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Remarks on the Tails of Comets. « 67. 
established laws of nature, as if a mystical or spiritual nature 
were unreservedly acknowledged to belong to them. In early 
ages, it was in keeping with the prevailing ‘superstition of the 
times to speak of a comet, that “it came out of an opening in 
the heavens, with blue feet like a dragon, and a head covered 
with snakes ; in its length it was:a bloody color, inclining to saf- 
fron. From,the top%6f its train appeared a bended arm, in the 
hand whereof was a huge sword, in the instant posture of stri- 
king. At the point of the sword was a star. From the star pro- 
ceeded dusky rays, like a hairy tail; on the side of them, other 
rays like javelins or lesser swords, as if imbrued in blood; be- 
tween which appeared human faces of the color of blackish clouds, 
with rough hair and beards.” But who would believe that with- 
in twelve years, a work has been published in England, the au- 
thor of which traced so direct a connection between the motion 
of the comet of 1811 and the military movements of Napoleon, - 
that he denounced all persons that denied to comets the character 
of special messengers from Heaven, as insulters of Divine Wis- 
mB 
The several causes which I have adduced in explanation of the 
deviation of the tail from a direction exactly opposite to the sun, 
will be deemed, I think, a sufficient illustration of the phenome- 
non; indeed, recent writers have scarcely alluded to the circum- 
stance. “From the head,” says the younger Herschel, “and in 
a direction Opposite to that in which the sun is situated from the 
_ Comet, appear to diverge two streams of light,” &c.t “The tails 
of comiets,”” says Olmsted, ‘‘ extend in a direct line from the sun, 
though they are usually more or less curved.’’} 
~~ Ithink it will be conceded, that if the tails of comets consist 
not of matter foreign to the medium in which they move, the the- 
ory which bhave advanced must be true; at any rate, that the tails 
of comets are but augmented solar light. Let us then institute an 
Inquiry relative to their materiality. The period has long gone 
7 since a doubt has existed in the minds of astronomers on the 
subject of Universal Gravitation. Discovered by Newton, and 
demonstrated by himself and Laplace, it is no longer an hypothe- 
(Ora mere theory; it is truth, sublime and. immutable,—not 
* Milne’s Prize Essay, p. 181. t Treatise on Ast., p. 284. 
+ Introduction to Astronomy, p. 233. 
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