Part 7 (2/2)
”With great kindness and patience he referred me, in the course of my attempts to talk with him, to a theorem in NEWTON'S 'Principles of Natural Philosophy' in which the tiht takes to travel from the sun is proved with a si In talking of some inconceivably distant bodies, he introduced the ress of light could beof himself, he said, with a ether with the greatness of the assertion: 'I have looked _further into space than ever hu did before ht, it can be proved, must take two millions of years to reach this earth'
”I really and unfeignedly felt at thiswith a supernatural intelligence 'Nay, more,' said he, 'if those distant bodies had ceased to exist two ht would travel after the body was gone' These were HERSCHEL'S words; and if you had heard him speak them, you would not think he was apt to tellHERSCHEL I felt elevated and overco to yourapher appears to have felt that the value of this char account of his intervieith HERSCHEL was in its report of astronomical facts and opinions, and he adds a foot-note to explain that ”HERSCHEL'S opinion never aree of probability Sir JOHN HERSCHEL re, 'If that hypothesis were true, and _if_ the planet destroyed were as large as the earth, there ments,' but always as an hypothesis--he was never heard to declare any degree of conviction that it was so”
For us, the value of this sympathetic account of a day in HERSCHEL'S life is in its conception of the simplicity, the ht and speech of the old philosopher; and in the is, not the mind, of the poet, then thirty-five years old
In a letter to ALISON, CAMPBELL reverts with great pleasure to the day spent with HERSCHEL:
”SYDENHAM, _December 12, 1813_
”MY DEAREST ALISON:--
”I spent three weeks withweather, and was much pleased with, as well as benefited by, the place There Icongenial, or having the vanity to thinkI once in my life looked at NEWTON'S _Principia_, and attended an astronooonderful it seereat man condescended to understandto me as much information as e would admit He invited me to see him at his own abode, and so kindly that I could not believe that it was ain I had a full day with him; he described to me his whole intervieith BUONAPARTE; said it was not true, as reported, that BUONAPARTE understood astronomical subjects deeply, but affected reat and chief telescope, he said with an air, not of the least pride, but with a greatness and simplicity of expression that struck me onder, 'I have looked further into space than ever hu did before ht takes _two lobe' I h, as soon as my book is out, this winter”
In 1807 CAROLINA HERSCHEL has this entry in her diary:
”_October_ 4--My brother caht two parties fro the wholeto hi the forty-foot mirror, rest became absolutely necessary after a day spent in that most laborious work; and it has ever been my opinion that on the 14th of October his nerves received a shock of which he never got the better afterwards”
In the spring of 1808 he was quite seriously ill; but in May the observing went on again In 1809 and 1810 his principal investigations were upon physical subjects (NEWTON'S rings), and in 1811 the only long series of observations was upon the comet of that year After 1811 the state of HERSCHEL'S health required that his observations should be much less frequent Much of the time after 1811 he was absent, and his work at ho the results of his previous labors, and in coh the years 1814 to 1822, HERSCHEL'S health was very feeble The severe winter of 1813-14 had told materially upon him In 1814, however, he undertook to repolish the forty-foot ive it over
He now found it necessary to e of air and scene His faithful sister re order into thethe papers for the Royal Society
She was sick at heart, fearing that each time she saw her brother it would be the last In 1818 she says:
”Feb 11, I went to my brother and reh not in idleness, in sorrow and sadness
He is not only unwell, but low in spirits”
In 1818 (December 16), HERSCHEL went to London to have his portrait painted by ARTAUD While he was in London his as ht In a note HERSCHEL says:
”LINA:--There is a great comet I want you to assist me Come to dine and spend the day here If you can come soon after one o'clock, we shall have time to prepare ht It has a long tail
”_July 4, 1819_”
This note has been carefully kept by his sister, and on it she has written: ”I keep this as a relic Every line _now_ traced by the hand of my dear brother becomes a treasure to me”
So the next three years passed away Sir WILLIAM[29] was dailyhis works in order, but could devote only a few moments each day to this His sister says: