ECLIPSES AND COMETS.
We have seen in the earlier chapters on the systems of the ancients and
their ideas of the world how everything was once supposed to have
exclusive reference to man, and how he considered himself not only chief
of animate objects, but that his own city was the centre of the material
world, and his own world the centre of the material universe; that the
sun was made to shine, as well as the moon and stars, for his benefit;
and that, were it not for him they would have no reason for existence.
And we have seen how, step by step, these illusions have been dispelled,
and he has learnt to appreciate his own littleness in proportion as he
has realised the immensity of the universe of which he forms part.
If such has been his history, and such his former ideas on the regular
parts, as we may call them, of nature, much more have similar ideas been
developed in relation to those other phenomena which, coming at such
long intervals, have not been recognised by him as periodic, but have
seemed to have some relation to mundane affairs, often of the smallest
consequence. Such are eclipses of the sun and moon, comets,
shooting-stars, and meteors. Among the less instructed of men, even when
astronomers of the same age and nation knew their real nature, eclipses
have always been looked upon as something ominous of evil.
Among the ancient nations people used to come to the assistance of the
moon, by making a confused noise with all kinds of instruments, when it
was eclipsed. It is even done now in Persia and some parts of China,
where they fancy that the moon is fighting with a great dragon, and they
think the noise will make him loose his hold and take to flight. Among
the East Indians they have the same belief that when the sun and the
moon are eclipsed, a dragon is seizing them, and astronomers who go
there to observe eclipses are troubled by the fears of their native
attendants, and by their endeavours to get into the water as the best
place under the circumstances. In America the idea is that the sun and
moon are tired when they are eclipsed. But the more refined Greeks
believed for a long time that the moon was bewitched, and that the
magicians made it descend from heaven, to put into the herbs a certain
maleficent froth. Perhaps the idea of the Dragon arose from the ancient
custom of calling the places in the heavens at which the eclipses of the
moon took place the head and tail of the Dragon.
In ancient history we have many curious instances of the very critical
influence that eclipses have had, especially in the case of events in a
campaign, where it was thought unfavourable to some projected attempt.
Thus an eclipse of the moon was the original cause of the death of the
Athenian general Nicias. Just at a critical juncture, when he was about
to depart from the harbour of Syracuse, the eclipse filled him and his
whole army with dismay. The result of his terror was that he delayed the
departure of his fleet, and the Athenian army was cut in pieces and
destroyed, and Nicias lost his liberty and life.
Plutarch says they could understand well enough the cause of the eclipse
of the sun by the interposition of the moon, but they could not imagine
by the opposition of what body the moon itself could be eclipsed.
One of the most famous eclipses of antiquity was that of Thales,
recorded by Herodotus, who says:--"The Lydians and the Medes were at war
for five consecutive years. Now while the war was sustained on both
sides with equal chance, in the sixth year, one day when the armies were
in battle array, it happened that in the midst of the combat the day
suddenly changed into night. Thales of Miletus had predicted this
phenomenon to the Ionians, and had pointed out precisely that very year
as the one in which it would take place. The Lydians and Medes, seeing
the night succeeding suddenly to the day, put an end to the combat, and
only cared to establish peace."
Another notable eclipse is that related by Diodorus Siculus. It was a
total eclipse of the sun, which took place while Agathocles, fleeing
from the port of Syracuse, where he was blockaded by the Carthaginians,
was hastening to gain the coast of Africa. "When Agathocles was already
surrounded by the enemy, night came on, and he escaped contrary to all
hope. On the day following so complete an eclipse of the sun took place
that it seemed altogether night, for the stars shone out in all places.
