MEMOIR OF SIR JOH\ FREDERICK WILLIAM HERSCHEL. 



Br N. S. Dodge. 



About the year 17G0, as Dr. Miller, the organist, better kuowu, per- 

 haps, as the liistoriau of Doucaster, Euglaud, was tliuiug at Pontefract 

 with the officers of the Durham militia, one of them told him that they 

 had a young German in their band who was an excellent performer on 

 the violin, and if he would step into another room he might judge for 

 himself. The invitation was gladly accepted, and Miller heard a solo 

 of Giardini's executed in a manner that surprised him. Learning after- 

 ward that the engagement of the young musician was only from month 

 to month, he invited him to leave the band and come and live with him. 

 " I am a single man," he said, " and we doubtless shall be happy to- 

 gether ; beside, your merit will soon entitle you to a more eligible situ- 

 ation." The offer was accepted as frankly as it was made ; and the sa t- 

 isfaction with which the old organist always plumed himself upon this 

 act of generous feeling is not surprising, since the German hautboy- 

 player turned out at last to be Herschel the astronomer. 



The Jew Snetzler, a famous organ-builder a hundred years and more 

 ago, was at this time setting up a new organ for the parish church of 

 Halifax. Herschel, at Dr. Miller's advice, became one of the seven can- 

 didates for the place of organist. They drew lots how they were to per- 

 form in succession. Herschel drew the third. The second fell to Dr. 

 Wainwright, of Manchester, whose rapid execution astonished the 

 judges. " I was standing in the middle aisle with Herschel," wrote Dr. 

 Miller, " and I said to him, ' What chance have you to follow this manf 

 He replied, 'I don't know; I am sure fingers will not do.' He ascended 

 the organ-loft, however, and produced from the instrument so uncom- 

 mon a fullness, such a volume of slow, solemn harmony, that 1 could 

 not account for the effect. After a short extempore effusion, he finished 

 with the old Hundredth Psalm tune, which he played better than his 

 opponent. ' Ay, aij,'> cried old Snetzler, ' tish is very cjooi ; I vill Jfif tish 

 man, for lie fjives mijinphes room for to spliealc' " Having afterward asked 

 Mr. Herschel by what means he produced so uncommon an effect, he 

 replied, "I told you fingers would not do;" and taking two pieces of 

 load from his pocket, " One of these," he said, " I placed on the lowest 

 key of tlie organ and the other on the octave above ; thus, by accommo- 

 dating the harmony, I produced the effect of four hands instead of two." 



In 1780, twenty years after this, when IMiller talked of bis friend Her- 

 schel's great fame, and of his sister, Caroline Herschel, who, when her 

 brother was asleep, amused herself in sweeping the sky with his twenty- 



