did. I long to hear that the forty-foot instrument is safely got down;

your father, and Uncle A. too, have had many hair-breadth escapes from being crushed by the taking in and out of the mirror; but God preserve you, my dear nephew, says

Your most affectionate aunt, CAR. HERSCHEL.

P.S.—My brother and family join me in many compliments to you and your dear mother. They are all well; I am the only one who is complaining, but I think I have a right to that preference, for I am the oldest.

[Sidenote: 1823. _Letter from J. F. W. Herschel._]

FROM J. F. W. HERSCHEL TO MISS HERSCHEL.

DOWNING STREET, _August 1, 1823_.

DEAR AUNT,—

I have been long threatening to send you a long letter, but have always been prevented by circumstances and want of leisure from executing my intention. The truth is, I have been so much occupied with astronomy of late, that I have had little time for anything else—the reduction of these double stars, and the necessity it has put me under of looking over the journals, reviews, &c., for information on what has already been done, and in many cases of re-casting up my father’s measures, swallows up a great deal of time and labour. But I have the satisfaction of being able to state that our results in most instances confirm and establish my father’s views in a remarkable manner. These inquiries have taken me off the republication of his printed papers for the present.

I think I shall be adding more to his fame by pursuing and verifying his observations than by reprinting them. But I have by no means abandoned the idea. Meanwhile I am not sorry to hear they are about to be translated into German. There is a Mr. Pfaff, a respectable mathematician, and I hope it is he who undertakes the work. If you can learn more particulars, pray send them to me. I hope this season to commence a series of observations with the twenty-foot reflector, which is now in fine order. The forty-foot is no longer capable of being used, but I shall suffer it to stand as a monument.

* * * * *

I am much obliged to you for the book on temperaments you were so kind as to send me, which seems interesting, but I have not had time to read it through....

P.S.—Your books on animal magnetism, and that for Babbage, arrived safe.... I wish you would procure and send me Pfaff’s translation of my father’s papers as soon as published. Write as often as you can. Your letters are very interesting. I wish I were a better correspondent, but my time is so occupied, I know not where to turn.

P.P.S.—Babbage has had £1,500 granted him by Government to enable him to execute his engine, which is very curious. A report is strongly current of Captain Parry’s successful arrival at Valparaiso; it comes in a very probable form.

[Sidenote: 1823. _Astronomical._]

FROM MISS HERSCHEL TO J. F. W. HERSCHEL.

HANOVER, _August 11, 1823_.

MY DEAREST NEPHEW,—

I thank you most heartily for your kind care and punctuality in sending my remittance, and am only sorry to trouble you so often; I might have acknowledged the receipt thereof by the last post, but I wished first to enable myself to give the following information. Johann Wilhelm Pfaff, professor, in Erlangen, is the same who intends to translate your father’s papers, but those only which he can get a copy of. The Philosophical Transactions, I am told, are not within his reach. You may depend on my sending you whatever may come out as soon as it makes its appearance.

I can easily imagine how little time you can have to spare for writing to me when once you have entered on that mass of your father’s observations contained in his journals, &c.... I think the temporary index (such as it is) will in many instances be of service to you, but I wish to point out here that about the year 1800 there was a change made in the titles of some of the books. The first volume of miscellaneous observations was then called _Journal No. 10_, &c., ... so if the index directs you to January 24th, 1797 M. (for _M._ read _J._) I think a memorandum of this will be found in the cover or beginning of the index, but I am not certain.

You have truly gratified me by sending the inscription of the monument,[33] for such subjects only are capable of interesting my waking thoughts and nightly dreams. I was going to give you an idea of what they are; but why should I communicate grief?

The paper for Gauss is gone to Göttingen. I have directed it to Professor Harding, who is the next to Gauss in the astronomical department, as Gauss is not yet returned from his journey of measurements. I made a few extracts from the paper[34] by way of having something to be delighted with, but am glad such a thing was not invented fifty years ago, for then my existence would have been of no use at all at all.

I am amusing myself with having the seven-foot mounted by Hohenbaum, though I have not even a prospect of a window for a whole constellation, but it shall stand in my room and be my monument—as the forty-foot is yours. When Hohenbaum comes for a trifling direction, we generally do not separate till dinner, or some other interruption puts a stop to our conversation; for this man is never tired when speaking of your father’s inventful imaginations and the readiness with which everything was executed.

I have not above six hours’ tolerable ease out of the twenty-four, and not one hour’s sleep, and yet I wish to live a little longer, that I might make you a more correct catalogue of the 2,500 nebulæ, which is not even begun, but hope to be able to make it my next winter’s amusement.

I was much pleased with the partial success of Mr. Babbage in having something granted towards going on with his _grand_ ideas.

With many compliments and best wishes, &c., Your most affectionate aunt, CAR. HERSCHEL.

