CHAP, in.] Her Brother s Marriage. 79 



not be otherwise than painful in any case ; but how 

 much more so in this where equal devotion to the 

 same pursuit must have made identity of interest and 

 purpose as complete as it is rare. One who could 

 both feel and express herself so strongly was not 

 likely to fall into her new place without some outward 

 expression of what it cost her tradition confirms 

 the assumption and it is easy to understand how this 

 long significant silence is due to the light of later 

 wisdom and calmer judgment which counselled the 

 destruction of all record of what was likely to be 

 painful to survivors. 



Her later letters abundantly show that she had 

 learned to love the gentle sister-in-law whom she so 

 pathetically entreats to hold on with her in their 

 common old age, and the journals of her astro- 

 nomical researches sufficiently prove that her zeal 

 in " minding the Heavens " knew no abatement. It 

 was at this period also that she made some of her 

 most important discoveries. Before the end of 1797 

 she had announced the discovery of eight comets, to 

 five of which the priority of her claim over other 

 observers is unquestioned. A packet, in coarse paper, 

 bearing the superscription, " This is what I call the 

 Bills and Receipts of my Comets," contains some data 

 connected with the discovery of these objects, each 

 folded in a separate paper, and marked " First Comet," 

 " Second Comet," &c., &c. Some of the correspond- 



