the field of view. His hands
+were continually engaged in supplying the deficiency.
+How, under these circumstances, he contrived to
+measure hundreds of double stars, and secure the
+places of thousands of nebulæ, would be incomprehensible
+but for the quasi-omnipotence of enthusiasm.</p>
+
+<p>The angle made with the meridian by the line
+joining two stars (their “position angle”) was never
+thought of as a quantity useful to be ascertained until
+Herschel, about 1779, invented his “revolving-wire
+micrometer.” This differed in no important respect
+from the modern “filar micrometer;” only spider-lines
+have been substituted for the original silk fibres.
+For measuring the distances of the wider classes of
+double stars, he devised in 1782 a “lamp-micrometer;”
+while those of the closest pairs were estimated in
+terms of the discs of the components. In compiling
+his second catalogue, however, he used the thread-micrometer
+for both purposes. It is true that “even
+in his matchless hands”—in Dr. Gill’s phrase—the
+results obtained were “crude;” but the fact remains
+that the whole system of micrometrical measurement
+came into existence through Herschel’s double-star
+determinations.</p>
+
+<p>Their consequences have developed enormously
+within the last few years. Mr. Burnham’s discoveries
+of excessively close pairs have been so numerous as to
+leave no reasonable doubt that their indefinite multiplication
+is only a question of telescopic possibility.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_104">104</span>
+Then in 1889, another power came into play; the
+spectroscope took up the work of resolving stars. Or
+rather, the spectroscope in alliance with the photographic
+camera; for the spectral changes indicating
+the direction and velocity of motion in the line of
+sight can be systematically studied, as a rule, only when
+registered on sensitive plates. The upshot has been
+to bring within the cognisance of science the marvellous
+systems known as “spectroscopic binaries.”
+They are of great variety. Some consist of a bright,
+others of a bright and dark, pair. Those that revolve
+in a plane nearly coinciding with our line of vision
+undergo mutual occultations. A further detachment
+seem to escape eclipse, yet vary in light for some
+unexplained reason, while they revolve. Others, like
+Spica Virginis, revolve without varying. Their
+orbital periods are counted by hours or days.
+The study of the disturbances of these remarkable
+combinations promises to open a new era in astronomical
+theory. For they are most likely all multiple.
+Irregularities indicating the presence of attractive,
+although obscure bodies, have, in several cases, been
+already noticed.</p>
+
+<p>The revolutions of spectroscopic binary stars can
+be studied to the greatest advantage when they
+involve light-change; and photometric methods have
+accordingly begun to play an important part in the
+sidereal department of gravitational science. And
+here again we meet with Herschel’s initiative. His
+method of sequences has been already explained; and
+he made the first attempt to lay down a definite scale
+of star-magnitudes. He failed, and it was hardly
+desirable that he should succeed. On his scale, the
+ratio of change from one grade to the next constantly<span class="pagenum" id="Page_105">105</span>
+diminished. In the modern system it remains always
+the same. A star of the second magnitude is by
+definition two and a-half (2·512) times less bright
+than one of the first; a star of the third magnitude is
+two and a-half times less bright than one of the second,
+the series descending without modification until
+beyond telescopic reach. This uniformity in the
+<em>proportionate</em> value of a magnitude is indispensable
+for securing a practicable standard of measurement.
+Herschel, however, took the great step of introducing
+a principle of order.</p>
+
+<p>His estimates of stellar lustre were purely visual.
+And although various instruments, devised for the
+purpose, have since proved eminently useful, the
+ultimate appeal in all is to the eye. But there are
+many signs that, in the photometry of the future, not
+the eye but the camera will be consulted. Their
+appraisements differ markedly. Herschel’s incidental
+remark on the disturbance of light-valuation by colour
+touches a point of fundamental importance in photographic
+photometry. The chemical method gives to
+white stars a great advantage over yellow and red
+ones. They come out proportionately much brighter
+on the sensitive plate than they appear to the eye.
+And to these varieties of hue correspond spectral
+class-distinctions, the spectrum of an object being
+nothing but its colour written at full length. This
+systematic discrepancy between visual and photographic
+impressions of brightness, while introducing
+unwelcome complications in measures of magnitude,
+may serve to bring out important truths. The
+inference, for example, has been founded upon it
+that the Milky Way is composed almost exclusively
+of white, or “Sirian” stars; and there can be no<span class="pagenum" id="Page_106">106</span>
+question but that the arrangement of stars in space
+has some respect to their spectral types.</p>
+
+<p>Herschel’s plan of inquiry into the laws of stellar
+distribution by “photometric enumeration,” or
+gauging by magnitudes, was a bequest to posterity
+which has been turned to account with very
+little acknowledgment of its source. Argelander’s
+review of the northern heavens (lately completed
+photographically by Dr. Gill to the southern pole)
+afforded, from 1862, materials for its application on a
+large scale; but the magnitudes assigned to his
+324,000 stars do not possess the regularity needed to
+make deductions based on them perfectly trustworthy.
+Otherwise the distance from the earth of the actual
+aggregations in the Milky Way could have been
+ascertained in a rough way from the numerical
+representation of the various photometric classes. As
+it is, the presumption is strong that the galactic
+clouds are wholly independent of stars brighter
+than the ninth magnitude—that they only begin to
+gather at a depth in space whence light takes <em>at least</em>
+a thousand years to travel to our eyes. Confirmatory
+evidence, published in 1894, has been supplied by M.
+Easton’s research, based on the same principle, into
+the detailed relations of stars of various magnitudes
+to Milky Way structure. They are exhibited only by
+those of the ninth magnitude, or fainter; for with them
+sets in a significant crowding upon its condensed parts,
+attended by a scarcity over its comparative vacuities.
+Counts by magnitudes have, besides, made it clear
+that the stars, in portions of the sky removed from
+the Milky Way, thin out notably before the eleventh
+magnitude is reached; so that, outside the galactic
+zone, the stellar system is easily fathomed.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_107">107</span></p>
+
+<p>Also on the strength of photometric enumerations,
+Dr. Gould, of Boston, came to the conclusion, in 1879,
+that there is an extra thronging of stars about our
+sun, which forms one of a special group consisting
+of some four or five hundred members. The publication,
+in 1890, of the “Draper Catalogue,” of 10,530
+photographed stellar spectra, has thrown fresh light
+on this interesting subject. Mr. Monck, of Dublin,
+gave reasons for holding stars physically like the sun
+to be generally nearer to us than stars of the Sirian
+class; and Professor Kapteyn, of Gröningen, as the
+result of a singularly able investigation, concluded
+with much probability that the sun belongs to a
+strongly condensed group of mostly “solar” stars,
+nearly concentric with the galaxy. It might, in fact,
+be said that we live in a globular cluster, since our
+native star-collection should appear from a very great
+distance under that distinctive form.</p>
+
+<p>This modern quasi-discovery was anticipated by
+Herschel. He was avowedly indebted, it is true, to
+Michell’s “admirable idea” of the stars being divided
+into separate groups; but Michell did not trouble
+himself about the means of its possible verification,
+and Herschel did. He always looked round to see
+if there were not some touchstone of fact within
+reach.</p>
+
+<p>His discussion of the solar cluster, though brief
+and incidental, is not without present interest. He
+found the federative arrangement of the stars to be
+“every day more confirmed by observation.” The
+“flying synods of worlds” formed by them must
+gravitate one towards another as if concentrated at
+their several centres of gravity. Accordingly, “a star,
+or sun, such as ours, may have a proper motion within<span class="pagenum" id="Page_108">108</span>
+its own system of stars, while the whole may have
+another proper motion totally different in quantity
+and direction.” We may thus, he continued, “arrive
+in process of time, at a knowledge of all the real,
+complicated motions of the planet we inhabit; of the
+solar system to which it belongs; and even of the
+sidereal system of which the sun may possibly be a
+member.” He proceeded to explain how stars, making
+part of the solar cluster, might be discriminated from
+those exterior to it; the former showing the perspective
+influence only of the sun’s translation among
+themselves, while the latter would be affected besides
+by a “still remoter parallax”—a secular drift, compounded
+of the proper motion of the sun within its
+cluster, and of its cluster relatively to other clusters.</p>
+
+<p>The possibility of applying Herschel’s test is now
+fully recognised. Each fresh determination of the
+solar apex is scrutinised for symptoms of the higher
+“systematical parallax;” although as yet with dubious
+or negative results. Associated stellar groups are,
+nevertheless, met with in various parts of the sky.
+Herschel not only anticipated their existence, but
+suggested “a concurrence of proper motions” as the
+fittest means for identifying them.</p>
+
+<p>His anticipation has been realised by Mr. Proctor’s
+detection of “star-drift.” Several stars in the Plough
+thus form a squadron sailing the same course; and
+similar combinations, on an apparently smaller scale,
+have been pieced together in various constellations.
+But the principle of their connection has yet to be
+discovered. They are evidently not self-centred
+systems; hence their companionship, however prolonged,
+must finally terminate. The only pronounced
+cluster with a common proper motion is the Pleiades;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_109">109</span>
+and its drift seems to be merely of a perspective
+nature—a reflection of the sun’s advance.</p>
+
+<p>Bessel said of Herschel that “he aimed at
+acquiring knowledge, not of the motions, but of the
+constitution of the heavenly bodies, and of the structure
+of the sidereal edifice.” This, however, is a
+defective appreciation. He made, indeed, no meridian
+observations, and computed no planetary or cometary
+perturbations; yet if there ever was an astronomer
+who instinctively “looked before and after,” it was he.
+Could he have attained to a complete knowledge of
+the architecture of the heavens, as they stood at a
+given moment, it would not have satisfied him. To
+interpret the past and future by the present was his
+constant aim; from his “retired situation” on the
+earth, he watched with awe the grand procession of
+the sum of things defile through endless ages. He
+could not observe what was without at the same time
+seeking to divine what had been, and to forecast what
+was to come.</p>
+
+<p>His nebular theory is now accepted almost as a
+matter of course. The spectroscope has lent it
+powerful support by proving the <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">de facto</i> existence of
+the “lucid medium,” postulated by him as a logical
+necessity. This was done August 1st, 1864, when Dr.
+Huggins derived from a planetary nebula in Draco a
+spectrum characteristic of a gaseous body, because
+consisting of bright lines. Their wave-lengths,
+which turned out to be identical for all objects
+of the kind, with one or two possible exceptions,
+indicated a composition out of hydrogen mixed with
+certain unfamiliar aeriform substances. Herschel’s
+visual discrimination of gaseous nebulæ was highly
+felicitous. Modern science agrees with him in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_110">110</span>
+pronouncing the Orion nebula, as well as others of
+the irregular class, planetaries, diffused nebulosities,
+and the “atmospheres” of “cloudy stars,” to be
+masses of “shining fluid.” As for his “ambiguous
+objects,” they remain ambiguous still. “Clusters in
+disguise” through enormous distance, give apparently
+the same quality of light with irresolvable nebulæ.
+His inference that stars and nebulæ form mixed
+systems has, moreover, been amply confirmed. No
+one now denies their significant affinity, and very few
+their genetic relationship.</p>
+
+<p>Herschel gave a list in 1811 of fifty-two dim,
+indefinite nebulosities, covering in the aggregate 152
+square degrees. “But this,” he added, “gives us by
+no means the real limits” of the luminous appearance;
+“while the depth corresponding to its superficial extent
+may be far beyond the reach of our telescopes;”
+so “that the abundance of nebulous matter diffused
+through such an expansion of the heavens must
+exceed all imagination.”</p>
+
+<p>“The prophetic spirit of these remarks,” Professor
+Barnard comments, “is being every day
+made more evident through the revelations of photography.”
+He is himself one of the very few who have
+telescopically verified any part of these suggestive
+observations.</p>
+
+<p>“I am familiar,” he wrote in <cite>Knowledge</cite>, January,
+1892, “with a number of regions in the heavens
+where vast diffusions of nebulous matter are situated.
+One of these, in a singularly blank region, lies some
+five or six degrees north-west of Antares, and covers
+many square degrees. Another lies north of the
+Pleiades, between the cluster and the Milky Way;
+a portion of this has recently been successfully photographed<span class="pagenum" id="Page_111">111</span>
+by Dr. Archenhold. There is a large nebulous
+spot in that region, easily visible to the naked eye,
+which I have seen for many years. When sweeping
+there with a low power, the whole region between the
+Pleiades and the Milky Way is perceived to be
+nebulous. These great areas of nebulosity make their
+presence known by a singular dulling of the
+ordinarily black sky, as if a thin veil of dust intervened.”
+They “are specially suitable for the photographic
+plate, and it is only by such means that they
+can be at all satisfactorily located.”</p>
+
+<p>Some of Herschel’s milky tracts have been thus
+pictured; notably one in the Swan, shown on Dr.
+Max Wolf’s plates to involve the bright star Gamma
+Cygni; and another immense formation extending
+over sixty square degrees about the belt and sword of
+Orion, and joining on, Herschel was “pretty sure,” to
+the great nebula. This, never unmistakably <em>seen</em>
+except by him, portrayed itself emphatically in 1886
+in Professor E. C. Pickering’s photographs. Herschel’s
+persuasion of the subordinate character of the original
+“Fish-mouth nebula” was well-grounded. On plates
+exposed by Professors W. H. Pickering and Barnard,
+it is disclosed as the mere nucleus of a tremendous
+spiral, sweeping round from Bellatrix to Rigel.</p>
+
+<p>Diffused nebulosities appear in photographs as far
+from homogeneous. They are not simple volumes of
+gas indefinitely expanding in all directions, after the
+manner of simple aeriform fluids. They possess, on
+the contrary, characteristic shapes. Structureless
+nebulæ, like structureless protoplasm, seem to be
+non-existent. In all, an organising principle is at
+work.</p>
+
+<p>Minute telescopic stars showed to Herschel as<span class="pagenum" id="Page_112">112</span>
+prevalently red, owing, he conjectured, to the enfeeblement
+of their blue rays during an uncommonly
+long journey through space “not quite destitute of
+some very subtle medium.” The argument is a
+remarkable one. It would be valid if the ethereal
+vehicle of light exercised absorption after the manner
+of ordinary attenuated substances. There is, however,
+reason to suppose that the symptomatic redness was
+only a subjective impression, not an objective fact.
+His colour-sense was not quite normal. The lower,
+to his perception, somewhat overbalanced the higher
+end of the spectrum, and his mirrors added to the
+inequality by reflecting a diminished proportion of
+blue light. Thus he recorded many stars as tinged
+with red which are now colourless, yet lie under no
+suspicion of change.</p>
+
+<p>Herschel was, in the highest and widest sense, the
+founder of sidereal astronomy. He organised the
+science and set it going; he laid down the principles
+of its future action; he accumulated materials for its
+generalisations, and gave examples of how best to
+employ them. His work was at once so stimulating
+and so practical that its abandonment might be called
+impossible. Others were sure to resume where he
+had left off. His son was his first and fittest
+successor; he was the only one who undertook in its
+entirety the inherited task. Yet there are to be found
+in every quarter of the world men imbued with
+William Herschel’s sublime ambitions. Success swells
+the ranks of an invading army; and the march of
+astronomy has, within the last decade, assumed a
+triumphal character. The victory can never be completely
+won; the march can never reach its final goal;
+but spoils are meanwhile gathered up by the wayside<span class="pagenum" id="Page_113">113</span>
+which eager recruits are crowding in to share. The
+heavens are, year by year, giving up secrets long and
+patiently watched for, while holding in reserve many
+others still more mysterious. There is no fear of
+interest being exhausted by disclosure.</p>
+
+<p>Herschel’s dim intuition that something might be
+learned about the physical nature of the stars from the
+diverse quality of their light, was verified after sixty-five
+years, by the early researches of Secchi, Huggins,
+and Miller; but he could not suspect that, through the
+chemical properties, which he guessed to belong in
+varying degrees to the different sections of their
+spectra, pictures of the heavenly bodies would be
+obtained more perfect than the telescopic views he
+rapturously gazed at. Still less could he have
+imagined that, owing to its faculty of accumulating
+impressions too weak to affect the eye separately,
+the chemical would, in great measure, supersede the
+telescopic method in carrying out the designs he had
+most at heart.</p>
+
+<p>Those designs have now grown to be of international
+importance. At eighteen northern and
+southern observatories a photographic review of the
+heavens is in progress. The combined results will
+be the registration, in place and magnitude, of fifteen
+to twenty millions of stars. The gauging of the skies
+will then be complete down to the fourteenth
+magnitude; and the “construction of the heavens”
+can be studied with materials of the best quality, and
+almost indefinite in quantity. By simply “counting
+the gauges” on Herschel’s early plan, much may be
+learnt; the amount of stellar condensation towards
+the plane of the Milky Way, for instance, and the
+extent of stellar denudation near its poles. A<span class="pagenum" id="Page_114">114</span>
+marked contrast between the measures of distribution
+in these opposite directions will most likely be
+brought into view. The application of his later
+method of enumeration by magnitudes ought to prove
+even more instructive, but may be very difficult. The
+obstacles, it is to be hoped, will not be insurmountable;
+yet they look just now formidable enough.</p>
+
+<p>The grand problem with which Herschel grappled
+all his life involves more complicated relations than
+he was aware of. It might be compared to a fortress,
+the citadel of which can only be approached after
+innumerable outworks have been stormed. That one
+man, urged on by the exalted curiosity inspired by
+the contemplation of the heavens, attempted to carry
+it by a <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">coup de main</i>, and, having made no inconsiderable
+breach in its fortifications, withdrew from the
+assault, his “banner torn, but flying,” must always be
+remembered with amazement.</p>
+
+<div id="ip_115" class="figcenter" style="max-width: 27em;">
+ <img src="images/i_114.jpg" alt="" />
+ <div class="caption"><p>CAROLINE LUCRETIA HERSCHEL.</p>
+
+<p class="p1 smaller">(<cite>From a portrait taken by Tielemann in 1829.</cite>)</p></div></div>
+
+<hr />
+
+<div id="toclink_115" class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_115">115</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI.<br />
+
+<span class="subhead">CAROLINE HERSCHEL.</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class="in0"><span class="firstword">Caroline Lucretia Herschel</span> was born at Hanover,
+March 16th, 1750, and was thus more than eleven
+years younger than the brother with whose name
+hers is inseparably associated. She remembered the
+panic caused by the earthquake of 1755, and her
+experience barely fell short of the political earthquake
+of 1848; but the fundamental impressions of her long
+life were connected with “minding the heavens.”</p>
+
+<p>She was of little account in her family, except as
+a menial. Her father, indeed, a man of high character
+and cultivated mind, thought much of her future, and
+wished to improve her prospects by giving her some
+accomplishments. So he taught her to play the violin
+well enough to take part in concerted music. But her
+instruction was practicable only when her mother was
+out of the way, or in a particularly good humour.
+Essentially a “Hausfrau,” Anna Ilse had no sympathy
+with aspirations. She was hard-working and well-meaning,
+but narrow and inflexible, and she kept her
+second daughter strictly to household drudgery. Her
+literary education, accordingly, got no farther than
+reading and writing; even the third “R” was denied
+to her. But she was carefully trained in plain sewing
+and knitting, and supplied her four brothers with
+stockings from so early an age that the first specimen
+of her workmanship touched the ground while she
+stood upright finishing the toe! Few signs of tenderness<span class="pagenum" id="Page_116">116</span>
+were accorded to her. Her eldest brother, Jacob, a
+brilliant musician, and somewhat high-and-mighty in
+his ways, did not spare cuffs when she waited
+awkwardly at table; and her sister, Mrs. Griesbach,
+evidently took slight notice of her. William, however,
+showed her invariable affection; and him and her
+father she silently adored. In 1756, when they both
+returned from England with the Hanoverian Guard,
+she recalled how, on the day of their arrival,</p>
+
+<p>“My mother being very busy preparing dinner, had
+suffered me to go all alone to the parade to meet my
+father, but I could not find him anywhere, nor anybody
+whom I knew; so at last, when nearly frozen to
+death, I came home and found them all at table. My
+dear brother William threw down his knife and fork,
+and ran to welcome, and crouched down to me, which
+made me forget all my grievances. The rest were so
+happy at seeing one another again that my absence
+had never been perceived.”</p>
+
+<p>How well one can realise the disconsolate little
+expedition, the woe-begone entry of the six-year-old
+maiden, her heart-chill on finding herself forgotten,
+and the revulsion of joy at her soldier-brother’s cordial
+greeting!</p>
+
+<p>Isaac Herschel died March 22nd, 1767. He had
+never recovered the campaign of Dettingen, yet
+struggled, in spite of growing infirmities, to earn a
+livelihood by giving lessons and copying music. His
+daughter was thrown by his loss into a “state of
+stupefaction,” from which she roused herself, after
+some weeks, to consider the gloomy outlook of her
+destiny. She was seventeen, and was qualified, as she
+reflected with anguish, only to be a housemaid. She
+was plain in face and small in stature, and her father had<span class="pagenum" id="Page_117">117</span>
+often warned her that if she ever married it would be
+comparatively late in life, when her fine character had
+unfolded its attractions. Still, she did not lose hope
+of making her way single-handed. Although over-burthened
+with servile labours, she contrived, unknown
+to her mother, to get some teaching in fancy-work
+from a consumptive girl whose cough from across the
+street gave the signal for a daybreak rendezvous;
+trusting that, with this acquirement, and “a little
+notion of music, she might obtain a place as governess
+in some family where the want of a knowledge of
+French would be no objection.” There was “no kind
+of ornamental needlework, knotting, plaiting hair,
+stringing beads and bugles, of which she did not make
+samples by way of mastering the art.” She was then
+permitted to take some lessons in dressmaking and
+millinery. But the current of her thoughts was completely
+changed by an invitation from her brother
+William to join him at Bath. She was, if possible, to
+be made into a concert-singer. Yet her voice had
+never been tried, and its very existence was problematical.
+It may, then, be suspected that William’s
+primary motive was to come to the rescue of his poor
+little Cinderella sister.</p>
+
+<p>Months passed in “harassing uncertainty” as to
+whether she was to go or stay; months, too, during
+which her own mind was divided between the longing
+to follow her rising star, and a certain compunctious
+clinging to her duties at home. Time, however, did
+not pass in idleness. Taking no notice of the superior
+Jacob’s ridicule of her visionary transformation into
+an artist, she quietly set about practising, with a gag
+between her teeth, the solo parts of violin concertos,
+“shake and all,” so that, as she says, “I had gained a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_118">118</span>
+tolerable execution before I knew how to sing.” She
+occupied herself besides in making a store of prospective
+clothing for relatives, who, she could not but
+fear, would miss her services. For her withdrawal her
+mother, however, received from William money-compensation,
+which enabled her to keep a servant in lieu
+of her daughter. The parting, when he came to fetch
+her, in August, 1772, was none the less a sorrowful
+one; but Caroline had much to distract her mind
+from dwelling on those she had left behind. She had,
+besides, much discomfort to endure. Six days and
+nights in an open stage-carriage were followed by a
+tempestuous passage; the packet in which they
+embarked at Helvoetsluys reached Yarmouth dismasted
+and half-wrecked; and they were finally, not
+duly landed, but “thrown like balls by two sailors,”
+on the English coast. After a brief glimpse of
+London, they started, August 28th, in the night coach
+for Bath, where Caroline arrived “almost annihilated”
+by fatigue and want of sleep.</p>
+
+<p>Her training for an unfamiliar life began without
+delay. She had to learn English, arithmetic, and
+enough of account-keeping to qualify her for conducting
+the household affairs; a routine of singing-lessons
+and practising was entered upon; and she was sent out
+alone to market, Alexander Herschel lurking behind
+to see that she came safely out of the <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">mêlée</i> of buyers
+and sellers, whence she brought home “whatever in
+her fright she could pick up.” She suffered many
+things, too, from her brother’s servant, “a hot-headed
+old Welshwoman,” whose <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">régime</i> was one of rack and
+ruin to domestic utensils; while <i xml:lang="de" lang="de">heimweh</i> made
+formidable onslaughts on her naturally serene spirits.</p>
+
+<p>A visit to London, as the guest of Mrs. Colebrook,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_119">119</span>
+one of her brother’s pupils, gave her some experience
+of town gaieties. But the expenses of dress and
+chairmen shocked her frugal ideas; and she thought
+the young ladies, whose companionship was offered to
+her, “very little better than idiots.” As a vocalist,
+Miss Herschel came easily to the front. After a few
+months of study, her voice was in demand at evening
+parties; when her foreign accentuation had been
+corrected, she took the first soprano parts in “The
+Messiah,” “Samson,” “Judas Maccabæus,” and other
+oratorios; and sang as prima donna at the winter
+concerts both at Bath and Bristol. In accordance
+with her resolution to appear only where her brother
+conducted, she declined an engagement for a musical
+festival at Birmingham. A year’s training in deportment
+was a preliminary to her <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">début</i>; a celebrated
+dancing mistress being engaged—to use Caroline’s own
+phrase—“in drilling me for a gentlewoman. Heaven
+knows how she succeeded!” A gift of ten guineas from
+William provided her with a dress which made her,
+she was told, “an ornament to the stage;” and she
+was complimented by the Marchioness of Lothian on
+“pronouncing her words like an Englishwoman.” Her
+success was decided, and promised to be enduring
+enough to satisfy her modest ambition of supporting
+herself independently.</p>
+
+<p>It was, however, balked by an extraordinary turn
+of affairs; a turn at first not at all to her liking.
