As an astronomer in the true sense of the term, Sir John Herschel stood before all his contemporaries. Nay, he stood almost alone.
Richard A. Proctor (1872). “Essays on astronomy: a series of papers on planets and meteors, the sun and sun-surrounding space, stars and star cloudets, and a dissertation on the approaching transits of venus : preceded by a scetch of the life and work of Sir John Herschel”, p.1
