The study of mathematics proved but a preliminary to the study of
optics; and an accident made him once for all an astronomer.
A common two-foot telescope falling into his hands, revealed to him
the wonders of the heavens. His imagination was inspired by their
contemplation; with ever-increasing enthusiasm he gazed on the revolving
planets, on the flashing stars; he determined to fathom more profoundly
the constellated depths. A larger instrument was necessary, and Herschel
wrote to London for it; but the price demanded proved far beyond the
resources of the sanguine organist. What should he do? He was not the
man to be beaten back by a difficulty: as he could not buy a telescope,
he resolved to make one; an instrument eighteen or twenty feet long,
which would reveal to him the phases of the remotest planets. And
straightway the musician entered on a multitude of ingenious
experiments, so as to discover the particular metallic alloys that
reflected light with the greatest intensity, the best means of giving
the parabolic figure to the mirrors, the necessary degree of polish, and
other practical details.
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