to be recorded in the pages of the
Phil. Trans. and if I were not sure that they will lead to a vast
field of curious and beautiful research; and as you have already
once contributed to the Society, (on a subject connected with the
spectrum and the sunbeam) this will, I trust, not appear in your
eyes in a formidable or a repulsive light, and it will be a great
matter of congratulation to us all to know that these subjects
continue to engage your attention, and that you can turn your
residence in that sunny clime to such admirable account. So do not
call upon me to retract (for before you get this the papers will be
in the secretary's hands).

I am here nearly as much out of the full stream of scientific
matters as you at Rome. We had a full and very satisfactory meeting
at Cambridge of the British Association, with a full attendance of
continental magnetists and meteorologists, and within these few days
I have learned that our Government meant to grant all our requests
and continue the magnetic and meteorological observations. Humboldt
has sent me his Cosmos (Vol. I.), which is good, all but the first
60 pages, which are occupied in telling his readers what his book is
_not_ to be. Dr. Whewell has just published _another_ book on the
Principles of Morals, and also _another_ on education, in which he
cries up the geometrical processes in preference to analysis....

Yours very faithfully,
J. HERSCHEL.

* * * * *

The Prince and Princesse de Broglie came to Rome in 1845, and Signore
Pellegrino Rossi, at this time French Minister at the Vatican, gave them
a supper party, to which we were invited. We had met with him long
before at Geneva, where he had taken refuge after the insurrection of
1821. He was greatly esteemed there and admired for his eloquence in the
lectures he gave in the University. It was a curious circumstance, that
he, who was a Roman subject, and was exiled, and, if I am not mistaken,
condemned to death, should return to Rome as French Minister. He had a
remarkably fine countenance, resembling some ancient Roman bust. M.
Thiers had brought in a law in the French Chambers to check the audacity
of the Jesuits, and Rossi was sent to negotiate with the Pope. We had
seen much of him at Rome, and were horrified, in