30 Caroline Lucretia HerscheL [1772. 



devoted to the studies which were compelling him to 

 become himself an observer of the heavens. Insufficient 

 mechanical means roused his inventive genius ; and, as 

 all the world knows, the mirror for the mighty forty- 

 foot telescope was the crowning result. To his pupils 

 he was known as not a music-master alone. Some 

 ladies had lessons in astronomy from him, and, at the 

 invitation of his friend Dr. Watson, he became a mem- 

 ber of a philosophical society then recently started 

 in Bath, to which he for several years contributed a 

 great number of papers on various scientific subjects. 

 It soon came to pass that the gentlemen who sought 

 interviews with him, asking for a peep through the 

 wonderful tube, carried stories of what they had seen 

 to London, and these were not long in finding their 

 way to St. James's. 



It was thus at the very turning-point of her 

 brother's career that Caroline Herschel became his 

 companion and fellow-worker. No contrast could 

 be sharper than that presented by the narrow domestic 

 routine she had left to the life of ceaseless and inex- 

 haustible activity into which she was plunged ; 

 unless, indeed, it be that presented by the nature of 

 the events she has to record, and the tone in which 

 they are recorded. For ten years she persevered at 

 Bath, singing when she was told to sing, copying 

 when she was told to copy, " lending a hand " in the 

 workshop, and taking her full share in all the stirring 



