# Sir William Herschel, his life and works/Early Years; 1738-1772

LIFE AND WORKS
OF
William Herschel.
CHAPTER I.
early years; 1738–1772.
Of the great modern philosophers, that one of whom least is known, is William Herschel. We may appropriate the words which escaped him when the barren region of the sky near the body of Scorpio was passing slowly through the field of his great reflector, during one of his sweeps, to express our own sense of absence of light and knowledge: Hier ist wahrhaftig ein Loch im Himmel.
​Herschel prepared, about the year 1818, a biographical memorandum, which his sister Carolina placed among his papers.
This has never been made public. The only thoroughly authentic sources of information in possession of the world, are a letter written by Herschel himself, in answer to a pressing request for a sketch of his life, and the Memoir and Correspondence of Caroline Herschel (London, 1876), a precious memorial not only of his life, but of one which otherwise would have remained almost unknown, and one, too, which the world could ill afford to lose. The latter, which has been ably edited by Mrs. Mary Cornwallis Herschel, is the only source of knowledge in regard to the early years of the great astronomer, and together with the all too scanty materials to be gained from a diligent search through the biography of the time, affords the data for those personal details of his life, habits, and character, which seem to complete the distinct, though partial conception ​of him which the student of his philosophical writings acquires.
The letter referred to was published in the Göttingen Magazine of Science and Literature, III., 4, shortly after the name of Herschel had become familiar to every ear through his discovery of Uranus, but while the circumstances of the discovery, and the condition of the amateur who made it, were still entirely unknown.
The editor (Lichtenberg) says:
"Datchet, near Windsor,
Nov. 15, 1783.
"I was born in Hanover, November, 1738. My father, who was a musician, destined me to the same ​profession, hence I was instructed betimes in his art. That I might acquire a perfect knowledge of the theory as well as of the practice of music, I was set at an early age to study mathematics in all its branches—algebra, conic sections, infinitesimal analysis, and the rest.
"The insatiable desire for knowledge thus awakened resulted next in a course of languages; I learned French, English, and Latin, and steadfastly resolved henceforth to devote myself wholly to those sciences from the pursuit of which I alone looked for all my future happiness and enjoyment. I have never been either necessitated or disposed to alter this resolve. My father, whose means were limited, and who consequently could not be as liberal to his children as he would have desired, was compelled to dispose of them in one way or another at an early age; consequently in my fifteenth year I enlisted in military service, only remaining in the army, however, until I reached my nineteenth year, when I resigned and went over to England.
"My familiarity with the organ, which I had carefully mastered previously, soon procured for me the position of organist in Yorkshire, which I finally exchanged for a similar situation at Bath in 1766, and while here the peculiar circumstances of my post, as agreeable as it was lucrative, made it possible for me to occupy myself once more with my studies, especially with mathematics. When, in the course of time, I took up astronomy, I determined to accept nothing on faith, but to see with my own eyes everything which others had seen before me. ​Having already some knowledge of the science of optics, I resolved to manufacture my own telescopes, and after many continuous, determined trials, I finally succeeded in completing a so-called Newtonian instrument, seven feet in length. From this I advanced to one of ten feet, and at last to one of twenty, for I had fully made up my mind to carry on the improvement of my telescopes as far as it could possibly be done. When I had carefully and thoroughly perfected the great instrument in all its parts, I made systematic use of it in my observations of the heavens, first forming a determination never to pass by any, the smallest, portion of them without due investigation. This habit, persisted in, led to the discovery of the new planet (Georgium Sidus). This was by no means the result of chance, but a simple consequence of the position of the planet on that particular evening, since it occupied precisely that spot in the heavens which came in the order of the minute observations that I had previously mapped out for myself. Had I not seen it just when I did, I must inevitably have come upon it soon after, since my telescope was so perfect that I was able to distinguish it from a fixed star in the first minute of observation.
"Now to bring this sketch to a close. As the king had expressed a desire to see my telescope, I took it by his command to Greenwich, where it was compared with the instruments of my excellent friend, Dr. Maskelyne, not only by himself, but by other experts, who pronounced it as their opinion that my instrument was ​superior to all the rest. Thereupon the king ordered that the instrument be brought to Windsor, and since it there met with marked approval, his majesty graciously awarded me a yearly pension, that I might be enabled to relinquish my profession of music, and devote my whole time to astronomy and the improvement of the telescope. Gratitude, as well as other considerations specified by me in a paper presented to the Royal Society, of which I am a member, has induced me to call the new planet Georgium Sidus.
