44 



blished, though a brilliant addition to his fame, is not precisely that 

 which will cause his name to be remembered with gratitude by every 

 one who understands what ought to be the routine duty prescribed 

 to himself, and practised by the astronomer. His business in gene- 

 ral — his every-day work — is not speculative, but practical ; not con- 

 versant, except, by the way, with the almost despaired-of problems 

 of the science, but with the establishment of the data which belong 

 to his epoch. He is to fix, with indisputable accuracy, the places of 

 the most remarkable of the stars ; he is to bring his contribution to 

 the perfecting of the lunar and planetai'y tables ; he is to assist in 

 the measurement of our own planet, as the basis of all our ulterior 

 comparisons ; and he must do this by submitting to a routine, whose 

 irksomeness and labour no one can appreciate but himself. Professor 

 Henderson did all this in a way which lays just claim to the grati- 

 tude of succeeding astronomers ; his speculations on our connection 

 with the sidereal system were but the recreations of a mind that 

 never swerved from the amount of toil imposed by the less dignified, 

 but more useful occupations of the astronomer. His observations, 

 followed up as they have been by Mr Maclear, will be the basis of 

 all the astronomy that is peculiar to the southern hemisphere ; and 

 it is to his results, that the astronomers of the next age will look for 

 the facts of their science." 



I apprehend, however, that no slight foundation of Mr Henderson's 

 future fame, will be found to rest on the admirable use which he 

 made of his own observations. Having acquired a thorough know- 

 ledo-e of all that had been done, and all that was desirable in 

 astronomy, he was ever on the alert to seize any opening which the 

 circumstances under which these were made, might seem to offer. 

 Witness his memoirs on refraction, and on the parallax of the moon, 

 which were suggested by the position of the observatory in which 

 he was at that time placed. The arguments, too, from which his 

 conclusions were drawn, are marked by singular perspicuity and 

 acuteness. The standard which he adopted in mathematical reason- 

 ing, was the works of Euler. Not many days before his death, I 

 found him reading some book of travels, and on expressing my 

 pleasure at finding him so employed, he remarked, " I should very 

 much prefer a volume of Euler, but I cannot get at it." In 

 astronomy he looked upon Bessel as his model, almost as his master. 

 It was my good fortune to participate in his entertainment of that 

 distinguished astronomer, as we had previously united in the recep- 

 tion of Encke. I would fain efface from my memory the pleasure 



