Part 8 (1/2)

”_Aug 11th_, _12th_, _13th_, and _14th_ [1822], I went as usual to spend so 15th_--I hastened to the spot where I ont to find him, with the newspaper which I was to read to him But instead I found Mrs MONSON, Miss BALDWIN, and Mr BULMAN, frorandson of my brother's earliest acquaintance in this country I was infored to return to his room, whither I flew immediately Lady H and the housekeeper ith hiht of for supporting hirant Mr

BULMAN'S request for some token of remembrance for his father As soon as he saw me, I was sent to the library to fetch one of his last papers and a plate of the forty-foot telescope But for the universe I could not have looked twice at what I had snatched fro up of the Milky Way was in it, I said 'Yes,' and he looked content I cannot help re this circumstance; it was the last time I was sent to the library on such an occasion That the anxious care for his papers and workrooms never ended but with his life, was proved by his frequent whispered inquiries if they were locked and the key safe, of which I took care to assure him that they were, and the key in Lady HERSCHEL'S hands

”After half an hour's vain atteed to consent to be put to bed, leaving no hope ever to see hiust, 1822, HERSCHEL died peacefully at the age of eighty-four years

His remains lie in the little church at Upton, near Windsor, where a memorial tablet has been erected by his son The epitaph is as follows:[30]

H S E

GULIELMUS HERSCHEL Eques Guelphicus Hanoviae natus Angliait patriam Astronomis aetatis suae praestantissimis Merito annumeratus Ut leviora sileantur inventa Planetam ille extra Saturni orbitam Priitavit et perfecit Coelorum perrupit claustra Et renes Astronomorum oculis et intellectui subjecit Qua sedulitate qua solertia Corporum et phantasaverit Quidquid paulo audacius conjecit Ingenita temperans verecundia Ultro testantur hodie aequales Vera esse quae docuit pleraque Siquideeniis subsidia Debitura est astrononoscent forte posteri Vitam utilem innocuam amabilem Non minus felici laborum exitu quam virtutibus Ornatam et vere eximiam Morte suis et bonis ousti A D CI[C]I[C]CCCXXII aetatis vero suae LxxxIV

FOOTNOTES:

[18] BODE'S _Jahrbuch_, 1788, p 144

[19] ZACH'S _Monatlich Correspondenz_, 1802, p 56

[20] BODE'S _Jahrbuch_, 1788, p 161

[21] Through Sir JOHN HERSCHEL there is preserved to us an incident of his early boyhood, which shows the nature of the training his youngwith his father, he asked his?” The father replied, after the Socratic s?” The boy was not successful in his answers, whereon the old astronoarden walk: ”There, s that I certainly know” On another occasion the father asked his son, ”What sort of things do you think are most alike?” The boy replied, ”The leaves of the same tree are most like each other” ”Gather, then, a handful of leaves from that tree,” rejoined the philosopher, ”and choose thich are alike”--_Monthly Notices Royal Astronoe 123

[22] _Memoir of CAROLINE HERSCHEL_, p 42

[23] ”Of late years these expectations have been more than accomplished by the discovery of no fewer than four planetary bodies, almost all in the same place; but so small that Dr HERSCHEL refuses to honor them with the nah for what reason it is not easy to determine, unless it be to deprive the discoverers of these bodies of any pretence for rating theh in the list of astronomical discoverers as himself”--_History of the Royal Society_, by THOMAS THOMSON, p 358

This as published in 1812, and therefore during the lifetime of HERSCHEL

[24] _Poetical History of Astronomy_: this as nearly completed, but was never published The whole of it was read to HERSCHEL, in order that BURNEY ht have the benefit of his criticism on its technical terms

[25] _Memoirs of Dr BURNEY_, vol iii, p 264

[26] Life and Letters of THOMAS CAMPBELL, edited by WILLIAM BEATTIE, vol ii, p 234

[27] This interviewHERSCHEL'S journey to Paris We have no other record of it

[28] The will of HERSCHEL was dated December 17th, 1818

”The personal effects were sworn under 6,000 The copyhold and other lands and tenements at Upton-cuh, he decrees to his son, with 25,000 in the 3 per cent Reduced Annuities 2,000 are given to his brother JOHANN DIETRICH, and annuities of 100 each to his brother JOHANN ALEXANDER and to his sister CAROLINA; 20 each to his nephews and nieces, and the residue (with the exception of astronomical instruments, telescopes, observations, etc, which he declares to have given, on account of his advanced age, to his son for the purpose of continuing his studies) is left solely to Lady HERSCHEL”--_Gentleazine_, vol xcii, 1822, p 650

It is not necessary to say here how nobly Sir JOHN HERSCHEL redeemed the trust confided in him All the world knows of his Survey of the Southern Heavens, in which he coun and completed for the northern heavens by the saraphy at the end of this book will show the titles of several papers by Sir JOHN, written with the sole object of rendering his father's labors ht of the Royal Hanoverian Guelphic Order in 1816, and was the first President of the Royal Astronon Secretary