+After the lapse of half-a-century she still set it down
+as the grievance of her life that “I have been throughout
+annoyed and hindered in my endeavours at
+perfecting myself in any branch of knowledge by
+which I could hope to gain a creditable livelihood.”</p>
+
+<p>William Herschel, when Caroline joined him at<span class="pagenum" id="Page_120">120</span>
+Bath, was just feeling his way towards telescope-making.
+The fancy did not please her. The
+beginnings of great things are usually a disturbance
+and an anxiety. They imply a draft upon the future
+which may never be honoured, and they often play
+sad havoc with the present. And Miss Herschel was
+business-like and matter-of-fact. But her devotion
+triumphed over her common-sense. Keeping her
+misgivings to herself, she met unlooked-for demands
+with the utmost zeal, intelligence, and discretion.
+She was always at hand when wanted, yet never in
+the way. Through her care, some degree of domestic
+comfort was maintained amid the unwonted confusion
+of optical manufacture. During the tedious process of
+mirror-polishing, she sustained her brother physically
+and mentally, putting food into his mouth, and
+reading aloud “Don Quixote,” and the “Arabian
+Nights.” She was ready with direct aid, too, and
+“became in time as useful a member of the workshop
+as a boy might be to his master in the first
+year of his apprenticeship.” “Alex,” she continued,
+“was always very alert, assisting when anything new
+was going forward; but he wanted perseverance, and
+never liked to confine himself at home for many
+hours together. And so it happened that my brother
+William was obliged to make trial of my abilities in
+copying for him catalogues, tables, and sometimes whole
+papers which were lent him for his perusal.” Musical
+business, meantime, received due attention. Steady
+preparation was made for concerts and oratorios;
+choruses were instructed, rehearsals attended, parts
+diligently written out from scores. But the discovery
+of Uranus swept away the necessity for these
+occupations; and with a final performance in St.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_121">121</span>
+Margaret’s Chapel, on Whit-Sunday, 1782, the musical
+career of William and Caroline Herschel came to a close.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Herschel’s “thoughts were anything but
+cheerful” on the occasion. She saw the terrestrial
+ground cut from under her feet, and did not yet
+appreciate the celestial situation held in reserve for
+her. Music, in her opinion, was her true and only
+vocation; the contemplation of herself in the guise
+of an assistant-astronomer moved her to cynical self-scorn.
+As usual, however, her personal wishes were
+suppressed. Housewifely cares, too, weighed upon
+her. The dilapidated gazebo at Datchet provided
+no suitable shelter for a well-regulated establishment.
+It was roofed more in appearance than in
+reality; the plaster fell from the ceilings; the walls
+dripped with damp; rheumatism and ague were its
+rightful inmates. Then the prices of provisions
+appalled her, especially in view of the scarcity of five-pound
+notes since the opulence of Bath had been
+exchanged for the penury of a court precinct.</p>
+
+<p>Yet she set to work with a will to learn all that
+was needful for her untried office. Not out of books.
+“My dear brother William,” she wrote in 1831, “was
+my only teacher, and we began generally where we
+should have ended; he supposing I knew all that
+went before.” The lessons were of the most desultory
+kind. They consisted of answers to questions put by
+her as occasions arose, during breakfast, or at odd
+moments. The scraps of information thus snatched
+were carefully recorded in her commonplace book,
+where they constituted a miscellaneous jumble of elementary
+formulæ, solutions of problems in trigonometry,
+rules for the use of tables of logarithms, for
+converting sidereal into solar time, and the like.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_122">122</span>
+Nothing was entrusted to a memory compared by her
+instructor to “sand, in which everything could be
+inscribed with ease, but as easily effaced.” So that
+even the multiplication table was carried about in her
+pocket. She appears never to have spent a single
+hour in the systematic study of astronomy. Her
+method was that in vogue at Dotheboys Hall, to “go
+and know it,” by practising, as it were, blindfold, what
+she had been taught. Yet a computational error has
+never, we believe, been imputed to her; and the
+volume of her work was very great.</p>
+
+<p>Its progress was diversified by more exciting pursuits.
+She began, in 1782, to “sweep for comets,” and
+discovered with a 27-inch reflector, in the autumn of
+1783, two nebulæ of first-rate importance—one a
+companion to the grand object in Andromeda, the
+other a superb elliptical formation in Cetus. She
+was by this time more than reconciled to her astronomical
+lot; Von Magellan, indeed, reported in 1785,
+that brother and sister were equally captivated with
+the stars.</p>
+
+<p>The original explorations, in which she was beginning
+to delight, were interrupted by the commencement
+of his with the “large twenty-foot.” Her aid
+was indispensable, and from December, 1783, she
+“became entirely attached to the writing-desk.” She
+was no mere mechanical assistant. A wound-up
+automaton would have ill served William Herschel’s
+turn. He wanted “a being to execute his commands
+with the quickness of lightning”; and his commands
+were various. For he was making, not following
+precedents, and fresh exigencies continually arose.
+Under these novel circumstances, his sister displayed
+incredible zeal, promptitude, and versatility. She<span class="pagenum" id="Page_123">123</span>
+would throw down her pen to run to the clock, to
+fetch and carry instruments, to measure the ground
+between the lamp-micrometer and the observer’s eye;
+discharging these, and many other successive tasks
+with a rapidity that kept pace with his swift proceedings.
+Fatigue, want of sleep, cold, were disregarded;
+and although nature often exacted next day penalties
+of weariness and depression for those nights of intense
+activity, the faithful amanuensis never complained.
+“I had the comfort,” she remarked simply, “to see that
+my brother was satisfied with my endeavours to assist
+him.” The service was not unaccompanied by danger.
+One night poor Caroline, running in the dark over
+ground a foot deep in melting snow, in order to make
+some alteration in the movement of the telescope, fell
+over a great hook, which entered her leg so deeply
+that a couple of ounces of her flesh remained behind
+when she was lifted off it. The wound was formidable
+enough, in Dr. Lind’s opinion, to entitle a soldier to
+six weeks’ hospital-nursing, but it was treated cursorily
+at Datchet; the patient consoling herself for a few
+nights’ disablement with the reflection that her
+brother, owing to cloudy weather, “was no loser
+through the accident.”</p>
+
+<p>Busy days succeeded watchful nights. From the
+materials collected at the telescope, she formed
+properly arranged catalogues, calculating, in all, the
+places of 2,500 nebulæ. She brought the whole of
+Flamsteed’s <i>British Catalogue</i>—then the <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">vade mecum</i>
+of astronomers—into zones of one degree wide,
+for the purpose of William’s methodical examination;
+copied out his papers for the Royal Society; kept the
+observing-books straight, and documents in order.
+Then, in the long summer months, when “there was<span class="pagenum" id="Page_124">124</span>
+nothing but grinding and polishing to be seen,” she
+took her share of that too, and “was indulged with the
+last finishing of a very beautiful mirror for Sir William
+Watson.”</p>
+
+<p>On August 1st, 1786, her brother’s absence leaving
+her free to observe on her own account, she discerned
+a round, hazy object, suspiciously resembling a
+comet. Its motion within the next twenty-four hours
+certified it as such, and she immediately announced
+the apparition to her learned friends, Dr. Blagden and
+Mr. Aubert. The latter declared in reply, “You have
+immortalised your name,” and saw in imagination
+“your wonderfully clever and wonderfully amiable
+brother shedding,” upon receipt of the intelligence,
+“a tear of joy.” This was the first of a series
+of eight similar discoveries, in five of which her
+priority was unquestioned. They were comprised
+within eleven years, and were made, after 1790,
+with an excellent five-foot reflector mounted on
+the roof of the house at Slough. Considering that
+she swept the heavens only as an interlude to her
+regular duties, never for an hour forsaking her place
+beside the great telescopes in the garden, her aptitude
+for that fascinating pursuit must be rated very high.
+It was not until 1819 that Encke identified her seventh
+comet—detected November 7th, 1795—with one previously
+seen by Méchain in January, 1786. None
+other revolves so quickly, its returns to perihelion
+occurring at intervals of three and a quarter years. It
+has earned notoriety, besides, by a still unexplained
+acceleration of movement.</p>
+
+<p>Caroline Herschel was the first woman to discover
+a comet; and her remarkable success in what Miss
+Burney called “her eccentric vocation,” procured for<span class="pagenum" id="Page_125">125</span>
+her an European reputation. But the homage which
+she received did not disturb her sense of subordination.
+“Giving the sum of more to that which hath
+too much,” she instinctively transferred her meed of
+praise to her brother. She held her comets, notwithstanding,
+very dear. All the documents relating to
+them were found after her death neatly assorted in a
+packet labelled “Bills and Receipts of my Comets”;
+and the telescopes with which they had been observed
+ranked among the chief treasures of her old age. She
+presented the smaller one before her death to her
+friend Mr. Hausmann; the five-foot to the Royal
+Astronomical Society, where it is religiously preserved.</p>
+
+<p>The “celebrated comet-searcher” was described by
+Miss Burney in 1787 as “very little, very gentle, very
+modest, and very ingenuous; and her manners are
+those of a person unhackneyed and unawed by the
+world, yet desirous to meet and return its smiles.” To
+Dr. Burney, ten years later, she appeared “all shyness
+and virgin modesty”; while Mrs. Papendick mentions
+her as “by no means prepossessing, but an excellent,
+kind-hearted creature.” She was, in 1787, officially
+appointed her brother’s assistant, with a salary of fifty
+pounds a year; “and in October,” she relates, “I
+received twelve pounds ten, being the first quarterly
+payment of my salary, and the first money I ever in
+all my lifetime thought myself to be at liberty to
+spend to my own liking.” The arrangement was
+made in anticipation of her brother’s marriage, when—to
+quote her one bitter phrase on the subject—“she
+had to give up the place of his housekeeper.”
+She did not readily accommodate herself to the
+change; and a significant gap of ten years in her
+journal suggests that she wrote much during that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_126">126</span>
+time of struggle which her calmer judgment counselled
+her to destroy. Her strong sense of right and habitual
+abnegation, however, came to her aid; the family
+relations remained harmonious; and she eventually
+became deeply attached to her gentle sister-in-law. But
+from 1788 onwards, she lived in lodgings, either at
+Slough or Upton, whence she came regularly to the
+observatory to do her daily or nightly work.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Herschel began in 1796, and finished in about
+twenty months, an Index to Flamsteed’s observations
+of the stars in the “British Catalogue.” A list of
+“errata” was added, together with a catalogue of 561
+omitted stars. The work, one of eminent utility, was
+published in 1798, at the expense of the Royal
+Society. In August, 1799, she paid a visit to the
+Astronomer Royal, with the object of transcribing
+into his copy of Flamsteed’s Observations some memoranda
+upon them made by her brother. “But the
+succession of amusements,” we hear, “left me no
+alternative between contenting myself with one or
+two hours’ sleep per night during the six days I was
+at Greenwich, and going home without having fulfilled
+my purpose.” Needless to say that she chose the
+former.</p>
+
+<p>The Royal family paid her many attentions, partly,
+no doubt, because of her intimacy with one of the
+ladies-in-waiting to the Queen. This was Madame
+Beckedorff, who although of “gentle” condition, had
+attended the same dressmaking class with the bandmaster’s
+daughter at Hanover, in 1768. The distant
+acquaintanceship thus formed developed, at Windsor,
+into a firm friendship, transmitted in its full cordiality
+to a second generation. An entry in Caroline’s Diary
+tells of a dinner at Madame Beckedorff’s, February<span class="pagenum" id="Page_127">127</span>
+23, 1801, when the “whole party left the dining-room
+on the Princesses Augusta and Amelia, and the
+Duke of Cambridge coming in to see me.” In May,
+1813, during a visit to London, she passed several
+evenings at Buckingham House, “where I just
+arrived,” she says, on May 12, “as the Queen and the
+Princesses Elizabeth and Mary, and the Princess
+Sophia Matilda of Gloucester, were ready to step
+into their chairs, going to Carlton House, full dressed
+for a fête, and meeting me in the hall, they stopped
+for near ten minutes, making each in their turn
+the kindest inquiries how I liked London, etc. On
+entering Mrs. Beckedorff’s room, I found Madame
+D’Arblay (Miss Burney), and we spent a very pleasant
+evening.”</p>
+
+<p>Such Royal condescensions were frequent, and on
+occasions inconvenient. The Princesses Sophia and
+Amelia, in especial, took a strong liking for Miss
+Herschel’s conversation, and often required her attendance
+for many hours together. She was graciously
+singled out for notice at the Frogmore assemblages,
+and became quite inured to the reception at Slough of
+dignitaries and <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">savants</i>. Nothing deranged the simple
+composure of her deportment. One would give much
+to know what were her private impressions about the
+notabilities who crossed her path; but her memoranda
+are, in this respect, perfectly colourless. Names and
+dates are jotted down with the same brevity as her
+entries of “work done.” Even the personal troubles
+of years are curtly disposed of. Her brother Dietrich’s
+stay in England from 1809 to 1813, left her not a day’s
+respite from accumulated trouble and anxiety. Yet
+it occasioned only one little outburst, penned long
+afterwards.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_128">128</span></p>
+
+<p>“He came,” she wrote, “ruined in health, spirit,
+and fortune, and, according to the old Hanoverian
+custom, I was the only one from whom all domestic
+comforts were expected. I hope I acquitted myself to
+everybody’s satisfaction, for I never neglected my eldest
+brother’s business” (Jacob Herschel died in 1792), “and
+the time I bestowed on Dietrich was taken entirely
+from my sleep, or what is generally allowed for meals,
+which were mostly taken running, or sometimes
+forgotten entirely. But why think of it now?”</p>
+
+<p>Her later journal is overshadowed with the fear of
+coming bereavement. Recurrences to the state of
+William’s health become ominously frequent. “He is
+not only unwell, but low in spirits,” she notes in
+February, 1817; and the following account of his
+departure for Bath, April 2, 1818, betrays her deep
+<span class="locked">trouble:—</span></p>
+
+<p>“The last moments before he stepped into the
+carriage were spent in walking through his library and
+workrooms, pointing with anxious looks to every shelf
+and drawer, desiring me to examine all, and to make
+memorandums of them as well as I could. He was
+hardly able to support himself, and his spirits were so
+low, that I found difficulty in commanding my voice
+so far as to give him the assurance he should find on
+his return that my time had not been misspent.”</p>
+
+<p>“May 1st.—But he returned home much worse
+than he went, and for several days hardly noticed my
+handiworks.”</p>
+
+<p>His last note to her, indited with an uncertain
+hand on a discoloured slip of paper, July 4, 1819, she
+put by with the inscription: “I keep this as a relic.
+Every line <em>now</em> traced by the hand of my dear brother
+becomes a treasure to me.”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_129">129</span></p>
+
+<p>“Lina,” it ran, “there is a great comet. I want
+you to assist me. Come to dine and spend the day
+here. If you can come soon after one o’clock we shall
+have time to prepare maps and telescopes. I saw its
+situation last night—it has a long tail.”</p>
+
+<p>Through that long tail the earth had, eight days
+previously—according to Olbers’s calculations—cut its
+way; but the proposed observations at Slough, if
+made, were never published.</p>
+
+<p>In October, 1821, Caroline Herschel wrote this
+melancholy “Finis” to what seemed to herself the
+only part of her life worth living. “Here closed my
+day-book; for one day passed like another, except that
+I, from my daily calls, returned to my solitary and
+cheerless home with increased anxiety for each following
+day.”</p>
+
+<p>Eighteen months after her loss of “the dearest and
+best of brothers,” she at last gathered fortitude to put
+on paper her recollections of the “heartrending
+occurrences” witnessed by her during the closing
+months of her fifty years’ sojourn in England. In
+every line of what she then wrote, her absorbed
+fidelity to him, growing more and more tenacious as the
+end drew visibly nigher, comes out with unconscious
+pathos. The anguish with which she watched each
+symptom of decay seared her heart, but was refused
+any outward expression. She played out her rôle
+of self-suppression until the curtain fell. A last
+gleam of hope visited her July 8th, 1822, when she
+marked down in an almanac the cheering circumstance
+that her invalid had “walked with a firmer
+step than usual above three or four times the
+distance from the dwelling-house to the library, in
+order to gather and eat raspberries in his garden<span class="pagenum" id="Page_130">130</span>
+with me. But,” she added sadly, “I never saw the
+like again.”</p>
+
+<p>In the impetuosity of her grief, she made an
+irreparable mistake. Only a month earlier she had
+surrendered to her impecunious brother Dietrich her
+little funded property of £500; now, without reflecting
+on the consequences, she “gave herself, with all she
+was worth, to him and his family.” She was in her
+seventy-third year; her only remaining business in
+life, it seemed to her, was to quit it; the virtual close
+of her career had come; the actual close could not
+long be delayed. So she retired to her native place
+to die promptly, if that might be, but, at any rate, to
+mark the chasm that separated her from the past.
+She soon recognised, however, that she had taken a
+false step. “Why did I leave happy England?” was
+the cry sometimes on her lips, always in her heart, for
+a quarter of a century. She was taken aback by her
+own vitality. She found out too late that her powers
+of work, far from being exhausted, might have been
+turned to account for her nephew as they had been
+for her brother. And it was to him and his mother,
+after all, that her strong affections clung. Her
+relatives in Hanover, although they treated her with
+consideration, were hopelessly uncongenial. “From
+the moment I set foot on German ground,” she said,
+“I found I was alone.” Fifty years is a huge gap in
+a human life. Miss Herschel had been all that time
+progressing from the starting point where they had
+remained stationary. Their tastes were then necessarily
+incongruous with hers; nor could her interests
+be transplanted at will from the soil in which they
+were rooted. She was unable to perceive that the
+change was in herself. The “solitary and useless life”<span class="pagenum" id="Page_131">131</span>
+she led resulted, she was convinced, from her “not
+finding Hanover, or anyone in it, like what I left when
+the best of brothers took me with him to England in
+August, 1772!”</p>
+
+<p>An exile in her old home, she felt pledged to
+remain there. She would not “take back her promise.”
+For a person of her frugal habits, she was well off.
+Her pension of fifty pounds would have supplied her
+small wants, and she was reluctantly compelled to
+accept the annuity of £100, left to her by her brother.
+And since she was most generous in the bestowal of
+her spare cash, her presence was of some material
+advantage to a poor household. It gave them credit,
+too; and notwithstanding that they “never could
+agree” in opinions, she faithfully nursed Dietrich
+Herschel until his death in January, 1827.</p>
+
+<p>“I am still unsettled,” she wrote to her nephew,
+December 26th, 1822, “and cannot get my books and
+papers in any order, for it is always noon before I am
+well enough to do anything, and then visitors run
+away with the rest of the day till the dinner-hour,
+which is two o’clock. Two or three evenings in each
+week are spoiled by company. And at the heavens
+there is no getting, for the high roofs of the opposite
+houses. But within my room I am determined nothing
+shall be wanting that can please my eye. Exactly
+facing me is a bookcase placed on a bureau, to which
+I will have some glass doors made, so that I can see
+my books. Opposite this, on a sofa, I am seated, with
+a sofa-table and my new writing-desk before me; but
+what good I shall do there the future must tell.”</p>
+
+<p>Seated at that “new desk,” she completed her
+most important work. This was the reduction into a
+catalogue, and the arrangement into zones, of all Sir<span class="pagenum" id="Page_132">132</span>
+William Herschel’s nebulæ and clusters. Despatched
+to Sir John Herschel in April, 1825, it made his review
+of those objects feasible. From it, he drew up his
+“working-list” for each night’s observations; and from
+it, in constructing his “General Catalogue” of 1864,
+he took the places of such nebulæ as he had not been
+able to examine personally. In the course of the
+needful comparisons, “I learned,” he said, “fully to
+appreciate the skill, diligence, and accuracy which that
+indefatigable lady brought to bear on a task which
+only the most boundless devotion could have induced
+her to undertake, and enabled her to accomplish.”
+For its execution, the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical
+Society was awarded to her in 1828—an
+honour by which she was “more shocked than gratified.”
+Her “Zone-Catalogue” was styled by Sir David
+Brewster “an extraordinary monument of the unextinguished
+ardour of a lady of seventy-five in the
+cause of abstract science.”</p>
+
+<p>In 1835, she was created an honorary member of
+the Royal Astronomical Society, Mrs. Somerville being
+associated with her in a distinction never before or
+since conferred upon a woman. Three years later,
+she was surprised by the news that the Royal Irish
+Academy had similarly enrolled her. “I cannot help,”
+she wrote, “crying out aloud to myself, every now and
+then, What is that for?” The arrival, on another
+occasion, of presentation-copies of Mrs. Somerville’s
+“Connexion of the Physical Sciences,” and of Baily’s
+“Account of Flamsteed,” agitated her painfully. “Coming
+to <em>me</em> with such things,” she exclaimed, “an old,
+poor, sick creature in her dotage.” “I think it is
+almost mocking me,” she added in 1840, “to look
+upon me as a Member of an Academy; I that have<span class="pagenum" id="Page_133">133</span>
+lived these eighteen years without finding as much as
+a single comet.”</p>
+
+<p>Her local celebrity, nevertheless, diverted her. It
+struck her as a capital joke that she was “stared at
+for a learned lady.” Down to 1840 she regularly
+attended plays and concerts, and rarely left the
+theatre without a “<i xml:lang="de" lang="de">Wie geht’s?</i>” from His Majesty.
+And to find herself—“a <em>little</em> old woman”—conspicuous
+in the crowd, produced a sense of exhilaration.
+Her presence or absence was a matter of public
+concern, and she very seldom appeared otherwise
+than alert and cheerful. When close upon eighty
+her “nimbleness in walking,” she remarked, “has
+hitherto gained me the admiration of all who know
+me; but the good folks are not aware of the arts I
+make use of, which consist in never leaving my room
+in the daytime except I am able to trip it along as if
+nothing were the matter.” Music gave her unfailing
+pleasure. She heard Catalani in 1828; shared in the
+Paganini <em>furore</em> of 1831, and conversed with him
+through an interpreter. With Ole Bull she was
+“somewhat disappointed,” finding his performance
+“more like conjuration than playing on a violin.”</p>
+
+<p>But her “painful solitude” was most of all cheered
+by the visits and communications of eminent men.
+No one of distinction in science came to Hanover
+without calling upon her. Humboldt, Gauss, Mädler,
+Encke, Schumacher, paid her their respects, personally
+or by letter, if not in both ways. “Next to
+listening to the conversation of learned men,” she
+told the younger Lady Herschel, “I like to hear about
+them; but I find myself, unfortunately, among beings
+who like nothing but smoking, big talk on politics,
+wars, and such-like things.” Her situation remained, to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_134">134</span>
+the end, displeasing to her. She made the best of it;
+but the best was, to her thinking, bad. Having
+wilfully flung herself out of the current of life, she
+was nevertheless surprised at being stranded. She
+recurred, with inextinguishable pain, to the crippling
+effects of circumstances and old age.</p>
+
+<p>“I lead a very idle life,” she wrote in 1826. “My
+sole employment consists in keeping myself in good
+humour, and not being disagreeable to others.” And
+in 1839: “I get up as usual, every day, change my
+clothing, eat, drink, and go to sleep again on the sofa,
+except I am roused by visitors; then I talk till I can
+talk no more—nineteen to the dozen!” While at
+nights “the few, few stars I can get at out of my
+window only cause me vexation, for to look for the
+small ones on the globe my eyes will not serve me
+any longer.”</p>
+
+<p>She followed, however, with intense delight the
+progress of her nephew’s career, in which she beheld
+the continuation of his father’s. The intelligence of
+his having opened a nebular campaign in 1825, was
+like the sound of the trumpet to a disabled war-horse.
+Nothing but the decline of her powers, she assured
+him, would have prevented her “coming by the first
+steamboat to offer you the same assistance as, by your
+father’s instructions, I was enabled to afford him.”
+And again, in 1831: “You have made me completely
+happy with the account you sent me of the double
+stars; but it vexes me more and more that in this
+abominable city there is no one who is capable
+of partaking in the joy I feel on this revival of
+your father’s name. His observations on double
+stars were, from first to last, the most interesting
+subject; he never lost sight of it. And I cannot<span class="pagenum" id="Page_135">135</span>
+help lamenting that he could not take to his grave
+the satisfaction I feel at seeing his son doing him
+such ample justice by endeavouring to perfect what
+he could only begin.”</p>
+
+<p>Sir John’s trip to the Cape roused her ardent
+sympathy. “Ja!” she exclaimed, on hearing of the
+project, “If I were thirty or forty years younger, and
+could go too. In Gottes Namen!” But she was
+eighty-two, and could only give vent to her feelings
+by “jingling glasses with Betty” after dinner on his
+birthday, while mistress and maid together cried,
+“Es lebe Sir John! Hoch! Hurrah!” The reports of
+his achievements in the southern hemisphere were,
+she said, “like a drop of oil supplying my expiring
+lamp.” “At first, on reading them,” she wrote to Lady
+Herschel, “I could turn wild; but this is only a flash;
+for soon I fall into a reverie on what my dear nephew’s
+father would have felt if such letters could have been
+directed to him, and cannot suppress my wish that
+<em>his</em> life instead of <em>mine</em> had been spared until this
+present moment.”</p>
+
+<p>The joyful intelligence of her nephew’s safe return
+to England was sent to Miss Herschel by the Duke of
+Cambridge, whose attentions to her were unfailing;
+and she lived to hold in her hands the volume of
+“Cape Results,” by which her brother’s great survey
+of the heavens was rounded off to completion. But
+by that time the lassitude of approaching death was
+upon her.</p>
+
+<p>Three visits from her nephew broke the monotony
+of separation. In October, 1824, he stopped at Hanover
+on his way homeward from the Continent. Before
+his arrival, her “arms were longing to receive him”;
+after his departure, she “followed him in idea every<span class="pagenum" id="Page_136">136</span>
+inch he moved farther” away from her. Six years
+passed, and then he came again.</p>
+
+<p>“I found my aunt,” he reported, June 19th, 1832,
+“wonderfully well, and very nicely and comfortably
+lodged, and we have since been on the full trot. She
+runs about the town with me, and skips up her two
+flights of stairs as light and fresh at least as some folks
+I could name who are not a fourth part of her age.
