An occupation for an independent gentleman: Astronomy in the life of John Herschel

Abstract

Sir John Frederick William Herschel occupies a pivotal position in the history of British astronomy (1). He formed the living link between two styles or traditions of science by being the last major specimen of one breed, and the inspiration and intellectual role model for the generation that would follow. For John Herschel was perhaps the last significant figure to devote himself wholly and full-time to fundamental research in astronomy and its related sciences on the strength of a private fortune. And while the stature that he enjoyed did much to stimulate the concept of the ‘professional’ astronomer in Britain, so many of these men of the rising generation who admired his thorough-going dedication to science were themselves more obviously professional in the respect that they earned their livings through academic science. One sees in him, therefore, an eclectic blend of attitudes towards what science was, how it should be pursued, and how it should be paid for.