A faithful chronicler has given us an interesting account of the way
in which Isaac Herschel educated his sons; the narrative is taken
from the recollections of one who, at the time we are speaking of,
was an unnoticed little girl five or six years old. She writes:--
"My brothers were often introduced as solo performers and assistants
in the orchestra at the Court, and I remember that I was frequently
prevented from going to sleep by the lively criticisms on music on
coming from a concert. Often I would keep myself awake that I might
listen to their animating remarks, for it made me so happy to see
them so happy. But generally their conversation would branch out on
philosophical subjects, when my brother William and my father often
argued with such warmth that my mother's interference became
necessary, when the names--Euler, Leibnitz, and Newton--sounded
rather too loud for the repose of her little ones, who had to be at
school by seven in the morning." The child whose reminiscences are
here given became afterwards the famous Caroline Herschel. The
narrative of her life, by Mrs. John Herschel, is a most interesting
book, not only for the account it contains of the remarkable woman
herself, but also because it provides the best picture we have of the
great astronomer to whom Caroline devoted her life.
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