92 SIR WM. AND CAROLINE IIEE8CHEL. 



edge. He began now to study the heavens in 

 earnest, but the teaching must go on to provide 

 daily bread. He directed an orchestra of nearly one 

 hundred pieces, and Caroline copied the scores and 

 vocal parts. So absorbed was he in his astronomi- 

 cal work, however, that at the theatre, between the 

 acts, he would run from the harpsichord to look at 

 the stars. This boyish eagerness and naturalness 

 he kept through life. 



He soon made a seven-foot reflector, then a ten- 

 foot reflector. The mirrors for these telescopes 

 were all made by hand, machines for the purpose 

 not being invented till ten or more years later. 

 Alexander, with his mechanical skill, assisted, and 

 Caroline was always busy at the work. She says, 

 "My time was taken up with copying music and 

 practising, besides attendance on rny brother when 

 polishing; since, by way of keeping him alive, I 

 was constantly obliged to feed him, by putting his 

 victuals by bits into his mouth. This was once the 

 case, when, in order to finish a seven- foot mirror, he 

 had not taken his hands from it for sixteen hours 

 together. In general he was never unemployed at 

 meals, but was always at those times contriving or 

 making drawings of whatever came in his mind. 

 Generally I was obliged to read to him while he 

 was at the turning-lathe, or polishing mirrors, 

 'Don Quixote/ ' Arabian Nights' Entertainment/ 

 the novels of Sterne, Fielding, etc. ; serving tea 

 and supper without interrupting the work with 

 which he was engaged.". . . 



