MUTUAL AFFECTION 3 



Of the early life of this musician not much is known 

 beyond the brief record by his sister and fellow- 

 worker, Caroline Lucretia Herschel, written when 

 she was past eighty years of age, and twenty years 

 after his death. It was, as she styled it, "a little 

 history of her own life, 1772-1778," not intended for 

 the eyes of an admiring world, but prepared for her 

 distinguished nephew, Sir John, the only son of her 

 brother, Sir William Herschel. It is also a most inter- 

 esting story of difficulties overcome in the pursuit of 

 knowledge, difficulties that were then almost insuper- 

 able, of the devoted love with which she helped to 

 smooth his path to fame, and of the moral beauty 

 which ennobled her brother's life. An affection so 

 touching between brother and sister is far from an 

 uncommon thing in the records of mankind, but it 

 never produced richer fruit or shone with brighter 

 lustre than in the lives of William Herschel and his 

 sister Caroline. 



Frederick William Herschel, although he dropped 

 the name Frederick in England after 1758, till it 

 reappeared in his son's name in 1792, the fourth of a 

 family of ten children, was born on November 15, 

 1738. His sister, Caroline Lucretia, the eighth of the 

 family, was born on March 16, 1750. She was thus 

 nearly twelve years his junior, an interval sufficient to 

 surround the elder of the two with the haze of romance 

 in the eyes of the younger. Between them there was 

 a strong attachment, from the time the little sister 

 could show or express her feelings. From infancy to 

 old age he was "the best and dearest of brothers"; 

 his son was her pet, her dearest nephew; and both 

 were worthy of her affection. The dependence of a 



