Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 September 1876 — Caroline Herschel. [ARTICLE]

Caroline Herschel.

The simple story of her life is as noble in its way as the more exalted history of his. From her earliest childhood she adored her brother William, and on the mere suggestion that she might be sent to England to remain two years with him, if only she could be spared from her duties at home, she set about knitting for her mother and brother “as many cotton stockings as would last two years at least,” and making “prospective clothes for them.” At last she went to Bath and became a successful singer in the oratorios conducted by her brother, copying music for him, “ lending a hand” in the workshop, in the observatory, anywhere where she could be of use, but always with the profoundest humility of spirit. “ I was a mere tool which he had the trouble of sharpening.” But the tool had the true temper. She acquired a knowledge of astronomical calculation, she assisted in the manufacture of specula, and was Herschel’s constant companion in the severe labors of observation which he undertook. When he was away from home she computed for him all day and minded the heavens for him at night, discovering independently no less than eight comets, five of which were first seen by her, and many nebulae. Best of all, though least conspicuous, she introduced the greatest order in the record of his nightly work, copying and re-copying, computing and recomputing, verifying ana checking everything, so that the value of that labor is immensely enhanced. Her devotion in everything was complete; after a severe accident to herself while assisting her brother at the telescope, she speaks of the “ comfort” she had in knowing that “ my brother w'as no loser, for the remainder of the night was cloudy.” Again, in her diary: “ May 3d. I intended to pay a long promised visit to Mrs. 0 , but found my brother too busy with putting the fortv-foot mirror in the tube. . . . Therefore I postponed my journey till I was sure I should not be wanted at home.” “ Jan. 1, 1815. Mem. The winter was uncommonly severe. My brother suffered from indisposition, and I, for my part, felt I should never be anything else but an invalid for life; but this I very carefully kept to myself, as I wished to' be useful to mv brother as long as possibly I could.” In 1819, a little note of Sir William’s is indorsed in her tremulous handwriting: “I keep this as a relic! Every line, now , traced by the hand of my dear brother—becomes a treasure to me.” She kept a commonplace book, in which she w rote out in full the answers which her brother gave her at breakfast, or in his few leisure moments, to her questions as to the mathematical formula she was to use in her computations, and the like. After her discoveries of comets, the publication of two of her works by the Royal Society, and the praise and recognition of her labors by astronomers sill over Europe, she still writes: “ I had the comfort to see that my brother was satisfied with my endeavors in assisting him.” —“ Recent Literature," in September Atlantic.