“I have the honour to be, etc.,
“Caroline Herschel.
“Slough, near Windsor, August 2, 1786.”
Many also of the nebulæ contained in Sir W. Herschel’s catalogues were detected by her. Indeed the unconquerable industry of the sister challenges our admiration quite as much as the intellectual power of the brother.
WORKS ON ASTRONOMY.
We shall not attempt fully to discuss Miss Herschel’s astronomical works. Indeed her labours are so intimately connected with, and are generally so dependent upon, those of her illustrious brother, that an investigation of the latter is absolutely necessary before we can form the most remote idea of the extent of the former. In 1798 she completed “A catalogue of 561 Stars from Flamsteed’s Observations,” contained in the “Historia Cælestis,” but which had escaped the notice of those who framed the “British Catalogue.” For this valuable work which was published, together with a general index of reference to every observation of every star inserted in the “British Catalogue,” at the expense of the Royal Society, in one volume, her brother wrote an introduction. To the utility of these volumes in subsequent researches, Mr. Baily, in the life of Flamsteed, bears ample testimony.
She moreover finished, in 1828, the reduction and arrangement of 2500 nebulæ to the 1st of January, 1800, presenting in one view the results of all Sir William Herschel’s observations on those bodies; and thus bringing to a close half a century spent in astronomical labour, probably unparalleled either in magnitude or importance. But to deliver an eulogy upon her memory is not our purpose. Suffice it to say that her name will live even when the time comes that the astronomical celebrity of a woman will not by the mere circumstance of sex excite the slightest remark.
CHARACTER OF MISS HERSCHEL.
The physical constitution of Miss Herschel was good. At Slough her exertions seem to have been overpowering. Instead of passing the night in repose, she was constantly with her illustrious brother, participating in his toils, braving with him the inclemency of the weather, and co-operating towards his triumphs. According to the best of authorities she took down notes of the observations as they fell from his lips; conveyed the rough manuscripts to her cottage at the dawn of day; and produced a fair copy of the night’s work on the subsequent morning. One would have said that such toils would have shortened her life, but she lived to be very old, and till within a short period of her death, her health continued uninterrupted.
Her intellect was of a supreme order. The physico-perceptive faculties were immensely developed, and these, combined with a strong and active temperament, delight and excel in natural science, see and survey nature in all her operations, and confer a talent for acquiring scientific knowledge. Causality was amply developed in Miss Herschel, and her talents form an excellent sample of the cast of mind it imparts. She will be remembered as long as astronomical records of the last and present century are preserved.