Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 9.djvu/82

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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

raphy, which were to be sent to Sir John Herschel, the son of this new sister-in-law, she destroyed all her diary and records for the ten years immediately succeeding her brothers marriage. Her biographer and relative alludes to her experiences at this time in the following language:

"With saddened heart but unflagging determination she continued to work for her brother, but saw his domestic happiness pass into other keeping. It is not to be supposed, however, that a nature so strong and a heart so affectionate should accept the new state of things without much and bitter suffering. To resign the supreme place by her brother's side, which she had filled for sixteen years with such hearty devotion, could not he otherwise than painful in any case; but how much more so in this, where equal devotion to the same pursuit must have made identity of interest and purpose as complete as it is rare! One who could both feel and express herself so strongly was not likely to fall into her new place without some outward expression of what it cost her—tradition confirms the assumption—and it is easy to understand how this long, significant silence is due to the light of later wisdom and calmer judgment which counseled the destruction of all record of what was likely to be painful to survivors."

In reference to Herschel's marriage, a writer in the London Examiner says, "It is impossible to regret or censure the step which gave existence to his yet more remarkable son;" but this is a singular and tardy justification. In marrying, he did what it was highly probable he would do; and, remembering this, he should not have allowed his sister to live so entirely for him. It is not to be supposed, however, that he foresaw the unpleasant consequences that fell upon her. When the temptation to marry came, he no doubt stupidly fancied that in enriching his own life by this new relation he should add to her happiness by bringing her a sister; but, if he had studied the ways of men and women as he studied the heavens, he might have saved himself from such a delusion.

The work she did during the next ten years affords abundant evidence of the heroism with which Miss Herschel met her fate. Besides discovering seven more comets, she prepared "A Catalogue of 860 Stars observed by Flamsteed, but not included in the British Catalogue," and "A General Index of Reference to Every Observation of Every Star in the above-mentioned British Catalogue," both of which works were published by the Royal Society in 1798. She also spent much time upon another work which was not finished for many years. It was "The Reduction and Arrangement in the Form of a Catalogue, in Zones, of all the Star-Clusters and Nebulæ observed by Sir W. Herschel in his Sweeps." For this she received the gold medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1828, and it was pronounced by Sir David Brewster "a work of immense labor."

Some account of her discoveries was found in a packet wrapped in coarse paper, and labeled "This is what I call the bills and receipts of my comets." The separate parcels of this bundle were marked

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