[Sidenote: 1824. _Her Nephew on the Continent._]

FROM J. F. W. HERSCHEL TO MISS HERSCHEL.

CATANIA (SICILY), _July 2, 1824_.

DEAR AUNT,—

The last time I wrote to you from Slough I little expected that my next would be dated from the foot of Etna—but I mean this to be the farthest point of my wanderings, and from hence to turn my steps northwards. I am not without some hopes that my time will so far serve as to enable me to pay you a visit at Hanover, as I long very much to see you among your and my Hanoverian friends.... My mother will have told you of my arrangements,—of the alteration which my plans of life have undergone (and for which I see every day more reason to be thankful), and of my present excursion, so that the date of this will not surprise you. To-morrow I hope to see the sun set from the top of Etna, and will keep this open to give you an account of my excursion there. Meanwhile let me congratulate you on the good accounts my mother gives me of your present state of health and spirits, the knowledge of which has enabled me to give real pleasure to many who, when they heard I was related to you, enquired with the greatest interest respecting you. Among the rest I may mention M. Arago, of the Observatory at Paris, and M. Fourrier, the secretary of the Institute, who has just been reading the _Éloge_ of my dear father at a meeting of that body, in which I am sure (from the associations I had with him, and the written communications that passed between us on the subject) your own name will stand associated with his in a manner that cannot fail to be gratifying to you. I have not (of course, as I quitted Paris before it was read, or even written) seen it, but the man is of the right sort, and I will endeavour to procure copies of it for you and my uncle. Indeed, at Paris I find (as where do I not find it?) universal justice rendered to my father’s merits, and a degree of admiration excited by the mention of his name that cannot fail to be gratifying to me, as his son. In fact, I find myself received wherever I go by all men of science, for his sake, with open arms, and I find introductions perfectly unnecessary. At Turin I sent up my card to Prof. Plana, of the Observatory, one of the most eminent mathematicians of the age, who received me like a brother, and made my stay at Turin, which I prolonged a week for the sake of his society, very pleasant. He married _a niece of Lagrange_ (not of _Lalande_), and both he and his wife were full of enquiries about my “celebrated sister,” (for everybody seems to think me your brother, instead of nephew), and made me tell them a thousand particulars about you. The same reception, but, if possible, still more friendly, and the same curiosity (and, I may add, the same mistake) I met with at Modena, from Professor Amici, an artist and a man of science of the first eminence. He is the only man who has, since my father, bestowed great pains on the construction of specula, and I do assure you that his ten-foot telescopes with twelve-inch mirrors are of very extraordinary perfection. Among other of your enquiring friends I should not omit the Abbé Piazzi, whom I found ill in bed at Palermo, and who is a fine respectable old man, though I am afraid not much longer for this world. He remembered you personally, having himself visited Slough.

_Naples, Aug. 20th, 1824._—I take the first moment of leisure to proceed with this. I made the ascent of Etna without particular difficulty, though with excessive fatigue. The ascent from Catania is through the village of Nicolosi, about ten miles from Catania, almost every step of which is covered with the tremendous stream of lava which, in 1669, burst from the flanks of the mountain, near Nicolosi, and overwhelmed the city. Here I found a M. Gemellaro, who was so good as to make corresponding observations of the barometer and thermometer during my absence, while his brother observed below at Catania, and I carried up my mountain barometer and other instruments to the summit. From Nicolosi the ascent becomes rugged and laborious, first through a broad belt of fine oak forest, which encircles the mountain like a girdle about its middle, and affords some beautiful romantic scenery—when this is passed we soon reach the limits of vegetation, and a long desolate scorched slope, knee-deep in ashes, extends for about five miles to a little hut, where I passed the night (a glorious starlight one) with the barometer at 21·307 in.—and next morning mounted the crater by a desperate scramble up a cone of lava and ashes, about 1,000 feet high. The sunrise from this altitude, and the view of Sicily and Calabria, which is gradually disclosed, is easier conceived than described. On the highest point of the crater I was enveloped in suffocating sulphurous vapours, and was glad enough to make my observation (bar. 21·400) and get down. By this the altitude appears to be between 10 and 11,000 feet. I reached Catania the same night, almost dead with the morning’s scramble and the dreadful descent of near thirty miles, where the mules (which can be used for a considerable part of the way) could scarce keep their feet.

_Florence, Aug. 16th, 1824._—In the hurry and bustle of travelling one is obliged to write by snatches when one can.... I hope to hear from you at all events when I reach England if I should not see you first, of which I begin now to have serious doubts, having been so terribly retarded in my Sicilian journey, and at Naples, on my return, by the illness of a friend.

Your affectionate nephew, J. F. W. HERSCHEL.

P.S.—Have you heard how M. Pfaff’s translation proceeds? I wrote to him from Cattagione, in Sicily.

[Sidenote: 1824. _Her Nephew’s Travels._]

MUNICH, _Sept. 17, 1824_.

