blished. The researches on the sun, on the "invisible rays" of heat,
on comets and nebulae--all these might have been made, printed, and read.

But these would have gone into the _Philosophical Transactions_ as the
work of an amateur astronomer, "Mr. HERSCHEL, of Bath." They would have
been praised, and they would have been doubted. It would have taken a
whole generation to have appreciated them. They would have been severely
tried, entirely on their merits, and finally they would have stood where
they stand to-day--unrivalled. But through what increased labors these
successes would have been gained! It is not merely that the patronage of
the king, the subsidies for the forty-foot telescope (L4,000), the
comparative ease of HERSCHEL'S life would have been lacking. It is more
than this. It would have been necessary for him to have created the
audience to which he appealed, and to have conquered the most persistent
of enemies--indifference.

Certainly, if HERSCHEL'S mind had been other than it was, the discovery
of _Uranus_, which brought him honors from every scientific society in
the world, and which gave him authority, might have had a hurtful
effect. But, as he was, there was nothing which could have aided his
career more than this startling discovery. It was needed for him. It
completed the solar system far more by affording a free play to a
profoundly philosophical mind, than by occupying the vacant spaces
beyond _Saturn_.

His opportunities would have been profoundly modified, though his
personal worth would have been the same.

"The Star that from the zenith darts its beams,
Visible though it be to half the earth,
Though half a sphere be conscious of its brightness,
Is yet of no diviner origin,
No purer essence, than the One that burns
Like an untended watchfire, on the ridge
Of some dark mountain; or than those that seem
Humbly to hang, like twinkling winter lamps,
Among the branches of the leafless trees."

To show how completely unknown the private astronomer of Bath was at
this time, I transcribe a sentence from BODE'S account of the discovery
of _Uranus_.

"In the _Gazette Litteraire_ of June, 1781, this worthy man is
called MERSTHEL; in JULIUS' _Journal Encyclopedique_, HERTSCHEL;
in a letter from Mr. MASKELYNE to M. MESSIER, HERTHEL; in another
letter of MASKELYNE'S to Herr MAYER, at Mannheim, HERRSCHELL; M.
DARQUIER calls him HERMSTEL. What m