The Sun.
London, England, 1857-04-13 00:00:00

THE GREAT COMET.

The following let'er has been communicated by
the eminent German astronomer, Von Littrow, to
the Vienna Gazette :

" Inquiries have been so often made of late about
the great comet, the arrival of which has been ex-
pected, that we think it desirable to state briefly the
actual state of the case. About the middle of the
last century observers first perceived the resem-
blance between the orbit of the comet of 1264 and of
that of 1556, and began to conjecture that they were
in fact one and the same body, which accordingly
might be expected to appear every 300 years. Cal-
culations subsequently made confirmed this view,
but, owing to the extremely defective observations
made, those imperfect data which we have received
concerning those two comets could serve only as a
ground for conjecture. The whole question was
sinking into ;oblivion, till the undersigned hap-
pened to discover last year three new sources of in-
formation respecting the comet of 1556, which,
considering their date, contained definitions unusu-
ally clear and perfect. The undersigned, however,
ventured even at that time to state his opinion
that valuable as this discovery was in itself, and
serviceable as it would be for the recognition of
that cometary body in case of its re-appearance,
there was little or no ground for a prediction be-
forehand. Several astronomers, however, in con-
sequence of these fresh sources being opened to
thew, were induced to investigate the subject anew.
M. }look; at Leyden, obtained some results most
unfavourable to the supposed identity cf these
comets of 1264 and 1556 ; and Signor Carlini, at
Milan, likewise started some doubts not easily to
be solved; but, on the ether hand, M. Vale, at
Marseilles, disputes Hoek's views, and finds the
return of the comet probable. Professor Hind, in
London, is also of opinion from these fresh data
that the original conjectures are corroborated, and
it would be excessively difLult to say which of
these antagonistic opinions is the correct one ;
whether the decision incline this way or that way
must depend upon rather arbitrary explanations
of the old authors ; and only this is certain, that
we may see the comet between the present year of
1857 and that of 1860. The greatest astronomical
'authority of this century, Gauss of Gottingen, has
always been of this opinion. Hitherto, therefore, so
far as the matter has publicly transpired, the whole
subject would be reduced to a little useless talk and
expectations prematurely excited. But recently a
certain individual, having nothing better to do,
thought proper to invest it with renewed interest by
giving out, absurdly enough, that the comet would
reappear on a certain day, the 13th of June this
year, and, at the same time, he connected the
event with some piquant predictions about the de-
struction of the world, and the like. Unfortunately
our nineteenth century, notwithstanding its much-
vaunted enlightenment, still contains a great deal
of soil only too favourable for the growth of such
seed. The false prophet has found credulous lis-
teners, and, what is yet worse, called forth un-
bidden cemforten. Now upon this last-mentioned
question let us remark in a few words, that from
facts which fortunately render the vacillating argu-
ments of the physicist Babinet quite superfluouq, it
is irrefutably certain that the matter of which
comets consist forms an extremely loose texture,
that comets are in reality not coherent masses, but
mere agglomerations of small corpuscules, separated
from one another by large interstices. Highly im-
probable as it is, because it could only take place
by a concurrence of circumstances hardly conceiv-
able, that a collision of the earth and nucleus of a
comet should ensue, such an event, far from en-
tailing destruction on this world, could only be
compared at the most with the fall of a meteor, and
in itsseffects would barely equal those produced by
our thunder storms and hurricanes. A mere pass-
ing of the earth through the luminous appendages
of one of these bodies, which it is true might more
easily happen, would be unattended by any injuri-
ous consequences, since the matter of which comets
consist is not coherent substance, nor is it even an
atmosphere such as we could not inhale. With re-
gard to the comet of 1556, its orbit is so situated
that it cannot approach the earth within some five
millions of miles, and therefore in its nearest possible
advance would still be about nineteen times more
remote than the mood. It is, to say the least of it)
a waste of words, if it be not practising upon the
credulity of ignorant people, to attribute to this
most innocent among the inn icent heavenly bodies
evil designs of any sort' against this earth of ours.
Incredible as it may appear, we hear it from too
trustworthy a source not to believe it, that in
Austria, too, the country folks, in expectation of
what is to happen, have ceased to till their fields,
and are wasting their time in idleness. Such a de-
lusion might provoke a smile if it were not too la-
mentable. Whatever the use of comets may be in the
universe, assuredly it is not that of libefeting us
men from the care of the future. Besides, a man
must be very young who bas not already outlived
without injury many similar destructions of the
world. To conclude, I take this opportunity of
mentioning, by way of correcting some reports in
the journals, that the comet recently discovered by
Professor d'Arrest at Leipsic, and which is now
visible, is an entirely different body from the comet
of 1556—that the Emperor Charles V., long before
the appearanCe of that comet in 1556, had taken
the resolution of abdicating his crown, atid' that the
very rumour of his doing so was craftily taken ad-
vantage of by the astrologers of that time to connect
the expected event with the comet. It is natural
that inquiries should have been made upon the ap-
pearance of every comet during the last few years,
in order to see whether it had anything in common
with' that of 1556, but in no one instance as yet has
any sufficient proof of its identity been perceived.'