MY DEAR AUNT,—

* * * * *

I had originally intended to have gone to Switzerland from Inspruck, or from this place, having a great desire to visit the north of Switzerland, and to make certain observations among the Alps, but my wish to see you once more, to assure myself and to be able to report to my mother how I find you—to pay my uncle Dietrich a visit—and, though last, not least, to see my father’s birth-place—these considerations outweigh the attractions of Switzerland, and, although the increase this détour will make in the length of my journey homewards is so considerable as to limit my stay in Hanover to two or three days at the utmost, I shall at least have had the satisfaction of not neglecting an opportunity which _may_ never occur again.

The time when I hope to arrive I cannot precisely fix, as it will depend on circumstances which may occur in my route, having so arranged as to take in a variety of objects interesting in various ways, thus:—I shall go somewhat out of my way to visit Professor Pfaff, at Erlangen, and I hope also to find Mr. Encke at Seeberg, Mr. Lindenau at Gotha, Messrs. Gauss and Harding at Göttingen, &c. Moreover, I hope there will not take place a resurrection among the bones in the cave at Bayreuth before I get there. These things necessarily interrupt post haste, besides which there are always delays in passing frontiers, and accidents happening to wheels, springs, screws, &c. Allowing for these, however, I think it cannot be less than a fortnight, nor more than three weeks from the date of this when I shall have the happiness of once more shaking you by the hand, and I need not say what satisfaction it will give me to find yourself and my uncle, Mrs. Herschel and their family in good health, as well as our good friends the Beckedorffs, Detmerings and Haussmann, with whom it will be a great pleasure to me to renew my acquaintance. You have heard, I daresay, through my mother, of our poor friend, Miss Deluc’s death. Mrs. Beckedorff will have been much grieved at it.

I hope you have not forgotten your English, as I find myself not quite so fluent in this language as I expected. In fact, since leaving Italy, I have so begarbled my German with Italian that it is unintelligible both to myself and to everyone that hears it; and what is very perverse, that though when in Italy I could hardly talk Italian fit to be heard, I can now talk nothing else, and whenever I want a German word, pop comes the Italian one in its place. I made the waiter to-day stare (he being a Frenchman) by calling to him, “Wollen Sie avere la bontà den acete zu apportaren!” But this, I hope, will soon wear off.

* * * * *

I remain, dear aunt, Your affectionate nephew, J. F. W. H.

FROM MISS HERSCHEL TO J. F. W. HERSCHEL.

HANOVER, _Sept. 25, 1824_.

MY DEAREST NEPHEW,—

I hardly know how to thank you sufficiently for your valuable letters, especially for the one dated the 17th of this month, as I am now at last assured that my eyes shall once more behold the continuation of your dear father. For the remaining days of my life can only by a few hours’ conversation with you be made tolerable, by affording me your direction how to _finish_ a general catalogue of the 2,500 nebulæ, &c., which would have otherwise caused us both a tedious and vexatious correspondence in the future.

I anxiously forbore to express my wishes for seeing you, for fear it might have had any influence on the direction of your intended tour. But now all will be well, and I shall only say that we are counting the days and hours until we shall have the happiness of seeing you, and you will, on entering Hanover, have only to direct your postilion to the Markt Strasse, No. 453, where the arms of my brother and sister, as well as mine, are longing to receive you, and till then

Believe me, my dearest nephew, Your faithful and affectionate aunt, CAR. HERSCHEL.

P.S.—I beg my respects to ... Blumenbach, and I shall ever remember with many thanks the visit with which he honoured me when last at Hanover.

[Sidenote: 1824. _Visit from her Nephew._]

FROM MISS HERSCHEL TO LADY HERSCHEL.

HANOVER, _Oct. 14, 1824_.

MY DEAR LADY HERSCHEL,—

My dear nephew has now been gone a week, and I follow him in idea every inch he is moving farther from us, and think he must now be near the water. I am at this moment in the greatest panic imaginable, for we have had all the week much rain, and now it blows a perfect hurricane. I shall not send this till I have heard from you that the dear traveller is safely at home, for it would be cruel to augment your anxiety, which I know you are feeling till you see him again.

[Here follows a long history of the younger members of the Griesbach family, with details of the events of seventy years before.]

