470 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



The last years of Herschel's life, when he seemed to have retired 

 from active service, were enriched with the fruits of his intellect and 

 imagination. He is still poet, philosopher, mathematician, physicist, and 

 astronomer, to his latest hour. Though his translation of the Iliad of 

 Homer may give him a place as a classical scholar by the side of Pope, 

 Blackie, Dart, Lord Derby, or our own Bryant, we can fancy the 

 happiest moments of his life to have been when, in 1864, after having 

 tardily published the seventh catalogue of observations at Slough, he 

 gave to the world his one hundred and thirty-fourth scientific paper, 

 namely, a highly elaborated catalogue of the five thousand and seventy- 

 nine nebula? which had been observed by his father, himself, or any 

 other astronomer : or again when, undaunted by the growing infirmi- 

 ties of age, he labored at the stupendous task of framing a universal 

 catalogue, with descriptions, of the ten thousand double stars hitherto 

 registered, bequeathing the manuscript to loving hands, so as to secure 

 its speedy completion and publication. 



We may not forget the services which Herschel rendered to his coun- 

 try as Master of the Mint for five years, as President of the Royal As- 

 tronomical Society, and of the British Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science, or by the Instructions which he edited for the Board 

 of Admiralty as a Manual of Scientific Inquiry, and to which he con- 

 tributed his quota. We may also allude to the reports he made in 

 behalf of the Magnetic and Meteorological Observatories established 

 throughout the British Empire, and his efforts to establish a uniform 

 standard of length. Fired by the example of Humboldt, he kindled 

 his own country into a like enthusiasm in the study of Terrestrial Mag- 

 netism, which he watched and guided for twenty years, nerving his 

 coworkers to undertake a first, second, and even third, magnetic crusade. 



The tendency, and almost the necessity, of modern scientific study is 

 strongly in favor of an exclusive devotion to some narrow specialty. 

 Dissipation of energy is conditioned on superficiality, and the universal 

 genius is regarded with suspicion. Nevertheless, the example of Her- 

 schel is an exhortation and an encouragement to the most liberal cul- 

 ture, by showing how many things can be done, and done well, when 

 length of days, indomitable industry, and good natural endowments are 

 united. It is to the credit of humanity and of science that the merits 

 of Herschel were felt in every home, and met with all that public rec- 

 ognition and honor which academies and societies are able to bestow. 

 It is a pleasant thought that this great and successful man of science had 



