The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1822-06-18 00:00:00

vogPDs.

ig With sweeping glories glides along is air.
And shakes the sparkles from its idasiog hair."
Houltk.

Philosophers and astronomers, of all ages, have
been much divided in their opinions relative to the
MUSIC and use of VOIIIITS. Their strange appear-
ances have in all ages been matter of terror to the
vulgar, who uniformly considered them as evil
omens, and forerunners of battles, pestilence, &c.
Ideas of this kind, however, are very deservedly
turned into ridicule by the best-informed part of
'society: as a moment's reflection muscconvince
the mind that as these bodies are visible to the
whole globe, they commit be indicative of an evil
happening to a particular spot.
Kepler, in other respects a very great genius, in-
dulged the most extravagant conjectures, not only
concerning comets, but the whole system of Nature
in general. The planets, he imagined, were huge
animals swimming round the sun ; and comets
monstrous and uncommon animals generated in
the celestial spaces. A still more ridiculous opi-
Mon, if possible, was that of John Bodin, a learn.
ed Frenchman, in the 16th century ; who main-
tamped that comets " are spirits, which having
lived on the earth innumerable ages, and being
at last arrived on the confines of death, fele.
brats their last triumph. or are recalled to the
firmament like shining stersr asc. Mr. Whisk"
held it as a probable opinion, with others, that co.
mets were appointed by the Almighty as the place
of torment for sinners after death. who, from the
form of the cometary orbits, would be alternately
tormented with the most insupportable heat, when
nearest the sun, and, in the opposite point, or
aphelion. with the greatest possible degree of
cold.
The circumstance of condemned sinners suffering
the extremes of heat and cold by turns, is thought
by same to be founded on Job, xxiv. 19—not as it
is in the English translation, but in the vulgar Ls.
tin version—" Let him pass to excessive heat from
waters of snow." And so Jerom and other cow.
mentators understand it.
M had feel by tares the Witt dotage
Of levee exireamps, extremes by risme were Serer.
From beds ef raging,' to starve is bee."—(Maros)
Philosophers and mathematicians have. in speak-
ing of the uses sad effects of comets, observed, re-
lative to the general deluge, that, as they cross the
planetary orbits, so it is not impossible but they
pass so near to some particular planet as to involve
it in their tails, and that this may be the cause of
immoderate and unusual rains ; and they likewise
observe, that a comet passing near a planet may
raise extraordinary tides. These being swelled by
this adventitious force, will break the upper crust
of the earth, at►d joined to the forty days' rata,
contribute to the forming that muss of waters. which
might well cover tl►e tops of the highest hills.

The comet of 1680 performs revolutions in about
4048 year.. This is the interval between its ap-
pearance and the deluge. And this of all comets
known, passes the nearest to the annual orbit of the
earth. If then it. passed by the earth at ■ proper
distance, oa the seventeenth day of the second womb
from the autumnal equinox, Ha the 4349th year be-
fore the Christian era, when "the foundations of the
great deep were broken up, Dud the windows of
heaven were opened," then Mr. Whiston observes,
we have found the true and adequate cause of the
deluge.
" None bath threatened our earth a nearer ap.
pulse than (he c tof 1680. For, by calcula-
tions. I hod that November l id. lh. 6m. p. es. that
comet was not above the semidiaineter of the son
to the aortbairard of tile way of the earth. At which
time, had the earth been there. the comet would have
had a parallax equal to that of the moon, as I take it.
This is spoken to astronomers; but what might be
the consequence of so near an *pismire, or of con-
tact ; u► lastly, of • shuck of the celestial bodies
(which is by we marls impassibk to MAW to pass)
I leave to be discussed by the studios. of physical
matters. " Dr. H&LLST."

Mr. Whiston also states it probable that a comet.
at • future period, though to us unknown, after
being thoroughly heated in its passage round the sun.
and by • near approach to it, in returning from the
sun, may at the divine command strike out earth,
and occasion a general conflagration ; the effects of
which may easily be conceived to be somewhat
similar to those described by an inspired penman,
in allusion to this event. This he calls emphatically
" the day of the Lord, that will come as ■ thief
in the night," suddeirly, and without w g. " in
the which the heavens shall pass sway with u great
noise, and the elements shall melt with ferveut
hest; the earth also, and the works that are
therein, shall be burnt up." 2 Peter, iii. 10.—
And he motions the people to he careful in
" looking fur and heating unto the consiog of
the dry of God. whereits the heavens, beer% on
fire. shall be dissolved, sod the elements Wool'
melt with fervent heat ; nevertheless, we, *mod-
iste to lino promise, look foe new litairoult and a
!sew earth, wherein dwelleth righteowsoess.'! 14th
and 13th swam—Great apprehensions have often
arisen from the appearance of these bodies, is case 1
they should strike against the earth; • circum-
stance which would be productive of the most fatal
effects to our globe. Recent discoveries, however,
►hew, that their paths ■re almost all inclined in a
great angle to the plane of the ecliptic, so that
they cannot interfere, without divine permission.
tither with our habitation u, other planets, which.
without ►uch • wise disposition of their orbits, they
might otherwise have done. The same divine wis-
dom is manifested in the figure of the eattli.
" lu the figure of the earth," asp an ingenious
writer, " we may trace the footsteps of 'Arnie
power, wisdom, and goodness ! It was created with
a protuberance al the equatorial regions. in order to
accommodate it to a diurnal rotation. Ilad the
torrid sone been placed a little higher, or ■ little
lower, it would in the latter case have been over-
flowed, and in the former have been deserted by the
ocean. Or, had the velocity of the earth's diurnal
motion, or the time of its rotation, been either great-
er or leaf. similar effects would have been produced.
Who then eau be so blind as not tochscover in these
things the e ffects of consummate designs ? Or who
can view the harms.), that exists between the various
ports of this vast machine, and not be coastr•iued
to exclaim, ' 0 Lord, bow manifold are thy works !