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80 materials for this research as would enable him to fix his observations upon those that would best answer his end. The subject promises so rich a harvest that he cannot help inviting every lover of astronomy to join him in observations that must inevitably lead to new discoveries. He took some pains to find out what double stars had been recorded by astronomers; but "Nature, that great volume, appeared to him to contain the best catalogue upon this occasion."

The results of this search of the heavens appeared a month later in a Catalogue of Double Stars. They were "not only double stars, but also treble, double-double, quadruple, double-treble, and multiple." And he noticed, in a strangely prophetic vein of inspired imagination, not shrined in the temple of fact for more than twenty years after, "It is much too soon to form any theories of small stars revolving round large ones." Of 269 of the suns contained in this catalogue only 42 had been previously observed. While pursuing researches so laborious and so delightful, he was driven to devise ingenious improvements on the micrometer, as the contrivance was called that is used for measuring small spaces. But Herschel's thoughts were turned into other channels in the summer of 1782. He was raising questions we are only getting answers to now.

While Herschel was thus rapidly rising into fame, he was not forgetful of the sister who generously sacrificed her own wishes and prospects as a singer to advance his as an astronomer. During the time she was free from her numerous engagements as the thrifty housekeeper, the careful secretary and time-keeper, the reviser and reducer of observations, she