... I have not yet done, my dear Lady Herschel, and shall not be easy till I have given some little account of my brother’s [Dietrich’s] family, merely for yours and my dear nephew’s gratification; for, from his kind inquiries if I wanted anything? if he could do nothing for me? it seemed as if he thought he could not do enough for us. My answer was _nothing! nothing!_ and this I could say with truth, as at my age and situation (which is truly respectable) I should not know what to do with more without lavishing it on others, where it would only create habits of luxury and extravagance. The time of our dear nephew’s being here was too short for much confidential conversation, else I wished to have made him better acquainted with mine and my brother Dietrich’s sentiments concerning the noble bequest of our lamented brother, of which Dietrich had not the most distant hope or expectation (for I believe they never had any conversation on the subject), as I am sure his way of thinking is similar to mine, that brothers and sisters (such as we were), each beginning the world with _nothing_ but health and abilities for getting our bread, ought to feel shame at taking from the other if he should by uncommon exertion and perseverance have raised himself to affluence. According to this notion I refused my dear brother’s proposal (at the time he resolved to enter the married state) of making me independent, and desired him to ask the king for a small salary to enable me to continue his assistant. £50 were granted to me, with which I was resolved to live without the assistance of my brother; but when nine quarters were left unpaid I was obliged to apply to him, as he had charged me not to go to anyone else. In 1803, you and my brother insisted on my having £10 quarterly added to my income, which I certainly should not have accepted if I had not been in a panic for my friends at Hanover, which had just then been taken by the French.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: 1824. _Life in Hanover._]

FROM MISS HERSCHEL TO J. F. W. HERSCHEL.

HANOVER, _Nov. 1, 1824_.

DEAREST NEPHEW,—

Your welcome letter, dated Slough, Oct. 22nd, had not only the most beneficial effect on my spirits, but gave the greatest pleasure to the whole family, for I find Groskopf had been under great apprehension for your safety from the many reported accidents among the shipping on the English coasts. Count Münster, it is said, lies dangerously ill in consequence of the fright he suffered on his passage (his lady and his children were with him), and Groskopf imagined he must have left Calais at the same time with you. But, thank God, all is well! All I meet with lament your leaving us so soon. Gauss has been here, and they say he was quite inconsolable at having missed you. Hauptmann Müller was charged with compliments, which he intends to deliver himself if I will give him leave. To be sure! and Olbers, whom Dr. Mühry saw in Bremen, was sorry not to have seen you, as you had been so near. The Duke of Cambridge, whom Dietrich met in the street, asked about you, but we could not trace you farther than Antwerp. I believe half Hanover would have been gratified if you could have made a longer stay with us. Dr. Groskopf will one day come to England I am afraid, and talk you deaf; he is, however, a very good sort of man, and desires me to tell you that if you wanted any books you might command him, he would send you anything you wanted.

What gives me the most pleasure in reading over your letter, is your telling me that your dear mother is not in the least altered in her looks, and that she has been so considerate as to give me in her own handwriting the assurance that you are _extremely_ well. That I may yet often hear the same, wishes your most affectionate aunt,

CAR. HERSCHEL.

P.S.—[To Lady Herschel].... My knowing so well to what noble purposes an experimental philosopher may use his fortune, it would make me very unhappy if my dear nephew was cramped in his. And if I could do any good by relinquishing my annuity I would leave Hanover and live on my pension in the country most willingly, and am only sorry that I have no other means of showing the care and affection I have for my dear nephew. But I beg no other notice may be taken of all I have written than often—when my nephew or yourself cannot write—to inform me by the hand of Miss B—— of all your joys and sorrows, that I may, though at this distance, sympathise with the same.

If my nephew cannot be easily supplied with the Berliner Jahrbuch, I beg he will let me know, for I have got them by me, and can send them by the messenger in January.

* * * * *

FROM J. F. W. HERSCHEL TO MISS HERSCHEL.

LONDON, _December, 1824_.

DEAR AUNT,—

My mother and self received your welcome letter, and so far from finding, as you seem to fear, the details you enter into tedious, I assure you we found them highly interesting. The sacrifices you have individually made for your family are above all praise. It would ill become me, who am a rich man (I mean in that sense only in which any man can truly be called rich,—having enough to satisfy all my moderate and rational wants), to deprive you of any, the smallest part of your income. On the contrary, it would rather be my duty, were it insufficient, to add to it, but the account you give of your situation, corroborated as it is by what I have myself seen of it, sets at rest all apprehensions on that score.

* * * * *

I hope the Catalogue of Nebulæ goes on as you wish. I shall have little time now for astronomical observations, being become a resident in London in consequence of taking on myself the duties of Secretary to the Royal Society.

* * * * *

I have sent the lenses you wished for, and also two prints of the king and queen of the Sandwich Islands, which I would be much obliged to you if you would transmit to Prof. Blumenbach, with my compliments. They are the best that have appeared, and are considered striking likenesses.

[Sidenote: 1825. _Life in Hanover._]

MISS HERSCHEL TO J. F. W. HERSCHEL.

HANOVER, _Jan. 14, 1825_.

MY DEAREST NEPHEW,—

* * * * *

I am now writing out the Catalogue of Nebulæ, and am at zone 30°, and hope to finish it for the Easter messenger; but my health is so wretched that I often am obliged to lay by for a day or two. Dr. Groskopf desires his compliments, and I am to tell you that when next you come to Hanover again he can not only procure you a sight of Leibnitz’s MS., but leave to take some home with you. I am in quest of a good print of Leibnitz for you, and hope soon to hear of one, which shall accompany Dr. Franklin’s, which Dietrich lately found among his music.

