determination which takes it for a groundwork, giving to inferior
instruments--nay, even to temporary contrivances, and to the
observations of a few weeks or days--all the precision attained
originally at the cost of so much time, labour, and expense."

Sir John Herschel wrote many other works besides those we have
mentioned. His "Treatise on Meteorology" is, indeed, a standard work
on this subject, and numerous articles from the same pen on
miscellaneous subjects, which have been collected and reprinted,
seemed as a relaxation from his severe scientific studies. Like
certain other great mathematicians Herschel was also a poet, and he
published a translation of the Iliad into blank verse.

In his later years Sir John Herschel lived a retired life. For a
brief period he had, indeed, been induced to accept the office of
Master of the Mint. It was, however, evident that the routine of
such an occupation was not in accordance with his tastes, and he
gladly resigned it, to return to the seclusion of his study in his
beautiful home at Collingwood, in Kent.

His health having gradually failed, he died on the 11th May, 1871, in
the seventy-ninth year of his age.



THE EARL OF ROSSE.



The subject of our present sketch occupies quite a distinct position