220 ON THE INFLUENCE OP COMETS. 



influence of a comet. The humid particles are, however, sometimes 

 so abundant, as to mollify the exhalations, and deprive the comet of 

 its malignity, which is the reason why they are not constantly 

 accompanied by some disaster. 



5. The comet is on fire ; and being composed, according to Aris- 

 totle, of earth and air, the earth is consumed, and the air is changed 

 into a very volatile fire, which ascends and hurts nobody. 



6. The earthy part is reduced to ashes, which fall to the ground 

 in the form of motes, reducing the air to still greater dryness : they 

 may employ some time in their descent, whence the famines, dis- 

 eases, and wars, may not follow immediately upon the Comet's ap- 

 pearance ; but the longer their effects are deferred, the more terri- 

 ble they will be. 



Licetus attributes the wars and deaths of princes, under such cir- 

 cumstances, to their melancholy temperament ;* others think that 

 their delicate constitution exposes them more to the Comet's influ- 

 ence ; and others, that the volatile articles which they are in the 

 habit of consuming convey to them, in particular, a greater degree 

 of the poison which they imbibe from the infected air.t 



The reader need not be alarmed at the prospect of my undertak- 

 ing the defence of this most ingenious, and connected, and satisfac- 

 tory theory, which is perfectly capable of resting upon its own merits; 

 although it has the advantage over some of the notions of the astro- 

 logers, in assigning a physical cause for the results which are stated 

 to attend upon a Comet. I shall not even assume, as a fact, that 

 Comets are accompanied by any perceptible effects whatever ; but I 

 cannot help looking upon it as probable that all the bodies in the sys- 

 tem may be connected by a common bond of mutual influence, and that 

 upon this combination of the whole may depend the welfare of every 

 individual portion ; and that the wisdom of the Creator has not only 

 made nothing in vain as far as itself is concerned, but even as re- 

 gards the system of which it forms a component part. That this is 

 the case, in instances of greater proximity, is evident to observation: 



• *• Eraste dit qu'il seroit a souhaiter que la melancholie et la bile des 

 princes fClt la vraie cause desguerres: quelquesgros de rhubarbe ^pargneroi- 

 ent bien de sang." 



•f Pingre, Comitographie^ i, 76, et seqq. 



