Part 6 (2/2)
”Dr HERSCHEL'S passion for coining words and idioms has often struck us as a weakness wholly unworthy of him The invention of a name is but a poor achievement for him who has discovered whole worlds Why, for instance, do we hear hi power_ of his instruht to have left to the poets, who, in so his name The other papers of Dr HERSCHEL, in the late volumes of the _Transactions_, do not deserve such particular attention His catalogue of 500 new nebulae, though extreeneral conclusions of importance, and abounds with the defects which are peculiar to the Doctor's writings--a great prolixity and tediousness of narration--loose and often unphilosophical reflections, which give no very favorable idea of his scientific powers, however great his merit may be as an observer--above all, that idle fondness for inventing names without any manner of occasion, to which we have already alluded, and a use of novel and affected idioms
”To the speculations of the Doctor on the nature of the Sun, we have rand absurdity which he has there co the influence of the solar spots on the price of grain Since the publication of Gulliver's voyage to Laputa, nothing so ridiculous has ever been offered to the world We heartily wish the Doctor had suppressed it; or, if detere less confident and flippant”
One is alotten attack, but it yields a kind of perspective; and it is instructive and perhaps useful to view HERSCHEL'S labors fro and envious ones
The study of the original papers, together with a knowledge of the circumstances in which they ritten, will abundantly show that HERSCHEL'S ideas sprung fros in theht prosecuted for years may have been we cannot say, nor could he himself have expressed it A new path in science was to be found out, and he found it It was not in his closet, surrounded by authorities, but under the open sky, that he meditated the construction of the heavens As he says, ”My situation pere libraries; nor, indeed, was it very material; for as I intended to view the heavens reat voluue”
His remarkable memoirs on the invisible and other rays of the solar spectrum were received with doubt, and with open denial by many of the scientific bodies of Europe The reviews and notices of his work in this direction were often quite beyond the bounds of a proper scientific criticisnified silence The discoveries were true, the proofs were open to all, and no response was needed from him He may have been sorely tempted to reply, but I am apt to believe that the rumors that reached hiht have done earlier He was at his grand climacteric, he had passed his sixty-third year, his temper was less hasty than it had been in his youth, and his nerves had not yet received the severe strain fro the last years of his life
We have solimpses of his personal life in the reminiscences of him in the _Diary and Letters_ of Mada Mr HERSCHEL came to tea I had once seen that very extraordinary ain, for he has not ratify it He is perfectly unassu, yet openly happy, and happy in the success of those studies which would render a ant
”The king has not a happier subject than this man, es it wholly to His Majesty that he is not wretched; for such was his eagerness to quit all other pursuits to follow astronoer of ruin, when his talents and great and uncoe He has now not only his pension, which gives hi study, but he is indulged in license fro to his new ideas and discoveries, that is to have no cost spared in its construction, and is wholly to be paid for by His Majesty
”This seems to have made him happier even than the pension, as it enables him to put in execution all his wonderful projects, frouine as to make his present existence a state of almost perfect enjoyment
Mr LOCKE himself would be quite charmed with him
”He seems a lobe At night Mr HERSCHEL, by the king's command, came to exhibit to His Majesty and the royal family the new comet lately discovered by his sister, Miss HERSCHEL; and while I was playing at piquet with Mrs SCHWELLENBURG, the Princess AUGUSTA caarden and look at it She declined the offer, and the princess then lad to accept it for all sorts of reasons We found hi grand or striking in its appearance; but it is the first lady's comet, and I was very desirous to see it Mr HERSCHEL then showed ood humor hich he would have taken the same trouble for a brother or a sister astronoenius entleness”
”_1786, Dece reat and very extraordinary man received us almost with open arms He is very fond of my father, who is one of the council of the Royal Society this year, as well as hi to see but his instruments; those, however, are curiosities sufficientI wished very much to have seen his sister,but she had been up all night, and was then in bed”
”_1787, Septe with his great knowledge, so willing to dispense it to the ignorant, and so cheerful and easy in his general enius, it would be i and sensible man”
”_1788, October 3d_--We returned to Windsor at noon, and Mrs DE LUC sentinvitation to tea and to hear a littleladies were to perform at her house in a little concert Dr HERSCHEL was there, and accompanied them very sweetly on the violin; his new-married ith hiood-natured; she was rich, too! and astronolitter as well as stars”
DR BURNEY TO MADAME D'ARBLAY
”CHELSEA COLLEGE,
_Septeh in order to ask at Dr HERSCHEL'S door when ht or next ood soul was at dinner, but caht immediately and partake of his family repast; and this he did so heartily that I could not resist
”I expected (not knowing that HERSCHEL was married) only to have found Miss HERSCHEL; but there was a very old lady, the mother, I believe, of Mrs HERSCHEL, as at the head of the table herself, and a Scots lady (a Miss WILSON, daughter of Dr WILSON, of Glasgow, an eminent astronomer), Miss HERSCHEL, and a little boy They rejoiced at the accident which had brought e away and take a bed with them They were sorry they had no stables for rew acquainted--I mean the ladies and I--and before dinner was over we see absence Mrs
HERSCHEL is sensible, good-hu, and well bred; Miss HERSCHEL all shyness and virgin modesty; the Scots lady sensible and har, and comical HERSCHEL, you know, and everybody knows, is one of theand well-bred natural characters of the present age, as well as the greatest astronomer
”Your health was drunk after dinner (put that into your pocket), and after hs, the ladies proposed to take a walk, in order, I believe, to leave HERSCHEL and reat telescopes till it grew damp and dusk, then retreated into his study to philosophize
”He made a discovery to me, which, had I known it sooner, would have oversetany part of my work[24] He said that he had alarded as the arrange or adherence to truth; but that when truth and science were united to these fine words, he liked poetry very well”