those years is to be found, not in any actual discoveries which were
accomplished, but in the practice which Herschel obtained in the use
of his instruments. It was not until 1782 that the great achievement
took place by which he at once sprang into fame.

[PLATE: GARDEN VIEW, HERSCHEL HOUSE, SLOUGH.]

It is sometimes said that discoveries are made by accident, and, no
doubt, to a certain extent, but only, I fancy to a very small extent,
this statement may be true. It is, at all events, certain that such
lucky accidents do not often fall to the lot of people unless those
people have done much to deserve them. This was certainly the case
with Herschel. He appears to have formed a project for making a
close examination of all the stars above a certain magnitude. Perhaps
he intended to confine this research to a limited region of the sky,
but, at all events, he seems to have undertaken the work
energetically and systematically. Star after star was brought to the
centre of the field of view of his telescope, and after being
carefully examined was then displaced, while another star was brought
forward to be submitted to the same process. In the great majority
of cases such observations yield really nothing of importance; no
doubt even the smallest star in the heavens would, if we could find
out all about it, reveal far more than all the astronomers that were
ever on the earth have even conjectured. What we actually learn
about the great majority of stars is only information of the most
meagre description. We see that the star is a little point of light,
and we see nothing more.

In the great review which Herschel undertook he doubtless examined
hundreds, or perhaps thousands of stars, allowing them to pass away