NATURE 



429 



THURSDAY, MARCH 10, 1881 



SIR WILLIAM HERSCHEL 

 I. 



ON March 13, 1781, the planet Uranus was discovered 

 by WiUiam Herschel, and very opportunely at this 

 centenary of that memorable addition to the planetary 

 system, Prof. Holden has presented us with a popu- 

 lar biography of the great astronomer and an outline of 

 his works, which he has been careful to make intelligible 

 to the general reader.' 



Of the great modern philosophers, writes Prof. Holden, 

 that one of whom least is known, is William Herschel, 

 and we may appropriate the words which escaped him as 

 one of the starless spaces in the constellation Scorpio 

 passed through the field of his telescope, when his sister 

 Caroline Herschel, his constant attendant during his 

 night-watches, tells us he exclaimed, " Hier ist wahr- 

 Jiaftig cin Lochiiii Hiinmel." A life of Herschel which 

 shall be satisfactory in every particular. Prof. Holden 

 remarks, can only be written after a full examination of 

 the materials which may have been preserved by the 

 family ; but as two generations have passed since his 

 death, he thinks no apology will be needed for a con- 

 scientious attempt to make the best use of material 

 already in hand, scanty as it may be. 



Herschel did prepare, about the year 1S18, a biographi- 

 cal note or memorandum, which was then placed amongst 

 his papers, and which has not been made public, and his 

 sister, writing in June, 1842, mentions having commenced 

 a work which she almost despaired of finishing, "The 

 History of the Herschels," in which presumably her 

 brother's life and work would have formed the main 

 feature, but we do not hear that in her then infirm state 

 of health any considerable progress was made with it. 



The only authentic sources of biographical information 

 before the world are in the " Memoir and Correspondence 

 of Caroline Herschel," published in 1876, and in a much 

 less known sketch of his life furnished by Herschel him- 

 self in a communication to Lichtenberg, dated November 

 I5> 1783, and printed in the G'ottingen Magazine of 

 Science and Literature, iii. 4 ; this sketch was forwarded 

 at the request of Lichtenberg, when acknowledging the 

 receipt of memoirs on double stars, &c., which Herschel 

 had sent him. 



William Herschel was born in Hanover on November 

 IS) 1738, and was the second son of Isaac and Anna 

 Herschel. The musical taste which he exhibited early in 

 life appears to have been inherited from his father, who 

 formed one of the band of the Hanoverian Guards in 

 1731. The eldest son Jacob was a clever musician, and 

 first violin in the Court orchestra in 1759; he afterwards 

 joined his brother William in this country, and on return- 

 ing to Hanover carried on a correspondence with him on 

 musical subjects till his death in 1792. The youngest 

 brother Dietrich also shared in the musical abilities of 

 the family, and at fifteen years of age was so far advanced 

 as to be admitted into the Court orchestra. Towards the 

 end of 1755, when the Hanoverian Guards were ordered 



' " Sir William Herschel, his Life and Works." By Edward S. Holden, 

 U.S. Naval Observatory, Washington. (New York: Charles Scribner's 

 Sons, iSSi.) 



Vol. xxiii. — No. 593 



to England, Herschel accompanied them as one of the 

 band, and remained in this country about a year, when 

 he returned to Hanover. During part of the disastrous 

 campaign of 1757 he was on active service with the 

 regiment, but after the defeat at Hastenbeck in July, it 

 became evident that he had not the physical strength for 

 the service, and his parents resolved to remove him. In 

 connection with this circumstance Prof. Holden recalls a 

 statement made by Sir George Airy, that the " removal" 

 was a desertion, as he was told by the Duke of Sussex 

 that on Herschel's first visit to the king after the dis- 

 covery of the Gcorgium Sidus, "his pardon was handed 

 to him by the king himself, written out in due form." 



Herschel returned to England, though at what time 

 does not appear. In fact from 1757 to 1760 we know 

 nothing of his life. It is related in the Memoirs of 

 Caroline Herschel that several pages referring to this 

 period had been torn out in both her original Recollec- 

 tions and in the unfinished Memoir commenced in 1S40. 

 In 1760, however, he is again heard of, at Pontefract, as a 

 young German in the band of the Durham militia, who 

 spoke English almost as well as a native, and who was 

 an excellent performer on the violin. It is conjectured 

 that till his appointment as organist at Halifax in 1765, 

 pupils and public concerts must have filled up his time ; 

 during a portion of this interval of five years he resided 

 at Leeds, and in April, 1764, we are told he returned to 

 Hanover on a very brief visit. In 1766 he obtained an 

 engagement at Bath, and soon after was appointed 

 organist at the Octagon Chapel. In this year, says Prof. 

 Holden, he began a life of unceasing activity. His 

 engaging manners made him friends, while " his talents 

 brought him admirers and pupils, and pupils brought him 

 money " ; at this time he was giving thirty-five or more 

 musical lessons in a week. In August, 1772, he proceeded 

 to Hanover to take back to England his sister Caroline, 

 afterwards his untiring assistant and companion in his 

 surveys of the heavens. At this time his residence was 

 in New King Street, Bath, and here in 1774 he had made 

 himself a Gregorian telescope, probably on the model of 

 Short's. In the preceding year, it is related of him, 

 that he used to retire to bed with Smith's Harmonics 

 and Optics, Ferguson's Astronomy, c&c, and his first 

 thoughts on rising were how to obtain instruments for 

 viewing the objects of which he had been reading. We 

 are told no optician had settled in Bath at that time. 



Prof. Holden mentions that in Joicrnal No. i, pre- 

 served at the Royal Society, is a copy of Herschel's first 

 observation of the nebula of Orion, made with his 5^-feet 

 Gregorian reflector on March 4, 1774. In 1775, with a 

 Newtonian telescope of 4| inches aperture, and power of 

 222, also made by himself, he made his first review of the 

 heavens, consisting in the e.xamination of every star of 

 first to fourth magnitudes and the planets ; no records of 

 these observations are now known to be in existence. In 

 the same year the first 7-feet reflector was finished, and 

 in 1777 one of 10 feet and one of 20 feet had been pro- 

 jected, and a grass-plot behind a house near Walcot 

 turnpike, to which Herschel had removed at midsummer, 

 1774, was prepared for its reception : this house oflered 

 more room for workshops, and the roof was available for 

 observations. Of his early attempts at the construction 

 of telescopes he wrote to Lichtenstein : " When, in the 