Graf Rapfstein brought me lately the _Moniteur_ of December, containing the history of your dear father’s life, as read in June, etc., at full length. It is the only copy of the Court paper coming here at Hanover to the French Ambassador, and I was obliged to return it to the same; but Groskopf has promised to procure these copies from Paris, that we may all have one. Miss Beckedorf read it to me by way of translation, and we both cried over it, and could not withhold a tear of gratitude to the author for having so feelingly adhered to truth in the details of your dear father’s discoveries, etc....

But if I have understood Miss B.’s translation right I could point out three instances where too great a stress is laid on the assistance of others, which withdraws the attention too much from the difficulties your father had to surmount.

(1.) The favours of monarchs ought to have been mentioned, but once would have been enough.

(2 & 3.) Of Alexander and me can only be said that we were but tools, and did as well as we could; but your father was obliged first to turn us into those tools with which we could work for him; but if too much is said in one place let it pass; I have, perhaps, deserved it in another by perseverance and exertions beyond female strength! Well done!

With compliments to all friends, particularly Mr. and Mrs. Babbage,

I remain, my dearest nephew, Yours most affectionately, CAR. HERSCHEL.

Poor Sir William Watson! [whose death had lately been announced to her.]

MISS HERSCHEL TO J. F. W. HERSCHEL.

HANOVER, _March 7, 1825_.

The birthday of my dear nephew! who I wish may enjoy in health and prosperity many returns of this day. I will drink your health, and on the 16th of this month you may return the compliment, for then I shall have completed my seventy-fifth year.

I received the parcel, not till the last day of February, which contained your letter of December 4th, with the prints of the King and Queen, which I delivered to the Regierungsrath B——, to forward to his father at Göttingen.

The first part of your letter is filled with expressions of the most feeling kindness towards me, and I will pass them over without attempting to describe what I felt on reading the same, and merely for yours and your dear mother’s satisfaction I will answer as in the way of business all you wished to know. November 22nd I received the £50 Lady H. paid over for me to Mr. Goltermann, for which I returned the day after (23rd) the formal receipt in a letter to your mother, and hope it may not have been lost (for I generally write what comes uppermost).... I am ready with the Catalogue of Nebulæ, and have only to write, _not a Preface_, for I shall write what I have to say at the end.... I wish, in case you were not on the spot to receive the box from Mr. Goltermann yourself, you would before you left town beg Mr. G. to keep it _till you called for it yourself_; for I must confess that from the day I let the _eight manuscript books and catalogue of Nebulæ, and catalogue of stars_ drawn out of the eight books of sweeps, go out of my hands, I shall have no peace till I know they are safe in _your own_, where they ought to be. If you can think of anything else I can send you, I beg you will let me know, for a large parcel is no more trouble than a lesser one to put up. But I shall write again when I have packed up the box, and if you still wish for relics of your dear father’s hand-writing, I have a great mind to part with his pocket-book (_to you only_), which he used before we left Bath. There are only a few pencil memoranda, but they show that music did not _only_ occupy his thoughts, but that timber for the erection of the thirty-foot telescope of which the casting of the mirror was pretty far advanced was thought of.

But now I must say a few words to your dear mother, but I wish soon to hear that you have received this, and also a letter I sent from here on the 14th January. I hope it is not lost.

I am not very well pleased with my English, but have no time to write what I have to say over again, but this I hope you will be able to understand—that

I am Ever your most affectionate aunt, CAR. HERSCHEL.

FROM MISS HERSCHEL TO LADY HERSCHEL.

HANOVER, _March 8, 1825_.

MY DEAR LADY HERSCHEL,—

I received your letter of the 4th December, and it relieved me of much anxiety I felt from a fear that the subject of my long letter of November 8th might have injured me in your or my nephew’s opinion, and I had nothing to console me in this uncertainty, but a line from Mr. Goltermann that he had seen you in good health and received £50 from you, which I received the 22nd November here at Hanover, and sent my thanks and the usual receipt the next day. But still I remained in uncertainty, till by a letter from Miss B. of 15th December, you kindly sent me your thanks for the very letters which caused me such fears.

But it grieves me you should yourself take the trouble of writing to me; the least kind expression from you dictated to Miss B. is sufficient to make me happy for many days after. I hope she will not be taken from you again for a long time, for she is the most cheerful companion in health and consoling one in sickness you could have about you.

I was sorry to hear by a letter from Mr. H. Griesbach to my brother that you had had another attack of the gout, but God grant I may hear soon it may have been of short duration. Daily we come to hear of the departure of a friend or some one we know, but at our time of life it cannot be otherwise, for many of those we knew were older than ourselves, and it is painful to see when we at last are left to stand (or lie) alone, which is often the case with a single person; for no attention can equal or be more cheering than what comes from the heart of an affectionate child. But no more of this; if we must grieve, there is the comfort we shall not grieve much longer.

