Georges Sand has somewhere said that the only virtue is the eternal
sacrifice of self--a remark which will bear careful consideration. If
we do well because it is pleasant to do so, or for a reward to be
obtained, there does not seem to be much merit in so doing. But if, to
our own sacrifice and discomfort, we follow the right for the sake
only of duty, then, whether the motive be love to God or man, the
thorny road will at last lead to the sunny tableland--to the home of
content. The remark is commonplace; but it is the common that needs
most to be remembered.
Among instances of self-abnegation we have that of Caroline
Herschel--brave, loving, and unwearying, following with unwavering
devotion the path of patient duty until it became one of abounding
pleasure. But it was not with thoughts of self; self-love moved not
the tender heart, the strong will, the willing hand. Love of her
brother set in motion the will of a whole-souled woman; and while she
sought only to be his humble helper, she was destined to share in his
greatness.
Caroline Lucretia Herschel was a member of a Hanoverian family, many
of whom, if not born to greatness, signally achieved it. She was born
in the month of March, 1750, having a sister many years older and
several brothers, one of whom--William--became the famous astronomer.
Her father--Isaac Herschel--was the master of a military band, and
took delight in encouraging the cultivation of music in his children.
In this as well as his devotion to his other studies, William
displayed unusual talent and perseverance. It is stated that although
his brother Jacob was four years older, William "mastered the French
language in half the time needed by the elder."
In the large family of the Herschels the lot of the little Caroline
does not seem to have been over bright, or her education much cared
for. They were, however, an intelligent household, the elder ones
attaining considerable proficiency in music, William by no means
limiting his desires in that direction. In her diary, in which
Caroline afterwards noted reminiscences of her early days, she
mentions the enlivening conversations on musical and philosophical
subjects which frequently kept her father and brothers engaged until
morning. "Often," she says, "I would keep myself awake that I might
listen to their animating remarks, _for it made me so happy to see
them so happy_."
Caroline for some time attended with her brothers the garrison school;
but her mother's ambition for her seems only to have been that she
should learn domestic duties and needlework. This arose from no
disregard on the part of the excellent mother as to her daughter's
well-being, but from the idea that much book-learning was not
desirable in girls. Her father, however, found opportunities for
instructing his little daughter in music. He would himself have given
her, according to her own desire, a superior education, had it not
been for the opposition of her mother. So little Caroline was in
danger of growing up a household drudge in a straitened home. But
_L'homme propose, et Dieu dispose_. A visit to England of the
regiment to which they were attached resulted in William settling in
Bath as a musician. He had always been to Caroline the dear brother.
While her inability to satisfy the dainty tastes of her "gentleman"
brother Jacob had earned her many a whipping, the considerate love of
William had come into her young life as a soothing balm, a stimulating
power. And, like good seed, it brought forth fruit a hundredfold.
The loss of her father, when she was seventeen years old, was to
Caroline a source of great sorrow. In him she lost the one whom, next
to her now absent brother, she loved. With his death all hope of
further education for Caroline came to an end, and for some years
further her life as maid of all work continued.
A change, however, as unexpected as it was decisive, came into her
life when she was about twenty-two years old. Her brother William
being over on a visit from England, suggested that she should return
with him to Bath, which proved to be the opening of a new era.
Being settled at Bath Miss Herschel entered with ardour into her
brother's career as musician and his studies as astronomer. He toiled
hard in his profession for the purpose of gaining a livelihood, at the
same time reading and working for the object nearest his heart. In
both his pursuits his sister became his ready and laborious
helper--his constant and sympathising companion. For this purpose she
acquired a considerable proficiency in music, and for many years
assisted her brother, not only by copying musical scores for large
orchestras, but also in taking part in lessons and rehearsals, and
herself singing in oratorios conducted by him.
The industry of both brother and sister at this period of their joint
labours seems, indeed, to have been almost without parallel. While,
their days were given to musical work to such an extent as would have
sufficed for an ordinary occupation--and that a busy one--their nights
were devoted to the heavens, and to the manufacture of telescopes and
telescopic appliances on a scale hitherto unknown.
