receive a large number of visitors who came to Slough out of curiosity or genuine scientific interest to see the great man and his wonderful telescopes. In 1801 he went to Paris, where he made Laplace's acquaintance and also saw Napoleon, whose astronomical knowledge he rated much below that of George III., while "his general air was something like affecting to know more than he did know."
In the spring of 1807 he had a serious illness; and from that time onwards his health remained delicate, and a larger proportion of his time was in consequence given to indoor work. The last of the great series of papers presented to the Royal Society appeared in 1818, when he was almost 80, though three years later he communicated a list of double stars to the newly founded Royal Astronomical Society. His last observation was taken almost at the same time, and he died rather more than a year afterwards (August 21st, 1822), when he was nearly 84.
He left one son, John, who became an astronomer only less distinguished than his father (chapter xiii., §§ 306—8). Caroline Herschel after her beloved brother's death returned to Hanover, chiefly to be near other members of her family; here she executed one important piece of work by cataloguing in a convenient form her brother's lists of nebulae, and for the remaining 26 years of her long life her chief interest seems to have been in the prosperous astronomical career of her nephew John.
257. The incidental references to Herschel's work that have been made in describing his career have shewn him chiefly as the constructor of giant telescopes far surpassing in power any that had hitherto been used, and as the diligent and careful observer of whatever could be seen with them in the skies. Sun and moon, planets and fixed stars, were all passed in review, and their peculiarities noted and described. But this merely descriptive work was in Herschel's eyes for the most part means to an end, for, as he said in 1811, "a knowledge of the construction of the heavens has always been the ultimate object of my observations."
Astronomy had for many centuries been concerned almost wholly with the positions of the various heavenly bodies on the celestial sphere, that is with their directions.