The death of my eldest nephew I lament sincerely, for he was deserving to have enjoyed the prosperity of his children some years longer, but by a letter I had from Miss G. I was gratified to know that they had found (for the present) so noble a support from the King and from the excellent Countess of Harcourt. As to the exit of poor F. Griesbach, it gave me more joy than pain; for nothing but the grave could relieve him from wretchedness; and nothing but that would rouse his posterity to a sense of their duty, which is to work for an honest livelihood; even the youngest is old enough to do so, and I hope to hear that they may awake from their dreams of commissions in the army and midshipmen in the navy. The lot of the children of a poor musician and descendants of a menial servant (even to a king) is not to look too high, but trust to his own good behaviour and serving faithfully those who can employ them; then they will not want encouragement.

This is the way I compose myself, for help I cannot anybody any longer, and it hurts me, for I am too feeble to think much of these kind of things. The 4th April goes the messenger, and my nephew will receive my handy works and a few little publications. I have yet some publications to make which will take me some time, to go with the catalogue: and then I shall have nothing to put me in mind of the hours I spent with my dear brother at the telescopes, and for that reason I keep the five printed vols. of my brother’s papers, and read them over once more before I send them to my nephew, and besides, it would be too much at once, for books are heavy.

Farewell, my dear Lady H., and remember me to Miss B., who, I hope, will be good to me and write often to

Your affectionate sister, CAR. HERSCHEL.

P.S.—Mr. H—— is released from his plague, for his wife is dead.

[Sidenote: 1825. _Catalogue of Nebulæ._]

MISS HERSCHEL TO J. F. W. HERSCHEL.

HANOVER, _March 27, 1825_.

MY DEAR NEPHEW,—

I hope the MS. Catalogue of Nebulæ and that of the stars, which have been observed in the series of sweeps along with the eight volumes from which they have been drawn out, will not unfrequently be of use to you.

The gauges were brought immediately after observations into a book called “Register of Star Gauges,” which was kept with the “Register of Sweeps.” Observations and remarks on various subjects will often be found as memorandums, made during or at the end of a sweep, to which the general index may serve as a direction—as for instance under the head of zodiacal lights—the index points out twelve different sweeps in which they were observed.

N.B.—Let it be remembered that the memorandums in the transcript of the sweeps between ||——|| are mine, and must be confided in accordingly.

At the end of the Catalogue of Nebulæ I have put a list of memorandums to the catalogue of omitted stars, and index to Flamsteed’s Observations, contained in his second vol. They are properly not all to be called errata, but mem. of errors, which could only be solved by later observations, &c., &c.

* * * * *

All your father’s papers from the Phil. Trans., which are bound in five volumes, and in which I have carried all corrections (in the Catalogues of Nebulæ) I could find, I must keep a little longer, but they shall come safe to your hands—along with Bode’s and Wollaston’s catalogues, when my eyes have robbed me of the pleasure of reading—for which misfortune I am in daily fear.

I am, dear nephew, Yours affectionately, C. HERSCHEL.

[Sidenote: 1825. _Life in Hanover._]

FROM J. F. W. HERSCHEL TO MISS HERSCHEL.

_April 18, 1825._

DEAR AUNT,—

I received this afternoon your most valuable packet containing your labours of the last year, which I shall prize, and more than prize—shall use myself, and make useful to others. A week ago I had the twenty-foot directed on the nebulæ in Virgo, and determined afresh the right ascensions and polar distances of thirty-six of them. These curious objects (having now nearly finished the double stars) I shall now take into my especial charge—nobody else can see them. I hope very soon (in a fortnight or three weeks) to be able to transmit to you and to MM. Gauss and Harding our work (Mr. South’s and my own) on the double stars, in which you will find some of my father’s most interesting discoveries placed beyond the reach of doubt. It will contain measures of the position and distance of 380 double stars. But Mr. South, who is an industrious astronomer (almost as much so as yourself), has just sent me complete and accurate measures of 279 more, making in all 659. Among these we have now verified not less than seventeen connected in binary systems in the way pointed out by my father, and twenty-eight at least in which no doubt of a material change having taken place can exist. M. Struve, at Dorpat, and M. Amici, in Italy, have also taken up the subject of double stars, and are prosecuting it with vigour.

I am particularly obliged to you for my father’s letters and pocket-book—they are to me a real treasure. The style of the _Éloge_ in the _Moniteur_ is very inferior to what I expected from Fourier; but on the whole it contains nothing materially untrue. The publications enclosed were very acceptable. I wish my uncle had not confined himself to a mere catalogue of insects, but had told us a little of their habits. Of Leibnitz’s MSS. more hereafter....

The _mettwursts_ are excellent. The packets to my mother and Mary shall be sent....

