Sir William Herschel: His Life and Works Part 2

[1] Wife of Major JOHN HERSCHEL, of the Royal Engineers, grandson of Sir WILLIAM.

[2] Page 127.

[3] _Memoir_ of CAROLINA HERSCHEL, p. 10. Sir GEORGE AIRY, Astronomer Royal, relates in the _Academy_ that this "removal" was a desertion, as he was told by the Duke of Suss.e.x that on the first visit of HERSCHEL to the king, after the discovery of the _Georgium Sidus_, the pardon of HERSCHEL was handed to him by the king himself, written out in due form.

[4] FeTIS; _Biographie universelle des musiciens_, tome V.

(1839) p. 141.

[5] Dr. MILLER, a noted organist, and afterwards historian of Doncaster.

[6] _The Doctor_; by ROBERT SOUTHEY, edition of 1848, p.

140.

[7] He frequently gave thirty-five and thirty-eight lessons a week to pupils at this time.

[8] According to FeTIS. A search for these in London has led me to the belief that FeTIS, who is usually very accurate, is here mistaken, and that these writings are by JACOB HERSCHEL.

[9] _Foreign Quarterly Review_, volume 31.

CHAPTER II.

LIFE IN BATH; 1772-1782.

It was to a busy life in Bath that HERSCHEL took his sister CAROLINA, then twenty-two years old. She was a perfectly untried girl, of very small accomplishments and outwardly with but little to attract. The basis of her character was the possibility of an unchanging devotion to one object; for the best years of her life this object was the happiness and success of her brother WILLIAM, whom she profoundly loved. Her love was headstrong and full of a kind of obstinate pride, which refused to see anything but the view she had adopted. As long as her life continued to be with her dearest brother, all was well with her. She had a n.o.ble aim, and her heart was more than full. Later on, this very singleness of character brought her other years of wretchedness. It is necessary to understand the almost spaniel-like allegiance she gave, in order to comprehend the value which her services were to HERSCHEL. She supplied him with an aid which was utterly loyal, entire, and devoted. Her obedience was unquestioning, her reverence amounted almost to adoration.

In their relation, he gave everything in the way of incentive and initiative, and she returned her entire effort loyally.

At first her business was to gain a knowledge of the language, and to perfect herself in singing, so that she might become a soloist in the concerts and oratorios which he was constantly giving.

In the beginning it was not easy.

. . . "As the season for the arrival of visitors to the baths does not begin till October, my brother had leisure to try my capacity for becoming a useful singer for his concerts and oratorios, and being very well satisfied with my voice, I had two or three lessons every day, and the hours which were not spent at the harpsichord, were employed in putting me in the way of managing the family. . . .

On the second morning, on meeting my brother at breakfast, he began immediately to give me a lesson in English and arithmetic, and showed me the way of booking and keeping accounts of cash received and laid out. . . . By way of relaxation we talked of astronomy and the bright constellations with which I had made acquaintance during the fine nights we spent on the postwagen travelling through Holland.

"My brother ALEXANDER, who had been some time in England, boarded and lodged with his elder brother, and, with myself, occupied the attic. The first floor, which was furnished in the newest and most handsome style, my brother kept for himself. The front room, containing the harpsichord, was always in order to receive his musical friends and scholars at little private concerts or rehearsals. . . . Sundays I received a sum for the weekly expenses, of which my housekeeping book (written in English) showed the amount laid out, and my purse the remaining cash. One of the princ.i.p.al things required was to market, and about six weeks after coming to England I was sent alone among fishwomen, butchers, basket-women, etc., and I brought home whatever in my fright I could pick up. . . .

My brother ALEX., who was now returned from his summer engagement, used to watch me at a distance, unknown to me, till he saw me safe on my way home. But all attempts to introduce any order in our little household proved vain, owing to the servant my brother then had. And what still further increased my difficulty was, that my brother's time was entirely taken up with business, so that I only saw him at meals. Breakfast was at seven o'clock or before--much too early for me, who would rather have remained up all night than be obliged to rise at so early an hour. . . .

"The three winter months pa.s.sed on very heavily. I had to struggle against _heimwehe_ (home sickness) and low spirits, and to answer my sister's melancholy letters on the death of her husband, by which she became a widow with six children. I knew too little English to derive any consolation from the society of those who were about me, so that, dinner-time excepted, I was entirely left to myself."

So the winter pa.s.sed.

