84 SIB WM. AND CAEOLINE HERSCHEL. 



When William was seventeen, the guards went 

 to England for a year, and on their return home 

 he brought one precious memento of the country, 

 Locke "On the Human Understanding." Such a 

 boy would not remain in the foot guards forever. 

 He was delicate in health, so that his parents re- 

 moved him from the army. 



At nineteen, he determined to try his fortune in 

 England. He said good-by to the culture-loving 

 and warm-hearted father, to the poor mother who 

 knew " no other wants than good linen and cloth- 

 ing," and started out to make his way in the world. 

 For three years nothing is known of him, save that 

 he passed through many hardships. He played in 

 military bands whenever and wherever he could 

 find a situation, or at concerts, and led probably a 

 cramped and obscure life. 



There was little prospect then that he would be- 

 come, as Prof. Edward S. Holden says in his admi- 

 rable life, "the greatest of practical astronomers, 

 and one of the world's most profound philoso- 

 phers." What the poor German youth thought 

 and felt in those years of trial, we do not know. 

 He had one resource in his loneliness, the reading 

 of useful books. 



After about three years, a fortuitous circumstance 

 occurred. It proved " fortuitous " only because 

 young Herschel had studied music faithfully, and 

 had made himself ready to fill a fine position, if, 

 poor and without influence, such a position could 

 be obtained. 



