VARIOUS COMETS. 



clock in Scotland, by the fall of a meteoric stone ; to another, the 

 prevalence of flocks of wild pigeons in America ; to another, 

 remarkable eruptions of Etna and Vesuvius. The authors who, at 

 great labour of research, rake together such incidents, make a vain 

 display of erudition, and, as M. Arago wittily observed, are under 

 a delusion similar to that of a lady mentioned by Bayle, who never 

 looked out of the window of her apartment, situated in the greatest 

 thoroughfare of Paris, and saw the street filled with carriages, 

 without imagining that her appearance at the window was the 

 cause of the crowd. 



The celebrated traveller, Eiippel, writing from Cairo, on the 8th 

 of October, 1825 (in which year three comets appeared), observed 

 that " the Egyptians thought the comet then visible was the cause 

 of the shocks of an earthquake which were felt in that country on 

 the 21st of August, and that the same object exercised so malig- 

 nant an influence on some of the lower animals, that horses and 

 asses perished in great numbers. The truth was, that the poor 

 animals died of starvation, the deficiency of the overflowings of the 

 Nile having produced a scarcity of their forage." 



"If I were not restrained by considerations of politeness,'* 

 observed M. Arago, "I should find no difficulty in proving that, 

 as far as respects astronomical information, there are other Egyp- 

 tians beside those which are found on the banks of the Nile." 



Physical effects are not the only influences imputed to comets. 

 The comet now so familiarly known to the public as that of Halley, 

 and whose last periodical re-appearance took place in 1835, appeared 

 with extraordinary splendour in 1305, being described as " Cometa 

 horrendce magnitudinis visus est circa ferias paschatis, quern secuta 

 est pestilentia maxima." Thus, as usual, the great plague was 

 laid to the account of this body. 



The next visit but one which the same comet paid to the solar 

 system was in 1456, when it is represented as having an " unheard- 

 of magnitude," and as having a tail which extended over sixty 

 degrees of the heavens, being two-thirds of the distance from the 

 zenith to the horizon. It was visible thus during the month of 

 June, and spread terror throughout Europe. It was regarded as 

 presaging the rapid success of the Turks under Mohammed II., 

 who had taken Constantinople, advanced to the walls of Vienna, 

 and struck terror into the whole Christian world. Pope Calixtus II., 

 terrified for the fate of Christianity, directed the thunders of the 

 Church against the enemies of the faith terrestrial and celestial, 

 and in the same bull exorcised the Turks and the comet ; and in 

 order to perpetuate this manifestation of the power of the Church, 

 he ordained that the bells should be rung at noon, a custom still 

 observed in Catholic countries. Neither the progress of the 



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