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Joseph Brown sc
Caroline Herschel.
ÆTAT 92.
MEMOIR AND CORRESPONDENCE
OF
CAROLINE HERSCHEL.
INTRODUCTION.
Familiar to all as is the name this volume bears,it is not without hesitation that the following pagesare given to the world. To subject the memorials ofa deeply earnest life to the eyes of a generation overcrowdedwith books, raises a certain amount ofdiffidence.
Of Caroline Herschel herself most people will pleadignorance without feeling ashamed, and yet may wenot assert that Caroline Herschel is well worthknowing.
Great men and great causes have always somehelper of whom the outside world knows but little.There always is, and always has been, some humanbeing in whose life their roots have been nourished.Sometimes these helpers have been men, sometimesthey have been women, who have given themselves tohelp and to strengthen those called upon to be leadersand workers, inspiring them with courage, keepingfaith in their own idea alive, in days of darkness,
These helpers and sustainers, men or women, haveall the same quality in common—absolute devotion andviunwavering faith in the individual or in the cause.Seeking nothing for themselves, thinking nothing ofthemselves, they have all an intense power of sympathy,a noble love of giving themselves for the serviceof others, which enables them to transfuse theforce of their own personality into the object to whichthey dedicate their powers.
Of this noble company of unknown helpers CarolineHerschel was one.
She stood beside her brother, William Herschel,sharing his labours, helping his life. In the days whenhe gave up a lucrative career that he might devotehimself to astronomy, it was owing to her thrift andcare that he was not ha