Women -- Biography; Women -- Social and moral questions
We shall not attempt fully to discuss Miss Herschel’s astronomical
works. Indeed her labours are so intimately connected with, and are
generally so dependent upon, those of her illustrious brother, that an
investigation of the latter is absolutely necessary before we can form
the most remote idea of the extent of the former. In 1798 she completed
“A catalogue of 561 Stars from Flamsteed’s Observations,” contained in
the “Historia Cælestis,” but which had escaped the notice of those who
framed the “British Catalogue.” For this valuable work which was
published, together with a general index of reference to every
observation of every star inserted in the “British Catalogue,” at the
expense of the Royal Society, in one volume, her brother wrote an
introduction. To the utility of these volumes in subsequent researches,
Mr. Baily, in the life of Flamsteed, bears ample testimony.
She moreover finished, in 1828, the reduction and arrangement of 2500
nebulæ to the 1st of January, 1800, presenting in one view the results
of all Sir William Herschel’s observations on those bodies; and thus
bringing to a close half a century spent in astronomical labour,
probably unparalleled either in magnitude or importance. But to deliver
an eulogy upon her memory is not our purpose. Suffice it to say that
her name will live even when the time comes that the astronomical
celebrity of a woman will not by the mere circumstance of sex excite
the slightest remark.
_CHARACTER OF MISS HERSCHEL._
The physical constitution of Miss Herschel was good. At Slough her
exertions seem to have been overpowering. Instead of passing the night
in repose, she was constantly with her illustrious brother,
participating in his toils, braving with him the inclemency of the
weather, and co-operating towards his triumphs. According to the best
of authorities she took down notes of the observations as they fell
from his lips; conveyed the rough manuscripts to her cottage at the
dawn of day; and produced a fair copy of the night’s work on the
subsequent morning. One would have said that such toils would have
shortened her life, but she lived to be very old, and till within a
short period of her death, her health continued uninterrupted.
Her intellect was of a supreme order. The physico-perceptive faculties
were immensely developed, and these, combined with a strong and active
temperament, delight and excel in natural science, see and survey
nature in all her operations, and confer a talent for acquiring
scientific knowledge. Causality was amply developed in Miss Herschel,
and her talents form an excellent sample of the cast of mind it
imparts. She will be remembered as long as astronomical records of the
last and present century are preserved.
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