"The time when I could hope to receive a little more of my brother's instruction and attention was now drawing near; for after Easter, Bath becomes very empty, only a few of his scholars, whose families were resident in the neighborhood, remaining. But I was greatly disappointed; for, in consequence of the hara.s.sing and fatiguing life he had led during the winter months, he used to retire to bed with a basin of milk or gla.s.s of water, and SMITH'S _Harmonics_ and _Optics_, FERGUSON'S _Astronomy_, etc., and so went to sleep buried under his favorite authors; and his first thoughts on rising were how to obtain instruments for viewing those objects himself of which he had been reading. There being in one of the shops a two-and-a-half-foot Gregorian telescope to be let, it was for some time taken in requisition, and served not only for viewing the heavens, but for making experiments on its construction. . . . It soon appeared that my brother was not contented with knowing what former observers had seen, for he began to contrive a telescope eighteen or twenty feet long (I believe after HUYGHENS' description). . . . I was much hindered in my musical practice by my help being continually wanted in the execution of the various contrivances, and I had to amuse myself with making the tube of pasteboard for the gla.s.ses, which were to arrive from London, for at that time no optician had settled at Bath. But when all was finished, no one besides my brother could get a glimpse of Jupiter or Saturn, for the great length of the tube would not allow it to be kept in a straight line.

This difficulty, however, was soon removed by subst.i.tuting tin tubes. . . . My brother wrote to inquire the price of a reflecting mirror for (I believe) a five or six foot telescope. The answer was, there were none of so large a size, but a person offered to make one at a price much above what my brother thought proper to give. . . .

About this time he bought of a Quaker, resident at Bath, who had formerly made attempts at polishing mirrors, all his rubbish of patterns, tools, hones, polishers, unfinished mirrors, etc., but all for small Gregorians, and none above two or three inches diameter.

"But nothing serious could be attempted, for want of time, till the beginning of June, when some of my brother's scholars were leaving Bath; and then, to my sorrow, I saw almost every room turned into a workshop. A cabinet-maker making a tube and stands of all descriptions in a handsomely furnished drawing-room; ALEX. putting up a huge turning machine (which he had brought in the autumn from Bristol, where he used to spend the summer) in a bedroom, for turning patterns, grinding gla.s.ses, and turning eye-pieces, etc. At the same time music durst not lie entirely dormant during the summer, and my brother had frequent rehearsals at home, where Miss FARINELLI, an Italian singer, was met by several of the princ.i.p.al performers he had engaged for the winter concerts."

Finally, in 1774, he had made himself a Gregorian telescope,[10] and had begun to view the heavens. He was then thirty-six years old.

The writer in the _European Magazine_ describes this period:

"All this time he continued his astronomical observations, and nothing now seemed wanting to complete his felicity, but sufficient leisure to enjoy his telescopes, to which he was so much attached, that at the theatre he used frequently to run from the harpsichord to look at the stars, during the time between the acts."

In an extract from his _Journal No. 1_, now at the rooms of the Royal Society, may be seen a copy of his first observation of the Nebula of _Orion_, on March 4, 1774. This was made with his five-and-a-half-foot Gregorian reflector.

It was at this time (1775), between the acts of the theatre, that he made his first review of the heavens, with a Newtonian telescope, of an aperture of four and a half inches and a magnifying power of 222 times.

This telescope was one of the first made by himself. The review consisted of the examination of every star in the sky of the first, second, third, and fourth magnitudes, and of all planets visible. There are no records of these observations now extant, and they are noteworthy only as a preparation for more serious work.

He was carrying out his resolve to see everything for himself. His a.s.siduity may be judged of by the fact that between 1774 and 1781 HERSCHEL had observed a single object--the Nebula of _Orion_--no less than fourteen times.

The success of his first telescopes incited him to new efforts. His house became a complete _atelier_, where everything that could tend to excellence in this manufacture was tried and re-tried a hundred different ways. When a difficulty arose, experiments were begun which continued till it was conquered. When a success was gained, it was prosecuted to the utmost.

In 1775 the first seven-foot reflector was made, in 1777 a ten-foot was finished, in 1778 a "very good" ten-foot took its place. It must not be thought that the telescopes mentioned were the only ones completed. On the contrary, they were but the best ones selected out of many.

In 1774 a new house had been engaged, which had "more room for workshops," and whose roof gave s.p.a.ce for observing. The gra.s.s-plat near it was soon utilized to hold the stand of a twenty-foot telescope, which he had even then projected. His projects were unending, no success was final; his mind was at the height of activity; his whole effort was thrown into every undertaking.

