Mrs. John Herschel

“ Knipping, to her cousin, Sir J. Herschel, is a most precious fragment, expressing the sentiments of one who for years contributed to lighten the grievous burden of age and growing infirmity by her constant affection and appreciative sympathy. The regret that so little remains from the same pen is enhanced by the fact that no notes, or memorials of any kind, appear to exist by which we might hope to picture to ourselves one whose unconscious self-portraiture makes us crave to see and know and become familiarly acquainted with her, as she was seen and known by others. ”

“ Nothing would distress me more than receiving anything from England besides such dear letters as I have hitherto been blessed with, for I am provided with even more than is necessary to appear in the best circle of society, whenever my feebleness will permit me to go from home, and I feel no small regret at leaving so many good things among those who do not want it, or ever cared for me. Now, this is once for all! and you have nothing to do but to go by what dear Herschel says—he knows me, I see, better than I thought he did. ”

“ Permit me, most revered lady, to bring to your remembrance a man who has held you in the highest esteem ever since he had the good fortune to enter the Temple of Urania, at Slough, and to pay his respects to its priestess. I still recall the happy hours passed in England in earlier days of sweet remembrance, and above all, those which I was privileged to spend near you in a society as genial as it was intellectual. ”

“ Pray let me know if you think it was the comet I saw. I have mentioned it to no one but to Mr. Wollaston, who thanks you sincerely, but did not find himself well enough to observe; he lives in Charter House Square; direct upon occasion there to the Rev. Francis Wollaston.
You cannot, my dear Miss Herschel, judge of the pleasure I feel when your reputation and fame increase; everyone must admire your and your brother’s knowledge, industry, and behaviour. ”

“ I would not affirm that there may not exist some astronomers so enthusiastic that they would not dislike to be whisked away from this low terrestrial spot into the higher regions of the heavens by the tail of a comet, and exchange our narrow uniform orbit for one vastly more extended and varied. But I hope you, dear Miss Caroline, for the benefit of terrestrial astronomy, will not think of taking such a flight, at least till your friends are ready to accompany you. Mrs. Maskelyne joins me in best compliments to yourself and Dr. and Mrs. Herschel. ”

“ Time did indeed lessen and soften the overpowering weight of her grief, and then she would regret that she had ever left England, and condemned herself to live in a country where nobody cared for astronomy. I shared her regret, but I knew too well that even in England she must have found the same blank. She looked upon progress in science as so much detraction from her brother’s fame, and even your investigations would have become a source of estrangement had she been with you. ”

“ I long to know that you are arrived safe and in good health in England again, for by your last, dated Montpellier, Sept. 17th, I see that you had then another volcanic mountain to visit, besides an observation to make on solar radiation with your new instrument; the very thought of it puts me in a fever all over—at this present moment, though we have no longer to complain of heat; so I beg you will inform me that your health has not been injured, and that you have not been totally disappointed in your researches. ”

“ She might have become a distinguished woman on her own account, for with the “seven-foot Newtonian sweeper” given to her by her brother, she discovered eight comets first and last. But the pleasure of seeking and finding for herself was scarcely tasted. She “minded the heavens” for her brother; she worked for him, not for herself, and the unconscious self-denial with which she gave up her own pleasure in the use of her “sweeper,” is not the least beautiful feature in her life. ”

“ I know how wretched and feverish one feels after two or three nights waking, and I fear you have been too eager at your twenty-foot, and your telling me that you have been unwell for some months, and now only begin to feel better, makes me very unhappy, and I shall not be comfortable till I see by your next that you are perfectly well again; I am quite impatient to see what you have to say about the parallax of the fixed stars, but on such occasions I am vexed that your father did not live to know of your grand discoveries. ”

“ I am almost at a loss how to express my thanks sufficiently for the kind visit with which you honoured me when last in Hanover, for not only the wish of seeing the man of whom I so often had heard my late brother speak in the highest terms of admiration has been at last gratified, but I flatter myself of having found in you, sir, a friend who will do me the kindness of presenting the works of Flamsteed (published in 1725, with my Index to the Observations contained in his second volume) to the Royal Observatory of the Royal Academy of Göttingen. ”

“ Herschel was united considerable acquirement in the superior branches of mechanics and philosophy, and his affinity to his brother, Sir William Herschel, the illustrous astronomer, was not less in science than blood. To a large circle of professional friends the uniform gentlemanly manners of Mr. Herschel have rendered him at once an object of their warmest regard and respect.” Alexander Herschel returned to Hanover in September, 1816, and was enabled to live in comfortable independence until his death at the age of seventy-six, through the never failing generosity of his elder brother. ”

“ Hauptmann Müller took twice tea with me since Christmas. He heard from Encke that a great astronomical meeting was to take place at Berlin, to which Mr. South had been invited; if there should be any truth in this, and that you and Mr. South were inseparables, I might hope to see you once more; but I must not think of anything at the distance, agitations I cannot bear any longer, I only exist by attempting to be indifferent about all human events, and hardly anything can yet give me pleasure but to hear that you, my dear nephew, and those who are dear to you, are well and happy. ”

“ She had been his helper and assistant in the days when he was a leading musician; she became his helper and assistant when he gave himself up to astronomy. By sheer force of will and devoted affection, she learned enough of mathematics and of methods of calculation, which to those unlearned seem mysteries, to be able to commit to writing the results of his researches. She became his assistant in the workshop; she helped him to grind and polish his mirrors; she stood beside his telescope in the nights of midwinter, to write down his observations, when the very ink was frozen in the bottle. ”

