324 Caroline Lucretia Herschel. [1842. 



nephew or you, my dear niece, again in this world, for I 

 could not bear the pain of parting once more ; but I trust I 

 shall find and know you in the next. And as long as I 

 can hold a pen, let us, I beg, commune with one another by 

 letter ! 



MISS HERSCHEL TO LADY HERSCHEL. 



HANOVER, June 2, 1842. 



MY DEAREST NIECE, 



A thousand thanks for your kind letter, which con- 

 tains ever so much comfortable and satisfactory information, 

 such as heart can but wish 



I have begun a piece of work which I despair of finishing 

 before my eyesight and life will leave me in the lurch. You 

 will perhaps wonder what such a thing as I may pretend to 

 do, can be, but I cannot help it, and shall not rest till I 

 have wrote the History of the Herschels. I began, of 

 course, with my father and his parents. My father was 

 born in January, 1707, and I have now only got so far as 

 the beginning of 1758, and it begins to interest me much, 

 but I doubt whether I shall live to finish it, but think it a 

 pity it should be thrown away.* .... 



.... Do not forget to thank my little nephew for his 

 pretty letter. His description of the method his papa 

 makes use of in teaching mathematical figures, I prefer to 

 that of his grandfather. He used, when making me, a. 



* In answer to this announcement her niece wrote : " Herschel bids me say 

 he is quite delighted at the idea of your undertaking the family history, but 

 he insists upon it that you prove his descent from Hercules, and I dare say in 

 this age of relics, we could contrive to find in the rummaging of old traps 

 turned out at Slough, a veritable piece of the old dub which has by fortunate 

 accident served as part of the ladders of the forty-foot telescope ! or perhaps 

 you remember its slipping down the mouth of the great telescope one night 

 when it was turned in the direction of your ancestor's constellation, as a sign 

 that he confessed himself outshone by your labours." 



