172 Caroline Lucretia Herschcl. [1S24. 



FROM J. F. W. HERSCHEL TO MISS HERSCHEL. 



CATANIA (SICILY), July 2, 1824. 

 DEAR AUNT, 



The last time I wrote to you from Slough I little 

 expected that ray next would be dated from the foot of 

 Etna but I mean this to be the farthest point of my 

 wanderings, and from hence to turn my steps northwards. 

 I am not without some hopes that my time will so far serve 

 as to enable me to pay you a visit at Hanover, as I long 

 very much to see you among your and my Hanoverian 

 friends My mother will have told you of my ar- 

 rangements, of the alteration which my plans of life have 

 undergone (and for which I see every day more reason to be 

 thankful), and of my present excursion, so that the date of 

 this will not surprise you. To-morrow I hope to see the 

 sun set from the top of Etna, and will keep this open to give 

 you an account of my excursion there. Meanwhile let me 

 congratulate you on the good accounts my mother gives me 

 of your present state of health and spirits, the knowledge 

 of which has enabled me to give real pleasure to many who, 

 when they heard I was related to you, enquired with the 

 greatest interest respecting you. Among the rest I may 

 mention M. Arago, of the Observatory at Paris, and M. 

 Founder, the secretary of the Institute, who has just been 

 reading the Elogc of my dear father at a meeting of that 

 body, in which I am sure (from the associations I had with 

 him, and the written communications that passed between us 

 on the subject) your own name will stand associated with his 

 in a manner that cannot fail to be gratifying to you. I have 

 not (of course, as I quitted Paris before it was read, or even 

 written) seen it, but the man is of the right sort, and I will 

 endeavour to procure copies of it for you and my uncle. 

 , Indeed, at Paris I find (as where do I not find it ?) universal 

 justice rendered to my father's merits, and a degree of 



