The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1881-08-06

and planets, in that their motions, APP
pearances and disappearance were
thought to be purely arbitrary and I'M
governed by physical laws, or if not
strictly arbitrary, then to be governed
by the power of the gods who sent them
as portents nearly always of calamity and
seldom of good to the human race. A
remarkable exception to this rule that a
comet is portent of evil is that of the
star of Bethlehem. At all events, Prof.
Proctor, who has somewhat deliberately
treated of this subject, says that "the
star in the East'' mentioned in the New
Testament was, in his opinion, a comet.
at is" he says, "not easy to under
stand what else it could have been. ="
"The way in which itappeared
to go before the wise men when (di-
rected by Herod, be it noticed) they
went to Bethlehem, almost due south of
Jerusalem, would correspond to me-
ridian elimination low down-for the
star had manifestly not been visible in
the earlier evening, since we are told
that they reioiced when they saw the
star again. 1t was probably a comet
travelling southwark, and as the
wise men had travelled from the
east, it had very likely first been
seen in the west as an evening star,
wherefore its course was retrograde.
1t may possibly have been an APP
partition of Halley's comet" A view
similar to this has before now been held
by biblical commentators inclined to
rationalism, but to perceive it requires
so strong a belief in the pre-established
| /, s ao1a ;al 1,r
affairs as might well have appalled,
Leibnitz himself, and moreover this opin-
ion does not explain the stopping of the
comet over the "place where the young
child lay since comet could hardly
stop Immediately over little village I'M
less the laws of parallax had been great
ly interfered with. If Professor Proc
tors opinion on this subject is valuable
at all it is so only because it shows how
easily learned professors may fall into
error when they would account for mir
acles on natural grounds. In a similar
way both Pingre and Lalande guessed
! it was the comet now known as that of
1850, which is mentioned in the prayer
of Anchises in the Eneid as having APP
peared before the fall of Troy, but the
whole description given of this appear
ance by Virgil is rather that of meteor
or globular lightning than of a comet,
whose advent, nowadays at least, is not
commonly ushered in by clap of thun-
der. Moreover, when Encke went over
the calculation of Lalande relative to
this matter he found them to be wrong
by the tritle of 1929 years. DR.. Schlie-
mann's excavations at Troy have done
more to establish the existence and fall
of such a city than has ever been
achieved by men of science who
take their cue from poets. The comet
of 43 B. G. was thought by most
Romans to be the soul of the mightiest
Julius ascending from the earth to the
regions of the noblest, and Bodinus,
from whom Burton, author of the 'Anat-
my of Melancholy" was so fond of
quoting, was of the opinion that most
comets were the souls of the great in
flight through the cerulean, and it was
on account of this belief that he held
that comets generally portend calamity,
since they are the spirits of great men
who have long watched over the inter-
ests of mankind, and when they depart,
/ L.Hsss ssb, oIa001a5 hog iifS go 10 Une pad.
With this notion of the nature of comets,
which the best spectroscopy will never
confirm, may be compared the happy
thought of Philo JudHus and other Neo-
Platonists, that the stars and planets are
animals. Pliny regards planets as har-
bingers of evil; they were "inappeasa-
BILE stars, one of which appeared in the
late civil war when Octavius was consul;
another during the intestine war between
Pompey and Cesar, and another in our
own time when Claudius Caesar having
been poisoned the empire was left to
Domitian, in whose reign there appeared
blazing comet.n Seneca also thought
that comets were cruel and portended the
worst misfortunes. "They bring with
them and leave behind them the seeds of
blood and Slaughter OF course in
times of superstition, when wars hap
pened to come about while the heavens
were apparently in rage, the wars and
calamities would be attributed to the
heavens alone as their source.
But it is, after all, not impossible that
famine and wars might follow on the
track of large comet approaching the
sun closely. 1t is now believed by MANY
astronomers that solar storms strongly
affect the meteorological condition of
the earth; if the influence happens to
be bad upon the weather, the weather of
course influences the growth of crops,
extensive failure of crops might bring
about famine, famine pestilence, and
the general calamity might in turn give
rise to industrial troubles and to wars.
But after all is said this is but coniec-
ture, not being known to have a solid
ground of fact to rest upon. There is
more practical political wisdom in the
old rhyme
WarbrinGs poverty, poverty peace,
feace makes riches flow; SO things never
cease:
Riches bring pride, and pride is wars ground
And war brings poverty so the wheel comes
round.
The cool opinion of the Emperor YES
pasian in regard to the comet which APP
peared during his reign may here be OF
value. "That hairy STAR" said he,
"does not portend evil to me. 1t men
aces rather the King of the Parthians
He is a hairy man, but / am bald"
1t would be tedious to recount the
history of the comets which have beer
looked upon as prophets of i'll to mer
and nations, but a note should be made