2 Biographical Memoir of' Sir William Hcrschel. 



Octagon Chapel at Bath. In this situation he enjoyed a con- 

 siderable income, arising partly from his office, and partly, also, 

 from his directing public concerts, and oratorios. 



His talents were admired, his character bj^loved, and his man- 

 ners esteemed ; and, in a country where the fine arts are duly 

 appreciated, if the common advantages of fortune had been his 

 only object of ambition, his desires would have all been satisfied; 

 but an internal power impelled him to higher destinies, — he was 

 one day to extend the empire of science. 



The profound study of his art led him by degrees to that of 

 geometry ; for there exist numerous relations between the laws 

 of harmony and the theorems of mathematics, as has been prov- 

 ed by many illustrious geometricians, from Pythagoras and Eu- 

 clid to Descartes, Huygens and Euler. 



Herschel, introduced by geometry to the knowledge of theo- 

 retical astronomy, was seized with astonishment and admiration^ 

 and felt as if transported into a new world. Pie anxiously de- 

 sired to contemplate for himself those celestial phenomena whose 

 laws the human intellect had been able to discover. It was 

 then that he began to construct telescopes, and undertook to im- 

 prove their use ; and as perseverance in his resolutions was al- 

 ways the distinguishing character of his mind, he accomplished 

 these objects, and soon found himself possessed of instruments 

 superior to all that an art so difficult and ingenious had yet 

 produced. His first astronomical observations, which bear the 

 date of 1776, were followed by a memorable discovery which 

 excited the public attention to the highest degree, — I mean that 

 of the planet which for several years has borne the name of 

 Herschel. 



The earliest observers of the heavens distinguished a small 

 number of stars, which are continually changing their position 

 with regard to the fixed stars, and return periodically to the same 

 points of the sphere. The different durations of these revolu- 

 tions of the planets were known and compared with each other 

 from time immemorial, and to them is owing the period of seven 

 days, the universal monument of the astronomy of the ancient 

 nations. The moderns had made wonderful advances in the 

 description and study of the heavens. Galileo, Huygens, and Do- 

 imnique Cassini, had observed the first of the secondary stars 



