722 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ish legends a star appeared at the birth of Moses,* and was seen by 

 the Magi of Egypt,f who informed the king ; and when Abraham was 

 born an unusual star aj>peared in the east. The Greeks and Romans 

 held similar traditions. \ A heavenly light accompanied the birth of 

 ^sculapius, and the births of various Csesars were heralded in like 

 manner. 



As to the nature of these heavenly bodies, the fathers of the Chris- 

 tian Church were divided. Origen thought them living creatures pos- 

 sessed of souls, and the belief was thought warranted by the beautiful 

 Song of the Three Children which the Anglican communion has so 

 wisely retained in its liturgy. Other fathers of the Church thought 

 the stars abiding-places of the angels, and that shooting-stars were 

 moved by angelic hands. Philo Judseus believed the stars benefi- 

 cent spirits, and this belief was widely held by Jews, Greeks, and 

 Christians. Among the Mohammedans we have curious examples of 

 the same tendency toward a kindly interpretation of stars and meteors, 

 in the belief of certain Mohammedan teachers that meteoric showers 

 are caused by good angels hurling missiles to drive evil angels out 

 of the sky. # 



As to eclipses, they were regarded in a very different light, and 

 were supposed to express the distress of Nature at earthly calamities. 

 The Greeks believed that darkness overshadowed the earth at the 



* As to traditions regarding stars at the births of Moses and Abraham, see Calraet's 

 " Fragments," part viii ; also, the Rev. Baring-Gould's " Legends of Old Testament Char- 

 acters" (London, 1871), chap, xxiv; also, Farrar's "Life of Christ" (American edition), 

 chap. iii. 



f For the general subject, see Higgins's " Anacalypsis " ; also, Ilooykaas, Ort and 

 Kuehnen (the Bible for learners), vol. iii. 



X For similar appearances in Greece and Rome, see Bell's " Pantheon," article " JEs- 

 culapius"; also, Luc. i, 529; Suet. Ca?s., 88; Seneca, "Nat. Qusest.," i, 1; Virgil's "Ec- 

 logues," 9, 47. 



* As to movement of stars by angels, see Leopardi, " Errori Popolari." 



As to the feeling of the fathers, see Origen's " De Principiis," vol. i, p. 129 ; also 

 Philo Judaeus. 



As to meteoric showers caused by struggles between good and bad angels, see Watson 

 and Guillemin on Comets. 



For Atreus, et aL, see Cox's "Tales of Ancient Greece," pp. 41, 61, 62; Higgins's 

 " Anacalypsis," vol. i, p. 322 ; Bell's " Pantheon," article " Atreus." 



For the legend regarding darkness at the death of Romulus, see Higgins, vol. i, pp. 

 616, 617. 



For legends regarding portents at the birth, death, and downfall of the Caesars, see 

 Suetonius, Vit. xii Ca3S., cap. xxxvi ; also, Josephus, book xiv, chap, xii, and note. 



Also, for these and similar cases, see Virgil, Ovid, Pliny, and other Roman historians 

 and poets; also, niggins, as above; Gibbon's "Rome," vol. i, pp. 159, 590; Farrar's 

 " Life of Christ," p. 52. 



On Nero, see Tacitus's " Annals," book xiv, chap. xxii. 



For portents at the death of Charles I, see sermon preached before Charles II, cited 

 in Lecky's " History of England in the Eighteenth Century," vol. i, p. 65. 



For the belief in general, see Leopardi, " Errori Popolari," cap. xi. 



For eclipses, Phra Rahu, et aL, see Alabaster, " Wheel of the Law," p. 11. 



