HALLEY'S COMET. ]77 



has received the name of Halley's comet. We now propose to lay before the 

 reader the history of this celebrated comet. 



In retracing the history of a body of this nature so far as we can collect it 

 from ancient chroniclers and historians, it is necessary to bear in mind that ? 

 the terror which the appearance of comets inspired, had a tendency to produce 

 an exaggeration of their effects. The propensity to ascribe to supernatural 

 causes, effects which the understanding fails to account for, has rendered 

 comets peculiarly objects of superstitious terror. Thev have been accordingly 

 regarded in past ages as the harbingers of war, pestilence, and famine, and of 

 all the greatest scourges which have visited the human race. But more es- 

 pecially they have presided at the birth and death of the most celebrated 

 heroes. Thus, a conspicuous body of this kind appeared for several days suc- 

 ceeding 'be death of Julius Caesar, and was regarded as the soul of that illus- 

 trious f *. './transferred to the heavens. Another was seen at Constantinople 

 in the year of the birth of Mohammed. It is obvious, that under the influence 

 of such powerful prejudices, the circumstances attending these appearances 

 would naturally ba amplified and exaggerated ; and the probability of exag- 

 geration is inci eased by the fact that since science has shed its light upon the 

 civilized world, these terrible objects have, in a great degree, disappeared, and 

 comets have dwindled for the most part into very insignificant appearances. 

 One of the ill consequences of this exaggeration is, that it greatly increases 

 the difficulty of identifying the bodies which have been described with those 

 which have appeared in more recent times. In fact, we have little more to 

 guide us than the epochs of the respective appearances ; and, antecedently to 

 the fifteenth century, we possess absolutely no other evidence of the identity 

 of these bodies except the record of their appearance at the times at which we 

 know, from their ascertained periods, they ought to have appeared. Adopting 

 this test of identity, it would seem at least probable that the first recorded ap- 

 pearance of Halley's comet was that which was supposed to signalize the 

 birth of Christ. It is said to have appeared for twenty-four days ; its light is 

 described to have surpassed that of the sun ; its magnitude to have extended 

 over a fourth part of the firmament ; and it is stated to have occupied conse- 

 quently about four hours in rising and setting. 



In t h e year 323, a comet appeared in the sign Virgo. Another, according 

 to the historians of the Lower Empire, appeared in the year 399, seventy five 

 years after the last ; this last interval being the period of Halley's comet. 



The interval between the birth of Mithridates and the year 323 was four 

 hundred and fifty-three years, which would be equivalent to six periods of sev- 

 enty-five and a half years. Thus, it would seem, that in the interim there were 

 five returns of this comet unobserved, or at least unrecorded. The appearance 

 in the year 399 was attended with extraordinary circumstances. In the T/ie- 

 atrum Cumetarum of Lobienietski, it is described as cometa prodigiosa magni- 

 tudinis, hornbilis aspectu, comam, ad terrain usque demittere visus. The next 

 recorded appearance of a comet agreeing with the ascertained period, marks 

 the taking of Rome by Totila in the year 550 ; an interval of one hundred and 

 fifty-one years, or two periods of seventy-five and a half years, having elapsed. 

 One unrecorded term must, therefore, have taken place in this interim. The 

 next appearance of a comet coinciding with the assigned period is three hun- 

 dred and eighty years afterward, viz., in the year 930, five revolutions having 

 been completed in the interval. The next appearance is recorded in the year 

 1005, after an interval of a single period of seventy-five years. Three revo- 

 lutions would now seem to have passed unrecorded, when the comet again 

 makes its appearance in 1230. In this, as well as in former appearances, it is 

 to state once more, that the sole test of identity of these comets with that 



L, 



