?2 6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



But this superstition went still further. It became more and more 

 incorporated into what was considered " scriptural science " and 

 "sound learning." The encyclopedic statements exhibiting the sci- 

 ence of the middle ages and the Reformation period furnish abundant 

 proofs of this.* 



Yet scientific truth was slowly undermining the structure : the in- 

 spired prophecy of Seneca had not been forgotten : even as far back 

 as the ninth century, in the midst of the " sacred learning " so abun- 

 dant at the court of Charlemagne and his successors, we find a scholar 

 protesting against the doctrine. f 



So, too, in the sixteenth century we have Paracelsus writing to 

 Zwingle against it ; and, in the century following, men like De Gamon 

 and Pierre Petit taking similar ground. J 



At first this skepticism only aroused the horror of theologians and 

 increased the vigor of ecclesiastics ; both asserted all the more strenu- 

 ously what they conceived to be scriptural truth. During the six- 

 teenth century France felt the influence of one of her greatest men on 

 the side of this superstition. Jean Bodin, so far before his time in 

 political theories, was as far behind it in religious theories : the same 

 reverence for the mere letter of Scripture which made him so fatally 

 powerful in supporting the witchcraft delusion led him to support this 

 theological theory of comets ; but with a difference he thought them 

 the souls of men wandering in space, bringing famine, pestilence, and 

 war.* 



In England, too, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, 

 there was at least literary acquiescence in this received doctrine of 

 comets. Both Shakespeare and Milton recognize it, whether they 

 fully accept it or not. Shakespeare makes the Duke of Bedford, la- 

 menting at the bier of Henry V, say : 



" Comets, importing change of times and states, 

 Brandish your crystal tresses in the sky; 

 And with them scourge the had revolting stars, 

 That have consented unto Henry's death." 



Milton, speaking of Satan preparing for combat, says : 



"... On the other side, 

 " Incensed with indignation, Satan stood 

 TJnterrified, and like a comet hurned, 

 That fires the length of Ophiuchus huge 

 In the Arctic sky, and from its horrid hair 

 Shakes pestilence and war." 



* See Vincent de Beauvais, and the various editions of Reisch's " Margarita Philo- 

 sophica." 



t See Champion, p. 156; also Leopardi, "Errori ropolari," p. 165. 

 \ For these exhibitions of skepticism, see Champion, pp. 155, 156. 



# See Champion, p. 89 ; also a vague citation in Baudrillart, " Vie de Bodin," 

 p. 360. 



