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324 musical studies had long ago given him an interest in mathematics, and it seems likely that the study of Robert Smith's Harmonics led him to the Compleat System of Optics of the same author, and so to an interest in the construction and use of telescopes. The astronomy that he read soon gave him a desire to see for himself what the books described; first he hired a small reflecting telescope, then thought of buying a larger instrument, but found that the price was prohibitive. Thus he was gradually led to attempt the construction of his own telescopes (1773). His brother Alexander, for whom he had found musical work at Bath, and who seems to have had considerable mechanical talent but none of William's perseverance, helped him in this undertaking, while his devoted sister Caroline (1750–1848), who had been brought over to England by William in 1772, not only kept house, but rendered a multitude of minor services. The operation of grinding and polishing the mirror for a telescope was one of the greatest delicacy, and at a certain stage required continuous labour for several hours. On one occasion Herschel's hand never left the polishing tool for 16 hours, so that "by way of keeping him alive" Caroline was "obliged to feed him by putting the victuals by bits into his mouth," and in less extreme cases she helped to make the operation less tedious by reading aloud: it is with some feeling of relief that we hear that on these occasions the books read were not on mathematics, optics, or astronomy, but were such as Don Quixote, the Arabian Nights, and the novels of Sterne and Fielding.

252. After an immense number of failures Herschel succeeded in constructing a tolerable reflecting telescope—soon to be followed by others of greater size and perfection—and with this he made his first recorded observation, of the Orion nebula, in March 1774.

This observation, made when he was in his 36th year, may be conveniently regarded as the beginning of his astronomical career, though for several years more music remained his profession, and astronomy could only be cultivated in such leisure time as he could find or make for himself; his biographers give vivid pictures of his extraordinary activity during this period, and of his zeal