with fo large a family, and in a poor country too, it is not at all a matter of wonder that the education which he bestowed on his children was but fcanty. Finding, however, in William a lively and inquifitive genius, beyond what appeared in the other fons, he gave him the advantage of a French malter, under whom he made a rapid progrefs in the attainment of that language. Luckily, the tutor had a metaphyfical head, and fo fond was he of his favourite ftudy, as well as thofe branches of fcience which are connected with it, that he was defir ous of making his pupil acquainted therewith. From this worthy man young Herfchel gained a tolerable knowledge of logic, ethics, and metaphyfics; and his attainments therein excited in his mind a ftrong and infatiable thirst for learning, with the commendable refolution of exerting himself to the utmoft to improve his ftock of intellectual treasures. Thefe, indeed, were all his inheritance, except a musical inftrument, and fome manufcript mufic. With this ftore, unpromiling as it was, our adventurer bade adieu to his native country while the flames of war were fpreading around it, and arrived in London in the year 1759. Here he was loft in the crowd of candidates for employment, and we may well fuppofe that his fituation in a ftrange country, without friends, and in but indifferent circumstances, mult have been both painful and irkfome. Mr Herschel had not only a fteady but a virtuous mind. Hereby he was enabled not only to bear up with fortitude against disappointments, but to perfevere with alacrity in improving himself in an occupation, which hardly feemed to promife him a coinfortable fubfiftence. cefs must be the greater. After vifiting different places in the north of England, his good fortune brought him to Halifax, where an organist being wanted, his merits were tried, and he procured the appointment. Here he alfo taught mufic with approbation and profit. The love of learning ftill prevailed, and at this place he devoted his fpare hours to the ftudy of the languages, beginning with the Italian, on account of its intimate connection with his profeffion. From the Italian he proceeded to the Latin, in which he made an eminent progrefs. He then attempt ed the Greek, but after a little application he abandoned the ftudy of this language, confidering it as too dry and abftracted for his purpose. In thefe purfuits Mr Herschel was entirely felf-taught; and he holds out, in confequence, an excellent and pertiuent example to thofe young perfons whofe education has been circumfcribed within common limits, through the penury or narrow-mindedness of their friends. A determined heart, and perfevering application, we fee, from this inftance, will overcome obstacles that are apparently infurmountable. But it was not to the dead and living languages only that Mr Herfchel bent his ardent and refolute mind. He attempted to gain a know. lege of the most abftrufe sciences. His firft effort was to make himself mafter of the theory of harmonies; and it is obfervable, that the book which he made choice of for this purpose, was no other than the profound and intricate treatife of the learned Dr Smith upon that subject. He got through this work, however, without any affiftance; and fo great was the pleasure which he derived from it, Finding but little profpect of fuc- that he refolved upon ftudying the ceeding to his wish in the metropolis, other branches of mathematical learnhe prudently refolved upon going ing. He began with aigebra, which into the country; where mufical pro- he foon mastered; thence he proceedfeffors being few, the chance of fuc-ed to Euclid, and fo on to fluxions. Ed. Mag. May 1999. U u The The ground-work being thus laid, the ftudy of the other fciences became easy. His fituation at Halifax was favourable to his grammatical and mathematical pursuits; and it is well that he thus laid in a thorough ftock of found knowledge in what may be I called his retirement. In 1766 he exchanged this place for one of a very different defcription, being elected organist to the Octagon chapel at Bath. Here he entered at once upon a great round of profeffional bufinefs, performing at the rooms, theatre, oratorios, and public and private concerts, befides having a great number of pupils. In fuch a hurry of employment, and in the immediate circle of luxury and amusement, very few men of Mr Herschel's profeffion and age would have found time to purfue ftudies feemingly fo unprofitable and uninterefting as mathematics. So far, however, from relaxing in his fcientific ftudies, he pursued them with increafing ardour, and after a day of hard labour, he commonly retired at night to his mathematical books, and spent many hours in an unwearied attention to the most ab ftrufe queftions in geometry and Aluxions. In the Ladies' Diary, for 1780, appeared an elegant and profound anfwer by him to a very difficult prize queftion, refpecting the vibrations of a musical chord loaded in the middle with a fmall weight. About this time his ftudies were chiefly directed to optics and aftro nomy. The pleasure which he had experienced from viewing the heavens through a two-feet Gregorian telefcope, which he borrowed at Bath, made him defirous of poffeffing a complete fet of aftrónomical inftruments. His firft object was to get a larger telescope; and being ignorant of the price at which fuch inftruments are ufually charged, he defired a friend in London to buy one for him. This gentleman, furprifed at the fum demanded for the telescope, declined purchafing it till he had informed Mr Herfchel of the circumftance. Our aftronomer's aftonishment was equal to that of his friend's; but inftead of dropping his purfuit, he formed what many would have regarded as a moft romantic refolution, that of making a telefcope for himself. He did not content himself with a fpeculative idea, but from the fcanty inftructions he could gather out of optical treatises, actually fet about this arduous