This discovery was but a trifle compared with what
Herschel did later on, but it gave him world-wide reputation
none the less. Comets and moons aside, this
was the first addition to the solar system that had been
made within historic times, and it created a veritable
furor of popular interest and enthusiasm. Incidentally
King George was flattered at having a world named
after him, and he smiled on the astronomer, and came
with his court to have a look at his namesake. The
inspection was highly satisfactory; and presently the
royal favor enabled the astronomer to escape the
thraldom of teaching music and to devote his entire
time to the more congenial task of star-gazing.

Thus relieved from the burden of mundane embarrassments,
he turned with fresh enthusiasm to the skies, and his
discoveries followed one another in bewildering
profusion. He found various hitherto unseen
moons of our sister planets; be made special
studies of Saturn, and proved that this planet, with its
rings, revolves on its axis; he scanned the spots on the
sun, and suggested that they influence the weather of
our earth; in short, he extended the entire field of solar
astronomy. But very soon this field became too small
for him, and his most important researches carried
him out into the regions of space compared with which
the span of our solar system is a mere point. With his
perfected telescopes he entered abysmal vistas which
no human eve ever penetrated before, which no human
mind had hitherto more than vaguely imagined. He