manual toil. He was seldom unemployed at meals; but at such times
employed himself in contriving or making drawings of whatever occurred
to his fertile fancy. Usually his sister Caroline read to him while he
was engaged at the turning-lathe, or polishing mirrors; choosing such
books as "Don Quixote," the "Arabian Nights," the novels of Sterne and
Fielding; and tea and supper were served without any interruption to the
task in which Herschel was absorbed.

In Miss Herschel's charming letters we find a vivid sketch of the
family avocations at this period:---

"My brother applied himself to perfect his mirrors, erecting in
his garden a stand for his twenty-foot telescope: many trials
were necessary before the required motions for such an unwieldy
machine could be contrived. Many attempts were made by way of
experiment against a mirror before an intended thirty-foot
telescope could be completed, for which, between whiles (not
interrupting the observations with seven, ten, and twenty-foot,
and writing papers for both the Royal and Bath Philosophical
Societies), gauges, shapes, weights, &c, of the mirror were
calculated, and trials of the composition of the metal were
made. In short, I saw nothing else and heard nothing else
talked of but about these things when my brothers were
together. Alex was always very alert, assisting when anything
new was going forward; but he wanted perseverance, and never
liked to confine himself at home for many hours together. And
so it happened that my brother William was obliged to make
trial of my abilities in copying for him catalogues, tables,
&c, and sometimes whole papers which were lent [to] him for his
perusal. Among them was one by Mr. Michel, and a catalogue of
Christian Mayer in Latin, which kept me employed when my
brother was at the telescope at night. When I found that a hand
was sometimes wanted when any particular measures were to be
made with the lamp micrometer, or a fire to be kept up, or a
dish of coffee necessary during a night's long watching, I
undertook with pleasure what others might have thought a
hardship."

The astronomer-musician's patient survey of the heavens was rewarded,
on the 13th of March 1781, by the discovery of a new planet, situated
on the borders of our Solar System. In every way this was a discovery
of signal importanc