14 Biograpfncal Memoir of Sir William Herscheh 



more. Lastly, the same causes keep up among all these bodies 

 immense motions, which their extreme distance scarcely permits 

 us to distinguish. 



Such, in so far as it is possible to express them in a few 

 words, are the cosmogonic views of Herschel. The illustrious 

 author of the Mecanique Celeste has arrived at similar inferen- 

 ces, by following a path directly the reverse. He has seen in 

 our system of planets and satellites, striking indications of the 

 origin of these bodies. He considers them as formed at the li- 

 mits of the sun's atmosphere, gradually condensed by the at- 

 tractive forces, and the loss of radiant heat. Thus all the funda- 

 mental circumstances of the planetary system are naturally 

 explained. There is no opinion more in conformity with the 

 present state of science ; it accounts for all the phenomena 

 known. 



The celestial bodies, therefore, which are least distant from 

 us, present, with great precision, the general characters which 

 they retain of their origin ; they appear to have been produced, 

 like all the great phenomena of the Heavens, in the bosom of 

 those luminous vapours subjected to the two contrary actions of 

 gravitation and heat. 



I shall not undertake, gentlemen, to fix your attention to the 

 various parts of this vast picture, to compare the distances of 

 these stars from those which we are able to measure, to compute 

 the years that must have elapsed before their light reached us. 

 Here the numbers, the times, and the spaces, want limits ; the 

 most comprehensive mind is unable to form a conception of the 

 immensity of the universe; it only attains it by rising to 

 thoughts of an order still more sublime. This reflection brings 

 us back to the sentiments which Herschel has frequently ex- 

 pressed, and which the contemplation of the wonders of the 

 Heavens constantly forced upon him. In each of the great 

 phenomena which he observed, he found the impress of an eter- 

 nal and creative wisdom, which rules, animates, and preserves, 

 and which has given immutable laws to all nature. 



Let one now represent to himself the picture of an entire life 

 devoted to the fine arts, and to the description of the Heavens. 

 In the early period of his life Herschel struggled against fortune 



