Part 7 (1/2)
1798, December 10
DR BURNEY TO MADAME D'ARBLAY
”HERSCHEL has been in town for short spurts, and back again two or three ti Mrs HERSCHEL behind (in town) to transact law business I had hi of the manuscript of the _Poetical History of Astronomy_ was continued, ”and HERSCHEL was so humble as to confess that I knew more of the history of astronomy than he did, and had surprised hiether
”He thanked iven hirander?' and all this before he knoord of what I have said of hi kept back for the twelfth and last book”
DR BURNEY TO MADAME D'ARBLAY
”SLOUGH, _Monday _ _July 22, 1799_, in bed at Dr HERSCHEL'S, half-past five, where I can neither sleep nor lie idle
”My Dear fanny:--I believe I told you on Friday that I was going to finish the perusal of reat astronomer on Saturday
”After tea Dr HERSCHEL proposed that o should retire into a quiet rooress has beenwas finished very cheerfully; and ent to our bowers not much out of hureed to go to the terrace [at Windsor]--Mr, Mrs, and Miss H, with their nice little boy, and three young ladies Here I met with almost everybody I wished and expected to see previous to the king's arrival
”But now here coo down to the perusal of ood-morrow”
”CHELSEA, _Tuesday_
”Not a et to write till nowI o with hio when he chooses, his five nephews (GRIESBACHS)a principal part of the band 'And,' says he, 'I know you will be welcoradually established between HERSCHEL and Dr BURNEY
They saw each other often at the s of the Royal Society, and HERSCHEL frequently stayed at the doctor's house ”On the first evening HERSCHEL spent at Chelsea, when I called for my ARGAND lamp, HERSCHEL, who had not seen one of those laht, and ile candle, and found it sixteen to one”[25]
In 1793 we find HERSCHEL as a witness for his friend JAMES WATT, in the celebrated case of WATT _vs_ BULL, which was tried in the Court of Common Pleas And from MUIRHEAD'S Life of WATT, it appears that HERSCHEL visited WATT at Heathfield in 1810
A delightful picture of the old age of HERSCHEL is given by the poet CAMPBELL,[26] whose nature was fitted to perceive the beauties of a grand and simple character like HERSCHEL'S:
”[BRIGHTON], _September 15, 1813_
”I wish you had been with me the day before yesterday, when you would have joined ood old man--Dr HERSCHEL Do not thinkthat I alot an invitation, and a pressing one, to go to his house; and the lady who introduced me to him, says he spoke of me as if he would really be happy to see meI spent all Sunday with hiy in sciences, and fond of poetry, but very unassuNow, for the old astronomer himself His simplicity, his kindness, his anecdotes, his readiness to explain--and make perfectly conspicuous too--his own subli He is seventy-six, but fresh and stout; and there he sat, nearest the door, at his friend's house, alternately s without share or notice in the conversation
Any train of conversation he follows i you ask he labors with a sort of boyish earnestness to explain
”I was anxious to get from him as many particulars as I could about his intervieith BUONAPARTE[27] The latter, it was reported, had astonished hie
”'No,' he said, 'the First Consul did surprise me by his quickness and versatility on all subjects; but in science he seeentle His general air,' he said, 'was so to know reat with HERSCHEL, I suppose, without success; and 'I re the conversation on astronoave proofs of an Alht the systeard to the total security of the planetary syste its present balance? He said, No; he thought by no means that the universe was secured from the chance of sudden losses of parts
”He was convinced that there had existed a planet between _Mars_ and _Jupiter_, in our own system, of which the little asteroids, or planetkins, lately discovered, are indubitably fragh they have discovered only four of those parts, there will be thousands--perhaps thirty thousand more--yet discovered' This planet he believed to have been lost by explosion