Personal Recollections, from Early Life to Old Age, of Mary Somerville Part 12

M. BERRY.

FROM LORD BROUGHAM TO MRS. SOMERVILLE.

1834.

MY DEAR MRS. SOMERVILLE,

Many thanks for the sheets, which I have read with equal pleasure and instruction as those I formerly had from you. One or two things I could have troubled you with, but they are of little moment. I shall note them. The only one that is at all material relates to the way you mention Dr. Young--not that I object to the word "ill.u.s.trious," or as applied to him. But as you don't give it to one considerably more so, it looks either as if you overrated him, or underrated Davy, or (which I suppose to be the truth) as if you felt Young had not had his due share of honour, and desired to make it up to his memory. Observe I give him a very high place--but Davy's discoveries are both of more unquestioned originality and more undoubtedly true--perhaps I should say, more brought to a close. The alkalis and the principle of the safety lamp are concluded and fixed, the undulation is in progress, and somewhat uncertain as to how and where it may end. You will please to observe that I reckon both those capital discoveries of Davy the fruit of inquiry, and not at all of chance--for, as to the lamp, it is plain; and as to the metals, if you look at the inquiries that immediately preceded, you will see he was thereby led to the alkalis. Indeed, I well remember saying, when I read them, "He will a.n.a.lyse lime and barytes." I am quite ready to admit his extreme folly in some things, but that is nothing to the present purpose.

Yours, H.B.

(_Henry Brougham._)

FROM MRS. MARCET TO MRS. SOMERVILLE.

GENEVA, _6th April, 1834_.

DEAR MRS. SOMERVILLE,

I am desired by Professor Prevost to inform you that you were elected an honorary member of the Societe de Physique et d'Histoire Naturelle de Geneve on the 3rd April, and that a diploma will be forwarded to you by the earliest opportunity. After all the honours you have received, this little feather is hardly worthy of waving in your plume, but I am glad that Geneva should know how to appreciate your merit. You receive great honours, my dear friend, but that which you confer on our s.e.x is still greater, for with talents and acquirements of masculine magnitude you unite the most sensitive and retiring modesty of the female s.e.x; indeed, I know not any woman, perhaps I might say, any human being, who would support so much applause without feeling the weakness of vanity. Forgive me for allowing my pen to run away with this undisguised praise, it looks so much like compliment, but I a.s.sure you it comes straight from the heart, and you _must_ know that it is fully deserved.... I know not whether you have heard of the death of Professor de la Rive (the father); it was an unexpected blow, which has fallen heavily on all his family. It is indeed a great loss to Geneva, both as a man of science and a most excellent citizen.

M. Rossi[12] has left us to occupy the chair of political economy of the late M. Say, at Paris; his absence is sadly felt, and it is in vain to look around for any one capable of replacing him....

Yours affectionately, J. MARCET.

FROM ADMIRAL W.H. SMYTH TO MRS. SOMERVILLE.

CRESCENT, BEDFORD, _October 3rd, 1835_.

MY DEAR MADAM,

As an opportunity offers of sending a note to town, I beg to mention that I have somewhat impatiently waited for some appearance of settled weather, in order to press your coming here to inspect Halley's comet, before it should have become visible to the una.s.sisted eye. That unerring monitor, however, the barometer, held forth no hope, and the ceaseless traveller is already an object of conspicuous distinction without artificial aid, except, perhaps, to most eyes an opera-gla.s.s, magnifying three or four times, will be found a pleasant addition. It is now gliding along with wonderful celerity, and the nucleus is very bright. It is accompanied with a great luminosity, and the nucleus has changed its position therein; that is, on the 29th August, the nucleus was like a minute star near the centre of the nebulous envelope; on the 2nd September it appeared in the _n. f._ quarter, and latterly it has been in the _s.

f._

How remarkable that the month of August this year should rattle Halley's name throughout the globe, in ident.i.ty with an astonis.h.i.+ng scientific triumph, and that in the selfsame month the letters of Flamsteed should have appeared! How I wish some one would give us a life of Newton, with all the interesting doc.u.ments that exist of his labours! Till such appears, Flamsteed's statements, though bearing strong internal evidence of truth, are _ex-parte_, and it is evident his anxiety made him p.r.o.ne to impute motives which he could not prove. The book is painfully interesting, but except in all that relates to the personal character of Flamsteed, I could almost have wished the doc.u.ments had been destroyed. People of judgment well know that men without faults are monsters, but vulgar minds delight in seeing the standard of human excellence lowered.

