illustrious colleague,
did himself more honour than if he had come to one of the sittings
bringing in his portfolio the results of some fine scientific research?
Such noble actions are certainly worth good "Papers."

Affairs proceeded thus up to the revolution of the 18th Brumaire. On the
21st, the public criers were announcing everywhere, even in the street
de la Sourdiere, that General Bonaparte was Consul, and M. de Laplace
Minister of the Interior. This name, so well known by the respectable
widow, reached even the room that she inhabited, and caused her some
emotion. That same evening, the new minister (this was a noble
beginning, Gentlemen) asked for a pension of 2000 francs for Madame
Bailly. The Consul granted the demand, adding to it this express
condition, that the first half year should be paid in advance, and
immediately. Early on the 22d, a carriage stopped in the street de la
Sourdiere; Madame de Laplace descends from it, carrying in her hand a
purse filled with gold. She rushed to the staircase, runs to the humble
abode, that had now for several years witnessed irremediable sorrow and
severe misery; Madame Bailly was at the window: "My dear friend, what
are you doing there so early?" exclaimed the wife of the minister.
"Madam," replied the widow, "I heard the public crier yesterday, and I
was expecting you!"

If after having, from a sense of duty, expatiated upon anarchical,
odious, and sanguinary scenes, the historian of our civil discords has
the good fortune to meet on his progress with an incident that gratifies
the mind, raises the soul, and fills the heart with pleasing emotions,
he stops there, Gentlemen, as the African traveller halts in an oasis!

HERSCHEL.

William Herschel, one of the greatest astronomers that ever lived in any
age or country, was born at Hanover, on the 15th of November, 1738. The
name of Herschel has become too illustrious for people to neglect
searching back, up the stream of time, to learn the social position of
the families that have borne it. Yet the just curiosity of the learned
world on this subject has not been entirely satisfied. We only know that
Abraham Herschel, great-grandfather of the astronomer, resided at
Maehren, whence he was expelled on account of his strong attachment to
the Protestant faith; that Abraham's son Isaac was a farmer in the
vicinity of Leipzig; that Isaac's eldest son, Jacob Herschel, resisted
his father's earnest desire to see him