obtained two rooms gratis, in the house of a compassionate person, whose name I very much regret not having learnt.  Does it not appear to you, Gentlemen, that the academician Cousin, who crossed the whole of Paris, with the bread under his arm and the meat and the candle, intended for the unfortunate widow of an illustrious colleague, did himself more honour than if he had come to one of the sittings bringing in his portfolio the results of some fine scientific research?  Such noble actions are certainly worth good “Papers.”

Affairs proceeded thus up to the revolution of the 18th Brumaire.  On the 21st, the public criers were announcing everywhere, even in the street de la Sourdiere, that General Bonaparte was Consul, and M. de Laplace Minister of the Interior.  This name, so well known by the respectable widow, reached even the room that she inhabited, and caused her some emotion.  That same evening, the new minister (this was a noble beginning, Gentlemen) asked for a pension of 2000 francs for Madame Bailly.  The Consul granted the demand, adding to it this express condition, that the first half year should be paid in advance, and immediately.  Early on the 22d, a carriage stopped in the street de la Sourdiere; Madame de Laplace descends from it, carrying in her hand a purse filled with gold.  She rushed to the staircase, runs to the humble abode, that had now for several years witnessed irremediable sorrow and severe misery; Madame Bailly was at the window:  “My dear friend, what are you doing there so early?” exclaimed the wife of the minister.  “Madam,” replied the widow, “I heard the public crier yesterday, and I was expecting you!”

If after having, from a sense of duty, expatiated upon anarchical, odious, and sanguinary scenes, the historian of our civil discords has the good fortune to meet on his progress with an incident that gratifies the mind, raises the soul, and fills the heart with pleasing emotions, he stops there, Gentlemen, as the African traveller halts in an oasis!

HERSCHEL.

William Herschel, one of the greatest astronomers that ever lived in any age or country, was born at Hanover, on the 15th of November, 1738.  The name of Herschel has become too illustrious for people to neglect searching back, up the stream of time, to learn the social position of the families that have borne it.  Yet the just curiosity of the learned world on this subject has not been entirely satisfied.  We only know that Abraham Herschel, great-grandfather of the astronomer, resided at Maehren, whence he was expelled on account of his strong attachment to the Protestant faith; that Abraham’s son Isaac was a farmer in the vicinity of Leipzig; that Isaac’s eldest son, Jacob Herschel, resisted his father’s earnest desire to see him devote himself to agriculture, that he determined on being a musician, and settled at Hanover.