318 THE WORLD MACHINE 



at least three of the best-known stars of the heavens, Sirius, 

 Arcturus, and Procyon, had certainly changed in their inclina- 

 tion to the ecliptic since Greek days, if the star maps of the 

 Alexandrian astronomers could be relied upon. His view was 

 strengthened by the fact that the brightest of all, the Dog- 

 star, had perceptibly altered its position since the days of Tycho 

 Brahe. Comparison of the ancient records of other stars in- 

 dicated other probable deviations ; but the motion, the change, 

 was so minute that it might readily be an illusion or an error. 



So far as the most careful observer gazing up at the sky 

 could see, it has in no wise changed from the times of the 

 earliest Greeks. Probably they had records now lost to us. 

 Doubtless they made comparisons as did Halley, with all the 

 care and accuracy at their command. Their idea was that the 

 stars were fixed. So, for aught that the sceptic Halley could 

 demonstrate, they remained. 



Then came Bradley's discoveries showing how a considerable 

 degree of apparent motion could be accounted for, simply from 

 the annual motion of the earth, and the swaying of its axis. 

 When, half a century later, Herschel began his investigations, 

 the question was still open. The proof that they do move 

 and much more beside, was his. 



The attribute of genius is flung about rather carelessly at 

 times ; such a quality alone can account for such a career as 

 that of this poor German musician, who became the greatest 

 observing astronomer of his age. Kepler, we recall, came up 

 from a pot-boy ; the origins of Galileo and Newton were quite 

 as humble ; but all of them had a university career. Herschel 

 had none. He was thirty-five before he had ever looked through 

 a telescope. His father was an oboe player in a German 

 regiment. It was not an intelligent pursuit ; it is not ordinarily 

 a stimulus to high deeds. The boy was brought up to the same 

 task. His coming to England was through the removal of the 

 Hanoverian guards to that country while he was playing in 

 the regimental band. He was soon out of it ; shortly after- 

 wards he becomes an organist and music teacher in Bath. So 

 his life runs along tranquilly for ten or twelve years, years in 

 which the bent of a man is usually revealed and developed. 

 Herschel was studying ; the long day over, he was deep in mathe- 

 matics, optics, languages, trying to make good the education 

 which he had lacked. In the end he comes across a work in 



