SIR JOHN FREDERICK AVILLIAM HERSCHEL. 121 



upliekl that liberty of conjecture wliicli is the uiaiiispriiiic of sagacity. It 

 is rare tliat tbe parent's purple of intellect falls upon the cbild. By no 

 culture bowever skillful, and no anxieties however earnest, can we trans- 

 mit to our successors tbe qualities or tbe capacities of tbe mind. In lofty 

 destinies father and son are rarely associated 5 and in the few* cases where 

 a joint commission has issued to them, it has generally been to work in 

 different spbt^res, or at different levels. In the universe of mind a doulile 

 star is more rare than its prototype in the firmament, and when it does 

 appear we watch its phases and mutations with corresponding- interest. 

 Tbe case of the two Ilerscbels is a remarkable one, and appears an excep- 

 tion to the general law. Tbe father, bowever, was not called to tbe sur- 

 vey of tbe heavens, till be bad passed the middle period of life, and it 

 was but a just arrangement that the son, in bis youth and manhood, 

 should continue tbe labors of bis sire. As has been eloquently said, 

 "The records of astronomy do not emblazon a more glorious day than 

 that in which the semi-diurnal arc of the father was succeeded by the 

 semi-diurnal arc of the sou. No sooner had tbe eveniugiuminary disap- 

 peared, amid the gorgeous magnificence of the west, than tbe morning- 

 star arose bright and cloudless in its appointed course.'' When it is 

 considered that these two men, father and son, have carefully examined 

 tbe whole starry firmament with 20-foot telescopes — instruments of 

 which, in their present state of perfection, tbe elder Herscbel may be 

 said to have been the inventor — and that they have made known to us 

 thousandsof the most interesting phenomena, it is hardly an exaggera- 

 tion to say that tbe science of moderate siderial astronomy rests chiefly 

 on their labors. 



It is worthy of remark, in connection with Sir John Herscbel's labors 

 at tbe Cape of Good Ilope, that bis residence was productive of benefits 

 to meteorology as well as to astronomy. While occupied there, be sug- 

 gested a plan of having meteorological observations made simultaneous- 

 ly at different places — a plan subsequently developed at greater length 

 in bis Instructions for iiialx'mf) and registering meteorological ohservations 

 at various stations in Southern Africa, published under oflicial authority 

 in 1844. The result has been the almost universal adoption of a simi- 

 lar plan in Europe and the United States. 



The record of the site of tbe 20-foot reflector at Feldhausen, South 

 xVfrica, has been i)reserved. No sooner had Sir John embarked for Eng- 

 land, than bis numerous friends at the Cape raised by subscription a 

 suflicient sum to erect a granite obelisk on the spot. There, in tbe quiet 

 dell, surrounded by trees, at the foot of Table Mountain, stands an 

 enduring memorial, not only of " the pleasing and grateful recollections 

 of years spent in agreeable society, cheerful occupations, and unalloyed 

 happiness," as he gracefully expressed it, but of the discovery of thou- 

 sands of nebula and double stars in tbe remote regions of the sidereal 

 firmament. 



Sir John Herscbel returned to England in May, 1838. London re- 



