NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 731 



He then notices the eclipse of August, 1672, and adds : "That year 

 the college was eclipsed by the death of the learned president there, 

 worthy Mr. Chauncey ; and two colonies, namely, Massachusetts and 

 Plymouth, by the death of two governors, who died within a twelve- 

 month after. . . . Shall, then, such mighty works of God as comets 

 are be insignificant things ? " 



Vigorous as his argument is, we see skepticism regarding " signs " 

 continuing to invade the public mind ; and, in spite of his threaten- 

 ings, about twenty years after, we find a remarkable evidence of this 

 progress in the fact that this skepticism has seized upon no less a per- 

 sonage than that colossus of orthodoxy, his thrice illustrious son, Cot- 

 ton Mather himself ; and him we find, in 1726, despite the arguments 

 of his father, declaring in his " Manuductio " : " Perhaps there may be 

 some need for me to caution you against being dismayed at the signs 

 of the heavens, or having any superstitious fancies upon eclipses and 

 the like. ... I am willing that you be apprehensive of nothing por- 

 tentous in blazing stars. For my part, I know not whether all our 

 worlds, and even the sun itself, may not fare the better for them." * 



Curiously enough, for this scientific skepticism in Cotton Mather, 

 there was a cause identical with that which had developed supersti- 

 tion in the mind of his father. The same provincial tendency to re- 

 ceive implicitly any new idea from abroad wrought upon both, plung- 

 ing one into superstition and drawing the other out of it. First among 

 the more important reasonings against the prevailing superstition 

 were those of Gassendi. Early in the seventeenth century, by strictly 

 scientific process, he arrived at the conclusion that comets are outside 

 the earth's atmosphere, and then made a strong argument from com- 

 mon sense that there is nothing to prove them hostile to the happi- 

 ness of mankind. f 



But, toward the end of the same century, the subject was taken 

 up by Pierre Bayle. He attacked the old theory from the side of 

 philosophy. While professor at the University of Sedan he had ob- 

 served the alarm caused by the comet of 1680, and he now brought 

 all his reasoning powers to bear upon it. Thoughts deep and witty 

 he poured out in volume after volume ; Catholics and Protestants 

 were alike scandalized : Catholic France spurned him, and Jurieu, the 

 great reformed divine, tried hard to have Protestant Holland do like- 

 wise. Though Bayle did not touch immediately the mass of mankind, 

 he wrought with power upon men who gave themselves the trouble of 

 thinking. It was indeed unfortunate for the Church that theologians, 

 instead of taking the initiative in this matter, left it to Bayle ; for, in 

 tearing down the pretended scriptural doctrine of comets, he tore 

 down much else : of all men in his time, no one so thoroughly pre- 

 pared the way for Voltaire. 



* See " Manuductio," pp. 54, 55. 



f For Gassendi, see Miidler, ii, 397, and Champion, 93-95. 



