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ON THE INFLUENCE OP COMETS. 



« Canst thou the skies* benevolence restrain, 

 And cause the Pleiades to shine in vain ? 

 Or, when Orion sparkles from bis sphere. 

 Thaw the cold season, and unbind the year ? 

 Bid Mazzaroth his destined station know. 

 And teach the bright Arcturus where to glow ? 

 Mine is the night, with all her stars ; I pour 

 Myriads, and myriads I reserve in store." — Young. 



A CONSIDERABLE proportion of the public may, perhaps, think 

 that this is a subject which might safely be left in the hands of 

 Mr. Francis Moore ; — a sentiment in which that personage, for 

 a very different reason, may, probably, acquiesce. It may, how- 

 ever, happen that a popular opinion, exploded and derided by 

 the scientific, and cherished by those who make an unworthy gain 

 of the superstitious terrors of mankind, may be established upon a 

 more solid foundation than either party are aware of. What ! — the 

 reader will exclaim, are we then to have a defence of the contemptible 

 follies of judicial astrology ? — by no means ; but it does not follow 

 that because Comets and other celestial bodies have no astrological 

 influence, they have, therefore, no influence at all. The character 

 of science in the present day, is somewhat dogmatical and assuming; 

 we are rather in danger of dictating to Omnipotence the laws and 

 rules by which alone the world must be governed ; and we are ex- 

 cessively unwilling to believe that there can be anything, either in 

 heaven or earth, that is not only not dreamt of, but not ascertained 

 and fathomed to the uttermost, in our philosophy. This tendency 

 to deny what we cannot demonstrate, — to disbelieve what we can- 

 not comprehend, is less characteristic of the spirit of true knowledge 

 than of a self-complacency which is the natural inmate of the heart 

 of man, springing from ignorance alike of himself and of his Maker. 

 The bold assertion that Comets have not, and cannot possibly have, 

 any influence whatever upon the earth, appears to be, in some mea- 

 sure, the fruit of this '^philosophic pride ;" and though more justi- 

 fiable, yet little more unquestionable, than the confident predictions 

 of those who pretend to penetrate into futurity, from the aspect of 

 the heavens. In answer to this assertion, my object is not to shew 