The soldiers therefore of Agathocles, persuaded that the gods were
intending them some misfortune, were in the greatest perturbation about
the future. Agathocles was equal to the occasion. When disembarked in
Africa, where, in spite of all his fine words, he was unable to reassure
his soldiers, whom the eclipse of the sun had frightened, he changed his
tactics, and pretending to understand the prodigy, "I grant, comrades,"
he said, "that had we perceived this, eclipse before our embarkation we
should indeed have been in a critical situation, but now that we have
seen it after our departure, and as it always signifies a change in the
present state of affairs, it follows that our circumstances, which were
very bad in Sicily, are about to amend, while we shall indubitably ruin
those of the Carthaginians, which have been hitherto so flourishing."
We are reminded by this of the story of Pericles, who, when ready to set
sail with his fleet on a great expedition, saw himself stopped by a
similar phenomenon. He spread his mantle over the eyes of the pilot,
whom fear had prevented acting, and asked him if that was any sign of
misfortune, when the pilot answered in the negative. "What misfortune
then do you suppose," said he, "is presaged by the body that hides the
sun, which differs from this in nothing but being larger?"
With reference to these eclipses, when their locality and approximate
date is known, astronomy comes to the assistance of history, and can
supply the exact day, and even hour, of the occurrence. For the eclipses
depend on the motions of the moon, and just as astronomers can calculate
both the time and the path of a solar eclipse in the future, so they can
for the past. If then the eclipses are calculated back to the epoch when
the particular one is recorded, it can be easily ascertained which one
it was that about that time passed over the spot at which it was
observed, and as soon as the particular eclipse is fixed upon, it may be
told at what hour it would be seen.
Thus the eclipse of Thales has been assigned by different authors to
various dates, between the 1st of October, 583 B.C., and the 3rd of
February, 626 B.C. The only eclipse of the sun that is suitable between
those dates has been found by the Astronomer-Royal to be that which
would happen in Lydia on the 28th of May, 585 B.C., which must therefore
be the date of the event.
So of the eclipse of Agathocles, M. Delaunay has fixed its date to the
15th August, 310 B.C.
In later days, when Christopher Columbus had to deal with the ignorant
people of America, the same kind of story was repeated. He found himself
reduced to famine by the inhabitants of the country, who kept him and
his companions prisoners; and being aware of the approach of the
eclipse, he menaced them with bringing upon them great misfortunes, and
depriving them of the light of the moon, if they did not instantly bring
him provisions. They cared little for his menaces at first; but as soon
as they saw the moon disappear, they ran to him with abundance of
victuals, and implored pardon of the conqueror. This was on the 1st of
March, 1504, a date which may be tested by the modern tables of the
moon, and Columbus's account proved to be correct. The eclipse was
indeed recorded in other places by various observers.
Eclipses in their natural aspect have thus had considerable influence on
the vulgar, who knew nothing of their cause. This of course was the
state with all in the early ages, and it is interesting to trace the
gradual progress from their being quite unexpected to their being
predicted.
It is very probable, if not certain, that their recurrence in the case
of the moon at least was recognised long before their nature was
understood.
[Illustration: PLATE XIII.--CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS AND THE ECLIPSE OF THE
MOON.]
Among the Chinese they were long calculated, and, in fact, it is thought
by some that they have pretended to a greater antiquity by calculating
backwards, and recording as observed eclipses those which happened
before they understood or noticed them. It seems, however, authenticated
that they did in the year 2169 B.C. observe an eclipse of the sun, and
that at that date they were in the habit of predicting them. For this
particular eclipse is said to have cost several of the astronomers their
lives, as they had not calculated it rightly. As the lives of princes
were supposed to be dependent on these eclipses, it became high treason
to expose them to such a danger without forewarning them. They paid more
attention to the eclipses of the sun than of the moon.
Among the Babylonians the eclipses of the moon were observed from a very
early date, and numerous records of them are contained in the
Observations of Bel in Sargon's library, the tablets of which have
lately been discovered. In the older portion they only record that on
the 14th day of such and such a (lunar) month an eclipse takes place,
and state in what watch it begins, and when it ends. In a later portion
the observations were more precise, and the descriptions of the eclipse
more accurate. Long before 1700 B.C. the discovery of the lunar cycle of
223 lunar months had been made, and by means of it they were able to
state of each lunar eclipse, that it was either "according to
calculation" or "contrary to calculation."
