erring mortals to entertain any other feeling, than a hope, that before the tribunal where mercy presides with justice, the intention of a questionable act may be received as counterbalancing its tendency.

In the course of his public career, Mr. Owen, on many occasions, laboured to advance the interests of religion no less by his writings than by his oratory. Among his numerous publications the most considerable were, " Retrospective Reflections on the State of Religion and Politics in France and Great Britain," 1794; "Travels in different Parts of Europe, in 1791 and 1792," in two volumes, 8vo. 1796; "The Christian Monitor," 8vo. 1798; "The Fashionable World displayed," 12mo, 1804; and "A Vindication of the Bible Society," 1809. — Should there have been found among his papers any manuscripts of general interest, it is to be hoped that his family will consent to their publication, as a just homage to the memory of so pious and excellent a man.

No. XXIV.

SIR WILLIAM HERSCHEL, LL.D. F.R.S.

KNIGHT OF THE GUELPHIC ORDER, PRESIDENT OF THE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, ASTRONOMER ROYAL, &C.

WITHOUT detracting from the lustre reflected on his native land by this luminary of science, the country of his adoption, in which his signal discoveries were achieved, has a fair right to claim him as her own.

He was born at Hanover, on the 15th of November, 1738, and was the second of four sons, all of whom their father brought up to his own profession, which was that of a musician. Discerning, however, in his son William, a peculiar ardour for intellectual pursuits, he gave him the advantage of a French tutor, who instructed him in the rudiments of logic and ethics, as well as of his own favourite study, metaphysics. He made considerable progress, notwithstanding the untoward circumstances of his family, which required him to be placed, at the age of fourteen, in the band of the Hanoverian regiment of guards. In the year 1757, or ac+ cording to some accounts, in 1759, he proceeded with a detachment of the regiment to England, accompanied by his father, who, after the lapse of some months, returned home, leaving the adventurous youth to indulge his inclination to try his fortune in London. After struggling with many difficulties, he gained the notice of the Earl of Darlington, who engaged him to superintend and instruct a military band then forming for the militia of the county of Durham. At the termination of his engagement, he passed several years in the West Riding of Yorkshire, giving instructions in music to private pupils in the principal towns, and officiating as leader in the oratorios and public concerts. The few leisure hours that could be spared from these avocations he employed in improving his knowledge of English, and in the acquisition of the Italian language, as necessary to the exercise of his profession. He also instructed himself in Latin, and made some progress in Greek, but found himself compelled to relinquish the latter study for the sake of engaging in others more congenial with his favourite pursuits.

His proficiency in music obtained for him the friendship of the late Mr. Joah Bates, through whose good offices he was appointed to the situation of organist at Halifax, about the close of the year 1765. He there continued to give instructions in music; and anxious to become versed in the theory of harmony, made himself master of Dr. Smith's profound treatise on the subject. In connection with this science he cultivated the mathematics; and thus, perhaps unconsciously at the time, prepared himself for those sublime pursuits in which he was destined to make so splendid a career. About this period of his life he is said to have visited Italy, where he tarried so long that his purse was exhausted, and he found himself without funds to carry him to England. From this embarrassment he was relieved by the expedient adopted by his friend Langlé, a Frenchman, of procuring for him a benefit concert at Genoa.

In the year 1766 he and his elder brother repaired to Bath, where they were both engaged for the pump-room band by the late Mr. Linley. He was distinguished as an excellent perforiner on the oboe, and his brother on the violoncello; but the principal object which attracted him to that city was the advantageous post of organist to the Octagon Chapel, for which he relinquished his situation at Halifax. It opened for him a profitable range of engagements at the concerts, the rooms, the theatre, and the oratorios, besides gaining him many private pupils; but this accession of business only increased his propensity to study; and frequently, after a fatiguing day of fourteen or sixteen hours occupied in his professional avocations, he would seek relaxation, if such it might be called, in extending his knowledge of pure and applied mathematics.

Some recent discoveries having awakened his curiosity, he applied himself to the study of astronomy, and of the auxiliary science of optics. Anxious to observe with his own eyes the wonders of which he had read, he obtained from a neighbour in Bath the loan of a two-feet Gregorian telescope, which interested him so much, that he commissioned a friend in London to purchase one of larger dimensions. The price demanded proving much beyond his means, he resolved to attempt with his own hands the construction of that complicated instrument. After successive disappointments, which served only to stimulate his exertions, he at length succeeded; and in 1774, had the gratification of beholding the planet Saturn through a five-feet Newtonian reflector made by himself. Encouraged by this success, he extended the scale of his operations, and in no long time completed telescopes of seven, of ten, and even of twenty feet. So indefatigable was his perseverance, that in perfecting the parabolic figure of the seven feet reflector, he finished no fewer than two hundred specula before he produced one that satisfactorily answered his purpose.

Attaching himself more and more to the study of astronomy, he began to limit his professional engagements, and restrict the number of his pupils. About the latter end of 1779 he commenced a regular review of the heavens, star by star, with a seven feet reflector; and, in the course of his observations, which were continued for eighteen months, he had the good fortune to remark, that a star, which had been recorded by Bode as a fixed star, was progressively changing its position. Prolonged attention to it enabled him to ascertain that it was an hitherto undiscovered planet; and having determined its rate of motion, its orbit, &c., he communicated the particulars to the Royal Society, who decreed him their annual gold medal, and unanimously elected him as a fellow. This important discovery he made on the 13th of March,

1781, and bestowed on the planet the name of Georgium Sidus, in compliment to the King of England; but the principal astronomers of the continent chose to honour their associate by calling it Herschel; and this appellation was subsequently changed to Uranus, which was considered more consistent with the received astronomical nomenclature.

The establishment of his fame, in the scientific world, was not the only advantage which accrued to Herschel from this splendid result of his labours. Within a year after it had been made known, his late majesty, with a liberality which must ever be mentioned to his honour as a patron of science, enabled him, by the donation of a handsome salary, to relinquish his professional labours, and devote the remainder of his life wholly to astronomy. In consequence of this munificent act of patronage, he quitted Bath, and fixed his residence, first at Datchet, and afterwards at Slough, near Windsor, where he resumed the career of discovery which he had so auspiciously commenced. In the hope of facilitating and extending his researches, he undertook to construct a telescope of forty feet, which was completed in 1787; but this stupendous instrument failed to answer all the purposes intended, being too ponderous to retain a true figure, so that comparatively few observations could be made with it, and those for a very short period. It was oftener by the aid of more manageable instruments that he perused the great volume of the heavens, and derived from it new contributions to enrich the records of astronomical science. In these researches, and in the laborious calculations to which they led, he was assisted by his excellent sister, Miss Caroline Herschel, whose indefatigable and unhesitating devotion in the performance of a task usually considered incompatible with female habits, excited equal surprise and admiration. Her co-operation tended to secure, among other advantages, the accuracy of his labours; and its value in this respect is acknowledged in a work published in 1798, entitled, "A Catalogue of Stars, taken from Flamsteed's Observations, and not