88 SIJ2 WM. AND CAROLINE HERSCHEL. 



by publishing them, but there was no printer who 

 bid high enough." 



After a year at Halifax, Herschel obtained a 

 position as organist at the Octagon Chapel in Bath, 

 a fashionable city of England. This was another 

 and higher step on the road to fame. He now 

 gave nearly forty lessons a week to pupils. He 

 composed music, and wrote anthems, chants, and 

 psalm-tunes for the cathedral choir where he 

 played. He became so popular from his real 

 ability, coupled with pleasing manners, that he 

 was occupied in teaching from fourteen to sixteen 

 hours daily. 



But he did more than this. As his hopes bright- 

 ened, he determined to devote every minute to the 

 pursuit of knowledge, in which he found his great- 

 est happiness. He studied Greek and Italian. He 

 would unbend his mind, after he retired, with Mac- 

 laurin's " Fluxions," or Robert Smith's " Complete 

 System of Optics," and Lalande's Astronomy.. 



What if he had devoted this time to ease or 

 amusement ! Would he have become learned or 

 distinguished ? Every young man and woman is 

 obliged to decide the matter for himself and her- 

 self. We cannot idle away life and be great. 



In 1767, the fond father, Isaac, died of paralysis. 

 Caroline, who loved him tenderly, was desolate. He 

 had taught her the violin when the prosaic mother 

 "was either in good humor, or out of the way." 

 It is quite possible that music, like inventions, did 

 not bring an adequate support for ten children, and 