Dear Madam, Yours faithfully, W.H. SMYTH.

We were deprived of the society of Sir John and Lady Herschel for four years, because Sir John took his telescope and other instruments to the Cape of Good Hope, where he went, accompanied by his family, for the purpose of observing the celestial phenomena of the southern hemisphere.

There are more than 6,000 double stars in the northern hemisphere, in a large proportion of which the angle of position and distance between the two stars have been measured, and Sir John determined, in the same manner, 1081 in the southern hemisphere, and I believe many additions have been made to them since that time. In many of these one star revolves rapidly round the other. The elliptical orbits and periodical times of sixteen or seventeen of these stellar systems have been determined. In Gamma Virginis the two stars are nearly of the same magnitude, and were so far apart in the middle of the last century that they were considered to be quite independent of each other. Since then they have been gradually approaching one another, till, in March, 1836, I had a letter from Admiral Smyth, informing me that he had seen one of the stars eclipse the other, from his observatory at Bedford.

FROM ADMIRAL SMYTH TO MRS. SOMERVILLE.

CRESCENT, BEDFORD, _March 26th, 1836_.

MY DEAR MADAM,

Knowing the great interest you take in sidereal astronomy, of which so little is yet known, I trust it will not be an intrusion to tell you of a new, extraordinary, and very unexpected fact, in the complete occultation of one "fixed" star by another, under circ.u.mstances which admit of no possible doubt or equivocation.

You are aware that I have been measuring the position and distance of the two stars [Greek: g]^1 and [Greek: g]^2 Virginis, which are both nearly of similar magnitudes, and also, that they have approximated to each other very rapidly. They were very close last year, and I expected to find they had crossed each other at this apparition, but to my surprise I find they have become a fair round disc, which my highest powers will not elongate--in fact, _a single star_! I shall watch with no little interest for the reappearance of the second [Greek: g].

My dear madam, Your truly obliged servant, W.H. SMYTH.

This eclipse was also seen by Sir John Herschel at the Cape of Good Hope, as well as by many astronomers in Europe provided with instruments of great optical power. In 1782 Sir William Herschel saw one of the stars of Zeta Herculis eclipse the other.

In the "Connexion of the Physical Sciences" I have given an abridged account of Sir John Herschel's most remarkable discoveries in the southern hemisphere; but I may mention here that he determined the position and made accurate drawings of all the nebulae that were distinctly visible in his 20 ft. telescope. The work he published will be a standard for ascertaining the changes that may take place in these mysterious objects for ages to come. Sir William Herschel had determined the places of 2,500 nebulae in the northern hemisphere; they were examined by his son, and drawings made of some of the most remarkable, but when these nebulae were viewed through Lord Rosse's telescope, they presented a very different appearance, showing that the apparent form of the nebulae depends upon the s.p.a.ce-penetrating power of the telescope, a circ.u.mstance of vital importance in observing the changes which time may produce on these wonderful objects.

[Long afterwards Lord Rosse wrote in reply to some questions which my mother had addressed to him on this subject:--]

FROM THE EARL OF ROSSE TO MRS. SOMERVILLE.

CASTLE, PARSONSTOWN, _June 12th, 1844_.

