The hydraulic press. (North San Juan, Nev. Co., Cal.) 1858-18??, 1858-10-16
Two Noble Women.

The Rev. D. K. Lee, in the course
of an article entitled I" Female AS
tronomers," gives the following inter-
esting sketches of Miss Herschel and
Mrs. Somerville
Gin 1850 Caroline Herschel was born; in
184S she died, aged SO. She was sister to
Sir William Herschel, the great astronomer
of the name, and under her fostering care
the genius of her nephew, Sir John Herschel,
was perfected. She was born in humble Cir
cumstances, and like her illustrious brother
was self educated. They lived in cottage
in the simplest rural style. But she had a
heart warmer than the sunshine in which she
sported, and mind more splendid than We
nus or the moon. Whilst she loved to tend
lilies and forget nots in her country gar
den, her favorite lily-beds were the skies,
her perennial forget-me- nots the nebul@ and
the consultations; and she gladly lost a
dream at night or meal in the day, to trace
or describe the stars. She spent night after
night with her brother and nephew at the
telescope and took their observations to the
cottage at dawn, and transferred them to
handsome manuscripts, whilst she planned
much of their work, and made many of their
most dlfhcult calculations. She polished the
speculum of the great telescope with her own
hand. She made catalogue of nearly six
hundred stars, and completed general in
dex OF reference to every observation of every
star registered in the British catalogue. She
discovered eight comets with her little New
ton sweeper, and spied out nebule and clus-
tiers that no one else had seen. Scientific So
cieties contended with one another to show
her the most honor, and she received gold
medals, and was visited by princes and sa-
vans.
sWhat romance is such life! Who
should not cast aside even the best romance
of Dickens or Mrs. Stowe to read of Caroline
Herschel and her cottage, and her recreations
among the stars? She swept the dust from
her cottage floor with as graceful hand as
if bred to homework, whilst she called the
nebul@ star dust and what crown of royal
ity would one not exchange for her crown of
intellectual glory? What sceptre of Victo-
ria or Eugenia would one not give for her
telescope, the Newton sweeper that she used
to sweep the golden star-dust of the sky?
"Several of the first mathematicians Of
Europe now are women, whose names are sell
dom heard, but pre-eminent stands Mrs.
OouiOi 'IAC. one Is Sdiu W Ue u LuUuel uouSo'
keeper. and most benevolent lady, at the
same time that she makes highest science
her delight. She is author of The Con-
nexion Of Physical Sciences work that has
passed through many editions, and is second
only to Humboldt's Cosmos for originality
and for the splendid harmony into which she
brings astronomy with every other science.
Thirty years ago she made summary of
that most abstruse and voluminous work of
the first astronomer Of Europe, La Places
Mecanique Celeste.
Her summary was completed in work
of nearly 700 octave pages. Soon after her
task was done she visited La Place in Paris
and conyersed so Familiarity on the theme of
his great book, that he was astonished and
said, you are the only person l know, with
one exception, who has taken the trouble to
understand my Mecanique Celeste; that is
lady in England-Mrs. Somerville.' Mrs.
S. is also the author of other learned works,
and is courted by royalty, and quoted and
praised by astronomers and scholars in the
East and West. She is said to resemble Ag-
nesi, of whom have spoken. She was among
the first to translate the facts and truths of
science into the words and thoughts of the
people, and give them Christian interpret
alton and application. and it is said that no
one stands as near as she to Newton in sub
lime speculations on the universe, and in
gathering the harmonies Of truth and light"