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The editor (LICHTENBERG) says:

"Herr HERSCHEL was good enough to send me, some time since, through
Herr MAGELLAN, copies of his Dissertations on Double Stars, on the
Parallax of the Fixed Stars, and on a new Micrometer. In the letter
which conveyed to him my thanks for his gift, I requested him to
note down a few facts in regard to his life, for publication in this
magazine, since various accounts, more or less incorrect, had
appeared in several journals. In answer, I received a very obliging
letter from him and what follows is that portion of it relating to
my request, which was sent me with full permission to make it
public."

"DATCHET, NEAR WINDSOR,
_Nov. 15, 1783._

"I was born in Hanover, November, 1738. My father, who was a
musician, destined me to the same profession, hence I was
instructed betimes in his art. That I might acquire a perfect
knowledge of the theory as well as of the practice of music, I was
set at an early age to study mathematics in all its
branches--algebra, conic sections, infinitesimal analysis, and the
rest.

"The insatiable desire for knowledge thus awakened resulted next in
a course of languages; I learned French, English, and Latin, and
steadfastly resolved henceforth to devote myself wholly to those
sciences from the pursuit of which I alone looked for all my future
happiness and enjoyment. I have never been either necessitated or
disposed to alter this resolve. My father, whose means were limited,
and who consequently could not be as liberal to his children as he
would have desired, was compelled to dispose of them in one way or
another at an early age; consequently in my fifteenth year I
enlisted in military service, only remaining in the army, however,
until I reached my nineteenth year, when I resigned and went over to
England.

"My familiarity with the organ, which I had carefully mastered
previously, soon procured for me the position of organist in
Yorkshire, which I finally exchanged for a similar situation at Bath
in 1766, and while here the peculiar circumstances of my post, as
agreeable as it was lucrative, made it possible for me to occupy
myself once more with my studies, especially with mathematics. When,
in the course o