ing that
the victorious general or the daring seaman, the leader of a forlorn
hope, or the captain who goes down with his sinking ship, affords an
example worthier of imitation than the patient, watchful, enthusiastic
astronomer or his devoted sister. _His_, they will say, was a noble
life. Be it so; but every life is noble which is spent in the path of
duty. Do what comes to your hand to do with all honesty and
completeness, and you will make _your_ life noble. Subdue your passions,
master your evil thoughts, observe the laws of temperance and purity, be
truthful, be firm, be honest, and keep ever before you the law of Christ
as the law of your daily work, and you will make _your_ life noble. We
cannot all be great commanders or daring captains, we cannot all be
distinguished men of science; but we can all be righteously-living men,
endeavouring to raise others by our example, and it is a higher aim to
live purely than to live successfully. We cannot all command the
success, just as we do not all enjoy the intellectual powers, of a
Herschel; but we can emulate the industry and perseverance of the
astronomer, we can copy the devoted affection and self-denial of his
sister. The sorriest mistake of which men can be guilty,--yet it is a
mistake which has clouded many lives,--is to suppose that duty is less
imperative in its claims on the humble and unknown than on men raised or
born to eminent position. Let it be understood and remembered that each
one of us can rise to a standard of true heroism, by cultivating the
graces of the Christian character, and doing the work which God has
appointed.

* * * * *

Sir John Herschel returned to England in 1838, and in July of the same
year he and his little son paid a visit to Miss Herschel. It is
characteristic that her intense anxiety as to the proper treatment of
her little grand-nephew--his sleep, his food, his playthings--greatly
disturbed her peace. "I rather suffered him," she writes, "to hunger,
than would let him eat anything hurtful; indeed, I would not let him eat
anything at all unless his papa was present." Her biographer remarks,
that great as was her joy to see once more almost the only living being
upon whom she poured some of that wealth of affection with which her
heart never ceased to overflow, yet it was on the disappointments and
shortcomings of those few days, those precious days, that she chiefly
dwelt; and the abrupt terminati