gave audience to his verses: "Herschel was so humble as to confess that I knew more of the history of astronomy than he did, and had surprised him with the mass of information I had got together. . . . He thanked me for the entertainment and instruction I had given him. 'Can anything be grander?' and all this before he knows a word of what I have said of himself—all his discoveries, as you may remember, being kept back for the twelfth and last book."
After an interval of seven months and more, a long story follows of Herschel's patience and good humour under repeated doses of poetry, conceit, and undue self-importance from Dr. Burney. The latter's letter to his daughter, then Madame D'Arblay, is dated, "Slough, Monday morning, July 22, 1799, in bed at Dr. Herschel's, half-past five, where I can neither sleep nor lie idle," and runs thus: "I believe I told you on Friday that I was going to finish the perusal of my astronomical verses to the great astronomer on Saturday." Burney had already read to him the Newtoniad, and other pieces. He was now come to the Herscheliad, about twenty years too soon, for the astronomer had not reached the height of his fame in 1799. "After tea Herschel proposed that we two should retire into a quiet room in order to resume the perusal of my work, in which no progress has been made since last December. The evening was finished very cheerfully; and we went to our bowers not much out of humour with each other or the world." Much more follows, revealing the self-complacency and conceit of the man, along with the modesty and retiring nature of Herschel. There were
