XVII 



whom all the specimens were submitted for scrutiny, would be able to 

 construct a lens of sufficient size to be fairly tried, and thus crown the 

 long-continued labour with a permanent benefit to science. 



It was hoped that a full account of these experiments might have been 

 prepared by the author of them, for his strong mind felt little of the 

 weight of eighty years and overruled the bodily infirmities of age. But 

 it was a character of the man never to cease experimental or literary 

 research till he was satisfied ; resoliue to contend with difficulties till all 

 were overcome, and too truly a lover of knowledge, with faith in it£ 

 progress, to be hasty in publishing views on account of their novelty, 

 which might be made valuable by proofs of their truth. Prof. Stokes has 

 already presented to the British Association a notice* of these researches, 

 and to him we must now look for further records of a work to which he 

 has cheerfully contributed a large amount of valuable aid. 



The scientific pursuits of Mr. Harcourt were followed in the midst of 

 great occupation as a clergyman, not only in charge of his parish, but open 

 to perpetual demands for help in public institutions of an educational and 

 charitable character. The York School for the Blind, founded in honour 

 of Wilberforce, the Yorkshire Hospital, the Castle Howard Reformatory, 

 experienced the benefit of his guidance ; indeed hardly any great move- 

 ment* in Yorkshire in favour of useful learning and comprehensive 

 Christianity was carried on without his help, often given when his own 

 health required cessation from labour. At many public meetings for these 

 objects his place was to preside — a duty for which his thoughtful words 

 and dignified presence, and a certain natural union of gentleness and firm- 

 ness, admirably qualified him. 



Though never a person of robust health, Mr. Harcourt was not much 

 troubled by positive illness till towards the close of his life, when he 

 became confined to a home rich in books and monuments of art, surrounded 

 by a cheerful family, to which the graceful hospitality which had become 

 a habit of his life brought many additions from the large range of his 

 personal friendships and the more limited circle of men devoted to litera- 

 ture and science resident in his own neighbouring University. He had 

 been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1824. His death occurred 

 at Nuneham in April 1871.— J. P. 



In John Frederick William Herschel British science has sus- 

 tained a loss greater than any which it has suffered since the death of 

 Newton, and one not likely to be soon replaced. Though none of his dis- 

 coveries were as brilliant as Davy's decomposition of the alkalies, or Fara- 

 day's magneto-electric induction, yet they ranged over a wider field than 

 either of these philosophers could explore, and many of them are of first- 

 rate importance. And of even higher value was the influence of his tcach- 

 * Ecad to the British Association Meeting in Edinburgh, August 1871. 



VOL. XX. C 



