Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1843-04-07
THE COMET AGAIN.

This 1" sky. larking visltant OF our sphere,
or, perhaps we should say. this " locfer" Of
tho starry heavens, after having bazed
away " for a week or fortnight, and WANDER
ed about from Que parish to another in the
sky, apparently without any business. per-
l,aps on a pleasure excursion, or, it may be,
on, Of mere wantonncss, has, at length, de-
camped. 1t became quite" risky" towards
its latter end" s,rolling round with per-
fec, loosencss, but il has finally vanished,
like a tale that is told We have been
sorely tempted to say something severe IN
regard to this celestial vaenbond, for he has
treated us dcnizcns of Burlington quite cavi-
carly, we think, not having exhibited himself
to us more than two or three times during his
arial pcrigrina, ions. But, as We desire not
to appcar too familiar with the subject, we
have come to the conclusion to treat the wan.
derer with decorum, as well from the consid-
Grafton that he is stranger among u.s. as
from regard to the maxim de mortuis nil
nisi honum.'
These celestial phenomena, from the
vague notions we have of their nature and
functions, have, from the mos, remote an
tquity, gwen rise to every imaginable spe-
cies of conjecture.
THE blind old man of Scio's rocky Isle
thus expresses the popular feeling Of his day
in the llad:
GAS the red Comet, from Safurnus SENT
To fright the nations with n vast portenf,
| With sweeping glores glides along in air.
| And shakes the spa kles from its fiery hair"
This proves that stars, which wore rcd
wigs were regarded. with great cons'crna'
uon, even among the shaggy bearded and
long haired Greeks. Milton, also. copying
Homer, but with grandeur all his own, pre-.
sen,s his idea of Comet to represent the
appearance Of Satan when about to engage
in fight with Gabriel:
| ION the other side,
| Incenscd with indignation, Satan stood
Untcr ri6ed, and like Comet blazed
That fires the length of Ophlrchus huge
In the arctic sky, and from his horrld hair
| Shakes peslience and wal"
So Shakspeare's Henry the 9Th opens will
this lrirh,ful invocation by Bedford:
chung be the heavens with black yield day to night
Comets, importing change of times and states
Brnndlsh your crystal tresses in the sky,
And with them scourge The bad revolving stars,
That have consented unto Henrys death"
So in Julius Cesar his Calphurnia tells us
"When beccars die, there are no Comets seen
The Heavens themselves blaze forth the death o
Princes"
Gray, too, has embodied his conception o
Comet, where he paints the image Of hi
Welsh bard standing on high cliff above
the army Of Edward the first and pouring on
10 tho bowling Of the storm, his Prophe'l'
curses on the lineage Of tho conqueror OF III
country:
"I.oose his beard and hoaTy hair
. Strean,ed like a meteor, 10 'he "ouo'eo a"'
These extracts show that the poets, a
well a, the prophets, have turned the Comet
10 some account.
The notices we have here presented, how
ever, refer mainly to tho personal appear
!. ance Of Comets. Two other poets, hav'
; given us, in more astronomical kind
way, sketches of tho disorderly manners AM
r habits of these s,rolling mendicants, VIII
wander from parish to parish in the hrma
q men, v thou, any visible means Of l'voli