ung
Hudson Gurney, who was nearly of his own age. One spring morning Young
came to breakfast in a bright green coat, and said in explanation of his
somewhat eccentric costume for one who had been a Quaker, that it was
suitable to the season. One day, on returning from their ride Gurney,
leaped his horse over the stable-yard gate. Young, trying to do the
same, was thrown; he got up, mounted, and made a second attempt with no
better success; the third time he kept his seat, then quietly
dismounting, he said, "What one man can do, another may."

* * * * *

One bright morning Dr. Wollaston came to pay us a visit in Hanover
Square, saying, "I have discovered seven dark lines crossing the solar
spectrum, which I wish to show you;" then, closing the window-shutters
so as to leave only a narrow line of light, he put a small glass prism
into my hand, telling me how to hold it. I saw them distinctly. I was
among the first, if not the very first, to whom he showed these lines,
which were the origin of the most wonderful series of cosmical
discoveries, and have proved that many of the substances of our globe
are also constituents of the sun, the stars, and even of the nebulae.
Dr. Wollaston gave me the little prism, which is doubly valuable, being
of glass manufactured at Munich by Fraunhofer, whose table of dark lines
has now become the standard of comparison in that marvellous science,
the work of many illustrious men, brought to perfection by Bunsen and
Kirchhoff.

* * * * *

Sir William Herschel had discovered that what appeared to be single
stars were frequently two stars in such close approximation that it
required a very high telescopic power to see them separately, and that
in many of these one star was revolving in an orbit round the other. Sir
James South established an observatory at Campden Hill, near Kensington,
where he and Sir John Herschel united in observing the double stars and
binary systems with the view of affording further data for improving our
knowledge of their movements. In each two observations are requisite,
namely, the distance between the two stars, and the angle of position,
that is, the angle which the meridian, or a parallel to the equator
makes with the lines joining the two stars. These observations were made
by adjusting a micrometer to a very powerful telescope, and were data
sufficient for the determination of the orbit of the revolving star,
s