lves that
they were invited to London to conduct the Philharmonic accompaniments.
They were Carl Maria von Weber, who had just brought out his brilliant
opera, "Der Freischuetz," and Ludwig Spohr, who performed in London his new
Symphony in D minor. Of other composers there were Franz Schubert, whose
melodious songs and symphonies won him the recognition of the Esterhazys
and of Beethoven. Among those whose career was but beginning were Jacob
Meyerbeer, a fellow pupil with Weber under Abbe Vogler at Vienna, and Felix
Mendelssohn, the precocious pupil of the famous pianist Moscheles.

[Sidenote: Death of Herschel]

Sir Frederick William Herschel, the greatest modern astronomer, died at
Slough in England. Herschel was born in 1738 at Hanover. He was a musician
of rare skill and a self-taught mathematician of great ability. In 1757, he
deserted the band of Hanoverian Guards in which he played the oboe,
although a mere boy, and fled to England, where he taught music and
achieved success as a violinist and organist. His studies in sound and
harmony led him to take up optics; and from optics to astronomy the step
was short. Dissatisfied with the crude instruments of his time, he made his
own telescopes; for it was his ambition to be not a mere star-gazer, but an
earnest student of the heavens. By day, he and his brother and sister
ground specula; by night he observed the heavens. His astronomical work
includes a careful study of variable stars; an attempt to explain the
relation of sun-spots to terrestrial phenomenae; the determination that the
periods of rotation of various satellites, like the rotation of our own
moon, are equal to the times of their revolutions about their primaries;
and the discovery of the planet Uranus and two of its satellites, and of
the sixth and seventh satellites of Saturn. His greatest work was his study
of binary stars and the demonstration of his belief that the law of
gravitation is universal in its application. His labors were invariably
systematic, and were characterized by dogged, Teutonic perseverance. His
discoveries were never purely accidental, but were made in accordance with
a well-conceived plan.

[Sidenote: Death of Canova]

Late in the autumn news came from Venice that Canova, the celebrated
sculptor, had died. Antonio Canova was born in 1757 at Passaguo near
Treviso. He was first an apprentice to a statuary in Bassano, from whom he
went to the Academy of Venice, where he had a b