charms of scientific interest that it thus enables a man to keep his
faculties on the alert to an advanced old age. In 1819, when Herschel
was more than eighty, he writes to his sister a short note--"Lina, there
is a great comet. I want you to assist me. Come to dine and spend the
day here. If you can come soon after one o'clock, we shall have time to
prepare maps and telescopes. I saw its situation last night. It has a
long tail." How delightful to find such a living interest in life at the
age of eighty!

On the 25th of August, 1822, this truly great and simple man passed
away, in his eighty-fifth year. It has been possible here only to sketch
out the chief personal points in his career, without dwelling much upon
the scientific importance of his later life-long labours; but it must
suffice to say briefly upon this point that Herschel's work was no mere
mechanical star-finding; it was the most profoundly philosophical
astronomical work ever performed, except perhaps Newton's and Laplace's.
Among astronomers proper there has been none distinguished by such
breadth of grasp, such wide conceptions, and such perfect clearness of
view as the self-taught oboe-player of Hanover.




V.

JEAN FRANCOIS MILLET, PAINTER.


There is no part of France so singularly like England, both in the
aspect of the country itself and in the features and character of the