52 Caroline Lucretia Herschcl. [1783. 



1st of January, 1788, a very fine one cracked by frost in the 

 tube. I remember to have seen the thermometer \\ degree 



below zero for several nights in the same year 



.... In my brother's absence from home, I was of course 

 left solely to amuse my self with my own thoughts, which were 

 any thing but cheerful. I found I was to be trained for an 

 assistant-astronomer, and by way of encouragement a tele- 

 scope adapted for " sweeping," consisting of a tube with two 

 glasses, such as are commonly used in n " finder," was given 

 me. I was "to sweep for comets," and I see by my journal 

 that I began August 22nd, 1782, to write down and describe 

 all remarkable appearances I saw in my " sweeps," which 

 were horizontal. But it was not till the last two months of 

 the same year that I felt the least encouragement to spend the 

 star-light nights on a grass-plot covered with dew or hoar 

 frost, without a human being near enough to be within call. 

 I knew too little of the real heavens to be able to point out 

 every object so as to find it again without losing too much time 

 by consulting the Atlas. But all these troubles were removed 

 when I knew my brother to be at no great distance making 

 observations with his various instruments on double stars, 

 planets, &c., and I could have his assistance immediately 

 when I found a nebula, or cluster of stars, of which I 

 intended to give a catalogue ; but at the end of 17.83 I had 

 only marked fourteen, when my sweeping was interrupted 

 by being employed to write down my brother's observations, 

 with the large twenty-foot. I had, however, the comfort to see 

 that my brother was satisfied with my endeavours to assist 

 him when he wanted another person, either to run to the 

 clocks, write down a memorandum, fetch and carry instru- 

 ments, or measure the ground with poles, &c., &c., of 

 which something of the kind every moment would occur. 

 For the assiduity with which the measurements on the 

 diameter of the Georgium Sidus, and observations of other 



