Biographical Memoir of Sir William Herschel. 22& 
of foreign countries.. His time was accordingly much occupied 
in superintending the construction of these instruments, as well 
as of those which he required for his own use. He was there- 
fore possessed of a body of practical information on the sub- 
ject of grinding and polishing specula, and he composed a work 
on the subject, in which he explained not only the method of 
giving them the parabolic figure, but that of any of the other 
conic sections. His intention of publishing this work he men- 
tioned in a letter to the writer of this sketch, in the beginning 
of 1805; but it has not yet been given to the public. 
We have thus endeavoured to give a rapid sketch of the Dis- 
coveries of Sir William Herschel, — discoveries which, while 
they have immortalised his name, have added to the glory of 
the country where they were made, and to that of the British 
Sovereign, through whose munificence they were achieved. In 
the observations upon which these discoveries were founded, and 
in the laborious calculations which were requisite to their de- 
velopment, he was much assisted by his excellent sister Miss Ca- 
roline Herschel, whose cheerful devotion to the cause of science 
merits the highest praise. Her discovery of several comets has 
already gained her a respectable rank among astronomers, and 
on that monument which posterity shall rear to her brother’s 
labours, her own name will be honourably inscribed. 
The various marks of respect, unsubstantial as they are, 
which generally fall to the lot of scientific distinction, were li- 
berally conferred upon Dr Herschel. He was elected an Ho- 
norary Member of most of the Scientific Institutions in the 
civilised world. So early as 1786 or 1787, he received the 
honorary degree of Doctor of Laws, from one of our English 
Universities ; and in the year 1816, his present Majesty King 
George IV. was graciously pleased to present him with the 
Decorations of the Guelphic Order of Knighthood, 
Upon the establishment of the Astronomical Society of Lon- 
don in 1820, Sir William Herschel was elected its President, 
and he published, in 1821, in the first volume of its Transac- 
tions, a paper “ On the Places of 145 New Double Stars f 
which he had intended to arrange like those of his tvyo data- 
von. viii. no. 16, April 1823, p 4 
