If the
scientific world, says Arago, saw with astonishment the unexampled
rapidity with which Herschel's works succeeded one another for many
years, they were greatly indebted for this affluence of production to
the affectionate ardour of his sister Caroline. Her enthusiasm never
failed; her industry knew no check; and her brother's fame was dearer to
her than life.
In one of her letters she describes with graphic simplicity the
"interior" at Datchet:--
"I found that I was to be trained for an assistant-astronomer;
and by way of encouragement, a telescope adapted for 'sweeping'
(or rapidly surveying a wide extent of space), consisting of a
tube with two glasses, was given [to] me. I was to 'sweep for
comets;' and I see by my journal that I began August 22nd,
1782, to write down and describe all remarkable appearances I
saw in my 'sweeps.' But it was not till the last two months of
the same year that I felt the least encouragement to spend the
starlit nights on a grass-plot covered with dew or hoar-frost,
without a human being near enough to be within call.
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