4 HERSCHEL AND HIS WORK 



weaker nature on a stronger was not the bond that 

 united brother and sister in a lifelong devotion to 

 science and to each other. There was something more 

 noble. They were the two members of the family in 

 whom genius and perseverance united to overcome 

 difficulties. None of the others possessed equal genius ; 

 none of them were gifted with the same perseverance. 

 What these two undertook they did with intense 

 affection for each other, and with a determination not 

 to be baffled, where others could not be blamed had 

 they submitted to defeat. The other members of the 

 family that enter into the story of the lives of these 

 two were, the elder brother, Jacob, and the younger, 

 Alexander; the one nearly four years older than 

 William, and the other seven years younger. Flighty, 

 vain, selfish, and uncertain, Jacob was a specimen of 

 what the eldest brother in a family should not be, but 

 is frequently allowed to become by indulgent and 

 foolish parents. Of such inferior capacity to William 

 that the latter mastered their French lessons in half 

 the time taken by Jacob, he had the power of 

 creating unhappiness by starting difficulties at every- 

 thing that was done for him ; by selfishly insisting on 

 travelling comfortably by post, while his father, with 

 an impaired constitution, and his brother William, 

 a fast-growing and delicate lad, were content, for 

 economy's sake, to trudge the weary miles homeward 

 on foot; by whipping his little sister, sixteen years 

 younger than himself, because, in her awkwardness, 

 she did not come up to his lordly ideas of what a 

 tablemaid should be to a man of his standing ; by his 

 bad humour when his beefsteak was hard, or because 

 Caroline could not use brick-dust in cleaning the little 