+In the morning till eleven or twelve she is dull and
+weary; but as the day advances she gains life, and is
+quite ‘fresh and funny’ at ten or eleven p.m., and
+sings old rhymes, nay, even dances! to the great
+delight of all who see her.”</p>
+
+<p>Their final meeting was in 1838, when Sir John’s
+Cape laurels were just gathered; and he brought with
+him his eldest son, aged six. But the old lady was
+terrified lest the child should come to harm; his food,
+his sleep, his scramblings, his playthings, were all
+subjects of the deepest anxiety. Then Sir John,
+desiring to spare her “the sadness of farewell,” perpetrated
+a moonlight flitting, which left her dismayed
+and desolate at the abrupt termination of the visit,
+and smarting with the intolerable consciousness of
+opportunities lost for saying what could now never be
+said. “All that passed,” she said, “was like Sheridan’s
+Chapter of Accidents.” It was too much for her; she
+did not desire the repetition of a pleasure rated at a
+price higher than she could afford to pay. “I would
+not wish on any account,” she told Lady Herschel in
+1842, “to see either my nephew or you, my dear niece,
+again in this world, for I could not endure the pain of
+parting once more; but I trust I shall find and know
+you in the next.”</p>
+
+<p>She lived habitually in the past, and found the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_137">137</span>
+present—as Mrs. Knipping, Dietrich’s daughter said—“not
+only strange, but annoying.” Sometimes she
+would rouse herself from a “melancholy lethargy” to
+spend a few moments “in looking over my store of
+astronomical and other memorandums of upwards of
+fifty years’ collecting, and destroying all that might
+produce nonsense when coming through the hands of
+a Block-kopf into the Zeitungen.” Again she would
+dip back into the career of the “forty-foot,” or recall
+the choral performance to which the tube had
+resounded not far from sixty years before, “when I was
+one of the nimblest and foremost to get in and out of
+it. But now—lack-a-day—I can hardly cross the
+room without help. But what of that? Dorcas, in
+the <cite>Beggars’ Opera</cite>, says:</p>
+
+<div class="p1 b1 center">
+
+<p>“‘One cannot eat one’s cake and have it too!’”</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>That venerable instrument marked for her the <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">ne plus
+ultra</i> of optical achievement. She would not admit the
+sacrilegious thought of its being outdone. “I believe
+I have water on my brains,” she informed her nephew
+in August, 1842, “and all my bones ache so that I can
+hardly crawl; and, besides, sometimes a whole week
+passes without anybody coming near me, till they
+stumble on a paragraph in the newspaper about
+Gruithuisen’s discoveries, or Lord Queenstown’s great
+telescope, which <em>shall</em> beat Sir William Herschel’s all
+to nothing; and such a visit sometimes makes me
+merry for a whole day.”</p>
+
+<p>From time to time she wrote books of “Recollections,”
+which she forwarded, with anxious care, to
+England. They contain nearly all that is intimately
+known of Sir William Herschel’s life. The entries in
+her “Day-book” ceased finally only on September 3rd,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_138">138</span>
+1845. In the hope of giving permanent form to the
+memories that haunted her, she began, at ninety-two,
+“a piece of work which I despair of finishing before my
+eyesight and life leave me in the lurch. You will,
+perhaps, wonder what such a thing can be as I may
+pretend to do; but I cannot help it, and shall not rest
+till I have wrote the history of the Herschels.” “You
+remember,” she added, “you take the work in whatever
+state I may leave it, and make the best of it at
+your leisure.” It remained a piquant fragment. The
+fervour of her start was soon quenched by physical
+collapse, and she acknowledged her powerlessness “to
+do anything beside keeping herself alive.” Her last
+letter to Collingwood was finished with difficulty,
+December 3rd, 1846. Monthly reports of her state,
+however, continued to be sent thither by Miss
+Beckedorff, who, with Mrs. Knipping, cared for her to
+the last.</p>
+
+<p>In honour of her ninety-sixth birthday, the King
+of Prussia sent her, through Humboldt’s friendly
+hands, the Gold Medal of Science; and on the following
+anniversary, March 16th, 1847, she entertained
+the Crown Prince and Princess for two hours. Not
+only with conversation; she sang to them, too, a
+composition of Sir William’s, “Suppose we sing a
+Catch.” She had a new gown and smart cap for the
+occasion; and seemed “more revived than exhausted”
+by her efforts. Her last message to her nephew and
+his family—sent March 31st—was to say, with her
+“best love” “that she often wished to be with them,
+often felt alone, did not quite like old age with its
+weaknesses and infirmities, but that she, too, sometimes
+laughed at the world, liked her meals, and was
+satisfied with Betty’s services.”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_139">139</span></p>
+
+<p>On the 9th of January, 1848, she tranquilly
+breathed her last, and “the unquiet heart was at rest.”
+She was buried beside her parents in the churchyard
+of the Gartengemeinde, at Hanover, with an epitaph
+of her own composition.<a id="FNanchor_6" href="#Footnote_6" class="fnanchor">F</a> It records that the eyes
+closed in death had in life been turned towards the
+“starry heavens,” as her discoveries of comets, and her
+participation in her brother’s “immortal labours,”
+bear witness to future ages. By her special request a
+lock of “her revered brother’s” hair, and an old
+almanac used by her father, were placed in her coffin,
+which was escorted to the grave by royal carriages,
+and covered with wreaths of laurel and cypress from
+the royal gardens at Herrenhausen.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_6" href="#FNanchor_6" class="fnanchor">F</a> “<span xml:lang="de" lang="de">Der Blick der Verklärten war hienieden dem gestirnten
+Himmel zugewandt; die eigenen Cometen-Entdeckungen, und die
+Theilnahme an den unsterblichen Arbeiten ihres Bruders, Wilhelm
+Herschel, zeugen davon bis in die späteste Nachwelt.</span>”</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>Caroline Herschel was not a woman of genius. Her
+mind was sound and vigorous, rather than brilliant.
+No abstract enthusiasm inspired her; no line of inquiry
+attracted her; she seems to have remained
+ignorant even of the subsequent history of her own
+comets. She prized them as trophies, but not unduly.
+The assignment of property in comets reminded her,
+she humorously remarked, when in her ninety-third
+year, of the children’s game, “He who first cries
+‘Kick!’ shall have the apple.” Yet her faculties were
+of no common order, and they were rendered serviceable
+by moral strength and absolute devotedness. Her
+persistence was indomitable, her zeal was tempered by
+good sense; her endurance, courage, docility, and self-forgetfulness
+went to the limits of what is possible to
+human nature. With her readiness of hand and eye,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_140">140</span>
+her precision, her rapidity, her prompt obedience to a
+word or glance, she realised the ideal of what an
+assistant should be.</p>
+
+<p>Herself and her performances she held in small
+esteem. Compliments and honours had no inflating
+effect upon her. Indeed, she deprecated them, lest
+they should tend to diminish her brother’s glory.
+“Saying too much of what I have done,” she wrote in
+1826, “is saying too little of him, for he did all. I
+was a mere tool which <em>he</em> had the trouble of sharpening
+and adapting for the purpose he wanted it, for lack of
+a better. A little praise is very comforting, and I feel
+confident of having deserved it for my patience and
+perseverance, but none for great abilities or knowledge.”
+Again: “I did nothing for my brother but what a
+well-trained puppy-dog would have done; that is to
+say, I did what he commanded me.” And her entire
+and touching humility appears concentrated in the
+following sentence from a letter to her nephew:
+“My only reason for saying so much of myself is
+to show with what miserable assistance your father
+made shift to obtain the means of exploring the
+heavens.”</p>
+
+<p>The aim in life of this admirable woman was not
+to become learned or famous, but to make herself
+useful. Her function was, in her own unvarying
+opinion, a strictly secondary one. She had no ambition.
+Distinctions came to her unsought and incidentally.
+She was accordingly content with the slight
+and fragmentary supply of knowledge sufficing for the
+accurate performance of her daily tasks. No inner
+craving tormented her into amplifying it. The
+following of any such impulse would probably have
+impaired, rather than improved, her efficiency. The<span class="pagenum" id="Page_141">141</span>
+turn of her mind was, above all things, practical. She
+used formulæ as other women use pins, needles and
+scissors, for certain definite purposes, but with complete
+indifference as to the mode of their manufacture.
+What was required of her, however, she accomplished
+superlatively well, and this was the summit of her
+desires. She shines, and will continue to shine, by the
+reflected light that she loved.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<div id="toclink_142" class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_142">142</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII.<br />
+
+<span class="subhead">SIR JOHN HERSCHEL AT CAMBRIDGE AND SLOUGH.</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class="in0"><span class="firstword">“The</span> little boy is entertaining, comical, and promising,”
+Dr. Burney wrote after his visit to Slough in
+1797. John Frederick William Herschel was then
+five years old, having been born “within the shadow
+of the great telescope” March 7, 1792. He was an
+industrious little fellow, especially in doing mischief.
+“When one day I was sitting beside him,” his aunt
+relates, “listening to his prattle, my attention was
+drawn by his hammering to see what he might be
+about, and I found that it was the continuation of
+many days’ labour, and that the ground about the
+corner of the house was undermined, the corner-stone
+entirely away, and he was hard at work going on with
+the next. I gave the alarm, and old John Wiltshire,
+a favourite carpenter, came running, crying out, ‘God
+bless the boy, if he is not going to pull the house
+down!’” And she wrote to him at Feldhausen; “I
+see you now in idea, running about in petticoats
+among your father’s carpenters, working with little
+tools of your own, and John Wiltshire crying out,
+‘Dang the boy, if he can’t drive in a nail as well as
+I can!’”</p>
+
+<div id="ip_142" class="figcenter" style="max-width: 27em;">
+ <img src="images/i_142.jpg" alt="" />
+ <div class="caption"><p>SIR JOHN FREDERICK WILLIAM HERSCHEL, BART.</p>
+
+<p class="p1 smaller">(<cite>From a portrait painted by Pickersgill for St. John’s College, Cambridge.</cite>)</p></div></div>
+
+<p>“John and I,” she told his wife, “were the most
+affectionate friends, and many a half or whole holiday
+spent with me was dedicated to making experiments
+in chemistry, in which generally all boxes, tops of
+tea-canisters, pepper-boxes, teacups, etc., served for<span class="pagenum" id="Page_143">143</span>
+the necessary vessels, and the sand-tub furnished the
+matter to be analysed. I only had to take care to
+exclude water, which would have produced havoc on
+my carpet.”</p>
+
+<p>From a preparatory school kept by Dr. Gretton at
+Hitcham, he was sent, a delicate, blue-eyed lad, to
+Eton. His mother, however, happening to see him
+maltreated by a stronger boy, brought him home
+after a few months, and his education was continued
+by a Scotch mathematician named Rogers, a man of
+considerable ability. His pupil held him in high
+respect; yet, though he learned Euclid accurately
+from him, he told Dr. Pritchard afterwards that “he
+knew no more of its real bearing and intention than
+he knew of the man in the moon.” The results of
+the home tuition were, none the less, exceedingly
+brilliant.</p>
+
+<p>Herschel entered St. John’s College, Cambridge, at
+the age of seventeen, and his aunt noted in her Diary
+that, from the time of his admittance to the University
+until he quitted it, he gained all the first
+prizes without exception. He graduated as Senior
+Wrangler and First Smith’s Prizeman in 1813, a year
+in which honours were not cheap. Peacock, subsequently
+Dean of Ely, took second place, Fearon
+Fallows, the first Royal Astronomer at the Cape of
+Good Hope, came third, and Babbage withdrew from
+the competition, judging himself unable to beat, and
+not caring to be beaten by Herschel. Rivalry did not
+disturb their friendship. Having entered, together
+with Peacock, into a juvenile compact to do what in
+them lay “to leave the world wiser than they found
+it,” they, in 1812, set about fulfilling it by the establishment
+of the “Analytical Society of Cambridge.”<span class="pagenum" id="Page_144">144</span>
+Its object was to substitute in England for Newton’s
+fluxional method the more flexible and powerful
+calculus in use on the Continent; or, as Babbage
+expressed it, punning on the required change of
+notation, “to uphold the principles of pure D-ism in
+opposition to the <em>Dot</em>-age of the University.” The
+trio of innovators were full of enthusiasm, and they
+carried through a reform vital to the progress of
+British science. Herschel laboured zealously in the
+cause. In combination with his two allies, he translated
+Lacroix’s elementary treatise on the Differential
+Calculus, which became a text-book at Cambridge;
+and published, in 1820, an admirable volume of
+“Examples.” “In a very few years,” to use Babbage’s
+words, “the change from dots to d’s was accomplished;
+and thus at last the English cultivators of mathematical
+science, untrammelled by a limited and
+imperfect system of signs, entered on equal terms
+into competition with their Continental rivals.”
+Herschel, writing in the <cite>Quarterly Review</cite>, playfully
+described the process by which this was brought about.
+“The brows of many a Cambridge moderator,” he said,
+“were elevated, half in ire, half in admiration, at the
+unusual answers which began to appear in examination-papers.
+Even moderators are not made of impenetrable
+stuff; their souls were touched, though fenced
+with seven-fold Jacquier, and tough bull-hide of Vince
+and Wood. They were carried away with the stream,
+in short, or replaced by successors full of their newly
+acquired powers. The modern analysis was adopted
+in its largest extent.”</p>
+
+<p>John Herschel was one of Babbage’s “chief and
+choicest companions,” who breakfasted with him every
+Sunday after chapel, and discussed, during three or<span class="pagenum" id="Page_145">145</span>
+four delightful hours, “all knowable, and many unknowable
+things.” His life-long friendship with
+Whewell began after his election to a Fellowship of
+his College. It lent charm to the occasional residences
+at Cambridge, which terminated in 1816, on his
+attaining the dignity of Master of Arts. He celebrated
+his coming of age at home, and was with his father at
+Brighton when Campbell characterised him as “a
+prodigy in science, and fond of poetry, but very
+unassuming.” His first publication was a paper on
+“Cotes’s Theorem,” sent, in October, 1812, to the Royal
+Society, of which body he was chosen a member,
+May 27, 1813. This was followed by a series of
+memoirs on various points of analysis, their signal
+merit being recognised, in 1821, by the bestowal of
+the Copley Medal. His investigations in pure
+mathematics were carried no further; but he had
+done enough to show his power and originality,
+and materially to widen the scope of the new
+methods.</p>
+
+<p>He was in no hurry to choose a profession. Evenly
+balanced inclinations demanded, circumstances indulged
+delay; so he paused. His father wished him
+to enter the Church; but he preferred the law, and
+was enrolled a student at Lincoln’s Inn, January 24,
+1814. The step was a simple formality. It committed
+him to nothing. And, in fact, while nominally reading
+for the Bar, his thoughts were running in a totally
+different direction. Dr. Wollaston, whose acquaintance
+he made in London, fascinated him, and his
+influence served to steady the helm of his intentions.
+Having decided finally for a scientific career, he
+returned to Slough, and plunged into experiments in
+chemistry and physical optics.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_146">146</span></p>
+
+<p>On September 10th, 1816, he informed a correspondent
+that he was “going, under his father’s
+direction, to take up star-gazing.” This brief sentence
+gives the first tidings of an astronomical element in
+his life. Its growth was slow. He had no instinctive
+turn that way. It was through filial reverence that
+he resolved to tread in his father’s footsteps. His self-denial
+received a magnificent reward. He took a
+place expressly reserved for him, as it might seem,
+beside his father as an explorer of the skies on the
+grandest scale. But for this moral purpose, he might
+have squandered time in a multiplicity of partial
+researches. So late as 1830 he told Sir William
+Rowan Hamilton: “I find it impossible to dwell for
+very long on one subject, and this renders my pursuit
+of any branch of science necessarily very desultory.”
+His nebulæ and double stars saved him from being
+“everything by turns, and nothing long.” Their collection
+and revisal, begun as a duty, grew to be
+irresistibly attractive, and John Herschel pledged
+himself definitively to astronomy.</p>
+
+<p>His earliest undertaking was the re-examination of
+his father’s double stars. Entered upon at Slough in
+1816, it was continued from 1821 to 1823 at the
+observatory in Blackman Street, Southwark, of Mr.,
+afterwards Sir James South, where, with two excellent
+refracting telescopes, of five and seven feet focal
+length, the colleagues measured 380 of Sir William
+Herschel’s original pairs. Double stars want a great
+deal of looking after. Their discovery should be the
+prelude to long processes of investigation. It is of
+little interest unless diligently followed up. Each
+represents a system, individual in its peculiarities,
+and probably of most complex organisation. The<span class="pagenum" id="Page_147">147</span>
+more such systems are studied, the more wonderful
+they appear. Two associated stars have often proved,
+on keener scrutiny, to be themselves very closely
+double; and in other cases, disturbed motion has
+revealed the existence of obscure masses—planets
+on a colossal scale, possibly the spacious abodes of
+unimaginable forms of life.</p>
+
+<p>The “Astronomy of the Invisible,” however, was
+still in the future when Herschel and South did their
+work. Facts relating to binary revolutions were
+scantily forthcoming, and the science to be founded on
+them had been rather indicated than established.
+Fresh observations were then needed to ascertain how
+the circling stars had behaved since 1802. The results
+proved highly satisfactory. In Francis Baily’s words,
+“The remarkable phenomena first brought to light by
+Sir William Herschel were abundantly confirmed, and
+many new objects pointed out as worthy the attention
+of future observers.” To take a couple of examples.
+Eta Coronæ was found to have described, since 1781,
+one entire round, and to be just starting on a second.
+Again, Tau Ophiuchi had been perceived, by the elder
+Herschel, at his first sight of it in April, 1783, to be
+“elongated.” “One half of the small star,” he said, “if
+not three-quarters, seems to be behind the large star.”
+This effect was imperceptible to his son. It had
+become entirely effaced in the course of forty years.
+The star was, in 1823, perfectly round; it had, as it
+were, absorbed its companion. By slow degrees, however,
+the two came into separate view, and now form
+an easy telescopic object. Their period of revolution
+is not less than two centuries. Another point of
+special interest was the detection of marked eccentricity
+in a stellar orbit—that of Xi Ursæ Majoris.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_148">148</span>
+These stars perform their circuits in just sixty years;
+but in 1821 their apparent speed was so great that
+changes in their relative positions could be determined
+from month to month. For these observations,
+published with notes and discussions in the <i>Philosophical
+Transactions</i> for 1824, Herschel and South
+received the Lalande Prize of the French Academy in
+1825, and the Gold Medal of the Astronomical Society
+in 1826. In the latter distinction, Wilhelm Struve
+and Amici of Modena were associated with them.
+These four were the only double star observers then
+living.</p>
+
+<p>Their exertions served to define more closely the
+circumstances of stellar movement. The crucial
+question could now be put, whether they are governed
+by the force that binds the planets to the sun,
+or by some other form of attractive influence. In
+other words, is the law of gravitation universal? An
+answer could only be obtained experimentally, by
+computing, on gravitational principles, the paths of
+the best-known pairs, and then <em>trying the fit</em>. If
+the stars, as time went on, kept near their predicted
+places, the unity of nature in this respect might be
+safely inferred; although considerable discrepancies
+might in any case be expected, owing to errors of
+measurement minute in themselves, but large relatively
+to curves reduced by distance to hair-breadth
+dimensions.</p>
+
+<p>This kind of inquiry was fairly started in 1827,
+when Savary computed the orbit of Xi Ursæ.
+His success made it almost certain that the pair
+moved under the planetary regimen, conformed
+to, there is no reason to doubt, by all binaries.
+John Herschel, although not the first, was the most<span class="pagenum" id="Page_149">149</span>
+effective early investigator of stellar orbits. His
+method, described before the Royal Astronomical
+Society January 13, 1832, and approved by the award
+of its Gold Medal in 1833, went to the root of the
+matter. The author declared it a mere waste of time
+to attempt to deal, by any refined or intricate process
+of calculation, with data so uncertain and irregular
+as those at hand. “Uncertain and irregular,” it must
+be repeated, because referred to a scale on which
+tenths of a second assume large proportions. He
+accordingly discarded, as mere pedantic trifling, such
+analytical formulæ as those employed by Savary and
+Encke, and had recourse to a graphical process, in
+which “the aid of the eye and hand” was used to
+“guide the judgment in a case where judgment only,
+and not calculation, could be of any avail.” The
+operation which he went on to explain was commended
+by Sir George Airy for its “elegance and
+practical utility.” Nothing more appropriate could
+have been devised than this plan, at once simple,
+ingenious, and accommodating, for drawing a curve
+representative of the successive relative positions of
+double stars. Its invention effectively promoted
+acquaintance with their orbits; most of those at
+present known having, indeed, been calculated with its
+aid.</p>
+
+<p>In 1821, Herschel travelled, in Babbage’s company,
+through Switzerland and Italy. His only recorded
+adventure was an ascent of Monte Rosa. In the
+following year he visited Holland with James
+Grahame, the learned author of a “History of
+America”; and on the removal of South’s observatory
+to Passy, he again went abroad, starting with
+Babbage, but returning alone. This time he made a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_150">150</span>
+number of scientific acquaintances. His father’s
+name worked like a spell. “I find myself,” he said,
+“for his sake, received by all men of science with
+open arms.” His modesty forbade him to remember
+that his own merits were already conspicuous. In
+Paris, Arago and Fourier showed him all possible
+attentions; he was welcomed at Turin “like a
+brother” by Plana, “one of the most eminent mathematicians
+of the age;” at Modena, Amici was, if
+possible, still more cordial. “He is the only man,”
+Herschel told his aunt, “who has, since my father,
+bestowed great pains on the construction of specula.”
+“Among other of your inquiring friends,” he continued,
+“I should not omit the Abbé Piazzi, whom I found ill
+in bed at Palermo, and who is a fine, respectable old
+man, though, I am afraid, not much longer for this
+world. He remembered you personally, having himself
+visited Slough.”</p>
+
+<p>On July 3 Herschel “made the ascent of Etna,
+without particular difficulty, though with excessive
+fatigue.” On the summit, reached before sunrise, by
+“a desperate scramble up a cone of lava and ashes,
+one thousand feet high,” he found himself “enveloped
+in suffocating sulphurous vapours”; and “was glad
+enough to get down,” after having made a reading
+of the barometer in concert with the simultaneous
+observations of the brothers Gemellaro at Catania
+and Nicolosi. The same night he arrived at Catania
+“almost dead” from the morning’s arduous climb,
+“and the dreadful descent of nearly thirty miles,
+where the mules could scarce keep their feet.”</p>
+
+<p>In traversing Germany, he deviated to Erlangen,
+where Pfaff was engaged in translating Sir William
+Herschel’s writings; and visited Encke, Lindenau,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_151">151</span>
+and Harding, at Seeberg, Gotha, and Göttingen.
+With Göttingen he had a special tie through his
+creation, in 1816, an honorary member of the University;
+and at Göttingen, too, he hoped to meet
+Gauss—a man of strange, and—to the lay mind—unintelligible
+powers. “Gauss was a god,” one of his
+fellow-mathematicians said of him; but the “god”
+was on this occasion absent—feasting with the
+“blameless Ethiopians,” perhaps, like the Homeric
+deities when wanted. He was reported “inconsolable”
+for the lost opportunity, which seems never to have
+recurred.</p>
+
+<p>From Munich Herschel wrote to his aunt, in view
+of his approaching visit to Hanover:—“I hope you
+haven’t forgotten your English, as I find myself not
+quite so fluent in this language (German) as I expected.
+In fact, since leaving Italy, I have so begarbled
+my German with Italian that it is unintelligible
+both to myself and to everyone that hears it:
+and what is very perverse, though when in Italy I
+could hardly talk Italian fit to be heard, I can now
+talk nothing else, and whenever I want a German
+word, pop comes the Italian one in its place. I
+made the waiter to-day stare (he being a Frenchman)
+by calling to him, ‘Wollen Sie avere la bontà den
+acet zu apportaren!’ But this, I hope, will soon
+wear off.”</p>
+
+<p>His next foreign holiday was spent in France.
