1 82 HERSCHEL AND HIS WORK 



may owe " their existence to inherent fires acting with 

 great violence." " Nay, we have pretty good reason to 

 believe," he said, " that probably all the planets emit 

 light in some degree ; for the illumination which re- 

 mains on the moon in a total eclipse cannot be entirely 

 ascribed to the light which may reach it by the refrac- 

 tion of the earth's atmosphere." This idea is not 

 borne out by recent observations. 



The first two papers Herschel wrote on Saturn, con- 

 taining the record of more than fourteen years' work, 

 cover nearly ninety pages quarto. Fifty of these pages 

 are merely extracts from his journal, showing the 

 nightly work in which he was engaged, jottings, it 

 may be, all of which required from him time and care, 

 before they could be put down on paper. Here is a 

 specimen of two nights' work, done shortly before 

 midnight : 



" Nov. 7 : 22, 9. At the end of the p. arm is a place 

 that is brighter than nearer to the body. 



" 23, 12. The preceding arm has still the appearance 

 of a small protuberant point towards the south, near 

 the end of the arm. 



" Nov. 8 : 23, 40. There is a protuberant point on the 

 preceding arm besides the 7th sat. ; so that at present 

 I cannot tell whether the satellite be the nearest or 

 farthest of them." * 



By patient, long-continued labour, carried on at all 

 hours of the day and night, is a way prepared for 

 advancing the boundaries of human knowledge, though 

 few are capable of estimating, far less of bearing, the 



1 Phil Trans., 1790, p. 485 (vol. Ixxx.). The seventh and sixth, 

 though last discovered, are nearest to the planet. The longer-known 

 five used to be named in the order of their distance from it. 



