So extraordinary was the ardour of this great astronomer in the study of his favourite science, that for many years it has been asserted, he never was in bed at any hour during which the stars were visible. And he made almost all his observations, whatever was the season of the year, not under cover, but in his garden, in the open air--and generally without an attendant. There was much that was peculiar to himself, not only in the process by which he fabricated his telescopes, but also in his manner of using them. One of the attendants in the king’s observatory at Richmond, who had formerly been a workman in Ramsden’s establishment, was forcibly reminded, on seeing Herschel take an observation, of a remark which his old master had made. Having just completed one of his best telescopes, Ramsden, addressing himself to his workman, said, “This, I believe, is the highest degree of perfection we opticians by profession will ever arrive at; if any improvement of importance shall ever after this be introduced in the making of telescopes, it will be by some one who has not been taught by us.” Some years before his death, the degree of LL.D. was conferred upon Herschel by the University of Oxford; and in 1816, the Prince Regent bestowed upon him the Hanoverian and Guelphic Order of Knighthood. He died on the 23rd of August, 1822, when he was within a few months of having completed his eighty-fourth year. We have been thus particular in the enumeration of particulars in the lives of those great men, who have cultivated this sublime science, for the purpose of availing ourselves of a suggestion furnished by Dr. Priestly, who observed, “That we could only see Newton in two points of his career: at the bottom of the ladder, and at the top; having left no account of his progress, it appeared as though he had broken the steps by which he had ascended, that none should follow.” From the facts collected by the many eminent men whose names have ornamented our pages, we are enabled to state the following particulars concerning that part of the universe denominated the Solar system. The _Sun_, a luminous body diffusing light and heat; whose diameter is computed at 890,000 miles; diurnal rotation on axis 25 days 6 hours; performs his annual revolution in orbit in 365 days 6 hours; progressive equatorial motion in orbit per hour, 3818 miles. _Mercury_, whose diameter is 3,000 miles, revolves in an orbit 36,481,448 miles from that of the sun. He performs his annual period round that planet in 87 days 23 hours; his hourly equatorial motion in orbit is 109,699 miles. _Venus_,--her diameter is 9,330 miles; revolves in an orbit 68,891,486 miles distant from the sun; performs her annual revolution in 224 days 17 hours; diurnal rotation on axis 24 days 8 hours: hourly equatorial motion in orbit 80,295 miles.