DR. WATSON'S DISCOVERY OF HERSCHEL 47 



got him pupils, and did what they could for him in the 

 race for bread. But they had no idea that he was at 

 the same time running a race for fame, or, to speak 

 more correctly, was preparing to step into that arena. 

 They would have smiled an incredulous smile had 

 anyone said so to them. A music master and a 

 director of concerts they could understand and ap- 

 preciate as an inferior creature ; but a man who 

 pottered about reflectors and refractors, and looked at 

 the moon from a back garden or a street, when the rest 

 of the world had gone to bed, was beyond their com- 

 prehension, or probably came in for their pity. And 

 yet it was on a street, and late at night, that the genius 

 of Herschel was discovered by an inhabitant of Bath, 

 a perfect stranger to him and his scientific pursuits. 

 So curious is the romance of the discovery that it is 

 best told in Herschel's own words. 



"About the latter end of this month [December 

 1779] I happened to be engaged in a series of obser- 

 vations on the lunar mountains, and the moon being 

 in front of my house, late in the evening I brought my 

 seven-feet reflector into the street, and directed it to 

 the object of my observations. Whilst I was looking 

 into the telescope, a gentleman coming by the place 

 where I was stationed, stopped to look at the instru- 

 ment. When I took my eye off the telescope, he very 

 politely asked if he might be permitted to look in, 

 and this being immediately conceded, he expressed 

 great satisfaction at the view. Next morning the 

 gentleman, who proved to be Dr. Watson, jun. (now 

 Sir William), called at my house to thank me for my 

 civility in showing him the moon, and told me that 

 there was a Literary Society then forming at Bath, 