They dealt also with solar eclipses, and tried to trace on a sphere the
path they would take on the earth. Accordingly, like the eclipses of the
moon, these too were spoken of as happening either "according to
calculation" or "contrary to calculation." "In a report sent in to one
of the later kings of Assyria by the state astronomer, Abil Islar states
that a watch had been kept on the 28th, 29th, and 30th of Sivan, or May,
for an eclipse of the sun, which did not, however, take place after all.
The shadow, it is clear, must have fallen outside the field of
observation." Besides the more ordinary kind of solar eclipses, mention
is made in the Observations of Bel of annular eclipses which, strangely
enough, are seldom alluded to by classical writers.
A record of a later eclipse has been found by Sir Henry Rawlinson on one
of the Nineveh Tablets. This occurred near that city in B.C. 763, and
from the character of the inscription it may be inferred that it was a
rare occurrence with them, indeed that it was nearly, if not quite, a
total eclipse. This has an especial interest as being the earliest that
we have any approximate date for.
It is possible that the remarkable phenomenon, alluded to by the prophet
Isaiah, of the shadow going backwards ten degrees on the dial of Ahaz,
may be really a record of an eclipse of the sun, such as astronomy
proves to have occurred at Jerusalem in the year 689 B.C.
We have very little notice of the calculation of eclipses by the
Egyptians; all that is told us is more or less fabulous. Thus Diogenes
Laertius says that they reckoned that during a period of 48,863 years,
373 eclipses of the sun and 832 eclipses of the moon had occurred, which
is far fewer than the right number for so long a time, and which, of
course, has no basis in fact.
Among the Greeks, Anaxagoras was the first who entertained clear ideas
about the nature of eclipses; and it was from him that Pericles learnt
their harmlessness.
Plutarch relates that Helicon of Cyzicus predicted an eclipse of the sun
to Dionysius of Syracuse, and received as a reward a talent of silver.
Livy records an eclipse of the sun as having taken place on the 11th of
Quintilis, which corresponds to the 11th of July. It happened during the
Appollinarian games, 190 B.C.
The same author tells us of an eclipse of the moon that was predicted by
one Gallus, a tribune of the second legion, on the eve of the battle of
Pydna--a prediction which was duly fulfilled on the following night. The
fact of its having been foretold quieted the superstitious fears of the
soldiers, and gave them a very high opinion of Gallus. Other authors,
among them Cicero, do not give so flattering a story, but state that
Gallus's part consisted only in explaining the cause of the eclipse
after it had happened. The date of this eclipse was the 3rd of
September, 168 B.C.
Ennius, writing towards the end of the second century B.C., describes an
eclipse which was said to have happened nearly two hundred years before
(404, B.C.), in the following remarkable words:--"On the nones of July
the moon passed over the sun, and there was night." Aristarchus, three
centuries before Christ, understood and explained the nature of
eclipses; but the chief of the ancient authors upon this subject was
Hipparchus. He and his disciples were able to predict eclipses with
considerable accuracy, both as to their time and duration. Geminus and
Cleomedes were two other writers, somewhat later, who explained and
predicted eclipses. In later times regular tables were drawn up, showing
when the eclipses would happen. One that Ptolemy was the author of was
founded on data derived from ancient observers--Callipus, Democritus,
Eudoxus, Hipparchus--aided by his own calculations. After the days of
Ptolemy the knowledge of the eclipses advanced _pari passu_ with the
advance of astronomy generally. So long as astronomy itself was
empirical, the time of the return of an eclipse was only reckoned by the
intervals that had elapsed during the same portion of previous cycles;
but after the discovery of elliptic orbits and the force of gravitation
the whole motion of the moon could be calculated with as great accuracy
as any other astronomical phenomenon.