+He had designed a new instrument for measuring the
+intensity of the sun’s radiations, and was eager to
+experiment with it alternately at high and low levels,
+for the purpose of determining the proportion of solar
+heat absorbed by the earth’s atmosphere. This
+method was employed with fine effect by Professor<span class="pagenum" id="Page_152">152</span>
+Langley on Mount Whitney in 1881. Herschel
+carried his “actinometer” to the top of the Puy de
+Dôme in September 1826, and waited at Montpellier
+for “one day of intense sunshine,” in order to procure
+his second term of comparison. The Puy de Dôme,
+with its associated three hundred summits, strongly
+allured him. “I have been rambling over the volcanoes
+of Auvergne,” he wrote from Montpellier,
+September 17, “and propose, before I quit this, to
+visit an extinct crater which has given off two streams
+of lava at Agde, a town about thirty miles south of
+this place on the road to the Spanish frontier. Into
+Spain, however, I do not mean to go—having no wish
+to have my throat cut. I am told that a regular
+diligence runs between this and Madrid, and is as
+regularly stopped and robbed on the way.”</p>
+
+<p>This exploratory turn alarmed Miss Herschel.
+“I fear,” she replied, “you must often be exposed
+to great dangers by creeping about in holes and
+corners among craters of volcanoes.” He was,
+nevertheless, only dissuaded by his mother’s anxious
+remonstrances from pursuing their study in Madeira
+and Teneriffe.</p>
+
+<p>In the autumn of 1827, Babbage accompanied
+him to Ireland. The young Astronomer Royal, Sir
+W. R. Hamilton, was unluckily absent at the time of
+their visit; but he sent Herschel, by way of compensation,
+one of his brilliant optical essays, and a correspondence
+sprang up from which a lasting friendship
+developed.</p>
+
+<p>Herschel’s scientific occupations at home were
+meanwhile various and pressing. He co-operated in
+the foundation of the Astronomical Society, and
+became in 1821 its first foreign secretary. In 1824<span class="pagenum" id="Page_153">153</span>
+he undertook the more onerous duties of secretary to
+the Royal Society, and rented a house in Devonshire
+Street for the three years of his term of office. Astronomy,
+it might have been feared, should be at least
+temporarily shelved; yet he informed his aunt, April
+18, 1825, “A week ago I had the twenty-foot directed
+on the nebulæ in Virgo, and determined the right
+ascensions and polar distances of thirty-six of them.
+These curious objects I shall now take into my especial
+charge—nobody else can see them.”</p>
+
+<p>His telescope, in fact, then held the championship.
+It was constructed in 1820 by himself, under his
+father’s directions, on the “front view” plan, the
+speculum being eighteen inches in diameter, and of
+twenty feet focal length. With it he executed, in
+1824, a fine drawing of the Orion Nebula, with which
+“inexplicable phenomenon” he was profoundly impressed.
+It suggested to him no idea of a starry composition,
+and he likened its aspect to that presented
+by the “breaking up of a mackerel sky, when the
+clouds of which it consists begin to assume a cirrous
+appearance.”</p>
+
+<p>In July, 1828, he succeeded in discerning the two
+Uranian satellites, Oberon and Titania, <em>authentically</em>
+discovered by his father. They had not been seen,
+except incidentally at Slough, for thirty years. His
+pursuit of them, continued at intervals until 1832, had
+the result of confirming, while slightly correcting,
+Sir William Herschel’s elements of their motions.
+On September 23, 1832, he perceived Biela’s comet as
+a round, hazy object without a tail. It closely simulated
+a pretty large nebula. A small knot of very
+faint stars lay directly in its path, and, having before
+long overtaken them, it “presented, when on the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_154">154</span>
+cluster, the appearance of a nebula partly resolved
+into stars, the stars of the cluster being visible through
+the comet.” They shone undimmed, he estimated,
+from behind a veil of cometary matter 50,000 miles
+thick. Yet, only a month later, the remote prospect
+of a collision with this tenuous body threw Europe
+into a panic.</p>
+
+<p>After Sir William Herschel’s death, his son formed
+the project of collecting into a memorial volume
+all his published papers; but he decided before long
+that he could add more to his fame by pursuing
+and verifying his observations than by reprinting
+them. The keynote of his life’s activity was struck
+in these words. His review of the 2,500 Herschelian
+nebulæ, more than half of which were invisible with
+any instrument except his own, was begun in the
+summer of 1825, and terminated in 1833. The
+assiduity with which it was prosecuted appeared
+by its completion in little more than half the time
+judged necessary for the purpose by the original
+discoverer. Yet he was not exempt from discouragement.
+“Two stars last night,” he wrote, July 23,
+1830, “and sat up till two waiting for them. Ditto
+the night before. Sick of star-gazing—mean to
+break the telescopes and melt the mirrors.” Very
+few glimpses of this seamy side to the occupation
+are afforded us by either of the Slough observers.
+Modern astronomers, by comparison, would seem, like
+the Scotchman’s barometer, to have “lost all control
+over the weather.”</p>
+
+<p>The efficacious promptitude with which John
+Herschel swept the skies appears truly wonderful
+when we remember that he was without a skilled
+assistant. No ready pen was at hand to record what<span class="pagenum" id="Page_155">155</span>
+he saw, and how he saw it; he was, by necessity, his
+own amanuensis; and writing by lamplight unfits the
+eye for receiving delicate impressions. Yet a multitude
+of the objects for which quest was being made
+were of the last degree of faintness. The results were
+none the less admirable. Embodied in a catalogue of
+2,307 nebulæ, of which 525 were new, they were
+presented to the Royal Society July 1, 1833, and
+printed in the <i>Philosophical Transactions</i> (vol.
+cxxiii.). Annotations of great interest, and over one
+hundred beautiful drawings, enhanced the value of
+the memoir.</p>
+
+<p>Herschel was struck, in the course of his review,
+by the nebulous relations of double stars. A close,
+faint pair at the exact centre of a small round nebula
+in Leo; stellar foci in nebular ellipses; and a strange
+little group consisting of a trio of equidistant stars
+relieved against a nebulous shield, were specimen-instances
+illustrating “a point of curious and high
+physical interest.”</p>
+
+<p>He also drew attention to “the frequent and close
+proximity to planetary nebulæ of minute stars which
+suggest the idea of accompanying satellites. Such
+they may possibly be.” If so, their revolutions might
+eventually be ascertained; and he urged the desirability
+of exact and persistent determinations of the
+positions of these satellite-stars. “I regret,” he concluded,
+“not having sufficiently attended to this in
+my observations, the few measures given being hurried,
+imperfect, and discordant.” Up to the present, these
+supposed systems have remained sensibly fixed; but
+they have been a good deal neglected. Mr. Burnham’s
+observations, however, with the Lick refractor in
+1890–1, may supply a basis for the future detection<span class="pagenum" id="Page_156">156</span>
+of their movements in periods probably to be reckoned
+by millenniums.</p>
+
+<p>The orbital circulation of compound nebulæ must
+be at least equally slow. They are most diverse in
+form and arrangement. “All the varieties of double
+stars as to distance, position, and relative brightness,”
+Herschel wrote, “have their counterparts in nebulæ;
+besides which, the varieties of form and gradation of
+light in the latter afford room for combinations peculiar
+to this class of objects.” Such, for instance, as the
+disparate union of an immensely long nebulous ray in
+Canes Venatici with a dim round companion, a small
+intermediate star occupying possibly the centre of
+gravity of the system.</p>
+
+<p>Herschel’s drawings of double nebulæ have gained
+significance through their discussion, in 1892, by
+Dr. T. J. J. See of Chicago. They are now perceived
+to form a series aptly illustrative of the process,
+theoretically investigated by Poincaré and Darwin, by
+which a cooling and contracting body, under the stress
+of its consequently accelerated rotation, divides into
+two. If it be homogeneous in composition, its “fission”
+gives rise to two equal masses, presumed to condense
+eventually into a pair of equal stars. Disparity, on
+the other hand, between the products of fission indicates
+original heterogeneity; so that a large nebula
+must be of denser consistence than a smaller one
+physically connected with it. The chemical dissimilarity
+of the stars developed from them might
+explain the colour-contrasts often presented by unequal
+stellar couples. This view as to the origin of
+double nebulæ, and through them of double stars,
+although doubtless representing only a fragment of
+the truth, gives wonderful coherence to Herschel’s<span class="pagenum" id="Page_157">157</span>
+faithful delineations of what his telescope showed
+him.</p>
+
+<p>No one before him had completely seen the
+“Dumb-bell” nebula in Vulpecula. Sir William
+Herschel had perceived the “double-headed shot”
+part of this “most amazing object,” but had missed
+the hazy sheath which his successor noticed as filling
+in the elliptic outline. He perceived similarly (unaware
+of Schröter’s observation) that the interior of the
+Ring-nebula in Lyra is not entirely dark; and compared
+the effect to that of fine gauze stretched over a
+hoop. An exceedingly long, nebular ellipse in Andromeda,
+with a narrow interior vacuity, left him “hardly
+a doubt of its being a thin, flat ring of enormous
+dimensions, seen very obliquely.” A photograph taken
+by Dr. Roberts, in 1891, corresponds strikingly with
+Herschel’s drawing. Some specimens of “rifted
+nebulæ,” were also included in the collection of 1833.
+They are double or even triple parallel rays, fragments,
+apparently, of single primitive formations. Herschel
+might well assert that “some of the most remarkable
+peculiarities of nebulæ had escaped every former
+observer.”</p>
+
+<p>Both by the Royal, and by the Royal Astronomical
+Societies, medals were, in 1836, adjudged to this fine
+work. Its progress was accompanied by the discovery
+of 3,347 double stars, as well as by the re-measurement
+of a large number of pairs already known. The whole
+were drawn up into eight catalogues, presented at
+intervals to the Astronomical Society, and printed in
+their Memoirs. A good many of them would, nevertheless,
+be rejected by modern astronomers as “not
+worth powder and shot,” the stars composing them
+being too far apart to give more than an infinitesimal<span class="pagenum" id="Page_158">158</span>
+chance of mutual connection. From May 1828
+onwards, these measures were made with “South’s
+<i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">ci-devant</i> great equatorial,” purchased by Herschel.
+The object-glass, by Tulley, was five inches in
+diameter. With a twelve-inch refractor, its successor
+in South’s observatory on Campden Hill, Herschel
+detected, on its trial-night, February 13, 1830, the
+sixth star in the “trapezium” of Orion. This minute
+object was then about one-third as bright as the fifth
+star in the same group, discovered by Robert Hooke
+in 1664, but forgotten, and re-discovered by Struve
+in 1826. A slow gain of light in Herschel’s star is
+not improbable.</p>
+
+<p>He refused, in 1826, to compete for the Lucasian
+Professorship of Mathematics at Cambridge. It was
+practically at his disposal, since all agreed that no
+one could better than Herschel have filled the chair
+once occupied by Newton. He was, however, disinclined
+for an University career, and had undertaken
+labours incompatible with it. In 1830 he stood as the
+“scientific candidate” for the presidentship of the
+Royal Society, against the Duke of Sussex. His
+defeat was by “a ridiculously small majority.” “I
+had no personal interest in the contest,” he wrote to
+Sir William Hamilton. “Had my private wishes
+and sense of individual advantage weighed with
+me in opposition to what, under the circumstances,
+was an imperative duty, I should have persisted in
+my refusal to be brought forward; but there are
+situations where one <em>has</em> no choice, and such was
+mine.”</p>
+
+<p>He made Hamilton’s personal acquaintance at a
+dinner of notabilities, given by the Duke of Sussex,
+in March, 1832. An invitation to Slough followed, and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_159">159</span>
+Hamilton, arriving “in a beautiful star-time,” enjoyed
+celestial sights that seemed the opening of a new
+firmament.</p>
+
+<p>Herschel married, March 3, 1829, Margaret Brodie,
+second daughter of the Rev. Alexander Stewart, of
+Dingwall, in Ross-shire. The event—not merely by
+convention a “happy” one—gave great satisfaction to
+his numerous friends. Miss Herschel was beside herself
+with glad emotion. “I have spent four days,” she
+informed him on his wedding-day, “in vain endeavours
+to gain composure enough to give you an idea of the
+joyful sensation caused by the news. But I can at
+this moment find no words which would better express
+my happiness than those of Simeon: “Lord, now
+lettest thou thy servant depart in peace.” But there
+was no finality in her desires for this brilliant scion of
+her race. His domestic felicity did not long content
+her; she craved worldly distinctions. When, after the
+accession of William IV., a shower of honours was let
+fall, she began to think plain “John Herschel, Esq.,”
+an address very inadequate to his merits. “Dr.
+Grosskopf,” the husband of one of her nieces, “has
+been <i xml:lang="de" lang="de">zum Ritter ernannt</i> by his present Majesty,” she
+wrote discontentedly. “So was Dr. Mükry last week.
+If all is betitled in England and Germany, why is not
+my nephew, J. H., a lord or a wycount (<i xml:lang="la" lang="la">sic</i>) at
+least? General Komarzewsky used to say to your
+father, ‘Why does not King George III. make you
+Duke of Slough?’”</p>
+
+<p>An instalment of her wishes was granted by his
+creation, in 1831, a Knight of the Royal Hanoverian
+Guelphic Order; and she lived to see him a baronet.
+She had no inkling of his approaching journey to the
+Cape when he came to see her in June, 1832, although<span class="pagenum" id="Page_160">160</span>
+the visit was designed as a farewell. Hanover itself,
+too, had for him an ancestral charm.</p>
+
+<p>“It was only this evening,” he wrote home, “that,
+escaping from a party at Mrs. Beckedorff’s, I was able
+to indulge in what my soul has been yearning for ever
+since I came here—a solitary ramble out of town,
+among the meadows which border the Leine-strom,
+from which the old, tall, sombre-looking Marktthurm,
+and the three beautiful lanthorn steeples of Hanover
+are seen as in the little picture I have often looked at
+with a sort of mysterious wonder when a boy, as that
+strange place in foreign parts that my father and
+uncle used to talk so much about, and so familiarly.
+The <em>likeness</em> is correct, and I soon found the point of
+view.”</p>
+
+<p>Almost from the beginning of his surveying operations,
+Herschel cherished the hope of extending them
+to the southern hemisphere. But during his mother’s
+lifetime, he took no steps towards its realisation.
+The separation would have been cruel. Her death,
+however, on January 6th, 1832, at the age of eighty-one,
+removed this obstacle, and the scheme rapidly
+took shape. The station originally thought of was
+Parramatta, in New South Wales; but Dunlop’s observations
+there anticipated him, and he reflected with
+disappointment that “the cream of the southern
+hemisphere had been skimmed” before his turn came.
+He learned afterwards that nothing important in the
+“sweeping” line had been done at Parramatta; he had
+virgin skies to explore. A trip to the Himalayas was
+his next ambition; and one of the recommendations
+of the Cape of Good Hope was its being “within
+striking distance of India.” But to India he never
+went. The Cape was beyond question the most<span class="pagenum" id="Page_161">161</span>
+suitable locality for his purpose, and it would have
+been waste of time to have left it, even temporarily,
+for any other. He was offered a free passage thither
+in a ship of war, but preferred to keep his enterprise
+altogether on a private footing. So having embarked
+with his wife, three children, and instrumental outfit,
+on board the <i>Mountstuart Elphinstone</i>, he left the
+shores of England, November 13, 1833.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<div id="toclink_162" class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_162">162</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII.<br />
+
+<span class="subhead">EXPEDITION TO THE CAPE.</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class="in0"><span class="firstword">The</span> voyage was prosperous, but long. Nine weeks
+and two days passed before the welcome cry of “Land”
+was heard; and it was in the dawn of January 15,
+1835, that Table Mountain at last stood full in view,
+“with all its attendant range down to the farthest
+point of South Africa,” outlined, ghost-like, in clear
+blue. The disembarkation of the instruments and
+luggage took several days. They filled fifteen large
+boats, and a single onslaught of the south-easterly
+gale, by which at that time of the year Cape Town is
+harried, might easily have marred the projected
+campaign. All, however, went well.</p>
+
+<p>The travellers were welcomed by Dr. Stewart, one
+of Lady Herschel’s brothers, and enthusiastically
+greeted by the Royal Astronomer, Sir Thomas Maclear.
+They made no delay in fixing their headquarters.</p>
+
+<p>“For the last two or three days,” Herschel wrote
+to his aunt, January 21, “we have been looking for
+houses, and have all but agreed for one, a most beautiful
+place four or five miles out of town, called ‘The
+Grove.’ In point of situation it is a perfect paradise
+in rich and magnificent mountain scenery, and sheltered
+from all winds, even the fierce south-easter, by thick
+surrounding woods. I must reserve for my next all
+description of the gorgeous display of flowers which
+adorns this splendid country, as well as the astonishing
+brilliancy of the constellations.”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_163">163</span></p>
+
+<p>“The Grove” resumed its old Dutch name of
+“Feldhausen” during Herschel’s occupation of it;
+and as “Feldhausen” it will always be memorable in
+astronomical history as the scene of the first effective
+exploration of the southern heavens. The place is
+essentially unchanged. Only an avenue of fir-trees
+has been planted by way of approach to the house, a
+solid Dutch structure, with a disconsolate-looking
+garden in front; while in an adjacent field, carpeted
+with yellow lupins every spring, and redolent of their
+perfume, an obelisk has been erected on the former
+site of the great reflector. Above, to the west, towers
+the <em>gable-end</em> of Table Mountain, and an exuberant
+growth of oaks and pines softens the sternness of its
+“mural precipices.”</p>
+
+<p>The neighbourhood was, in those days, lonely in
+the human sense, although otherwise over- and ill-populated.
+Wolves and jackals abounded in the
+forests; venomous snakes slid through the grass;
+baboons had the run of the country; even the lion
+and the hippopotamus were scarcely yet extinct in the
+Cape Peninsula. Many a wild hyæna-shriek startled
+the astronomer at his nightly toil; and Dr. Whewell
+reported that he had “spent one night in tiger-hunting,
+but seemed to think it poor sport compared with
+the <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">chasse aux étoiles doubles</i>.” <em>Tiger</em>, it should be
+explained, is a local name for a species of leopard:
+no true tigers have ever been encountered in Africa.</p>
+
+<p>His twenty-foot began its activity February 22nd,
+and the refractor, which was equatorially mounted in
+a revolving dome, was ready early in June. “But I
+am sorry to say,” he told Miss Herschel, “that the
+nights in which it can be used to advantage are rare.”
+And he lamented to his brother-in-law and intimate<span class="pagenum" id="Page_164">164</span>
+friend, Mr. James C. Stewart, that, during the hot
+season, “the stars tremble, swell, and waver most
+formidably.” The Cape heavens are indeed often
+exasperating. On nights meteorologically quite fine,
+the dismayed astronomer not uncommonly sees the
+stars “walking about” in the field of view; and a
+mere handful of cloud will, at other times, with incredible
+swiftness, spread over the whole face of the
+sky. Still, compensation is, sooner or later, sure to
+come in a run of magnificent observing weather. This
+was Herschel’s experience. He informed Francis
+Baily, October 23rd, 1834, that “the definition was far
+beyond anything experienced in England.” After
+rain especially, superb opportunities were afforded,
+when</p>
+
+<div class="p1 b1 center">
+
+<p>“The starry sequence of nocturnal hours”<a id="FNanchor_7" href="#Footnote_7" class="fnanchor">G</a></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_7" href="#FNanchor_7" class="fnanchor">G</a> R. Garnett, “Iphigenia in Delphi.”</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p class="in0">might be unbroken, perhaps for a week together, by a
+single adverse incident of climate.</p>
+
+<p>Herschel took three specula with him to the Cape;
+one made by his father, another by himself with his
+father’s aid, and a third, of his own exclusive manufacture.
+Their rapid tarnishing kept them in constant
+circulation from the tube to the polisher. After half a
+dozen nights they had lost all brilliancy; at the end
+of three months, they were more than purblind. He
+acquired, however, such facility and skill in the use of
+his polishing machine, that he was able, in 1835, to
+report his mirrors as “more perfect than at any
+former time.”</p>
+
+<p>He made astonishingly quick progress in observation.
+On October 24th, 1835, Miss Herschel was
+informed, “I have now very nearly gone over the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_165">165</span>
+whole southern heavens, and over much of it often.
+In short, I have, to use a homely phrase, broken the
+neck of the work, and my main object now is to
+secure and perfect what is done.”</p>
+
+<p>His sweeps yielded a harvest of 1,202 double stars,
+and 1,708 nebulæ and clusters, only 439 of which had
+been previously registered. Among the novelties were
+a faint, delicate miniature of the ring-nebula in Lyra,
+and five planetaries. One of these he described as “of
+a beautiful greenish-blue colour, a full and intense
+tint.” This lovely object, situated in Centaur, is sometimes
+distinguished as “<em>the</em> blue planetary”; although
+its hue is shared by all the members of its class. The
+nature of their spectrum, in fact, obliges them to be
+more or less green.</p>
+
+<p>Sir John Herschel applied the term “falcated” to
+two curious nebulæ belonging, undoubtedly, to the
+later recognised “spiral” class. He perceived besides
+in oval nebulæ the annular lines of structure emphasised
+in Dr. Roberts’s photographs. He remarked,
+further, that “as the condensation increases toward
+the middle, the ellipticity of the strata diminishes.”</p>
+
+<p>His study of the Magellanic Clouds gave the first
+idea of their composition. He showed them to be
+aggregations on a vast scale of every variety of cosmical
+product. “When examined through powerful
+telescopes, the constitution of the Nubeculæ, and
+especially of the Nubecula Major, is found to be of
+astonishing complexity.” He drew up a preliminary
+catalogue of 1,163 stars, nebulæ and clusters included
+in them, the conjunction of which was really decisive as
+to nebular status. For he showed, from the elementary
+principles of trigonometry, that, taking the Greater
+Cloud to be roughly spherical in shape, its nearest and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_166">166</span>
+remotest parts could differ in distance from ourselves
+by little more than one-tenth the distance of its centre.
+The fact was thus demonstrated that seventh and
+eighth-magnitude stars and irresolvable nebulæ co-exist
+within those limits. He stopped short, however,
+of the conclusion drawn by Whewell and Spencer,
+that the stellar and nebular sub-kingdoms are not
+only locally intermixed, but inseparably united.</p>
+
+<p>The Magellanic Clouds are the most conspicuous
+features of the barren south polar heavens. Round
+the Lesser Cloud especially, the sky, Herschel said,
+“is most oppressively desolate.” And again: “The
+access to the Nubecula Minor on all sides is through a
+desert.” One of the separate inmates of the Larger
+Cloud is the “great looped nebula,” compared by
+Herschel to “an assemblage of loops,” the complicated
+windings of which make it “one of the most extraordinary
+objects which the heavens present.” To
+the eye of the present writer it resembled a shining
+strip of cellular tissue hung up against the sky.
+The “lace-work nebula” in Cygnus is of the same
+type; but here the tracery of nebula is closely
+followed by a tracery of stars. Truly, “A most
+wonderful phenomenon!” as Herschel exclaimed in
+contemplating it.</p>
+
+<p>The first photographs of the Magellanic Clouds
+were taken in 1890–91 by Mr. Russell of Sydney.
+They contained an extraordinary revelation. Both
+objects came out in them as gigantic spirals. Their
+miscellaneous contents are then arranged according
+to the dictates of a prevalent, though unexplained
+cosmical law. The Nubecula Major is a double
+vortex, and the extent of its outlying portions, invisible
+except to the camera, is at least eight times<span class="pagenum" id="Page_167">167</span>
+that of the central mass; but they conform to the
+same helical lines.</p>
+
+<p>Herschel catalogued 1,203 stars strewn over the
+surface of the famous Argo nebula, and devoted
+several months to its delineation. This he found
+“a work of great labour and difficulty.” While at
+the telescope he often half surrendered to despair
+“of ever being able to transfer to paper, with even
+tolerable correctness, its endless details.” “Language
+cannot easily convey,” he said, “a full impression
+of the beauty and sublimity of the spectacle this
+nebula offers when viewed in a sweep, ushered in by
+so glorious and innumerable a procession of stars, to
+which it forms a sort of climax.” Only the Orion
+nebula may be thought to surpass it in “magnitude,
+complexity, and brightness.” Its most characteristic
+feature is an abrupt vacuity, of a “lemniscate oval”
+shape, from which it derives the name of the “Keyhole
+Nebula.” The value of Herschel’s drawing of this
+grand object has been accentuated by its photographic
+portrayal. Their comparison betrays, in fact, the
+occurrence in the interval of what appears to be a vast
+change. Already, in 1871, Mr. Russell missed with surprise
+a prominent feature in the Feldhausen picture;
+and its failure to appear on photographic plates exposed
+for eight hours, yet impressed with innumerable stars
+previously unseen, raised something more than a
+presumption that, as Mr. Russell said, “a well-defined
+and brilliant portion of this nebula vanished between
+1837 and 1871.” Its disappearance was independently
+verified by Dr. Gill, Royal Astronomer at the Cape.
+With a total exposure of more than twelve hours, in
+March, 1892, he secured a magnificent representation
+of this wonderful object, fundamentally agreeing with<span class="pagenum" id="Page_168">168</span>
+Herschel’s, save only as regards the mass of bright
+nebulosity vainly looked for by Mr. Russell. The
+“swan-shaped” or “trident-like” structure was clean
+gone! That is to say, the matter composing it had
+ceased to be luminous. It should be added that Mr.
