122 SIR JOHN FREDERICK WILLIAM HERSCHEL. 



ceived him with enthusiasm. The whole scieiitilic world joined in 

 the acclamation. He was entertained at a great public dinner. At 

 the meeting of the British Association, at Newcastle, he was honored as 

 the princi])al guest. The Crown made him a baronet. Oxford conferred 

 upon him the highest university honor; and Scotland, not to be behind, 

 elected him lord rector of Marischal College at Aberdeen. Without 

 doubt, the Duke of Sussex having vacated the office, he might have 

 been elected i)resident of the lioyal Society, and the British Govern- 

 ment proposed to reimburse all his four years' pecuniary outlays; but 

 he declined them both. His motives for his long exi)atriation had not 

 been money, nor pleasure, nor health, nor fame, but increase and diffu- 

 sion of knowledge among men. That object he had gained the means 

 of reaching, and his largest ambition was satisfied. 



Sir John was theauthor of the articles on"Isoperimetrical Problems," 

 and of ''Meteorology," and ''Physical Geography," in tho Encyclopedia 

 Brilannica, (the last two of which have been republished separately,) and 

 also of several articles on scientific subjects in the Edinburgsnd Quarterly 

 Reviews, which were collected and published in a se]>arate form in 1857, 

 together with some of his lectures. He contributed besides to "Good 

 AVords" some popular papers on the wonders of the universe; and, two 

 or three years before he died, he gave to the world, in the pages of 

 "Cornhill Magazine," a poetical version of part of the Inferno of Dante. 

 He was also one of the many sexegeuarian translators of Homer's Iliad. 



Sir John Herschel was either an honorary or corresponding member 

 of the academies of Vienna, St. Petersburg, Gottingen, Turin, Bologna, 

 Bruxelles, Nuremberg, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Prague, Warsaw, and 

 Naples, as well as of almost all other scientific associations existing in 

 Europe and America, Asia, and the southern hemisphere. To liis other 

 honors was added that of "Chevalier of Merit," founded by Frederick 

 the Great, and given at the recommendation of the Academy of Sciences 

 at Berlin. 



We have hitherto confined our remarks to the principal original 

 researches of Sir John Herschel, which are doubtless the most striking 

 to the man of science ; but stdl there can be no question that his popular 

 reputation has arisen chiefiy from his two well-known works, "A pre- 

 liminary discourse on the study of natural philosophy" and "Outlines 

 of astronomy," both of which contain internal evidence of his great 

 attainments in almost every department of human knowledge, and of his 

 high powers as a philosophical writer. AVe give a short extract from 

 each of these works as examples of his style. Upon their contents it is 

 not possible to enter here. 



In the "Preliminary discourse,'' writing upon a subject with which 

 he was more intimately acquainted than any man had ever been in the 

 X>ast, or was in the present, he says: 



"Among the most remarkable of the celestial objects are the revolving 

 double stars, or stars which, to the naked eye, eg: to inferior telescopes, ap- 



