in the terrestrial globe. At night Mr. Herschel, by the King's command, came to exhibit to His Majesty and the Royal Family the new comet lately discovered by his sister, Miss Herschel; and while I was playing at piquet with Mrs. Schwellenberg, the Princess Augusta came into the room, and asked her if she chose to go into the garden and look at it. She declined the offer, and the Princess then made it to me. I was glad to accept it for all sorts of reasons. We found him at his telescope. The comet was very small, and had nothing grand or striking in its appearance; but it is the first lady's comet, and I was very desirous to see it. Mr. Herschel then shewed me some of his new discovered universes, with all the good humour with which he would have taken the same trouble for a brother or a sister astronomer; there is no possibility of admiring his genius more than his gentleness."
Of these four paragraphs the first and the last show undisguised, genuine admiration of this hero of the stars by a heroine of the pen, "for all sorts of reasons."[1] It was the queen of literature crowning the king and high priest of the stars with the laurel wreath of a world's homage. Perhaps it was more than this, different though the ages of the king and queen were. But the second of the four paragraphs is of a different nature. It hints at dangers and difficulties, which do not square with Caroline Herschel's Memoirs. They may be explained by Miss Burney's knowledge of the
- ↑ Miss Burney tells the story of love's progress in her novel of Evelina, written some time before: "How rapid was then my Evelina's progress through those regions of fancy and passion, whither her new guide conducted her! She saw Lord Orville at a ball—and he was the most amiabl of men! She met him again at another—and he had every virtue under heaven!" (Evelina, ii. 149).