"'Georgium Sidus.—jam nunc assuesce vocari.'—(Virgil.)
We know but little of the family of Herschel. The name is undoubtedly Jewish, and is found in Poland, Germany, and England. We learn that the ancestors of the present branch left Moravia about the beginning of the XVIIth century, on account of their change of religion to Protestantism. They became possessors of land in Saxony. Hans Herschel, the great-grandfather of William, was a brewer in Pirna (a small town near Dresden). Of the two sons of Hans, one, Abraham (born in 1651, died ​1718), was employed in the royal gardens at Dresden, and seems to have been a man of taste and skill in his calling. Of his eldest son, Eusebius, there appears to be little trace in the records of the family. The second son, Benjamin, died in infancy; the third, Isaac, was born in 1707 (Jan. 14), and was thus an orphan at eleven years of age. Isaac was the father of the great astronomer.
He appears to have early had a passionate fondness for music, and this, added to a distaste for his father's calling, determined his career. He was taught music by an oboe-player in the royal band, and he also learned the violin. At the age of twenty-one he studied music for a year under the Cappelmeister Pabrich, at Potsdam, and in August, 1731, he became oboist in the band of the Guards, at Hanover. In August, 1732, he married Anna Ilse Moritzen. She appears to have been a careful and busy wife and mother, possessed of no special faculties which would lead us to attribute to her care any great part of the abilities of her son. ​She could not herself write the letters which she sent to her husband during his absences with his regiment. It was her firm belief that the separations and some of the sorrows of the family came from too much learning; and while she could not hinder the education of the sons of the family, she prevented their sisters from learning French and dancing. It is but just to say that the useful accomplishments of cooking, sewing, and the care of a household, were thoroughly taught by her to her two daughters. The father, Isaac, appears to have been of a different mould, and to him, no doubt, the chief intellectual characteristics of the family are due. His position obliged him to be often absent from Hanover, with his regiment, but his hand appears to have been always present, smoothing over difficulties, and encouraging his sons to such learning and improvement as was to be had.
His health was seriously injured by the exposures of the campaigns, and he was left, after the Seven Years' War, with a broken constitution.
​After his final return home, in 1760, his daughter gives this record of him—
Here, as in all her writing, Carolina is simple, true, direct to awkwardness, and unconsciously pathetic even in joy.
The family of Isaac and Anna Herschel consisted of ten children. Six of these lived to adult age. They were:
1. Sophia Elizabeth; born 1733, married Griesbach, a musician in the Guard, by whom she had children. Five of her sons were afterwards musicians at the court, in England, where they obtained places through the influence of William.
2. Henry Anton Jacob; born 1734, November 20.
4. Frederic William (the astronomer); born 1738, November 15.
​6. John Alexander; born 1745, November 13.
8. Carolina Lucretia; born 1750, March 16.
10. Dietrich; born 1755, September 13.
Of this family group, the important figures to us are William, Alexander, and Carolina.
Jacob was organist at the Garrison Church of Hanover in 1753, a member of the Guards' band in 1755, and first violin in the Hanover Court Orchestra in 1759. Afterwards he joined his brother William in Bath, but again returned to Hanover. In 1771 he published in Amsterdam his Opus I., a set of six quartettes, and later, in London, he published two symphonies and six trios. He appears to have been a clever musician, and his letters to his younger brother William are full of discussion on points of musical composition, etc. He died in 1792.
Dietrich, the youngest brother, shared in the musical abilities of his family, and when only fifteen years old was so far advanced as to be able to supply his brother Jacob's place ​in the Court Orchestra, and to give his sons to private pupils. There is no one of the family, except the eldest daughter, whom we do not know to have possessed marked ability in music, and this taste descended truly for four generations. In the letters of Chevalier Bunsen, he describes meeting, in 1847, the eldest granddaughter of William Herschel, who, he says, "is a musical genius."
