HERSCHEL THE PIONEER. 11 



The gentleman, Dr Watson of Bath, introduced 

 Herschel to the Literary Society, and we find 

 him in 1780 contributing two papers to the 

 Royal Society on Mira Ceti and the Moon. In 

 the same year he commenced his second review 

 of the heavens, and during its progress he made 

 his first great discovery. On March 13, 1781, 

 while surveying the constellation Gemini, he 

 discovered a faint object distinguished by a 

 disc, which he concluded to be a tailless comet, 

 but which was soon shown to be a new planet 

 beyond the orbit of Saturn. This was the first 

 planetary discovery made within the memory of 

 man. King George III. summoned Herschel to 

 London, and gave him a pension of 200 a-year, 

 with the title of King's Astronomer, pardoning 

 him also for his desertion from the army more 

 than twenty years previously. Herschel then 

 named the new planet the " Georgium Sidus," 

 a title now abandoned and replaced by Uranus. 

 William and Caroline Herschel now moved to 

 Datchet, near Windsor, in 1785 to Clay Hall, 

 and finally, in 1786, to Slough, "the spot of 

 all the world," said Arago, " where the greatest 

 number of discoveries have been made." Here 

 Herschel and his sister worked for nearly forty 

 years. He communicated to the Royal Society 

 paper after paper on astronomy in all its aspects. 



