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was able to devote herself to the Newtonian sweeper, which 

 she used to such good purpose. Besides the eight comets 

 by her discovered, she detected several remarkable nebulas 

 and clusters of stars, previously unnoticed, especially the 

 superb nebulae known as No. 1, Class V, in Sir William 

 Herschel's catalogue. Long practice taught her to make 

 light of her work. 'An observer at your twenty-foot when 

 sweeping, ' she wrote many years after, ' wants nothing but 

 a being who can and will execute his commands with the 

 quickness of lightning ; for you will have seen that in many 

 sweeps six or twice six objects have been secured and 

 described in one minute of time. ' ' n 



It was her quick, intelligent action, combined with a 

 patience, enthusiasm and powers of endurance that were 

 most extraordinary, that made Caroline Herschel so valu- 

 able as an assistant to her brother, and enabled him to 

 achieve the unique position which is his among the world 's 

 greatest astronomers. Had she been able to devote all her 

 time to ''minding the heavens/' it is cevtain that she 

 would have made many more discoveries than are now 

 credited to her; but her service to astronomy would have 

 been less than it was as the auxiliary of her illustrious 

 brother. No two ever did better " teamwork "; no two 

 were ever more devoted to each other or exhibited greater 

 enthusiasm in the task to which they so heroically devoted 

 their lives. 2 



i Memoirs and Correspondence of Caroline Herschel, p. 144, by 

 Mrs. John Herschel, London, 1879. 



2 So sensitive was Miss Herschel in her old age regarding the 

 reputation of her brother, William, who had always been her idol 

 and the one in whom she had concentrated all her affection, that 

 she came to look askance at every person and thing that seemed cal- 

 culated to dull the glory of his achievements. Thus her niece, in 

 writing to Sir John Herschel, after her death, declares : ' ' She looked 

 upon progress in science as so much detraction from her brother's 

 fame; and, even your investigations would have become a source of 

 estrangement had she been with you." In a letter to Sir John 



