THE STORY OF THE HERSCHELS
A FAMILY OF ASTRONOMERS.
SIR WILLIAM HERSCHEL
SIR JOHN HERSCHEL
CAROLINE HERSCHEL.
"Stars
Numberless, as thou seest, and how they move;
Each has his place appointed, each his course."
MILTON.
1886
PREFATORY NOTE
From the best available sources have been gathered the following
biographical particulars of a remarkable family of astronomers--the
Herschels.
They will serve to show the young reader how great a pleasure may be
found in the acquisition of knowledge, and how solid a happiness in
quietly pursuing the path of duty.
On the value of biography it is unnecessary to insist. It is now well
understood that we may learn to make our own lives good and honest and
true, by carefully and diligently following the example of the good and
honest and true who have gone before us. And certain it is that the
lessons taught by the lives of the Herschels are such as young readers
will do well to lay to heart.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I.
The study of astronomy a source of intellectual pleasure--By
contemplating the heavens, the mind is led to wonder and adore--A
proof of the existence of a Creator is afforded by creation--"We
praise thee, O Lord!"--The beauty of Nature--Intellectual
curiosity--"Order is Heaven's first law"--Value of astronomical
study
CHAPTER II.
Herschel's parents--The two brothers--A musical family--An
inventive genius--The brothers in England--Herschel as an
organist--A laborious life--Mechanical ingenuity of William
Herschel--Telescope-making--A Sunday misadventure--Constructing a
twenty-foot telescope--A domestic picture--Discovery of a new
planet--Herschel's combined musical and astronomical pursuits--A
thirty-foot telescope--Casting the mirror--An explosion
CHAPTER III.
The house at Datchet--Housekeeping details--A devoted sister--Life
at Datchet--Herschel's astronomical observations--Testing and
trying "eyepieces"--The colossal telescope--Miss Herschel's
accident--Removed to Slough--Constructing a forty-foot
telescope--Brother and sister--Heroic self-denial--Occupations at
Slough--Royal liberality--An astronomer's triumphs--About the
nebulae--Investigation of the sun's constitution--The solar spots,
and their influence--Physical constitution of the moon--Lunar
volcanoes--Arago's explanation--Herschel's study of the
planets--Satellites of Saturn--Discovery of Uranus--And of its six
satellites--Study of Pigott's comet and the comet of
1811--Description of the latter--An uneventful life--Herschel's
marriage--His honours--Extracts from his sister's diary--Decaying
strength--Herschel removes to Bath--Last days of an
astronomer--Illustration of the ruling passion--Death of Sir
William Herschel--His achievements
CHAPTER IV.
Birth and education of Sir John Herschel--Honours at
Cambridge--First publication--Continues his scientific studies--His
numerous literary contributions--His devotion to his father's
reputation--The forty-foot telescope--Herschel's observations on
the double and triple stars--On the refraction and polarization of
light--Catalogue of nebulae and star-clusters--Voyage to Cape
Town--Letter to Miss Herschel--Study of the southern
heavens--Return to England--Distinctions conferred upon him--His
"Familiar Lectures on Scientific Subjects"--His description of
volcanoes and earthquakes--Continual changes in the configuration
of the earth--Violent earthquakes--Phenomena of volcanic
eruptions--In Mexico--In the island of Sumbawa--Herschel's theory
of volcanic forces--His character
CHAPTER V.
Caroline Herschel's devotion to her brother William--Her grief and
solitariness at his death--Reflections on the mutability of human
things--Aunt and nephew--A parsimonious government--Miss Herschel's
gold medal--South on Sir William's discoveries--On Miss Herschel's
devotion--Her own astronomical discoveries--Her life at
Hanover--Her wonderful memory--Anecdotes of Sir John
Herschel--Correspondence between aunt and nephew--The path of
duty--Sir John's visit to Miss Herschel--Reminiscences of early
years--A nonogenarian--A Christmas in Hanover--Last days of
Caroline Herschel--Her death--Her epitaph
THE STORY OF THE HERSCHELS.
CHAPTER I.
