I am amusing myself with having the seven-foot mounted by Hohenbaum, though I have not even a prospect of a window for a whole constellation, but it shall stand in my room and be my monument—as the forty-foot is yours. When Hohenbaum comes for a trifling direction, we generally do not separate till dinner, or some other interruption puts a stop to our conversation; for this man is never tired when speaking of your father’s inventful imaginations and the readiness with which everything was executed. I have not above six hours’ tolerable ease out of the twenty-four, and not one hour’s sleep, and yet I wish to live a little longer, that I might make you a more correct catalogue of the 2,500 nebulæ, which is not even begun, but hope to be able to make it my next winter’s amusement. I was much pleased with the partial success of Mr. Babbage in having something granted towards going on with his _grand_ ideas. With many compliments and best wishes, &c., Your most affectionate aunt, CAR. HERSCHEL. [Sidenote: 1824. _Her Nephew on the Continent._] FROM J. F. W. HERSCHEL TO MISS HERSCHEL. CATANIA (SICILY), _July 2, 1824_. DEAR AUNT,— The last time I wrote to you from Slough I little expected that my next would be dated from the foot of Etna—but I mean this to be the farthest point of my wanderings, and from hence to turn my steps northwards. I am not without some hopes that my time will so far serve as to enable me to pay you a visit at Hanover, as I long very much to see you among your and my Hanoverian friends.... My mother will have told you of my arrangements,—of the alteration which my plans of life have undergone (and for which I see every day more reason to be thankful), and of my present excursion, so that the date of this will not surprise you. To-morrow I hope to see the sun set from the top of Etna, and will keep this open to give you an account of my excursion there. Meanwhile let me congratulate you on the good accounts my mother gives me of your present state of health and spirits, the knowledge of which has enabled me to give real pleasure to many who, when they heard I was related to you, enquired with the greatest interest respecting you. Among the rest I may mention M. Arago, of the Observatory at Paris, and M. Fourrier, the secretary of the Institute, who has just been reading the _Éloge_ of my dear father at a meeting of that body, in which I am sure (from the associations I had with him, and the written communications that passed between us on the subject) your own name will stand associated with his in a manner that cannot fail to be gratifying to you. I have not (of course, as I quitted Paris before it was read, or even written) seen it, but the man is of the right sort, and I will endeavour to procure copies of it for you and my uncle.