Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1858-11-25
From The London Timesl
The Comet What it has Seen--And what
Is to be said about Comets in General.

We are just parting with visitor who, it is
now placed beyond doubt, attracted great at
tention, and probably excited great alarm, at
his last visit, more than two thousand years
age. AS that is the certaned minimum, and on
| a very elaborate calculation, 2,495 years the
mazimum of the journey which the Comet
has done since his last appearance here. we
know that it occurred during that period of
history which is most interesting and best
known to most of US. Englishmen know an
cient history better than modern, and the affairs
of Rome, Greece and the Eastern Empires bet
ter than those of any existing State. So we
might feel almost at home with this Comet, and
welcome it as an old frieEd. 1t might, at its
last appearanc terrified the Athenians into ac-
cepting the bloody code of DRAcO. 1t might
have announced the destruction of Nineveh, or
of Babylon, or the capture of Jerusalem by
Nebuchadnazzer. 1t might have been seen by
the expedition which sailed around Africa, in
the reign of Pharoah Necho. 1t might have
given interest to the foundation of the Pythian
games. Within the probable range of its last
visitation, are comprehended the whole of those
great events and personages that constitute
what we call the history of Greece, from her
early struggles with ASiatic despOtS to her SUBJ
jugaton by Rome. In the annals of the late
Power we have the whole period from Ancus
! Martins and the destruction of Carthage to
! choose from. Beyond doubt, however, at some
time or other in that period SO familiar and dear
to most OF us, precisely the same sign was
seen in the skies. Among its spectators might
have been not only kings and conquerors fa.
nous in history, but the so-called sages of
Greece and even the prophets of the Holy
! Writ ThaleS might have attempted to cal
culate its return, and jeremiah might have tri-
ed to read its warning
| But how different the significance OF the won
drous sight at The two periods Till modern
times the boldeSt conjecture never placed COM
cts so far as the moon ; and the prevailing be-
| lief was that they were rather meteoric than
! celestial bodies. Thus they were described as
hanging over doomed city, and marking the
very site of @ Divine visitation. They were
naturally compared to a flashing scimeter, or
the burning brand The very expression is,
that comet blazed in the sky. We are not
aware that it occurred to astronomers till two
or three centuries ago that comets returned,
the variety of their appearance produced by the
different places of the earth in its orbit being
quite enough to to battle any attempt to iden-
tify them No sooner was it found that COM
cts are in fact planetary bodies, revolving
round the sun by the same law as ourselves,
than spectators ran into the other extremes,
and fondIy hoped that they might be links be-
| tween this system and some one, or might even
wander through the universe, visiting first one
star, then another, to all time Modern SCI
ence, however, establishes that the range of
our present visitor, though immensely wide
compared with our planetary proportions, is
Strengthened indeed compared with stellar dis
tances. He had his tether in the attraction of
the sun, as we have He can travel, indeed,
three hundred and fifty times further from the
sun than we can, and about twelve times fur
| ther from Neptune, the most distant and last
discovered planet Of our system but even
this does not carry him One-thouSandth
part of the distance of the nearest fixed star
Let anv one take a half sheet of note paper,
and marking circle with sixpence in one
corner of it, describe therein one solar system,
drawing the orbits of the earth and the inferi-
| or planets as small as he can by the aid of a
magnifying glass. If the circumference of the
| sixpence stands for the orbit of Neptune, then
an oval filling the page will fairly represent tine
| orbit of our comet and if the paper be laid
on the pavement under the west door of ST.
Paul'S, the length of that edifce will adequate
! ly represent the distance of the nearest fixed
star. That the comet should take more than
| 1000 years to travel round the page of note pa
per we have supposed, is explained by its great
diminution of speed as it recedes from the sun.
| As its perihelion, or as we have seen it move
lately, it has travelled l27 900 miles an hour,
or more than twice as fast as the earth, whose
| motion is about thousand miles a minnie At
its aphelion, however, or its greatest distance
| from the sun, the comet is a very slow body,
sailing along, as if doubted to return, at the
rate of 48O miles an hour. This only eight
times the speed of a railway express. At this
pace, even if the comet could wholly shake off
the attraction of the sun-whch it certainly
could not-and were it to travel onward in a
straight line, the lapse ofa million years would
find it still travelling half way between our sun
and the nearest fixed star. Comets, then, can
hardly ne imagined visitors from our system to
any other, or from any other to our own
There is every reason to believe they belong to
us, and are only planets of lighter material,
less settled construction, more eccentric orbits
and somewhat more devious path than our own
solid globe.
Comets are the very cruz of astronomers
Every scientific ball has its own difficulties
policy its crisis history its mysteries medi-
cnes its incurable diseases surgery its deadly
operations life itself great trials. But a
comet seems to combine in one all the difficult
problems of observation and calculation. Though
it cannot move by the same laws as our own
planets, yet the elipse is so immense and the
course homeward towards the sun so straight,
that it is necessary to make the false aSsump-
ton o: parabolic motion The true ellipse,
however, ascertained, the difficulty does not
cease for the comet is so disturbed by the at
traction of the planets near which it success
fully passes that the orbit of one day is contra
dicted by the orbit of the next-curve, veloc
ty, period, distance, all changing from hour to
| Lr,o, In