The science of astronomy, which, from the time of Copernicus, had been
gradually improving, through the laborious exertions of Tycho Brahè,
Galileo, Kepler, Hüygens, Newton, Halley, Delisle, Lalande, and other
eminent observers of the starry firmament, was considerably advanced
by the discoveries of Herschel, whose biography now comes under our
notice.
William Herschel was born at Hanover on the 15th of November 1738. He
was the second of four sons, all of whom were brought up to their
father’s profession, which was that of a musician. Having at an early
age shown a peculiar taste for intellectual pursuits, his father
provided him with a tutor, who instructed him in the rudiments of
logic, ethics, and metaphysics, in which abstract studies he made
considerable progress. Owing, however, to the circumscribed means of
his parents, and certain untoward circumstances, these intellectual
pursuits were soon interrupted, and at the age of fourteen he was
placed in the band of the Hanoverian regiment of guards, a detachment
of which he accompanied to England about the year 1757 or 1759. His
father came with him to England, but after the lapse of a few months,
he returned home, leaving his son, in conformity with his own wish, to
try his fortune in Great Britain――the adopted home of many an
ingenious foreigner. How or when he left the regimental band in which
he had been engaged, we are not informed. After struggling with
innumerable difficulties, and no doubt embarrassed by his comparative
ignorance of the English tongue, he had the good fortune to attract
the notice of the Earl of Darlington, who engaged him to superintend
and instruct a military hand at the time forming for the Durham
militia. After fulfilling this engagement, he passed several years in
Yorkshire, in the capacity of teacher of music. He gave lessons to
pupils in the principal towns, and officiated as leader in oratorios
or concerts of sacred music――a kind of employment in which the Germans
are eminently skilled, from their love of musical performances.
Herschel, however, while thus engaged in earning an honorable
livelihood, did not allow his professional pursuits to engross all his
thoughts. He sedulously devoted his leisure hours in improving his
knowledge of the English and Italian languages, and in instructing
himself in Latin, as well as a little Greek. At this period he
probably looked to these attainments principally with a view to the
advantage he might derive from them in the prosecution of his
professional studies; and it was no doubt with this view also that he
afterwards applied himself to the perusal of Dr. Robert Smith’s
‘Treatise on Harmonics’――one of the most profound works on the science
of music which then existed in the English language. But the
acquaintance he formed with this work was destined ere long to change
altogether the character of his pursuits. He soon found that it was
necessary to make himself a mathematician before he could make much
progress in following Dr. Smith’s demonstrations. He now, therefore,
turned with his characteristic alacrity and resolution to the new
study to which his attention was thus directed; and it was not long
before he became so attached to it, that almost all the other pursuits
of his leisure hours were laid aside for its sake.
Through the interest and good offices of a Mr. Bates, to whom the
merits of Herschel had become known, he was, about the close of 1765,
appointed to the situation of church-organist at Halifax. Next year,
having gone with his elder brother to fulfill a short engagement at
Bath, he gave so much satisfaction by his performances, that he was
appointed organist in the Octagon chapel of that city, upon which he
went to reside there. The place which he now held was one of some
value; and from the opportunities which he enjoyed, besides, of adding
to its emoluments by engagements at the rooms, the theatre, and
private concerts, as well as by taking pupils, he had the certain
prospect of deriving a good income from his profession, if he had made
that his only or his chief object. This accession of employment did
not by any means abate his propensity to study for mental improvement.
Frequently, after the fatigue of twelve or fourteen hours occupied in
musical performances, he sought relaxation, as he considered it, in
extending his knowledge of the pure and mixed mathematics. In this
manner he obtained a competent knowledge of geometry, and found
himself in a condition to proceed to the study of the different
branches of physical science which depend upon the mathematics. Among
the first of these latter that attracted his attention, were the
kindred departments of astronomy and optics. Some discoveries about
this time made in astronomy awakened his curiosity, and to this
science he now directed his investigations at his intervals of
leisure. Being anxious to observe some of those wonders in the
planetary system of which he had read, he borrowed from a neighbor a
two-feet Gregorian telescope, which delighted him so much, that he
forthwith commissioned one of larger dimensions from London. The price
of such an instrument, he was vexed to find, exceeded both his
calculations and his means; but though chagrined, he was not
discouraged; he immediately resolved to attempt with his own hand the
construction of a telescope equally powerful with that which he was
unable to purchase; and in this, after repeated disappointments, which
served only to stimulate his exertions, he finally succeeded.