In point of fact, if the new moon is in the plane of the ecliptic there
must be an eclipse of the sun; if the full moon is there, there must be
an eclipse of the moon; and if it should in these cases be only
partially in that plane, the eclipses also will be partial. The cycle of
changes that the position of the moon can undergo when new and full
occupies a period of eighteen years and eleven days, in which period
there are forty-one eclipses of the sun and twenty-nine of the moon.
Each year there are at most seven and at least two eclipses; if only
two, they are eclipses of the sun. Although more numerous in reality for
the whole earth, eclipses of the sun are more rarely observed in any
particular place, because they are not seen everywhere, but only where
the shadow of the moon passes; while all that part of the earth that
sees the moon at all at the time sees it eclipsed.
We now come to comets.
The ancients divided comets into different classes, the chief points
of distinction being derived from the shape, length, and brilliancy
of the tails. Pliny distinguished twelve kinds, which he thus
characterised:--"Some frighten us by their blood-coloured mane; their
bristling hair rises towards the heaven. The bearded ones let their long
hair fall down like a majestic beard. The javelin-shaped ones seem to
be projected forwards like a dart, as they rapidly attain their shape
after their first appearance; if the tail is shorter, and terminates in
a point, it is called a sword; this is the palest of all the comets; it
has the appearance of a bright sword without any diverging rays. The
plate or disc derives its name from its shape, its colour is that of
amber, it gives out some diverging rays from its sides, but not in large
quantity. The cask has really the form of a cask, which one might
suppose to be staved in smoke enveloped in light. The retort imitates
the figure of a horn, and the lamp that of a burning flame. The
horse-comet represents the mane of a horse which is violently agitated,
as by a circular, or rather cylindrical, motion. Such a comet appears
also of singular whiteness, with hair of a silver hue; it is so bright
that one can scarcely look at it. There are bristling comets, they are
like the skins of beasts with their hair on, and are surrounded by a
nebulosity. Lastly, the hair of the comet sometimes takes the form of a
lance."
Pingre, a celebrated historian of comets, tells us that one of the first
comets noticed in history is that which appeared over Rome forty years
before Christ, and in which the Roman people imagined they saw the soul
of Caesar endowed with divine honours. Next comes that which threw its
light on Jerusalem when it was being besieged and remained for a whole
year above the city, according to the account of Josephus. It was of
this kind that Pliny said it "is of so great a whiteness that one can
scarcely look at it, and _one may see in it the image of God in human
form_."
Diodorus tells us that, a little after the subversion of the towns of
Helix and Bura, there were seen, for several nights in succession, a
brilliant light, which was called a beam of fire, but which Aristotle
says was a true comet.
Plutarch, in his life of Timoleon, says a burning flame preceded the
fleet of this general until his arrival at Sicily, and that during the
consulate of Caius Servilius a bright shield was seen suspended in the
heavens.
The historians Sazoncenas and Socrates relate that in the year 400 A.D.
a comet in the form of a sword shone over Constantinople, and appeared
to touch the town just at the time when great misfortunes were impending
through the treachery of Gainas.
The same phenomenon appeared over Rome previous to the arrival of
Alaric.
In fact the ancient chroniclers always associated the appearance of a
comet with some terrestrial event, which it was not difficult to do,
seeing that critical situations were at all times existing in some one
country or other where the comet would be visible, and probably those
which could not be connected with any were not thought worthy of being
recorded.
It is well known that the year 1000 A.D. was for a long time predicted
to be the end of the world. In this year the astronomers and
chroniclers registered the fall of an enormous burning meteor and the
appearance of a comet. Pingre says: "On the 19th of the calends of
January"--that is the 14th of December--"the heavens being dark, a kind
of burning sword fell to the earth, leaving behind it a long train of
light. Its brilliancy was such that it frightened not only those who
were in the fields, but even those who were shut up in their houses.