“ Dear Miss Herschel,
Your most obedient and obliged
humble servant,
Alex. Aubert. P.S.—I was glad to hear to-day, by my friends at our club, that they had seen you last night in good health; pray let me know what news you have of your brother, and when we may expect to see him. I have had twice at Loam Pit Hill his serene highness the Duke of Saxe Gotha, and entertained him, Count Bruhl, and Mr. Oriani (a Milanese astronomer) , with your comet last night. My sisters return you many thanks for your kind remembrance, and, with their best compliments, enjoin me to wish you joy. ”

“ On the 9th I received the papers with your short but sweet letter, and according to your direction they are by this time at their destined places, all but Struve’s and Bessel’s; the latter, I was obliged to leave to the care of Encke, and Struve’s to Schumacher. I am particularly obliged to you for your second Catalogue of double and treble stars, which on reading it once over, makes me long for the time when I shall be perfectly at ease to take it up again; for, by the manner in which you gentlemen now attack the starry heavens, it seems that there will soon remain nothing to be discovered. ”

“ Pray tell me something about this gentleman, for I never heard his name before, and if I had not been so fortunate as to have seen Babbage and South just before I left England, I should not now have the comfort to know you had so estimable friends to communicate with; and I shall rejoice to know that the number of valuable men I have known, and are no more, might be replaced by some who are worthy to be contemporary with the son of your father! ”

“ How I envy you having seen Bessel—the man who found us the parallax of 61 Cygni....
... I believe I have water on my brains, and all my bones ache so that I can hardly crawl; and besides sometimes a whole week passes without anybody coming near me, till they stumble on a paragraph in the newspaper of Grüthousen’s discoveries, or Lord Queenstown’s great telescope, which shall beat Sir William Herschel’s all to nothing, and such a visit sometimes makes me merry for a whole day. ”

“ A few evenings ago I lighted on a strange nebula, of which here is a figure! and since I am about it I shall add a figure of one of the resolvable nebulæ in the greater magellanic cloud. The equatorial is at last erected, and the revolving roof (upon a plan of my own) works perfectly well, but I am sorry to say that the nights in which it can be used to advantage are rare, even rarer than in England, as, in spite of the clearness of the sky, the stars are ill-defined and excessively tremulous. ”

“ You say you wish for an answer respecting the vol. of observations on double stars, sent by Mr. South and myself, but can I do better than leave such matters to your judgment? At the same time, as having belonged to you they could not but have a value in my eyes beyond my own copy; but pray decide yourself. I have several left.
I regret extremely to hear you feel those little (perhaps not little) inconveniences we are none of us exempt from, arising from the imperfections of human nature, both in ourselves and those we live with. ”

“ I feel more reconciled after unburdening myself of some of this weighty concern by making presents to all who love and esteem you so truly, and after setting apart a portion, according to Captain Müller’s advice, with which you may be treated when at your return you may perhaps visit Hanover again, there remains more than ever I can get through with, for I am very desirous to spin out the thread of my life till you return home. And I know it is a mistaken notion that old folks want more of what they call comfort than young ones. ”

“ Every line now traced by the hand of my dear brother becomes a treasure to me.
“C. Herschel.” The next year opens, as so many previous ones have done. The bare facts of the steadily narrowing life being set down with the same brevity and unswerving attention to the one object. The family was in much anxiety on account of the failing health of Mrs. Beckwith, the niece of Lady Herschel, of whom, as Miss Baldwin, frequent mention has been made. ”

“ The labours of Miss Herschel are so intimately connected with, and are generally so dependent upon, those of her illustrious brother, that an investigation of the latter is absolutely necessary ere we can form the most remote idea of the extent of the former. But when it is considered that Sir W. Herschel’s contributions to astronomical science occupy sixty-seven memoirs, communicated from time to time to the Royal Society, and embrace a period of forty years, it will not be expected that I should enter into their discussion. ”

“ All the family seem to have been endowed with something like touches of genius, but William and Caroline were the only two who had the strong back-bone of perseverance and high principle which made genius in them fulfil its perfect work. ”

“ I much regret my inability to acknowledge my dear niece’s letter in such a manner as might encourage a correspondence with me, but it is difficult to write in a cheerful strain when one is continually in the dismals. I do all I can to keep up my spirits under a daily increase of my infirmities, and have been best part of the winter confined to my rooms. My complaint is incurable, for it is a decay of nature, and nine days after your birthday I am eighty-one. What a shocking idea it is to be decaying! ”

“ You have immortalized your name, and you deserve such a reward from the Being who has ordered all these things to move as we find them, for your assiduity in the business of astronomy, and for your love for so celebrated and so deserving a brother. I received your very kind letter about the comet on the 3rd, but have not been able to observe it till Saturday, the 5th, owing to cloudy weather. ”

“ Great men and great causes have always some helper of whom the outside world knows but little. There always is, and always has been, some human being in whose life their roots have been nourished. Sometimes these helpers have been men, sometimes they have been women, who have given themselves to help and to strengthen those called upon to be leaders and workers, inspiring them with courage, keeping faith in their own idea alive, in days of darkness,
When all the world seems adverse to desert. ”

“ When Hohenbaum comes for a trifling direction, we generally do not separate till dinner, or some other interruption puts a stop to our conversation; for this man is never tired when speaking of your father’s inventful imaginations and the readiness with which everything was executed.
I have not above six hours’ tolerable ease out of the twenty-four, and not one hour’s sleep, and yet I wish to live a little longer, that I might make you a more correct catalogue of the 2,500 nebulæ, which is not even begun, but hope to be able to make it my next winter’s amusement. ”