JOHN HERSCHEL. leading scientific men.
251
He
presently discovered that his inclinations tended more and more in the direction of
Thus it came to pass that the purely scientific pursuits. intention as to the original calling which he should follow was gradually abandoned.
Fortunately for science Her-
schel found its pursuit so attractive that he
father had been before him, to give
up
was
led, as his
his whole life to
the advancement of knowledge. Nor was it unnatural that a Senior Wrangler, who had once tasted the delights of mathematical research, should have been tempted to
devote
much time
to this fascinating pursuit.
By
the
time John Herschel was twenty-nine he had published so much mathematical work, and his researches were considered to possess so much merit, that the Royal Society awarded him the Copley Medal, which was the highest distinction it was capable of conferring.
At
the death of his father in 1822,
John Herschel, with
his tastes already formed for a scientific career, found himself in the possession of ample means. To him also
passed
all
his father's great
telescopes
and apparatus.
These material
aids, together with a dutiful sense of filial decided him to make practical astronomy the obligation, main work of his life. He decided to continue to its
completion that great survey of the heavens which had already been inaugurated, and, indeed, to a large extent accomplished, by his father.
The
first
systematic piece of practical astronomical
work
which John Herschel undertook was connected with the
measurement
of
what are known
as "
Double Stars."
It
should be observed, that there are in the heavens a number of instances in
which two
stars are seen in
very close