CHAPTER X 



PLANETS AND COMETS 



THE first of the heavenly bodies to which Herschel 

 really turned his eyes with the longing of a traveller 

 in an untrodden land of romance, appears to have been 

 the planet Saturn. He was then forging the instru- 

 ments which were destined to disclose the hidden 

 things of creation, and to give an impulse to the study 

 of them, that has gone on from wonder to wonder till 

 the present day. He was keeping a journal, making 

 entries of what he saw, and laying a foundation for 

 future progress. But his method of writing was some- 

 what peculiar. His papers were to a large extent 

 copies of entries made in his journal, or the impressions 

 he received at the moment while sun or star or planet 

 was under his eye. There was thus room for mistakes, 

 which it is not surprising that he fell into ; the wonder 

 is that he fell into so few. Of mistakes resulting from 

 this hasty method of working he was himself conscious; 

 but it led to another inconvenience. He did not delay 

 publishing his views till he was perfectly sure of their 

 accuracy. The result was diffuseness of statement 

 and unnecessary returning to the same subject. To 

 give his views in the order of time would thus be 

 wearisome and useless. We shall keep to the order of 

 subjects, bringing them, as far as possible, to a focus. 



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