Your affectionate nephew, J. F. W. HERSCHEL.

MISS HERSCHEL TO J. F. W. HERSCHEL.

HANOVER, _May 3, 1825_.

MY DEAR NEPHEW,—

I must content myself with only writing a few lines by way of thanking you for your very interesting letter, which has taken all the care from my mind which I felt for the fate of the MS.

Before the box left Hanover, I received a very kind letter from Hofrath Blumenbach, in which was one enclosed to you; I hope it is come to hand, though I am still in doubt about your direction, and for that reason kept the letter near a fortnight before I parted with it.

You give me hope of receiving some of your and Mr. South’s works for Gauss and Harding. I know no way of sending them than through Mr. Goltermann by the quarterly messenger, and that it will be well for you to make some inquiry beforehand about the time he is likely to leave England.

The Duke of Cambridge will, within a month, be in England; perhaps you will meet with him; he is a great admirer of you. Last Saturday, between the acts of the concert, he asked me many questions about you. I wish I had had your letter two days sooner, I should then have known better how to answer him. He enquired if you were much engaged with astronomy? I said you were a deep mathematician, which embraced all, &c., ... then he asked if you studied chemistry? answer, very much! you had built yourself a laboratorium at Slough, had a house in town for three years, was secretary of the Royal Society, would probably, in the vacation, be at Slough, &c., &c., and in return he told me that he heard from everybody you were a very learned philosopher; and if I tell you that the Duke of Cambridge is the favourite of all who know him, I think I have made you acquainted with one another.

My brother intends soon to write a few words about insects himself, which is almost the only object with which he _amuses_ himself. It is well he does not see the word _amuses_, for I suppose it should be _sublime study_, for whenever he catches a fly with a leg more than usual, he says it is as good as catching a comet! Do you think so?

Perhaps I may have soon an opportunity of sending by Mr. Quintain a German translation of Baron Fourier’s “Forlesung.” I must examine first if I have the whole or not; it does not seem bad, but as I do not understand French, which I had only read to me by Miss Beckedorff, I can be no judge; but I think you will not be displeased with it; but at the ending they have not mended it, for it also says _I_ had published all your father’s papers, though nobody will or does believe that; still I would rather that nothing at all had been said about me than say the thing which is impossible; and I shall only fare like Bruce when he pretended to have made the drawings to his publications himself; his having wrote the book, or even having been in Abyssinia, was disbelieved.

I must only add that I am, my dearest nephew,

Your affectionate aunt, CAR. HERSCHEL.

MISS HERSCHEL TO HERR HOFRATH UND RITTER GAUSS.

HANOVER, _Sept. 8, 1825_.

SIR,

I am almost at a loss how to express my thanks sufficiently for the kind visit with which you honoured me when last in Hanover, for not only the wish of seeing the man of whom I so often had heard my late brother speak in the highest terms of admiration has been at last gratified, but I flatter myself of having found in you, sir, a friend who will do me the kindness of presenting the works of Flamsteed (published in 1725, with my Index to the Observations contained in his second volume) to the Royal Observatory of the Royal Academy of Göttingen.

The regret I feel at the separation from books which have afforded me so many days interesting employment will be greatly softened by knowing that, referring to the memorandums in the margin of the pages in Flamsteed’s second volume, much time may yet be saved to any astronomer who wishes to consult former observations, and therefore I hope you will pardon the trouble I am thus giving you, and, with the greatest esteem, believe me,

Sir, Your most obliged and humble servant, CAROLINE HERSCHEL.

[Sidenote: 1825. _Declining health of her Brother._]

MISS HERSCHEL TO J. F. W. HERSCHEL.

HANOVER, _Sept. 20, 1825_.

* * * * *

... I know not how it comes that I am so barren of subjects for filling up these pages; my spirits are rather depressed at present on account of my brother’s health, who suffers very frequently much from weakness, so that to combat against infirmities and peevishness (the usual companions of old age) depends entirely on my exertion to bear my share without communication, for unfortunately we are never in the same mind, and with a nervous person of an irritable temper one can only talk of the weather or the flavour of a dish, for which I care not a pin about. But I think I shall do well enough, for I am a subscriber to the plays for two evenings per week, and Thursdays and Saturdays two ladies with long titles are _at home_. This is what they _imagine_ (I believe) a learned society, or blue-stocking club, of which, to make it complete (for all what I can say), I must make one. I am to have a day too, viz., Tuesday, and I begin to tremble for the end of October, when we are to start, for in the morning I cannot work, and if I gad about all the evenings nothing will be done. But we shall see! one thing I must not forget, there are no gentlemen of the party to set us right; but luckily not much is required,—to talk of Walter Scott, Byron, &c., will go a long way; and I subscribe to an English library, where they have all the monthly reviews and Edinburgh Quarterly, Scott’s works, and a few other novels....

