d
not end here. She was herself an astronomer, and an original observer.
At times her brother was enabled to dispense with her attendance. You
would suppose that such leisure nights she would gladly give up to rest.
Not she. Her brother might, at some unforeseen moment, require her aid,
and consequently she preferred to be close at hand. A seven-foot
telescope planted on the lawn helped to while away the hours of waiting;
and it was to the occupation of these hours that science owed the
discovery of the comet of 1786, of the comet of 1788, of the comet of
1791, of the comet of 1793, and of that of 1795, now connected with the
name of Encke. Many, also, of the nebulae contained in Sir William
Herschel's catalogues were detected by her keen and accurate gaze during
these nights of lonely observation. Indeed, as South remarked, when
looking at the joint-labours of these two enthusiasts, we scarcely know
whether the warmer praise should be given to the intellectual might of
the brother or the ardent industry of the sister.

In 1797, continued her eulogist, she presented to the Royal Society a
catalogue of 560 stars, taken from Flamsteed's observations, the exact
positions of which had not been previously defined.

Soon after the death of him to whom she had given up so much of her
life, her best energies, and her ripest faculties, she returned to
Hanover,--unwilling, however, to relinquish the astronomical researches
which had been so pure and permanent a source of pleasure. She undertook
and completed the laborious "reduction" or registration of the places of
2500 nebulae, down to the 1st of January 1800; thus presenting in one
view the results of all the observations Sir William Herschel had made
upon those wonderful bodies, and triumphantly bringing to a close half a
century of scientific toil.

* * * * *

We return to Miss Herschel's biography, in order to gather up a few
particulars of her last years, and to exhibit some of the tenderer
features of her character.

On the occasion of her nephew's marriage, in 1829, she wrote to him in
the following terms:--

"MY DEAREST NEPHEW,--I have spent four days in vain endeavours
to gain composure enough to give you an idea of the joyful
sensation your letter of February 5th has caused me. But I can
at this present moment find no words which would better express
my happiness than those which escaped in exclamation f