305 
SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY. 
ASTRONOMY. 
T\EATH of Sir John Herschel . — At a ripe age, yet before lie bad attained 
tbe years of bis father, tbe greatest astronomer of our day bas passed 
from among us. Tbe time bas scarcely yet arrived for drawing a com- 
parison between tbe elder and tbe younger Herschel, or determining 
whether astronomy is more indebted to the grand conceptions of the father,, 
or to tbe more tutored philosophy of tbe son. At present what we must 
chiefly regard is tbe fact that these two great astronomers have accom- 
plished between them tbe most wonderful series of researches which astro- 
nomy has yet known. The whole heavens gauged, thousands of double stars 
discovered and observed, and nine-tenths of all the known nebulae placed 
upon our lists by these two labourers alone, such are some' among the 
achievements which must be credited to the Herschels ; while throughout 
the whole progress of the work the world has not known whether to wonder- 
most at the untiring zeal and energy of these two workers, or at the 
grandeur of the conceptions by which they gave meaning and value to their 
observations. 
In the case of the younger Herschel we have to admire, not merely 
labours in the field of astronomical research, but profound and valuable 
mathematical inquiries, chemical studies of extreme interest, and a power 
over the difficult problems associated with optical research in which he was- 
matched by few of his contemporaries. Nor must we forget to point out 
how important have been the services which Sir John Herschel has ren- 
dered to science, in those masterly descriptions by means of which he has- 
succeeded in imparting something of his own earnestness and zeal to those 
who have followed him as their guide and instructor. 
But Sir John Herschel possessed other qualities which, though in a sense- 
belonging rather to his personal character than to his position as a man of 
science, yet are so far related to the latter that we may be permitted to 
dwell upon them here. A singular sweetness of disposition, a readiness to 
yield attention to the thoughts and opinions of others even when most 
adverse to his own, and a perfect willingness to admit his own mistakes 
when (as all men will) he fell into error — such qualities as these may well 
be held up to the admiration of men of science in an age when we have too 
often occasion to admit the truth of what the Poet Laureate has sung, that 
The man of science himself is eager for glory and vain, 
His eye well practised in nature, his spirit bounded and poor. 
