HIS FORTY-FOOT TELESCOPE. 265 



and that great discoveries would honour his career also. 

 No prediction of the illustrious astronomer has been more 

 completely verified. 



The English journals gave an account of the means 

 adopted by the family of William Herschel, for preserv- 

 ing the remains of the great telescope of thirty-nine 

 English feet (twelve metres) constructed by that cele- 

 brated astronomer. 



The metal tube of the instrument carrying at one end 

 the recently cleaned mirror of four feet ten inches in diam- 

 eter, has been placed horizontally in the meridian line, 

 on solid piers of masonry, in the midst of the circle, where 

 formerly stood the mechanism requisite for manoeuvring 

 the telescope. The first of January 1840, Sir John Her- 

 schel, his wife, their children, seven in number, and some 

 old family servants, assembled at Slough. Exactly at 

 noon, the party walked several times in procession round 

 the instrument ; they then entered the tube of the tele- 

 scope, seated themselves on benches that had been pre- 

 pared for the purpose, and sung a requiem, with English 

 words composed by Sir John Herschel himself. After 

 their exit, the illustrious family ranged themselves around 



tf 



the great tube, the opening of which was then hermeti- 

 cal y sealed. The day concluded with a party of intimate 

 friends. 



I know not whether those persons who will only appre- 

 ciate things from the peculiar point of view from which 

 they have been accustomed to look, may think there was 

 something strange in several of the details of the ceremony 

 that I have just described. I affirm at least that the 

 whole world will applaud the pious feeling which actuated 

 Sir John Herschel ; and that all the friends of science 

 will thank him for having consecrated the humble garden 



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