This great opening in the heavens was gradually closed, and then was
seen the figure of a dragon, whose feet were blue, and whose head kept
continually increasing. A comet having appeared at the same time as this
chasm, or meteor, they were confounded." This relation is given in the
chronicles of Seigbert in Hermann Corner, in the Chronique de Tours, in
Albert Casin, and other historians of the time.
Bodin, resuscitating an idea of Democritus, wrote that the comets were
the souls of illustrious personages, who, after having lived on the
earth a long series of centuries, and being ready at last to pass away,
were carried in a kind of triumph to heaven. For this reason, famine,
epidemics, and civil wars followed on the apparition of comets, the
towns and their inhabitants finding themselves then deprived of the help
of the illustrious souls who had laboured to appease their intestinal
feuds.
One of the comets of the middle ages which made the greatest impression
on the minds of the people was that which appeared during Holy Week of
the year 837, and frightened Louis the Debonnaire. The first morning of
its appearance he sent for his astrologer. "Go," he said, "on to the
terrace of the palace, and come back again immediately and tell me what
you have seen, for I have not seen that star before, and you have not
shown it to me; but I know that this sign is a comet: it announces a
change of reign and the death of a prince." The son of Charlemagne
having taken counsel with his bench of bishops, was convinced that the
comet was a notice sent from heaven expressly for him. He passed the
nights in prayer, and gave large donations to the monasteries, and
finally had a number of masses performed out of fear for himself and
forethought for the Church committed to his care. The comet, however,
was a very inoffensive one, being none other than that known as Halley's
comet, which returned in 1835. While they were being thus frightened in
France, the Chinese were observing it astronomically.
The historian of Merlin the enchanter relates that a few days after the
_fetes_ which were held on the occasion of the erection of the funeral
monument of Salisbury, a sign appeared in heaven. It was a comet of
large size and excessive splendour. It resembled a dragon, out of whose
mouth came a long two-forked tongue, one part of which turned towards
the north and the other to the east. The people were in a state of fear,
each one asking what this sign presaged. Uter, in the absence of the
king, Ambrosius, his brother, who was engaged in pursuing one of the
sons of Vortigern, consulted all the wise men of Britain, but no one
could give him any answer. Then he thought of Merlin the enchanter, and
sent for him to the court. "What does this apparition presage?" demanded
the king's brother. Merlin began to weep. "O son of Britain, you have
just had a great loss--the king is dead." After a moment of silence he
added, "But the Britons have still a king. Haste thee, Uter, attack the
enemy. All the island will submit to you, for the figure of the fiery
dragon is thyself. The ray that goes towards Gaul represents a son who
shall be born to thee, who will be great by his achievements, and not
less so by his power. The ray that goes towards Ireland represents a
daughter of whom thou shalt be the father, and her sons and grandsons
shall reign over all the Britons." These predictions were realised; but
it is more than probable that they were made up after the event.
The comet of 1066 was regarded as a presage of the Conquest under
William of Normandy. In the Bayeaux tapestry, on which Matilda of
Flanders had drawn all the most memorable episodes in the transmarine
expedition of her husband, the comet appears in one of the corners with
the inscription, _Isti mirantur stellam_, which proves that the comet
was considered a veritable marvel. It is said even to be traditionally
reported that one of the jewels of the British crown was taken from the
tail of this comet. Nevertheless it was no more than Halley's comet
again in its periodical visit every seventy-six years.
In July, 1214, a brilliant comet appeared which was lost to view on the
same day as the Pope, Urban IV., died, _i.e._ the third of October.
In June, 1456, a similar body of enormous size, with a very long and
extraordinarily bright tail, put all Christendom in a fright. The Pope,
Calixtus III., was engaged in a war at that time with the Saracens. He
showed the Christians that the comet "had the form of a cross," and
announced some great event. At the same time Mahomet announced to his
followers that the comet, "having the form of a yataghan," was a
blessing of the Prophet's. It is said that the Pope afterwards
recognised that it had this form, and excommunicated it. Nevertheless,
the Christians obtained the victory under the walls of Belgrade. This
was another appearance of Halley's comet.
