296 NINETEENTH CENTURY. pt. hi. 



Stars, star- clusters, and nebulae, mingled together in wonder- 

 ful complexity. 



When he returned to England in 1838, you can imagine 

 what a wonderful picture he must have had in his mind of 

 the whole universe as far as we can see it. It was then that 

 he wrote his famous * Outlines of Astronomy,' which was a 

 new edition of a little book he had written years before. In 

 this great work Sir John Herschel first taught ordinary 

 people what a grand science astronomy is. Before his time 

 the different discoveries and theories had been scattered 

 about in various scientific papers, too difficult and too 

 tedious for the public to read. But Sir John wrote simply 

 and plainly about the great truths which had been worked 

 out from the days when Aristarchus first asserted that the 

 earth moved round the sun to the time when Sir William 

 Herschel pictured our whole solar system travelling onwards 

 through endless space; and through his book many who 

 would never otherwise have studied the science learnt to 

 know something of the wonders of the heavens and the 

 lessons they teach. Sir John was a true lover of the works 

 of nature, and he taught all his readers to love them too, 

 and to feel a true reverence for the Infinite Mind of the 

 Creator of them all. He died in 1871, and was buried in 

 Westminster Abbey, but never will those who knew him 

 forget the beautiful truth-loving spirit which breathed in 

 every word he wrote or spoke. 



Sir John Herschel is the last of our great astronomers 

 who is no longer living, and here we should close the history 

 of physical astronomy, if it were not that a wonderful disco- 

 very has been made within the last ten years which must at 

 least be mentioned. 

 Discovery of the Paths along which Meteors travel, 