William Herschel's fame as an astronomer, inventor, and discoverer
having become established, in 1782 he gave up his attention to music,
in order to devote himself entirely to astronomical research, and was
appointed Royal Astronomer. In this year he removed to Datchet, and, a
few years after, to Slough. Absorbing as was their pursuit, it was
carried on at an enormous self-sacrifice and hardship, and was not by
any means free from danger. Miss Herschel writes in her diary: "That
my fears of danger and accidents were not wholly imaginary I had an
unlucky proof on the night of the 31st December. The evening had been
cloudy, but about ten o'clock a few stars became visible, and in the
greatest hurry all was got ready for observing. My brother, at the
front of the telescope, directed me to make some alteration in the
lateral motion, which was done by machinery, on which the point of
support of the tube and mirror rested. At each end of the machine or
trough was an iron hook, such as butchers use for hanging their joints
upon, and having to run in the dark on ground covered a foot deep with
melting snow, I fell on one of these hooks, which entered my right leg
above the knee. My brother's call, 'Make haste!' I could only answer
by a pitiful cry, 'I am hooked!' He and the workman were instantly
with me, but they could not lift me without leaving nearly two ounces
of my flesh behind. The workman's wife was called, but I was afraid to
do anything, and I was obliged to be my own surgeon by applying
aquabusade and tying a kerchief about it for some days, till Dr. Lind,
hearing of my accident, brought me ointment and lint, and told me how
to use them. At the end of six weeks I began to have some fears about
my poor limb, and asked again for Dr. Lind's opinion. He said if a
soldier had met with such a hurt, he would have been entitled to six
weeks' nursing in a hospital. I had, however, the comfort to know that
my brother was no loser through the accident, for the remainder of the
night was cloudy, and several nights afterwards afforded only a few
short intervals favourable for sweeping, and until the 16th of January
there was no necessity for my exposing myself for a whole night to the
severity of the season."
"It would be impossible for me," she also writes, "if it were
required, to give a regular account of all that passed around me in
the lapse of the two following years, for they were spent in a perfect
chaos of business. The garden and workrooms were swarming with
labourers and workmen, smiths and carpenters going to and fro between
the forge and the forty-foot machinery, and I ought not to forget that
there is not one screw-bolt about the whole apparatus but what was
fixed under the immediate eye of my brother. I have seen him lie
stretched many an hour, in a burning sun, across the top beam whilst
the iron-work for the various motions was being fixed. At one time no
less than twenty-four men (twelve and twelve relieving each other)
kept polishing day and night; my brother, of course, never leaving
them all the while, taking his food without allowing himself time to
sit down to table."
Miss Herschel's services to her brother, as well as to science as an
independent discoverer, were recognised, when, in 1787, she was
appointed assistant to her brother at a salary of £50 per annum.
In the following year, after she had enjoyed the closest companionship
and identity with her brother for sixteen years, Mr. Herschel's
marriage brought a considerable change in the life of the sister. Her
devotion to his interests and pursuits became no less, but the supreme
place by his side was gone.
Although Miss Herschel seems to have felt keenly the separation from
her brother in domestic life, her zeal in the objects to which he had
devoted himself never waned. Having entered upon them from a sense of
grateful love, she became passionately attached to the work. Although
living apart from him, she continued to the end of his life to be his
indefatigable assistant, as well as an independent observer of the
heavens. In this character she came into contact from time to time not
only with members of the Royal families of England and Germany, but
with the leading astronomers of the age, who acknowledged in her an
honoured comrade. A celebrated astronomer, referring to one of the
many comets she was the first to discover, says in a letter to her: "I
am more pleased than you can well conceive that you have made this
discovery. You have immortalised 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 an astronomer, and
for your love for so celebrated and deserving a brother."
As all the world knows, Mr. Herschel (then Sir William) was long
recognised as the most celebrated astronomer of the time. And while
none rejoiced more in his proud position than his sister, he was ever
ready to acknowledge his indebtedness to her, as his companion in his
herculean toils. The marvel is that the constant and exhausting strain
of many long years did not prematurely wear out the strength and brain
of both. They, however, grew old together, and alike lived to a
remarkable old age. Sir William, who was twelve years the senior, was
the first whose splendid constitution gave way. He died in the year
1822.
After her brother's death Miss Herschel, then in her 72nd year, seems
to have felt unsettled in England and unable to face the scenes and
life she had for so many years shared with her brother.
