228 ON THE INFLUENCE OF COMETS. 



incongruous an aspect as a paltry Chinese pagoda beside the solidity 

 and elegance of a towering cathedral.* 



A subject of this nature requires to be discussed upon its own 

 merits: the highest authority may not be the safest guide; and 

 those ancient lords of the intellectual reign, whose names we revere, 

 were frequently deficient in that degree of information which is 

 necessary in order to form a. correct decision. Yet how can I refer 

 without pride, to the sentiments of Bacon and of Newton in support 

 of the view which I have taken? It was the opinion of the former, 

 that " comets have some power and effect over the gross and mass 

 of things ;" while the latter explicitly states his suspicion, that the 

 exhalations of comets are instrumental in restoring the humidity, 

 which he supposes to diminish, upon the surface of the earth, and 

 that from them may proceed the supply of that refined spirit, — the 

 least, but purest part of our air, — which is requisite for the exis- 

 tence of all vitality .t The erroneous nature of this conjecture is 

 immediately apparent; but it is, at the same time, evident that 

 neither of these fathers of science considered a belief in the influ- 

 ence of comets to be an indication of unbridled extravagance, of 

 illiterate prejudice, or of imbecile superstition. 



M. Arago has stated, that a comet can act on the earth only in 

 three manners ; — ^by attraction, by its luminous and calorific rays, 

 or by the union of its tail with the atmosphere of the earth. It 

 will be seen that the line of argument which has been taken, re- 

 duces his assertion to a mere petitio principii. His inferences, how- 

 ever, are well worthy of attention. Having shewn that the results 

 produced by the two former causes would be insensible, he adds, 

 that not only cometary matter may fall into our atmosphere, but 



• It is highly gratifying to me, to find that a sentiment remarkably similar 

 was expressed by Tycho Brahe: " Astrologorum vanitatem, inertiam, igna- 

 viam, et sordes plurimum et deridere et detestari est solitus : sic tarn en, ut 

 siderum effectus in sublunaribus partem philosophise praestantissimam nequa- 

 qiiam negaret : gnarus efieetus ilios siderum generales, ab eventibus ipsis in 

 rebus humanis individuis, accuratissimo judicio distinguere." — Vita, a Gas- 

 sendoj p. 187. 



The prediction of Fromond, (who was no friend to astrology), and Pingre''s 

 comment upon it, deserve insertion : "La comete de 1618 a annonce et doit 

 op^rer un grand d^sastre, la ruine entiere de la Philosophie d'Aristote. C'est 

 la seule prediction, fondde sur les apparitions des comdtes, qui ait 6t6 bien 

 certainement accomplie." — Cometographie, i., 104. 



t Milne's Essay, pp. 112, 180. 



