The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1881-08-11

1t may possibly have been an ap-
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 q belief In the pre-established
harmony of celestial bodies and earthly
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 'tsincei comet could hardly
stop immediatly over little village un-
less the laws OF parallax had been great
ly interfered WITH If Professor Proc.
tors opinion on this subject Is valuable
at all it IL 50, only because it shows how
easily learned professors may fall into
error when they would account fot rair.
acies on natural grounds. In, similar
way both Pingre and Lalande guessed
it was, the comet now known as that OF
1880, which is mentioned in the prayer
of Anchises in the Eneid as having ap.
peared before the fall of Troy, bot the
whole description given of this appear.
ance by Virgil is rather that of a meteor
or globular lightning than of a comet,
whose advent, nowadays;at least, is not
commonly ushered in by q 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 tribe of $3.50 years. aDr. Schlie-
mann's excavations at Troy have done
more to, establish the existence and fall
of such, q city than has ever been
achieved by men d Of science who
take their cue from poets. The comet
of 43 b. c., 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 'iAnat-
my of Melancholy, so fond Of
quoting, was of the opinion thst most
comets were the souls of the great in
on account Of this belief that he held
since they are the spirits Of great men
who have long watched over the inter-
ests of mankind. and when they depart,
leave the world without guidance, so
that at once it begins 70 60 TO the bad. :.
With tins notion Of the nature Of comets,
which the best spectroscopy will never
thought Of Philo. Judaus and other Neo-
Platonists, that the stars and planets are
animals. Pliny regards planets as har-
bingers of evil; they we've i.s sinappeasn-
BILE stars, one of which appeared in the
late civil war when Qctarius was consul !;
another during the intestine war between
Pompey and Cesar, and another in our
own time when Claudius Cesar having
been poisoned the empire was left TO
tDomitian, in whose reign there appeared
q blazing comet. ~ Seneca also thought
that comets were cruel and portended the
worst misfortunes.s tsThey bring with
them and leave behind them the seeds of
blood and slaughter" Of course in
times of saperstfion, when wars hap
pened TO come about while the heavens
were apparently In a rage, the wars and
calan1ities 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 q large comet approaching the
sun closely. It is now believed by many
astronomers that solar, storms strongly
affect the meteorologi condition of
the earth; if the infuence 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 pestlence, and
the generRl Gala anaity might lin turn give
rise to industrial troubles and to wars.
But after all is said this is but conjec-
ture, not being known to have q solid
ground Of fact to rest upon. There is
more practical political wisdom In the
old rhyme :. Ie M if,,.....i, ,.c.i.i.f = 's
Peace nskss riehss now: % things neve,
Riches bring pride. and prfde Is vars aronnd
And war brings poverty; so the whee come.
The coGi opinion non OF fiah, til, 1 Emperor np Yes.
pasian In regard to the eomet'which ap.
peared during his reign may here be Of
value. "That hairy start said he,
" does not portend evil to me. 1t men
aces rather the King of the Partbians
He is q hairy man, butt am bald. - 4 :
1t would tbe tedious TO recount the
history. of the comets. which have beer.
looked upon as prophets of i'll to men
and nations, but o note should be made
Of one particular time when all things
seemed to combine to show that the end
of the world was at hand. This was
the year 1000 after Christ, the time of
the millennium, when the Devil, having
been chained mp for q thousand years,
was to break from his prison-house and
roam through aha world seeking whom
he might deypur, Poets in the cloisteIs
were writing of the Day of Wrath, and
monks and friars were preaching to the
multitudes of the dreadful hour when
the earth was to Z ass away in smoke
and fame. Then appeared . comet
which glittered and grew in the skies for
quotes from an, old chronicler: "The
heavens opened and a kind of flaming
torch fell upon the earth, leaving behind
q long TRACK Of Hight Ike the path of a
fash OF lightning a Its brightness was
so great that It frightened not only those
who werein the fields, but even those
who were in the hopses.fo As this open
ing in the sky slowly closed men saw
with horror the figure of dragon, whose
feet were blue and whose head seemed
grow larger and olarger.n The terror
was great, and, all things considered, it
was more reasonable than a like feeling
would now be. Fortunately, however,
the year passed by, and old earth went
on as meTrily as ever around the sun at
the lively tate of some twenty miles the
second. " "A, little more than, five hum
dred years later (152S) ascomet ap-
peared, of which Andrew Pare said that
it .swas so horrible and dreadful
and engendered such terror in
the minds of men that they
died, some from fear alone, Others
from illness engendered by fear. Itwas
of immense length and blood-red color;
at lis head was seen the figure of a
curved arm, holding a large sword in
the hand as II preparing to strike. AT
the point of the sword we're three stars,
and on either side a number of axes,
knives, and swords, covered with blood,
among which were many hideous human
faces with bristling boards and hair."
This truly accurate description was Civ
en- only abont q century before the birth
of Sir Isaac Newton. Astrologers are a
long-lived folk, and it is but the other
day that an esteemed contemporary
printed letter from one of them show
ing why it was that the year 1881 should
be deemed peculiarly portentous. Ac-
cording to Newton the danger which
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