272 EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. pt. hi. 



and privation, but at last he was appointed organist at Hali- 

 fax in Yorkshire, and from there he went in 1766 to Bath, 

 where he soon became known as a talented musician, play- 

 ing in the Octagon Chapel and at concerts and parties with 

 immense success, and procuring a large number of private 

 pupils. 



It was at this time, in the midst of active work which 

 kept him fully occupied all the day, that Herschel began 

 those nightly observations which have made his name famous. 

 His interest was at first excited by seeing the stars through 

 a small telescope only two feet in length ; and his desire was 

 so great to be able to penetrate farther into the starry depths, 

 that he sent to London to order a large telescope. When 

 the answer came, however, he found that the price of the 

 instrument was quite beyond his means ; and so determined 

 was he to carry out his project, that he set to work to con- 

 struct a telescope with his own hands. The first one an- 

 swered so well that he made several others, and at last 

 succeeded in completing one forty feet long. 



From that time he spent the greater part of every night 

 in observing the stars, and on March 13, 1781, when he was 

 examining some near the constellation Gemini, or the 

 ' Twins,' he caught sight of one star more conspicuous than 

 those around it. Struck by its size, he put a stronger mag- 

 nifying power on to his telescope, and found to his surprise 

 that this star became larger, while those round it remained 

 as small as before. The fixed stars, as you know, are so far 

 off that no magnifying power makes any difference in their 

 apparent size ; so Herschel began to suspect that this must 

 be a body very much nearer to our earth than the stars which 

 surrounded it. This led him to watch it, and he soon found 

 that instead of being fixed it moved onwards steadily. He 