Of all the sciences, none would seem to yield a purer intellectual
gratification than that of Astronomy. Man cannot but feel a sense of
pleasure, and even of power, when, through the instruments constructed
by his ingenuity, he finds himself brought within reach, as it were, of
the innumerable orbs that roll through the domains of space. He cannot
but feel a sense of pleasure, and even of power, when the telescope
reveals to his gaze not only the worlds that constitute his own
so-called Solar System, but the suns that light up the borders of the
Universe, system upon system, sun upon sun, covering the unbounded area
almost as thickly as the daisies cover a meadow in spring. He cannot
but feel a sense of pleasure, and even, of power, when he tracks the
course of the flashing comet, examines into the physical characteristics
of the Sun and Moon, and records the various phases of the distant
planets. But if such be his feeling, it is certainly tempered with awe
and wonder as he contemplates the phenomena of the heavens,--the beauty
of the stars, the immensity of their orbits, the regularity with which
each bright world performs its appointed course, the simplicity of the
laws which govern its motions, and the mystery which attends its far-off
existence. It has been, said that "an undevout astronomer is mad;" and
if Astronomy, of all the sciences, be the one most calculated to gratify
the intellect, surely it is the one which should most vividly awaken the
religious sentiment. Is it possible to look upon all those worlds within
worlds, all those endless groups of mighty suns, all those strange and
marvellous combinations of coloured stars, all those remote nebulous
clusters,--to look upon them in their perfect order and government,--to
consider their infinite number and astonishing dimensions,--without
acknowledging the fulness of the power of an everlasting God, who
created them, set them in their appointed places, and still controls
them? Is it possible to be an astronomer and an atheist? Is it possible
not to see in their relations to one another and to our own little
planet an Almighty Wisdom as well as an Almighty Love? Could any
"fortuitous concourse of atoms" have strewed the depths of space with
those mighty and beautiful orbs, and defined for each the exact limits
of its movements? Alas! to human folly and human vanity everything is
possible; and men may watch the stars in their courses, and delight in
the beauty of Sun and Moon, and perceive all the wonders of the sunrise
and all the glories of the sunset, without any recognition in their
hearts of Him who made them--of Him in whom we and they alike live and
move and have our being! Yet it is not the less true that only the
devout and thankful heart can adequately and thoroughly sympathize with
the love and wisdom and power which are written in such legible
characters on the face of heaven. Astronomy gives up _all_ its
treasures only to him who enters upon its study in a reverent spirit. It
affords the purest intellectual gratification only when its pursuits are
undertaken with a humble acknowledgment of the littleness of man and the
greatness of God. Half the wonder, half the mystery of creation is lost,
when we fail to recognize the truth that it is governed by eternal laws
springing from an Almighty Intelligence. Take the Creator out of
creation, and it becomes a hopeless puzzle--a dreary problem, incapable
of solution. But we restore to it all its brightness, all its beauty,
all its charm, when we are able to lift up our hearts with the Psalmist
and to say: "Praise ye the Lord. Praise ye the Lord from the heavens;
praise him in the heights. Praise ye him, sun and moon: praise him, all
ye stars of light. Let them praise the name of the Lord: for his name
alone is excellent: his glory is above the earth and heaven."
And it is to be observed that the soul cannot be satisfied without this
religious view of Nature. The heavens and the earth are as nothing to
man, if they do not excite his awe and call forth his thanksgiving. We
might almost suppose that it is for this purpose that the sea rolls its
waves on the shore, and the violet smiles by the wayside, and the moon
floods the night with its silver radiance. As a recent writer has
observed,[1] the beauty of Nature is necessary for the perfection of
_praise_; without it the praise of the Creator would be essentially
weakened; our hearts must be roused and excited by what we see. "It may
seem extraordinary," adds our authority, "but it is the case, that,
though we certainly look at contrivance or machinery in Nature with a
high admiration, still, with all its countless and multitudinous uses,
which we acknowledge with gratitude, there is nothing in it which raises
the mind's interest in nearly the same degree that beauty does. It is an
awakening sight; and one way in which it acts is by exciting a certain
curiosity about the Deity. In what does God possess character, feelings,
relations to us?--all unanswerable questions, but the very entertainment
of which is an excitement of the reason, and throws us upon the thought
of what there is behind the veil. This curiosity is a strong part of
worship and of praise. To think that we know everything about God, is to
benumb and deaden worship; but mystical thought quickens worship, and
the beauty of Nature raises mystical thought. So long as a man is
probing Nature, and in the thick of its causes and operations, he is too
busy about his own inquiries to receive this impress from her; but place
the picture before him, and he becomes conscious of a veil and curtain
which has the secrets of a moral existence behind it,--interest is
inspired, curiosity is awakened, and worship is raised. 'Surely thou art
a God that hidest thyself.' But if God simply hid himself and nothing
more, if we knew nothing, we should not wish to know more. But the veil
suggests that it _is_ a veil, and that there is something behind it
which it conceals."
[Footnote 1: Professor Mozley, "University Sermons," pp. 145, 146.]
Now, this is the feeling which the study of Astronomy very certainly
awakens. Every day the astronomer discovers something which quickens his
curiosity to discover more. Every day he catches new glimpses of the
Almighty Wisdom, which stimulate his desire for a further revelation.
And all he learns, and all he anticipates learning, combine to produce
in him an emotion of awe. What grandeur lies before him in that endless
procession of worlds--in that array of suns and stars extending beyond
the limits of the most powerful telescopic vision! How marvellous it is!
How beautiful! Observe the combination of simplicity with power; note
how a great principle of "law" underlies the apparent intricacy of
eccentric and intersecting orbits. And then the field of inquiry is
inexhaustible. The astronomer has no fear of feeling the satiety of an
Alexander, when he lamented that he had no more worlds to conquer. What
Newton said of himself is true of every astronomer,--he is but as a
child on the sea-shore, picking up a shell here and a shell there, but
unable to grasp a full conception of the mighty ocean that thunders in
his ears!
And, therefore, because Astronomy cherishes the feelings of awe and
reverence and praise, because it inspires a continual yearning after
additional knowledge, because it reveals to us something of the
character of God, we conceive that of all the sciences it affords the
purest intellectual gratification. Certainly it is one of the most
absorbing. Its attraction seems to be irresistible. Once an astronomer,
always an astronomer; the stars, we may fancy, will not relax the spell
they lay upon their votary. He willingly withdraws himself from the din
and gaiety of social life, to shut himself up in his chamber, and, with
the magic tube due to the genius of a Galileo, survey with ever-new
delight the celestial wonders. So was it with Tycho Brahé, and
Copernicus, and Kepler; so was it, as the following pages will show,
with that remarkable family of astronomers--astronomers for three
generations--the HERSCHELS.