+Ranyard, whose special experience lent weight to his
+opinion, thought it unsafe to trust much to comparisons
+of drawings of such baffling objects, either
+among themselves or with photographs.</p>
+
+<p>Before leaving the Cape, Herschel witnessed an
+event testifying surprisingly to the <em>vitality</em> of this
+nebula. In a condensed tract close to the dark “keyhole,”
+he was accustomed to see the bright star Eta
+Argûs. It gave no sign of being variable until, on
+December 16, 1837, he perceived with amazement
+that it had, all at once, nearly tripled in brightness.
+After this sudden leap, it mounted gradually to the
+level of Alpha Centauri, then slowly declined. It just
+matched Aldebaran when Herschel lost sight of it in
+March, 1838. A second, and even more vigorous
+outburst was watched by Sir Thomas Maclear in 1843.
+It then overtopped every star except Sirius, and for
+seven subsequent years rivalled the splendour of
+Canopus. No notice was at first taken of its colour;
+but it was redder than Mars in 1850, and reddish it
+still remains, in its low estate of invisibility to the
+naked eye. But since bright lines of hydrogen show
+in its photographed spectrum, we may suspect <span class="locked">that—</span></p>
+
+<div class="p1 b1 center">
+
+<p>“Even in its ashes live its former fires,”</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="in0">and that, consequently, its vicissitudes are not yet
+terminated. The instability of its character was virtually
+discovered at Feldhausen. Except by Burchell,
+the African traveller, no previous suspicion of it had<span class="pagenum" id="Page_169">169</span>
+been entertained; the numerous facts denoting that
+the star’s past behaviour had been abnormal were
+collected by Sir John Herschel after it had been
+caught <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">in flagrante delicto</i>. In his belief, it had
+no physical connection with, but was merely projected
+upon, the nebula. But since then the nebular
+relations of blazing stars have been strongly
+underlined. The mass of circumstantial evidence
+now accumulated on the point fully warrants the
+assertion that Eta Argûs makes an integral part of
+the formation it once illuminated.</p>
+
+<p>A cluster in the constellation of the Cross, unique
+in the varied and brilliant tints of its principal components,
+was compared by Herschel to “a gorgeous
+piece of fancy jewellery.” Within the space of 1/48th
+part of a square degree, he determined the places of
+no less than 110 of them, referred to Kappa Crucis, a
+rosy orb round which they are irregularly scattered.
+The colour-effects in this beautiful ornament of the
+sky need large apertures for their full display.</p>
+
+<p>An object showing to the eye as a hazy star of the
+fourth magnitude was entitled by Bayer in 1603
+Omega Centauri. Herschel’s twenty-foot disclosed it
+as “a noble globular cluster, beyond all comparison
+the richest and largest in the heavens.” Dr. Gill obtained
+an admirable photograph of it May 25, 1892.
+The stars composing it are literally countless. On a
+plate exposed for two hours at Arequipa, Mr. Solon I.
+Bailey reckoned nearly 6,400; yet he made no allowance
+for those “too faint and closely packed” to be
+perceptible except as a “mottled grey background between
+the distinct images.”</p>
+
+<p>Somewhat inferior to Omega Centauri in size,
+though not at all in beauty, is 47 Toucani. So<span class="pagenum" id="Page_170">170</span>
+obvious is it to the naked eye that, for several nights
+after his arrival in Peru, Humboldt took it for a comet.
+Central condensation in this cluster appeared to
+Herschel as if marked off into three distinct stages;
+and to his delighted perception the whole interior
+offered, by its roseate hue, an exquisite contrast to
+the silvery radiance of the outer portions. No other
+observer has, however, noticed this chromatic peculiarity.
+The structure of 47 Toucani is almost perfectly
+uniform. It is broken by none of the “dark
+lanes,” rifts, or tunnels which so curiously diversify
+many globular clusters. The usual hirsute aspect
+lent by the spreading abroad of <em>tentacles</em>, or radiating
+stellar streams, is likewise scarcely distinguishable
+either in 47 Toucani or Omega Centauri. Indeed,
+Mr. Bailey noticed that the photographic images of
+both were all but perfectly circular. In a future age
+this may be otherwise. Streams of stars will, perhaps,
+set outward from these grand assemblages, leaving
+vacancies behind. Thus, if it be permissible to judge
+of the relative antiquity of clusters by their advance
+towards disruption, 47 Toucani and Omega Centauri
+may be reckoned among the youngest of the globular
+kind existing in the heavens.</p>
+
+<p>The mechanism of clusters has received little attention
+from any astronomer beside Herschel. And a
+solution of an ideal case of the problem it presented
+was the utmost he could achieve.</p>
+
+<p>“A quiescent spherical form,” he wrote in 1833,
+“may subsist as the bounding outline of an immense
+number of equal stars, uniformly distributed through
+its extent. In such a state of things each star might
+describe an ellipse in any plane, and in any direction
+in that plane, about the common centre without the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_171">171</span>
+possibility of collision. If the form be not spherical,
+and the distribution of the stars not homogeneous, the
+dynamical relations become too complicated to be distinctly
+apprehended.”</p>
+
+<p>But the more closely these aggregations are examined,
+the less likely does it seem that they in any
+sense represent “quiescent forms.” The arrangement
+of the stars composing them rather suggests their
+being outward bound into the ocean of surrounding
+space, although the orders that they carry are to us
+sealed.</p>
+
+<p>Herschel subsequently altered his views regarding
+the composition of clusters, and threw out in 1847
+“the possibility of masses of luminous matter—of
+whatever density or rarity, of whatever bulk or
+minuteness—forming a connected system, and being
+prevented from collapse or from mutual interference
+by the resistance of a transparent and non-luminous
+medium.” For a “dynamical” he, in short, substituted
+a “statical equilibrium,” the interposed medium
+lending unity to the mixed aggregate, and enabling it
+to rotate, as a whole, upon an axis. But the rotation
+is more than questionable. It seems to be precluded
+by the ragged contours and indeterminate boundaries
+of all starry collections. Photographic evidence, on
+the other hand, favours Sir John Herschel’s surmise
+as to the composite nature of clusters. Some at least
+evidently unite within themselves the “two sidereal
+principles.” The stellar points they mainly consist
+of are immersed in, or linked together by, shining
+nebulous stuff.</p>
+
+<p>Herschel provided a southern sequel to his father’s
+star-gauging work by counting 70,000 stars in 2,300
+fields. Their distribution was in complete accordance<span class="pagenum" id="Page_172">172</span>
+with the results of the earlier experiments. “Nothing
+can be more striking,” Sir John wrote, “than the
+gradual, but rapid increase of density on either side
+of the Milky Way as we approach its course.” The
+existence of an “ecliptic of the stars” (in Lambert’s
+almost prophetic phrase) was demonstrated. Or, as
+Herschel himself put it, the plane of the Galaxy “is
+to sidereal, what the ecliptic is to planetary astronomy,
+a plane of ultimate reference, the ground-plan of the
+sidereal system.” He estimated, from the basis of his
+gauge-reckonings, that his twenty-foot reflector was
+capable of showing, in both hemispheres, about five
+and a half million stars. The smallest of these would
+be of 14·5 magnitude, on the strict photometric scale.
+But, unless his valuation was greatly too small, there
+must be a conspicuous falling off in stellar density
+beyond the region of tenth or eleventh magnitude.
+If this be so, scarcely one-quarter of the expected
+stars will make their appearance on the plates of
+the International Survey.</p>
+
+<p>The grand feature of southern celestial scenery
+is the splendour of the Milky Way. One of the
+galactic condensations in Sagittarius actually seems
+to start out from the sky in a definite globular
+form; and the darkness of the great rift beginning
+near the Cross is so intensified by contrast with
+the strongly luminous branches it separates, as to
+throw the blackness of the exterior heavens <em>into
+the shade</em>. This part of the Milky Way may
+even be seen in southern latitudes—as it was by
+the present writer—reflected from a glassy ocean-surface.
+The section passing from Centaur through
+the Ship to Orion is, in some respects, still more
+striking. Captain Jacob remarked at Madras that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_173">173</span>
+“the general blaze from this portion of the sky is such
+as to render a person immediately aware of its having
+risen above the horizon, though he should not be at
+the time looking at the heavens.” Herschel commented
+on the singular interruptions of the shining
+zone by obscure spaces in Scorpio, near Alpha
+Centauri, and elsewhere; and admired the enhancement
+afforded to its magnificence by “a marvellous
+fringe of stars” attached pretty regularly to its southern
+border. “It is impossible,” he wrote to Sir William
+Hamilton in June, 1836, “to resist the conviction that
+the Milky Way is not a stratum, but a ring.”</p>
+
+<p>His telescopic analysis disclosed in it a variety and
+complexity of structure for which he was wholly
+unprepared. “Great cirrous masses and streaks” of
+galactic light presented themselves in Sagittarius;
+and, as the telescope moves, the appearance is that
+of clouds passing in a <em>scud</em>.” “The Milky Way,” he
+continued, “is like sand, not strewn evenly as with a
+sieve, but as if flung down by handfuls, and both hands
+at once, leaving dark intervals, and all consisting of
+stars of the lowest magnitudes,” down to nebulosity,
+in a most astonishing manner.” As he proceeded, the
+stars became “inconceivably numerous and minute.
+There must be millions on millions, and all most
+unequally massed together; yet they nowhere run to
+nuclei, or clusters much brighter in the middle.”</p>
+
+<p>In some regions, the formation proved unfathomable;
+all traces of stellar <em>texture</em> disappeared. In
+others, it was plainly perceived to consist of portions
+differing exceedingly in distance, but brought by
+projection into nearly the same visual line. Near
+the Trifid Nebula, “we see foreshortened,” he said,
+“a vast and illimitable area scattered over with<span class="pagenum" id="Page_174">174</span>
+discontinuous masses and aggregates of stars, in the
+manner of the cumuli of a mackerel-sky, rather than
+of a stratum of regular thickness and homogeneous
+formation.”</p>
+
+<p>These varied observations compelled him to reject
+decisively Olbers’s hypothesis of light-extinction in
+space. For, if the possible range of ethereal messages
+be restricted in one direction, it must be equally restricted
+in all. “We are not at liberty,” he reasoned,
+“to argue that in one part of the circumference of the
+galaxy our view is limited by this sort of cosmical
+veil which extinguishes the smaller magnitudes, cuts
+off the nebulous light of distant masses, and closes
+our view in impenetrable darkness; while, at another,
+we are compelled, by the clearest evidence telescopes
+can afford, to believe that star-strewn spaces <em>lie open</em>,
+exhausting their powers and stretching out beyond
+their utmost reach.” These objections seem fatal to
+what we may call the “agnostic” theory of the sidereal
+world—the theory that investigations into its construction
+are for ever barred by failure of the means
+of communication—that we can never see more than a
+necessarily meaningless part of a possibly infinite, and,
+in any case, absolutely inscrutable whole.</p>
+
+<p>The general telescopic exploration of the Milky
+Way began and ended with the Herschels. Their
+great reflectors have been superseded by the photographic
+camera. This particular application of its
+versatile powers encountered special difficulties; but
+they were happily overcome by Professor Barnard in
+July, 1889. A six-inch portrait lens afforded the two
+chief requisites of a powerful light-grasp and an extensive
+field; and plates exposed with it for some three
+hours showed accordingly, for the first time, “in all<span class="pagenum" id="Page_175">175</span>
+their delicacy and beauty” (to quote Professor Barnard’s
+words), “the vast and wonderful cloud-forms, with
+their remarkable structure of lanes, holes, and black
+gaps, and sprays of stars, as no eye or telescope can
+ever hope to see them.” The work has since been
+continued by him and others, notably by Mr. Russell
+at Sydney, and by Professor Max Wolf at Heidelberg,
+so that the complete round of the “circling zone”
+will, before long, have its varied aspects permanently
+recorded. They frequently present strange and significant
+forms. Branching, leaf-like, spiral, elliptical
+structures abound; individual stars are disposed in
+circlets, streams, parallel rows, curves of sundry kinds.
+A “clustering power” of unknown nature is ubiquitously
+active; orderly development is in progress. A
+creative purpose can be <em>felt</em>, although it cannot be
+distinctly followed by the mind.</p>
+
+<p>Herschel’s “sweeps” in southern skies were continued
+until January, 1838; but with frequent intermissions.
+He was ready for every interesting object
+that came in his way—comets among the rest.
+“Encke’s—<em>yours</em>,” he informed his aunt, October 24,
+1835, “escaped me owing to trees and the Table
+Mountain, though I cut away a good gap in our
+principal oak avenue to get at it.” Four days later
+he caught sight of Halley’s comet at its second predicted
+return. But for the stellar aspect of this body
+his observations of it would have begun much earlier;
+for, in the absence of an exact ephemeris, it was
+impossible to pick it out from among the stars it long
+precisely counterfeited. “I am sure,” he said, “that
+I must often have swept with a night-glass over the
+very spot where it stood in the mornings before
+sunrise; and never was surprise greater than mine at<span class="pagenum" id="Page_176">176</span>
+seeing it riding high in the sky, broadly visible to the
+naked eye, when pointed out to me by a note from
+Mr. Maclear, who saw it with no less amazement on
+the 24th.”</p>
+
+<p>“This comet,” he wrote to Miss Herschel, March
+8, 1836, “has been a great interruption to my sweeps,
+and I <em>hope</em> and <em>fear</em> it may yet be visible another
+month.” It lingered on just two. He watched with
+astonishment the changes it underwent. “Within
+the well-defined head,” he wrote in his “Cape Observations,”
+“and somewhat eccentrically placed, was seen
+a vividly luminous nucleus, or rather, an object which
+I know no better way to describe than by calling it a
+miniature comet, having a nucleus, head, and tail of
+its own, perfectly distinct, and considerably exceeding
+in intensity of light the nebulous disc or envelope.”</p>
+
+<p>This strangely organised body was a very Proteus
+for instability of form. It alternately lost and recovered
+its tail. It contracted into the likeness of a
+star, then dilated into a nebulous globe, which at last
+vanished as if through indefinite diffusion. The
+whole mass “seemed touched, seemed turned to
+finest air.” During one week at the end of January—it
+had passed perihelion November 16—Sir John
+estimated that the cometary Amœba had increased
+its bulk no less than forty times!</p>
+
+<p>The paraboloidal form characteristic of this comet
+and many others, was to him “inconceivable,”
+apart from the play of repulsive, in addition to attractive
+forces; and he suggested that high electrical
+excitement due to vaporisation, if of the same kind
+with a permanent charge on the sun, would plausibly
+account for the enigmatical appearances he had
+witnessed. From their close study at Königsberg,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_177">177</span>
+Bessel had already concluded “the emission of the
+tail to be a purely electrical phenomenon.”</p>
+
+<p>In March, 1836, Herschel attacked the subject of
+southern stellar photometry. Carrying further the
+“method of sequences,” he determined the relative
+brightness of nearly five hundred stars, which he
+disposed in order on a single descending scale, and
+linked on by careful comparisons to the northern
+stars, as they “lightened into view” on the homeward
+voyage. By the device of an “artificial standard
+star,” he was besides enabled to obtain numerical
+values for the lustre of each star examined, in terms
+of that of Alpha Centauri. Most important of all,
+he rectified the current system of magnitudes, and
+introduced a definite “light ratio,” which has since
+been extended, and more strictly defined, but not
+altered.</p>
+
+<p>His “astrometer” gave Herschel the means of
+<em>balancing</em> the lustre of Alpha Centauri against full
+moonlight. The latter proved to be 27,500 times
+more powerful. And Wollaston having determined
+the ratio of moonlight to sunlight at 1/800000 (corrected
+by Zöllner to 1/600000), it became feasible to compare
+the brightness of any particular star, <em>as we see it</em>, with
+the brightness of the sun. Alpha Centauri, for example,
+sends us, according to Herschel, 1/22 thousand
+millionth of the light we receive from our domestic
+luminary. Moreover, when the distance of the star
+came to be measured (it amounts to twenty-five billions
+of miles), <em>light received</em> could at once be translated
+into <em>light emitted</em>. And the result has been to show
+that the components of this splendid binary are, taken
+together, four times more luminous than the sun.
+Through Sir John Herschel’s photometric researches,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_178">178</span>
+then, the real light-power of stars at known distances
+became an ascertainable quantity; and it is an element
+of great importance to astrophysical inquiries.</p>
+
+<p>On January 10, 1837, he wrote from Feldhausen
+to his brother-in-law: “I am now at work on the
+spots in the sun, and the general subject of solar
+radiation.” The sun was just then at an exceptionally
+high maximum of disturbance. Spots of enormous
+size frequently obscured its disc. One was estimated
+by Herschel, March 29, 1837, to cover, independently
+of others, an area of 3,780 millions of square miles.
+So that it considerably exceeded in dimensions the
+great spot-group of February, 1892, the largest ever
+photographed at Greenwich. The study of a series of
+such phenomena led him to propound the “cyclone-theory”
+of their origin. It marked a decided advance
+in solar physics, if only because it rested upon the
+fact—until then unaccountably overlooked—that spot-production
+is intimately connected with the sun’s
+rotation. He regarded it as a kind of disturbance
+incidental to a system of fluid circulation analogous
+to the terrestrial trade- and anti-trade winds. “The
+spots,” he said, “in this view of the subject would
+come to be assimilated to those regions on the earth’s
+surface where, for the moment, hurricanes and tornadoes
+prevail; the upper stratum being temporarily carried
+downwards, displacing by its impetus the two strata
+of luminous matter beneath, the upper of course to
+a greater extent than the lower, and thus wholly or
+partially denuding the opaque surface of the sun
+below.”</p>
+
+<p>But the fundamental cause of our atmosphere’s
+flow and counter-flow is absent in the sun. The earth
+is heated from the outside, and therefore unequally;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_179">179</span>
+hence the air rushes along, turning westward as it
+goes, from the chilly poles to the torrid zone of vertical
+sunshine. No reason is, however, apparent why the
+solar equator should be hotter than the solar poles.
+That adduced by Herschel is certainly inadequate.
+He supposed that, by a retention of heat at the
+equator due to the accumulation there, consequent
+upon his rotation, of the sun’s absorbing atmosphere,
+a difference of temperature might be maintained
+sufficient to keep the solar trade-winds blowing. But
+the effect is too slight to be detected. And, in fact,
+the main drift of the photospheric layers is along
+parallels of latitude. Polar and equatorial currents
+are insignificant and uncertain.</p>
+
+<p>Herschel and Pouillet contemporaneously, although
+at opposite sides of the globe, succeeded in 1837 in
+measuring the intensity of solar radiation. They were
+the first to apprehend the true bearings of the question,
+which in principle are simple enough. All that is
+required is to determine the heating effects, in a given
+time, of direct sunshine. Its despoilment by our air
+has, indeed, to be allowed for. Here the chief element
+of uncertainty comes in. Herschel put the loss at
+one-third the original thermal power of vertical rays;
+Pouillet pronounced it nearly one-half; Langley, using
+the most refined appliances, concludes it to be four-tenths.
+Striking an average between his own and
+the French results, Herschel calculated that, at the
+sun’s surface, a shell of ice forty feet thick would
+melt in one minute, the rate being reduced, at the
+distance of the earth, to an inch in two hours and
+twelve minutes. And it is now practically certain
+that this estimate was too small by about half its
+amount.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_180">180</span></p>
+
+<p>By way of illustrating the effects obtained with his
+philosophical apparatus, he constructed a popular kind
+of actinometer, in the shape of an “American dispatch,”
+made of a few pieces of wood and two panes of
+glass, in which eggs were roasted, and beef-steaks
+broiled, by sun-heat alone. The viands thus <em>cosmically
+cooked</em> were “eaten with no small relish by the entertained
+bystanders.”</p>
+
+<p>Mimas and Enceladus, Saturn’s innermost moons,
+had persistently eluded Herschel’s search for them in
+England; but, to his great delight, both favoured him
+at the Cape. His observations of them in 1835–6 were
+the first since his father’s time. The next detection
+of Mimas was by Mr. Lassell in 1846.</p>
+
+<p>The extent, variety, and completeness of the work
+done at Feldhausen strike one with ever-fresh admiration.
+It seems scarcely credible that so much
+was accomplished in four years by a single unaided
+individual. Herschel’s only assistant was an honest
+mechanic named John Stone, faithful, serviceable, in
+his way skilful, but not a “being” of the “quick as
+lightning” sort, imagined and realised by Caroline
+Herschel. It is related that during his observations of
+Halley’s comet, Sir John on one occasion fell asleep,
+and while he remained in this condition of peril (owing
+to the elevation and insecurity of his perch), Stone kept
+dutifully turning the telescope. At last the astronomer
+awoke, rubbed his eyes, looked down the great tube,
+saw nothing, rubbed his eyes again, and exclaimed,
+“Why, John, where’s the comet?” The comet had
+meantime set, and the telescope was duly directed
+towards its place behind Table Mountain!</p>
+
+<p>The splendid fulfilment of his astronomical tasks
+did not represent the whole of Herschel’s activity at<span class="pagenum" id="Page_181">181</span>
+the Cape. He collected a large store of tidal data for
+Dr. Whewell; started scientific meteorology; established
+a system of national education still working
+beneficially, and presided over the South African
+Literary and Scientific Institution, the members of
+which presented him with a gold medal on his departure.
+His visit made an epoch in the development of
+the Colony.</p>
+
+<p>To himself personally it was a time of intense enjoyment.
+His labours, arduous though they were,
+proceeded calmly, disembarrassed from jostling claims
+and counter-claims. They were carried on with
+absorbed enthusiasm, inspired in part by their sublime
+nature, in part by the excitement of novelty. His
+family throve and multiplied at Feldhausen. Sir
+Thomas Maclear’s friendship supplied unfailing social
+pleasure. An exhilarating climate, moreover, enchanting
+scenery, translucent skies, blossoming glens
+and hillsides worthy of Maeldune’s Isle of Flowers,
+contributed to render his southern sojourn a radiant
+episode. He wrote of it to Mr. Stewart as “the sunny
+spot in my whole life, where my memory will always
+love to bask.” But “the dream,” he added, “was too
+sweet not to be dashed by the dread of awakening.”
+The spell was broken when in the middle of March,
+1838, he sailed in the <i>Windsor Castle</i> for England.</p>
+
+<p>The interest created by his romantic expedition
+spread to the other side of the Atlantic. A grotesque
+narrative, published in the <i>New York Sun</i> for September,
+1835, of lunar discoveries made at the Cape
+with the combined aid of the twenty-foot reflector
+and the Drummond limelight, was eagerly read and
+believed by thousands, was reprinted, re-circulated,
+and re-read. Nor were common gulls the only victims<span class="pagenum" id="Page_182">182</span>
+to the hoax. The truth of the story was gravely
+debated by the Paris Academy of Sciences.</p>
+
+<p>Herschel’s home-coming was a triumph. He was
+overwhelmed with applause and gratulation. His
+fellow-countrymen offered him what compensation
+they could for the disappearance from his horizon of
+the Southern Cross. He was created a baronet at the
+Queen’s Coronation, received an honorary degree of
+D.C.L. at Oxford in 1839, and was offered, but declined,
+reimbursement from the Treasury for the entire cost of
+his trip. He peremptorily refused as well to represent
+the University of Cambridge in Parliament, or to be
+nominated for the Presidentship of the Royal Society.
+His utmost desire was for a quiet and laborious life.
+A banquet, however, given in honour of his return,
+June 15, 1838, could not be shunned; the less so
+that the celebration had a typical character. “In
+honouring a man,” Sir William Hamilton said, in
+proposing his health, “we honour science too.” For
+“the cultivators and lovers of Science have chosen
+Herschel for their chief—say, rather, have as such
+received him by inheritance.”</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<div id="toclink_183" class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_183">183</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX.<br />
+
+<span class="subhead">LIFE AT COLLINGWOOD.</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class="in0"><span class="firstword">Herschel’s</span> career as an observing astronomer came
+to a virtual end with his departure from the Cape.
+He was then forty-six, two years younger than his
+father when he began his course of prodigious activity
+at Slough. Sir William’s craving to see and to know
+was insatiable; Sir John’s was appeased by the
+accomplishment of one grand enterprise. His was a
+many-sided mind; dormant interests of sundry kinds
+revived on the first opportunity; new ones sprang up;
+and curiosity to interrogate the skies ceased to “prick
+the sides of his intent.” So the instruments taken
+down at Feldhausen in 1838 were not remounted in
+England; and their owner is never again recorded to
+have used a telescope. One cannot but regret that, in
+the plenitude of his powers, and instructed by rare
+experience, he should have put by his weapons of
+discovery.<a id="FNanchor_8" href="#Footnote_8" class="fnanchor">H</a> The immense stock of observations with
+which they had furnished him remained, it is true, in
+their primitive, rough-hewn state; and he may have
+considered that wise husbandry required him to save
+one harvest before planting another. This, at any
+rate, was the course that he pursued.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_8" href="#FNanchor_8" class="fnanchor">H</a> The three specula of the twenty-foot are in the possession of
+Sir William J. Herschel; the tube remains in good preservation at
+Collingwood.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>But it was often and in many ways interrupted.
+The demands on his time and thoughts were innumerable.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_184">184</span>
+Having settled his family for the season in
+London, he paid his third and last visit to his venerable
+aunt, and, in returning, dined with Dr. Olbers,
+the physician-astronomer of Bremen, then in his
+eightieth year. A fortnight later he was on his way
+to Newcastle, where the British Association met,
+August 20th. He was received with acclamation, but
+overwhelmed by scientific exactions. The proceedings
+were to him “a dreadful wear and tear,” and they
+left behind “mixed and crowded recollections.” No
+wonder. Besides acting as President of the Mathematical
+Section, he found himself involved in varied
+responsibilities. He was placed on a Committee for
+bringing down to date the places of Lacaille’s 10,000
+southern stars; on another for revising stellar nomenclature.
