CHAPTER I - GENERAL REMARKS

Summary

The class of bodies which will now come under our notice are among the most interesting with which the astronomer has to deal. Appearing suddenly in the nocturnal sky, and often dragging after them tails of immense size and brilliancy, they were well calculated, in the earlier ages of the world, to attract the attention of all, and still more to excite the fear of many. It is the unanimous testimony of history, during a period of upwards of zooo years, that comets were always considered to be peculiarly “ ominous of the wrath of heaven, and as harbingers of wars and famines, of the dethronement of monarchs, and the dissolution of empires.” We shall hereafter examine this question at greater length. Suffice it for us, here, to quote the words of the Poet, who speaks of

“The Hazing Star,

Threat'ning the world with famine, plague, and war;

To princes, death; to kingdoms, many curses;

To all estates, inevitable losses;

To herdsmen, rot; to ploughmen, hapless seasons;

To sailors, storms; to cities, civil treasons.”

However little attention might have been paid by the ancients to the more ordinary phenomena of nature (which, however, were pretty well looked after), yet certain it is, that comets and total eclipses of the Sun were not easily forgotten or lightly passed over; hence the aspect of remarkable comets that have appeared at various times have been handed down to us, often with circumstantial minuteness.