CAROLINE HERSCHEL.*
-Jun. two years have elapsed since we were called upon to notice the "personal recollections from youth to old age" of a very re- markable woman, one whose name, notwithstanding the humility which was her distinctive characteristic, is in the mouth of every -one, and whose works are our familiar household companions; and when we now- peruse the history of the life and labours of another and yet more distinguished sarante, it is impossible not to recall Mary Somerville, and instinctively to draw some comparison between the two somewhat similar and yet very different lives, which in their separate grooves were running their course at the same time, were extended to a period much exceeding the ordinary span, and terminated within a few years of each other, leaving behind them in each case solid memorials of untiring industry and zealous devotion to the cause of science. The most superficial glance at our subject discovers to us at the outset a remarkable difference in the motive-power which turned two modest, homely young women, one of whom gained her early education under the severe regimen of a Scottish country boarding-school, and the other, denuded of all teaching save • Memoir and Correspondence of Carolise Herschel. By Mrs. John Herschel. London: John Murray. that of the arts of housewifery, learned as a mere child to work and suffer in a German town, into earnest Mowers of science ; for Caroline Lucretia Herschel was before all things the devoted sister, studying music, as she learned cookery and needle-work, in order to make herself an efficient helper instead of a burden in her family, and learning to "mind the heavens" for her brother just on the same principle as she afterwards per- mitted herself to be drilled for a gentlewoman at the rate of two lessons per week for a whole twelvemonth, from Miss Fleming, "the celebrated dancing-mistress ;" while Mary Somerville," the Rose of Jedwood," not called in the spring-time of her youth to any special self-devotion, was able, without neglecting her en- joyments, to slake her vehement thirst for knowledge at many sources, and to attain those varied acquirements which afterwards made her the friend or acquaintance of almost every distinguished man of science, and in particular the intimate associate of Sir John Herschel. If the life of Mary Somerville was of remarkable interest, this sister-biography, if one may use such an expression, is by no means its inferior; being a singular record of obstacles surmounted by perseverance and the most determined and un- conquerable self-devotion, distinguished also by a quaintness all its own, and rendered extremely entertaining by its picturesque sketches of home and foreign life and manners ; while, as an unconscious character-portrait, the autobiographical portion is in itself a charming study ; so that the modestly deprecatory nature of the editorial introduction, while it perhaps enhances our appre- ciation of its merits, will be seen to be quite uncalled for. The troubles of the Seven-years War cast their shadow over the child- ish days of the little Caroline, whose father and brothers, being musicians in the Guards, were naturally compelled to accompany the Hanoverian Army, until William's delicacy of constitution and Isaac Herschers broken health occasioned, first, the evasion of the one, and then the retirement of the other; the father devoting himself in his native town to the profession of music, in which science he was a proficient, and in which he carefully trained his younger children, and William, the second and subsequently so distinguished son, pursuing a like vocation in England. Even during her childish days the affection of Caroline for this brother was especially remarkable, so that it is not surprising that she should have been willing, at a later period, when set free by the death of her much-loved father and by the consent of her mother from the necessity of continuing her household labours, to leave her own country and accompany him to his adopted home.
That Caroline's deficiency of education was neither her own choice, nor caused by any incapacity on her part for receiving instruction, is proved, not merely by her subsequent life, but by the many passages in the "Recollections" in which she so bitterly deplores her enforced ignorance; an ignorance which appears to have partly resulted from the erroneous notion entertained by Mrs. Herschel that nothing more was necessary for a woman than that she should be an efficient sempstress and a capable haus- frau; while that lady also attributed to the misfortune of the pos- session of too much learning her enforced separation from some of her sons. Caroline, however, says of herself that she "could not bear the idea of being turned into an Abigail or a housemaid," and she relates the exertions which she made not only to obtain time for becoming an adept in all possible varieties of fancy needlework, but also, whenever she could do so unheard, in exer- cising her voice by practising the solo parts of concertos, so that she might become a useful assistant to her brother, who at that time resided in Bath, and was not only the fashionable music-master of the season, but had also established a successful series of winter concerts and oratorios. These praiseworthy efforts resulted in Miss Herschel's becoming for a time William's first treble singer and the efficient instructress of his female per- formers, indeed so much were her accomplishments appreciated that she was offered an engagement for the Birmingham Festival. But other avocations were soon to claim her attention, and in 1782 the brother and sister played and sang in public for the last time, in St. Margaret's Chapel. "The name of William Herschel," says the editor of those interesting memoirs, "was fast becoming famous as a writer, a discoverer, and the possessor and inventor of instruments of unheard-of power. He was now about to be released from the necessity of devoting the time to music which he was eager to give to astronomical science," and Caroline, whose abilities in that line had already been pretty severely tested, "was to be trained for an assistant-astronomer." Little perhaps did she then imagine that she would soon be the discoverer of eight comets, as well as of several nebulre ; and when she did achieve such, for a woman, remarkable pm-eminence, she never seems to have experienced the smallest degree of