Three members of the family, William, Alexander, and Carolina, formed a group which was inseparable for many years, and while the progress of the lives of Alexander and Carolina was determined by the energy and efforts of William, these two lent him an aid without which his career would have been strangely different. It is necessary to understand a little better the early life of all three.
The sons of the Herschel family all attended the garrison school in Hanover until they were about fourteen years old. They were taught the ordinary rudiments of knowledge—to read, to write, to cipher—and a ​knowledge of French and English was added. William especially distinguished himself in his studies, learning French very rapidly, and studying Latin and arithmetic with his master out of hours. The household life seems to have been active, harmonious, and intelligent, especially during the presence of the father, who took a great delight in the rapid progress of all his sons in music, and who encouraged them with his companionship in their studies and in their reading on all intellectual subjects.
From the Memoir of Carolina, on which we must depend for our knowledge of this early life, we take the following paragraph:
"The recollection of these happy scenes confirms me in the belief, that had my brother William not then been interrupted in his philosophical pursuits, we should have had much earlier proofs of his inventive genius. My father was a great admirer of astronomy, and had some knowledge of that science; for I remember his taking me, on a clear frosty night, into the street, to make me acquainted with several of the most beautiful constellations, after we had been gazing at a comet which was then visible. And I well remember with what delight he used to assist my brother William in his various contrivances in the pursuit of his philosophical studies, among which was a neatly turned 4-inch globe, upon which the equator and ecliptic were engraved by my brother."
The mechanical genius was not confined ​to William, for we read that Alexander used often to "sit by us and amuse us and himself by making all sorts of things out of pasteboard, or contriving how to make a twelve-hour cuckoo clock go a week." This ability of Alexander's was turned later to the best account when he became his brother William's right hand in the manufacture of reflectors, eye-pieces, and stands in England. His abilities were great, and a purpose which might otherwise have been lacking was supplied through the younger brother's ardor in all that he undertook.
His musical talent was remarkable; he played "divinely" on the violoncello. He returned to Hanover in 1816, where he lived in comfortable independence, through the never-failing generosity of his brother, until his death in 1821. A notice of him in a Bristol paper says: "Died, March 15, 1821, at Hanover, Alexander Herschel, Esqr., well known to the public of Bath and Bristol as a performer and elegant musician; and who for forty-seven years was the admiration of the frequenters of concerts and theatres of both ​those cities as principal violoncello. To the extraordinary merits of Mr. Herschel was united considerable acquirement in the superior branches of mechanics and philosophy, and his affinity to his brother, Sir William Herschel, was not less in science than in blood."
We shall learn more of the sister, Carolina, as time goes on. Now in these early years she was a silent and persistent child, growing up with a feeling that she was uncared for and neglected, and lavishing all her childish affection, as she did all that of her womanly life, on her brother William. Throughout her long life, "my brother" was William, "my nephew" his son.
The brothers Jacob and William were, with their father, members of the band of the Guards in 1755, when the regiment was ordered to England, and they were absent from Hanover a year.
William (then seventeen years old) went as oboist, and out of his scanty pay brought back to Hanover, in 1756, only one memento of his stay—a copy of Locke On the Human Understanding.
​He appears to have served with the Guard during part of the campaign of 1757. His health was then delicate, and his parents "determined to remove him from the service—a step attended by no small difficulties."
This "removal" was hurriedly and safely effected, so hurriedly that the copy of Locke was not put in the parcels sent after him to Hamburg by his mother; "she, dear woman, knew no other wants than good linen and clothing."
Thus, at last, the young William Herschel, the son of an oboe-player in the King's Guard, is launched in life for himself, in the year 1757, at the age of nineteen.
All his equipment is the "good linen and clothing," a knowledge of French, Latin, and English, some skill in playing the violin, the organ, and the oboe, and an "uncommon precipitancy" in doing what there is to be done.
​A slender outfit truly; but we are not to overlook what he said of himself on another occasion. "I have, nevertheless, several resources in view, and do not despair of succeeding pretty well in the end."
