I am reading all the Parliamentary speeches as given in _The Sun_, and there I meet with some excellent ones by a Sir James Mackintosh; pray is he any connexion of your family? In the paper of July 6th I saw a quotation (by a speaker, Mr. E. Lytton Bulwer,) from a celebrated philosopher (meaning our _own_ J. Herschel) who had felicitously observed that “the greatest discoverer in science can do no more than accelerate the progress of discovery.”... I remain, my dear niece, Your most affectionate CAR. HERSCHEL. The following letter, from the celebrated Encke, is one of the few preserved which belong to this period, and gives graceful expression to the high esteem in which she was held:— [Sidenote: 1831. _Letter from Prof. Encke._] FROM PROFESSOR ENCKE TO MISS HERSCHEL. BERLIN, _Aug. 17, 1831_. MADAME,— I feel great pleasure in informing you that the parcel which has been forwarded to me through your kindness is safely arrived here, and has been delivered to Professor Mitscherlich, according to the directions given by your celebrated nephew, J. Herschel. I hardly know, madame, how to return you my thanks for the trouble you have so kindly taken in transmitting the parcel to me. It would, indeed, have been an irretrievable loss to have been deprived of the excellent treatise written by your eminent nephew, had it not reached its destination. Allow me, madame, to avail myself of this opportunity to pay my respects to a lady, whose name is so intimately connected with the most brilliant astronomical discoveries of the age, and whose claims to the gratitude of every astronomer will be as conspicuous as your own exertions for extending the boundaries of our knowledge, and for assisting to develope the discoveries by which the name of your great brother has been rendered so famous throughout the literary world. I am, with great esteem and regard, madame, Your most obedient, humble servant, T. F. ENCKE. MISS HERSCHEL TO SIR J. F. W. HERSCHEL. HANOVER, _Oct. 25, 1831_. MY DEAR SIR JOHN,— But mind, you are still my dear nephew, and will be so good as to give the above to your dear mother. With this last sum, I have actually received since I am here a thousand pounds; a sum which I had no idea (nor I am sure your father neither) you would have been burdened with so long, for when I left England I thought my life was not worth a farthing. But no more of this for the present....