+The reduction of a body of meteorological
+observations made on a plan of his devising was
+entrusted to him; above all, he was charged with the
+development of Humboldt’s international scheme for
+securing systematic and world-wide observations on
+terrestrial magnetism. He drew up a memorial to
+the Government; compiled the Instructions for Sir
+James Clark Ross’s Antarctic expedition; and elaborately
+reported progress at several successive meetings
+of the British Association. His heart was in the work.
+He contributed an article dwelling on its importance
+to the <i>Quarterly Review</i> for June, 1840; and in
+1845 he expressed the opinion that “terrestrial physics
+form a subject every way worthy to be associated with
+astronomy as a matter of universal interest and public
+support.”</p>
+
+<p>The constellations gave him still more trouble
+than the vagaries of poised needles. They were in a
+riot of disorder. Celestial maps had become “a system<span class="pagenum" id="Page_185">185</span>
+of derangement and confusion”—of confusion “worse
+confounded.” New asterisms carved out of old existed
+precariously, recognised by some, ignored by others;
+waste places in the sky had been annexed by
+encroaching astronomers as standing-ground for their
+glorified telescopes, quadrants, sextants, clocks; a
+chemical apparatus had been set up by the shore of
+the river Eridanus, itself a meandering and uncomfortable
+figure; while serpents and dragons trailed
+their perplexing convolutions through hour after
+hour of right ascension. There were constellations so
+large that Greek, Roman, and Italic alphabets had
+been used up in designating the included stars; there
+were others separated by debatable districts, the stars
+in which often duplicated those situated within the
+authentic form of one of the neighbouring celestial
+monsters. Identification was thus in numberless
+cases difficult; in some, impossible.</p>
+
+<p>In conjunction with Francis Baily, Herschel undertook
+the almost hopeless task of rectifying this
+intolerable disorder. After much preliminary labour,
+he submitted to the Royal Astronomical Society, in
+1841, a drastic scheme of constellational reform—a
+stellar redistribution-bill, framed on radical principles.
+Its alarming completeness, however, caused it to be
+let drop; and he finally proposed, in his report of 1844
+to the British Association, a less ambitious but more
+practicable measure. Although not adopted in its entirety,
+it paved the way for ameliorations. The boundaries
+of the constellations have since been defined;
+interlopers have been ejected; one—the Ship Argo—especially
+obnoxious for its unwieldy dimensions,
+has been advantageously trisected. Nevertheless,
+individual star-nomenclature grows continually more<span class="pagenum" id="Page_186">186</span>
+perplexed; partial systems have become intermingled
+and entangled; double stars are designated in one
+way, variables in another, quick-moving stars in a
+third, red stars in a fourth, while any one of many
+catalogue-numbers may be substituted at choice;
+palpable blunders, unsettled discrepancies, anomalies
+of all imaginable kinds, survive in an inextricable web
+of arbitrary appellations, until it has come to pass that
+a star has often as many aliases as an accomplished
+swindler.</p>
+
+<p>In the spring of 1840 Herschel removed from
+Slough to Collingwood, a spacious country residence
+situated near Hawkhurst, in Kent. Here he devoted
+himself, in good earnest, to the preparation
+of his Cape results for the press. It was no
+light task. The transformation of simple registers
+of sweeps into a methodical catalogue is a long and
+irksome process; and Herschel was in possession of
+the “sweepings” of nearly four hundred nights. He
+executed it single-handed, being averse to the employment
+of paid computers. This was unfortunate.
+Monotonous drudgery was not at all in his line; as
+well put Pegasus between shafts. He had always
+found in himself “a great inaptitude” for numerical
+calculations; and he now acknowledged to Baily that
+attention to figures during two or three consecutive
+hours distressed him painfully. Whewell lamented
+in the <i>Quarterly Review</i> the lavish expenditure of his
+time and energy upon “mere arithmetic”—computations
+which a machine would have been more competent
+to perform than a finely organised human brain.
+At last, however, in November, 1842, the necessary
+reductions were finished; and the letterpress to
+accompany the catalogues of double stars and nebulæ<span class="pagenum" id="Page_187">187</span>
+left his hands a couple of years later. The preparation
+of the plates occasioned further vexatious delays; and
+it was not until 1847 that the monumental work
+entitled “Results of Astronomical Observations at the
+Cape of Good Hope” issued from the press. The
+expenses of its production were generously defrayed
+by the Duke of Northumberland. In sending a
+copy to his aunt, then in her ninety-eighth year,
+he wrote: “You will have in your hands the completion
+of my father’s work—‘The Survey of the
+Nebulous Heavens.’” The publication was honoured
+with the Copley Medal by the Royal Society, and
+with a special testimonial by the Astronomical
+Society.</p>
+
+<p>Bessel, the eminent director of the Königsberg
+observatory, made Herschel’s personal acquaintance
+at the Manchester meeting of the British Association
+in 1842, and paid him a visit at Collingwood. The
+subject of a possible trans-Uranian planet was discussed
+between them. The German astronomer
+regarded its existence as certain, and disclosed the
+plot he had already formed for waylaying it on its
+remote path. The premonition stirred Herschel
+deeply. “There ought to be a hue and cry raised!”
+he exclaimed in a letter to Baily. And in resigning
+the Chair of the British Association, September 10,
+1846, he spoke with full assurance of the still undiscovered
+body. “We see it,” he declared, “as
+Columbus saw America from the shores of Spain.
+Its movements have been felt, trembling along the
+far-reaching line of our analysis, with a certainty
+hardly inferior to that of ocular demonstration.”
+Within a fortnight, Neptune, through Le Verrier’s
+indications, was captured at Berlin.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_188">188</span></p>
+
+<p>“I hope you agreed with me,” he wrote, November
+19, 1846, to Sir William Hamilton, “that it is perfectly
+possible to do justice to Adams’s investigations
+without calling in question M. Le Verrier’s <em>property</em>
+in his discovery. The fact is, I apprehend, that the
+Frenchmen are only just beginning to be aware <em>what
+a narrow escape Mr. Neptune had of being born an
+Englishman</em>. Poor Adams aimed at his bird, it
+appears, first, and as well as Le Verrier, but his gun
+hung fire, and the bird dropped on the other side of
+the fence!”</p>
+
+<p>It is well known that Le Verrier and Adams
+personally ignored controversy as to their respective
+claims to the planetary <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">spolia opima</i>. They were
+together at Collingwood in July, 1847, with Struve as
+their fellow-guest. During those few days King
+Arthur (in the person of Sir John Herschel) “sat in
+hall at old Caerleon.”</p>
+
+<p>He was elected President of the Royal Astronomical
+Society for the usual biennial term in 1828,
+1840, and 1847; on the last occasion through the diplomatic
+action of Professor De Morgan. The Society was
+passing through a crisis; he apprehended its dissolution,
+and judged that it could only be saved by
+getting Herschel’s consent to become its nominal
+head. “The President,” he wrote to Captain Smyth,
+“must be a man of brass (practical astronomer)—a
+micrometer-monger, a telescope-twiddler, a star-stringer,
+a planet-poker, and a nebula-nabber. If we
+give bail that we won’t let him do anything if he
+would, we shall be able to have him, I hope. We
+must all give what is most wanted, and his name is
+even more wanted than his services. We can do
+without his services, not without loss, but without<span class="pagenum" id="Page_189">189</span>
+difficulty. I see we shall not, without great difficulty,
+dispense with his name.”</p>
+
+<p>And to Herschel himself: “We have been making
+our arrangements for the Society for the ensuing
+year; and one thing is that you are not to be asked
+to do anything, or wished to do anything, or wanted
+to do anything. But we want your <em>name</em>.” It
+was lent; and its credit seems to have had the
+desired effect.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Whewell vainly tried to inveigle him, in
+November, 1838, into accepting the presidentship of
+the Geological Society; but he had to submit, in
+1842, to be elected Rector of Marischal College,
+Aberdeen; and he consented to preside over the
+meeting of the British Association at Cambridge in
+June, 1845. His dignity on the occasion was not
+allowed to interfere with his usefulness. He wrote
+home June 22: “We have been on the Magnetic
+Committee working hard all the morning, in a Babel
+of languages and a Babylonian confusion of ideas,
+which crystallised into something like distinctness at
+last.” By that time the long-desired particulars
+regarding terrestrial magnetism were rapidly accumulating.
+<em>Facts</em>, as Herschel announced from the
+Presidential Chair, were plentifully at hand. “What
+we now want is <em>thought</em>, steadily directed to single
+objects, with a determination to avoid the besetting
+evil of our age—the temptation to squander
+and dilute it upon a thousand different lines of
+inquiry.”</p>
+
+<p>Herschel observed the great comet of 1843 from
+the roof of his house at Collingwood, on March 17,
+the first evening of its visibility in England. All
+that could be seen was “a perfectly straight narrow<span class="pagenum" id="Page_190">190</span>
+band of considerably bright, white cloud, thirty
+degrees in length, and about one and a half in
+breadth.” It was not until the following night
+that he recognised in this strange “luminous appearance”
+“the tail of a magnificent comet, whose head
+at the times of both observations was below the
+horizon.”</p>
+
+<p>In December, 1850, he was appointed Master of
+the Mint—a position rendered especially appropriate
+to him by Newton’s prior occupation of it. The duties
+connected with it were just then peculiarly onerous.
+Previously of a temporary and political character, the
+office now became permanent, and simply administrative.
+Many other changes accompanied this fundamental
+one. “The whole concern,” he said, “is in
+process of reorganisation.” This fresh start demanded
+much “personal and anxious attendance.”
+Notwithstanding his anxious regard for the interests
+of subordinates, the reconstruction could not but be
+attended by serious friction. No amount of oiling
+will get rusty wheels to revolve smoothly all at once.
+“Things progress rather <em>grumpily</em>,” he reported
+privately, “owing to the extreme discontent of some
+parties.” Further contentious business devolved
+upon him as a member of the jury on scientific
+instruments at the Great Exhibition. His time was
+fully and not agreeably occupied. Rising at six, he
+worked at home until half-past nine, then hurried
+to the Mint, which he exchanged between three
+and four o’clock for the Exhibition, and there,
+until the closing of its doors, examined the claims,
+and appeased the quarrels of rival candidates for
+distinction. He also sat on the Royal Commission
+appointed in 1850 to inquire into the University<span class="pagenum" id="Page_191">191</span>
+system. Its recommendations, agreed to by him
+in 1855, greatly disgusted Whewell; but their friendship
+remained unaltered by this discordance of
+opinion.</p>
+
+<p>These accumulated responsibilities were too much
+for Herschel’s sensitive nature; and the burthen
+was made heavier by a partial separation from his
+family. He was never alone in Harley Street, but the
+joyous life of Collingwood could not be transported
+thither; and the arid aspect of a vast metropolis,
+suggesting business and pleasure in excess, but little
+of enjoyment in either, oppressed him continually.
+His health suffered, and in 1855 he withdrew definitively
+into private life. His resignation of the Mint
+was most reluctantly accepted.</p>
+
+<p>“I find,” playfully remarked De Morgan, “that
+Newton and Herschel added each one coin to the
+list: Newton, the gold quarter-guinea, which was
+in circulation until towards the end of the century;
+Herschel, the gold quarter-sovereign, which was never
+circulated.”</p>
+
+<p>It was not the repose of inaction that Herschel
+sought at Collingwood. “Every day of his long and
+happy life,” Professor Tait said truly, “added its
+share to his scientific services.” Thenceforward he
+devoted himself chiefly to the formidable task of
+collecting and revising his father’s results and his
+own. His “General Catalogue of Nebulæ,” published
+in the <i>Philosophical Transactions</i> for 1864, was in
+itself a vast undertaking. It comprised 5,079 nebulæ
+and clusters, to which it served as a universal index
+of reference. It averted the mischief of duplicate discoveries,
+settled the sidereal status of many a pseudo-comet,
+and quickly became the authoritative guide<span class="pagenum" id="Page_192">192</span>
+of both comet- and nebula-hunters. In the enlarged
+form given to it by Dr. Dreyer in 1888, it is likely
+long to hold its place. Herschel next, in 1867, amalgamated
+into a regular catalogue of 812 entries his
+father’s various classed lists of double stars (Memoirs,
+Royal Astronomical Society, xxxv.). A far more comprehensive
+work was then taken in hand. He desired
+to do for double stars what he had done for nebulæ—to
+compile an exhaustive register of them in the
+shape of a catalogue, accompanied by a short descriptive
+account of each pair. But he was not destined
+to put this coping-stone to the noble monument
+erected by his genius. Strength failed him to digest
+and dispose the immense mass of materials he had
+collected. Nor was it possible for another to gather
+up the loose threads of his unfinished scheme. All
+that could be done was to preserve the imposing
+fragment as he left it. An ordered list of the 10,320
+multiple stars he had proposed to treat was accordingly
+published in the fortieth volume of the same
+Society’s <i>Memoirs</i> under the care of Professor
+Pritchard and Mr. Main. But it hardly possesses
+more than a commemorative value.</p>
+
+<p>Maria Edgeworth was an old friend of Sir John
+Herschel’s. In March, 1831, she paid him a three
+days’ visit at Slough, which, she told a friend in Ireland,
+“has far surpassed my expectations, raised as they
+were, and warm from the fresh enthusiasm kindled by
+his last work” (the “Preliminary Discourse”). Mrs.
+Herschel she described as “very pretty,” sensible, and
+sympathetic, and possessed of the art of making
+guests happy without effort. On Sunday, after service,
+the philosopher showed off the dazzling colour-effects
+of polarised light, and at night, with the twenty-foot,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_193">193</span>
+“Saturn and his rings, and the moon and her
+volcanoes.”</p>
+
+<p>After twelve years, she came again, this time
+to Collingwood. “I should have written before,”
+Herschel assured Sir William Hamilton, December 1st,
+1843, “but Miss Edgeworth has been here, and that,
+among all people who know how to enjoy her, is
+always considered an excellent reason for letting correspondence
+and all other worldly things ‘gang their
+ain gate.’ She is more truly admirable now, I think,
+than at any former time, though in her seventy-fifth
+year.”</p>
+
+<p>Maria herself wrote from Collingwood in the following
+spring: “Here are Lord and Lady Adare, Sir
+Edward Ryan, and ‘Jones on Rent.’ Jones and
+Herschel are very fond of one another, always differing,
+but always agreeing to differ, like Malthus and
+Ricardo.”</p>
+
+<p>Sir William Hamilton spent a week under the same
+hospitable roof in 1846. He was delighted, and, as
+was his wont, compressed the expression of his pleasure
+“within the Sonnet’s scanty plot of ground.” In the
+first of a pair entitled “Recollections of Collingwood,”
+he celebrated the “thoughtful walk” with his host,
+and the “social hours” in a family circle,</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+<div class="poetry">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <div class="verse indentq">“Where all things graceful in succession come;</div>
+ <div class="verse indent0">Bright blossoms growing on a lofty stalk,</div>
+ <div class="verse indent0">Music and fairy-lore in Herschel’s home.”<a id="FNanchor_9" href="#Footnote_9" class="fnanchor">I</a></div>
+ </div>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_9" href="#FNanchor_9" class="fnanchor">I</a> The lines are quoted in Graves’s “Life of Hamilton,” vol. ii.
+p. 525.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p class="in0">The second dealt with “high Mathesis,” and</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_194">194</span></p>
+<div class="poetry-container">
+<div class="poetry">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <div class="verse indent8">“dimly traced Pythagorean lore;</div>
+ <div class="verse indent0">A westward-floating, mystic dream of <span class="allsmcap">FOUR</span>.”</div>
+ </div>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>Although not, like his friend, an incorrigible and
+impenitent sonnetteer, Herschel was “very guilty” of
+at least one specimen of the art. They were staying
+together, in June, 1845, at Ely, in the house of Dean
+Peacock. Hamilton’s inevitable sonnet came duly
+forth, and “next morning,” he related to De Morgan,
+“as my bedroom adjoined Herschel’s, and thin partitions
+did my madness from his great wit divide, I
+easily heard what Burns might have called a
+‘crooning,’ and was not much surprised (being
+familiar with the symptoms of the attack)<a id="FNanchor_10" href="#Footnote_10" class="fnanchor">J</a> when, before
+we sat down to breakfast at the Deanery, Lady
+Herschel handed me, in her husband’s name and her
+own, a sonnet of <em>his</em> to <em>me</em>, which, unless the spirit of
+egotism shall seize me with unexpected strength, I
+have no notion of letting you see.”</p>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_10" href="#FNanchor_10" class="fnanchor">J</a> “<span xml:lang="la" lang="la">Aut insanit, aut versos facit.</span>”</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>The circulation of Herschel’s fervid eulogy would
+assuredly have put his modesty to the blush. Headed
+“On a Scene in Ely Cathedral,” it runs as <span class="locked">follows:—</span></p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+<div class="poetry">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <div class="verse indentq">“The organ’s swell was hushed, but soft and low</div>
+ <div class="verse indent0">An echo, more than music, rang; when he,</div>
+ <div class="verse indent0">The doubly-gifted, poured forth whisperingly,</div>
+ <div class="verse indent0">High-wrought and rich, his heart’s exuberant flow</div>
+ <div class="verse indent0">Beneath that vast and vaulted canopy.</div>
+ <div class="verse indent0">Plunging anon into the fathomless sea</div>
+ <div class="verse indent0">Of thought, he dived where rarer treasures grow,</div>
+ <div class="verse indent0">Gems of an unsunned warmth and deeper glow.</div>
+ <div class="verse indent0">O born for either sphere! whose soul can thrill</div>
+ <div class="verse indent0">With all that Poesy has soft or bright,</div>
+ <div class="verse indent0">Or wield the sceptre of the sage at will</div>
+ <div class="verse indent0">(That mighty mace which bursts its way to light),</div>
+ <div class="verse indent0">Soar as thou wilt!—or plunge—thy ardent mind</div>
+ <div class="verse indent0">Darts on—but cannot leave our love behind.”</div>
+ </div>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>Of Hamilton’s abstruse invention, the method of
+“Quaternions” (here alluded to), Herschel was, from<span class="pagenum" id="Page_195">195</span>
+the first, an enthusiastic admirer. He characterised
+it in 1847 as “a perfect cornucopia, from which,
+turn it on which side you will, something rich and
+valuable is sure to drop out.” The “power and
+pregnancy” of the new calculus were supremely delightful
+to him, and he advised every mathematician
+to gain mastery over it as a “working tool.” As
+such it has not yet been brought into ordinary use,
+yet it remains in the armoury of science, ready for
+emergencies.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Mitchell of Nantucket, the discoverer of a
+comet, and a professor of astronomy, published in 1889
+(in the <cite>Century</cite> magazine) her reminiscences of a
+short stay at Collingwood in 1858. Her host “was at
+that time sixty-six, but he looked much older, being
+lame and much bent in his figure. His mind, nevertheless,
+was full of vigour. He was engaged in re-writing
+the ‘Outlines of Astronomy.’” “Sir John’s
+forehead,” she says, “was bold but retreating; his
+mouth was very good. He was quick in motion and
+in speech. He was remarkably a gentleman; more
+like a woman in the instinctive perception of the
+wants and wishes of a guest.”</p>
+
+<p>“In the evening,” she relates, “we played with
+letters, putting out charades and riddles, and telling
+anecdotes, Sir John joining the family party and
+chatting away like the young people.” He propounded
+the question: If one human pair, living in the time of
+Cheops, had doubled, and their descendants likewise,
+once every thirty years, could the resulting population
+find room on the earth? The company thought not.
+“But if they stood closely, and others stood on their
+shoulders, man, woman, and child, how many layers
+would there be?” “Perhaps three,” replied Miss<span class="pagenum" id="Page_196">196</span>
+Mitchell. “How many feet of men?” he insisted.
+“Possibly thirty.” “Enough to reach to the moon,”
+said his daughter. “To the sun,” exclaimed another.
+“More, more!” cried Sir John, exulting in the general
+astonishment. “To Neptune,” was the next bid.
+“Now you burn,” he allowed. “<em>Take one hundred
+times the distance of Neptune, and it is very near.</em>”
+“That,” he added, “is my way of whitewashing war,
+pestilence, and famine.”</p>
+
+<p>He further entertained his American guest with
+accounts of the paradoxical notions communicated to
+him by self-taught or would-be astronomers. One
+had inferred the non-existence of the moon from
+Herschel’s chapters on lunar physics and motions.
+Another enclosed half-a-crown for a horoscope. A
+third wrote, “Shall I marry, and have I seen her?”
+In reference to the efforts then being made to introduce
+decimal coinage into England, he remarked,
+“We stick to old ways, but we are not cemented to
+them.”</p>
+
+<p>The portrait of Caroline Herschel, painted by
+Tielemann in 1829, which she herself declared to
+“look like life itself,” hung in the drawing-room. (It
+is that reproduced in this volume.) “You would say
+in looking at it,” Miss Mitchell wrote, ‘she must have
+been handsome when she was young.’ Her ruffled
+cap shades a mild face, whose blue eyes were even
+then full of animation. But it was merely the beauty
+of age.”</p>
+
+<p>Herschel was no exception to the rule that
+astronomers love music and flowers. He was never
+tired of gardening, and—to quote James Nasmyth—“his
+mechanical and manipulative faculty enabled
+him to take a keen interest in all the technical arts<span class="pagenum" id="Page_197">197</span>
+which so materially aid in the progress of science.”
+The manufacture of specula naturally came home to
+him, and he watched with genuine pleasure Nasmyth’s
+grinding and polishing operations. He spent several
+days with him at Hammerfield in 1864. “Of all
+the scientific men I have had the happiness of
+meeting,” Nasmyth wrote in his “Autobiography,”
+“Sir John stands supremely at the head of the
+list. He combined profound knowledge with perfect
+humility. He was simple, earnest, and companionable.
+He was entirely free from assumptions
+of superiority, and, still learning, would listen attentively
+to the humblest student. He was ready
+to counsel and instruct, as well as to receive
+information.”</p>
+
+<p>Herschel’s correspondence with De Morgan extended
+over nearly forty years, and became latterly of
+an intimate character. “Looking back on our long
+friendship,” he wrote to the widow shortly after De
+Morgan’s death in the spring of 1871, “I do not find a
+single point on which we failed to sympathise; and I
+recall many occasions on which his sound judgment
+and excellent feeling have sustained and encouraged
+me. Many and very distinct indications tell me that
+I shall not be long after him.”</p>
+
+<p>It fell out as he had predicted. The obituary
+memoirs of the two are printed close together in the
+Astronomical Society’s “Monthly Notices.” After a
+prolonged decline of strength, Sir John Herschel
+died at Collingwood, in his seventy-ninth year, May
+5th, 1871, his intellect remaining unclouded to
+the last. He was buried in Westminster Abbey,
+near the grave of Newton. The words engraven
+above his resting-place, “Coelis exploratis, hic prope<span class="pagenum" id="Page_198">198</span>
+Newtonum requiescit,” tell what he did, and what
+he deserved.</p>
+
+<p>His death created an universal sense of sorrow and
+of loss. He left vacant a place which could never be
+filled. His powers, his qualities, and his opportunities
+made a combination impossible to be reproduced. His
+genius showed curious diversities from his father’s.
+He lacked his profound absorption, his penetrating
+insight, his unaccountable intuitions. A tendency to
+discursiveness, happily kept in check by strength of
+will and devotion to an elevated purpose, replaced in
+him his father’s enraptured concentration. On the
+other hand, his appreciative instinct for the recondite
+beauty of mathematical conceptions was wanting to
+his father. William Herschel possessed fine mathematical
+abilities; but he cultivated them no further
+than was necessary for the execution of his designs;
+and elementary geometry served his turn. But Sir
+John might have taken primary rank as a pure
+mathematician. Possibly his inventive faculty would
+have developed in that line more strongly than in any
+other. The grasp of his mind was indeed so wide
+that many possibilities of greatness were open to him.
+That he chose rightly the one to make effective, no
+one can doubt. The neglect on his part of astronomy
+would have been a scientific delinquency. His splendid
+patrimony of telescopic results and facilities was
+inalienable. It was a talent entrusted to him, which
+he had not the right to bury in the ground. He
+laboured with it instead to the last farthing. Not for
+his own glory. He aspired only to fill up, for the
+honour of his father’s name, the large measure of his
+achievements. In doing so he performed an unparalleled
+feat. He swept from pole to pole the entire surface of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_199">199</span>
+the hollow sphere of the sky. It is unlikely to be
+repeated. The days of celestial pioneering are past.