The mirrors for all these telescopes were made by hand. Every portion of the grinding down to rough dimensions, the shaping to something near the correct form, the polishing till the accurately exact curves were obtained, all this must be done by hand. The machines for the purpose were not invented until 1788.[11]

ALEXANDER and WILLIAM worked together at this, but most of the work was done by the latter. The sister's part was to attend in the workshop and lend a hand wherever and whenever it was needed.

. . . "My time was taken up with copying music and practising, besides attendance on my brother when polishing, since by way of keeping him alive I was constantly obliged to feed him by putting the victuals by bits into his mouth. This was once the case when, in order to finish a seven-foot mirror, he had not taken his hands from it for sixteen hours together. In general he was never unemployed at meals, but was always at those times contriving or making drawings of whatever came in his mind. Generally I was obliged to read to him whilst he was at the turning-lathe, or polishing mirrors, _Don Quixote_, _Arabian Nights' Entertainment_, the novels of STERNE, FIELDING, etc.; serving tea and supper without interrupting the work with which he was engaged, . . . and sometimes lending a hand. I became, in time, as useful a member of the workshop as a boy might be to his master in the first year of his apprenticeship. . . . But as I was to take a part the next year in the oratorios, I had, for a whole twelvemonth, two lessons per week from Miss FLEMING, the celebrated dancing-mistress, to drill me for a gentlewoman (G.o.d knows how she succeeded). So we lived on without interruption.

My brother ALEX. was absent from Bath for some months every summer, but when at home he took much pleasure in executing some turning or clockmaker's work for his brother."

News from Hanover put a sudden stop, for a time, to all these labors.

The mother wrote, in the utmost distress, to say that DIETRICH had disappeared from his home, it was supposed with the intention of going to India "with a young idler not older than himself." His brother immediately left the lathe at which he was turning an eye-piece in cocoa-nut, and started for Holland, whence he proceeded to Hanover, failing to meet his brother, as he expected. Meanwhile the sister received a letter to say that DIETRICH was "laid up very ill" at an inn in Wapping. ALEXANDER posted to town, removed him to a lodging, and, after a fortnight's nursing, brought him to Bath, where, on his brother WILLIAM'S return, he found him being well cared for by his sister.

About this time another change was made to the house 19 New King Street, which was the last move in Bath. It was here that the _Georgium Sidus_ was discovered.

The music still went on. The oratorios of the _Messiah_, _Judas Maccabeus_, and _Samson_ were to be performed under HERSCHEL'S direction, with an orchestra of nearly one hundred pieces. The scores and vocal parts of these CAROLINA copied with her own hands, and the _soprani_ were instructed by her, she being the leading soloist. Along with the music went the astronomy. Not only were new telescopes made, but they were made for immediate use.

The variable star _Mira Ceti_ was observed, and a long series of lunar observations begun.

"In 1779, 1780, and 1781 I measured the heights of about one hundred mountains of the moon, by three different methods.

"Some of these observations are given in _Philosophical Transactions_, vol. LXX., but most remain uncalculated in my journal _till some proper opportunity."[12]_

While HERSCHEL was measuring these lunar mountains, in December, 1779, he made by chance an acquaintance of much value to him. Dr. WILLIAM WATSON, a Fellow of the Royal Society, distinguished for his researches in electricity, happened to see him at his telescope, and this led to a visit and an invitation to HERSCHEL to join the Philosophical Society of Bath, then forming. This he gladly did, and it was of use to him in many ways.

He there formed acquaintance with men of his own way of thinking, and he himself became known. Better than all, he learned to measure himself with other men, and by his early papers read to the Society, he gained skill in putting his thoughts before his hearers. This skill he never lost, and the merely literary art of his memoirs would make his papers remarkable without their other merits. He is always clear, and in his early papers especially, he appeals to his particular audience--the Royal Society--in a way which shows that he is conscious of all its weaknesses as well as of its dignity. Later, his tone slightly changed.

He became less anxious to win his audience, for he had become an authority. This knowledge lent a quiet strength to his style, but never induced the slightest arrogance of spirit or manner.

The Bath Philosophical Society has left no printed proceedings. HERSCHEL was one of its earliest members, and many papers were communicated to it by his hand. These appear to have been of a very miscellaneous nature.

Some of them at least would be of the highest interest to us now.

In the _Philosophical Transactions_ for 1789, p. 220, HERSCHEL tells us that he communicated to that Society "certain mathematical papers"