In the early months of 1472 appeared a large comet, which historians
agree in saying was very horrible and alarming. Belleforest said it was
a hideous and frightening comet, which threw its rays from east to west,
giving great cause for fear to great people, who were not ignorant that
comets are the menacing rods of God, which admonish those who are in
authority, that they may be converted.
Pingre, who has told us of so many of the comets that were seen before
his time, wrote of this epoch: "Comets became the most efficacious signs
of the most important and doubtful events. They were charged to announce
wars, seditions, and the internal movements of republics; they presaged
famines, pestilence, and epidemics; princes, or even persons of dignity,
could not pay the tribute of nature without the previous appearance of
that universal oracle, a comet; men could no longer be surprised by any
unexpected event; the future might be as easily read in the heavens as
the past in history. Their effect depended on the place in the heavens
where they shone, the countries over which they directly lay, the signs
of the zodiac that they measured by their longitude, the constellations
they traversed, the form and length of their tails, the place where they
went out, and a thousand other circumstances more easily indicated than
distinguished; they also announced in general wars, and the death of
princes, or some grand personage, but there were few years that passed
without something of this kind occurring. The devout astrologers--for
there were many of that sort--risked less than the others. According to
them, the comet threatened some misfortune; if it did not happen, it was
because the prayers of penitence had turned aside the wrath of God; he
had returned his sword to the scabbard. But a rule was invented which
gave the astrologers free scope, for they said that events announced by
a comet might be postponed for one or more periods of forty years, or
even as many years as the comet had appeared days; so that one which had
appeared for six months need not produce its effect for 180 years."
[Illustration: FIG. 55.--REPRESENTATION OF A COMET, 16TH CENTURY.]
The most frightful of the comets of this period, according to Simon
Goulart, was that of 1527. "It put some into so great a fright that they
died; others fell sick. It was seen by several thousand people, and
appeared very long, and of the colour of blood. At the summit was seen
the representation of a curved arm, holding a large sword in its hand,
as if it would strike; at the top of the point of the sword were three
stars, but that which touched the point was more brilliant than the
others. On the two sides of the rays of this comet were seen large
hatchets, poignards, bloody swords, among which were seen a great
number of men decapitated, having their heads and beards horribly
bristling."
A view of this comet is given in the _History of Prodigies_.
There was another comet remarked in 1556, and another in 1577, like the
head of an owl, followed by a mantle of scattered light, with pointed
ends. Of this comet we read in the same book that recorded the last
described: "The comet is an infallible sign of a very evil event.
Whenever eclipses of the sun or moon, or comets, or earthquakes,
conversions of water into blood, and such like prodigies happen, it has
always been known that very soon after these miserable portents
afflictions, effusion of human blood, massacres, deaths of great
monarchs, kings, princes, and rulers, seditions, treacheries, raids,
overthrowings of empires, kingdoms, or villages; hunger and scarcity of
provisions, burning and overthrowing of towns; pestilences, widespread
mortality, both of beasts and men; in fact all sorts of evils and
misfortunes take place. Nor can it be doubted that all these signs and
prodigies give warning that the end of the world is come, and with it
the terrible last judgment of God."
But even now comets were being observed astronomically, and began to
lose their sepulchral aspect.
A remarkable comet, however, which appeared in 1680, was not without its
fears for the vulgar. We are told that it was recognised as the same
which appeared the year of Caesar's death, then in 531, and afterwards
in 1106, having a period of about 575 years. The terror it produced in
the towns was great; timid spirits saw in it the sign of a new deluge,
as they said water was always announced by fire. While the fearful were
making their wills, and, in anticipation of the end of the world, were
leaving their money to the monks, who in accepting them showed
themselves better physicists than the testators, people in high station
were asking what great person it heralded the death of, and it is
reported of the brother of Louis XIV., who apparently was afraid of
becoming too suddenly like Caesar, that he said sharply to the courtiers
who were discussing it, "Ah, gentlemen, you may talk at your ease, if
you please; you are not princes."