Believe me yours affectionately, C. HERSCHEL.

[Sidenote: 1825. _J. F. W. Herschel—Gold Medal._]

FROM J. F. W. HERSCHEL TO MISS HERSCHEL.

SLOUGH [_after July_], 1825.

DEAR AUNT,—

I have sent by Mr. Goltermann several volumes of Mr. South’s and my paper on double stars, which form the third part of the Philosophical Transactions for 1824. You will, I have no doubt, be gratified to hear that the French Academy of Sciences have thought so well of this work as to give us the prize of astronomy for the present year (a large and handsome gold medal to each of us). Our competitors, it is whispered, were Bessel, Struve, and Pons, the first for his immense catalogue of stars; the second for his observations, also of double stars; the third for his discovery of twenty or thirty comets. Will you, on receiving them, distribute them as follows:—1. Keep the bound copy for yourself; 2. My uncle; 3. M. Harding; 4. M. Gauss; 5. The Royal Society of Göttingen. The three last, I have no doubt, M. Blumenbach will forward. I was gratified some time back by a short note from Professor Blumenbach, from which I find he received the pictures safely.

* * * * *

I have already found your Catalogue of Nebulæ in zones, very useful in my twenty-foot sweeps, and I mean to get it in order for publication by degrees; but it will take a long time, as it will require a great deal of calculation to render it available as a work of reference.

The permission to examine Leibnitz’s MSS. will be very acceptable to me should I again visit Hanover, but of that I have no immediate prospect. A very intimate friend of mine, Mr. James Grahame, talks of taking up his residence at Göttingen for the sake of the library of the University. He is writing a history of America. I shall give him a letter to Professor Blumenbach, and shall beg you to introduce him to his son, Regierungsrath B., and perhaps Dr. Groskopf will make him acquainted with Dr. Koch, of the Royal Library at Hanover, who may be able to assist him in his researches.... If there is anything in England you wish for, or that you cannot get so well in Hanover, pray name it, and I will make a point of procuring it....

J. F. W. HERSCHEL TO MISS HERSCHEL.

DEVONSHIRE STREET, _Dec. 30, 1825_.

* * * * *

I have not been doing much in the astronomical way of late—but, _en revanche_, Mr. South has been hard at work, and has sent a second paper of 460 double stars to the Royal Society. He is returned from Paris, and is now busy erecting an observatory, as he means to stay six months in England, and cannot be so long without star-gazing. I enclose a little thing which I published in Schumacher’s _Astronomische Nachrichten_ which may interest you. Shortly I shall have the pleasure to transmit you some papers on the longitude of Paris, and on the parallax of the fixed stars, which I have now in hand. Do not suppose that I pretend to have discovered parallax, but if it exists to a sensible amount, I think it cannot long remain undiscovered if anybody can be found to put into execution the method I am about to propose, and I hope it will be taken up by astronomers in general.

I have so far perfected the system of sweeping with the twenty-foot that I can now make sure of the polar distances of objects to within 1ʹ, and their right ascensions to certainly within 2ʺ of time. I have re-observed a great many of the nebulæ, and in the course of the few sweeps I have made, have discovered many not in your most useful catalogue. But I am now fixed in town for the winter, and have brought up the said catalogue to consider of the best mode of preparing it for publication, if it meets with your approbation.

Mr. South’s later observations strikingly confirm the results obtained by us jointly respecting the revolving stars, and afford new and very remarkable instances in support of my father’s ideas on this subject. Of one pair (the double star ξ Ursa Majoris) I have no doubt we shall soon obtain elliptic elements.

[Sidenote: 1825. _Letter from Professor Gauss._]

The following is the answer from Professor Gauss to the letter already given:—

DEAR MADAM,—

Being returned hither a few days ago from a journey that had kept me absent during a month, I found your favour of September 8th, together with your extremely valuable present of Flamsteed’s “Hist. Cœl.,” “Atlas Cœl.,” and your own catalogue. Be assured that I acknowledge your kindness with the most sincere gratitude, and that these works, so precious by themselves, but much more so by the numerous enrichments from your own hand, shall always be considered as the greatest ornament of the library of our Observatory.

I am very sorry that my absence from Göttingen has deprived me of the pleasure of seeing Mr. Grahame, who was calling upon me the same day I had set out for my journey. However, I am glad to understand from your nephew’s letter, which Mr. Grahame has left here, that this gentleman intends to return to Göttingen in the next year.

I cannot express how much I feel happy of having made the personal acquaintance [of one] whose rare zeal and distinguished talents for science are paralleled by the amiability of her character, and I flatter myself that in future, if I find once more an opportunity of staying in Hanover, I shall not be denied the permission to repeat personally the assurance of the high esteem with which I am,

Dear Madam, Your most obliged humble servant, CHARLES FREDERICK GAUSS.

GÖTTINGEN, _Sept. 28, 1825_.