288 HERSCHEL. 



probabilities. Herschel passed those limits. He himself 

 proved that the sun positively moves ; and that, in this 

 respect also, that immense and dazzling body must be 

 ranged among the stars ; that the apparently inextricable 

 irregularities of numerous sidereal proper motions arise 

 in great measure from the displacement of the solar sys- 

 tem ; that, in short, the point of space towards which we 

 are annually advancing, is situated in the constellation of 

 Hercules. 



These are magnificent results. The discovery of the 

 proper motion of our system will always be accounted 

 among HerschePs highest claims to glory, even after the 

 mention that my duty as historian has obliged me to 

 make of the anterior conjectures by Fontenelle, by Brad- 

 ley, by Mayer, and by Lambert. 



By the side of this great discovery we should place 

 another, that seems likely to expand in future. The 

 results which it allows us to hope for will be of extreme 

 importance. The discovery here alluded to was an- 

 nounced to the learned world in 1803 ; it is that of the 

 reciprocal dependence of several stars, connected the one 

 with the other, as the several planets and their satellites 

 of our system are with the sun. 



Let us to these immortal labours add the ingenious 

 ideas that we owe to Herschel on the nebulas, on the 

 constitution of the Milky- way, on the universe as a 

 whole ; ideas which almost by themselves constitute the 

 actual history of the formation of the worlds, and we can- 

 not but have a deep reverence for that powerful genius 

 that has scarcely ever erred, notwithstanding an ardent 

 imagination. 



