126 ON COMETS. 



made out from the imperfect records we possess of their 

 courses, with that of the comet in question. The next 

 return, on this supposition, would have fallen about the 

 year 1846 or 1847. It did not, however, appear at that 

 epoch, nor in any subsequent year up to the present 

 time, although, from some very elaborate calculations by 

 Mr Hind and Professor Bomme (too elaborate, it would 

 appear, to have been bestowed on the imperfect records 

 we possess of its previous history) it should have been 

 delayed by planetary perturbations for several years be- 

 yond that date, and even so late as to the year 1858 

 or 1860. 



(42.) Accordingly, when the three great comets, whose 

 arrival in and since the year 1858 has so surprised and 

 delighted the astronomical world, made their successive 

 appearances, there were few persons at all acquainted 

 with cometary history whose first impression was not 

 that of the return of " Hind's Comet," as it had grown 

 to be called, from the eminent calculator and mathe- 

 matician who had bestowed so much pains on it. This, 

 however, it is needless to observe, was not the case. 

 Neither of them had ever been seen before, nor can 

 either of them ever be expected to appear again, unless 

 to a posterity which may look back on our record of 

 them as we do on those ancient Chinese annals already 

 spoken of. Of these, by far the most magnificent 

 in point of mere display, as well as the most inter- 

 esting, when contemplated in a physical point of view, 

 was that of 1858 (the fifth of that year), or Donates 

 comet, as it is now called, from the astronomer of that 



