SIR JOHN FREDERICK WILLIAM HERSCHEL. 127 



expression of the eyes grew more tbongbtful, but tbe air and manner, 

 and bearing and address of tbe well-bred man never left bim. He 

 received criticisms upon bis own speculations witb tbe same equanimity 

 tbat be iwinted out tbe errors of bis opponents. His action in discus- 

 sion was never violent, nor bis voice loud. He readily acknowledged a 

 fault, and still more readily apologized for a wrong. To tbe capacity of 

 tbe young, wbetber in May-day sports or Cbristraas gambols, even wben 

 past bis fourtbscore year, be was as yielding as be was stern against 

 any inroad upon morals or violation of trutb. Ho never lost bis equi- 

 poise, was never betrayed into anger, sbrank from injustice to otliers as 

 if the pain to be endured were bis own, looked beneatb tbe rougb exte- 

 rior of many who ap[)roacbed bim for bonest motives, jind, more tban 

 most of tbe best and wisest of our race, might have said truly: 

 " Write lue as one who loves bis fellow-men." 



r 



Sir John Herschel's life-long conte?uplatiou of the infinite in number 

 and magnitude, exalting and hallowing his mind, was exhibited in its 

 effects upon his character, Tbe truths be bad learned from tbe stars 

 were converted into principles of action. Lofty thoughts promoted noble 

 deeds. " Surely,'' he himself bad said in a yet higher mood of tbe same 

 vein of thought as tbat of the last passage quoted, " Surely, if the worst 

 of men were transported to Paradise for only half an hour amongst the 

 company of the great and good, be would come back converted." 



There is one feature in Sir John Herschel's character of which some 

 delineation cannot be omitted in any approximately correct picture of bis 

 long life. • It is his filial piety. In a soul full of the gentlest feelings, 

 his love for his father while the veteran lingered on tbe stage of life, 

 and bis reverence for the great and good man's memory after bis de- 

 yiarture, constituted tbe strongest sentiment. Perhaps there is no other 

 instance in all history where filial affection became for so long a time 

 tbe ruling motive of a life. Tbe son was born for a successor in tbe line 

 of chemistry to Sir Humphrey Davy and a rival to Michael Faraday ; for 

 bis father's sake be became an astronomer. His tastes led bim into dis- 

 coveries of the properties of hyposulpbate salts and tbe actinic relations 

 of light ; his reverence for bis illustrious sire determined bim to complete, 

 to the abandonment of every favorite i)ursuit, what the latter bad so 

 nobly begun. Tbe pursuit of astronomy was neither the voluntary choice 

 nor tbe principal bias of bis intellectual life. His inborn aptitude lay in 

 another direction. Uncontrollable circumstances determined his career, 

 and these were framed out of impressions of the happy home of his 

 childhood. He became a great astronomer, not through the promptings 

 of natural taste but by the dictates of filial piety. And no man was 

 ever more emphatically, in thought and work, in hostility to error and 

 search after trutb, the sou of bis Either. Over tbe two tbe eulogy of 

 David over Saul and Jonathan might be fitly pronounced. 



'' Tbey were lovely and pleasant in their lives, 

 And in their death they were not divided : 

 They were swifter than eagles; they were stronger than lions." 



