SIR JOHN FREDERICK WILLIAM HERSCHEL. 115 



before, while recumbent ou the elect of the vessel that was bearing 

 him through the tropic zoue, he watched for hours together the shift- 

 ing panorama of the star fretted vault, how the moon appeared brighter, 

 fairer, and better defined through a more transparent atmosphere; 

 how the planets seemed to be other orbs ; how the stars, long watched 

 in a northern sky, drooped toward the horizon, and were at length 

 looked for in vain; how orbs, which, to his former vision, had modestly 

 moved along the southern outskirts of visible creation, now marched 

 majestically overhead, each 



"Walking the heavens like a thing of life," 

 while new and strange bodies ascended high and higher, until the old 

 earth had passed away and a new heaven was aloft ; nor how the Via 

 Lactea, in the neighborhood of the Centaur and the Cross, coupled 

 with profuse collections of nebulre and asteroids, stars and constella- 

 tions, makes the southern sky the most magnificent star-view from any 

 part of earth. Like the sources of the Nile to the untraveled geogra- 

 j)her, or the ice-cliffs of Greenland to the student of arctic voyages, he 

 knew well what a ]>ersonal inspection would ])lace before him, and 

 though the civilized world rang with applause at his sacrifice of home 

 and its comforts, and country and its honors, for the sake of science, 

 yet true philosophers knew that the compensation, [»resent and future, 

 far outweighed the loss. 



After a temporary residence at Wilterfreiden, he engaged a suitable 

 mansion, bearing the name of Feldhausen, about four miles from Cape 

 Town — a spot full of rural beauty, within sight of lofty hills, and situa- 

 ted on the last of the terraced slopes by which Table Mountain lets 

 itself down to the lowlands and meadows near the sea. In this place, 

 removed from all the noise of traffic and exposure to intrusion, surrounded 

 on all sides by a grove of planted trees, he caused a suitable building 

 to be erected for the equatorial, while the 20-foot reflector was mounted 

 in the open air. 



The observatory at Feldhauseu was situated in south latitude 33° 58' 

 55" 5G, and longitude 22^ 4G' 9" 11 east from Greenwich. Its altitude 

 was 142 feet above the level of the sea in Table Bay. During the erec- 

 tion of his instruments. Sir John resided at Welterfreiden, and so quickly 

 were his i)lans completed, that ou the 22d of February, 1834, he was 

 enabled to gratify his curiosity by viewing, with his 20-foot reflector. 

 9 Crucis, the interesting nebula about rj Argus, and on the evening of 

 the 5th of March to begin a regular series of observations. 



After erecting his observatory and determining its geographical posi- 

 tion, the attention of Sir John was directed to the fitting up of the 

 telescope with which his observations were to be made. He had carried 

 out with him three specula, one of which was made by his father, and 

 used by him in his-20-foot sweeps ; another was made by Sir John him- 

 self, under his father's inspection and instructions, and the other, of the 

 very same metal as the last, was ground and figured by himself alone. 



