We could not conclude our notice of this remarkable family without some
further allusion to its not least remarkable member--Caroline Lucretia
Herschel.

To her varied accomplishments, her astronomical researches, and, above
all, to her unwearied and unselfish devotion to her brother William, we
have already made frequent allusion. She seemed to live for him and in
him, to live for his fame and prosperity; and she poured out at his feet
the treasures of an inexhaustible affection. To assist him in his
labours, at whatever sacrifice, was her sole object in life; and she was
certainly more careful for his reputation than was he himself. During
his declining years she was his principal stay and support, and she was
in daily attendance to note down or to calculate the results of his
observations. His death was a severe blow to her; but, with
characteristic courage, she retired to Hanover, gave herself up to
scientific pursuits, and in comparative solitude spent her later years.

Her biographer writes:--

"When all was over, her only desire seems to have been to hurry
away. Hardly was her brother laid in his grave than she
collected the few things she cared to keep, and left for ever
the country where she had spent fifty years of her life, living
and toiling for him and him only. 'If I should leave off making
memorandums of such events as affect or are interesting to me,
I should feel like what I am,--namely, a person that has
nothing more to do in this world.' Mournful words! doubly
mournful, when we know that the writer had nearly half an