elation, but always evinces a jealousy for the honour of her brother, which makes her shrink from any personal recog- nition. "Whoever says too much of me," she says, in writing to Sir John Herschel on the occasion of the .reception of the gold medal of the Astronomical Society, "says too little of your father ;" and in a letter of December 5, 1826, she remarks, "1 was a mere tool, which he had the trouble, of • sharpening, and to adapt for the purpose he wanted it, for lack of a better. A little praise is very comfortable, and I feel confident of having deserved it, for my patience and perseverance, but none for great abilities or knowledge." And yet the history of her work proves that she must have been endowed with a large amount of receptivity, joined to an intense power of sympathy, and an energy which nothing could overcome. The following is the description given by her biographer of this devoted woman :—
"She stood beside her brother, William Herschel, sharing his labours, helping his life. In the days when he gave up a lucrative career that he might devote himself to astronomy, it was owing to her thrift and care that he was not harassed by the rankling vexations of money matters. She had been his helper and assistant in the days when he was a leading musician ; she became his helper and assistant when he gave himself up to astronomy. By sheer force of will and devoted affec- tion, she learned enough of mathematics and of methods of calculation, which to the unlearned seem mysteries, to be able to commit to writing the results of his researches. She became his assistant in the workshop; she helped him to grind and polish his mirrors; she stood beside his telescope in the nights of mid-winter, to write down his observa- tions, when the very ink was frozen in the bottle. She kept him alive by her care, thinking nothing of herself ; she lived for him. She loved him, and believed in him, and helped him, with all her heart and with all her strength. She might have become is distinguished woman on her own account, for with the seven-foot Newtonian sweeper' given to her by her brother, she discovered eight comets, first and last. But the pleasure of seeking and finding for her- self was scarcely tasted. She 'minded the heavens' for her brother ; she worked for him, not for herself, and the unconscious self-denial with which she gave up her own pleasure in the use of her ' sweeper ' is not the least beautiful feature in her life. She must have been witty and amusing, to judge from her books of 'Recollections.' When past eighty, she wrote what she called a little history of my life from 1772 to 1778,' for her nephew, Sir John Herschel, the son of her brother William, that he might know something of his excellent grand-parents, as well as of the immense difficulties which his father had to surmount in his life and labours. It was not to tell about herself, but of others, that she wrote them."
But Caroline Herschel is, as her biographer says, a person worth knowing ; and when we look at her portrait at the age of ninety-two, with its broad, well-developed forehead, vivacious eyes, and mouth so indicative of firmness, decision, and good- temper, we can easily imagine her to have been a charming mix- ture of gravity and sprightliness, by turns joyous and serious, as her sympathetic nature drew its influences from her companions and surroundings, and are not very greatly surprised at the strange feat which Dr. Groskopf says she performed in one of her merry moods when she was eighty-eight or eighty-nine, namely, that of putting her foot behind her back and scratching her ear with it, in imitation of a dog ! It is melancholy, however, to think of the habitual state of solitude and sorrow of her last twenty- four years, from the period when, having lost her beloved brother and cherished companion, she made haste to escape from England, where so many happy, although toilsome hours had been spent, and returned to the home of her childhood, only to find everything changed, and the whole atmosphere out of harmony with her most cherished sympathies. Her relatives could pride themselves indeed upon their close con- nection with the illustrious astronomer, but they could not look with veneration upon the noble qualities which so endeared him to those who really knew him ; and Miss Herschel herself seems to have been in general considered—although, with the excep- tion of a few brief and bitter outbursts, she rarely alludes to the subject—more as a source of prospective gain to the household— than as the cherished relative, whose declining days it should have been the delight of its members to render happy. With Lady Herschel her sister-in-law, her son Sir John, and subsequently with his bride, the old lady kept up, so long as her failing powers permitted, a constant and affectionate correspondence ; and the visits of the nephew to Hanover, and Miss Herschel's warm interest in the brilliant discoveries and indefatigable labours of the latter, as well as in his youthful family, were the greatest solace of her later years. In Hanover, however, she was greatly respected, and re- ceived from the Landgriifin of Hesse Homburg (Princess Elizabeth of England), and from the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, kind and flattering marks of regard, while men of science vied with each other in paying her graceful attentions. This interesting book closes with an appendix, containing Caroline Herschel's epitaph, and what is much more worthy of notice, the truly characteristic inventory of her modest possessions in the Braunschweiger Strasse, the amount of which contrasts astonishingly with what would be considered necessary in the day in which we live.
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