73 2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



The whole argument of Bayle is rooted in the prophecy of Seneca. 

 He declares, " Comets are bodies subject to the ordinary law of nature, 

 and not prodigies amenable to no law." He shows historically that 

 there is no reason to regard comets as portents of earthly evils. As to 

 the fact that such evils occur after the passage of comets across the 

 sky, he compares the person believing that comets cause these evils to 

 a woman looking out of a window into a Paris street, and believing 

 that the carriages pass because she looks out. As to the accomplish- 

 ment of some predictions, he cites the shrewd saying of Henry IV, to 

 the effect that " the public will remember one prediction that comes 

 true better than all the rest that have proved false " ; finally, he sums 

 up by saying : " The more we study man, the more does it appear that 

 pride is his ruling passion, and that he affects grandeur even in his 

 misery. Mean and perishable creature that he is, he has been able to 

 persuade men that he can not die without disturbing the whole of 

 nature and obliging the heavens to put themselves to fresh expense in 

 order to light his funeral pomp. Foolish and ridiculous vanity ! If 

 we had a just idea of the universe, we should soon comprehend that 

 the death or birth of a prince is too insignificant a matter to stir the 

 heavens." * 



This great philosophic champion of right reason was followed by a 

 literary champion hardly less famous ; for Fontenelle now gave to the 

 French theatre his play of " The Comet," and a point of capital im- 

 portance in France was made by rendering the army of ignorance 

 ridiculous, f 



But the heart of the position held by the so-called " religious " party 

 was not really touched until about the beginning of the eighteenth 

 century. Then it was that the announcement of Doerfel as to the 

 parabolic paths of certain comets, and the publication of Halley's "Sy- 

 nopsis" and "Tables" foreshadowed a final victory, and the complete 

 accomplishment of the prophecy of Seneca. This victory was fully 

 gained when Halley, observing the times of the comet which now 

 bears his name, made his calculations, predicted the period of its re- 

 turn, and the prediction was fulfilled. 



Still more evident was this victory when Clairaut, in France, fore- 

 told the exact time when the coming comet would reach its perihelion, 

 and his prediction also proved true. Then it was that a Roman hea- 

 then philosopher was proved more infallible and more directly under 

 divine inspiration than a Roman Christian pontiff ; for the very comet 

 which the traveler finds to-day depicted on the Bayeux tapestry as 

 portending destruction to Harold and the Saxons at the Norman inva- 



* For special points of interest in Bayle's argument, see Bayle, " Pensees Diverses," 

 Amsterdam, 1749, pp. 79, 102, 134, 206. 



For the response to Jurieu, see " Continuation des Pensees Diverses," Rotterdam, 

 1705 ; also Champion, p. 164 ; also Lecky, as above ; also Guillemin, pp. 29, 30. 



|- See Fontenelle, cited in Champion, p. 167. 