+Nothing on the scale of a general survey will in future
+be undertaken except with photographic help. The
+use of the direct telescopic method tends to become
+more and more restricted. This is a loss as well as a
+gain. A <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">hortus siccus</i> is to a blooming garden very
+much what a collection of photographs is to the
+luminous flowers of the sky. They are depicted more
+completely, more significantly, more conveniently for
+purposes of investigation, than they can be seen; but
+the splendour of them is gone. Their direct contemplation
+has an elevating effect upon the mind,
+which indirect study, however diligent and instructive,
+is incapable of producing. The sublimity of the
+visions drawn from the abyss of space cannot be
+reasoned about. It strikes home to the spectator’s
+inner consciousness without waiting for the approval
+of his understanding. Thus to Herschel, no less expressly
+than to the Psalmist three thousand years
+earlier, “the heavens told the glory of God.” He
+lived at his telescope a life apart, full of incommunicable
+experiences.</p>
+
+<p>“To Herschel,” as Mr. Proctor expressed it,
+“astronomy was not a matter of right ascension and
+declination; of poising, clamping, and reading-off; of
+cataloguing and correcting.” “It was his peculiar
+privilege,” Dean Stanley remarked in his funeral
+sermon, “to combine with those more special studies
+such a width of view and such a power of expression
+as to make him an interpreter, a poet of science, even
+beyond his immediate sphere.” Hence the popularity
+of his books, and the favoured place he occupied in
+public esteem.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_200">200</span></p>
+
+<p>His character was of a more delicate fibre than his
+father’s. It was also, by necessary consequence, less
+robust. Sir William Herschel surmounted adversity.
+Sir John would have endured it, had his lot been so
+appointed. But it never came his way. He was one
+of those rarest of rare <span class="locked">individuals—</span></p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+<div class="poetry">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <div class="verse indentq">“Whose even thread the Fates spin round and full,</div>
+ <div class="verse indent0">Out of their choicest and their whitest wool.”</div>
+ </div>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>His life was a tissue of felicities. For him there
+was no weary waiting, no heart-sickening disappointment,
+no vicissitudes of fortune, no mental or
+moral tempests. Success attended each one of his
+efforts; he could look back without regret; he could
+look forward with confident hope; his family relations
+brought him unalloyed happiness. He suffered, indeed,
+one bereavement in the untimely death of his
+daughter, Mrs. Marshall, the wife of a nephew of Dr.
+Whewell; but Christian resignation sweetened his
+sorrow. His religion was unpretending and efficacious.
+No duty was left by him unfulfilled; and he
+wore, from youth to age, “the white flower of a
+blameless life.” A discriminating onlooker said of
+him, that his existence “was full of the serenity
+of the sage and the docile innocence of a child.”
+He was retiring almost to a fault, careless of applause,
+candid in accepting criticism. Although habitually
+indulgent, he was no flatterer, “Anyone,” Mr.
+Proctor said, “who objected to be set right when
+in error, might well be disposed to regard Sir John
+Herschel as a merciless correspondent, notwithstanding
+the calm courtesy of his remarks. He set truth in the
+first place, and by comparison with her, neither his
+own opinions, nor those of others, were permitted to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_201">201</span>
+have any weight whatever.” Beginners invariably
+met with his sympathy and encouragement. He felt
+for difficulties which he himself had never experienced.</p>
+
+<p>Being thus constituted, he could not but inspire
+affection. The French physicist, Biot, when asked by
+Dr. Pritchard, after the death of Laplace, who, in his
+opinion, was his worthiest successor, replied, “If I did
+not love him so much, I should unhesitatingly say,
+John Herschel.” His own attachments were warm
+and constant; and the few scientific controversies in
+which he engaged, were carried on with his habitual
+gentleness and urbanity.</p>
+
+<p>Herschel left eight daughters and three sons, of
+whom the eldest, Sir William James Herschel,
+succeeded him in the baronetcy, while the second,
+Professor Alexander Stewart Herschel, has earned
+celebrity by his meteoric researches. The election of
+the third, Colonel John Herschel, to a Fellowship of
+the Royal Society, in recognition of his spectroscopic
+examination of southern nebulæ, threw a gleam of
+joy over his father’s deathbed. Lady Herschel
+survived her husband upwards of thirteen years.</p>
+
+<p>The learned societies of Europe vied with each
+other in enrolling the name of Sir John Herschel;
+and he was nominated, in 1855, on the death of
+Gauss, one of the eight foreign members of the
+French Academy of Science. As we have seen, he
+received the Copley Medal from the Royal Society
+twice, their Royal Medal thrice, and from the Royal
+Astronomical Society, two Gold Medals and a testimonial.
+Compliments and homage, however, left him
+as they found him—quiet, intent, and unobtrusive.</p>
+
+<p>Several portraits of him are in existence. One was
+executed in oils by Pickersgill for St. John’s College,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_202">202</span>
+Cambridge, at a comparatively early period of his life.
+It is here (<a href="#ip_142">page 142</a>) reproduced from an admirable
+engraving. His later aspect is finely represented in a
+painting by his eldest daughter, Lady Gordon. The
+eyes in it are sunken, though brilliant; the shape of
+the head is concealed by a mane of grey hair. There
+is about it something of leonine grandeur, disjointed
+from leonine fierceness. It perpetuates, indeed, the
+countenance of a man replete with human tenderness.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<div id="toclink_203" class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_203">203</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X.<br />
+
+<span class="subhead">WRITINGS AND EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATIONS.</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class="in0"><span class="firstword">Could</span> the whole of Sir John Herschel’s astronomical
+career be obliterated, and the whole of his contributions
+to pure mathematics be forgotten, he would still
+merit celebrity as a physicist. Experimental optics,
+above all, engaged his attention. “Light,” he himself
+said, “was his first love,” and he was never wholly
+forgetful of it. In 1830 he described himself as
+“forcibly drawn aside from his optical studies” by the
+claims of nebulæ and double stars. How strong he
+felt those claims to be, can best be understood by
+considering the firmness with which he averted his
+mind, out of regard to them, from the intricate and
+bewitching subject of his early devotion.</p>
+
+<p>“I understand from Peacock,” Dr. Whewell wrote
+to him, June 19, 1818, “that you are untwisting light
+like whipcord, examining every ray that passes within
+half a mile, and putting the awful question, ‘Polarised,
+or not polarised?’ to thousands that were never before
+suspected of any intention but that of moving in a
+straight line.” These interrogatories brought out a
+remarkable diversity in the action upon light of
+quartz, and other similar substances, corresponding
+with the two different modes of crystallisation belonging
+to each of them. Here, in Lord Kelvin’s phrase,
+is “one of the most notable meeting-places between
+natural history and natural philosophy.”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_204">204</span></p>
+
+<p>The nascent science of spectrum analysis was materially
+promoted by Herschel. He noticed in 1819 the
+distinctive light-absorbing qualities of coloured media,
+studied the spectra of various flames, adverted to the
+definiteness and individuality of the bright lines
+composing them, and recommended their employment
+for purposes of chemical identification.</p>
+
+<p>A year later, he developed and modified Brewster’s
+explanation of the colours of mother-of-pearl. They
+do not, like the iridescence of a fly’s wing, result from
+the interference of waves of light reflected from two
+closely adjacent surfaces, but from interference brought
+about by the finely striated texture of the shell’s surface,
+and a cast of the rainbow-tinted surface in black
+sealing-wax will display the same sheen of colour as
+the original. Herschel detected, however, a second
+more closely striated structure which cannot be impressed
+upon plastic matter.</p>
+
+<p>Up to this time he accepted unreservedly the
+emission theory of light. But a candid study of
+Young’s and Fresnel’s writings produced a fundamental
+change in his opinions; and in an article on “Light,”
+written for the “Encyclopædia Metropolitana” in 1827,
+he expounded the undulatory theory with all the
+ardour of a neophyte. He brought thereby one of the
+grandest generalisations of science into universal
+currency, and enforced its acceptance by the cogency
+of his arguments, the logical order of his method, and
+the lucidity of his style. The treatise was translated
+into French by Quetelet; and no reader, Professor
+Pritchard remarked, “could escape the charm of the
+half-suppressed enthusiasm which carried him along.”</p>
+
+<p>Whewell ranked him “among the <em>very</em> small
+number of those who, in the singularly splendid and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_205">205</span>
+striking researches of physical optics, had both added
+important experimental laws to those previously
+known, and weighed the relations of these discoveries
+to the refined and recondite theory towards which they
+seemed to point.” He contributed to the same Encyclopædia
+scarcely less brilliant essays on Heat, Sound,
+and Physical Astronomy.</p>
+
+<p>“Do not observe too much in cold weather,” Miss
+Herschel advised her nephew, in anticipation of the
+winter of 1831–2; “write rather books to make folks
+stare at your profound knowledge.”</p>
+
+<p>He followed the positive part of her counsel.
+Indeed, his “Preliminary Discourse on the Study of
+Natural Philosophy” had made its appearance in the
+previous year, as the introductory volume to Lardner’s
+“Cabinet Cyclopædia.” It was greeted with a chorus
+of approbation. Gauss reviewed it in the <i xml:lang="de" lang="de">Gelehrte
+Anzeigen</i>, Whewell in the <i>Quarterly Review</i>. Translated
+into French, German, and Italian, it delighted
+“all sorts and conditions” of readers with the justice
+and breadth of the views set forth in it agreeably,
+easily, and without pretension to superiority. The
+book included a survey of the actual state of scientific
+knowledge, and a philosophy of its augmentation.
+Students derived from it, Gauss remarked, both
+information as to how accepted results had been
+obtained, and guidance for their personal investigations.
+Herschel was exceptionally qualified, Whewell
+wrote, “to expound the rules and doctrines of
+that method of research to which modern science
+has owed its long-continued, steady advance, and
+present flourishing condition.” He had the knowledge,
+without the narrowness, of a specialist in
+almost every department of experimental physics.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_206">206</span>
+“With singular alacrity,” he came to the front
+wherever there seemed a chance of pushing back the
+barriers of ignorance. A disciple of Bacon, he had the
+advantage over his master of being habitually conversant
+with the practical working of inductive
+methods. The treatise was styled by Whewell “an
+admirable comment on the ‘Novum Organum.’”
+One, however, possesses the indefinable quality of
+<em>greatness</em>; it stands out from the centuries a solid
+structure, clothed with visionary magnificence; the
+other is elegant, attractive, wise, acute, even profound,
+but not in any degree, or from any point of view, <em>great</em>.</p>
+
+<p>It was followed, in 1833, by “A Treatise on Astronomy,”
+published in the same series. An “Edinburgh
+Reviewer” (doubtless Brougham once more) perused
+it with regret. “The proper position of Sir John
+Herschel” he considered to be “at the head of those
+who are nobly, though it may be silently and without
+notice, endeavouring to extend the present limits of
+human knowledge,” rather than among “the ranks of
+those whose office it is to herald the triumphs of
+science, and point out its treasures and results to the
+admiration of the vulgar.” This ostensibly flattering
+estimate was made the basis for an imputation of
+vanity. The inducements, according to the critic,
+were strong “to descend from the airy summits of
+abstract science to the level at which the great body
+of the reading public can appreciate and applaud.
+Philosophers, like other writers, naturally wish to be
+read, and to have reputation; and reputation, as was
+remarked by d’Alembert, depends more upon the
+number than the merit of those who praise.” Sir
+John Herschel would have been better employed in
+pursuing the track of original discoveries, leaving new<span class="pagenum" id="Page_207">207</span>
+truths to “find their way to the drawing-room as best
+they might.” The whole tenour of his life refuted
+these insinuations.</p>
+
+<p>The “Treatise on Astronomy” was enlarged in
+1849 into the deservedly famous “Outlines of Astronomy.”
+Twelve editions of this book were published,
+the last in 1873; it was translated into Chinese and
+Arabic, as well as into most European languages,
+including Russian; it made a profound and lasting
+impression upon the public mind. No science has
+perhaps ever received so masterly a general interpretation.
+Methodical in plan, inspiriting in execution,
+it demands readers willing to share some part of the
+pains, for the sake of partaking in the high pleasures
+of the writer. For it is popular in the sense of
+eschewing mathematical formulæ, not in the sense of
+evading difficulties.</p>
+
+<p>The work fittest to be set by its side is the “Exposition
+du Système du Monde.” But Laplace restricted
+his view to the sun’s domain, while Herschel excluded
+from his no part of the sidereal universe. Laplace
+was, besides, a geometer in the first, an astronomer
+only in the second place. The movements of the
+heavenly bodies interested him because they afforded
+opportunities for analytical triumphs. Their intricacy
+notwithstanding, he was elated to find that
+they could not baffle his ingenuity in constructing
+formulæ to correspond. Their balance, their harmony,
+their obedience to a single and simple law,
+gratified the orderly instincts of his powerful yet
+frigid mind. Where he could not explain, however,
+he did not admire. Mystery had no attraction for
+him. Knowledge, to <em>be</em> knowledge in his eyes, should
+have definite, clear-cut outlines. His scheme of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_208">208</span>
+universe was like the map of the world laid down by
+Hecatæus, neatly finished off with a circumfluent
+ocean-stream; it included no intimations of a <em>beyond</em>.
+Herschel’s, on the contrary, might be compared to the
+map of Herodotus, in which some details were filled
+in, while the external boundary had been abolished.
+The most essential part of the progress made in the
+interval consisted in leaving verge and scope for the
+unknown. Next to nothing remained to be learned of
+the heavens, as they presented themselves to the
+author of the “Mécanique Céleste”; while Herschel
+saw everywhere only beginnings, possibilities of discovery,
+and dim prospects of “ultimate attainments,”
+as to the realisation of which “it would be unwise to be
+sanguine, and unphilosophical to despair” (Playfair).
+At the head of very many of his chapters he might,
+without presumption, have written: “<span xml:lang="la" lang="la">Quorum pars
+magna fui</span>.” They gave largely the results of his
+personal investigations, and were vivified by immediate
+acquaintanceship with the objects described. Hence
+the unsought picturesqueness of his descriptive
+epithets, and the sublimity of trains of thought communicated
+to him direct from the unveiled heavens.</p>
+
+<p>Herschel invented in 1825, jointly with Babbage,
+the “astatic,” or neutralised magnetic needle—a
+little instrument which was no sooner available
+than it was found to be indispensable. “<span xml:lang="la" lang="la">Nihil tetigit
+quod non ornavit</span>.” And many and various were the
+things touched by his versatile genius. He had a
+narrow escape of becoming for life a chemist. At the
+very outset of his career he applied for the vacant chair
+of that science at Cambridge; but was left, as he himself
+humorously expressed it, “in a glorious minority
+of one.” The chemical inquiries, nevertheless, which<span class="pagenum" id="Page_209">209</span>
+he carried on at Slough brought to his notice one set
+of relations of no trifling importance. This was the
+solvent effect upon salts of silver of the hyposulphites
+of soda, potash, etc. The discovery was turned to
+account by himself in 1840 for the “fixing” of photographic
+images. It secured the future of the embryo
+art. By the agency of hyposulphite of soda in washing
+away the unaffected chloride of silver, while leaving
+untouched the parts of the deposit decomposed and
+darkened by exposure, permanent light-pictures,
+capable of indefinite multiplication, were at length
+secured.</p>
+
+<p>On March 14th, 1839, unaware that he had been
+anticipated by Fox Talbot, Herschel presented to the
+Royal Society twenty-three prints made by the
+sensitised paper process. A memoir communicated
+in 1840 was full of suggestive novelties. In it
+he described experiments on “the chemical analysis
+of the solar spectrum,” pointing out that the
+character and amount of the action exercised by the
+various rays depend mainly upon the nature of the
+substance acted upon. He made a start, too, with
+spectral photography, and his detection of the
+“lavender-grey” effect to the eye of the ultra-violet
+section might be said to have added a new note to the
+prismatic gamut. In the opposite, or infra-red end, by
+simply letting the solar spectrum fall upon a strip of
+paper moistened with alcohol, he detected, through
+the different rates of drying where they fell, some of
+the “cold bands,” by which the invisible heat-rays are
+furrowed. The photo-spectroscopic apparatus devised
+for the purpose of these researches formed part of the
+Loan Collection of Scientific Instruments exhibited at
+South Kensington in 1876.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_210">210</span></p>
+
+<p>Still more essential was the improvement of substituting
+for paper, glass plates spread with a sensitive
+film. A photograph of the old forty-foot telescope,
+taken by this method in 1839, and preserved in the
+South Kensington Museum, is of unrivalled antiquarian
+value as regards the history of photography. The terms
+“positive” and “negative” received in this remarkable
+paper their now familiar photographic meaning. Its
+merits were acknowledged in 1840 by the award of a
+Royal Medal.</p>
+
+<p>Sir John Herschel would, doubtless, at that time
+have set aside as a chimera the notion that the art he
+was engaged in promoting was destined, in large
+measure, to supersede visual methods in astronomy;
+that the great telescopes of the future would find
+their most useful employment in concentrating the
+rays of celestial objects upon sensitive plates. He
+soon perceived, however, the importance of photography
+as an adjunct to direct observation, and
+recommended, in 1847, the automatic self-registration
+of sun-spots. This hint—emphasised in 1848—was
+acted upon in 1858, when the regular collection of
+documentary evidence as to the sun’s condition was
+begun at Kew with De la Rue’s “photoheliograph.”</p>
+
+<p>In 1845 he published the first effective investigation
+of “fluorescence,” called by him “epipolic,” or
+superficial, “dispersion.” This curious phenomenon
+consists in the illumination to the eye of certain substances,
+such as sulphate of quinine and canary
+glass, under the play of <em>invisible</em> light. Sir George
+Stokes showed in 1852 that the impinging rays have
+their undulations actually lengthened by the action
+of such kinds of matter, so as to become degraded in the
+spectrum, and thus brought within the range of vision.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_211">211</span></p>
+
+<p>The Herschelian theory of the sun was adopted,
+and long retained by Sir John. He believed in a cool,
+solid interior globe sheltered by a succession of aërial
+envelopes, rent, locally and temporarily, by tornadoes
+of fire. The presence of inhabitants on the globe so
+circumstanced was credible to him, although he abstained
+from dwelling upon the advantages of their
+state. He carefully followed, however, the progress of
+solar science, and in 1864 explained his altered views in
+the <i>Quarterly Journal of Science</i>. He now regarded
+the sun as a wholly gaseous mass—a conclusion in
+which he was anticipated only by Father Secchi. He
+added that it must be largely composed of matter
+kept in an intermediate condition between liquid and
+vaporous by “high temperature and enormous
+pressure.” The spot-period, he suggested, might be
+that of a revolving meteoric ring with condensations.</p>
+
+<p>He was vividly interested in the “willow-leaf”
+controversy, raised in 1862 by Nasmyth’s misinterpreted
+observations. The objects seen were simply
+Sir William Herschel’s “nodules”—the luminous
+elements of the sun, held by Sir John in 1867 “to be
+permanently solid matter, having that sort of fibrous
+or filamentous structure which fits them, when juxtaposed
+by drifting about, and jostling one against
+another, to collect in flocks as <em>flue</em> does in a room.”
+He concluded with the remarkable assertion that the
+sun has no real surface, “the density diminishing from
+that below the photosphere to <em>nil</em> in the higher
+regions, where the pressure is <em>nil</em>.”</p>
+
+<p>Herschel’s “Cape Observations” stands alone in
+astronomical literature for the wide and permanent
+interest of its contents. They are exceedingly various.
+Chapters on Halley’s Comet, on Sun-spots, the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_212">212</span>
+Satellites of Saturn, Astrometry, the Constitution of
+the Southern Galaxy, are associated with discussions
+on the nature and distribution of nebulæ, with monographs
+of two, and incidental notes on many of these
+enigmatical objects. The volume is illustrated with
+over sixty beautiful steel engravings of nebulæ and
+clusters, of sun-spots, and of the comet.</p>
+
+<p>The speculations it includes regarding the nature
+of nebulæ, deserve even now to be remembered. Sir
+John was, at the outset, an unwavering adherent of
+the theory developed by his father in 1811. They
+were composed, he held in 1825, of a “self-luminous;
+or phosphorescent material substance, in a highly
+dilated or gaseous state, but gradually subsiding, by
+the mutual gravitation of its molecules, into stars and
+sidereal systems.” His personal experience, however,
+ran counter to this view. In 1833 he had become
+convinced that a nebula is, in general, “nothing more
+than a cluster of discrete stars.”</p>
+
+<p>The successful resolution into stars, with the great
+Parsonstown specula, of many nebulæ until then called
+irresolvable, carried him still further in the same
+direction. To him, as to other thinkers, the presence
+in space of a self-luminous cosmic fluid became more
+than doubtful. In his Presidential Address to the
+British Association in 1845, he dwelt with enthusiasm
+on the completion of the Rosse reflector—“an achievement
+of such magnitude, that I want words to express
+my admiration of it.” He regarded “as one of the
+grand fields open for discovery with such an instrument,
+those marvellous and mysterious bodies, or systems
+of bodies, the nebulæ.” Their frequent resolution,
+actual or indicated, with increased optical
+power, led him to attribute recalcitrance in this<span class="pagenum" id="Page_213">213</span>
+respect to the smallness and closeness of the stars of
+which they consist; he held them, in short, to be
+“optically, and not physically, nebulous.”</p>
+
+<p>A new consideration was thus introduced into
+discussions on nebulæ. The whole burthen of accounting
+for their varieties in telescopic aspect need
+no longer be thrown upon differences of remoteness;
+diversities in the size and closeness of nebular <em>molecules</em>
+would answer the same purpose. So that pulverulent
+agglomerations, it was thought, might pass
+by insensible gradations into collections of truly sun-like
+bodies. All distinction between nebulæ and
+clusters was then abolished, the members of both
+classes consisting, like the sun’s photosphere, of shining
+granules, supported in an obscure medium, varying
+in real magnitude from <em>floccules</em> to great globes, while
+each vast compound body rotated <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">en masse</i> on an
+axis. Whatever the merits of this scheme, it at least
+harmonises with the now prevalent opinion that
+nebulæ and clusters belong to one unbroken cosmical
+series. “They are divided,” Mr. Cowper Ranyard
+wrote in 1893, “by no hard and fast line. The larger
+nebulæ may be described as groups of stars surrounded
+by bright nebulosity, and star-clusters as groups of
+stars surrounded by faint nebulosity.”</p>
+
+<p>Herschel’s assimilation of nebulæ to clusters was
+not meant to apply to “those extraordinary objects
+resembling the wisps and curls of a cirrous cloud,”
+which confront the astronomer in Orion, Argo, and
+elsewhere. “The wildest imagination,” he said, “can
+conceive nothing more capricious than their forms.
+With their resolution,” he averred, “and that of
+elliptic nebulæ, the idea of a nebulous matter, in the
+nature of a shining fluid or condensible gas, would<span class="pagenum" id="Page_214">214</span>
+cease to derive any support from observation.” He,
+in fact, discarded it absolutely on the deceptive
+analysis into stars at Parsonstown and Harvard College
+of the Orion and Andromeda nebulæ. The discredited
+hypothesis was nevertheless triumphantly reinstated
+by Dr. Huggins’s spectroscopic observations in 1864.</p>
+
+<p>One-third of the whole nebular contents of
+the heavens Herschel found to be collected into a
+broad, irregular patch, the central point of which in
+Virgo coincides almost precisely with the northern
+pole of the Milky Way. He compared it to a canopy
+surmounting the galactic zone. In the other hemisphere
+the arrangement, although less distinctly
+characterised, is on the same general plan. Plainly,
+then, nebular distribution has an opposite correspondence
+with stellar distribution, and the two
+partial systems are complementary one to another,
+Herschel, however, contented himself with the somewhat
+ambiguous statement that “the nebulous system
+is distinct from the sidereal, though involving and, to
+a certain extent, intermixed with it.”</p>
+
+<p>His verdict as to the ground-plan of the sidereal
+edifice might be summed up in the phrase, “Not a
+stratum, but an annulus,” our own situation being in
+a relatively vacant interior space. Hence, the sun
+belongs, not to the Milky Way proper—as it should on
+the stratum theory—but to the system of which the
+Milky Way forms part. This conclusion was in itself
+a distinct advance towards the solution of an exorbitantly
+difficult problem. The grand question as to the
+remoteness of the star-clouds in that gleaming sky-girdle
+was definitely raised by it; and the question is
+not, in the nature of things, unanswerable. Herschel’s
+annulus was not a neat structure with a cylindrical<span class="pagenum" id="Page_215">215</span>
+section, but “a flat ring, or some other re-entering
+form of immense and irregular breadth and thickness.”
+It is cloven over one-third of its circumference; it is
+interrupted by huge chasms; it is bent, and shattered
+and broken, and probably set with tentacular appendages,
+giving rise, by their foreshortening, to very
+complex visual effects. All of which modifying circumstances
+Herschel implicitly recognised. He was the
+first to gather any direct intimations of the existence
+of that “solar cluster” which, guessed at by the elder
+Herschel, has of late assumed a sort of elusive reality.
+A zone of bright stars, including those of Orion, Canis
+Major, the Ship, the Cross, and the Centaur, struck
+him at once as a conspicuous feature in the scenery of
+the southern heavens. Its aspect led him to “suspect
+that our nearest neighbours in the sidereal system
+form part of a subordinate sheet, or stratum,” inclined
+at an angle of twenty degrees to the plane of the
+Milky Way. To Dr. Gould at Cordoba, in 1879, “few
+celestial phenomena” appeared “more palpable” than
+this projected star-belt; and, since it traces out a great
+circle on the sphere, the sun must be placed within it,
+and pretty accurately in its plane; yet the difficulty
+of associating it intimately with our particular star
+seems all but insurmountable.</p>
+
+<p>Herschel’s minor and occasional writings were
+neither few nor unimportant. He contributed articles
+on “Isoperimetrical Problems” and “Mathematics”
+to Brewster’s <i>Edinburgh Cyclopædia</i>, and on “Meteorology,”
+“Physical Geography,” and “The Telescope,”
+to the eighth edition of the <i>Encyclopædia Britannica</i>.
