HERSCHEL, WILLIAM, was the second son of a musician at Hanover, and was born November 15, 1738. His father brought him up to his own profession, with four other of his ACM; giving them at the same time a good education in other respects. At the age of fourteen, he was placed, it is said, in the band of the Hanoverian regiment of guards, which regiment he accompanied to England at a period which is variously stated from 1757 to 1759. Another account states that he came to England alone. After his arrival, he was for some time at Durham, where be is said to have superinteuded the formation of a band for the militia, and afterwards was for several years organist at Halifax, whore he employed himself iu teaching music and studying languages. There is a mass of stories relating to his musical occupations, none of which have auy certain foundation, as—that ho played iu the Pump-room band at Bath—that upon the occasion of being a candidate for the situation of organist, he helped his performance by little bits of lead placed upon holding notes, which he dexterously removed in time—that in Italy, to procuro money to pay his passage home, he gave a concert, at which be played at once upon a harp and two horns, one fastened to each shoulder tte. The last story must be incorrect, as he never was in Italy; and, though much given to music, he never (latterly at least) played the French horn, or any other military instrument, but only the violin and organ ; from which, as well as the vagueness of the accounts, it may be doubted whether his professional talent. wero ever employed in a band.
About 1766 he was organist of the Octagon chapel at Bath; in which place he began to turn his attention to astronomy. How well his talents suited that pursuit was afterwards see; and his preliminary studies had been amply sufficient for the purpose. Though not a mathematician of the first order, his attainments in that science were more than respectable, and his power of applying his knowledge was, like that of Thomas Young, ao great as to make it a source of regret that he did not pay special attention to the exact aciencea. The
earliest writing of Herschel which has come to our knowledge is the answer to the prize question in the 'Ladies' Diary' for 1779, proposed by Peter Puzzlem (a name which the celebrated Landen always adopted in his contributions to that work), namely, 'The length, tension, and weight of a musical string being given, it is required to find how many vibrations it will make in a given time, when a small given weight is fastened to its middle and vibrates with it.' His astronomical pursuits led him to desire a telescope, and as the purchase of a good reflector was fortunately' beyond his ability, he resolved to make one for himself. After many trials he succeeded in making a Newtonian telescope of five feet focal length, and we find him before long not only in possession of adequate means, the work of his own bands, but employing those means with a true perception of the field in which his services were wanted, and a persevering deter mination to throw light upon our knowledge of the organisation of the universe.
There are two great branches of astronomy; the first consisting of those investigations, theoretical and practical, by which the mighty clockwork of the heavens is made our measure of time, and our means of settling the relative positions of places on the earth, and of guiding a vessel from one port to another; the second consisting of inquiries, theoretical and practical, ioto those phenomena which guide us to such knowledge as we can obtain of the constitution of the heavenly bodies. The study of the science of optics, the improvement of telescopes, the application of sound reasoning to the collective phe nomena pointed out by such instruments, and, subordinate to the last, a knowledge of the past history of observation, are the keys to the advance of this part of the science. Ilerschel devoted himself sedu lously to every part of this task, and the consequence was success such as the world had hardly Been before, and a reputation of twofold splendour, appreciable in Its different parts by men of the lowest as well as of the highest order of cultivation.