MISS BURNEY ON HERSCHEL 197 



nomers are as able as other men to discern that gold 

 can glitter as well as stars." 1 There is a falling-off 

 here from the enthusiasm of former days: a great 

 falling-off. 



Two years previous Miss Burney described Herschel, 

 or her first impressions of him, in much more glowing 

 terms. " In the evening Mr. Herschel came to tea. I 

 had once seen that very extraordinary man at Mrs. 

 De Luc's, but was happy to see him again, for he has 

 not more fame to awaken curiosity than sense and 

 modesty to gratify it. He is perfectly unassuming, 

 yet openly happy, and happy in the success of those 

 studies which would render a mind less excellently 

 formed presumptuous and arrogant. 



" The King has not a happier subject than this man, 

 who owes it wholly to His Majesty that he is not 

 wretched ; for such was his eagerness to quit all other 

 pursuits to follow astronomy solely, that he was in 

 danger of ruin, when his talents and great and un- 

 common genius attracted the King's patronage. He 

 has now not only his pension, which gives him the 

 felicity of devoting all his time to his darling study, 

 but he is indulged in license from the King to make a 

 telescope according to his new ideas and discoveries, 

 that is, to have no cost spared in its construction, and 

 is wholly to be paid for by His Majesty. 



" This seems to have made him happier even than 

 the pension, as it enables him to put in execution all 

 his wonderful projects, from which his expectations of 

 future discoveries are so sanguine as to make his 

 present existence a state of almost perfect enjoyment. 



" He seems a man without a wish that has its object 



1 October 3, 1788. 



