But Herschel himself knew better. "This was by no means the result of
chance," he said; "but a simple consequence of the position of the
planet on that particular evening, since it occupied precisely that spot
in the heavens which came in the order of the minute observations that I
had previously mapped out for myself. Had I not seen it just when I did,
I must inevitably have come upon it soon after, since my telescope was
so perfect that I was able to distinguish it from a fixed star in the
first minute of observation." Indeed, when once Herschel's twenty-foot
telescope was made, he could not well have failed in the long run to
discover Uranus, as his own description of his method clearly shows.
"When I had carefully and thoroughly perfected the great instrument in
all its parts," he says, "I made a systematic use of it in my
observation of the heaven, first forming a determination never to pass
by any, the smallest, portion of them without due investigation. This
habit, persisted in, led to the discovery of the new planet (_Georgium
Sidus_)." As well might one say that a skilled mining surveyor,
digging for coal, came upon the seam by chance, as ascribe to chance the
necessary result of such a careful and methodical scrutiny as this.

Before the year was out, the ingenious Mr. Herschel of Bath was elected
a Fellow of the Royal Society, and was also presented with the Copley
gold medal. From this moment all the distinguished people in Bath were
anxious to be introduced to the philosophical music-master; and, indeed,
they intruded so much upon his time that the daily music lessons were
now often interrupted. He was soon, however, to give up lessons for
ever, and devote himself to his more congenial and natural work in
astronomy. In May, 1782, he went up to London, to be formally admitted
to his Fellowship of the Royal Society. There he stayed so long that
poor Carolina was quite frightened. It was "double the time which my
brother could safely be absent from his scholars." The connection would