d 5OTES. 



" comets belong to the number of those planets which, like Mercury, are a 

 long time before they cau become visible by ascending above the horizon in 

 their course." In the very fragmentary Pseudo-Plutarch it is said that comets 

 "rise at fixed periods after having completed their course." Many things 

 respecting the nature of comets contained in scattered writings of Arrian, of 

 whom Stobaeus might have made use, and of Charimander, whose name 

 alone has been preserved by Seneca and Pappus, have been lost to us. Sto- 

 baeus cites as the opinion of the Chaldseans (Eclog. lib. i. cap. 25, p. 61, 

 Christ. Piantinus), " that comets are so rarely visible because in their long 

 course they hide themselves far away from us in the depths of aether (or of 

 space), like fishes in the depths of the ocean." The most pleasing, and, not- 

 withstanding the rhetorical colouring of the passage, the soundest remarks, 

 and most consonant with our present opinions on the subject of comets, which 

 we meet with among ancient writers, are by Seneca. We read iu Nat. 

 Q,uaest. lib. vii. cap. 22, 25, and 31 : " Non enim existimo cometcm subita- 

 neurn ignein, sed inter seterna opera naturae. Quid enim miraraur, cometas, 

 tarn rarum muridi spectaculum, nondum teneri legibus certis ? nee initia 

 illorum finesque patescere, quorum ex iugentibus intervallis recursus est ? 



Nondnm sunt anni quiugenti, ex quo Graeci stellis numeros et nornina 



fecit. Multseque hodie sunt gentes, quae tantum facie noverint cselum, quse 

 nondum eciant, cur luna deficiat, quare obumbretur. Hoc apud nos quoque 

 nuper ratio ad certum perduxit. Veniet tempus, quo ista, quae nunc latent, 

 in lucem dies extrahat et longioris sevi diligentia. Veniet tempus, quo posteri 

 nostri tarn aperta nos nescisse mirentur. Eleusis servat, quod ostendat revi- 

 aputibus. Rerum natura sacra sua non simul tradit. Initiates nos credimus ; 

 in vestibulo ejus hseremus. Ilia arcana non promiscue uec omnibus patent, 

 reducta et in interiore clausa sunt. Ex quibus aliud hsec setas, aliud quae 

 post nos subibit, despiciet. Tarde magna proveaiunt." 



( 679 ) p. 421. The spectacle of the starry heavens presents to our view 

 objects not contemporaneous : much has long since disappeared, even before 

 it became visible to our eyes, and in much the order and arrangement have 

 changed. (Kosmos, Bd. i. S. 161 and 416 ; Bd. iii. S. 90 and 125 : Engl. 

 edit. Vol. i. p. 145 and xxxix. ; Vol. iii. p. 72 and xxx. Compare Bacou, 

 Nov. Organ. Lond. 1733, p. 371 ; and William Herschel, in the Phil. Trans, 

 for 1802, p. 498.) 