From 1757 to 1760—three years—we know nothing of his life. We can imagine what it was. His previous visit to England had given him a good knowledge of the language, and perhaps a few uninfluential acquaintances. On his return he would naturally seek these out, and, by means of his music, he could gain a livelihood. We first hear of him as charged with the organization of the music of a corps of the militia of Durham, under the auspices of the Earl of Darlington. "La manière dont il remplit cette mission, le fit connaître avantageusement." The nature of the service of these militia corps, which were then forming all over England, is well described in the Autobiography of Gibbon. Every county-gentleman felt constrained to serve his country, ​and the regimental mess-rooms were filled with men of rank and fashion.
In 1760 we hear of him again. He has attracted the notice of those about him.
"He took an early opportunity of introducing his new friend at Mr. Cropley's concerts; the first violin was resigned to him; 'and never,' says the organist, 'had I heard the concertos of Corelli, Geminiani, and Avison, or the overtures of Handel performed more chastely, or more according to the original intention of the composers, than by Mr. Herschel. I soon lost my companion; his fame was presently spread abroad; he had the offer of pupils, and was solicited to lead the public concerts both at Wakefield and Halifax. A new organ for the parish church of Halifax was built about this time, and Herschel was one of the seven candidates for the organist's place. They drew lots how they were to perform in succession. Herschel drew the third, the second fell to Dr. Wainwright of Manchester, whose finger was so rapid that old Snetzler, the organ-builder, ran about the church exclaiming: 'Te tevel! te tevel! he run over te keys like one cat; he will not give my piphes room for to shpeak.' 'During Mr. Wainwright's performance,' says Miller, 'I was standing in the middle aisle ​with Herschel. 'What chance have you,' said I, 'to follow this man?' He replied, 'I don't know; I am sure fingers will not do.' On which he ascended the organ loft, and produced from the organ so uncommon a fulness, such a volume of slow, solemn harmony, that I could by no means account for the effect. After this short ex tempore effusion, he finished with the Old Hundredth psalm-tune, which he played better than his opponent.
The dates in this extract are not so well defined as might be wished. Herschel had certainly been more than a few months in England at the time of his meeting with Dr. Miller, which was probably about 1760. The appointment as organist at Halifax was ​in 1765, and the pupils and public concerts must have filled up the intervening five years. During a part of this time he lived in Leeds, with the family of Mr. Bulman, whom he afterwards provided with a place as clerk to the Octagon Chapel, in his usual generous manner.
All during his life he was placing some of the less fortunate and energetic members of his family.
We cannot be too grateful to Dr. Miller, who, seeing his opportunity, used it. Their frank friendship does honor to both. Herschel's organ-playing, which no doubt had been begun when his brother was the organist of the garrison chapel at Hanover, must have been perfected at this time, and it was through his organ-playing that he was able to leave the needy life in Yorkshire.
He was sure to have emerged sooner or later, but every year spared to him as a struggling musician was a year saved to Astronomy.
During all this period, a constant ​correspondence was maintained between the family at Hanover and the absent son.
Many of William's letters were written in English, and addressed to his brother Jacob, and treated of such subjects as the Theory of Music, in which he was already far advanced.
His little sister was still faithful to the memory of her dearest brother, and his father, whose health was steadily declining, became painfully eager for his return. In 1764 (April 2), he returned to Hanover on a very brief visit. He was attached to England, he was prospering there, and he had no inclination towards returning to a life in Hanover. His sister says:
"In the first week, some of the orchestra were invited to a concert, at which some of my brother William's compositions, overtures, etc., and some of my eldest brother Jacob's were performed, to the great delight of ​my dear father, who hoped and expected that they would be turned to some profit by publishing them, but there was no printer who bid high enough.
The engagement of Herschel at Halifax did not long continue. In 1766 he obtained an advantageous engagement as oboist at Bath, and soon after the position of organist at the Octagon Chapel was offered to him and accepted. This was a great and important change.
Bath was then, as now, one of the most beautiful cities in England, and the resort of the fashion and rank of the kingdom, who came to take the waters. It is beautifully situated on both sides of the Avon, and has many fine walks and public buildings. The aspect of the city is markedly cheerful and brilliant, owing to the nature of the white stone of which the principal houses are built, and to the exquisite amphitheatre of hills in which they lie.