+These last were printed separately as well. He edited
+in 1849 the Admiralty “Manual of Scientific Inquiry,”
+and criticised in the <i>Edinburgh</i> and <i>Quarterly<span class="pagenum" id="Page_216">216</span>
+Reviews</i> Mrs. Somerville’s “Mechanism of the Heavens,”
+Whewell’s “History of the Inductive Sciences,” Humboldt’s
+“Kosmos,” and Quetelet’s “Theory of Probabilities.”
+His addresses as President of the Royal
+Astronomical Society were models of their kind, and
+the same might be said of his memoirs of Baily and
+Bessel in the “Monthly Notices.” Most of them were
+collected in 1857, with his review articles, into a
+volume of “Essays;” and his attractive “Familiar
+Lectures on Scientific Subjects,” published in 1867,
+gave permanence to some popular discourses delivered
+in the school-house of Hawkhurst, as well as to articles
+from <i>Good Words</i> on Light and other subjects. No
+less than 152 papers by him are included in scientific
+repertories.</p>
+
+<p>He had a considerable faculty for translating poetry,
+and its exercise made one of his favourite recreations.
+Having adopted the literal theory of the art, he kept
+strictly to the original metres, and thus fettered, got
+over the ground with more grace and ease than might
+have been expected. His first attempt with English
+hexameters was in a version of Schiller’s “Walk,”
+privately printed in 1842. He had come to love the
+poem through its association in his mind with a
+favourite stroll up the side of Table Mountain; and a
+translation of it in the <i>Edinburgh Review</i> leaving,
+as he thought, something to be desired, he tried his
+hand, and distributed the result “among his friends
+as his Christmas sugar plum.” The various acknowledgments
+made an amusing collection. One lady said
+that she “found it difficult to get into the <em>step</em> of the
+<i>Walk</i>.” Another correspondent declared that the
+<i>Walk</i> had got into a <em>Run</em> through ceaseless borrowing.
+A third qualified his encomium upon the ideas<span class="pagenum" id="Page_217">217</span>
+by adding, “To the <em>verse</em> I am <em>averse</em>.” Joanna Baillie,
+however, and her sister were delighted with both the
+substance and form of the poem, and it was included
+among Whewell’s “English Hexameter Translations”
+in 1847.</p>
+
+<p>His success encouraged him, after twenty years, to
+undertake an indefinitely more difficult task. Pope’s
+Iliad he described happily as “a magnificent adumbration”
+of the original; but he aimed rather at producing
+a “fac-simile,” in</p>
+
+<div class="p1 b1 center">
+
+<p>“Hexameters no worse than daring Germany gave us.”</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>His version should come as near as he could bring it
+to a photograph of a grand piece of architecture; and
+as a measure of its fidelity, he printed in italics all
+the words <em>not</em> in the text. Whewell remarked that it
+was “curious to see how few he had managed to make
+them,” and preferred his translation to any other with
+which he was acquainted. But English hexameters
+were a hobby of the Master of Trinity, who accordingly
+viewed with partiality what Tennyson called the
+“burlesque barbarous experiment” of thus lamely
+rendering “the strong-wing’d music of Homer.”</p>
+
+<p>De Morgan, too, was one of the “averse.” “Many
+thanks for the hexameters,” he wrote, on receiving an
+instalment of the Collingwood Iliad; “they are as
+good as they can be, but all the logic in the world does
+not make me feel them to be English metre, and they
+give satisfaction only by reminding one of the Greek:
+just as, mark you, a flute-player—which I have been
+these forty-five years—only plays Haydn and Mozart
+because he has the assistance of the orchestral accompaniment
+which arises in his head with the melody.
+The hexameter, it is clear, does not fix itself in the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_218">218</span>
+popular mind. The popular mind knows neither
+quantity nor accent, but that which is to last bites its
+own way in, without any effort.”</p>
+
+<p>Yet Herschel’s translation is not without merit.
+It is disfigured neither by affectation nor by magniloquence,
+and it catches here and there something of
+the greatness of the unapproached original. Let us
+take two specimens; this from the “Shield of
+<span class="locked">Achilles”:—</span></p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+<div class="poetry">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <div class="verse indentq">“There he depicted the earth, and the canopied sky, and the ocean;</div>
+ <div class="verse indent0">There the unwearied sun, and the full-orb’d moon in their courses.</div>
+ <div class="verse indent0">All the configured stars, which gem the circuit of heaven,</div>
+ <div class="verse indent0">Pleiads and Hyads were there, and the giant force of Orion.</div>
+ <div class="verse indent0">There the revolving Bear, which the Wain they call, was ensculptured,</div>
+ <div class="verse indent0">Circling on high, and in all its course regarding Orion;</div>
+ <div class="verse indent0">Sole of the starry train which refuses to bathe in the Ocean.”</div>
+ </div>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>The next likewise appeals to the astronomer. It
+is the famous simile from the end of the Eighth
+<span class="locked">Book:—</span></p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+<div class="poetry">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <div class="verse indentq">“As when around the glowing moon resplendent in ether,</div>
+ <div class="verse indent0">Shines forth the heavenly host, and the air reposes in stillness;</div>
+ <div class="verse indent0">Gleams every pointed rock, stands forth each buttress in prospect;</div>
+ <div class="verse indent0">Shimmers each woodland vale; and from realms of unspeakable glory</div>
+ <div class="verse indent0">Op’ning, the stars are revealed; and the heart of the shepherd rejoices.</div>
+ <div class="verse indent0">Such, and so many the fires, by the Trojans kindled, illumined</div>
+ <div class="verse indent0">Eddying Xanthus’ stream, and the ships, and the walls of the city.”</div>
+ </div>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>Sir John Herschel corresponded with Mr. Proctor,
+during the last two years of his life, on the subject<span class="pagenum" id="Page_219">219</span>
+of sidereal construction; and his replies to the arguments
+put before him show that his mind retained,
+even then, its openness and flexibility. He had none
+of the contempt for speculative excursions which
+sometimes walls up the thinking-powers of observers.
+“In the midst of so much darkness,” he held that
+“we ought to open our eyes as wide as possible to any
+glimpse of light, and utilise whatever twilight may be
+accorded us, to make out, though but indistinctly, the
+forms that surround us.” “<i xml:lang="la" lang="la">Hypotheses fingo</i> in this
+style of our knowledge,” he went on, “is quite as good
+a motto as Newton’s <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">non fingo</i>—provided always they
+be not hypotheses as to modes of physical action for
+which experience gives no warrant.” And again:
+“We may—indeed, must—form theories as we go
+along; and they serve as guides for inquiry, or
+suggestions of things to inquire; but as yet we must
+hold them rather loosely, and for many years to come
+keep looking out for side-lights.”</p>
+
+<p>These were his last words on the philosophy of
+discovery: and they constituted his last advice to
+scientific inquirers. But, good as were his precepts,
+his example was better. There was no discrepancy
+between his work and his thought. Both combined
+to inculcate aloofness from prejudice, readiness of
+conviction in unequivocal circumstances, suspension
+of judgment in dubious ones, and in all, candour,
+sobriety, and an earnest seeking for truth.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<div class="chapter"><div class="index">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_221">221</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="INDEX">INDEX.</h2>
+
+<ul class="index nobreak">
+<li class="ifrst">Actinometer, J. Herschel’s, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Adams, J. C., at Collingwood, <a href="#Page_188">188</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Ages of heavenly bodies, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_170">170</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Alexander, the Czar, <a href="#Page_49">49</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Amici, of Modena, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Apertures, method of, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Apex, solar, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Archbishop of Canterbury, and George III., <a href="#Page_38">38</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Argelander, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Asteroids, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90–1</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Astrometer, J. Herschel’s, <a href="#Page_177">177</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Astronomical Society, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Aubert, Alexander, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a></li>
+
+<li class="ifrst">Babbage, companionship with J. Herschel, <a href="#Page_143">143–4</a>, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">astatic needle, <a href="#Page_208">208</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Bailey, S. I., <a href="#Page_169">169</a>, <a href="#Page_170">170</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Baily, Francis, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Barnard, diameters of asteroids, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">nebulosities, <a href="#Page_110">110–11</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">photographs of Milky Way, <a href="#Page_174">174</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Bates, Joah, anecdote of W. Herschel, <a href="#Page_12">12</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Bath, centre of fashion, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Herschel’s residences there, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Beckedorff, Mrs., <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Miss, <a href="#Page_138">138</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Bessel, solar movement, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">estimate of W. Herschel, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Halley’s comet, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Collingwood, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">memoir of, <a href="#Page_216">216</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Biot, estimate of J. Herschel, <a href="#Page_201">201</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Bonaparte, Lucien, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Bonaparte, Napoleon, Herschel’s interview with, <a href="#Page_47">47</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Bradley, observation of Castor, <a href="#Page_76">76</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Brougham, Lord, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_207">207</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Burney, Dr., notices of W. Herschel, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45–6</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">walk through forty-foot, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">notices of Caroline and J. Herschel, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Burney, Miss, meetings with W. Herschel, <a href="#Page_38">38–9</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">with Mrs. and Miss Herschel, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Burnham, double stars, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">planetary nebulæ, <a href="#Page_155">155</a></li>
+
+<li class="ifrst">Campbell, Thomas, admiration for W. Herschel, <a href="#Page_47">47–8</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">notice of his son, <a href="#Page_145">145</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Cavendish, anecdote of, <a href="#Page_100">100</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Clay Hall, <a href="#Page_36">36</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Climate, changes of, <a href="#Page_82">82</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Comet, of October 1806, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">of 1811, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Encke’s, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">of 1819, <a href="#Page_128">128–9</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Biela’s, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Halley’s, <a href="#Page_175">175–6</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Comets, decay of, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Miss Herschel’s, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Common, Dr., five-foot reflector, <a href="#Page_99">99</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Construction of the Heavens, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113–114</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214–15</a></li>
+
+<li class="ifrst">Dante and the “Divina Commedia,” <a href="#Page_15">15</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Datchet, house at, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Dawes, sun-spot nuclei, <a href="#Page_83">83</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">De la Rue, photoheliograph, <a href="#Page_210">210</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">De Morgan, letter to Captain Smyth, <a href="#Page_188">188–9</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Herschel and the coinage, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">friendship with, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">dislike to hexameters, <a href="#Page_217">217</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Dreyer, Catalogue of Nebulæ, <a href="#Page_192">192</a></li>
+
+<li class="ifrst">Easton, Milky Way structure, <a href="#Page_106">106</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Edgeworth, Miss, at Slough and Collingwood, <a href="#Page_192">192–3</a></li>
+
+<li class="ifrst">Feldhausen, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Flamsteed, British Catalogue, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a></li>
+
+<li class="ifrst">Galileo, double-star method of parallaxes, <a href="#Page_55">55</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Gauss, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">George III., patronage of Herschel, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28–9</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">taste for astronomy, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">walk through great telescope, <a href="#Page_38">38</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Gill, Dr., Herschel’s micrometers, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">photographic catalogue, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">photographs of Argo nebula, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">of Omega Centauri, <a href="#Page_169">169</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Gordon, Lady, portrait of Sir J. Herschel, <a href="#Page_202">202</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Gould, Dr., solar cluster, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Grahame, James, <a href="#Page_149">149</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Gravitation, extension of to stellar systems, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Gregorian reflectors, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Griesbach, Mrs., <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">her sons, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a></li>
+
+<li class="ifrst"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_222">222</span>Halley, list of nebulæ, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">stellar motions, <a href="#Page_77">77</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Hamilton, Sir W. R., communications with J. Herschel, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">speech by, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Collingwood, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">quaternions, <a href="#Page_194">194–5</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Haydn, visit to Slough, <a href="#Page_44">44</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Heat-rays in solar spectrum, <a href="#Page_95">95–6</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Herschel, Alexander, assisted his brother, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">accompanied him to Göttingen, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">supported by him, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">care for his sister, <a href="#Page_118">118</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Herschel, Professor Alexander, meteoric researches, <a href="#Page_201">201</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Herschel, Caroline, fetched to Bath, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">help in speculum making, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">a singer, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">remarks, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">letters from W. Herschel, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">household cares, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">reminiscences, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">annuity, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">birth and childhood, <a href="#Page_115">115–16</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">education, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">visits to London, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">discoveries of nebulæ, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">of comets, <a href="#Page_124">124–5</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">her brother’s assistant, <a href="#Page_122">122–3</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">catalogues nebulæ, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Index to Flamsteed’s observations, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">royal attentions, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">anxiety about her brother’s health, <a href="#Page_128">128–9</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">return to Hanover, <a href="#Page_130">130–1</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Gold Medals bestowed on, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">joy in her nephew’s career, <a href="#Page_134">134–5</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">his visits, <a href="#Page_135">135–36</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Recollections and Journals, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">death, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">personality, <a href="#Page_139">139–41</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">anecdotes of J. Herschel’s childhood, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">his letters to her, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162–3</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">her portrait, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">her advice to him, <a href="#Page_205">205</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Herschel, Dietrich, <a href="#Page_20">20–1</a>, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127–8</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Herschel, Sir John, dismantling of great telescope, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">catalogues of nebulæ, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>, <a href="#Page_191">191–2</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">visits to Hanover, <a href="#Page_135">135–6</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159–60</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">nebular observations, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154–7</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165–7</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Cape Expedition, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159–2</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181–2</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">birth and childhood, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">university career, <a href="#Page_143">143–5</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">medals awarded to, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">work on double stars, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146–48</a>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">method for computing orbits, <a href="#Page_148">148–9</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">general catalogue, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">ascents of Monte Rosa and Etna, <a href="#Page_149">149–50</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">explorations in Auvergne, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">experiments on solar radiation, <a href="#Page_151">151–2</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">visit to Ireland, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">cometary observations, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_175">175–6</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">telescopes, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">discovery of star in Orion-trapezium, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">marriage, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Feldhausen, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180–1</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Cape climate, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Magellanic Clouds, <a href="#Page_165">165–6</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Argo nebula, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Eta Argûs, <a href="#Page_168">168–9</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">globular clusters, <a href="#Page_169">169–71</a>, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">star-gauging, <a href="#Page_171">171–2</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">comets, <a href="#Page_175">175–6</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">stellar photometry, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">solar theory, <a href="#Page_178">178–9</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Saturnian satellites, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">magnetic work, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">constellational reform, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">removal to Collingwood, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Cape Results, <a href="#Page_186">186–7</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211–12</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">President Astronomical Society, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Master of the Mint, <a href="#Page_190">190–1</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">guests at Collingwood, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">sonnet, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">family life, <a href="#Page_195">195–6</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">death, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">powers and character, <a href="#Page_198">198–201</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">books, <a href="#Page_205">205–8</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">photographic experiments, <a href="#Page_209">209–10</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">nature of nebulæ, <a href="#Page_212">212–14</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">solar cluster, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">poetical performances, <a href="#Page_216">216–18</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">philosophy of discovery, <a href="#Page_219">219</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Herschel, Colonel John, examination of nebular spectra, <a href="#Page_201">201</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Herschel, Isaac, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Herschel, Jacob, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Herschel, Lady, the elder, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Herschel, Lady, the younger, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Herschel, Sir William, birth, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">musical career, <a href="#Page_10">10–16</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">telescope, making, <a href="#Page_14">14–15</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">thirty-foot, <a href="#Page_26">26–8</a>,</li>
+<li class="isub1">seven-foot, <a href="#Page_28">28–9</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">for sale, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">forty-foot, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41–3</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">twenty-foot, <a href="#Page_35">35–6</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">front-view telescopes, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">space-penetrating power of, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">reviews of the heavens, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">early papers, <a href="#Page_22">22–3</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">discovery of Uranus, <a href="#Page_24">24–5</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">observations of double stars, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55–6</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">interviews with the king, <a href="#Page_28">28–30</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">royal astronomer, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32–3</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">mode of observing, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">discovery of Uranian satellites, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">of Saturnian satellites, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">marriage, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">aversion to poetry, <a href="#Page_45">45–6</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">interview with Bonaparte, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">observations of comets, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128–9</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">failure of health, <a href="#Page_49">49–50</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128–9</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">death and character, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">construction of the heavens, <a href="#Page_53">53–4</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">star distances, <a href="#Page_54">54–5</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60–1</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">star-gauging, <a href="#Page_57">57–8</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">nature of the Milky Way, <a href="#Page_57">57–9</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62–3</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">chasms in, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">method of apertures, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">catalogues of nebulæ, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">varieties, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">island universes, <a href="#Page_66">66–7</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">development, <a href="#Page_67">67–8</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">nebulous fluid, <a href="#Page_69">69–70</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">condensation into stars, <a href="#Page_71">71–2</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">nebular distribution, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">discovery of binary stars, <a href="#Page_76">76–7</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">transport of the solar system, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">stellar photometry, <a href="#Page_80">80–2</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174–5</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">theory of the sun, <a href="#Page_83">83–6</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">sun spots and weather, <a href="#Page_87">87–8</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">observations of Venus, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">of Mars, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">of the asteroids, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">of Saturn, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">law of satellite-rotation, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">lunar volcanoes, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">detection of infra-red heat-rays, <a href="#Page_95">95–7</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">use of high powers, <a href="#Page_101">101–2</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">micrometers, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">photometric enumeration, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">solar cluster, <a href="#Page_107">107–8</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">diffused nebulosities, <a href="#Page_110">110–11</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">a founder of sidereal astronomy, <a href="#Page_112">112</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_223">223</span>Herschel, Sir William J., <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Huggins, Dr., spectra of nebulæ, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">of stars, <a href="#Page_113">113</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Humboldt, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Huygens, improvement of telescopes, <a href="#Page_17">17</a></li>
+
+<li class="ifrst">Jacob, southern Milky Way, <a href="#Page_172">172</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Japetus, rotation of, <a href="#Page_92">92</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Jupiter, trade wind theory of, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">rotation of satellites, <a href="#Page_93">93</a></li>
+
+<li class="ifrst">Kapteyn, solar cluster, <a href="#Page_107">107</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Knipping, Mrs., <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a></li>
+
+<li class="ifrst">Lacaille, southern nebulæ, <a href="#Page_19">19</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Langley, bolometer, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">atmospheric absorption, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Laplace, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>, <a href="#Page_207">207</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Lassell, Uranian satellites, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">reflectors, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">observation of Mimas, <a href="#Page_180">180</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Le Verrier, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Lexell, orbit of Uranus, <a href="#Page_24">24</a></li>
+
+<li class="ifrst">Maclear, Sir Thomas, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Magellan, Von, accounts of William and Caroline Herschel, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Magellanic clouds, <a href="#Page_165">165–6</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Magnitudes, stellar, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104–5</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Mars, analogy with the earth, <a href="#Page_89">89</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Maskelyne, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Mayer, Christian, satellite-stars, <a href="#Page_75">75</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Mayer, Tobias, solar translation, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Michell, revolving stars, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">solar group, <a href="#Page_107">107</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Micrometer, lamp, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">wire, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Milky Way, rifts in, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67–8</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">structure, <a href="#Page_57">57–59</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173–4</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214–15</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">spectral peculiarity, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">distance, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">splendour in southern hemisphere, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">photographic portrayal, <a href="#Page_174">174–5</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Miller, Dr., <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Mitchell, Miss, visit to Collingwood, <a href="#Page_195">195–6</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Monck, stellar spectroscopic distribution, <a href="#Page_107">107</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Moon, mountains of, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">volcanoes, <a href="#Page_93">93–4</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="ifrst">Nasmyth, opinion of J. Herschel, <a href="#Page_196">196–7</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">solar willow leaves, <a href="#Page_211">211</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Nebula, Orion, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Dumb-bell, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Argo, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Andromeda, <a href="#Page_214">214</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Nebulæ, catalogues, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_191">191–2</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">discoveries, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">nature, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_212">212–4</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">development, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109–10</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">distribution, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Nebulæ, annular, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Nebulæ, double, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Nebulæ, planetary, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">spectrum, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">satellites to, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">colour, <a href="#Page_165">165</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Nebulæ, rifted, <a href="#Page_157">157</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Nebular theory, <a href="#Page_71">71–2</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Newton, law of gravitation, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">reflectors, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">mode of investigation, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a></li>
+
+<li class="ifrst">Olbers, origin of asteroids, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">comet of 1819, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">light extinction, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">visit from J. Herschel, <a href="#Page_184">184</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Orange, Prince of, enquiries at Slough, <a href="#Page_39">39</a></li>
+
+<li class="ifrst">Papendick, Mrs., remarks on William and Caroline Herschel, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Peacock, Dean, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Photography, of stellar spectra, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">of nebulæ, <a href="#Page_110">110–11</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_166">166–7</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">star charting by, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">of clusters, <a href="#Page_169">169–70</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">of solar spectrum, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">of sun-spots, <a href="#Page_210">210</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Photometric enumeration, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">catalogues, <a href="#Page_80">80</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Photometry, stellar, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">photographic, <a href="#Page_105">105</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Piazzi, visit to Slough, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Pickering, E. C. and W. H., photographs of Orion nebula, <a href="#Page_111">111</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Pouillet, solar radiation, <a href="#Page_179">179</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Pritchard, Dr., <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Proctor, star-drift, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">estimate of Sir J. Herschel, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">correspondence with, <a href="#Page_218">218</a></li>
+
+<li class="ifrst">Ranyard, A. C., changes in nebulæ, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">clusters, <a href="#Page_213">213</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Roberts, Dr., photographs of nebulæ, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Rosse reflector, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_212">212</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Russell, H. C., photographs of Magellanic clouds, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">of Argo nebula, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">of Milky Way, <a href="#Page_175">175</a></li>
+
+<li class="ifrst">Saturn, artificial, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">satellites, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">rings, <a href="#Page_91">91–2</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Savary, stellar orbits, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_149">149</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Schröter, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88–9</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Secchi, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">See, Dr., double nebulæ, <a href="#Page_156">156</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Sirius, brilliancy, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">standard star, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Slough, W. Herschel’s residence at, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">birthplace of J. Herschel, <a href="#Page_142">142</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Sniadecki, stay at Slough, <a href="#Page_39">39</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Solar cluster, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Solar radiation, <a href="#Page_151">151–2</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Somerville, Mrs., <a href="#Page_132">132</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">South, Sir James, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_149">149</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Spectrum analysis, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Spencer, unity of sidereal system, <a href="#Page_166">166</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Stanley, Dean, on J. Herschel, <a href="#Page_199">199</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Star-clusters, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_169">169–71</a>, <a href="#Page_213">213</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Star-gauging, <a href="#Page_57">57–8</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171–2</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Stars, binary, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">discovery, <a href="#Page_76">76–7</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">orbits, <a href="#Page_147">147–9</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Stars, double, observations of, <a href="#Page_55">55–6</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146–8</a>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">colours, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">nebular relations, <a href="#Page_155">155</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Stars, distribution of, <a href="#Page_58">58–9</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171–2</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_224">224</span>Stars, movements of, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107–8</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Stars, nebulous, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Stars, spectra of, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Stars, spectroscopic binary, <a href="#Page_104">104</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Stars, temporary, <a href="#Page_66">66–7</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Stars, variable, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81–2</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168–9</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Stokes, Sir G., fluorescence, <a href="#Page_210">210</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Stone, Herschel’s assistant, <a href="#Page_180">180</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Struve, W., <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Sun, translation, <a href="#Page_77">77–80</a>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">vicissitudes, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">constitution, <a href="#Page_83">83–6</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178–9</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Sussex, Duke of, <a href="#Page_158">158</a></li>
+
+<li class="ifrst">Telescopes, Improvement of, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24–6</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98–100</a></li>
+
+<li class="ifrst">Uranus, discovery of, <a href="#Page_24">24–5</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">satellites, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a></li>
+
+<li class="ifrst">Watson, Sir W., <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Watt, James, <a href="#Page_47">47</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Whewell, Dr., unity of sidereal system, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">friendship with J. Herschel, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">tidal data, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">articles in Quarterly Review, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205–6</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Geological Society, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">on optical enquiries, <a href="#Page_203">203–4</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">hexameters, <a href="#Page_217">217</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Wolf, Dr. Max, photographs of nebulæ, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">of Milky Way, <a href="#Page_175">175</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Wollaston, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Worlds, inhabited, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="p2 center"><span class="smcap">Printed by Cassell & Company, Limited, LA BELLE SAUVAGE PRINTING
+Works, London, E.C.</span></p>
+
+<div class="chapter"><div class="transnote">
+<h2 class="nobreak p1" id="Transcribers_Notes">Transcriber’s Notes</h2>
+
+<p>Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made
+consistent when a predominant preference was found
+in the original book; otherwise they were not changed.</p>
+
+<p>Simple typographical errors were corrected; unbalanced
+quotation marks were remedied when the change was
+obvious, and otherwise left unbalanced.</p>
+
+<p>Illustrations in this eBook have been positioned
+between paragraphs and outside quotations. In versions
+of this eBook that support hyperlinks, the page
+references in the List of Illustrations lead to the
+corresponding illustrations.</p>
+
+<p>The index was not checked for proper alphabetization
+or correct page references.</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HERSCHELS AND MODERN ASTRONOMY ***</div>
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