136 Caroline Lucretia Herschel. {1S22. 



into any order. The next day she brought my nephew to 

 me, who promised to fulfil all my wishes which I should 

 have expressed on paper ; he begged me not to exert myself 

 for his father's sake, of whom he believed it would be the 



immediate death if anything should happen to me * 



Of my dear nephew's advice I could not avail myself, for I 

 knew that at that time he had weighty concerns on his mind. 

 And, besides, my whole life almost has passed away in the 

 delusion that next to my eldest brother, none but Dietrich 

 was capable of giving me advice where to leave my few relics, 

 consisting of a few books and my sweeper. And for the 

 last twenty years I kept to the resolution of never opening 

 my lips to my dear brother William about worldly or 

 serious concerns, let me be ever so much at a loss for 

 knowing right from wrong. And so it has happened that at 

 the tune when I was stupefied by grief at seeing the death 

 of my dear brother, I gave myself, with all I was worth, up 

 to my brother Dietrich and his family, and from that time 

 till the death of D. I found great difficulty to remain 

 mistress of my own actions and opinions. In respect to 

 the latter we never could agree. And this it was which 

 prompted me to send Flamsteed's works to Gottingen (I 

 would rather have kept them till now) for fear they might be 

 offered for sale. Having about this time received very dis- 

 tressing accounts of family misfortunes from Dietrich at 

 Hanover, I could find no rest on his account till I should 

 have made my .500 stock over to him, but this required my 

 presence at the bank, and I could not think of leaving 

 Slough till my brother should be engaged for some days 

 with his family previous to the departure of my nephew, 

 who was going to accompany a friend abroad. And besides, 

 I knew that my absence would then be scarcely perceived, 



* This passage is a later note, added Sept. 26, 1828. 



