Page:Hector Macpherson - Herschel (1919).djvu/21



his diary, under the date 1766, Herschel has the following entries: "February 19th. Wheatley. Observation of Venus." "February 24th. Eclipse of the Moon at 7 o'clock a.m. Kirby." These are the first indications of his interest in astronomy. He had from early years inherited from his father a taste for what might be called star-gazing, and along with this he had had from youth a bent towards mathematical as well as philosophical research. Even in his busiest years, he never ceased to read and study in his leisure hours. During the first years of his stay in England, his foremost care was to master the English language. Next he acquired Italian, which he believed to be essential to his profession. From this he passed on to the study of Latin and Greek. The latter language, however, he dropped, "as leading me too far from my other favourite studies by taking up too much of my leisure. The theory of music being connected with mathematics induced me very early to read in Germany all that had been written upon the subject of harmony; and when, not long after my arrival in England, the valuable book of Dr. Smith's 'Harmonics' came into my hands, I perceived my ignorance, and had recourse to other authors for information, by which I was drawn on from one branch of mathematics to another." After perusing Smith's "Harmonics," he became possessed of a copy of the same author's "System of Optics". The study of optics passed into that of astronomy, which