314 Caroline Lucretia HerscheL [1840. 



My dear nephew, if I did not feel myself seriously de- 

 clining very fast, I would not incommode you at present 

 (when your time must be so precious) with such letters as 

 my two or three last have been. 



But going many nights to bed without the hope of seeing 

 another day, I think it my duty to guard you against put- 

 ting any trust or confidence in . He and the whole 



family have never been of the least use to me ; and for all 

 the good I have lavished on them, they never came to look 

 after me, but when they had some design upon me. 



In short, I find that all along I have been taken for an 

 idiot, or that at least I am now reckoned to be in my 

 dotage, and therefore ought not to be mistress of my own 

 actions. But, thank God, I have yet sense enough left to 

 caution you against being imposed upon by a stupid being 

 who would make you believe I died under obligations to any 

 of the family. I know he has already, without asking my 

 leave, passed himself off for my guardian, and is vexed at my 

 being able to do without him. But I could not live without 

 that little business of keeping my accounts ; and by my last 

 book of expenses and receipts may be seen, that I owe 

 nothing to anybody, but to my dear nephew many many 

 thanks for fulfilling his father's wishes, by paying for so 

 many years the ample annuity he left me. 



SIR J. F. W. HERSCHEL TO MISS HERSCHEL. 



August 10, 1840. 



.... The telescopes are now, I trust, property 

 disposed of. Mr. Hausmann (who will value it) has the 

 sweeper. The five-foot Newtonian reflector is in the hands 

 of the Royal Astronomical Society, and will be preserved 

 by it as the little telescope of Newton is by the Royal 

 Society, long after I and all the little ones are dead and 

 gone. 