undertaking. Difappointment fucceeded difappointment; but all this only ferved to a&t as a ftimulus to his ardent mind, and at length his perfeverance was crowned with fuch fuccefs, that, in 1774, he enjoyed the exquifite fatisfaction of beholding the heavens through a five feet Newtonian reflector of his own workmanship. Our modern Galileo did not reft at this attainment, great as it was, but, with a laudable ambition, fet about making inftruments of a greater magnitude than had hitherto been known. After conftructing thofe of feven, and even ten feet, he thought of forming one not lefs than double the latter fize. So great was his patience, so determined his perfeverence, that in perfecting the parabolical figure of a feven-feet telescope, he did not make less than two hundred fpecula before he obtained one that would bear any power that was applied to it. While he was thus laboriously employed in his mathematical purfuits, he did not neglect the immediate duties of his profeffion. Yet fo much did his new occupation engage his mind, that he has frequently ftolen from the theatre or the concert-room to look at the ftars, and then return again in time to bear his part among the mufical performers. This conftancy to Urania was at length most bountifully rewarded, by the dif covery of a new planet in our fyftem, to to which he gave the name of Georgium Sidus; but which foreign aftronomers have generally termed Herfchel. This important difcovery was made in the night of the 13th of March, 1781. It was by no means a mere accidental circumftance which favour ed our aftronomer with the view of this planet; but the refult of a regular, patient, and scientific chain of obfervations. When he first faw it, he was not quite certain that it belonged to our fyftem; but a closer enquiry enabled him to ascertain with exactnefs its planetary difk, as well as its motion. This discovery was communicated the fame year to the Royal Society; and in confequence of it, Mr Herschel was unanimously elected a member, and had the annual gold medal beltowed upon him for his fervice to the interefts of fcience. The year following his Majesty took him under his immediate patronage, and constituted him his aftronomer, with a handfome penfion. On this he quitted Bath and his mufical inftruments, and went to live at Slough near Windfor, at a house appointed for him by his royal matter. Here he was enabled to carry on his projects with vigour, and those which had hitherto failed of fuccefs were now brought to perfection. While at Bath, he had formed the bold fcheme of conftructing a telefcope of thirty feet, and actually made feveral trials to carry his object into effect. But though he failed there, fince his refidence at Windfor he has far exceeded this defign, and completed an inftrument of no less than forty! The irregularities in the fpeculum, and the impoffibility of rendering the parts of fo enormous an inftrument as this mathematically exact, have hitherto prevented his being able to make any actual obfer vations with it. It is a vulgar error, that the discoveries of Dr. Herfchel have been occafioned by the enor U mous magnifying power of his telefcope; the fact is, that no fuch large power is neceffary, or useful; and that all Dr Herfchel's difcoveries have been made with reflectors of from ten to twenty feet, and with powers of from fixty to three hundred. His difeoveries are to be afcribed to his laudable perfeverance, and not to the fize of his great telefcope, which is rather an object of curiofity than of utility. In 1783 he difcovered a volcanic mountain in the moon, and in 1787 made further obfervations upon that planet, and found two others therein, which emitted fire from their fummits. In profecuting his enquiries refpecting his own planet (if we may be allowed fo to exprefs ourselves), he has difcovered it to be furrounded with rings, and to have fix fatellites. For all these important additions to the ftock of national knowledge, our aftronomer had the honour of receiving from the univerfity of Oxford the degree of a Doctor of Laws; which is the more creditable, as that learned body is very fparing of its academic honours upon perfons who have not been educated within its walls. Dr. Herfchel has been a regular contributor to the Philofophical Tranfactions ever fince his firft communication in 1781, respecting his difcovery of the new planet. Some of his papers are extremely curious; and he has hazarded a few bold conjectures respecting the fun, and other planetary bodies, which would hardly have been received from a lefs accu. rate obferver. In his aftronomical purfuits the doctor is materially affifted by his fifter, Mifs Caroline Herfchel, who has diftinguished herself greatly by her application to this fublime study, and has communicated to the Royal Society fome very ingenious reports of obfervations made by her upon the ftarry orbs. u 2 Dr. Dr Herschel is a man of unaffum ing manners, a free, communicative, and pleasant companion; and enjoys that vigour of conftitution which is fo effential to an aftronomical obferv. er in a climate like that of England. It may be hoped, that his name will endure as long as the planetary sys, tem, to illuftrate which he has devoted his life. OBSERVATIONS ON THE ORIGIN OF THE CRUSADES; From the Introduction to the Literary Hiftory of the 14th and 15th centuries. PILGRIMAGES to Jerufalem were recommended and practifed in the Chriftian church, almoft from the time of its eftablishment under Conftantine, either as the performance of an oath, or the completion of a penance. They were not difconti nued after the divifion and extinction of the Western Empire, for its barbarous conquerors had become Chrif tians, and encouraged, as we might expect, the narrow ideas of local devotion. Even the Arabians, however different in language, manners, and religion, patronized, and fometimes themselves made thefe pilgrimages to the holy fepulchre. Haroun al Rafchid fent