The great difficulty of writing begins at last to tell in Miss Herschel’s correspondence. One more letter in 1845, is the last of the ample sheets she had been used to fill. The monthly report becomes shorter, more blotted, and betrays extreme feebleness. On the first of October, 1846, she wrote:
My dearest Niece!—
I must not let the messenger go without a line just to say that I am still in the land of the living, of which, however, I have no other proof than a letter from Baron v. Humboldt, inclosing a Golden Medal from the King of Prussia. I can say no more at present, and the post will not wait, so believe me, my dear niece, yours and my dear nephew’s most affectionate aunt,
Car. Herschel.
The following is the letter referred to from Alexander von Humboldt which accompanied the Gold Medal presented by the King of Prussia on the occasion of her ninety-sixth birthday:—
1846-1847. Letter—Baron Humboldt.
Berlin, Sept. 25, 1846.
Most honoured Lady and Friend!—
His Majesty the King, in recognition of the valuable services rendered to Astronomy by you, as the fellow-worker of your immortal brother, Sir William Herschel, by discoveries, observations, and laborious calculations, commanded me, before his departure for Silesia, to convey to you, in his name, the large Gold Medal for Science, and to express to you the gratification he felt that, by God’s grace, your noble life has been a long succession of years free of pain, and that now in your solitude you continue to enjoy the reflected glory of the all-embracing knowledge, the great labours in both hemispheres, and the profoundly penetrating genius of your illustrious nephew, Sir John Herschel. To be had in remembrance by an intellectual and kind-hearted Prince cannot be a matter of indifference to you. He had wished you to receive this little gratification on your ninety-sixth birthday, and by an unfortunate mistake the date of Caroline Lucretia Herschel’s birth has been changed from the 16th of March to the 16th of October, and I am the culprit, misled by a misprint in a French history of astronomy. I know I may count upon your indulgence and that of your distinguished family in England. I specially deserve such leniency to-day—the day on which my young friend, Dr. Galle, assistant astronomer in our Observatory (to the triumph of theoretical astronomy be it said), has discovered the transuranian planet indicated by Leverrier as the cause of the perturbations of Uranus.
With the deepest respect,