This same comet gave rise to a curious story of an "extraordinary
prodigy, how at Rome a hen laid an egg on which was drawn a picture of
the comet.
"The fact was attested by his Holiness, by the Queen of Sweden, and all
the persons of first quality in Rome. On the 4th December, 1680, a hen
laid an egg on which was seen the figure of the comet, accompanied by
other marks such as are here represented. The cleverest naturalists in
Rome have seen and examined it, and have never seen such a prodigy
before."
Of this same comet Bernouilli wrote, "_That if the body of the comet is
not a visible sign of the anger of God, the tail may be_." It was this
too that suggested to Whiston the idea that he put forward, not as a
superstitious, but as a physical speculation, that a comet approaching
the earth was the cause of the deluge.
[Illustration: FIG. 56.--AN EGG MARKED WITH A COMET.]
The last blow to the superstitious fear of the comets was given by
Halley, when he proved that they circulated like planets round the sun,
and that the comets noticed in 837, 1066, 1378, 1456, 1531, 1607, 1682
were all one, whose period was about 76 years, and which would return in
1759, which prediction was verified, and the comet went afterwards by
the name of this astronomer. It returned again in 1835, and will revisit
us in 1911.
Even after the fear arising from the relics of astrology had died away,
another totally different alarm was connected with comets--an alarm
which has not entirely subsided even in our own times. This is that a
comet may come in contact with the earth and destroy it by the
collision. The most remarkable panic in this respect was that which
arose in Paris in 1773. At the previous meeting of the Academy of
Sciences, M. Lalande was to have read an interesting paper, but the time
failed. It was on the subject of comets that could, by approaching the
earth, cause its destruction, with special reference to the one that was
soon to come. From the title only of the paper the most dreadful fears
were spread abroad, and, increasing day by day, were with great
difficulty allayed. The house of M. Lalande was filled with those who
came to question him on the memoir in question. The fermentation was so
great that some devout people, as ignorant as weak, asked the archbishop
to make a forty hours' prayer to turn away the enormous deluge that they
feared, and the prelate was nearly going to order these prayers, if the
members of the Academy had not persuaded him how ridiculous it would be.
Finally, M. Lalande, finding it impossible to answer all the questions
put to him about his fatal memoir, and wishing to prevent the real evils
that might arise from the frightened imaginations of the weak, caused
it to be printed, and made it as clear as was possible. When it
appeared, it was found that he stated that of the sixty comets known
there were eight which could, by coming too near the earth, say within
40,000 miles, occasion such a pressure that the sea would leave its bed
and cover part of the globe, but that in any case this could not happen
till after twenty years. This was too long to make it worth while to
make provision for it, and the effervescence subsided.
A similar case to this occurred with respect to Biela's comet, which was
to return in 1832. In calculating its reappearance in this year,
Damoiseau found that it would pass through the plane of the earth's
orbit on the 29th of October. Rushing away with this, the papers made
out that a collision was inevitable, and the end of the world was come.
But no one thought to inquire where the earth would be when the comet
passed through the plane in which it revolved. Arago, however, set
people's minds at rest by pointing out that at that time the earth would
be a month's journey from the spot, which with the rate at which the
earth is moving would correspond to a distance of sixty millions of
miles.
This, like other frights, passed away, but was repeated again in 1840
and 1857 with like results, and even in 1872 a similar end to the world
was announced to the public for the 12th of August, on the supposed
authority of a Professor at Geneva, but who had never said what was
supposed.
