ific world saw with
astonishment how Herschel's works succeeded each other with unexampled
rapidity during so many years, they were specially indebted for it to
the ardour of Miss Caroline. Astronomy, moreover, has been directly
enriched by several comets through this excellent and respectable lady.
After the death of her illustrious brother, Miss Caroline retired to
Hanover, to the house of Jahn Dietrich Herschel, a musician of high
reputation, and the only surviving brother of the astronomer.

William Herschel died without pain on the 23d of August 1822, aged
eighty-three. Good fortune and glory never altered in him the fund of
infantine candour, inexhaustible benevolence, and sweetness of
character, with which nature had endowed him. He preserved to the last
both his brightness of mind and vigour of intellect. For some years
Herschel enjoyed with delight the distinguished success of his only
son,[16] Sir John Herschel. At his last hour he sunk to rest with the
pleasing conviction that his beloved son, heir of a great name, would
not allow it to fall into oblivion, but adorn it with fresh lustre, and
that great discoveries would honour his career also. No prediction of
the illustrious astronomer has been more completely verified.

The English journals gave an account of the means adopted by the family
of William Herschel, for preserving the remains of the great telescope
of thirty-nine English feet (twelve metres) constructed by that
celebrated astronomer.

The metal tube of the instrument carrying at one end the recently
cleaned mirror of four feet ten inches in diameter, has been placed
horizontally in the meridian line, on solid piers of masonry, in the
midst of the circle, where formerly stood the mechanism requisite for
manoeuvring the telescope. The first of January 1840, Sir John
Herschel, his wife, their children, seven in number, and some old family
servants, assembled at Slough. Exactly at noon, the party walked several
times in procession round the instrument; they then entered the tube of
the telescope, seated themselves on benches that had been prepared for
the purpose, and sung a requiem, with English words composed by Sir John
Herschel himself. After their exit, the illustrious family ranged
themselves around the great tube, the opening of which was then
hermetically sealed. The day concluded with a party of intimate friends.

I know not whether those persons who will only appreciate things from
the