Views of the architecture of the heavens / By J.P. Nichol.

  • Nichol, J. P. (John Pringle), 1804-1859.
Date:
1843
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Views of the architecture of the heavens / By J.P. Nichol. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    SIR WILLIAM HERSCHEL. O formerly of limited range, suddenly assumed a capability of sounding profundities never reached before ; and the Man in whose hands it took on this new efficiency, was possessed of a genius to which all opportunities could be entrusted, for it was adequate to the highest. The rise of Sir William Herschel marks the first, and still the greatest epoch of the modern Astrono¬ my. He was struck for a discoverer in the finest mould. Mingling boldness with a just modesty, a thirsting after large and general views with a peculiar sensitiveness in regard of existing analo¬ gies, and a habit of most scrupulous and dutiful obedience to their intimations—he was precisely the man first to quit paths which, through fami¬ liarity, were common and safe, and to guide us into regions, dim and remote, where the mind, as a lamp to itself, must walk entirely by lights which stream from internal fountains. There is one infallible mark of the rise of an original mind. When vou see a man in the midst of his contemporaries, not contesting opinions—- not quarrelling—but quietly, and without either ostentation or fear, proceeding to resolve, by rea¬ son, subjects which had hitherto been in possession of “ common belief,’1 — be certain that a signal