​The society was then gay and polite, and Herschel was at once thrown into a far more intelligent atmosphere than that he had just left in Yorkshire. It was easy to get new books, to see new faces, to hear new things. The Assembly Rooms (built in 1771) were noted for their size and elegance; the theatre was the best out of London.
His position as organist of the fashionable chapel placed him in the current. His charming and engaging manners made him friends. His talents brought him admirers and pupils, and pupils brought him money.
He began in 1766 a life of unceasing activity, which continued. In 1768 he published in London a symphony (in C) for two violins, viola, bass, two oboes, and two horns, and in the same year two military concertos for two oboes, two horns, two trumpets, and two bassoons. He wrote pieces for the ​harp, glees, "catches," and other songs for the voice. One of these, the Echo Catch, was published and had even considerable vogue.
When he left Bath (in 1782), many of these musical writings were lost, in his great haste to take up his new profession. One, specially, his sister remembers to have written out for the printer, "but he could not find a moment to send it off, nor to answer the printer's letters." This was a four-part song, "In thee I bear so dear a part." He wrote very many anthems, chants, and psalm-tunes for the excellent cathedral choir of the Octagon Chapel. Unfortunately, most of this music is not now to be found.
A notice of Herschel's life which appeared in the European Magazine for 1785, January, gives a very lively picture of his life ​at this time, and it is especially valuable as showing how he appeared to his cotemporaries.
"Although Mr. Herschel loved music to an excess, and made a considerable progress in it, he yet determined with a sort of enthusiasm to devote every moment he could spare from business to the pursuit of knowledge, which he regarded as the sovereign good, and in which he resolved to place all his views of future happiness in life." ...
"His situation at the Octagon Chapel proved a very profitable one, as he soon fell into all the public business of the concerts, the Rooms, the Theatre, and the oratorios, besides many scholars and private concerts. This great run of business, instead of lessening his propensity to study, increased it, so that many times, after a fatiguing day of fourteen or sixteen hours spent in his vocation, he would retire at night with the greatest avidity to unbend the mind, if it may be so called, with a few propositions in Maclaurin's Fluxions, or other books of that sort."
It was in these years that he mastered Italian and made some progress in Greek.
There is no doubt that this conjecture is a true one. The Optics of Dr. Smith is one of the very few books quoted by Herschel throughout his writings, and there is every evidence of his complete familiarity with its conclusions and methods; and this familiarity is of the kind which a student acquires with his early text-books. One other work he quotes in the same way, Lalande's Astronomy, and this too must have been deeply studied.
During the years 1765–1772, while Herschel was following his profession and his ​studies at Bath, the family life at Hanover went on in much the same way.
In 1765 his father Isaac had a stroke of paralysis, which ended his violin-playing forever, and forced him to depend entirely upon pupils and copying of music for a livelihood. He died on March 22, 1767, leaving behind him a good name, and living in the affectionate remembrance of his children and of all who knew him.
Carolina had now lost her best friend, and transferred to her brother William the affection she had before divided between him and her father.
A change was soon to come in her life too; her brother William wrote to propose that she should join him at Bath—
​In August, 1772, her brother arrived at Hanover, to take her back to England with him. The journey to London was made between August 16th and 26th, and soon after they went together to Herschel's house, No. 7 New King's Street, Bath.
* ↑ Wife of Major John Herschel, of the Royal Engineers, grandson of Sir William.
* ↑ Page 127.
* ↑ Memoir of Carolina Herschel, p. 10. Sir George Airy, Astronomer Royal, relates in the Academy that this "removal" was a desertion, as he was told by the Duke of Sussex that on the first visit of Herschel to the king, after the discovery of the Georgium Sidus, the pardon of Herschel was handed to him by the king himself, written out in due form.
* ↑ Fétis; Biographie universelle des musiciens, tome V. (1839) p. 141.
* ↑ Dr. Miller, a noted organist, and afterwards historian of Doncaster.
* ↑ The Doctor; by Robert Southey, edition of 1848, p. 140.
* ↑ He frequently gave thirty-five and thirty-eight lessons a week to pupils at this time.
* ↑ According to Fétis. A search for these in London has led me to the belief that Fétis, who is usually very accurate, is here mistaken, and that these writings are by Jacob Herschel.
* ↑ Foreign Quarterly Review, volume 31.