THE SIDEREAL UNIVERSE. 755 



Although the vulgar cannot fathom all the mysteries 

 of the heavens, their imagination receives some compensa- 

 tion in the strange fancies which comets engender, as 

 they have always enjoyed the privilege of creating ecstasy 

 or horror. 



The history of these wandering stars, from the begin- 

 ning to the end, is really only a determined abnegation of 

 the evidence of our senses and the testimony of the masses. 

 In respect to them fiction has been pushed to the wildest 

 extravagance. In every age comets have been considered 

 as sinister omens. In ages of credulity their gleaming 

 tails appeared to the vulgar like formless heaps of flaming 

 swords or bleeding heads and daggers, precursors of the 

 most murderous wars. At other times the fascinated 

 imagination of our forefathers saw in them hairy stars 

 which threatened the world with a general conflagration. 



Such erroneous ideas were so deeply rooted in men's 

 minds that some learned men of the Eenaissance, even 

 the most advanced, represent comets in their works under 

 the most grotesque shapes ; a fault of which even Ambroise 

 Pare is guilty.^ 



Kepler himself, though an eminent astronomer, was so 



^ In Ambroise Pare we may see to what an extent even the shrewdest men 

 allowed themselves to be misled respecting comets. The illustrious surgeon, 

 who was certainly not superstitious, gives in his valuable work most fantastic 

 figures of some of these stars. 



In the chapter entitled "Des Monstres Celestes," Ambroise Pare speaks of 

 bearded and hairy comets, of comets like a shield, a lance, a dragon, or a battle 

 in the clouds. And he there describes and represents in all its details a bleeding 

 comet which appeared in 1528. "This comet," he says, "was so horrible and 

 frightful, and engendered such terror among the vulgar, that some died of fear, 

 and others fell sick. It appeared to be of excessive length, and was of the colour 

 of blood; at its summit was seen the figure of a bent arm holding a large sword 

 in its hand, as if about to strike. At the end of the point were three stars. 

 At both sides of the rays of this comet were seen a great number of axes, knives, 

 and swords of the colour of blood, among which were a great number of hideous 

 human faces, with rugged beards and locks.— Arnbroise Pare, chap, xxxii. 



