Page:Littell's Living Age - Volume 129.djvu/657

Rh her from acquiring knowledge that would have made her more useful in after-years to her brother William. Her parents never agreed on the subject. Her father wished to give her something like a polished education; her mother was determined that she should have a rough one.

When Caroline Herschel was about seventeen, her father died. For some time before that event, he had lost the use of his right side by a paralytic seizure, and although he continued to receive pupils at his house, he did not regain his former skill on the violin. He was reduced at last principally to the occupation of copying music, and the family resources naturally fell to a very low ebb. The death of her father deprived Caroline of the last friend who sympathized with her desire for better instruction. Her mother looked upon her as a servant; and her brother Jacob, who could have helped her, treated her with a lofty insolence for which the reader of Miss Herschel's recollections heartily dislikes him. She at length obtained permission to learn millinery and dress-making, as the only means of avoiding the apparently not improbable contingency of "being turned into an abigail or a housemaid."

In the house of Madame Küster, where, according to the custom of the day, several young ladies of good family were learning the art of dress-making, she was fortunate enough to make an acquaintance, who proved the most valued friend of her after-years.

One of the young women [she writes] after a lapse of thirty-five years, when I was introduced to her at the queen's lodge, received me as an old acquaintance, though I could but just remember having sometimes exchanged a nod and smile with a sweet little girl about ten or eleven years old.

The lady whom she records as having recognized her when a member of the queen's household, had then become Madame Beckedorff, who remained her fast friend until Madame Beckedorff's death. When Miss Herschel herself died, years later, it was the daughter of this kind friend who closed her eyes.

But the darkest night comes to an end: an event occurred which changed altogether the current of Miss Herschel's life. Her brother William had, as we mentioned above, removed to Bath, where he rapidly became known and respected. His duties as organist at the Octagon Chapel did not occupy all his time; he used to compose anthems, chants, and sometimes whole services for the choir under his management. But so rapid and methodical a worker found that when all was done he had still abundant leisure. On the retirement of Mr. Lindley from the management of the public concerts, Herschel added this to his other avocations, and was consequently immersed in business of the most laborious kind during the Bath season. It occurred to him that Caroline Herschel might come over to England and keep house for him. It was also possible that she might be made available as an assistant to him in his concerts. Music came almost by nature to every member of his family; he probably thought that it would be easy for his sister to acquire the necessary amount of knowledge, and the result showed how accurately he judged her. We may reasonably suppose that, living as she had done from infancy with musicians, and accustomed almost as soon as she could speak to make herself useful at her father's concerts, she really knew a good deal about music, though the amount of her knowledge seemed quite insignificant to the scientific artists among whom her lot was cast. To no one did her acquirements appear more trifling than to herself. But her brother William was the only member of her family who really cared for her, and she repaid his rather patronizing affection with passionate devotion. The prospect of going to join her brother was like a peep into heaven to the poor little girl with her keen intellect and quick perception. She must have felt the consciousness of great talents thrown away, and she had acquired ample experience of the bitterness of high aspirations jeered at or disregarded. No wonder then if she eagerly grasped at the prospect of release held out by her brother's offer. Miss Herschel's disappointment was proportionately great when her crossgrained brother Jacob, who was at that time in Hanover, first refused to give his aid as a musical instructor, and at last turned the whole scheme into ridicule, and positively refused his consent to her leaving home; a refusal which, as head of the family, he was able to enforce.

Here for the first time the indomitable will, which afterwards became so marked a feature in Caroline Herschel's character, asserted itself. She could not obtain consent to her departure, but, at any rate, she could prepare for it: she records her determination with charming simplicity:—

Jacob [she writes] began to turn the whole scheme into ridicule, and of course he never heard the sound of my voice except in