But in reality all cause of fear has now passed away, since it has been
proved that the comet is made of gaseous matter in a state of extreme
tenuity, so that, though it may make great show in the heavens, the
whole mass may not weigh more than a few pounds; and we have in addition
the testimony of experience, which might have been relied on on the
occasions above referred to, for in 1770 Lexele's comet was seen to pass
through the satellites of Jupiter without deranging them in the least,
but was itself thrown entirely out of its path, while there is reason to
believe that on the 29th of June, 1861, the earth remained several hours
in the tail of a comet without having experienced the slightest
inconvenience.
As to the nature of comets, the opinions that have been held have been
mostly very vague. Metrodorus thought they were reflections from the
sun; Democritus, a concourse of several stars; Aristotle, a collection
of exhalations which had become dry and inflamed; Strabo, that they are
the splendour of a star enveloped in a cloud; Heracletes of Pontus, an
elevated cloud which gave out much light; Epigenes, some terrestrial
matter that had caught fire, and was agitated by the wind; Boecius,
part of the air, coloured; Anaxagoras, sparks fallen from the elementary
fire; Xenophanes, a motion and spreading out of clouds which caught
fire; and Descartes, the debris of vortices that had been destroyed, the
fragments of which were coming towards us.
It is said that the Chaldaeans held the opinion that they were analogous
to planets by their regular course, and that when we ceased to see them,
it was because they had gone too far from us; and Seneca followed this
explanation, since he regarded them as globes turning in the heavens,
and which appear and disappear in certain times, and whose periodical
motions might be known by regular observation.
We have thus traced the particular ideas that have attached themselves
to eclipses and comets, as the two most remarkable of the extraordinary
phenomena of the heavens, and have seen how the fears and superstitions
of mankind have been inevitably linked with them in the earlier days of
ignorance and darkness, but they are only part of a system of phenomena,
and have been no more connected with superstition than others less
remarkable, except in proportion to their remarkableness. Other minor
appearances that are at all unusual have, on the same belief in the
inextricable union of celestial and terrestrial matters, been made the
signs of calamities or extra-prosperity; the doleful side of human
nature being usually the strongest, the former have been chosen more
often than the latter.
According to Seneca, the tradition of the Chaldees announced that a
universal deluge would be caused by the conjunction of all the planets
in the sign of Capricorn, and that a general breaking up of the earth
would take place at the moment of their conjunction in Cancer. "The
general break-up of the world," they said, "will happen when the stars
which govern the heaven, penetrated with a quality of heat and dryness,
meet one another in a fiery triplicity."
[Illustration: PLATE XIV.--PRODIGIES IN THE MIDDLE AGES.]
Everywhere, and in all ages of the past, men have thought that a
protecting providence, always watching over them, has taken care to warn
them of the destinies which await them; thence the good and evil
_presages_ taken from the appearance of certain heavenly bodies, of
divers meteors, or even the accidental meeting of certain animate or
inanimate objects. The Indian of North America dying of famine in his
miserable cabin, will not go out to the chase if he sees certain
presages in the atmosphere. Nor need we be astonished at such ideas in
an uncultivated man, when even among Europeans, a salt-cellar upset, a
glass broken, a knife and fork crossed, the number thirteen at dinner,
and such things are regarded as unlucky accidents. The employment of
sorcery and divination is closely connected with these superstitions.
Besides eclipses and comets, meteors were taken as the signs of divine
wrath. We learn from S. Maximus of Turin, that the Christians of his
time admitted the necessity of making a noise during eclipses, so as
to prevent the magicians from hurting the sun or moon, a superstition
entirely pagan. They used to fancy they could see celestial armies in
the air, coming to bring miraculous assistance to man. They thought the
hurricanes and tempests the work of evil spirits, whose rage kept them
set against the earth. S. Thomas Aquinas, the great theologian of the
thirteenth century, accepted this opinion, just as he admitted the
reality of sorceries. But the full development, as well as the
nourishment of these superstitious ideas, was derived from the
storehouse of astrology, which dealt with matters of ordinary
occurrence, both in the heavens and on the earth--and to the history of
which our next chapter is devoted.