the key of the temple to Charlemagne, to fhew it would never be elofed against the Chriftian worshipper. Few hardships or oppreffions appear to have been fuffered by thefe pious travellers, till the fettlement of the Turks of the tribe of Seljiuk in Paleftine. Their grofs exactions and brutal violence raised the murmurs and cries of the pilgrims, and finally roufed the indignation of Europe. The idea of uniting the force of the Weft, and turning it upon Afia, seems to have entered into the extenfive views of the celebrated Gerbert; but it was ftruck out more fully and completely by the powerful mind of Gregory the Seventh. As a Chrif tian, he might hope that a general armament would extinguish those private wars which defolated Europe, and for which no remedy could be found. As a politician, we may ad mit his fpeculations on the probable reduction of the fortunes of the great in a foreign foil, and the confequent increase of a legal prerogative; and as an Italian, he might fee the hitherto fruftrated hopes of driving the Arabians entirely out of his country ripening into a certainty. Though it was his character to be fanguine, his imagination faintly grafped the future reality, when, in a letter to the Emperor Henry the Fourth, he talks of heading an army of fifty thoufand men in the profecution of this great defign. The juftice of it entered very little into his confideration, or of his fucceffor Urban the Second; and it would be doing too much credit to the penetration of either to fuppofe they fuperftructed, on the fuccefs of these Afiatic expeditions, a civil defpotifm and a religious infallibility. No refpect to science or letters, no hope of advanc ing the arts, improving the manners, and increafing the comforts of society, found in their cabinets, friends, or advocates. Their prefent and future advantages were alike unexpected and unwifhed; and it becomes interefting to confider how the ignorance and fanaticifm of the age, under the agency of Providence, were preparing materials for the triumph of learning and religion. Urban made the firft appeal to the paffions of a ferocious, and the prejudices of a fuperftitious age. How fuccefsful it proved I need not say; but must be permitted to think, that at a period when armies could rise, as it were, out of the earth at the cries of a monk, or even at the elo quence - quence of a pope; when men could believe that the only road to falva tion was the affumption of the Crofs, and the only fympathy of the heart for the fuffering pilgrims of Paleftine, at fuch a period, I muft prefume that no intercourfe could be opened with the Eaft, which would not prove in the highest degree advantageous to the wants and igno. rance of the Weft. This I am now to explain; but in contemplating the benefits imparted by this communication, we must admit into our calculation the general effect and final refult of all the Crufades, which occupy near a face of two hundred years. Of ore, or of two, the fer vices might have been loft, and the impreffion effaced; their continuance gave birth to new improvements and permanence to the old. Some particular circumftances feem to have occurred in each, which, as illuftrative of our fubject, it will be neceffary to ftate. The firft Crufade is memorable for the prodigious numbers it inrolled in its defperate fervice, when age forgot its weakness, delicacy its fex, and childhood its fears. Not less than a million are fuppofed to have borne arms; but fuch were their misfortunes, their follies, or their crimes, that when their ftandard was unfurl. ed on the banks of the Jordan, their diminished but fearless number scarcely exceeded twenty thoufand foot and fifteen hundred horfe. With this inadequate force they befieged and took the holy city; but the glo. rious prize was dishonoured by the moft atrocious cruelty. The fruits of the firft Crufade ill repaid its lofs and expence, and are comprifed in the little kingdom of Jerufalem, whofe duration was bounded by a term of fourfcore years. However, the holy war continued to be recommended in the letters of the pope, and the fermons of the clergy, as the affair of God and of Chrift, in which defeat was glory, death, martyrdom, and Paradife, the reward alike of victory or repulfe. About fifty years after the first, a fecond Crufade was preached by St Bernard, who proved himself a falfe prophet, and an ignorant politician; but the court of Rome profited from his labours, and has canonifed his memory. The Emperor Conrad and Louis the Seventh were the principal actors in the disgraceful fcenes of this new undertaking, which awakened the fears, and ought to have extinguifhed the hopes, of the powers of Europe. However, the fatal experiment of their predeceffors had fuggefted the fafer expedient of a voyage into the Eaft, and the fea-ports of Italy were henceforward repaired to for that purpofe. And here, to follow the progrefs of the crufaders, we must admit that, whether they ftopped at Genoa, Pifa, or Venice, they found greater knowledge and more cultivated manners than they left behind them. Italy ftill fupported the honours of her ancient name. More learned, more affluent, more. luxurious than any of the European kingdoms, fhe ftood forward an inftructrefs, and an example; and there was hardly a want, intellectual or moral, a fentiment of taste or a senfation of curiofity, which he could not at once excite and gratify. This is an undisputed fact; and thus thefe rude adventurers were prefented with the moft ftriking opportunities of improvement on the very outfet of their undertaking. Their next progrefs was to the metropolis of the Eaft. The Greeks, however ill they might bear a comparifon with their ancestors, appear to infinite advantage when contrafted with their western cotemporaries. The declining power of the Abaffides had afforded a few fpirited princes amongst them the means of reviving the long dormant fpirit of military enterprife; and their conquefts were |