Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1858-12-13
MORNING LEADER.
Fromihe London Times.
The COmet-What it has Seen-And What 1.
TO be said about Comets in General.

10 be said about Comets in General.
We are now parting with a visitor who, it
is now placed beyond dIubt, attracted great
attention, and probably excited great alarm, at
his last visit, more than two thousand years
ago. As that is the ascertained minimum, and,
on very elaborate calculation, 2495 years the
maximum of the journey which the Comet has
done since his last appearance he:e, We know
that it occurred during that period OF history
which Is most interesting and best known to
most of US Engishmen know ancient history
better than modern, and the affairs of Rome,
Greece, and the Eastern empires better than
those of any existing State. So we might feel
almost at home with this Comet and welcome
it as an old friend Itmight, at its last appear
ance, have terrified the Athenians into accepting
the bloody code of Draco. 1t might have an
nounced the destruction of Ninevah, or of Baby
Ion, or the capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchad-
nezzer. 1t might have been seen by the ex-
pedition which sailed round Africa in the reign
of Pharaoh Necho. 1t might have given inter
est to the foundation of the Phythian games
Within the probable range of its last visitation,
are comprehended the whole of these great
events and personages that constitute what we
call the history of Greece, from her early
struggles with Asiatic despots to her subjuga-
we have the whole period from ANGUS Martius
ton by Rome. In the annals OF the latter power,
and the destruction of Carthage to choose from.
Beyond doubt, however at some time or other,
in that period so familiar and so dear to the
most of US, precisely the same sign was seen
in the skies Among its spectators might have
been not only kings and conquerors famous in
story, but the so-called sages of Greece, and
even the prophets of the Holy Writ Thalea
migh have have attempted to calculate its re
turn, and jeremiah might have tried to read its
warning.
But how different the significance of the
wOndrous sight at the two periods Till mod
en- times the boldest conjecture never placed
comets so far as the moon; and the prevailing
| belief was that they were rather meteoric than
celestial bodies. Thus they were described as
hanging over doomed city, and marking the
very site of a Divine visitation. They were
naturally compared to flashing scimeter or the
burning brand. The very expression is that a
comet blazed in the sky. We are not aware
that it ever occurred to the astronomers till two
or three centuries ago that comets returned,
| tie variety in their appearance produced by the
| different places of the earth IN its orbit being
| quite enough to battle any attempt to identify
| them. No sooner was it found that comets
are in fact planetary bodies, revolving round the
sun by the same law as ourselves, than speeula-
| ed they might be links between this system and
some other, or might even wander through the
universe, visiting tirst one star, then another,
| to all time. Modern science, however, establish
es that the range of our present visitor though
| immensely wide compared with our planetary
| proportions, is straitened indeed compared with
| stellar distances He has his tether in the at
traction 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, further than Neptune, the most distant
and last discovered planet of our system but
even this does not carry him Onethousandth
part of the distance Of the nearest fixed star.
Let any one take half sheet of note-paper
and marking a circle with a sxpence in one
corner of it, describe therein our solar system,
drawing the orbits of the earth and the inferior
planets rs small as he can with the aid of a
magnifying glass. If the circumference of the
sixpence stands fo- the orbit of Neptune, then
an oval filling the page will fairly represent the
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 inadequatey rep
resent the distance of the nearest fixed star.
That the comet should take more than 1000
years to travel round the page of note paper we
have supposed, is explained by its great dimi-
mutton of speed as it recedes from the sun. AT
its perihelon, or as we have seen it move lately
it has travelled l27 goo miles an hours, or more
than twice as fast as the earth, whose motion is
about thousand miles in a minute At its
aphelion, however, or its greatest distance from
the sun, the comet is a very slow body, s-iling
along, as if doubtful to return, at the rate Of
4SO miles an hour This is only eight times
the speed of a railway express. At this pace
even if the comet should wholly shake of the
attraction of the sun-which it certainly coulC
not-and were it to travel onward in a straight
line the lapse of million Of years would still
find it travelling half way between the sun anC
the nearest fixed star Comets, then, can hard
Iy be imagined visitors from our system to any
other, or from any other to cur own. There Il
every reason to believe they belong to US, anC
are only planets of lighter material, less set
tied construction, more eccentric orbits, anC
somewhat more devious path than our own sol
id globe.
Comets are the very eTux Of astronomers
Every science has its difficulties policy it!
crisis history its mysteries; medicine its in
durable diseases surgery its deadly operations
life itself its great trials. But a comet seems
to combine in one all the different problems o
| observation and calculation. Though 1t canno
but move by the same laws as our own planets
vet the ellipse Is so immense and the cOursC
homeward towards the sun so straight, that i
is necessary to make the false assumption of
parabolical motion. The trae ellipse, however
l ascertained, the difficulty does not cease 70
, the comet is so disturbed by the action of tn
/ planets near which it successfully passes tina
the orbit of one day is contradicted by the orbi
of the next-curve, velocity, period, distance
all changing from hour to hour Even whel
we know, as we do in regard to Halley's comet
its history for two thousand years, and can TEL
| the period and other elements of It's orbit 70
e all that time, still at every fresh return tn
comet suffers planetery disturbances which af
feet it for ever But the material, the con
struction, and the internal history of comets ar
and research have failed to discover any weigh
in them.
The comet now reeeding from our view
e passed on Monday within nine million miles Q
Venus, and, if it had any density at all com
parable to our own, would have affected til
orbit of that planet in an appreciable degree
Were that found to be the case, it would be tht
first fact of the kind in the history of these sin
! gular bodies. But, even if there were n
: weight in a comet, it might still be of yer,
) opaque matter. 1t is, however, by no mean
e certain that the very nucleus can intercept tn
D light of a small telescope star. Yet in thi
light, transparent substance, is the source ofth
! immense tail, which in some comets has been
: hundred millions, and, in the present instance
not less than forty millions of miles long. 1t i
5 the seat of the most extraordinary changes ant
e the most violent eruptions, throwing Ou
columns of luminous matter many millions o
miles long, in a few hours, not only in the usua
direction away from the sun, but directly to
wards the sun, and otherwise, as some chanct
may direct This comet has exhibited the aver
ace of slch transformations as vet entirely es