DEAR MRS. SOMERVILLE,

I have very reluctantly postponed so long replying to your inquiries respecting the telescope, but there were some points upon which I was anxious to be enabled to speak more precisely. The instrument we are now using is 3 feet aperture, and 27 feet focus, and in the greater proportion of the nebulae which have been observed with it some new details have been brought out. Perhaps the most interesting general result is that, as far as we have gone, increasing optical power has enlarged the list of cl.u.s.ters, by diminis.h.i.+ng that of the nebulae properly so-called. Such has always been the case since the nebulae have been observed with telescopes, and although it would be unsafe to draw the inference, it is impossible not to feel some expectation that with sufficient optical power the nebulae would all be reduced into cl.u.s.ters. Perhaps the two of the most remarkable of the resolved nebulae are Fig. 26 and Fig.

55. In several of the planetary nebulae we have discovered a star or bright point in the centre, and a filamentous edge, which is just the appearance which a cl.u.s.ter with a highly condensed centre would present in a small instrument. For instance, Figs. 47 and 32. We have also found that many of the nebulae have not a symmetrical form, as they appear to have in inferior instruments; for instance, Fig.

81 is a cl.u.s.ter with long resolvable filaments from its southern extremity, and Fig. 85 is an oblong cl.u.s.ter with a bright centre.

Fig. 45 is an annular nebula, like Herschel's drawing of the annular nebula in Lyra. I have sent drawings of a few of these objects to the Royal Society, they were forwarded a few days ago. We have upon the whole as yet observed but little with the telescope of 3 feet aperture. You recollect Herschel said that it was a good observing year, in which there were 100 hours fit for observing, and of the average of our hours I have not employed above 30. We have been for the last two years engaged in constructing a telescope of 6 feet aperture and 52 feet focus, and it would have been impossible to have bestowed the necessary attention upon it had we made a business of observing. That instrument is nearly finished, and I hope it will effect something for astronomy. The unequal refraction of the atmosphere will limit its powers, but how far remains to be ascertained.... Lady Rosse joins me in very kind remembrances and believe me to be,

Dear Mrs. Somerville, Yours very truly and ever, ROSSE.

[Sir John Herschel wrote to my father from the Cape:--]

FROM SIR JOHN HERSCHEL TO MR. SOMERVILLE.

FELDHAUSEN, NEAR WYNBERG, C.G.H., _July 17th, 1830_.

MY DEAR SOMERVILLE,

Since our arrival here, I have, I know in many instances, maintained or established the character of a bad correspondent; and really it is not an inconvenient character to have established. Only, in your case, I should be very sorry to appear in that, or any other negligent or naughty light; but you, I know, will allow for the circ.u.mstances which have occasioned my silence. Meanwhile, I am not sorry that the execution of an intention I had more than once formed should have been deferred, till we read in the papers of the well-judged and highly creditable notice (creditable I mean to the government _pro tempore_) which His Majesty has been pleased to take of Mrs. Somerville's elaborate works. Although the Royal notice is not quite so swift as the lightning in the selection of its objects, it agrees with it in this, that it is attracted by the loftiest; and though what she has performed may seem so natural and easy to herself, that she may blush to find it fame; all the rest of the world will agree with me in rejoicing that merit of that kind is felt and recognised at length in the high places of the earth. This, and the honourable mention of Airy by men of both parties in the House of Commons about the same time, are things that seem to mark the progress of the age we live in; and I give Peel credit for his tact in perceiving this mode of making a favourable impression on the public mind.

We are all going on very comfortably, and continue to like the Cape as a place of (temporary) residence as much or more than at first. The climate is so very delicious.... The stars are most propitious, and, astronomically speaking, I can now declare the climate to be most excellent. Night after night, for weeks and months, with hardly an interruption, of _perfect_ astronomical weather, discs of stars reduced almost to points, and tranquilly gliding across the field of your telescope. It is really a treat, such as occurs once or perhaps twice a year in England--hardly more.

I had almost forgotten that by a recent vote of the Astronomical Society I can now claim Mrs. Somerville as a _colleague_. Pray make my compliments to her in that capacity, and tell her that I hope to meet her there at some future session....

Yours very faithfully, H.W. HERSCHEL.

TO WILLIAM SOMERVILLE, ESQ.