Biographical Memoir of Sir WiUia77i Herschel. 15 



and subdued her. His glory was increased by all that the 

 chance of birth had refused him. 



The arts introduced him to the sanctuary of the sciences ; 

 he improved optics; he undertook to describe the natural his- 

 tory of the heavens; he saw new stars at the extremities of the 

 planetary world, the extent of which lie doubled. 



He contemplated innumerable phenomena in regions where 

 the eye of mjsm had never before penetrated ; he studied the na- 

 ture of the sun, divided its rays, measured their brightness, se- 

 parated light from heat ; he saw the effects of gravitation in all 

 the depths of space. To no man was it given to make known 

 to others so great a number of new stars. Whatever the uni- 

 verse displays of what is immense and imperishable, was the ha- 

 bitual object of his contemplation. Such were the occupations 

 of his mind ; let us now notice the sentiments with which they 

 inspired him. 



He lived in the heart of a nation which, above all others, re- 

 gards the glory of its great men as public property. He enjoy- 

 ed pure happiness in the bosom of his family ; his prayers were 

 answered by the success of his son, and he heard the public 

 voice repeating the just and soothing expression, which may. 

 here be applied to so many others, Herschel leaves a son worthy 

 of his father. A benevolent prince had wished to be acquaint- 

 ed with him, and from that moment declared himself his pro- 

 tector and friend. His sister Caroline Herschel, an admii'able 

 model of disinterestedness, gentleness and perseverance, devoted 

 her life to him. For more than forty years she assisted at all 

 his watchings, collected all his thoughts, transcribed with her 

 own hand, and published all his works ; nor could she permit 

 any other to have this charge committed to him. She wrote 

 and preserved those immense registers which Herschel left to 

 his son, in which are faithfully deposited from the year 1776 

 all his observations and experiments, — a truly noble and glo- 

 rious inheritance, which is at once the monument of a sublime 

 science, and of the most affecting friendship. 



Astronomy and physics will long find in these records a fer- 

 tile source of comparisons and discoveries. Thus the influence 

 of great men stretches forth into futurity ; and it is not at dieir 

 death that all the fruits of their labours can be appreciated. 



