PREFACE 



To present to the public the life and work of a man 

 who powerfully influenced the progress of astronomy a 

 century ago, and stamped on his own age as well as 

 ours a loftier view of Creation and its Author than was 

 ever before entertained, may be best done by allowing 

 him and his contemporaries to tell their own story, 

 and to relate their own impressions. We all prefer to 

 hear them speaking, to see them playing their parts in 

 life, and to watch the drama of surprise, wonder, and 

 criticism unfolding itself in their written or printed 

 pages. If I have succeeded in my endeavour to tell 

 the story on these lines, I shall have attained the end 

 which I had in view when I undertook this work. 



William Herschel was not a mathematician of the 

 order of Newton, Laplace, or even of his own son. He 

 made no pretence to that high honour. His fields of 

 research were much simpler, though not less laborious, 

 and the harvests he reaped were enjoyed by mankind 

 without a strain on the understanding which very few 

 in any age are capable of. A popular exposition of 

 his career and his discoveries in the light of more 



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