With Sir John Herschel's survey of the Southern Hemisphere it may be
said that his career as an observing astronomer came to a close. He
did not again engage in any systematic telescopic research. But it
must not be inferred from this statement that he desisted from active
astronomical work. It has been well observed that Sir John Herschel
was perhaps the only astronomer who has studied with success, and
advanced by original research, every department of the great science
with which his name is associated. It was to some other branches of
astronomy besides those concerned with looking through telescopes,
that the rest of the astronomer's life was to be devoted.
To the general student Sir John Herschel is best known by the volume
which he published under the title of "Outlines of Astronomy." This
is, indeed, a masterly work, in which the characteristic difficulties
of the subject are resolutely faced and expounded with as much
simplicity as their nature will admit. As a literary effort this
work is admirable, both on account of its picturesque language and
the ennobling conceptions of the universe which it unfolds. The
student who desires to become acquainted with those recondite
departments of astronomy, in which the effects of the disturbing
action of one planet upon the motions of another planet are
considered, will turn to the chapters in Herschel's famous work on
the subject.
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