Notwithstanding her attachment to her sister-in-law and her favourite
nephew (who in some measure took the place in her affections of her
beloved brother), she decided to return to Hanover. An absence of half
a century from any place makes a wonderful difference in its
associations, and Miss Herschel lived to regret her return to her
native city, where, however, she resided for the remainder of her
life. If her work by her brother's side was done, her long evening of
life was, nevertheless, one of grateful recollection and laborious
industry. Among other tasks, she undertook and completed a "Reduction
and Arrangement, in the form of a catalogue in zones, of all the Star
Clusters and Nebulæ observed by Sir W. Herschel in his Sweeps." For
this she was, at a meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1828,
awarded the gold medal of the Society. The remarks made by Mr. South,
the Vice-President, on that occasion, perhaps best summarise her great
achievements. He said: "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. To the Philosophical Transactions I must refer you, and
shall content myself with the hasty mention of some of her more
immediate claims to the distinction now conferred. To deliver an
eulogy, however deserved, upon _his_ memory is not the purpose
for which I am placed here.... But when we have thus enumerated the
results obtained in the course of _sweeps_ with this instrument,
and taken into consideration the extent and variety of the other
observations which were at the same time in progress, a most important
part yet remains untold. Who participated in his toils? Who braved
with him the inclemency of the weather? Who shared his privations?
A female. Who was she? His sister. Miss Herschel it was who by
_night_ acted as his amanuensis; she it was whose pen conveyed to
paper his observations as they issued from his lips; she it was who
noted the night ascensions and polar distances of the objects
observed; she it was who, having passed the night near the instrument,
took the rough manuscripts to her cottage at the dawn of day, and
produced a fair copy of the night's work on the following morning; she
it was who planned the labour of each succeeding night; she it was who
reduced every observation, made every calculation; she it was who
arranged everything in systematic order; and she it was who helped him
to obtain his imperishable name.
"But her claims to our gratitude do not end here. As an original
observer she demands, and I am sure she has, our unfeigned thanks.
Occasionally, her immediate attendance during the observations could
be dispensed with. Did she pass the night in repose? No such thing.
Wherever her brother was, there you were sure to find her. A sweeper
planted on the lawn became her object of amusement; but her amusements
were of the higher order, and to them we stand indebted for the
discovery of the comet of 1786, of the comet of 1788, of the comet of
1791, of the comet of 1793, of the comet of 1795, since rendered
familiar to us by the remarkable discovery of Encke. Many also of the
nebulæ contained in Sir W. Herschel's catalogues were detected by her
during these hours of enjoyment. Indeed, in looking at the joint
labours of these extraordinary personages, we scarcely know whether
most to admire the intellectual power of the brother, or the
unconquerable industry of the sister."
A few years after this, in 1835, Miss Herschel was, along with Mrs.
Somerville, made an Honorary Member of the Astronomical Society. The
report of the council to the annual meeting contains the following
well deserved words of praise:--
"Your Council has no small pleasure in recommending that the names of
two ladies, distinguished in different walks of astronomy, be placed
on the list of honorary members. On the propriety of such a step, in
an astronomical point of view, there can be but one voice; and your
Council is of opinion that the time has gone by when either feeling or
prejudice, by whichever name it may be proper to call it, should be
allowed to interfere with the payment of a well-earned tribute of
respect. Your Council has hitherto felt that, whatever might be its
own sentiment on the subject, it had no right to place the name of a
lady in a position the propriety of which might be contested, though
upon what it might consider narrow grounds and false principles. But
your Council has no fear that such a difference could now take place
between any men whose opinion could avail to guide that of society at
large; and, abandoning compliment on the one hand, and false delicacy
on the other, submits, that while the tests of astronomical merit
should in no case be applied to the works of a woman less severely
than to those of a man, the sex of the former should no longer be an
obstacle to her receiving any acknowledgment which may be held due to
the latter. And your Council therefore recommends this meeting to add
to the list of honorary members the names of Miss Caroline Herschel
and Mrs. Somerville, of whose astronomical knowledge, and of the
utility of the ends to which it has been applied, it is not necessary
to recount the proofs."
Miss Herschel always maintained a warm correspondence with her
relatives in England, and when over eighty years of age wrote some
recollections of her early years for her nephew. Notwithstanding her
life of toil, she lived and retained her faculties to the wonderful
age of ninety-seven years and ten months.
Her life affords an illustrious example of constant sisterly devotion
from the days of lisping childhood, when her brother's love was her
great joy, until when, after the lapse of almost a century--his memory
her greatest happiness--she desired a lock of his hair to be placed in
her coffin.