306 Life, Researches, and Discoveries of F. W. Bessel 



star in the chart, consists of two, which his eye was sharp enough 

 to distinguish separately, though at so small an interval as 3' 32". 

 This must certainly be regarded as an uncommon proof, not only 

 of acute vision, but of close and careful attention in a boy so 

 young, and as manifesting that capacity for becoming earnestly 

 interested in a subject to which the natural faculties of the mind 

 are best adapted, which is all that can be understood by an early 

 bent of genius. 



Earnest attention and zealous occupation with the business be- 

 fore him, of whatever nature, seems, however, to have been a 

 primary feature of his character. In his new situation he speedily 

 mastered, not merely the routine of his own subordinate position, 

 but gained a thorough insight into the general nature of the 

 business of his firm ; and, entering into all his d ities with un- 

 common diligence, rapidly acquired the approbation and confi- 

 dence of his employers ; leading him to hope that the more re- 

 sponsible situation of supercargo, in a voyage to the French an 

 Spanish colonies and China, might be offered to him. To prepare 

 himself for this great object of his ambition, he commenced the 

 study of the French and Spanish languages, and of navigation, 

 taking for his guide in that branch, the old work of Hamilton 

 Moore. The rules and processes of nautical reckoning delivered 

 in that work as precepts, without their theoretical grounds, in- 

 duced him to seek the latter elsewhere. He procured a popular 

 treatise on astronomy. This directed him in the right course ; 

 and proceeding from book to book, and mastering their difficulties 

 as best he might, he found at length an effectual bar to further 



progress in his entire unacquaintance with mathematics. He im- 

 mediately entered on a course of mathematical reading, and now 

 we hear no more of commercial projects, or of the voyage e 

 had so ardently desired. Every leisure hour (and they were 

 chiefly in the night) was devoted to astronomical and mathenia^ 

 ical reading. Practice was also combined with theory. B y the ^ r . 

 of a rude wooden sextant, which he got constructed by a c - 

 penter, and a common clock, he began to make observations 

 time ; and great was his joy when the occultation of a consi 

 able star by the moon, which he was fortunate enough to °^' 

 gave hi'n the longitude of Bremen with considerable approxi 

 tion. The rapidity of his progress from this time was M"? ^ 

 tonishing. Trains of original research and learned inquiry °F^ er 

 out before him at an age when the generality of students, i ^ 

 the most favorable circumstances, hardly advance beyond tne ^ 

 ments of science. Already in his twentieth year, he had exec ^ 

 the reduction of Harriott's and Torporley's observations o ^ 

 comet of 1607, which has become so celebrated by the & re * 

 covery of its periodical return by Halley. These obsen a ^ 

 had been but recently rescued from oblivion by Baron /-at , 



