THE MOSAIC DELUGE. 



there, then, reason to suppose tliat at either of those periods a 

 great comet had appeared ? 



Among the comets observed by modern astronomers, that of 

 1680 may, from its brilliancy, without hesitation, be placed in the 

 first rank. 



A great many historians, both native and foreign, mention a 

 rery large comet, in similitude to the blaze of the sun, having an 

 immense train, which appeared in the year 1106. In ascending 

 still higher, we find a very large and terrific comet designated by 

 the Byzantine writers by the name of Lampadias, because it 

 resembled a burning lamp, the appearance of which may be fixed 

 in the year 531. A comet appeared in the month of September, 

 in the year of the death of Caesar, during the games given by the 

 Emperor Augustus to the Roman people. That comet was very 

 brilliant, as it became visible from the eleventh hour of the day, 

 that is, about five o'clock in the evening, or before sunset. Its date 

 is in the year 43 before our era. 



Let us, then, compare the dates of these appearances : 



From 1106 to 1680 we find .... 574 years. 

 ,, 531 1106 .... 575 



,, 43 B.C. to 531 we find . . . 575 ,, 



These periods may be regarded as equal to each other, and 

 thence it appeared probable enough that the comets of the death of 

 Caesar, of 531, of 1106, and of 1680, have been only the reappear- 

 ances of one and the same comet, which, after having run through 

 its orbit after having made its complete revolution in about five 

 hundred and seventy-five years became again visible from the 

 earth. Then if the period of five hundred and seventy-five years 

 is multiplied by four, we have twenty -three hundred, which, 

 added to 43, the date of C&sar's comet, gives, with the difference 

 of only six years, the epoch of the deluge, resulting from the 

 modern Hebrew text. In multiplying by five, the date of the 

 Septuagint is found "within eight years. 



If we recollect the marked differences of the comet of 1759 in 

 the period of its revolution round the sun, we shall acknowledge 

 that Whiston might legitimately have felt authorised to suppose 

 that the great comet of 1680, or of the death of Caesar, was near 

 the earth at the period of Xoah's deluge, and that it had some 

 part in that great phenomenon. 



~SVe shall not stop to explain minutely the series of transforma- 

 tions by which the earth, which, according to TThiston, was 

 originally a comet, became the globe we now inhabit. It is 

 enough to observe that he considered the nucleus of the earth as 

 a hard and compact substance, which was the ancient nucleus of 



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