Herschel was now on the path in which his genius was calculated to
shine. In the year 1774, he had the inexpressible pleasure of
beholding the planet Saturn through a five-feet Newtonian reflector,
made by his own hands. This was the beginning of a long and brilliant
course of triumphs in the same walk of art, and also in that of
astronomical discovery. Herschel now became so much more ardently
attached to his philosophical pursuits, that, regardless of the
sacrifices of emolument he was making, he began gradually to limit his
professional engagements and the number of his pupils. Meanwhile, he
continued to employ his leisure in the fabrication of still more
powerful instruments than the one he first constructed; and in no long
time he produced telescopes of from seven to twenty feet focal
distance. In fashioning the mirrors for these instruments, his
perseverance was indefatigable. For his seven-feet reflector, it is
asserted that he actually finished and made trial of no fewer than two
hundred mirrors before he found one that satisfied him. When he sat
down to prepare a mirror, his practice was to work at it for twelve or
fourteen hours, without quitting his occupation for a moment. He would
not even take his hand from what he was about, to help himself to
food; and the little that he ate on such occasions was put into his
mouth by his sister. He gave the mirror its proper shape more by a
natural tact than by rule; and when his hand was once in, as the
phrase is, he was afraid that the perfection of the finish might be
impaired by the least intermission of his labors.
It was on the 13th of March, 1781, that Herschel made the discovery to
which he owes, perhaps, most of his popular reputation. He had been
engaged for nearly a year and a-half in making a regular survey of the
heavens, when, on the evening of the day that has been mentioned,
having turned his telescope――an excellent seven-feet reflector, of his
own constructing――to a particular part of the sky, he observed among
the other stars, one which seemed to shine with a more steady radiance
than those around it; and, on account of that, and some other
peculiarities in its appearance, which excited his suspicion, he
determined to observe it more narrowly. On reverting to it after some
hours, he was a good deal surprised to find that it had perceptibly
changed its place――a fact, which, the next day, became still more
indisputable. At first he was somewhat in doubt whether or not it was
the same star, which he had seen on these different occasions; but
after continuing these observations for a few days longer, all
uncertainty upon that head vanished. He now communicated what he had
observed to the royal astronomer, Dr. Maskelyne, who concluded that
the luminary could be nothing else than a new comet. Continued
observation of it, however, for a few months, dissipated this error;
and it became evident that it was, in reality, a hitherto undiscovered
planet.
This new world, so unexpectedly found to form a part of the system to
which our own belongs, received from Herschel the name of Georgium
Sidus, or Georgian Star, in honor of the king of England; but by
continental astronomers, it has been more generally called either
Herschel, after its discoverer, or Uranus. He afterwards discovered,
successively, no fewer than six satellites or moons, belonging to his
new planet.
The anouncement of the discovery of the Georgium Sidus, at once made
Herschel’s name universally known. In the course of a few months the
king bestowed upon him a pension of £300 a-year, to enable him
entirely to relinquish his engagements at Bath; and upon this, he came
to reside at Slough, near Windsor. He now devoted himself entirely to
science, and the constructing of telescopes, and observations of the
heavens, continued to form the occupations of the remainder of his
life.
Astronomy is indebted to him for many more most interesting
discoveries besides the celebrated one of which we have just given an
account, as well as for a variety of speculations of the most
ingenious, original, and profound character. But of these we cannot
here attempt any detail.
He also introduced some important improvements into the construction
of the reflecting telescope, besides continuing to fabricate that
instrument of dimensions greatly exceeding any that he had formerly
attempted, with powers surpassing, in nearly a corresponding degree,
what had ever been before obtained. The largest telescope which he had
ever made was his famous one of forty feet long, which he erected at
Slough, for the king.
It was begun about the end of the year 1785, and on the 28th of August
1789 the enormous tube was poised on the complicated but
ingeniously-contrived mechanism by which its movements were to be
regulated, and ready for use. On the same day a new satellite of
Saturn was detected by it, being the sixth that had been observed
attendant on that planet. A seventh was afterward discovered, by means
of the same instrument. This telescope has since been taken down, and
replaced by another of only half the length, constructed by the
distinguished son of the subject of our present sketch.
So extraordinary was the ardor of this great astronomer in the study
of his favorite science, that for many years, it has been asserted, he
never was in bed at any hour during which the stars were visible, and
he made almost all his observations, whatever the season of the year,
not under cover, but in his garden, in the open air――and generally
without an attendant. By these investigations Herschel became
acquainted with the character of the more distant stars, upon which he
wrote a variety of papers. In 1802, he presented to the Royal Society
a catalogue of five thousand new nebulæ, nebulous stars, planetary
nebulæ, and clusters of stars; thus opening up a boundless field of
research, and making the world aware of the sublime truth of there
being an infinitude of heavenly bodies far beyond the reach of
ordinary vision, and performing in their appointed places the offices
of suns to unseen systems of planets.
These discoveries established Herschel’s claims to rank amongst the
most eminent astronomers of the age, and amply merited the
distinctions conferred upon him by learned bodies and the reigning
prince. In 1816, George IV, then prince regent, invested him with the
Hanoverian and Guelphic order of knighthood. He was now, from being
originally a poor lad in a regimental band, rewarded for his long
course of honorable exertion in the cause of science. Herschel (now
Sir William) did not relinquish his astronomical observations until
within a few years of his death, which took place on the 23d of
August, 1822, when he had attained the age of eighty-three. He died
full of years and honors, bequeathing a large fortune, and leaving a
family which has inherited his genius.