In 1797, continued her eulogist, she presented to the Royal Society a
catalogue of 560 stars, taken from Flamsteed's observations, the exact
positions of which had not been previously defined.
Soon after the death of him to whom she had given up so much of her
life, her best energies, and her ripest faculties, she returned to
Hanover,--unwilling, however, to relinquish the astronomical researches
which had been so pure and permanent a source of pleasure. She undertook
and completed the laborious "reduction" or registration of the places of
2500 nebulae, down to the 1st of January 1800; thus presenting in one
view the results of all the observations Sir William Herschel had made
upon those wonderful bodies, and triumphantly bringing to a close half a
century of scientific toil.
* * * * *
We return to Miss Herschel's biography, in order to gather up a few
particulars of her last years, and to exhibit some of the tenderer
features of her character.
On the occasion of her nephew's marriage, in 1829, she wrote to him in
the following terms:--
"MY DEAREST NEPHEW,--I have spent four days in vain endeavours
to gain composure enough to give you an idea of the joyful
sensation your letter of February 5th has caused me.
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