346 Caroline Lucretia Herschel. [1848. 



bed that we obtain a glimpse of her drawn by any 

 other hand than her own. 



January 13, 1848. 



.... I felt almost a sense of joyful relief at the death 

 of my aunt, in the thought that now the unquiet heart was 

 at rest. All that she had of love to give was concentrated 

 on her beloved brother. At his death she felt herself alone. 

 For after those long years of separation she could not but 

 find us all strange to her, and no one could ever replace his 

 loss. Time did indeed lessen and soften the overpowering 

 weight of her grief, and then she would regret that she had 

 ever left England, and condemned herself to live in a coun- 

 try where nobody cared for astronomy. I shared her regret, 

 but I knew too well that even in England she must have 

 found the same blank. She looked upon progress in science 

 as so much detraction from her brother's fame, and even 

 your investigations would have become a source of estrange- 

 ment had she been with you. She lived altogether in the 

 past, and she found the present not only strange but annoy- 

 ing. Now, thank God, she has gone where she will find 

 again all that she loved. I shall long feel her loss, for I 

 prized and loved her dearly, and it is to me a most pre- 

 cious recollection that she loved me best of all those here, 

 admitted me to closer intimacy, and allowed me to know 

 something even of her inner life. 



All the necessary instructions about her property, 

 her house, her burial, she had written years before ; 

 even the sum which she considered sufficient had been 

 carefully set apart for the funeral expenses, and every- 

 thing, down to the minutest trifle, had been arranged, 

 so that her executor, Sir John Herschel, might have 



