But it was not to the dead and living languages only that Mr. Herschel bent his ardent and refolute mind. He attempted to gain a knowlege of the moft abftrufe fciences. His firft effort was to make himself mafter of the theory of harmonies; and it is obfervable, that the book which he made choice of for this purpofe, was no other than the profound and intricate treatise of the learned Dr. Smith upon that fubject. He got through this work, however, without any affiftance; and fo great was the pleasure which he derived from it, that he refolved upon ftudying the other branches of mathematical learning. He began with Algebra, which he foon maftered; thence he proceeded to Euclid, and fo on to Fluxions. The ground-work being thus laid, the study of the other sciences became eafy.

His fituation at Halifax was favourable to his grammatical and mathematical pursuits; and it is well that he thus laid in a thorough ftock of found knowlege in what may be called his retirement. In 1766 he exchanged this place for one of a very different defcription, being elected organift to the Octogon chapel at Bath. Here he entered at once upon a great round of profeffional business, performing at the rooms, theatre, oratorios, and public and private concerts, befides having a great number of pupils. In fuch a hurry of employment, and in the immediate circle of luxury and amusement, very few men of Mr. Herfchel's profeffion and age would have found time to purfue ftudies feemingly fo unprofitable and uninterefting as

mathematics.

So far, however, from relaxing in his fcientific ftudies, he purfued them with increafing ardour, and after a day of hard labour, he commonly retired at night to his mathematical books, and spent many hours in an unwearied

atten

attention to the most abstruse questions in geometry and fluxions.

In the Ladies' Diary, for 1780, appeared an elegant and profound anfwer by him to a very difficult prize-queftion, refpecting the vibrations of a mufical chord loaded in the middle with a small weight.

About this time his ftudies were chiefly directed to optics and astronomy. The pleasure which he had experi enced from viewing the heavens through a two-feet Gregorian telescope, which he borrowed at Bath, made him defirous of poffeffing a complete fet of aftronomical inftruments. His first object was to get a larger telescope; and being ignorant of the price at which fuch inftruments are ufually charged, he defired a friend in London to buy one for him. This gentleman, surprised at the fum demanded for the telescope, declined purchafing it till he had informed Mr. Herschel of the circumftance. Our aftronomer's aftonishment was equal to that of his friend's; but instead of dropping his purfuit, he formed what many woud have regarded as a moft romantic refolution, that of making a telescope for himfelf. He did not content himself with a fpeculative idea, but from the fcanty inftructions he could gather out of optical treatifes, actually fet about this arduous undertaking. Difappointment fucceeded difappointment; but all this only ferved to act as a stimulus to his ardent mind, and at length his perfeverance was crowned with fuch fuccefs, that, in 1774, he enjoyed the exquifite fatisfaction of beholding the heavens through a five-feet Newtonian reflector of his own workmanship. Our modern Galileo did not reft at this attainment, great as it was, but with a laudable ambition, set about making instruments of a greater magnitude than had hitherto been known. After conftructing thofe of seven, and even ten feet, he thought of forming one not lefs than double the

latter

latter fize. So great was his patience, fo determined his perseverence, that in perfecting the parabolical figure of a feven-feet telescope, he did not make less than two hundred fpecula before he obtained one that would bear any power that was applied to it.

While he was thus laboriously employed in his mathe matical pursuits, he did not neglect the immediate duties of his profeffion. Yet fo much did his new occupation engage his mind, that he has frequently ftolen from the theatre or the concert-room to look at the stars, and then return again in time to bear his part among the mufical performers. This conftancy to Urania was at length most bountifully rewarded, by the difcovery of a new planet in our fyftem, to which he gave the name of Georgium Sidus; but which foreign aftronomers have generally termed Herfchel.

This important difcovery was made in the night of the 13th of March, 1781. It was by no means a mere accidental circumftance which favoured our aftronomer with the view of this planet; but the refult of a regular, patient, and scientific chain of observations. When he first saw it, he was not quite certain that it belonged to our fyftem; but a clofer enquiry enabled him to ascertain with exactnefs its planetary disk, as well as its motion.

This discovery was communicated the fame year to the Royal Society; and in confequence of it, Mr. Herschel was unanimoufly elected a member, and had the annual gold medal bestowed upon him for his fervice to the interefts of science.

The year following his Majefty took him under his im mediate patronage, and constituted him his aftronomer, with a handsome penfion. On this he quitted Bath and his mufical inftruments, and went to live at Slough near Windfor, at a house appointed for him by his royal master.

Here

Here he was enabled to carry on his projects with vi gour, and those which had hitherto failed of fuccefs were now brought to perfection. While at Bath, he had formed the bold scheme of constructing a telescope of thirty feet, and actually made feveral trials to carry his object into effect. But though he failed there, fince his refidence at Windfor he has far exceeded this defign, and completed an instrument of no less than forty! The irregularities in the speculum, and the impoffibility of rendering the parts of so enormous an instrument as this mathematically exact, have hitherto prevented his being able to make any actual obfervations with it. It is a vulgar error, that the discoveries of Dr. Herschel have been occasioned by the enormous magnifying power of his telescope; the fact is, that no fuch large power is neceffary, or useful; and that all Dr. Herfchel's difcoveries have been made with reflectors of from ten to twenty feet, and with powers of from fixty to three hundred. His difcoveries are to be afcribed to his laudable perfeverance, and not to the fize of his great telescope, which is rather an object of curiofity than of utility.

In 1783 he difcovered a volcanic mountain in the moon> and in 1787 made further observations upon that planet, and found two others therein, which emitted fire from their fummits. In profecuting his enquiries refpecting his own planet (if we may be allowed fo to express ourselves, he has difcovered it to be furrounded with rings, and to have fix fatellites.

For all these important additions to the ftock of national knowlege, our aftronomer had the honour of receiving from the univerfity of Oxford the degree of a Doctor of Laws; which is the more creditable, as that learned body is very fparing of its academic honours upon perfons who have not been educated within its walls.

Dr.

Dr. Herschel has been a regular contributor to the Philofophical Tranfactions ever fince his first communication in 1781, refpecting his discovery of the new planet. Some of his papers are extremely curious; and he has hazarded a few 'bold conjectures refpecting the fun, and other planetary bodies, which would hardly have been received from a lefs accurate observer.

In his aftronomical purfuits the doctor is materially af fisted by his sister, Miss Caroline Herschel, who has diftinguished herself greatly by her application to this fublime Atudy, and has communicated to the Royal Society fome very ingenious reports of observations made by her upon the ftarry orbs.

Dr. Herfchel is a man of unaffuming manners, a free, communicative, and pleasant companion; and enjoys that vigour of conftitution which is so effential to an astronomical obferver in a climate like that of England. It may be hoped, that his name will endure as long as the planetary fyftem, to illuftrate which he has devoted his life.

SIR NASH GROSE

IS a native of London, and fon of Edward Grofe, Efq. Being defigned for the bar, he was admitted of Lincoln's Inn, in Trinity term, 1756. In a fhort time he difcovered very refpectable profeffional abilities, and established a character which foon procured him an extenfive fhare of bufinefs.

After about eight years' practice as a barrister, he was called to the degree of ferjeant, and being confidered as a found lawyer, on the decease of that moft refpectable man